1776. The British Theatre. fuites, compofed of players, fingers, dancers, 565 moft ftretch of infolence and ingratitude to the Town, not to be forgiven upon any other condition, but a moft fincere and penitent refolution, never to be again guilty of the like offences against their fovereign lord and paymafter the Public. Empty benches, and the filent contempt and defertion of the town, feem to have electrified the manager in fome degree, the effects of which, it is plain, have operated on the players too; but we would wish to remind this gentleman, that it is much easier to difplease ten eftablished cuftomers, than make one new one. The public have been fo repeatedly difappointed, in fome of their moft favourite plays, favourite characters, and favourite players, that it will be fome time before they will be perfuaded to give. the neceffary credit to a Drury-lane play bill. On the whole, reformation is not effected at once. Mr. Sheridan, if he means to reclaim his company, to fix his authority on folid grounds, to difcharge his duty to the public, to his partners, and himself; he will learn to act with impartiality and firmness; to encourage new performers of both fexes; to keep the veterans to their duty, at the fame time granting them every indulgence, due to their respective ranks and merits that may be confiftent with the government and profperity of his little republic. He will attend particularly to the talents of the performers; he will examine their different turns, forts, and difpofitions; and will caft his plays accordingly. If he be not a judge himself, for it is not every play-wright that is a judge of good acting, let him call in the affiftance of others; but above all things, let it not be an under manager or player. Let him frequently review his fecond and third rates, and learn whether they may not be deferving of a feat on a higher form; and above all, if any of his performers fhould neglect, evade, or refufe to do their duty, fo as to make an appeal to the town neceffary, let him reconnoitre the ground, look forward to the probable confequences, and making a fair and full eftimate of the whole to be urged on either fide of the question, be fo well prepared, that when the Town come to decide, he may be fure of victory; for every doubtful conteft in which the caufe of difference is rather fmothered up or compromifed than actually determined, is to the manager in its confequences a virtual defeat. The managers of Covent Garden have been more fortunate; but though they efcaped having any difference with their performers, every thing now faid applies equally to them. Catley in the beginning of the month, the Duenna, that great favourite of the town Mrs. Barry, and foune other cir cumftances, have filled Covent Garden houfe, much oftener than the other; but in every other respect, the plays there have been 566 The British Theatre. been in general as badly felected, and as injudicioufly caft as at the other. It indeed may be faid of the ftage, we hope with more truth, as our violent patriots have often faid of the nation, that it is on the brink of ruin if not already totally undone. So much for managers and players, let us now pay a little attention to authors; thofe we do not find to be very numerous in the courfe of this month. The only two productions brought forward, were the Seraglio and the Double Valet; for the fake of method we shall give them precedence according to their feniority. COVENT GARDEN. THE fable of this ftrange mixture of found and abfurdity (the Seraglio) however fimple, is fo broken and entangled through the total ignorance of the author, of the known and established rules, not of the drama, but even of the occult fcience of ftory telling, that it is impoffible, unless a perfon be in the fecret, to even guess at the author's meaning. The events are as difconnected and are rendered as unintelligible, as it is poffible to conceive, though each of the twelve characters had been written by different perfons, refiding in fo many different countries. The characters are thus perfonated. Abdallah (a Turkish Bafhaw) Mr. Mat. tocks. Frederick, Mr. Leoni. Reef, Mr. Reinhold. Goodwill (a Fisherman) Mr. Dunftali. Venture, Mr. Quick. Williams, Mr. Thompson. Haffan, Mr. Baker. Lydia, Mifs Brown. Polly, Mifs Dayes. Curtis, Mrs. Green. Elmira, Mifs Wewitzer. The fcene opens with a view of Goodwill's cottage, by the fea-fide near the Seraglio. Polly makes her appearance, in this cottage, in queft of her father, who the was informed was carried into captivity, and is a flave in Algiers to the Bafhaw. Frederick in the next fcene, comes in queft of Lydia, who is likewife a flave, and is refolved to carry her off or perish in the attempt. Here intrigue upon intrigue, fcene upon fcene, and improbability on improbability enfues, till the mind bewildered and fatigued, the patient auditor either falls into a gentle number, or if he has ears, let him hear Leoni in his laft song, and Mr. Fisher, in his accompanyment-ex pede Herculem. Mr. Reinhold, alamode the Haymarket, is made to ling very Nov. heartily, at the very inftant the Bafhaw orders his head to be knocked off with a blow of a fcymetar, or ftrangled, we do not pofitively recollect which. Three or four of the airs are worthy of a better fate, than to be tacked to fuch an heap of nonfenfe and abfurdity. Mifs Dayes, tho' feldom taken notice of on any occafion, acquitted herself extremely well. Mils Brown was very well in one air, but her manner is difgufting to a great degree, when fhe does not expect the plaudits of the audience. Mifs Wewitzer has an agreeable perfon; but her voice, though sweet and tender, has neither melody or variety in it, nor is capable of exertion. Reinhold, who is rather a favourite, was but poor. Mattocks on the other hand, who generally difgufts the remarker, acquitted himself in the peacock ftrut of the Bafhaw with as good a grace as his native aukwardness would permit. Leoni was very great in his two fongs, particularly in the laft. He certainly shakes with more judgement and eafe, than any performer in either Houfe, or even than any performer in the Haymarket, Rauzzini mar excepted. We proposed to give an account of the new farce, called the Hotel, which was reprefented at Drury Lane on the 21ft, and a few ftrictures on Mrs. Melmoth, the new actress who came out at the fame theatre, on the 25th; but the intended length of those two articles, in which it will be demonftrated clearly, that the news-paper critics, along with the countenance of Tom King, have been the fortunate puffers of the farce; and that the fame worfeipful fraternity have endeavoured to pay their court to certain ftage heroines, by their ill-natured and ill founded criticisms on Mrs. Melmoth; for as far as we could judge on a first appearance, the is poffeffed of all the effential qualities neceffary to conftitute a great actress, and feat her on the first form. She is both a fine and elegant figure. Her voice is ftrong and clear, and by management may be rendered harmo nious. Her pronunciation is diftin&t (the infect tribe of news-paper citics fay too much fo, which is a fault that may be eafily got the better of) and fhe feems to poffefs a dignity of deportment, a frength of conception, and fuitable degree of feeling, that we have never yet obferved in a first appearance, on a London ftage, in the courfe of fixteen years obfervation. PARL A 1776. 567 PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY. An Abfirat Hiflory of the Proceedings of the fecond Sefion of the fourteenth Parliament of Great Britain. Continued from our Magazine for the Month of Odober laft, p. 520. TH April 24. HIS day the minifter, according to notice given before the Eafter recefs, fubmitted to the Houfe a ftate of the nation; or, in the technical language of the hallowed Chapel of St. Stephen's, his Lordship opened the budget. This is always looked upon as a day of triumph to the minifter. His points are all gained, a tolerable knowledge in the first four rules of Dyche or Cocker, a reasonable portion of affurance, a painted outfide reprefenting the opulence, power, and kindly difpofition of the nation, unite in giving him an irrefiftible fuperiority over his opponents. If he be any way dextrous at figures, he may repeat the fame fum ten times over, under different denominations; he may add, fubtract, allow, and defalcate ad infinitum, without a poffibility of detection. The very new debts he has contracted, he may by a kind of financial bocus pocus, take credit for, as fo much debt paid off. He may fay, the nation is opulent, the lower orders of the people happy, comfortable, and eafy in their circumftances, the middling in the enjoyment of the luxuries of life; that new taxes drawn from the body politic, if well timed and judiciously laid on, have frequently the fame effect of critical evacuations of the human body in fuli habits, and plethoric conftitutions. In fhort, he may fay any thing; who is to contradict him? If any difcontented brawler fhould rife in ear neft, or with a view to have his mouth ftopped, no matter which, and thould defire an explanation of this item, or that round fum, the minister is perhaps repofing himself, and endeavouring to catch his breath, after an harangue of three hours; the Houfe is tired, fatigued, or difgufted, an impatient murmur pervades every corner of it, the question is called for, and at length the unfledged financier is obliged to fit down as he rofe, with the additional mortifying circumftance of beholding the most infulting, contemptuous fneers and grins overfpread every bronzed countenance on the Treasury Bench. If further particulars fhould be fought from the minifter's more able and weighty adversaries, relative to the state of Europe, or any other matters deeply interefting to the nation, he borrows his facts at pleasure, beyond the poffible power of detection, at least for the prefent; he delivers his opinions on those borrowed facts, with a fuitable gravity and command of countenance, till perchance finding himself interrupted in this grave argumentative mood, he fuddenly breaks his bonds, grows wondrous and farcaftically witty, which throws all the Houfe in a roar; the occupier of the money chair ftill continues to repeat his de profundis without ceafing, the members jump fuddenly from their feats promifcuoufly on the floor; and the whole exactly resembles a country cock-pit, when the parties break in upon fome difpute relative to the laws of the feathered warfare. This, genthe reader, is a faithful fketch of what ufually paffes on a budget day, when the great interefts of the empire, its finances, commerce, and the general difpofition of the feveral great powers of Europe, fhould be fubmitted to the prefentatives of the people. How far this defcription of the ufual opening of the budget may bear any fimilitude to what paffed in the Houfe of Commons on the 24th of April last, does not become us to determine, our bulinefs being to report facts, not to create them. At half after three o'clock, the Chancellor of the Exchequer role, and recapitulated on the feveral fums granted fince the commencement of the feflion in the committee of fupply, which he faid amounted to nine millions ninety-feven thousand pounds, under the different heads of navy, army, ordnance, navy debt to be paid off, 568 PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY. off, army extraordinaries, exchequer bills, expence of coinage, deficiencies of land and malt, deficiencies of grants, and mifcellaneous articles. To this he oppofed the feveral fums voted in the committee of ways and means, confifting of land and malt produce, of finking fund, exchequer bills to be iffued for the fervice of the year 1776, money in the hands of the pay-mafter general, duties unappropriated, produce of fale of lands in the ceded iflands, and the French prizes. Thefe feveral fums, he faid, amounted to feven millions one hundred and forty thousand pounds. This would confequently leave a deficiency of one million nine hundred and fifty-fix thoufand pounds, which deficiency remained yet to be provided for by Parliament. To balance this deficiency, it became neceffary to borrow two millions, after which there would be a furplus of fifty-nine thoufand pounds to answer exigencies not foreseen at prefent, or to make good deficiencies of grants. To raife the two millions, he propofed that annuities fhould be granted at three per cent. per annum, on one million four hundred thousand pounds; and that the remaining fix hundred thousand pounds fhould be raised by lottery, the prizes arising in such lottery to be funded and incorporated into the two millions ftock; each fubferber of one hundred pounds to be entitled to intereft for feventy-feven pounds ten fillings, at the rate of three per cent. per annum, and receive befides three lottery tickets, which at eleven pounds ten fhillings each, would amount to thirty-four pounds ten hillings. The feven pounds ten fhillings, he faid, was by way of premium, which with the profit in the ticket, would ftand the public in one hundred and twelve pounds; and if the tickets held at the ufual price they brought for feveral years back, would coft the public one hundred and fifteen pounds; but as the three per cents confolidated fold at market for no more than 85 and a fraction, and the prizes in the lottery being to be funded, he did not eftimate the terms on which the prefent loan of two millions was to be procured, according to the nominal value now ftated. To judge properly of the 4 Nov bargain, we muft fee what the lender was actually to receive. If fo, then it would appear, that the feventy feven pounds ten fhillings capital fock, at three per cent. was worth no more that day in the Alley, than fixty five pounds feventeen fhillings and fixpence, which together with the three lottery tickets, making thirty four pounds, ten fhillings, left a profit of juft feven fhillings and fixpence, to the fubfcriber, with a poffible additional proft, of what the three tickets would bring more than eleven pounds ten fhillings each. To pay the intereft on the two millions one hundred and fifty thoufand pounds capital ftock, thus propofed to be borrowed, that is, two millions loan, and one hundred and fifty thoufand pounds premium, the annual intereft of which would amount to fixty four thousand pounds, he proposed to lay the following taxes. On four wheel carriages, an additional tax of twenty fhillings each, which he computed would amount to feventeen thousand pounds per annum. On stage coaches, at five pounds each, amounting to two thousand pounds per annum, the number being eftimated at four hundred, though thought to be much under-rated. On deeds, or all writings to be ftamped, at one thilling a ftamp. The thilling laid on in the reign of the late king, was found to produce the laft year 32,000l. he therefore imagined, that he might fafely charge it with thirty thousand pounds. It might produce more, but he thought he might well venture to affirm it would not be lefs. On news-papers one half-penny per ftamp, eighteen thousand pounds per annum, the number printed being upwarts of twelve millions the lat year. Cards and dice, fix-pence a pack on cards, and two and fix-pence on dice, fix thousand pounds per annum. Thofe different fums, he faid, would be found to amount to seventy two thoufand pounds, which would leave a furplus, if the funds answered, of eight thousand pounds, to be car ried to the credit of the finking fund. The minifter having mentioned the finking fund, opened his motion with a very circumftantial and detailed ac count 1776. PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY. count of the prefent flourishing ftate of that fund. He obferved that the preceding feffion, it had been charged with two millions, eight hundred thoufand pounds, befides one hundred thousand pounds paid to his majefty, for the purchase of Somerset-Houfe. Yet notwithstanding this heavy charge confiderably more than had ever been before laid on that fund, there was a furplus lying in the exchequer, at the end of the Christmas quarter, of feven teen thousand pounds, which was now brought to the credit of the ways and means. To this profperous ftate, he obferved, it might be objected, that the prefent trouble in America, having been forefeen, greater importations might have been made from that country, in the courfe of the laft year than ufual, which created a kind of unnatural increafe of the customs; but the very reverfe, he affured the committee, happened to be the cafe; as in the courfe of the last quarter, however unaccountable it might appear, the produce of the finking fund on the 4th of the prefent month, was found to be nine hundred and fixty thousand pounds; fo that the last five quarters produce amounted to the almoft incredible fum of nearly four millions, or three millions eight hundred and feventy feven thoufand pounds. Though this fate of the finking fund might appear as if the trade with the colonies was of little or no confe quence to this nation, he did not mean to draw any fuch conclufion from the premifes. On the contrary, he was convinced of the great importance of that very valuable branch of commerce. It authorized him to draw another conclufion, however, which he trufted would merit the attention of the House; it was the most irrefragable proof of the great opulence, private affluence, public wealth, and amazing refources of this country. When these facts first came to his knowledge, he confeffed he was aftonished. He suspected that the imports from America must have been greater the preceding year, on account of the intended non-importation from Great Britain. He found to his great furprize, that was not the caufe. The produce of the last quarter, long after all importation had entirely ceafed, Nov. 1776, 569 convinced him. He again enquired, if From this happy ftate of domestic wealth, he faid, he was warranted in charging the finking fund with the fum of two millions nine hundred thoufand pounds towards the expences of the enfuing year, as he found it fo rapidly on the increafe. It appeared by taking the average of the two last years, the produce of that fund proved to be two millions eight hundred thousand pounds, and in the three laft, two millions feven hundred thoufand pounds and a fraction; whereas the average produce of the last five preceding years, amounted to no more than two millions five hundred thoufand pounds, or hardly fo much; and previous to the breaking out of the late war, to not more than half that fum. This led him to repeat, what he afferted at the outfet, that our commerce was immenfe, our refources great, and our internal affluence beyond conception, for though the national debt was confiderable, and our burthens heavy, the tradefman, mechanic, and labourer, lived in this country in a manner infinitely faperior to thofe of any other in Europe. Look at the labourer, and examine his food, raiment, his houfe, his bedding, and other furniture; attend even to his little luxuries, and by comparing him with men of the fame clafs in Ireland, in any other part of the empire, or in Chriftendom, and it would lead demonftratively to this important truth, that although our 4 D taxes |