The National Register. — London, England, 1808-07-10 00:00:00

JULY 10. in the general Staff, and was eminently useful by his knowledge of the Spanish language. The Spanish prisoners restored to. liberty and their country, by the British Government, sailed from Portsmouth on Friday, osier the direction of Colonel Doyle and Captain Kennedy, for Plymouth, from whence they ere immediately to proceed, with their brethren at that place, for Spain. The whole are to be newly clothed; and nothing is omitted on the part of Govern ment, that can mark a regard for the Spanish Nation, and the laudable zeal with which we enter into her cause. We understand that all the Spanish prisoners have been pro vided with shoes and other necessaries, and have had also money given to them, and that 10,000 regimental suits have already been shipped for the use of the Pat -jots in Spain. The following is a correct list of the corps of Infantry or dered for immediate embarkation, viz. From Harwich.—The 2d Regiment of Foot, Ist Battalion of the 4th, '2d Battalion of the 59th, the 20th, and 43d Regiments. From Chatham.—The t2cl Brigade of the Guards. Frosa soate.—The 2d Battalion of the 9th, the 2d Bat talion of t h, r the 53d, 37th, and the 51st Regiments. From Ire awl—The Ist Battalion of the 26th, the 45th, and 36th Regiments. It is said that the General of the Spanish lines, on marching with hi 4 troops to Cadiz, sent word to Sir Hew Dalrymple, who commands at Gibraltar, that he left the lines " to British " honour." _ SP‘sisH NAirv.—The Spanish navy, at the end of the year 1795, couisted of 76 sail of the line, 23 of which have been taken or destroyed ; 5l frigate',' 20 of which have been taken or de,troyed : 10 corvettes, 9 xehecks, 16 hulks, 43 brigs, 7 ha lanitra%, 16 galleys, 22 bombs, 57 pm-boats, 17 howitzers, 5 tar ta,is, 12 armed boats, and 5 packets : consequently they have at pre,ent 53 sail of the line, and 31 frigates, independent of what may have been built since. DRAMATIC DETECTOR. No. VT. " 0 that estates, degrees, and offices " Were net derived corruptly !—That clear honour " Were purchased by the merit of the wearer " How many then should cover, that stand bare! " How many he commanded, that command!"--BtrAitsrmans. Among the grossest of those evils which are imputable to the Proprietors of our Theatres, are certainly their prejudices, par tialities, and t vratnics in relation to Actors. There are ditle feta kinds of faults committed by the two directing powers, but they seem to be faults in their own nature equally pernicious. The faiths committed at Drury-Lane are of a nature injurious most to the Proprietors themsekves: while the leading Proprie tor of Covent-Garden appears gratify his own inclinations without the least regard to thlings or to the rights of indi viduals. The faults of the one directing power are errors of judgmeot—those of the other are moral vice. We are not speaking now at hazard : we ate statin;.; what we know to be true, and what we will proceed to prove by instances. Lod first of Drur%- Lane : In entering on the concerns of Drury-Lane, we have some dif ficulty in determining by what name we ought to call the go verning power of that theatre. The truth that it has been governed neither by the proprietors, nor by the acting manager, bat by intermediate authorities, boards of management. auditors, and trustees; among whom Mr. Graham, the magistrate, ha' held the most conspicuous place. Mr. Graham is a man of great activity and zeal ; hut unfortunately, we fear, of so little Judgment in theatrical matters, as to he by no means calculated for the very important office of guiding a theatre. Theatrical judgment is made up of two qualities—a taste naturally good, and a long experience. Mr. Graham seems to have begun his task without either of these qualifications. To be sure, he has been occupied with this concern for several year, and people may imagine that by this time he must have at least experience enough : But that w ill] not do : Experience in these matters is an admirable improver of natural taste ; but I% ithout natural taste, it is likely in general :o produce nothing but obstinacy. There must be good ground for experience to work upon in the first instance : and without such a ground we laugh at all the boasts of experience. So one hears a man at his own• how e sometimes triumphantly declare to his- eatests, that the port he is then decanting may he warranted exeellent r for that he himself bas had it near seven years in his cellar—•never considering that if it were originally bad, all the preservation in the world w ltl THE NATIONAL REGISTER. never cause it to he good. And yet principally to Mr. Grabs= was left the duty of reading the plays and engaging the actors When Mr. Liston appeared at the Haymaket, Mr. Graham went to see him act. He did not much like him ; but whether from the general good report concerning that excellent actor, Of from what other cause we know not, Mr. Graham was induced to go again. He did not like him this,time ; but again he went to see him. Now, he made up his mind, and positively deter mined not to engage him at Drury-Lane. No man perhaps ever went more deliberately wrong than Mc.Graham in this instance; and of all mistaken folks, surely people who make their mistakes upon reflection, are the most to be feared, and the least to be trusted. In the meanwhile, Mr. Harris, the Proprietor of _ Covent-Garden, who had about him some people that could estimate good effective acting, was persuaded to engage Mr., Liston : and at this moment Mr. Liston is 119 great a favourite as Mr. Fawcett, Mr. Bannister, or even Mr. Mundell himself. Another gross instance of mismanagement on the part of the Drury-Lane administration, has been shewn in the behaviour of the directing powers toward Mr. Young. Mr. Young is an actor by no means of the first rate, but certainly very superior to any tragedian who is to be found at Drury-Lane. But he has not been engaged at Drury-Lune; and perhaps the public will %%under why. Why because the directors of that Theatre du not know their own interests. They are unfortunate art* more than one account iu their neglect of Mr. Young ; and we will shew how. In the first place; although tragedy flourishes much more fairly at Covent-Garden than at Drury-Lune, by reason of the united forces of Mrs. Siddons, the Kembles, and Mr. Cooke, (who is indeed, in our 'opinion, a bad tragedian, but who does nevertheless in certain tragic parts attract the town) yet each London Theatre ought to have the means of acting tragedies now and then. It must be of little use, to be sure, for Drury-Lane to put up Macbeth or Hamlet on the same nights when those plays are acted at Covent-Garden ; but when a new cotnrdy is running at Covent-Garden, and when the weekly recurrence or Monday, and the concomitant superfluity of Saturday's wages sends the lower class of people to the play, who all like tragedy. better than comedy, then it becomes material for a Theatre to• possess somebody who has some notion of playing tragedy. For though the lower people cannot understand the niceties of the art, yet common feeling will tell them when an actor plays violently ill, and they will be displeased with his performance, and come less willingly another time. Now, Mr. Elliston's tragedy, with very few exceptions, ii so extremely had as to be really ahnust too heavy for common patience; and it certainly would have answered to the Proprietors to engage Mr. Young, if it had• been only for the sake of having the principal parts in the usual tragedies acted with tolerable •‘ emphasis and discretion." , But there is another reason, of infinitely more force even than this, which ought to have decided the Managers to engage Mr, Young. And ibis reason is what the politicians of greater cir cles call, " The preservation of the balanec of power." It has happened of late, that one or two actors have, by the weak ness of the government, erected themselves into so vast a consi deration, that they are almoit the masters (,f the theatre which they were engaged to serve : and the more weak the government may be, the more earnestly ought it to seek for some influence, to he opposed against thw encroachers. Mr. Elliston, from his willingness to phy in every live, from the impotence cif the supreme authorities in the theatre, and from the scarcity of dra matic talent in the present day, has risen in Drury-lane to an importance which is almost despotic. The real excellence of his comedy bears tip the trash of his tragedy, and managers, authors, and actors, all how to the talents, the courage, and time good fortune of Mr. Elliston. It is time that his empire should he divided, the power is too great for one man. Long may we enjoy the advantage of Mr. }Allston's comic powers : but for tragedy', the public had a right to expect the engage ment of Mr. Vottaf,, and the riders of the theatre scov.ld have• strengtlwned their authovity by the measure. Statesmen have - found that, though a f'itst Lord of the Treasury with asso ciated Lords may he useful and necessary, yet the whole power vested in one Lord Treasurer is dangerous to the country. We have no ot!ieclion to see Mr. Elliston First Lord of the Trea sury, but we do not like to see him, or any other individnal,. acting as Lord Treasurer. In the next number of the Dramatic Detector, we shall speak of the conduct l‘hich is pursue] at Covent-Garden concerning actors. • Tuesd.ty the Lord Mayor ordered the price of Bread to be continued •u I:9P. the quartern loaf of wheaten, and 10Id huusch -,\. t - v. • 1%, k;' tri it not .the owl It i 6 °Ur- gent 'wan c ha- lOW' used