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How different was it in 1785! Then the drama, purified by a correct taste from the vile productions of Congreve and Wycherley, was under the patronage of moral and religious men. The great Dr. Johnson, who died but a few days before the opening of that year, did not disdain to witness its representations and had himself written a tragedy, in which Garrick appeared, (Irene,) and in which the principal female character is strangled upon the stage. The most refined and virtuous classes of society went to the play. They delighted to hear the philosophy of Hamlet, to see the noble rage of Lear, to applaud the filial affection of Cordelia, to be startled with the development of guilt in the breast of Lady Macbeth. And well might they appreciate those representations, for the genius of the Kembles was then swaying at will the feelings of London. From the "Theatrical Journal" of the European Magazine, we quote this notice:

"Wednesday, Feb. 2. Shakspeare's Macbeth was performed for the benefit of Mrs. Siddons; and she appeared for the first time in London, in the part of Lady Macbeth.

"Though there is a similarity to herself in Mrs. Siddons' manner of performing every part, which would render a frequent attendance on her much more tiresome to us than the more varied perfor. mance of inferior actors, yet the congeniality be

Dr. Johnson would seem somewhat inconsistent in his views in relation to the Drama. Boswell mentions several instances of his rebuking in severe terms the histrionic profession. On one occasion an Irish gentleman, conversing with him on the subject, asked him if he had seen the best French players. JOHNSON-"Players, sir! 1 look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools, to make faces and produce laughter, like daucing dogs." "But, sir, you will allow that some players are better than others?" JOHNSON-"Yes, sir, as some dogs dance better than others!"

tween the vigour of her mind and that of Lady Macbeth, gave her advantages in the character, which no lady has possessed since the best days of Mrs. Yates.

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Mrs. Siddons displayed less of what is called acting, during the dialogue previous to the murder of Duncan, and less of Pantomime when she enters walking in her sleep, than in her first appearance in the same situations. So far her attempts they will yet admit of further simplicity. When exhibited fewer instances of apparent artifice; but she sets down the candle, who does not perceive she varies from her predecessors only that her hands may be more at liberty to imitate the process of ablution?-Artis est celare arlem.”

On a subsequent occasion, (March 8,) we find quite a different opinion expressed. Speaking of Lady Macbeth, the critic says

"On the whole, however, violent and horrible as the part is, she over-acts it; and in the nightscene commits an error, which would be inexcusable in the youngest performer, that of attending to her candle as if perfectly awake."

In connection with this remark, it may be well to refer to what Mrs. Siddons has herself said with first alluded to her first appearance in the charreference to the candle scene, on the very night

acter in London. She recounts the agitation that toilette was made, and tells how just as she was possessed her, the feverish alarm with which her going on the stage, Mr. Sheridan came to speak with her. "What was my astonishment," she adds," when I found that he wanted me, even at this moment of anxiety and terror, to adopt another mode of acting the sleeping scene! He told me he had heard with the greatest surprise and concern that I meant to act it without holding the candle in my hand; and when I orged the impractica bility of washing out that damned spot' with the vehemence that was certainly implied by both her own words, and by those of her gentlewoman, he insisted that if I did put the candle out of my hand, it would be thought a presumptuous innovation, as Mrs. Pritchard had always retained it in hers. My mind, however, was made up, and it was too late to make me alter it; for I was too much agitated Sheridan's taste and judgment was, however, so to adopt another method. My deference for Mr. great, that, had he proposed the alteration whilst it was possible for me to change my own plan, I should have yielded to his suggestion; though even then it would have been against my own opinion, and my observation of the accuracy with which somnambulists perform all the acts of waking persons. The scene, of course, was acted as I had my self conceived it; and the innovation, as Mr. Sheridan called it, was received with approbation. Mr. Sheridan himself came to me after the play, and most ingenuously congratulated me on my obstinacy.'

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Campbell's Life of Mrs. Siddons.

The Lady Macbeth of Mrs. Siddons is said to have been the most wonderful representation that ever called forth the tears of a cambric-handkerchiefed auditory. One who had seen it might be said indeed to have "supped full of horrors." Her very walk across the stage caused the hair to stand on end and the deep full notes, in which she uttered the language of the murderess, seemed like a voice issuing from a tomb. Where now can be found a vestige of her mantle? Indeed, in this mountebank age, where would a worthy successor be sustained? Alas, the palmy period of the drama has gone by, its passion and poetry are past and the tinsel alone remains,-the curtain has fallen on the fifth act of its luster.

sed to make him an honorary member, but that be-
ing declined, it was agreed to increase the number
from twenty-five, in consequence of which his Roy-
al Highness was unanimously elected.
The Beef-steak Club has been instituted just
fifty years, and consists of some of the most clas-
sical and sprightly wits in the kingdom."

A few weeks after this great event, (June 1,) we find a brief paragraph, announcing that

"This day John Adams, Esq. Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America, had a private audience of his Majesty, to deliver his credentials."

“John Adams, Esq.," it must be borne in mind, was but a small man, when compared with the

Farther on we find another announcement:

In the literary department of the European Mag-finest gentleman in Europe." azine, we find a variety of entertaining reading. There is a series of papers, chiefly of an anecdotical character, on the Life of Dr. Johnson. There is also a succession of articles on the "Progress of English Song," by Mr. Ritson, which have since been published in a volume and are regarded as the best historical Essay on that subject. The poetry of the Magazine is very unequal, some of it being very good, other portions almost as bad as the verses of the Rosa Matildas of our own day. From a Duptial Ode, on the marriage of "Lord Viscount Althorp and Miss Lavinia Bingham," written by Sir William Jones, (clarum et venerabile nomen,) we take a few lines prophetic of our national great

"16. Arrived in town from Falmouth Warren Hastings, Esq. late Governor General of Bengal. He sailed from Calcutta the 9th of February last."

ness:

Beyond the vast Atlantic deep,

A dome by viewless genii shall be raised,
The walls of adamant compact and steep,
The portals with sky-tinctured gems emblazed,
There on a lofty throne shall Virtue stand;
To her the youth of Delaware shall kneel;
And when her smiles rain plenty o'er the land,
Bow, tyrants, bow beneath th' avenging steel !”

This Monthly Chronicle contains many other scraps of interest, accounts of air-balloons, which had just come in vogue, criminal trials, sometimes with the arguments for the defense, executions at Newgate, (of which during three months there were no less than forty-five, all for a lower grade of crime than manslaughter!) together with public celebrations, etc., etc.

There is also a Monthly Obituary, from which we take a few examples of remarkable longevity, which remind us of that respectable race of old people who lived before the flood.

DIED-March 23.

"Anne Simms, at Studley-green, in the Parish of Brimhill, near Bow-wood, in Wiltshire, in the 113th year of her age. Till within a few months of her death, she was able to walk to and from the seat of the Marquis of Lansdown, near three miles

From the Monthly Chronicle of Events, we from Studley. She had been, and continued, till

make some curious extracts

"April 1.

upwards of 100 years, the most noted poacher of that part of the country; and frequently boasted of selling to gentlemen, fish taken out of their own ponds. Her coffin and shroud she had purchased, and kept in her apartment more than 20 years."

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May 9.

"At a little before one o'clock, a fire broke out in the large room at Spring-Gardens, Charing Cross, formerly known by the name of Cox's Museum, bat at this time taken by a man who was exhibiting Windsor Castle cut in Cork, and Mount Vesuvius: 'Lately died at Holmes chapel, in Cheshire, a the person was shewing the Burning Mountain to man named Froome, aged 125 years and eight the company; in throwing up the lighted rosin, months. This patriarchal rarity was gardener to some of it fell upon a large quantity of combusti- the late John Smith Barry, Esq who, in considerble matter, which, through forgetfulness, had notation of his great age, and long services, left him been put into its proper place, and in an instant set an annuity of 501. a year, which he enjoyed with the building on fire, the whole of which was con- unusual health until about two days before his death. sumed, with two adjacent houses, and the stabling at the back of the building much damaged."

The following item will be regarded as highly important:

He has a son now living, turned of 90, who works at a manufactory in Lancashire, and promises fair to arrive at as great an age as his late father." May 16.

"May 14. The Prince of Wales was admitted a "At Magharetempeny, near Ballynahinch, in the member of the Beef-steak Club. His Royal High-county of Down, Mary M'Donnell, aged upwards ness having signified his wish of belonging to that of 118 years. She was born in the Isle of Sky in society, and there not being a vacancy, it was propo- Scotland, which place she left in the year of the

Revolution. (1688), and resided since in Down, in | Prince, and a party consisting of one hundred ladies Ireland, until her death last year she walked to and gentlemen, supped in the grand Eagle Saloon. Moira, 14 miles, in one day, to see her landlord; The duchess of Devonshire was seated on the right and in the year 1783 reaped her ridge of corn as well as the youngest people in the country. When she was at Moira, she had all her senses perfectly as a young woman, except a little weakness in her eyes, and seemed strong, healthy and active."

The last extract we present, (we fear we have already given too many,) relates to the Court.

"June 4th. His Majesty's birth-day was distinguished with every proof of respect and esteem.

66 DRESSES.

hand of his Highness, and lady Beauchamp on his left. All the first families in the kingdom supped in this apartment. The company amounted together to four hundred and fifty. The supper consisted of eight removes, of the most choice dishes, and a grand display of confectionary, with the most curious fruits that could be procured.

"The dances were resumed after supper, with great glee. The prince danced with the duchess of Gordon, lady Duncannon, and several others."

From the quotations we have made, it will occur to every one that a literary magazine in 1785 was a very different affair from one in 1848. Nous "The drawing-room, in point of splendour, was equal to any we remember on the occasion. The avons changer tout cela. Division of labor now King was in a plain suit, of a milk chocolate col- assigns to many what was then the work of but our, and appeared in charming spirits.-Her Ma- one. The larger part of the materiel of the Eajesty was superbly dressed in blue and silver. The ropean Magazine is what would now appear in j petticoat was entirely covered with a rich silver the Annual Register or the Year Book. When embroidered crape. Her jewels were disposed with the Queen now takes an airing, with her six (or

with uncommon taste, and raised to such advan

tage on a black ground in stripes, as made the most seven) little sprigs of royalty, in the gardens of perfect and brilliant appearance.-The Prince of Buckingham Palace, it is the province of the Court Wales was in a royal purple velvet, richly embroi- Journal to inform the world of the important fact; dered with silver, and made a most elegant appear- when a new mode is introduced at the West End ance. The Princess Royal's was lilac and silver, we look to La Belle Assemblée for a dissertation embellished with a beautiful silver embroidered crape, of superior work aud perfection; representon the subject. The literary magazines disdain to ing various devices in wreaths, knots, and flower- chronicle such frivolous nothings and have relieved baskets, interspersed with a variety of small bou- their pages of much inanity. With us in Ameriquets of natural flowers. ca, we regard not at all mere matters of adornment (except in the poorest of fashion plates.) and as the people are King, we are not troubled with recording their movements. Like all Sovereigns, however, they have their jesters and there are some journals which are charged with the task of making fun.

Lady Harriet Pitt, honorable Miss Finch, lady Howe, Miss Howe, lady Palmerston, lady Mordaunt, lady Impey, countess Aylesford, &c. &c. &c. were in Chamberri Mrs. Hastings wore an Indian muslin, wrought in silver and colours, with a profusion of oriental pearls.

gauzes.

"The head-dress of the ladies principally consisted of feathers, disposed with neatness, artificial flowers and diamonds. Lady Salisbury's cap was But we have discoursed too long. Let as shut formed of materials that corresponded in colour up the book and deduce a moral. It will indeed with her gown.-Lady Augusta Murray appeared be a very trite one. Still it cannot be too frequentin an enormous wreath of flowers, which extended ly studied. We have been looking at other times on all sides, like the fantastic head-dress in which and past events. Milton's Euphrosyne generally appears. A few Figaro tresses were seen; but the hair in a simple style, with drop curls in the neck, was the preva

lent mode."

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Upwards of two hundred ladies were present, some of whom were of the first accomplishments

A few years have rolled by, and all the characters of that period are gone. Poets, statesmen, wits, beauties,—they have passed away from the stage of action. The latestring of the boudoir has faded. Time, the great equalizer, has set before us in a proper light those who were regarded, undeservedly, either as virtuous or vicious. We are taught thus, the impressive truth, that has been so well expressed in the language of Shirley,

"The glories of our mortal state

Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armor against fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings:
Sceptre and crown
Must tumble down,"

and fashion. The ball was suspended at half-past and in applying this, we may be assured, in the one, and the company repaired to supper.

"SUPPER.

"Five rooms were laid out for the supper. The

words of the same noble dirge, that

"Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in the dust."

No packed committees break his rest,

Nor avarice send him forth in quest

SCRAPS FROM A PORT-FOLIO.

NO. 1.

Of lands beneath the sun.

The following verses, by Warren Hastings, I met with in an old English magazine. They were composed in 1785, during the author's return voyage from India to England, and are alluded to by Macaulay, in his critique on Hastings, as follows: "Of his voyage little is known, except that he amused himself with books and with his pen, and that among the compositions, by which he beguiled the tediousness of that long leisure-was a pleasing imitation of Horace's Otium Divos rogat. This little poem was inscribed to his friend, Mr. Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth."

Verses by Warren Hastings, imitated from Horace, 2d Book, Ode XVI. Otium Divos rogat. Written at sea, near Cape of Good Hope, March,

1785.

For ease the harassed seaman prays,
When equinoctial tempests raise
The Cape's surrounding waves;
When hanging o'er the reef he hears
The cracking mast and sees or fears
Beneath his watery grave.

For ease the starved Maratta spoils
And hardier Seik erratic toils
And both their ease forego;

For ease which neither gold can buy
Nor robes, nor gems which oft belie
The covered heart,-bestow.

For neither wealth nor titles joined
Can heal the soul or suffering mind.
Lo! where their owner lies!

Perch'd on his couch Distemper breathes,
And Care, like smoak in turbid wreaths,
Round the gay ceiling flies.

He who enjoys (nor covets more) The lands his father owned before Is of true bliss possessed;

Let but his mind unfettered tread Far as the paths of knowledge lead And wise as well as blest;

No fears his peace of mind annoy Lest pointed lies his fame destroy Which labored years have won :

Short is our span, then why engage
In schemes for which man's transient age
Was ne'er by Fate designed?

Why slight the gifts of Nature's hand?
What wanderer from his native land
E'er left himself behind?

The restless thought and wayward will
And discontent attend him still,
Nor quit him while he lives,
At sea, Care follows in the wind,
At land, it mounts the pad behind,
Or with the post-boy drives.

He who would happy live to-day
Should laugh the present ills away
Nor think of woes to come:
For come they will or soon or late,
Since mixed at best is man's estate
By Heaven's eternal doom.

To ripened age Clive lived renowned
With lacks enriched with honor crowned
His valor's well-earned meed;-
Too long alas! he lived to hate
His envied lot, and died too late,
From life's oppression freed.

An early death was Elliott's doom,

I saw his opening virtues bloom,
And manly sense unfold,

Too soon to fade! I bade the stone
Record his name 'midst hordes unknown
Unknowing what it told.

To thee perhaps the Fates may give
(I wish they may) in wealth to live,
Flock's, herds and fruitful fields;
The vacant hours with mirth to shine,
With these the Muse already thine,
Her present bounties yields.

For me, O Shore, I only claim
To merit not to seek for Fame,
The good and just to please;

A state above the fear of want,

Domestic love, Heaven's choicest grant, Health, leisure, peace and ease.

DISCOVERIES IN SCIENCE;

THEIR MORAL AND POLITICAL EFFECTS.

The consideration of general laws, whether operating in the moral or physical life, affords subjects of curious and often instructive reflection. There are not a few of the inflexible conditions, which, though seen by us, and known to us, in our earliest entrance upon a rational life, are yet regarded with cold and sometimes almost an impious indifference. We treat them, as dreams,

ter of nations, that, without these facilities, would never be known, except through other mediums infinitely less efficient? In this means, enterprise and energy find at once a fit emblem and an agency equal to the accomplishment of their active purposes of trade and locomotion. Yet even after this great discovery, giving to those who may have been denied the highways of the waters, highways of equal tonnage and equal-nay, superior speed, there seemed to be wanting something that should correspond with the operations of the human mind, that should convey the winged thoughts swift 23 the thoughts themselves; that annihilating the intervention of tardy distance, would enable us to speak and to be heard over the mountains and the valleys-and lo, the inventive genius of the age offers a vehicle to human thought: corresponding in its fitness and similitudes with that which steam has afforded to physical man and the productions of his industry. And the electric spark that heretofore conveyed terror and superstitious alarm, now bears in its car of living light the language of haman thought; and man, separated by distances, The same principle seems to exist in political which but a short time ago were a barrier to all societies. Nations have their birth, their progress communication, may now converse with nations of to maturity, their fulness of population and sci- another tropic, as if divided only by the streets of ence, and their decline and final decay. Is this a single city. Dying itself, it leaves its record in tendency to national decline ever to be retarded by the language of man. What a mere dreamer, he existing discoveries, or such as may by analogy would have been thought, who a few years age exist? Or is it alike the inflexible doom of man and should have ventured the prediction of so wonder. nations, that they shall perish? Before the intro-ful a state of things; who should have hazarded the duction of many modern discoveries which are now prophecy that such an agent, dangerous and errain active force, the revolutions of kingdoms were not much less obvious than those which mark the changes of the natural body. That this state of things may be-nay, is to some extent arrested by the discoveries of modern times, we think susceptible of some demonstration, though to what extent, of course no one can determine. Nor do the agitations which now convulse almost the whole of Europe, affect at all the views which we offer. We look upon these as the transition State, necessarily resulting from the operation of causes, which the wisdom of man has established through his inventive genius.

"The children of an idle brain

Begot of nothing, but vain phantasy."

The germ of death ingrafted on the very heart of man, that begins its blighting growth with the first issues of the life spring, and of whose untiring agency every day offers abundant evidence, is yet unheeded, though it bears us to the "bourne, from which no traveller returns."

tic, would have been subjected to the innocent use of intelligent communication. This discovery has afforded to us a liberty of prophecy that knows no limit in the range of probable things, and that may be indulged almost over the whole field of possible things. It has encouraged man not only to predict, but to project with more vigor and better hopes of useful discovery. Nor is it improbable that discovery may yet disengage from the womb of the hidden things of nature materials that shall yet more exalt him. Look to the seience of Astronomy alone, and see what wonders have been unfolded to his intelligent acquaintance in later years. How, by the improvement of op tical instruments, he has been enabled to penetrate those regions of space, around which deep darkness hung, and bring forth systems moving in barmony and beauty. Reckon back a little while, and

Not long in the history of mankind have we realized the operations of steam, an agency, the power of which enables man to traverse the earth with as little time and labor, as in days gone by were required to round the limits of a petty State. In its vast propulsion and speed, bearing in its all this which makes us wonder and admire, was train science, civilization and exchange, no in- the mere symbolic language, to swell the supersti genuity can reckon its effects upon those laws tions of mankind. The two agencies which we that heretofore had marked the conditions of our have alluded to, are unquestionably working and to work a vast change in the condition of the races In our country alone we may now estimate com- that now and hereafter shall roam the face of namunications by rail-roads to be more than six thou- ture.

race.

sand miles. What a mighty commingling of man- Those differences that result in the national idiokind is effected by this? How many persons are syncracies, which mark the people of the earth, thus made familiar with the customs and charac- must undergo change. The homogeneity of dif

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