This collection contained four hundred pictures, which, while not all of the first rank artistically, formed a unique illustration of the most brilliant period of England's histrionic history.

With the hope of still further retrieving his losses, Mathews made a second journey to America in 1834. This time his wife accompanied him; so that it is through her letters to their son that we now learn of his adventures - and follow the painful story of a very sick man, endeavouring to be as gay and sprightly, when before his audiences, as if he had never known an hour of suffering. On arriving in New York, he was distressed to learn that a strong public sentiment had developed against him since his last visit, owing, he was informed, to the fact that he had "ridiculed America " in one of his sketches. He met the accusation by giving the censured sketch entire and compelling his auditors to testify at its close that they could find nothing to object to in it.

Again he encountered an exceptionally cold winter, and this time his sufferings were real, not pretended, as on the former visit.

In Boston, where the comedian enjoyed a very good season, he and his wife made their headquarters at the Tremont House and received a great deal of social attention, one new acquaintance whom Mathews especially enjoyed being Doctor Wainwright. As the customs of the country did not then "allow a churchman to visit the theatre, Mr. Mathews took great pleasure," his wife writes, " in entertaining the Doctor in private whenever

they met." The last church service poor Mathews ever attended was when he went to hear Doctor Wainwright preach, just before leaving Boston. "The doctor's sermon turned on a very affecting subject," records Mrs. Mathews, " on the probability that a reunion with those we most loved on earth would form a portion of the joys of the blessed hereafter. My husband wept continuously throughout the sermon, although he seemed unusually tranquil and happy the rest of the day." In New York Mathews appeared in public for the very last time. The bill for the occasion is interesting.

FAREWELL APPEARANCE OF MR. MATHEWS AT NEW YORK

This evening, February 11th, 1835, will be performed the comedy of

In the course of the evening, Mr. Mathews will sing the Comic Songs of

The Humours of a Country Fair, and Street Melodies (a medley), including, Welsh, French, Scotch, Irish, African, Italian, Swiss and English airs with embellish

ments.

After which, an entertainment by Mr. Mathews, called

THE LONE HOUSE

Andrew Steward, Butler and Leader. . . . . Mr. Mathews

Doors open at a quarter before six o'clock; performance commences at a quarter before seven.

From this evening Mathews grew continually worse, so that his journey back to England was one long chapter of horrors. He had literally come home to die, and he passed away June 28, 1835-on his fifty-ninth birthday. Thus went out a talent so great and so unique that Macaulay said of it: "Mathews was certainly the greatest actor that I ever saw I can hardly believe Garrick to have had more of the general mimetic genius than he. . . . I laughed my sides sore whenever I saw him." Perhaps the best summing up of this genial comedian's peculiar gift may be found, however, in the Sunday edition of the London Times, following his de

cease.

"As a companion he was delightful, as a friend sincere, as a husband and father exemplary, and, as an actor, he had no competitor, and will, we fear, never have a successor. . . . He was on the stage what Hogarth was on the canvas a moral satirist: he did not imitate, he conceived and created characters, each one of which was recognized as a specimen of a class. Noth

ing could exceed the correctness of his ear; he spoke all the dialects of Ireland, Scotland and Wales with a fidelity perfectly miraculous. He could discriminate between the pronunciation of the different writings of Yorkshire, and speak French with the Parisian accent, -the patois of the South or the guttural tone of the Flemish. His powers in this way had no limit. His knowledge of human character was no less remarkable. Though his performances professed to be representations of manners and peculiarities, they really abounded in the fine analysations of character. Mathews did not occupy the highest place in the drama; but he was indisputably, and by the united suffrage of France, England and America, the first in his peculiar walk. . . . For seventeen years he, by his single exertions, delighted all England-alone he did it!""

CHAPTER VI

TWO GREAT ENGLISH TRAGEDIANS WHOM WE WELCOMED GLADLY

ABOUT the time that the elder Charles Mathews first came to make us merry, William Augustus Conway, another English actor, also visited our shores. When Conway was making preparations to depart, the London press commented as follows: "On Friday Conway performed the part of Macbeth. He is about, we understand, to migrate to America, where we hope he will receive better encouragement than he has obtained here. He has certainly been hardly dealt with by the critics; they have taken a pleasure in exposing and heightening all his defects and in passing over the many traces of genius and judgment which are to be found in all his performances. Conway is not equal to the weighty part of Macbeth, but with the exception of Kemble, Kean and Young, he is as good as any other performer of the part. Conway wants study and discipline and a better carriage of his person. He is not wanting in natural feeling or in the leading requisites of his art."

Yet Conway's" carriage of his person " had not been