The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1805-03-18 00:00:00

THEATRE, The Tani Rosciss on Saturday nizht sustained at this Theatre the ardous charade:it- of Hume/rt. He h a d previously perfotasedit on Thursday, for the first time in London, for his own benefit. We did not think his Performance upon that occasion a fair ield for criticism. Upon a benefit night, the aaor has been uniformly considered as an host, and the audience have been regarded as visitors ; and the clamour of applause to which the critic often ap peals in confirmation of the truth of his decision can be fairly regarded as only the voice of private friend ship. Censure, under such circumstances, is as ranch a breach of decorum, as the condemnation of a tete by a guest would be a violation of the laws of hospitality. But if there be any case in which a departure from this rule be unjustifiable, it is the case of the Young Reecho. Was his first essay in the arduous chara/ter in the range of the drama, a cha rater hitherto considered as carried to perfe&ion by Mr. Kist ass, upon the night of a benefit, which rodaced him 12001. was that a fair opportunity for F xerc i s e of impartial criticism ? Every candid rind will answer, no. It may serve the purpose of an avowed enemy, or a false friend, to take ad- Lige of such a situation ; but the candid critic will wait for the fair opportunity of a fair trial, like that exhibited by his performance on Saturday night, and a fairer opportunity certainly never presented itself. Mire the rising of the curtain the house was cnrn plet.,ly tilled with an elegant company, and frequent di a, having taught all adventurers the folly of seeking admission after a certain hour, the play commenced under the most happy circum ,talices which an affor could desire; a theatre filled with an audience full of expeElation ; but whose impatience, restrained by delicacy and good sense, never suffered itself to be betrayed into noise or vio lence detrimental' to the performer. Some of the plaintive tones of the ruing Re(rius have been the most admired in the compass of his voice, and the most successful in winning their way to the heart of the audience. The words, therefore, " A little more than kin, and lino than kind," were peculiarly calculated to make a favourable im pression, which was well followed up by the answer immediately following to the QUM", beginning with " Seems, Madam ! nay, it is, I know not seems. ."Tis not alone my inky coat, goad Mother." with So far the fondest parent could have anticipated no. thing more flattering : the most squeamish critic could have room for nothing but applause. Next follows the famous soliloquy, ! that this too, two solid Aesta would melt." Of all the parts that constitute the charaeer of :Orniet, his soliloques are the most universally ad mired. The deep and philosophic turn of the sen timent, its natural and unaffeard piety, the devout and holy spirit that it breathes, and the figurative language in which it is expressed. rank among the mast sublime efforts of the genius of Shakespeare. lint the soliloquies are not only the most ornamental pairs of Heald. ft is in them his character is best unfolded. They present the intellectual eye turned upon itself, exploring all the avenues and recesses of theteart, and a mind filled with stncly snd /e -heftier,. Divested of the soliloquies, the philoso pher and the scholar is only a pious son, filled with 3 pit sense of a mother's shame, and an ardent zeal to avenge a father's murder. l*he merit of the performance must, therefore, be estimated by reference to the soliloquies ; and here the fauns Rotas: fell considerably short of his usual excel knee. In his v livery of this first soliloquy, his manner was rapid to an excess inconsistent with that solemn dignity of deportment which it de mands. Some passages of it, indeed, betrayed a total want of discrimination; and the words, " Why she would hang on Wen As if increase of appetite had grown " By what it fed on," were given with the air and emphasis of one uncon scious of their meaning. This observation applies, with the same force, to his delivery in all the ether soliloquies. They were also liable to another strong objection, which, at his early yeas-s, we may fairly consider mire the fault of his instruetor than his own. Of all the business of the stage, soliloquy has the least to do with thion. In it the mind's eye is turned upon itself; the ahor holds converse with his own heart. He has no audience nor com panion hut such as accompany him in the so• litude of his chamber. iiandd, particularly, has nothing to which to address himself', but his con science and his God. Ins , ead, however, of the out ward appearance of deep thought, the sober so lemnity of meditation in which soliloquy is con ceived, there was no part of the charaBer in which the rating Ra;ciaa displayed so much anion. His riminciation was rapid and violent ; and his gesti culation freqnently more than kept pace with his words This is no hypercriticism. Every sound judge of theatrical elhibitians must acknowledge the rule which we have laid down t ' be correB. The subsequent part of the same scrim, though in , terspersed with beauties, occasionally left something io be wished for. The passage— " He at 4, a min, silo him on all M sit, 111. l el shall not look upon hi; like agam„" II although capable of producing great eget% was 4 given in a light and stiperfict#l manner. His inter rJer , 4 rogatories reveling his father's ghost, were also put to Hepatic, with a flippancy inconsistent with ).. the magnitude of ttte subjea s and the supposed AL workings of his mi n d, at t h e time. When we want ) A . , tO he informed upon a subjeli of importance, and , hie party is known to be capable of giving the ne cessary information, these the que s tio n s may follow ~ to a rapid course; but that is not flaidet's case. lie doubts the truth of the report of his father's spirit t: 4 in arms I and, during the whole cnarersotion, he is f , weighin g t h e ev id ence, an d exercising his judgment upon the answers. Ise the scene with the Ghost, Upon the platform, which follows immediately after, the Taring Roviug ha: been praised for a novelty Whit It he has introduced by dropping upon his knee as fie pronounces the words t " 11l en], thee Hamlet, " king, Galitr, wild Mar." Keeling is, no doubt, an appropriate imploring aiti:lnle ; but we question whether it be the best for • - • ing the terror which he confesses so horribly ' ..• is disposition. The trembling limb is so es t . ....sr,: as the tremulous tone to express the fears and apprehensions which the first view of the Gh•ass inspires. The conclusion of the scene was, however, well manages' ; and when he breaks from Marcella and Horatio, to follow the Ghost, he gave the words— " My fate cries nut, " And makes each 'rimy art,ry i 1 thi. body " As hardy a, the Nemesia lion'. nerve ;" force and animation. The eon- eluding part of the aa, where he enjoins Alarcettuo and Horatio to silence, respening the interview with the (shoat, was also given in his usual style of ex cellence, particularly the two lines— " kv well—.we know ; or we could and if we would— .' 1.1 , , if we list to speak or there he and if there might " Having already noticed the prevailing defeEls of his soliloquies, it may be sufficient to say, that the celebrated one in the scl AEI, beginning with— " To be, or not to I; produced little or no effeet. Every word of it bears marks of the most profound thought and meditation; yet the Young Ramat gave it with a rapid and de clamatory tone, more becoming a scene of passion, than contemplation. The subsequent conversation with Opheha, which of all others exhibits Hamlet to the least advantage, and requires great address to manage, also displayedno extraordinary talent. The scene with the Players w.is, however, well con ceived, and given in excellent style. He drew down a thunder of applause in that part of it, where he expresses his contempt for theatrical rant, in the following words: O there be playera that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak 0 propliartely, that noi• ther having the aft= of Chri.sian, nor the gait of Christie., Pagan,ur Irian, have .0 strutted and bellows ,that I have thought some of Nature's journeymen had made oleo, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably." In the closet scene he stone with all the excellence that distinguishes his most admired chat ssters. Here he has a subjed suited to his years. A sense of a mother's shame and a father's wrongs may well live in the breast of a youth of 14. He was finely impassioned, full of energy and feeling. Had he shewn more exultation when he fancies he has killed the King, and more regret when he dis covers his mistake, and finds he has slain Polonisis, the scene would have been admirable. The scene of the mock play was well supported ; but the last was, perhaps, the hest of his whole per formance He fenced with extraordinary grace, and rendered every part of it deeply interesting and affeding. Our limits will not allow us to detail the beauties and imperfetions of the Hamlet of the Feting Rosenis more minutely. So far as we have observed upon it, we have been influenced by the sincerest regard for the fortune and fame of a youth who, if his genius be rightly direilled, appears to have been born to give a charader to the age in which he lives. We have been induced to indulge in this freedom of remarl by an apprehension that there are those who, availing themselves of the popular tide in his favour, would abuse that elf love which so much public praise cannot fail to cherish. It would net be very easy to discover an ade quate motive for the condud of some of our con temperaries, who were outrageous in their abuse of his Arkinet, Nerrat, and Frederick s ail admirable awl uniformly excellent performances, and now oc tal to the skies his Octavian, his Romeo, And his Hamlet, in which every candid critic must admit he is very unequal, if we Jid not know that the great est injury that can be done to a man is to lead him astray. So great is the idolatry of these new convects to the genius of the YON": ROlCifits we are a sured by One Of them, that SH A IMP LA RE Was wrong in making his Bauder thirty years of age; and tlat there is nothing in the charter but what well hi comes the opening bloom of youth." Upon the perfot mance generally, we have little to observe. It mar rut, however, be amiss to state, that part of the last scene is managed in a way entirely new. The Kina is not killed in his chair by 11 miltt. He comes forw.ud upon the stage, straws his sword in his de fence, and falls in conflict with the Prince. The Piece is got up in a very splendid style, and the parts of Opkelia, the Queen, and the King, were very well supported by Mrs. 11. JOHNSON and Mr. and Mrs. Powet t.. One or two little errors occurred in the grave scene, which will, perhaps, be avoided upon a fume representation. Mr. Suerr, the principal Geese Digger, ought not to have put himself at the head of the Funeral Proces sion, and when the curtain falls it ought to hide the Grave from the audience. " It is an undoubted and Tell known faet,"says the writer of a private letter, " that Bus; AP AiTt offered to surrender all the Irish Emigrants to the English Government, provided they would ad a similar part by the Bova nos family and the French Emigrants in England ; but that the offer was of coure rejeded." A Court of Aldermen will be held at Guildhall to-morrow for the dispatch of public business, and OP Thursday the Loan MAYOR will bold a Court of Common Council, to consider a motion to rescind the Resolution :agreed to at the last Court, viz. " I hat the article of Salt forms an essent;al imgre dient in the food of man; that any addition so the present duty would be grievous and oppresive to the middle and poorer classes of the people, and would greatly aggravate the evils now arising t-om the excessively high price of many of the most neces sary articles of life ;" and on other business. The York Assizes commenced on Saturday sennight. The following capital convicrtions took place in the course of the week :—Grerge ES mend Hoses. and William Wilson, for robbing NI AMY Lonna am upon the highway; Benjamin (Edroyd, for the murder of JOSEPH OLOROYD AIR Ileq' Wald. for the murder of her female bastard child ; Samuel Collier, fur wilfully setting fire to a cotton &dot y at Dub Cross.---Of these B. Oldroyd and Ann Haywood were ordered to be executed this day. Saturday an Inquisition was taken at the Com passes, Rotherhithe, on the body of Miss W. Tort, who met her death by jumping from s one horsechai se, on Thursday evening. The deceased was the (laugh ter of a merchant who resides at Camden Town, and on the evening stated she was returning from Green wich with her father. The horse became restive in the Lower Deptford Road, and Mr. T. alighted to ease the bit, when the animal started off at full spied. The young lady dropped the reins, and made a leap, when her clothes became entangled in t'e wh which passed i.ver her neck, and which caused almost instantaneous death.—Verdilik, AcC4- denial Death. L 4W INTELLIGENCE. COURT OF CHANCERY, Scroll oar, MARCH 16. NUTRROWNS v, THORNTON. This cause between Colonel Thornton, and his tenant, William Nutbrowne, was again Agii iteJ before the Lotto CHANCELLOR. From the affida vit tiled by the Colonel, it appeared, that being in possession of a farm, called Falconer's Hall, inYork shire, he lett the same to the Plaintiff, under certain covenants and stipulations; but the hitter, instead of disoosing of the crops, and accounting with the De fendant for the proceeds thereof, according to their agreement, brou:Oit the corn to market, sold it, and converted the produce to his own use ; he also suffered the land to lay waste and run to ruin, in stead of managing the farm with skill, and accord • ing to the practice of good husbandry. Under these circumstances Colonel Thornton took posses sion of the estate, by virtue of a bill of sale, and turned the Pl s . 'flout; but the latter, upon the au thority of the covenams contained in his lease, filed a bill in the Court of Chancery, to reorain the Co lonel from preceeding to a sale of the stock, corn, &c. to obtain the re-possession of tic farm, and to prevent the Colonel from proceeding at law against him for the rent, proceeds, &c. In the month of August last the Cit ANCELLO a or dered, th it an account might be taken before the master, and that the Plaintiff should have the re possession, provided he did not remove any part of the stock, cattle, &c. except the lambs and wool, which he was to dispose of And account fm the pro ceeds thereof; and further, provided he employed all the implements of husbandry upon the estate, in making good the dilapidations, &c. and did every thing in a husbandlike manner, beneficial to himself and his landlord, pending the decision of the Court, which was to take place when it should be ascertained by the master, whether the Plaintiff WAS indebted to Colonel Thornton in the snm of 2651. at the time the latter dispossessed him of the farm in question. Since the time that order was made, the rent, which accrued due to Colonel Thornton, amounted to near 10501. the stock and implements of husbandry disposed of by the Plain tiff ; the farm ran to waste, and nothing done to as certain the fact before the master: Colonel Thorn ton therefore now applied to have his grievance re considered, and an order made to compel the Plain tiff to bring the proceeds of the farm into Court, to oblige him to pay the rent due, and to dissolve the injunction which restrained the Defendant from availing himself of his legal remedy against the Plaintiff. Mr. FONBILANQUI and Sir THOMAS TURTON sup ported the application, contending that the affida vits on the part of the Plaintiff did not affect the object of the motion ; they did nut deny that the wool and lambs had been disposed of, and the mo ney received but not accounted for. Mr. RoMILLY, on the part of the Plaintiff, op posed the application on the grounds, that from the affidavits of some respectable farmers AS well as the Plaintiff himself, it appeared that there was a Suf• ficient stock on the estate for the necessary pur poses, and that the Plaintiff was cultivating it in a husbandlike manner; with respect to the rent claim ed to be dee to Colonel Thornton, it was to be rev membered that gentleman took possession of the farm early in the month of February 1804, and kept it until the October following. tier which period he now called upon the Plaintiff to pay rent. The Plaintiff, lie contended, had done nothing contrary to the covenants in his lease, and was then, as he had always been, ready to refer all matters in difference to the decision of two disinterested persons. The ob ject of Colonel Thornton was to make his tenant answerable for mismanagement, of which he him self was the sole cause, and either, through resent ment or misinformation, was proceeding, not only to injure himself, hut to ruin his tenant. After a short reply by Mr. Fonexasceet, Co lonel Thornton rose and addressed the Court in a strain of humour, though, upon a matter of such se rious consequence to himself, irresistibly laughable. He apologised for his ignorance of the forms of the Court, but thought it necessary to say something himself, in which he assured his Lordship he should be as laconic as possible. He described the ser vices he had rendered the Plaintiff, from his first in trodudion, when they used to sport together, to the time of his letting the estate of Falconer's Hall to him, when he not only placed him in a farm of 800 acres, worth 10001. a-year, but lent him a sum of money to enable him to carry it on. which he gave him at the rate of 51. per cent. when be paid :101. percent. himself fork at the bankers. Yet he said, he was described as having ailed oppressively: it was singular kind of oppression, to place a man in a farm, lend him money to carry it on, and not de m ind any rent of him for a seriesof time. The reasons w oy l i e could not swear to a particular sum due by the Plaiioirf to him, as mentioned on a former oc oision, he now explained : he had a cause pending, in consequence of which he every day expelled to receive 15,0001. but from want of form, or something or another he did not understand, he had not re ceived a shilling of it to the present hour ; he was to have allowed the Piaintiff 20u1. per :annum for ma naging his concerns, and when he came to swear, he forgot that he had lent him 5001. not because he was naturally forgetful, but the circumstance al ready stated, joined to a multiplicity of other mis fortunes, al. ove it entirely ont of his head. He then went into a detail of the dilapidations, and obset ved, that his set ovas had conspired against him, stu;e his sheep, robued him of his corn, &c. and he had at that time a cause depending at the York assizes for those offences which were conneEled with the estate in question, and which he supposed he ntight boas, because he was not present himself, yet he could not be in two places at once ; if at York he must lose his cause here, which would be of the greater consequence of the two. He then gave a most elaborate description of the farm itself, the dwelling house of which was perched on the top of a hill, for the purposes of hawking and hunting : when he went down to look at it, instead of finding fields of waving cern, turnip and grasslands, as greets as emeralds, the first were covered with thistles, and the latter overrun by the swinish multitude. That which before afforded him a chearful and consoling pr.fspeit, now filled him with regret: thou this les were a most luxuriant crop, and is that part of the country the w.nd frequently blew sharp from aferent directions, sometimes a western brew. , • blew hard, at other times an eastern :tett-Med the compliment, then• Worth, then south, and so pn ; so that every blast set forth a cloud of th , ttic fr dad, threateaing destralion to 50,000 acres of lam:, which lay contiguous, and all of which was lost by order of the Court of Chancery ; nothing was to be seen but a wilderness of thistles through the whole country ; and so formida'sle was the cloud of down which constantly floated in the air, that the gallant Major Topham, though mounted on his war horse, did not dare to face it. He should have endeavoured to root out the thistles, hot he Was told the order of the Court of Chancery prevented him ; and, re-col leting the well-known motto, Armee me :mprite cessd ; he was unwilling to try the experiment. Whit added still more to nis distress was, that he had agreed v.•ith the Plaintiff that he, the Plaintiff, was to pay the tythes, and seeing how matters wet e, he desired the clergyman, Cle Reverend Mr. Sykes, to take as much as he could get, who promised he would ; and declared, at the same time, he would arrest the Plaintiff for the remainder after Christ mas ; bin, like a bad sportsman, who aims at a pa-- tride and kills his dog, the parson, instead of so.k ing redress from the Plaintiff, often, wrested him. though his hands were tied behind him by tt'e Court. To seek redress from the tenant was a •t -les:--he was nut worth a shilling, and as there was no wool on his back, and some on his own, he supposed that was the reason he was thus persecuted. As to the farm itself, at that in stant it was worth nothing at all, the buildings were all its decay, the paling and railing broken down, the turnips not we,ded, and no seeds sown for the en ening season. IVith respeft to the stock of cattle. there was but one brood mare of his own on all the lands, and even that was seized by the Court of Chancery ; with respen to the Plaintiff's Attorney, he knew little about him ; but he asserted, that the affidavits, on the part of the Plaintiff, were made for the purpose of imposing upon the Court, and if the matter went to swearing, he would give up the point direaly. They had sworn that Thormovills Roes! was no better than a rabbit warren ; a curious rabbit warren, worth 10,0001. a year, Here the Caaucet Loa observed that it was the prettiest rabbit warren lie had ever seen. The Colonel continued ; he admitted keeping hawks and hounds certainly ran away with a great deal of money, but that was no reason his tenant should run away with all his money ; but as Pro vidence had hitherto assisted him in all his troubles, he would not despair on the present occasion. He therefore trusted his Lordship would interfere, and redress his grievances. lf, however, that was not to be done, he should not only set off himself, but would also advise all the landlords in the country to do the same, and leave their farms In the Court of Chancery. The Lorna CH A ':C EL Los, having recapitulated the whole of the proceedings had in that Court upon the former application, observed, that the whole cause of this misery arose not from the order of the Court of Chancery, as represented by Colonel Thornton, but from one simple question being undecided, and that was, whether a certain sem of money was to be placed to the credit or debit of Col. 'Thornton', ac count? and this might have been entertained dur ing the long vacation, by merely gun her the ma stet. `rafechhip, its tasuctozioes, utamarved i it might sometimes be imagined he took too much time for the coniideration of questions which came before him ; but be trusted it would be the comfort ofhis declining years, when he 'tumid re fled he had not decided any thing without mature deliberation : he then said he would look atteatively into the feels contained in the affidavits on both sides, and would, to the best of his poser, mere out the toll measure of justice to all parties. Mrs. Thornton, who rode the famous match against Mr. flint, accompanied the Defenaant in Court. HOME CIRCUIT. CHILMIfORD. htaRCH 15. nacos v. wirettio and others. This was an altion of assault, tried before a Spe• cial Jury. Mr. GARROW stated, that the Defendant, Mr. Wrenn, was a Gentleman of fortune. near South- End, in this county; a Mr. Asplin, a Do.ftor of Physic., a Magistrate, and a Commander of a Vo lunteer Corps ; a Mr. Marshall *Purner, a respes . able farmer, for such his instructions called him ; a Mr. Sumner, a Mr. Kennet, and Mr. Geo. Asplin ; one of these was also a Clergyman and a Magistrate. and the Plaintiff an inn keeper, at Ragleigh. The Defendants had ordered a dinner at the house of the Plaintiff, on the ld of November last. The dinner was ordered fur twelve or fourteen. but only seven persons came to it. They continued drink - ii; until ten at night, when the bill was . hied tor. 131 gentlemen, conceiving it exorbitam. Insisted tf::: he should take off a guinea ; and, on his sioti compliance, and morning to the room, s-rne of them getting to the door to prevent use Plaintiff's retreat ; others violently seized him, most inhumanly dragged him about the Hoots and beat him until his cries brought the surrounding neigh hours to his assistance. Some of them escaped, and immediately assembled a part of toe corps, which was then on permanent duty in the neighbourhood, and they came in military array, and forced their Commander from the custody of the civil p.,wer. ['his statement was confirmed by the testimony of Mr. Harridge, a member of the corps. Mr. Justice Itooan intimated his opinion, that 4. it was admitted the Defendants were all gentle:n:3 of respectability, and the Corps stood also high :a public estimation, it would be better not to &o mto a further exposure of this unfortunate affair, Nut that it should be left to any gentleman of the Joy to say, what recompence the Plaintiff should re. ceive. The Counsel on both sides acceding, it was re quested that one of the Jury would take the ,efer ence, but they all declined to take it singly; at last W. Conyers, Mr. Boaanquet, and Mr. Smith, agreed to be the referees, and it was accordingly referred to them. We heard afterwards, from e+•^d authority, that they had awarded the Plaintiff ;lo guineas. - • A female swindler has lately appeareJ at B She wears a green habit, and represents h ttre Lady of a Baruret. is tanueat her hasisand is the gran Knight. 1 , 6z1 A /dies lip fev Ave,