to oppose integrity to be well supported he had only to give his loyal to the treaty to be well supported other would have followed him and a good custom once founded would have turned the balanced scale the right way for ever mr then came forward between two great nations with a letter or and it was addressed to the french authors which promised well for we english have a sense of shame often where we have no other virtue and seldom invite the approval of those we mean to it is a tract sensible here and there downright funny everywhere and in paragraph he is a and offers the french au his hand preparatory to a combat with them the eighth in paragraph he for his french style competition with the french academy but promises to be intelligible in paragraph forgetting he is a prize courteous but hostile he is a a penitent who has long sucked the eggs of and i am here to offer you my on your having at last asserted your rights in the british ere he gets to the end of this paragraph the penitent late is an old fox and a wish to his ways a the character of their correspondent being thus settled as clearly as three of equal authority can settle it mr goes to work and shows the french authors � st that england is a place not worth their attention as a source of income that there are twenty three theatres in london alone but that out of these only three play french pieces his way of proving this not by a list of their pieces but by a reasoning founded on comic sketches of the of piece that is popular at those respective theatres is unique in as well as reasoning it is thomas the broad fact that the english theatre owes little to the french being thus driven he it by particulars in says he the london theatres took but eight pieces out of two hundred and sixty three produced in paris these eight he this startling fact he feels demands a solution he an obliging one � the general and folly of french pieces we used to steal them in days gone by and would steal them now says he but they are no longer worth stealing they history so besides they offend and on this our turns and the french authors on moral grounds for not making their plays a this last statement making allowance for i have found better borne out by le l evidence than any other fact advanced in this not the or for in his for propriety he says one or two things that are none too fit for little girls the eighth less more moral more fit for a use off at a on another line and points out the innumerable and difficulties that must prevent an english manager from buying a french piece of its author he without saying why that the french would not in return for the english s money give him a right to his piece to english but would insist on its being literally translated � and damned in other words he as self evident that his in intelligence must be fools a common he then points out the of the treaty the manager who should a piece would get nothing for his money but a and what manager would buy on such terms when he can steal on the same he then is suddenly seized with a regard for the reputation of his cows and them with visible anxiety against who has been so as to sell le de to an english writer who the is mr has been unable to discover and therefore since he knows nothing about him can tell the french authors all about him it is rich who is going to buy up all the french pieces and them at a profit in such hands he tells them they might make money but would lose reputation now don t set your hearts upon mere money establish a make acquaintance with our best authors singularly enough that phrase always means in this mr mr mr mr mr and mrs and mr our best theatres and actors and think a little of your reputation before you think too much of o by this course he hints they will attain immediate glory and profit at some period remote when he is dead eh la and now considering that this composition is addressed to the french authors by an influential englishman in a strain which however impertinent coming as it does from a mere creature of their talent is not the reader begins to be impatient to know what is that precise thing which mr a it is not love of money that this sort of advice oh dear no g the eighth as manager of a theatre will do for his friends and over the water in return for all they have done for him in years past and all he now to them to forego in favour of him and his the best authors unknown it is a man of business who writes and having told his what he won t do and what he wishes them not to do it is now for him to say what he do in return this reasonable expectation he meets as ck pe welcomed the � gentlemen i have the honour of wishing you a very good morning charles j and exit on the light fantastic toe opinions of the press the era july in general and the conclusions promises a detailed next week and forgets all about it very in our home news fur sunday times it warmly but points out the about the eight pieces and the slippery use made of that in the argument times in a side article of two columns between two opinions and does a bit of says 