The National Register. — London, England, 1818-05-18 00:00:00

MAY 111 TILE DRAMA. DRURY LANE. Tuesday night the Comedy of The Dramatist was performed, in which Mr. Etliston sustained the charac ter of Vapid. The public are sufficiently acquainted with the talents of tits lively and popular actor, to know how well his vivacity is adapted to the part. He was indeed admirable throughout. The devotion of a poet to hisliwourite pursuit, that abstraction of mind, which, whether properly or not, we arc in the habit of attributing to the worshiper of the Muses, were ex hibited with true comic energy. We would notice particularly his agitation upou endeavouring to finish the last line of his epilogue. The anxiety expressed in his countenance at every attempt, drew down bursts of' applause and laughter; and the ludicrous despair with which he submitted to be shut up in the china closet, bcfhre he had completed his important couplet, was well contrasted by the extravagautariuteph with which he smashed the china in the moment of happy tion. He delivered the original epilogue with great spirit, awl may be said upon .the whole to have acquitt;ll himself in a manner corresponding with his high re putation. Mr. Penley's Florit.ille possessed a good deal a merit, particularly in the duel st.ene. 1 ady Waitford was well represented by Mrs. .parks. Mrs. Robinson as Louisa Courtney, and Mrs. Urger, as Mariam, acquitted themselves very creditably. The performance suffered a short interruption from an accident, of a trifling nature, as it turned out, but which for a moment caused very serious alarm. Soon after the comntentement of the second act, some Gentlemen, who sat in a box near the stage on the Prince's side, observed that there was much bustle behind the scenes opposite to them, and that wen were carrying water up a ladder. The audience in some other parts of the house learned, from the apparent anxiety of these Gentlemen, that something of more moment was passing than the action on the stage ; and the anxiety was becoming general, when pieces of blaz ing linen fell down near the King's box. " Fire— Fire !" was immediately shouted in the. pit, and the whole audience-rose. Elliston,•who was on the stage at the time, came forward and said•something, but was not beard. lie, however, remained on the stage, and by so doing tranquillized part of the audience. At length, he assured the house, that there never had been any danger ; and that the effects of the accident, which had .produced .so much alarm, were Already over. In the •Inean time, the pit had .been nearly half emptied, and •many persons had left: the boxes. The greater part of these returned, and the play went on, with many signs of approbation of Elliston!s conduct. We understand, .that one of the wines. had caught fire from the lights which stand between them near the stage. The West Indian was represented here on Friday in very efficient style. Easton was the Bekoar. His merits in this part are now too well known and gene sally. appreciated to require any tribute of praise front us. It is sufficient to say that they remain unimpairen.• If there was any fault, it was an occasional monotony and sentiousncss of manner, peculiarly unsuited to the animated character and ardent • soul of Belcour. The Ufa or O'Flaherty of :Johnstone, the Captain Dudley of Walled:, anti the Lad,, 'inspire of Mrs. Sparks, are excellent. Miss Boyce, in Louisa Dudley, displayed much good sense and true feeling. But the star of the • evening,was Mts. Davison. She leaves all her com petitors in genteel comedy at an immeasurable distance. The audience manifested their approbation and delight by repeated plaudits. The House was well filled. • COBOURG THEATRE. This house was opened on Monday to the Public, Tor the season. A very few minutes after the doors were thrown open, it was crowded, almost to suffocation, in every part—And the audience, by repeated cheers, ex pressed their most unqualified approbation of the struc '-ture. Before the commencement of the entertainments, the whole of the performers stool forward and sang— " God save the King," which was enthusiastically ap plauded.. Mr. Munro then spoke an opening address, which was well received. While the audience were waiting-for the performance of the melo-dramatie.spec tacle, with which, Pii was announced in the bills, the entertainments were to commence, Mr. Norman., the Stage Manager, appeared, and annplained that he had been ill-treated by Mr. Glossop, the Proprietor of the Theatre. ilis.ground of complaint was, that having. to perform in the Pantomime aeCtivent-garden that night, he had requested .Mr. Glossop to bring forward his Pantomime as the first instead of the last piece, by which means he would be able to do hie duty at the two Theatres. This Mr. Glossep, who .wished Mr. Usher to take the part of the Clown in his absence, had refused—and had absolutely locked up his Clown's dress.. This appeal created a dreadful uproar. Mr. Munro r and Mr. W. Barrymore, sought in vain to address the au dience. Nu sooner did either of them commence his address, than Mr. 'Norman came forward, and all was chaos. The two unotiending individuals, who were sent forward to explain, were pelted with urange-peels, apples, and various other missiles, usually resorted to in eleatrical warfare. At length the cry tor Mr. Glos . sop w:l6 vociferated with so inuckviolcuee, that, to quell TILE NATIONAL REGISTER. the storm, it was found necessary to eancede the point to Mr. Norman ; and the audience were informed that the Pantomime would be performed first ; peace was by, this means restored, and the entcstainments were re ceived in the best possible manner. We think it highly indecorous in any performer nt •tempting to do duty at two Theatres on one and the same night. He must come fatigued and exhausted (if he can come at all) to his second engagement. And it is by nu means just to the Public, on the part of the. Managers, to admit of mien doubliugs. It must neces sarily lower the entertainment. The grand Theatre of Petersburgh, which was de stroyed by fire in 1811, has been rebuilt by a French architect in the service of the Emperor Alexander. It was opened in February, and made a most brilliant appearance. His Majesty was present at its opening, and testified his entire satisfaction at the appearance of, the new saloon, which is not inferior to any in Europe, either in the beauty of its structure, or its decorations. The Imperial Box is platted betbre the curtain, and oc cupies the space of three boxes; it is oruatuented in a superior style, and (litters entirely from that of any other European Theatre. The Pit is furnished with about 360 arin-chairs, which are numbered according to the Russian custom. It is computed, that at the time of a masked ball, 12,000 persons may be present,, and pass freely through the different parts of the build ing. It is nevertheless intended to build another saloon on a larger scale near the palace of Anistclikoff. A letter from Dr. Joint Sibley, dated at Natchitoches, Jan. 30, to Dr. John 11. Robinson, of Natches, says— " Some traders lately arrived here from the Hietan In dians, andsay, that about three months ago, a party of these Indians, with their great Chief, Chewawa, fell in with some Spaniards net Ea &um St. Antonio : they' fought, and Chewawa was killed. 14 hen these traders left the nation (less than a month ego), 4000 warriors were assembledao go against St. Antonio, and said they would revange the death of their Chief, or all perish i that they would not leave a soul alive, or a house stand ing at St. Antonio, or on this side the river Grande ; that: the country, which was once a prairie, should again be a prairie." On the 10th ult. at five in the afternoon, a dreadful storm burst in the town of Arnedo, .in the province of the Riosta, in Spain. Trees of an enormous size were torn up by the .roots. The labourers-in husbandry, who were in the fields, were obliged to prostrate them selves, to prevent their being carried away by the tem pest. Oxen in the team were bodily driven from 20 to SO paces out of their course, and immense damage was done to every description of crop. The ratification of the treaty of marriage of the Duke of Kent has arrived in London. M. B. Taylor, our Minister at Wurtemberm, conducted the negociations for his Royal Highness, which occupied him some time, hel having to attend the contracting parties at Munich, I Baden, Frankfurt, &c. His Royal Highness was ex- pected to leaveiondon on Wednesday or Thursday last, to proceed on his way to Germany, for the solemniza tion of his marriage. lima:ay.—By a proclamation of the Lord Lieu tenant and Council, dated April 18,1818, it is declared I that the Baronies of Coolestown and Philipstown, in the King's County, are restored to peace and good order ; and consequently the proclamation of 25th March, 1817, declaring those Baronies to he in a state of disturbance, requiring an extraordinary establish ment of Police, is revoked. The Veto York Evening Post of the 11th of April contains a list of " insolvents advertising for the benefit of the Act in this State." It occupies two columns, each name and description occupying one lime, and contains nearly 400 names of bankrupts in ace State, that of New York, advertising their insolvency at one time! lied such a list appeared in London 'we should! have been told we were,all ruined ; but America is the land of " public felicity." Every thing there is re garded with admiring eyes, while England is viewed with the eyes of the Editor of the last Edinburgh Re view, .who has magnified one eleventh of the popula tion receiving parish relief into upwards of nine ten t us I It is a cireinwtance worthy of notice, that though wheat has been f.slliug fur same weeks past, flour ex perienced no alteration till last week. This is one of the effects of the abolition of the Assize: SAOACITY OT • GIti:THOOND AVD POINTETe+We haTe had a great many remarks of late on the sagaiity and ingenuity of dogs ; but perhaps the cwt recorded in the following anecdote, the truth of which may be relied upon. has not been surpassed by any thing that bas yet appeared, A gentleman in the county of Stirling kept a greyhound and a pointer, and, being, fond of coursing, the pointer was arcustonwdso Mid the bares. an I - the greyhoibnil to catch them. %%ien the season was over, it was thund that the dogs were in the habit of going nut byittittrise:ves, and killing the hares for their own amusement. To prevent this, a Large iron ring was fastened to the isnnter's neck, by a leather collar, and hung down, so as to prevent the d... trim running or iimming over dykes. tee. 'rho &rituals, however. continued to stroll out to the Loads together; and one day the gentleman, suspecting all was not right, resolved to watch them. and. to his surprise, fi r mid that the inemsit they thought they wens intisci yeti. die greyhound took up the iron ring in his mouth, and. carrying it, they set off' to the hills, and began to search for hares as tumid. They were followed ; ens[-it was observed that, whenever the tolister scented the hare, the ring was dropped, and the greyhound stood ready to pounce upon poor puss, the moment the other drove her from her torm, but that he uniformly returned to assist his COOS patios sky be had a‘compbsticil obj u ct....Edlswei Magmas. DEMERARA, MAncli )9. 157 EXTRACT OP A LETTER. " A shocking circumstance occurred, inland, on the east coast of this colony a few days ago, the portico lars of which, as fir as they have transpired, are these :—" Several of Mr. Van Baires negroes having absconded from his estates. the Bee-hive and the Bash, Mr. A'orre, brother-in-law to Mr. Van Baires, and an eii;ineer working on the estate, volunteered their ser vices to go back well armed, with thirteen of the trustiest of the estates' liegroes, to endeavour to sec ore some of the ron-aways. They travelled a short wry together into the woods, when they met a party, with whom they had a brush, and took nine prisoners. They despatched seven of their own negroes to carry these nine home to Beehive, and with the remainder of their party, which only consisted now of sir, they determined (though very imprudently) to penetrate deeper into the tbreet ; and, a short time afterwards, they fell in wi(h a few more, among whom were some of Mr. Van Baires' own people. With these the whites remonstrated, and advised them to return home, and they would be pardoned. In this they appeared to ac quiesce, and were beginning to shape their course home ward, when one of the runaways suddenly stopped, anal said to Mr. Torre, Massa, come es a way, go and me sallahow you plenty such negro here.' They agreed to go. This man led the way, and in a short time eunduct ed them to the very centre of a camp, composed, it is said, of upwards of 80 negroes. Their unlucky tine was soon decided. Mr. Torre seeing a black man dressed in a red coat and epaulets, immediately aimed and fired at him ; but this rascal suddenly stooped, and the shot passed him, but killed another who stood by him.— Torre was wounded immediately by a-shot from one of the ramp negroes, when, to complete his destructioa, the man in red ran up, and, with one stroke of a cut lass, nearly severed his head from his body. The engi neer seeing the fate of his companion, endeavoured to effect an escape, but did ransomed, for he was brought back instantly and murdered piece-meal. He was quartered and otherwise shamefully mutilated. Report says, that a large fire was then made, and the butchery closed with a song, and dance round the murdered re mains of these two unfortunate young men. An expe dition of the East Coast Militia is preparing to proceed into the bush, and sanguine hopes are entertained of success, when something decisive will ao doubt be I Anne. " LITRACT OF A LETTER TO SPENCER MACKAY, ISQ, DATER DEMERAOA • 9OTH MARCH. " From 50 to 100 negroes have absented themselves for some time in the back lands, near Mahaica, but particularly from, the estates of Beehive and Green field, alleging for cause, that the manager had ex... pected too much labour. The Greenfield negroes hav ing returned on condition that the manager should be be discharged, and other ne g ro drivers appointed, and which was complied with, the remaining negoes were occupied during the nights in conveying into the woods plantains and a good many cattle. " Young Van Bruele, and another young man on the estate, .had reepeatedly attempted to bring home the runaway negroes, and partly succeeded ; but, finally, these young men were decoyed by a party of the cs. states negroes (who had absented themselves) to make a last attempt, and in this attempt they were murdered in the most savage manner, their bodies being muti lated, and their heads and limbs carried in triumph round their camp. This affair took place four days ago, (the 16th of March). Every exertion is now making to send a formidable party of whites and Indians to en deavour to destroy them." EXTRACT OF AINOTIIIIIA LITTER, OATS!) APRIL 2. " Since the murder of the two whites on the 16th o March, another murder has taken place of two whites' in one of the colony floats, by the negro sailors. The heads of the two firmer men murdered were stuck upon poles, aud,placed at the back dams of the estate they belonged to es a defiance, ".On du 31st of March no measures had been adopt ed, or expedition sent out, to arrest the proceedings tf tilt. busli-negroes or runaways. We have so few troops here, that the militia •is ollli , red to ix , constantly on guard. We have no security tiLatever fin. o;ir property ; it wonla•require about 1,(00 own ta: i,, , :rn) eotection to. these colonies. I much fear the charm whielt,7leld the negroes in subjeeinn ..: comp%•.•tt ly 'woks: o 'wonder.— The negroes will no longer th.ubt thew own superiu. rity." .. Friday a bny 4)f eleven years of age hanged himself at his father's house in Compton-street, Clerlenwell. The low's hither is u calico glacier, and works tin.. NI r. Marriott. On going to his work in the morning he usually set the boy a *ask, threatening to chastise him if he did not pertiqui it; and on his Doming home to dinner on Friday afternoon, ho found the deceased suspended from the frame at which he worked, quite dead ; it is supposed that fear drove him to commit tb.• rash act, he not having his work done.