The National Register. — London, England, 1821-01-14 00:00:00

7IIE NEW TRAGEDY. - THEATRE ROYAL, COVENT GARDEN.—WE know few thit:gs su likely to lead to the condenthatian of a new Play as the raising public expectation vet) , high on she score of its merits; and perhaps in no instance, for many years, has the anticipation of success been so great as it was with respect to the new Tragedy of Mt Kau uota, which was produced for the first time on Tuesday last; but the ability and genius of the Author, (Mr. Proctor, under the assumed title of Barry Cornwall) rose superior to all the dangers of extreme pre-possession.— Whether we look to the force of dramatic propriety preserved from first to last, to the exquisite power over the ideas which is exercised throughout, or to the beau tiful and poetical turn of the language, we hesitate not to declare it, in our opinion, one of the finest eflurts of the Muse that has been submitted fur a length of years to the judgment of the public. The story is founded on the marriage of the Duke rf Mirandola (Macready) with Isidora (Miss Foote), she having previously been betrothed to the Duke's sou, Guido (C. Kemble.) That sun had gone to the wars, and was reported to have died in battle ; but he reco vered from the wounds which he had received, and wrote to his father, and to his loved Isidora. These letters were intercepted by Isabella (Mrs. Fawcett) the Duke's sister, she plotting to set aside the Duke's sun, that her own might obtain the Dukedom. The Duke, in the interim, selected Isidora for his second wife, not knowing, how ever, that she had been the beloved of his son. Guido returns, and he then learns, for the first time, the mar riage of his father. C. Kembte's character here was uncommonly interesting, on the news being imparted by a false Monk, Gh:raldi (Egerton), who lends himself to promote Isabelle 's :scheme,. The interview with the father was also must biprevsive. The whole scene is narrated with great force. The son charges the father with having wronged his ofiSpring ; and the Duke checks his indignant denunciations by remarking that he is a prince as well as a lather—that Guido is a subject as well as a son. tie happily retm Is upon illirandola, thanking hint for being reminded that a prince was spo ken to,—for that one word often made chitties to be remembered that would be forgotten, if the man only were thought of. In the subsequent beetles Isabella pro motes her schemes by forcing a ring (the Duke's gilt) from Isidora, anti giving it to Guido as a token of friend ship. The Duke espies it on his son's linger, and thinks the son and the Duchess are playing false with him. Isabella prevents explanation. The son th termines to leave the kingdom—but Isabella brings about a secret meeting between Guido and the Duchess, and then in forms die Duke, who surprises the parties together. They had not sought the interview, and the son had told the Duke that he would not see Isidore; before his departure. His jealousy, his fears, are confirmed. He maddens %sift rage, and vows vengeance. He condemns his son to be shot—but while this is taking place, the treachery of had& and the Monk is discovered. 'lnc letters are found—the conspirators are tracked ; but Isa bella still has means to delay the intelligence—and it only arrives at the crisis which terminates the son's life, as the firing of the guns followed the exposition of the plot which had been carrying on to promote the Duke's and the Son's ruin. The father, overwhelmed with agony, falls, and the curtain drops. If we cannot compliment the Author on the tendency of the main spring of his plot, or on the desirability of the denouement, btill he may plead, in answer to any objections on these points, that historical facts have furnished him with his outlines in the lives of Philip 11. of Spain, and D'Este, one of the Dukes of Ferrara. No praise of ours can do justice to the efforts so successfully made by Mr. Charles Rouble and by Mr. M'Cready, to carry into effect every wish oldie Author—they each of them exhibited " A Genius, which the l'oet left behind, a:act:lli:l.c it uct Out Mid " To particularise any one scene, may perhaps be oflering violence to the opinion of nor readers, where every one deserted unqualified praise, yet we cannot refrain from applauding, especially the scene in which Guido is told of the 1113 rriJi:3: of his lather—his assumption that he had married the suler of his bethrothed, and the manner in which lie evaded the explanation, when the dreadful light began to break upon into, defy description, and must be stew to be properly estimated. Al! the other - Verliiratiers exerted themselves very creditably. and the Piece has been repeated (tinder eon sick rabic cunt' I mem) every evening, to o inflow ing anti delighted audience,. The address from the exclusively loyal of Yar town and its vicinity has been presented to his Ma jesty. After having been open for signature for nal longer than a liirtnight, it obtained nal less than three hundred and ninety signalures. If the half-pay officer who hatched this up supp sed that by it would be represented the LOYALTY of this town, which contains nearly 20,000 persons, we can assure him (what we doubt not he has discovered) that he is much mistaken The poorest radical who petitions for the dismissal of Ministers is equally as loyal as he is ; tke one may think the country flourishing, and the Ministers immaculate—the other asserts that trade is depressed, and assigns for its cause the misconduct of Ministers; and we leave the country to decide whose judgment is correct. We trust this gentleman will no longer be gratuitously busy, nor meddle again with such things us loyal addresses, since he must Lace found that his uuticipatioLs on this one have so grossly misled Lim. On Thursday last a publican was fined 40s. by the sitting Alderman ut Guildhall, for suffering bagatelle to be played in his house, and informations have been laid against others on similar charges, aril fur permitting dominos to Le played. • ~ ~- a, - ". • ea— V . ~': ~"~~ ~~_ THE NATIONAL REGISTER AGRICULTURAL MEETING. A meeting of owners and occupiers of land in . ' East Kent was held at the Fountain Inn, Cauterbury, On Saturday last, ut which a petition In the legislature, pra) log for relief in the present distressed state of agriculture, was agreed to : Sir Edward Knatclibull, Burt. one of the members for the county. attended the meeting, arid promised his support of the petition in the House of Colinous. We believe that the root of the evil Is excessive taxation, and this opinion is confirmed by a high authority, w hich kIC now quote, in the follow ing extract of a letter front Lord Nugent to Mr. Baker, of Ad►tock, Bucks, in answer to a formal applica tion from the Buckingham Agricultural Association to sup port Bier petition : " 1 agree with you, says his Lordship, to the full extent in the description you give, at the outset of your letter, of the distressing difficulties under which the agriculturists of this kingd WU are now labouring; hut I differ from you when you state that those difficulties arise out of the melancholy de predated state of their productions.' Tire petitioners ap pear to me to contemplate the causes of their distress at the w g cud. Farmers arc sutferiug, nut because their pro. ductrons are too cheap, but because the means of producing them are too deur. The more cheaply the food of man can be supplied surely the better, if it is raised at a rate which will utford a fair profit to Win who raises it. This leads at once to w hat I consider the real causes o f agricultural distress, which must he abated before any substantial relief can be hoped for—l mean over-taxatiou, and the ruiuous pressure of our system of poor laws." ADMIRALTY SESSIONS: MONDAY, JAN. 8. These Sessions were held this murning, for the pur pose of taking cognizance of all offences committed on the nigh Seas. The Commission for holding the Sessions having been read, the Grand Jury was called ore, : a great number were fined 100 shillings for non-attendance.— Twenty-three gentlemen having at length been rworn, Sir William Scott delivered his charge. The Jury then retired to the Grand Jury Room to deliberate on such business as may be brought before them. . . ........ Charles Stewart and William Goodwin were tried npota an indictment, charging them with being seamen on board the ship Good Czar, and feloniously and pira tically making a revolt on board the said ship. A second count charged them with endeavouring to cause a revolt. Mr. Adolphus and Mr. Dowling conducted the pro secution. Daniel Munro stated, that on the 20th of October last, he was master of the Good Germ, a merchant vessel, and on that day he anchored about three miles from liornholm, on their way to Elsinore. She was bound on a voyage front Antwerp to St. Petersburgh, and back to Loudon. While on the voyage he took the two prisoners on board as able stamen, but in a short time their conduct was such as to render it necessary to place them in confinement. After a lapse of two or three days they were released, on a promise of behaving; better. The allowances of provisions to the crew were very ample, each man being allowed two pounds—one pound and a half of fresh and half a pound of salt meat per day, with a proportionate quantity of bread, potatoes, &c. besides coffee and molasses. . . On the morning of the day stated in the indictment, the prisoner Stewart came shaft on the quarter deck, and demanded from the witness more meat for breakfast. Ile told the prisoner that the allowance %1111‘ sufficient, and that he had as much as any other man on board. The prisoner then went forward, and witness went below to breakfast. When he returned upon deck, the prisoner Stewart came again to him, and said, " I)—n ye, you are near a port, get some fresh supplies." Wit ness took hilt , by the arm, and led hint forward to the starboard gangway, desiring him to go to his proper station in the ship. Instead of doing so, however, he turned upon witness, and putting hiuncll in au attitude to fight, said, " D—n ye, are yc up?" meaning, as witness understood, was he ready to fight.—Witness succeeded with sonic difficulty in quieting him, and he went forward again. Witness being desirous of having the conduct of Stewart investigated, sent for the Cap tains of three other ships lying near him, and they came un board. Aleut three o'chsck in the aften.oon, lie and Ole other Captains were dining below, a'uoisc was heard upon deck, and witness haste ii tt g up to learn the found the prisoner Stewart fighting, near the hireeastle, with another man, and Goodwill acting as his s,conti. lle desired them todesist, and encleaVoured to separate Ilsein, but Goodwin aimed a blow at him, and said, " D—n your eyes, what is it to you 1" Find ing it impossible to reduce them to obedience by mild means, he went to his cabin, and armed himself with a niii,ket and a pair of pistols ; hut, upon his return upon deck, :le li:111111 the prisoners coming abaft, armed with a han.spike and a serving mallet each, and Stewart had CIJSP•k nifc open. Ile then lad down his fire-arms and o.ok up a carpenter's adze, and at that moment Goodwin ran at him, and aimed a blow at his head with a handspike. The mate of the ship canOt the blow on his arm, and a scale ensued between witness 111:d his first mate and tile two prisoners, in the course of wisielt winless a:at Stewart fell together on the clerk. Aber a scuffle of some duration they separated, and witness ordered the mate to charge the prisoners with the bayonet and drive them (inward. Tile mate did so, but Stewart contrived to get possession of the bayonet by twisting it from the musket, and he, and the - other prisoner, kept calling Out that they would have their lives. At length they were overpowered, and driven forward, but there they renewed the threats, and Stewart said, " Give its a pistol, a musket, or a cutlass a piece, and we will light you, you b—y —I" Witness titer touted tip the whole crew, and desired them to assist iu securing mime prisoners, but they hung back, and nue of them said, " I shan't interfere, for I ant for peace and quietness." The prisoners, howeser, were finally seem, d and taken on shore, at Elsinore, whence, by (nth, - of the British Consul, they wen: brought to this conini; or trial. II Captain Anderson, of the BlitabetA Anne, one of the Captains called on board by the last witness, was next called, and corroborated his statement as to the latter part of the transaction. The prisoners, in their defence, complained of being kept upon short allowance, and of general ill-treatment, and Stewart complained of having been severely wound- - ed by Captain Munro in the affray. The Jury, after half an hour's consultation, found both the prisoners Not Guilty. On the motion of Mr. Dowling, they were ordered to be detained far trial for the assault. Alexander Wood and William Lill, two seaman who were convicted at the last Admiralty Sessions of plunder ing a wreck on the coast of Kent, were then put to the bar to receive the awful sentence of death. Sir IV.Scott addressed the prisoners in his usual im pressive manner. They had, he said, been convicted of plundering, a ship n distress en the shores of this country, and it was much to be lamented that there were En glishmen to be found so lost to the feelings of humanity as to make to themselves a harvest upon the distresses of their fellow-creatures. The magnitude of the offence was much increased, when it was considered that the prisoners, if they had acted as men and as Christians, would have assisted in the preservation of the lives and property of the individuals, whom they had thus basely plundered. At the time that the offence was committed, it was by the law a capital felony, hut a subsequent Act of Parliament it was no longer punishable with death. The Act, however, could not operate retrospectively. and the sentence of death must be passed upon them. He felt some degree of pleasure in stating, that there were circumstances in the case of the prisoners of a fa vourable character, which would, in all probability, operate in mitigation of the punishment which the law awarded. It appeared that they were not the leaders in the plun• I der, but the followers of others who were more guilty. If these had been taken, the law must have had its course, but in the ease of the prisoners the favourable circumstances he alluded to would be represented in the proper quarter, and he had little doubt that their lies would be spared. As, however, they had been convict. ed, he must perform the duty, unpleasant as it was, of passing the sentence of the law upon them, The Judge then passed the sentence of death in the usual form, and the prisoners were removed. The Sessions then ad. journed. Tuesday night a lady had her pocket picked in the pit of Drury Lane theatre, in a remarkable man ner: her upper petticoat was cut through, and both corners of her pocket cut off: She felt something about her feet in the time of the performance, which she took to be a dog, but, now supposes it to have been a little boy under the bench, who cut her pocket, and stole two half-crowns, three shillings, a silver thimble, and other articles. The last year was remarkable for numher of the deaths of distinguished personages, particularly of royal houses, but not so when compared with those of the fifteen months between October, 1.558, and January, 1560—in which period an Emperor, a Pope, two Kings of France, a King of England, a King of Portugal, a King of Denmark, a Dowager Queen of Poland, a Queen of England, two Queens of Hungary, the Doge and Patriarch of Venice, the Duke of Perara, thirteen Cardinals, and many other eminent personages paid the debt of nature. On Wednesday evening, about eight o'clock, a young man of rather genteel appearance, called at the house of Mr. Wallace, No. 3, Sidmouth•street, with a note signed Jane Clark, James-street, Co vent Garden, addressed Mrs. Spencer, and whilst the servant was gone up stairs to deliver it, he went off with three great coats which were hang ing up in the passage ; two of them were blue cloth lined with silk, and hlack velvet collars ; the other was blue cloth with collar of the same and lined with sill:. We are happy to learn, that with a view to the relief of the hap planters, the Lord's of the Trea sury have taken into consideration the propriety of granting a drawback of the duty upon the exami nation of hops to foreign countries, and that the Board of Excise have been instructed to take into their immediate consideration such regulations as may be best adapted for the security of the revenue, n the px-ment of the drawback. We hate not, for many years past witnnsed such a heave fall of ,note attended with boisterous winds, as wit:tio the I.t,t two days at ‘Veymittli, on the sth inst. to consetpiettee t I the depth Of s no w la RVCCII this iONn and the Bath and London roads.ottr two Cniati coacher, the W e ll ing t o n Ai d JOila Bull, together with the Royal Nlaii Coach, are detained here, the mail being dui 'welted on horseback. The IVellingtoil coach, from Bth, arrived lasi e%ening, being the f ireatest part of the day travelling front Revel's Inn, a distance of 26 miles. The high road being impassable, :Mr. Toms was obliged to take a circuitous route by thc way of Cerne, Nli-terne„ and bye places; driving the coach With six troves, and tell men employe:l with ropes to guard againq its up setting. It Will full of passengers, and heavily laden with luggage, and nothing but the greatest caution and perseverance on the part of Mr. Toms prevented dan. geroris consequences. The coach arrived here in safety, to the great joy of the passengers. A 111111 and horse were dispatched on Wednesday from Revel's Inn, to warn the ccachman of the John 8011, of the b.ttl state of the roads, and they have tint beets heard of slime its retorti Iron) Dorchester the sante day. It is, Iliere:One, much to be dreaded that both liar tte• rahetl ior tilt: snow. •• - ~. _ , • Laasna**l-At 'I .~, 1 - iiiiiIIIIN 1