The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-04-18 00:00:00

HAYMARKET THEATRE.

Last night, the Theatre !Civil Haymarket was opened,
for what, we trust, will eventually turn out to be a profita-
ble season for all concerned in it ; and, indeed, it cannot
fail to be so, if we might take our augury from the crowded
state of the house last evening, long before the curtain was
drawn up. The claims of this Theatre to ptiblic patronage
rest upon the solid foundations of anxi.tus desire to do all
in the power of the proprietors, manager, and performers,
to deserve it—on a company stronger in comic talent, cer-
tainly, than any of the other Theatres can boast, and on a
fair supply of new and diverting pieces. There was, in-
deed, no novelty produced last night; but when we had
first Wilkinson, as Ruble Ruza,rh-lirad, and next Liston.
in Paul Pry, we desired nothing newer, for we almost
despair of getting anything. As all the performers
did their duty ably, it would be invidious to particularly
individually. The earliest novelty in the Haymarket The-
atre will be a new farce, by the author of Paul Pry, and
a new comedy, by Kenny, will be produced shortly after-
wards.

The Duke of York arrived at his residence in South
Autlley-street, on Saturday morning, from Newmarket.
Yesterday the Duchess of Gloucester, the Princess So-
phia, and the Princess Sophia Matilda visited the Princess
A ugusta.

Yesterday, at two o'clock, the Duke of Devonshire had
an interview with Mr. &crew) Canning, at the Foreign
Office, in Downing street, to make arrangements previous
to his departure for St. Petersbureh, as Ambassador Extra-
ordinary from our Sovereign at the coronation of the Em-
peror Nicholas. His Grace remained with the Right Hon.
S:cretary about an hour and a half.
-

Yesterday Sir Charles Long had on interview with the
Earl of Liverpool.
Despatches were received yesterday at the Foreign Office,
fs om Viscount Granville,ourAmbassador at Paris.

Mr. Ideates, the King's Messenger, who left London a
few nights since, is gone to meet the Duke of Wellington
on his return to England.
Mr. IVard has signified his intention of offering himself
as a candidate for the ropresentation of the City.
We understand that H. B. Pt tern, Esq. of Hotham
Hall, near South Cave, has declined offering himself as a
candidate at the ensuing election for Beverley.—liall Ad-
vcrliAer.

Hugh Scott, junior, Esq. of Merton; Sir John Scott
Douglas, of Springwood Park, Bart. ; and Sir William
Elliot, of Stobbs, are the three candidates who have started
for the representation of the courty of Roxburgh, to suc-
ceed Sir Alexander Don, of Newton, the late member.
'I'HE Recise ABDUCTION.—We understand that Mr.
Edward Gibbon IVakelield has caused notices to be served
oil the solicitor for time prosecution, stating his anxiety to
thinit himself to any judicial inquiry, and that for such
urpose he will attend at any time and place his accusers
may appoint, provided six days previous notice be sent of
such appointment to Mr. Harmer, his solicitor.—Sunday
Paper.
A short time since, a gentleman, who was requested to
value the books of a deceased Clergyman, found, to his
surprise, that many of the most valuable works were im-
perfect, having leaves torn out. Upon asking a servant
who hail lived with the Divine fur some years, if he knew
any thing of the circumstance; lie replied, after some hesi-
tation, " why, to be sure, Sir. I (lid now and then tear a
leaf out, but I never went twice to the same book, so it
could not be of much consequence !”
Friday a meeting of the creditors of Messrs. Stansfeld,
Briggs, and Stansfehl, was held at the Hotel, Kirkstall.
From the statement produced it appeared that within the
last six months there had been a depreciation in the value
of their property to the amount of 63,000!. The total
amount of their engagements was 199,8701., the amount of
their assets 186,583/., leaving a deficiency of 13,000/.; but
it was also explained, that for about 78,000/. of their en-
gagements securities bad (teen given, which, of course,
would have to be paid in full, and which would diminish
the assets left for the general creditors; but that there
would then remain 108,535/. to discharge engagements
amounting to 121,870/., which, after making allowance for
contingencies, would makes dividend of about sixteen shil-
lings and sixpence in the pound.— Leeds Mercury.
One afternoon last week, five pheasants, in attempting
to fly across the Southampton river, from the New Forest,
fell into the water, from exhaustion, before they reached
the opposite shore; when some boats putting off' from the
quay, they were all taken up alive.
MINING INTELLIGENCE.—Copper Ores sold at Red-
ruth, April 13, 1826, 1487 tons, average prwtuce Bit
quantity of fine copper, 121 tons 4 cwt., amount of sale
9,487/, 93. 6,1., average standard 1111. 17s. Copper ores
sold at Swansea, April S: total 165 tons.
DEATH Or THE DOWAGER VISCOONTESS CRP:MORNS.
—On Friday the 14th inst. died at her hone: in Stanhope-street,
Mayfair, in the 86th year of her age., the Right ilonourible Phi-
ladelphia Hannah, relict of the late Thomas licount ('removes,
and Baron 1) irtrey, of the Kingdom of Ireland. tier Lyclyiship
was the grand-daughter of William Penn, founder of Pennsyl-
vania, in !cords America. and was born in its capital of Philadel-
phia, after which city she was named. Those to whom shi was
known, will be sensible of the difficulty of briefly delineating a
character combining so peculiar a variety of attractive and endear.
ing qualities, adapted to every order In society, tiom the highest
to the lowest.

ELOPF.MENT.—Thursday week, two gentlemen arrived
in a gig at the White flur•e, Milton Ke3nes, Bucks. one of whom
remained in the house whilst the other went out. The next morn-
ing a young lady, the daughter of an opulent tanner of Filgrove,
yr h o was on a visit to the house of a farnor in the village, went
away with the gentlemen in their gig. The friend at whose house
she was visiting, on learning tier departure with persons with
whom they were totally unacquainted, sent instantly to her pa-
rents. The mother arrived the following morning in a state of
distraction, having heard no tidings of her daughter. We na e
not heard which route the parties took, or whett:rt the fair fa.;itirts
has since been discovered.—Backs Gazette.

LITERATURE.

AIR. 31ILMAN'S NEW POEM.

Amongst the publications of present month, we flod
a dramatic poem by the Rev. 11. 11. Milman, on the sub-
ject of Atm.; Boleyn, to which our attention has been na-
turally attracted by the name of the author. The suceeas
of Fazr, the eldest born of his muse, seems not only to
have encourage.' Mr. Milman to great industry, but to
have procured him readers to an extent which announces a
growing reputation ; lie is, ther fore, precisely at that point
of his career where the question of his merits obtrudes
itself 111051 t forcibly upon all persons who take an interest in
the adjudication of literary clai:ns.
. The story of Ante Boleyn is, as Mr. Milman has justly
observed in his preface, " peculiarly adapted to the pur-
poses of poet; y."fhe circumstance a her exaltation from
a subject to a Queen, is tine. The cause of that exaltatiou
is perhaps still filter • for though beauty does not consti-
tute a very rational Claim tri empire, it is certainly a most
poetical one, and was so, long before ever Venus thought
of rising out of the sea. Then the great reverse, from the
throne to the sett:fold, front the arms of Royal favour and
dalliance into the hands of the executioner, and all this
heightened by the consciousness that it is authentic misery
we are cotitenaplating—surely, if ever there was a theme
calculated to awaken the very genius of pathos, it is the
story of this unfortunate and lovely sufferer. Yet strange
to say, the heaviest charge we have to bring against Mr.
Milman's work is, We total absetice of anything like a ten-
dency to attect the heart. There is grand declamation,
there is pure morality, there are elevated sentiments; but
nothing to agitate, nothing to control us, nothing to draw
tears or suspend criticism. The Queen is from the begin-
ning so much addicted to religious and philosophical /elision-
ings, that one cannot hesitate as to the propriety of leaving
her to such undoubted source.; of consolation, and keeping
our tears for those who exhibit less fortitude in adversity.
This we cannot help considering as peculiarly unfortunate
under the circumstances; hut perhaps it is the nature of
all great subjects to confound the genius or mind,
which, from some inexplicable cause or other, they have
failed to inspire. Next in importance to the charac-
ter of the Queen it that of Auqeto, a furious zealot
in religion, front whose bigotted attachment to the Church
of Rune the whole plot of the accusation against Anne
Buleyn is made to originate. In the filling up of this
portrait it was impossible that the author should avoid
every indication of a controversial spirit ; but again, as in
the Queen, he abandons the high ground of his art, and
gives us only the opinions and actions, unanimated by the
passions, of the fanatic. Joge/o might have taken his
station in a frigid essay on the subject with as much, and
indeed with more propriety, than in any effusion of the
muse. King Henry himself appears but little in the scene,
and never appears but to be execrated. The man who
" loved as others hate," is fairly, though not fully, repre-
sented. The character of 'lark Seneutuu might have had a
little more life in it ; the situation in which he is placed as
the accuser of the Queen, whom he passionately loves, anti
whom he knows to be innocent, but whom he devotes to
sham_ by perjury, under the influence of a superstitious
regard to her soul, afforded some noble opportunities. The
motive by which Angelo inducts hint to bear false witness
against her is explained in the following passages :
Angelo.—Now, as a heretic, I love her not ;
But yet my charity would not she were cast
Where she must perish, body and soul, in hell,
I'd have her live—live on in shame and sorrow ;
Fur sorrow is the mother of true penitence.
Angelo.-11r the King,
Oa some just plea (and these new gospellers
Do admit none but foul adultery)
Were but divorc'd—how long, how honourably.
Liv'd the Imperial Catherine—which were beet—
The spotless name be tainted, or her body
Writhe on a scafEild and her soul in flames.
Upon this persuasion, Mark Smeaturt undertakes to
swear that he had criminal intercourse with the Queen,
and upon the evidence so given, both he and the distant
object of his idolatry are doomed to death. Instead, how-
ever, of pursuing any farther either tha windings of the
story, or the traits of the different individuals brought be-
fore us in its progress, it is time that we should produce
some specimens of the poetry, which, though destitute of
pathos, is not only musical in its general construction, but
diversified occasionally by striking images and splendid
declamation.

The following description of the Queen's charity, by
her wretched and fatal admirer, Smeaton, is glowingly
expressed. _ .

I know not
What she believes—l see but what she does.
her audience
Is of the wretched, destitute forlorn:
The usher to that court is Beggary,
And %Vent the Chamberlain; her flatterer,. those
Whose eloquence is full and bursting hearts;
Iler parasite!, wan troops of starving men
Hound the full furnished board—pale, dowerless maids—
Nuns like thyself, cut forth from their chaste cloisters,
To meet the bitter usage of the world,
While holiest men are ever in her prat:sr.'.
Nor can their lavish charity exhaust
The treasures of her goodness.
Of a different and far higher tone are the reflections by
which Angelo justifies to his own conscience the atrocitits
of which he is guilty fur the sake of his religion.
'Tis but the wise relentlessness of Heaven.—
ftith the dread earthquake feel remorse, that makes
A populous city one vast tomb, where guilt
And innocence lie side by side ? Does pity
Pale the blue cheek of pestilence that blasts)
IVliole nations? Doth the sweeping deluge pause,
And hold suspended its vast weight of waters,
To give the righteous time to fly the ruin ?
The best, the wisest, holiest saints and pontiffs,
Have sent fierce war, with undiscerning vengeance,
To waste the heretic's land ; for though just Heaven
Turn from the field of carnage—from the city
Made desolate, far rattier it beholds them
Than the fierce tossing% of the infernal pit,
And Hell made rich with everlasting souls.
But the author departs from his usual style of rational
or elevated sentiment, when he falls into the following
wretched paraphrase of the old " credo quia impossibile.'
" Oh ! pardon, Sir, my thoughts do swim so strangely.
Things all so monstrous and incredible
Have come to rss, there's nought that seems too strange,
And nothing is but what could never be. •
That thou a man of such strict saintliness
Shouldst be so false, finds credit with me only
Because it is impossible and far
Beyond the reach and scope of our belief."
We regret also to have found in the production of a
scholar, too liberal, one would have supposed, to be infected
by pedantry, such phrases as " internecine knife," " ter-
rible deletion," and " lie desecrate in ruin." The trial
scene in the fifth act cannot fail to suggest the recollection
of that of Queen Catherine in Shakspeare's Henry VIII. ;
and to say that such a recollection is unfavourable to the
modern poet, is only to express in faint and feeble terms
a judgment, which every mind capable of kindling into
enthusiasm at the magic of a name, will be ready to predict
on the authority of its own emotions.

We have now stated enough to intimate our opinion that
the poem of Anne Boleyn is not likely to shed additional
lustre on the poetical reputation of its author. We have
stated candidly, at .d without exaggeration, the grounds
upon which we have come to that opinion. Air. Milinan's
literary character stands upon too strong a foundation to
be subverted or injured by any unfair attack. Even where
the strictures are just, he may appeal to his popularity
and deny them. At least he may console himself with re-
flecting, that however we or others may pretend to deter-
mine in his case, the opinion even of the judicious is only
criticism, while that of the multitude is fame.
• " And nothing is but what is not."—Shakopcsre.