The Express.
London, England, 1867-09-12 00:00:00

HAYIIARK ET.

Of course, any young lady who takes to the stage with a
same like that of Mrs. Scott Ridden must necessarily
make her first appearance in legitimate drama. It would be
throwing away a great theatrical name to put it in a mere
Anglo-French piece, although the great Mrs. Siddons had to
represent much theatrical trash in her time, if the play.
bills are to be relied upon. The founders of a family,
however. have generally to work harder than their more
fortunate descendants, and we can therefore feel no eau
prise that the little de4sit,rate at the Haymarket,Mrs. Scott
Ridden', has been allowed to represent two of Shak-
speare's beat female characters. Her Repelled was given
to the public last season, and last night she made her
appearance as Juliet. A few months ago on the occasion
of her benefit at this theatre, she attempted the potion
scene in Romeo and Juliet, but last night she ventured to
represent the who'e character. Her fern., as we thought
on first bearing her read at the Hanover-square Rooms,
lies rather in comedy than in juvenile tragedy. Nature
has given her a fine expressive face, strong in the upper
part and weak in the lower part, but it has
given her a very thin voice, and very little physical power.
Her elocution is better than it was, but it still has many
of those American peculiarities which are faults to an
English ear, and her manner partakes somewhat of the
character a her elocution. Her performance of Juliet is
full of effort and stage insincerity, her pathos is forced;
her soliloquies are delivered with wild gesticulation, her
balcony scene bad all the artificiality of Stella Colas, with-
out that actress's taking coquetry, and her potion scene
had the same fault as Miss Kate Terry's—a deficiency of
power. such a performance shows ambition in the right
direction, and a certain amount of training, but in spite of
many really favourable points, and much which evidently
pleased the average pit audience, we venture to think that
it has hardly reached what ought to be the level of the
Haymarket, or any other first-class London theatre. The
play was elegantly placed upon the stage, and some of the
characters were fairly acted—Mr. Conipton's Peter being
all that could be desired—but some of the performers
were evidently very ill suited with their parts, and their
parts were consequently made ridiculous. Mr. Kendal's
Romeo was gentlemanly and agreeable in manner, but far
from agreeable in elocution—his voice is very thick, as if
be had an oyster in his throat. The house was well at-
tended.

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT DUNDEE.

DUNDEE, WEDNID4 DAT.

The sectional business of the association is over,
and there now only remains the excursions to Artreath,
Montrose, and Errol Castle.
The result of the meeting is as follows. Numbers pre-
sent and amounts received :—Old life members, 167 ; new
life, 22-2201. ; old annual, 193-1!0/. ; new, 119-2381. :
aseociates, 1,163-1,1637. ; ladies, 771-7711. ; foreigners,
7; total number. 2,442-2,566/. These tgures exceed those
of the meeting at Nottingham. at which 2,303 were pre.
sent, and the receipts amounted to 2,4691.
The concluding meeting of the general committee was
held this afternoon, when committees were appointed, and
grants were made Lir carrying out tidal observations, con-
ducting investigations as to the temperature of mines, and
various other purposes. Messrs. Belcher, Oldham, and
others were requested to report upon the regulations
affecting the safety of merchant shipping. The resolutions
adopted in the section upon the subjects of atorm•signals
and the management of the British Museum were referred
for further consideration to the council, who were also to
ask government to assist in the exploration of the area
round the North Pole.

Dr. RtCHARDBON gave notice of an application which he
should make next year for a section to be devoted to
Applied Science.
Some other formal business brought the meeting to a
close.

This evening a banquet was given to the members of the
Association by the Provost and magistrates of Dundee.
Five hundred invitations were issued. and a very distin-
oompany were present.