The Express.
London, England, 1864-08-13 00:00:00

DEATH OF MR. ROBSON.

With a grief which we are aura will be shared by
' all oar readies (says the Ens), we announce the death of
Mr. F. Robson, the admirable actor who so caddie), but so
securely took a prominent position before the town a. one
of the most gifted comedians the stage had known for
very many years. Mr. Rob.on had been long suffering
from severe illness, which had compelled his withdrawal
from the Olympic boards tome time ago but his death,
which occurred on Friday morning,' soon after
midnight, was not anticipated so noon. He ham
left a son, who, having entered into his father's profession
sn.Lp.eepetuate his name on the stage. Mr. Frederick
int
wss born at Margate in the year 1821, of parent.; in
the middle station of life, still remembered in that town
with peat respect. He was apprenticed at the usual age
to a copper plate engraver in the neighbourhood of Covent-
garden, but his abalone soon tended toward. another
branch of art, and he obtained an appearance at the once
famous Amateur Theatre in Catherine-etreet, strand,

when he appeared as Simon Ilealhag in the drama of uea;;
Buntley. . To obtain practice be accepted an engagement
at the Wbitetable Theatre as "wood utility :" but as
this theatre Irma situated on the first floor of a private
house it may be readily understood his limits of action
were exceedingly circmscrilied. He went to other
equally small establishments, appeared at Uxbridge,
and then gat promoted to the metropolis, making, in Bee,
his appearance at the Grecian, where he remained five years.
The manager of the Queen's Theatre, Dublin, then offered
Mr. Robson an engagement in a ladle; positioo. This was
accepted, and commenced in 1850. With the Dublin public,
honourably celebrated for its high appreciation of talent,
the new comedian became immediately a peat favourite.
He remained in the Irish capital for three years, dividing his
time there between the two principal theatres. On Mr.
Compton 's secession from the Olympic he was engaged by
Mr. Ferree to supply that gentleman's place, and be as
appeared there at Easter, 1853, after a very few
weeks of public indifference, making his name the greet
feature of the playbill. He made his bow to the Olympics
audience (Much 28, 1853) in Catching an Heiress,
but it was not till the late Francis Talfourd's clever bur-
lesque of Macbeth came out (25th April, 1833) that he
really mid, a great impression. On she 23rd of May fol.
lowing he pee a fresh popularity to Jon Bar in The
Wondering Muted, and in the suededieg July played
Shylock in Mr. Talfourd's traeadie of The Mcrduast of
Venice. These parts established his faros as a comedies of
rare powers, and when in the October of the same year Mr.
Alfred Wigan became lessee, Mr. Robeon was retained se •
mod valuable attraction. In The Camp at the Olympic and
Plot and Passion he excited the admiration of the whole
town, and afterwards in Mr. Planchil's fairy burlesques and
in Mr. Breath's Medea, was sokoowledpd a comedian of
the highest order. When Mr. Wigan sumudered his
management of the Olympic, in 1857, Mr. Hobson became
joint lessee of that establishment with Mr. W. S.
Emden. and till the time of his death, though he had ceased
to act there, his name appeared as co-lessee on the playbills.
The sublimity of burlesque with which Mr. Robson used
to combine the utmost extravagance of fires with
the highest altitudes of tragedy will long be remembered.
He gave a living testimony in his acting to the fact
that there is only one step from the sublime to the ridi-
culous, and showed the aid proverb to be only a weak
statement of a great truth. He proved that the chord of
human nature, when at its uttermost tension. was equally
likely to give a soued of intend sublimity or wild buffoonery
mid that it only depended upon the quarter from
which the wind came that set it vibrating, whether it.
tones should be the one or the other. It wee this thorough
appreciation of the pesters and complexity of human
nature which made Mr. Robson the BM actor of the day in
his particular line ; and his lose will be greatly deplored
by both the public, who appreciated him so much, and the
theatrical profession, who esteemed him so highly.

LORD PALMERSTON AND THE LATE POLL.
TICAL DEMONSTRATION AT BRADFORD.

(From the Saturday Review.)
Lord Palmerston would perhaps have done m
slat to staying away from Bradford. The working men
ha. gad boo with insincerity and with playing false on the
retorm question. The real truth is not that Lord Palmer-
ston has either played fair or played fable—has redeemed
or forfeited his pledges. He bee only dune what be could
not help doing ; he bas only not done what he could not
do. Of coarse it is a pity that be ever made pledges, or
ever promised anything. But keen statesmen and the
Yorkshire mind interpret pledges sod promises in very dif-
ferent mem. Stupid people, who take words to hare •
meaning, and who think a bargain mews something to he
done, cannot understand the noo-natund, that in the politi-
cal, sense of pledgee and promisee. They are incapable of
retains ; they are heavy, dull, and vulgar. They only read
in the grammatical some. The mistake in Lord Pelmenton's
career is that be cannot see that hie aasumption of • double
character must fail him some day or other. It failed him
at Bradford. In his administration and in parliament he is
a consummate manager. Wily, shifty, • perfect master of
strategy, full of versatility and political craft, ha his
perhaps he is obliged to be, addicted to ambiguity—
arephibology, as they call it—and to other ia-
tellectual processes which it is easier to see than it is
pleasant to describe. Heroes his fame, hems hi
moms. But out of parliament he comes down to the
as the plain blunt Englishman, who carries his
heart on hie alseve and his policy at his watch-chain. He is
more plainspoken than prettiest; open, candid, and in-
caution, to • fault. And became be is always telling
people that he is so, a good many people have taken him at
his word. The Bradford people—that is, some of them—
bars not. They take the Palmerston of fact, not as he
describes himself, but as they read him in history. This
oompari.on of the oxtail with the ideal is an awkward one
to provoke. It would not surprise us if, for the rest of the
political season in the provisoes, the Premier were to plied
ao attack of the statesman's sore throat—dm/lonia
potiticorsai.