Page images
PDF
EPUB

"Mr. Booth, Ladies and Gentlemen, having been an nounced for the part of Richard, on Friday night last, that Gentleman on the following morning waited upon one of the Proprietors of this Theatre, and stated, that having twice successfully played the part he did not think it right that he should repeat the character without a specific engagement being entered into [shouts of bravo, Booth"]. At this proposal, or the conversation it led to, I was not myself present, but the whole of what occurred was soon after fully detailed to me by the Proprietor.-Mr. Booth, Gentlemen and Ladies, at this interview required an engagement of three years, and a progressive salary. Two more years were to be added to this engagement. The proprietor in reply to this proposition, told Mr. Booth, that he did not think that such an engagement would prove advantageous either to one party or the other, and that he should rather decline entering into a positive engagement until experience should enable him to form some standard for appreciating his talents. The proprietor, therefore, proposed to Mr. Booth what he conceived to be a fair salary, and promised that if success attended his efforts, he would be duly compensated. Mr. Booth, however, insisted upon his proposed engagement, but the proprietor did not conceive it right to accede. [Here some Gentlemen rose in the Pit, and asked why Mr. Booth had been offered but two pounds per week!]-Mr. Fawcett. I solemnly declare that such a thing was never thought of, and it is notorious, that the Proprietors of this Theatre are more distinguished for liberality than parsimony. I will instance the cases of two persons, the late Mr. Cooke and the present Miss O'Neill, who upon joining the company were each placed upon humble salaries, but who succeeding eminently in drawing money to the Treasury, were proportionately advanced to liberal engagements [Bravo, from all quarters]. Why, therefore, should Mr. Booth be selected as a peculiar object of parsimony more than others?-[It is true, however, said a Gentleman in the Pit, when he spurned two pounds, and threatened to leave you, he was offered five, and spurning this also, he has been engaged at the other house.]

Mr. Fawcett resumed; "It is quite impossible for me to reply to observations such as I have just heard, or to answer every question that may indiscriminately be put to me; it is sufficient only for me to assure you, that it was the most anxious desire of the Proprietors that Mr. Booth should continue his performance, and that his exertions, if successful, should be duly rewarded. The door of reconciliation, however, is still open, and it is hoped Mr. Booth will again appear on these boards."-[It is too late, from several voices;

he has concluded an engagement at old Drury, and will appear there on Thursday niglit.]-Mr. Fawcett now bowed and withdrew, amidst a din of groans and hisses, which con→ tinued several minutes, to the interruption of the performance, and the total loss of those who desired to hear..

We have received the following letter from Drury-lane Theatre:

«Sir,

"Drury-lane Theatre, Treasury Office.

In consequence of a misunderstanding be-tween the Proprietors of Covent Garden Theatre and Mr. Booth, the Sub-Committee of Drury-lane Theatre have en-gaged him for three years, at rising salary, and he is to make his first appearance in lago.

- Mr. Booth is indebted to Mr. Kean for his engagement who recommended it strongly to the Committee, and brought him to the Theatre in his own carriage.

[blocks in formation]

We understand the application in favour of Mr. Bootl did not originate with Mr. Kean; but when it was proposed to him by the Sub-Committee, he instantly and most liberally acquiesced, and said he would bring him to the Theatre, which he did, as mentioned in the above note.-ED.

The Amusing Chronicle is published at No. 6, Gilbert's Passage, Portugal Street, and served at the houses of the subscribers, in the same manner as newspapers and magazines.

G Stobbs, Printer, Catherine Street, Strand.

REMARKS on SPENCE'S PLAN.

In all the schemes which have been devised for a perfect. society since men first began to speculate upon such subjects, the principle of a community of goods has in some degree entered; and certain approaches toward it, though under many modifications, have been made both in ancient and modern times, as in Crete and in Sparta,-among the Peruvians, and by the Jesuits in Paraguay. Such a community prevailed among some of the primitive Christians, though no law of the Gospel enjoined it; the Moravians in Germany approach very nearly to it at this time. The mendicant orders were established on the same principle and have thriven upon it, nihil habentes et omnia possidentes-the Papal Church, with its usual wisdom, (for that church assuredly possesses the wisdom of the serpent,) haying prevented the principle from becoming dangerous, by thus sanctioning and taking it into its service. In America, also it is acted upon by many obscure sects, living inoffen sively and industriously in small communities. A religious influence has prevailed in all these instances,-Lycurgus could not have succeeded without the assistance of Apollo, and Mango Capac was the son of the sun. The doctrine, becomes formidable when it is presented as a political dogma, with no such feeling to soften and sanctify it. Joel Barlow, the American republican, who died when lackeying the heels of Buonaparte on his expedition into Russia, perceived that the fashionable doctrines of liberty, of which be was so warm an advocate, tended this way, and must end there; but he thought proper to adjourn sine die the time for carrying these ultimate principles into effect.. There is reason for supposing that Robespierre at the time of his overthrow had formed some extravagant project of this kind; he spoke of 'momentous secrets which a kind of pusillanimous prudence had induced him to conceal,' and promised to disclose in his will, if he should be cut off prematurely, the object to which what he called the triumph of liberty tended. If Babœuf may be believed, this object was an equalization of property, an object which Babœuf attempted by the most atrocious means to bring about, but perished in the attempt. Happily it was made too late

1

sick of horrors and satiated with blood, the people were weary of revolutions, and France escaped a convulsion more dreadful than any which it had experienced.

This, however, is not the theory of the Spencean philanthropists. These root-and-branch reformers take their name from a poor man, who, if he had unluckily lived in the days of the French Revolution, might have been a very inoffensive member of society, and remembered only, if he had been remembered at all, among those writers who have amused themselves by building constitutions in the air, instead of castles. 'When I began to study,' says he, 'I found every thing erected on certain unalterable principles. I found every art and science a perfect whole. Nothing was in anarchy but language and politics. But both of these I reduced to order: the one by a new alphabet, and the other by a new constitution.' The new alphabet of this modest reformer we have not had the fortune to see; it seems, however, that the first edition either of his New Constitution, or his Trial, was printed in what he calls his natural or philosophical orthography.' His political opinions were first propounded in the form of a Lecture, read before the Philosophical society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in 1775, and printed immediately afterwards; from which time, he says, 'he went on continually publishing them in one shape or other.' They are fully and harmlessly explained in his Constitution of Spensonia, a country in Fairy Land; situated between Utopia and Oceana.' 'The Spensonian Commonwealth is one and indivisable; and, the Sovereign People is the Universality of Spensonian citizens.' Divested of such nonsensical language, which was then in full vogue, and too much of which still passes current, his scheme is, That the soil belongs to the state, and that individuals should rent their lands and tenements from their respective parishes; the rent being the revenue, and the surplus, after all public expenses are defrayed, to be divided equally among all the parishioners; every kind of property being permitted except in land. The larger estates are to be leased for one and twenty years, and at the expiration of that term re-let by public auction; the smaller ones, by the year and larger ones subdivided as the increase of population may require. The legislative power is vested in an annual parliament, elected by universal suffrage, women voting as well as men,---the executive is in the hands of a

council of twenty-four, half of which is to be renewed annually. Every fifth day is a sabbath of rest,---not of religi on; for though this constitution is proclaimed in the presence of the Supreme Being, no provision is made for worshipping Him. All the Spensonians are Soldiers; and in the Spensonian Commonwealth, Nature and justice know nothing of illegitimacy.' To the end of this Constitution an Epilogue is annexed, in decent verse, saying that the Golden Age will no longer be accounted fabulous, now that mankind are about to enjoy

-All that prophets e'er of bliss foretold,

And all that poets ever feigned of old.'

And these verses,---to shew the strange humour of the man, and the vulgarity which adhered to him, are followed by a 4 Chorus,' to the tune of 'Sally in our Alley :-

Then let us all join heart in hand
Thro' country, town, and city,
Of every age and every sex,

Young men and maidens pretty ;

To haste this Golden Age's reign
On every hill and valley,-
Then Paradise shall greet our eyes,
Thro' every street and alley!'

LETTER from Dr. WATSON to LORD COCHRANE.

MY LORD,

IN one of the Morning Papers of Thursday, Feb. 6, I perceive that paper has made a report of your Speech in the House of Commons, on presenting the Spa-fields Petition, which I cannot but believe differs in some respects from that which you really did use on the occasion. The editor of that paper makes you say, that "the riot that occurred that day proceeded from a set of wild theorists, called Spenceans, whose object was to place the whole landed property

« PreviousContinue »