The National Register. — London, England, 1818-12-14 00:00:00

DRAMA. • COVENT GARDEN. lldisn O'Nsll.appeared on Thursday night, for the 6rst thaie, in The character of ilage/a, in The Ca. 1k Spectre. The admirers of' this exceilcnt actress will iinatedintely perceive, that this is rather au honour etinterrad on a very humble 'delineation, than a source froniwhence much addition call be derived to her e aablished reputation. Yet the part of 40ig,cla is not without passages of beauty and feeling. The &scrip tioas of 'the happy days and pure pleasures of early youth, andnf the rise and progress of her attaehjuent to Percy, are warm and glowing, and demand great pnwers, to:cypress in the true vein of feeling. It is needless to :;sy, that Miss O'Neill gave to the character all the effect of which it wassalse2ptible: her scene the .Plinat was particularly striking. A ar t e t . - :,Torssie/i was, ieviyetl on Friday night. The 4 Shart,creas were putinte s idv . suStained, and the per. &nuance .was received with great attention. Miss Sonterville's Margaret is not her best effixt. She dis played Ikea and passion, and some-touches of sarcastic *wen .wvpaigiven Ly her with great strength and efiltt. • litit4set panties . . was too loud and violent. be ever strained her voice, and aver-cxcited hersel£ The decided and &min el:aracter of Margaret was lost in those rumen& when the soul wits calm, though it is then Slat character may be most eflixtively veleped.—Her pyrite-mance, however, on the whole, was sticcessfl, and warmly applauded. Macready was the Earl, and a manly, correct, and animated represen tative of the great disturber in the most troubled days of England. The feelings which once exalted this man into a hero huvelong given way to those more rational and morelcalthful principles ofpuldiclife which brand him as an ambitious agiteurr ; bat the play holds its in terest upon the stage ; anti in Macready's hands the character of if arirkk is a noble transcript of the force and simplicity of the antique. Every body was prepared for an admirable representation of the haughty and im petuous Warwick by him. It was one of the finest per formances we have seen. When the first suspicion of 'Edwatd's treachery respecting Elizabeth, flushed upon him, it produced a touch of train but rarely equalled, and, in our experience, nat exeelled. The value of the part consists chiefly in the speeches, and they were de claimed by Mr. Macready with singular power and tiexibility.. has that art which so few besides posess, Ana -whichlithe perfection of declamation , .—that of I giving the huignage riftlie part the art of being unpre meditated. The calm. , Day &flowed. Farren was the 'Sir 'Adam, ana,mwescolent. This was a night of activity, for the representation of The 'Libertine, with the firstappearance of Mrs Dickons in Zerliaa, followed The Wedding . Day. We have not now space-to detail ' this accomplished singer's pqrfiwmance. The music is • nf the first order, subtle and sweet, with sudden exal tations into vigour and magnificence; to do this justice :requiras not simply voice, but knowledge. The singer insist have, besides volume of tone, elegance of tuste. 7 - Mrs. Melons' habitudes of Italian study have given her striking advantages over less scientific performers, and in Mozart's music' she enjoys a triumph, in which she is 'likely to have but few rivals on this side of the Alps. mess KELLY.---This excellent actress has.published • the following letter. It is almost needless to say that the compact alluded to is utterly void in law : " Henrietta Street, Ctirent Garden. Dec. 9. " DEAR Spa—T am much obligee' by the opportunity -which your kindness affords me of r contradicting, in the proper way, the report which a few days ago required no contradiction. My engagement at Covent Garden Theatre was.nced, and Nettled; excepting as related to • the consent of the Sub-Committee of Drury Lune The atre, which I find Mr_ Harris deemed it necessary to obtain, inconsequence of a certain compact between : •the two Theatres, by which each is bound not to en gage any performer who has belonged (within twelve months) to the rival Theatre! The Sub-Committee, whd have not chosen to retain my services in Drury .I.4ne Theatre, have thought it .yroper and just to re sue their consent ; being resolved that, as they do not want my services themselves, they clan not be em ..yhlyea in any Other Theatre to n bleb their influence • c m reach ! By this act of the Sub Committee 1 am -deprived of a liberal, and in every respect advantveous engagement at .Cavent Garden, and for alight they Ipluow to the contrary, may be evosea, together with I all, those dependent on my exertions, to want the cons • .. . erh necessaries of pith ! So much for the merciless • ..ponipaet. I hen, dear Sir,.your obliged servant, "F. 51. KELLY." • Wiser. we first read die above, we considered the lady injured ;but after Terusing Mr. Stephen Kemble's explanation, we can only allow that she is capricious. we hope, however, some arrangement may be made which will secure to •the public the delight of witness .. ing her great talents. . • Theatre Itryal, Drury Lane.pcc. It. 'I ''. ' " Sin,—As you have given publicity to Miss 'Calif's ' J lOter in your widely e.xteadad Paper of` this day, t re ., oethil• on Abe tosiluct of our Sah-Cu m miLtee Witt' t c :. ••• . 4. itra to that • Loay, I t, Li.E you will allow MC the :r " Previous to the oreiting of b:rury Lane Theatre, at the request of the Sub qtotn!raitee, 'who arerainott anxious to retain all the prominent talent whieh•they possesscd lust season, I wroterAi letter to Miss Kelly, containing an offer of her 'inshiser terms, namely 20 pounds per week, pmvided she .would restrict her as. sis , ,unee, while it renusiitedapen, to Lb* Theatre. To thi--; letter I received an answer from Miss Kelly, de , chning any engagement. How this agrees with Miss Kcily's assertion, that the Sub-Committee did sot chum: to retain her services,. the l h .blic Will judge. " This statement iseeeisity has wrung from me ;.and: no feeling of hostility- towards Miss Kelly, whose ta lents no one can. more. a t .liaire than I do, and the loss of whose assistance the ricatre, no one at the time could have snore sineererj lamented. - it is an honest relation of the truth.: then. surely neither Miss Kelly nor any of het in moat partial friends, can blame time Sub- Committee, if circumstances of distress (which I hope not likely) have. &lien upon herself or those dependent on her exertions ; for if such were likely to be the eon. sequence, would she have rejected so hUldscisne an establishment ? " I am Sir, your obedient Servant,- • WITPILEN KEMBLE." . . —mar Misi O'Neill, we are informed, made her firs* ap pearance on the stage at the early age of seven years, in • the county of Westmeath, for the benefit of au old distressed Gentleman, a friend of her father. The part In which she made her debut was Angela, in The Castle Spectre. The talents of Miss O'Neill and Miss Sover•ille are about to be combined •in Jones's 'Crazed! of the Earl of Essex. To the great fowers of the former will be allotted the 'character tif the Countess of Rutland, and tn.the latter that of taseeu _Elizabeth. Next year will be the last of Madame Catalaai's appearance in public. From Aix-hi-Chapelle she goes to Be.din, to pass the winter there; from thence to Warsaw, and afterwards to Petersburgh. She will then return to France, to enjoy her large fortune. • • The only two pictures which Sir Joshua Revnohls ever marked with his name nr© those of Mrs. Siddonb the Tragic Muse, and of . Mrs. Cockburn and her three children. Ile wrote it on the enihroidereeledge garments in both instances. • The once celebrated:sprit* of.vriater to the ancient Convent, "on a part of t. which Covent Garden now stands, and . 'THE NATIONAL REGISTr.R. tike opportumgy stattng D4utir motet of fact, which, Lei Airina.ier tff 'Drury Lane Theatre, f feel my- self called upon to lay before die public. FORGED NOTES. granted by I lenry VIII. nt the destruction houses, to the founder of the present Russell, is still in existence, and its waters continue to flow in all their primitive purity. It is situated on the premises of Messrs. Black and Co. in York Street, op posite Charles &nal, Covent Garden. AGRICULTURAL PlCTMON,—Notwithstanaiug the • opposition which has been raised against this measure in the manufacturing districts, we have letters to-day front various parts, which show that the design is by nO means abandoned by the land-owners in most of the principal agricultural counties. In . Sussex, and in this county, particularly in the neighbourhood of Maidstone, we find that the petition has received some very respectable signatures ; at Colchester, also, it is circulated with some'activity ; and in Suffolk and Nor folk; ;the object of it is promoted with great zeal by persons of much influence. It is proposed to form committees of management ea -every county, who may depute committee-men to attentLat Westminster on the 14th of January next, in order to establish a committee of management -.Jr the whole kingdom, sad to arrange and conduct the evidence to be.subinitted to Parliament in support of the petition. On the other band, we have reason. to believe that the inhabitants of such towns as BirminAlon, Manchester, Sheffield, &c.— have it in contemplation to meet. his effort by a coun ter-petition ; and public :meetings are talked of for that purpose, which are, however, delayed, in order that it may be ascertained whether, without such a display of hostility, the Agricultural Petition will not be entirely relinquished.— Keetisht.Gazeite. It is reported that the Bank means to call in the one and two pound notes, amounting to five millions, for which purpose three millions of silver are new ready to be issued, and two millions more are wining. " it is understood," says a Morning Paper, " that the Bank of England will issue a new Note of much more difficult imitation than the present, early in the next year. Due notice of such an event wia of course ap pear in The Gazelle.—This report, which we give merely as such, is pretty generally credited." We regret to learn, by letters received fonn the Cape, of Good Hope, dated October 3, that Mr. Burkhard, an enterprising traveller, who bad prosecuted his in quiries itt the interior of Africa, under the name of. Shielk-Ibraham, died at Cairo, of dysentery. • Lscon has declined the contestfor the represen tation of the .borough .of 'Yarmouth ; bat. another Ministerial 'Candidate is talked of. Mr. Cook, the barrister, and two other gentlemen, it is snit!, have recently left Brglaad for rtnly, on h rttift siDit .ef oeawquesec she Trittezz«ir Wales. • .. ~ • At the rennwt of certain prisoners, whoa; the cons. nieeeement of the Sesiious were allowed to plead Gui ty. • to the minor offence of having forged notes in their pr.- sessin, application was made to the Court that th^y %night be permitted to revoke that plea, and plead ge nerally—Not Guilty . : Tho Court, at the time of the application, would not tieternline upon it. But the, prisoners have since received notice from the Solicitor to the Bank, that they will be put on their trial fur the (*phial offence.of having pa,sded furred notes, though they have already been permitted to pl7 l / 4 14 Guilty to the. hider offence of having . furged notes iu their possession, which plea subjects them to ,14 years' transportation.. , The Bank, it is amerted, has the power to do 90, in consequence of the following proceedings ;—After thu prisoners planted Guilty to the 'minor offence, they ought to have been arraigned upon the capital charge, and as the Beak would nut have offered any evidence against them to that specific charge, having allowed Seta to pica& Guilty to the minor offence, Ly would have been pronounced Not Guilty of the capital Of; fence, and therefore tUscharged from all future liability, except that of transportation fur Iliurtecn years. Friday 4fternoun Mi. Pullen theUudcr Sheriff, wits that humanity which always characterises his condo; ; having heard that the nnlbrtunate men, John Drlscol . . Wiliam Weller and George Cashman, who are onlered for execution on Tuesday next, entertained an idea that their lives would be spared, in consequence of theide. vision of the Jury on Saterakv week, visited these in their celld, having previously bad a conversation Avith the Recorder, 'who was of opinion that that ciretuU stAnce would have no effect upon •hir Royal Highness the Prince Regent, in commuting their punishment, The Worthy Under Sheriff endeavoured to imprera upon them the futility of indulging in such hop, and assured them there was not the, slightest •foundar tion upon which they . could be so Waved up Mow Mr. Pullen quitted them, they thanked 'him for his at/- . tention, and seemed resolved to make up ifinds - to the awful fate that awaits them. 4 r. SMITHFIELD * ctun CATTLE SHEir. ' . gavel :wet exhlbtted. bead of the animate Mnong them were—Mr. John 'Yltestear, the Bedfordean premium of 25 guineas,,for bii.s-year old dark red Herelhei.ox •' Furl Talbot, thin*dfindean premium of W guineas, for his three qa-naunthb old Leicester wethcrs : also the premium of 15 guineas, for his 4-year old Hereford cm ; the Duke of Bedford; two 4-years and 10 months old Hereford oxen : the Earl of Bridgewater, four 3-year old Southdown wethers commendel by the Judges ; Sir W. Curtis, a guernsey ball, 3-years and 8-months old ; Sir Ibbetson, a 4-year old ox ; the Duke of Bedford, a 14-months and 2 weeks old Suffolk pig bred by his Grace. 11r. L. Phillips chewed floe specimens of mangel wurzel roots, and of large purple potatoes, sad seven ' large glasses filled with specimen apples and pears, from the fruit trees in his nursery at Vauxhall. Mr. Plenty showed some ingenious ploughs, with three, with two, and with one wheel, for lessening their draught or steadying them. Several other mat ters were exhibited and noticesziven... It is a singular fact, that at the present time spice:. are at a psioe so mach below their value, that they are shipping buck again to India ; as appears by the Custom House books of-last week, where there were entered for Bombay upwtirds of ef.,ooolba. of nutmegs anJ a - cloves only. The Norfolk Chronitk sayer—" Some individuals into and near the metropolis, whose names are nut made known, have been circulating the .farm of a petition' to Parliament, praying for mute further alte,rution itt the Corn Laws, adopting as a kind of mottei,.a . e3 principle of open ports and protecting duties.' It has, however, been withdrawn from the place where it bye:i first exhi bited in London. We do not find that the reA, practical farmers give any sancias to the measure, pra.ibaLly thinking it most prudent to " let witiA, ulone"—li wit* .tetaxim, which will hold good in this es well ffs in every other speculation." The Lords of the Manor of lirightfin having gin notice that all pencils are liable,t,o prosecutions tor ut:- rying away sand, sion, or rocks from the sea. chore, , without a lict3nsagrnnted try them, -Ind payin;;; a virri,in sum per load, has eseatcd an eNtraurflin.u.y sensation of alaroa among the ship owners, fishermen, thsildel.,, brick makers, '&e. The right of curving nw.n t!:e . productions of the sea has been esiaLli , he.l fecal _ merit' custom, but the Lords of the Manor dispute the privilege, and aceording - ii the Commissioue... - the , town istead to 'try the criestinn." Mrs. Siddonb as . . 7n and her three Friday morning, at an early hour, Mr. Sidles Yani • I .„ia rre a m a ge ain GosweU Street, was crowdel with salesiniasi eins and others, front Smithfield Market, to h3641,41hd eag. which belonged' ittei5a 466,9 414‘ 1040 , 1 4 Orb alut Ws - diik' e t t i s it - I the gtOnnds sional judomieet on the leveed" a mat ti litetit et an d w hi c h was each. In the fintenoon a respecidilla*atipettyleeethbied, 7tion of religious anti for a considerable time suilin filled the Yard. witn noble &may of expressed iireet itatisfactiOn. to the excellence .of the nrca stoat exhibited. The labeisdirete affixed at the bead of _ _ )97 II •