It has amused me in glancing through the history of my operatic seasons since 1861 to see how persistently Mr. Gye endeavoured by some stroke--let us say of policy--to bring my career as operatic manager to an abrupt end. In 1861, when at Adelina Patti's own suggestion I was engaging a Company and taking a theatre with a view to her first appearance in England, he entangled her in an engagement by means of a fifty-pound loan. In 1862, just when I was on the point of opening Her Majesty's Theatre, the late Mr. Augustus Harris, Mr. Gye's stage manager and adviser on many points, approached Mdlle. Titiens with an offer of a blank engagement. In 1863 Mr. Gye's insidious but unsuccessful advances towards Mdlle. Titiens were repeated. In 1864 Mr. Gye having, as he pretended, bought exclusive rights in _Faust_ over my head, tried by means of an injunction, impossible under the circumstances (since the right of representing Faust at my own theatre had been duly purchased by me from the Paris publishers), to prevent me from performing the most successful opera I had yet secured. In 1865 Mr. Gye did not renew his annual attack until my season was almost at an end. But on the last night, or nearly so, just when I had been promising good things for the ensuing season, he attempted to spring a mine upon me in my own house. I was sitting calmly in my box watching a particularly good performance of _Faust_, with Titiens, Trebelli, Gardoni, Junca, and Santley in the principal parts, when the old Duke of Leinster came in and said-- "Look here, Mapleson; what is the meaning of this?" He handed me a printed announcement which I found had been placed in every seat in my theatre, and which I here reproduce with all possible precision, not excepting the typographical peculiarities by which the name of the "Right Hon. the Earl of Dudley" is made to appear in large capitals, and that of Mr. Gye in larger capitals still. Here is the astonishing document which if, on reflection, it filled me with mirth, did also, I freely admit, cause me for a few moments considerable surprise:-- =Mr. GYE= has the honour to announce that he has transferred the proprietorship of THE ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA, COVENT GARDEN, to a Public Company. =Mr. GYE= will occupy the position of General Manager. The Company has now made arrangements for purchasing of THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF DUDLEY his Lordship's interest in HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE, HAYMARKET. The Prospectus of the Company will be issued in a few days. ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA, COVENT GARDEN, JULY 29TH, 1865. On inquiry I found that an emissary from Covent Garden had bribed one of my box keepers, who, for the small sum of one sovereign, had betrayed his trust, and deluged my theatre with daring and mendacious announcements from the opposition house.