The Express.
London, England, 1856-09-12 00:00:00

t easel' bar diggers will jam, at the chamos. L. ell the
geld they ff." Nomf•wi {whom to friend Thatcher
mod to mop. t. b,g to omnibuses. Oor Meade
t• the ether side most be poking he at U; why they hem
sot roved as nisch poid u the whole couatry as the meet
unlucky of Benilionaita diggers timid make is a week.
Smart getillemmi them os the other side, sad so autalaitaly
polite is paaiiop ut digger% the whole of what they may
pet is. lumber worts, sithisg. Way we eau sump to
do that without pomp to ♦'.b.4 We knew Tommie lad
wild dep. bet mod they hove pot tome sow. We would
advise the ihomir., it indeed advice ma be sutemout7, to
wait till they bier witetbusi from se about that hitherto
mythical streir—a Tamnsnit a poll &Id. We retain them
the earliest—the mry earliest intell,ptnee. They am hum
mom thaw otbeniders, but the tam they have piped ie •
vttly old coos W. are ratbm ',strata* birds bete, tad t
quire better cliall then this.— Belmago AdewPaor.

SKETCHER OF LONDON ACTORS.

CHARLES MATHEWS.

The name written above is use celebrated In the
history of the stage, both put and present, a name
made famous in the former by the talent of the father,
in the latter by that of the son.
Few who have adopts i the actor's life as a profew
aion ever leaped so quickly into the good opinions of
all good playgoers as the Charles Mathews who
forms oar present sketch. Rat few have been in.
dolged with greater advantages, by nature and cir-
cumstances. His parents were as liberal as they were
affectionate. He woe educated like a scholar and an
artist, having been originally destined for a proles.
Won more " calm and clerical " than his present one.
He had the advantage, from has boyhood upwards,
of mixing cot only in brilliant, but also in good
society, assembled in his father's hospitable
house, and these good chances fell on age
thoroughly prepared by nature to profit by
them. Charlie Mathews, the younger, was apt
at acquiring languages, and at hitting off all
the humours in national life and m . He not
only knew French, Italian, Neapolitan, Venetian,
and Heaven only knows bow many strange dialects
besides, but he could act them to the life, could sing
the song, dance the dance, and assume the nation.
alities of any country, ot any claw During his resi-
dence abroad, as one of Lord Blessiagton's travelling
party, the frequency of his mystification., and the
skill with which they were maintained, must have
made it evident that In was his father's own son, and
that no creations in marble, stone, or brick, were to
be expected from one so versatile and roarenrial.
Yet, it was not till his youth was in some degree ad-
vanced that he suddenly took the resolution of throw.
big architecture to the winds, and, in piano( lmildiag
theatres, of making himself a theatrical pillar of
strength, by flinging himself gaily into the gayest
(sometimes the slightest) comedy, as his profession.
Whereas most actors have studied in a provincial
school before making a London MIA Mr. Charlie
Mathews at mice (in 1835) cams out complete in the
theatre' anion all metropolitan theatres, which
boasted of an aseerchlw of such firet.rate talents as
the names of Fame, listoo, Madame Viet:* and
Mrs. Orgsr recall to us. Daily practice with artistes
like these would have inflamed one less im •
able and easonnpliehed than Mr. Charles Mathewe ;
but to him it did aot so much instruct as ripen. He
had no rough edges of provincialism to rub off, but
launched at once into proficiency, and west forward,
without drawback or delay, to perfection.

Mr. Charlie Mathews has made for himself a style
of acting which may be said to be peculiarly his own.
He is unlike 'eyries who has preceded him—onlika
anyone of the present time, and all those who have
attempted imitation of him have failed signally.
The sound of the true from the false metal has
in no ease of attempted counterfeit" been more
distinguishable. For buoyancy of spirit, each as
might be owned by a creature made of quick-
silver, for gentlemanly ease, for cool sesuranes,
and for rattling volubility, he has no rivaL There
are some characters with which Mr. Charlie Mathews
has identified himself so completely that they can
only live and will die with him. Look at his
Sir Charles Coldstream, in Used Up : see that air
of ennui which marks the walk, the action, the
speech ; and contrast these with his performance in
the second act, where we find him roughing it se a
countryman, tiefoyiug hie homely fare, revelling ie
the fun of the situation; mark the merry twinkle of
hie eye, sad the look he wears when lietamiog to the
reading of hie wilL Can anything be more different
sad yet more in keeping with the same character ?
Or, take him in The Gans of Speculation, when, as
Mr. Affable Hawk, he is to be son on the verge of
ruin, battling with all his energy to keep clear of
the edge of the precipice; mark with what avidity
he seizes apes every scheme, and, as sash babble
bursts, how eagerly his mind forms new plans and
fancies new spheres of action. His hope at finding
a prize in a rick son in-law—his dismay at finding
that prise a blank—his subterfop as to kis perUer's
fetus and his astenishmeut at finding he has rc-
tarsedLare points which all who have seen eon
testify to their being truly great. Oreen-room
histories" tell that this pins was written Ia
thirteen hears sad prodneed after two reburials—
a wonderful pion of unrehearsed stage business,
bat ewe net to be risked without peril. Who
that bee rue heard hie Captain Patter In Patter
remit Crafter, bee lot Mt astonished at the eacisseing
rattle of weeds rushing from the tape at "Fast
train, high preseare, express" speed, yet no sae word',
is lost, the articulation being always clear, always
distinct P Who that has sees, by the mere altering
the position of a wit, how miraculous a change Was
plass, will dopy him the praise of a first-elaes maw ?
The features are no longer the same; the while area
hes changed—face, figure, voice; yet it is Chubs
Mathews, for he has n left the stage. Or, to
specify something of a higher order, rect his Sir
Fretful Plagiary and Paff in The Critic; who would
suppose that the old man is old-fashioned suit, with old-
fashioned habits to match, by turns pettish, snappish,
and poseiotiate, could be the IMO man who soddenly
dasher; oa the sage in modern dress, with whit* kid
glove and even the flowers in the buttonhole ? It is
as if the wand of some harlequin had brought about
the change, and not the hands of a" mortal dresser."
As in aspect so in acting are the two parts dissimilar.
It would be impossible to count a titLe of the pieces
in which Mr. Charles Mathews, like an Atlas, has
supported the whole burden of the story—how he
has carried the audience away, through doll or light
dramas, on the wings of hie.flagging spirits.
Cho/ et s Cucumber, Practical Man, An Appeal tea*
Public, A ygraranay Sara, may be named as illus-
trating these remarks.

Did the fashios of the times prosit some of the
comedies being acted we should be at a lees to find a
better repre.entative of Charles Surface, Doeicourt,
Young Rapid. and all those fops, ecapegraose, and
good fellows (who are good for nothing) who need to
keep the oomedies of the past century alive by their
airy impudence, than Mr. Charles Mathews. Hie
Dente in London Assurance will long be reeollested.
Noe is this all. Mr. Charles Mathews claims a few
passing words es author and manager. In tM Imam
character he has often appeared with esht2
Wilds Mother, TAe Ringdores, Dewayer,
Toddlekins, wilt testify. They are all sparkling,
neat, witty, kept.a.goisg with stage tact. As
a manager he has toiled on through
ditfl-
celties (how made is Lot here the question),
reaping nought but anxiety, loss of time, and
that for which we all laboer—money. But what
care the public for all these things so long as they
owe deligheful evenings to snob talent as he can
display. and call forth applause from those who sir.
rounded him; to the magnificence with which be
dresses and decontrol the banquet which he set be-
fore them ? That better dsys may come for him, thin
he may rise above all the difficulties which hews beset
his path, and mike for himself* happy old age, is a
wish in which all his admirers and friends, and they
are myriad, will cordially join.