The National Register.
London, England, 1813-02-28 00:00:00

FTIP, NITIONAT, REMSTER.

FETE. 9S

coci;Nliy miGRAII ON AN 111PROMPILI.
Front the AIS IR IST ft)? Metreh,
Where it and verse appear so new,
S., full of force and wliirn.
\VII di ye r,l call it ' flier prompt-you ?"
It should be '' You prompt his!" •

DRAMATIC, REGISTER.

COVciNT GARDEN IIF,ATRE.

A new farce was breue,lit out on Thursday, entitled At
Mule. This piece as a literary production is beneath 'notice ;
but containing, as it does, several successful bits at characters
.well known on the town, -if it has no chance of becoming a
permanent favoutite, it is at least likely to have a run for
some weeks. The principal part in the piece is that of Mr.
Romeo Rantall, an amateur of fashion. In this character
M A TIII.ws gives an imitation of Co A T rs, which is irresisti-
bly laughable, no:hing can be more diverting than this exhi-
bition, but the utility of the satire may he doubted; for
richly as Co AT ES deserves ridicule, we can hatdly think
h:in with powdvr and shot.

RISE AND PROGRESS OF MR. COJTF:S.

10 THE EDITOR OF THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

Sta--lf You arc as impartial as you profess to be, you will
not refuse thii letter a Place in your publication. You have
been pretty fief in your strictures on Mr. COATES, and not
very favourable to his pretensions ; and, in my humble opi-
nion, it will be but • fair to give to the world some account
of that which Mr. Co AT ES Va :eS to be the cause of his at-
tachment to theatrierls. I, therefore, inclose one furnished
by himself, in a speech which he lately made on receiving
the thanks of a hiLthlv respectable literary society, of which
he is a distingni,hed member, " for his super-excellence in
the histrionic art, as disphvcd in his enactment of the gal-
lant gay Lothario, in the tragedy of The Fair Pc
iii-
trnrl." After some preliminary remarks, Mr. COAT Es ex-
pressed hituLelf, on the points to which 1 have alluded, as
follows

" In the place where I came from, it is common for La-
. dies and Gentlemen to get up play,, and perform in them.
There is no regular theatre there, and this is thought an in-
nocent and harmless vely of spending their evenings in a
pleasant manner. I never performed in these plays, nor
took any part in the theatricals there, but on one occasion,
where I spoke an address, written on the death of Lord NEL-
SON. The pi ai'es bestowed on my pet formanee (which
were great, and which might, pet haps, he greater than I de-
served, first gave tne an attachment to the shore. When I
was at Bath, haying just come to England, I found there a
great many ladies who were fit to be made goddesses of, and
I at last :aid, on being repeatedly asked to perform, that as
there were so many beautiful Jthes I would act Romeo if
one of them would perform with tne. It was settled so; and this
caused a great ditTerence of opinion. Some said I could
play, and some said I could not. Bets were laid both ways
to a very gre:it amount; so that had I been at all tainted
and addicted to avarice, I might easily hilvg won two or
three thousand guineas. Some of my friends laid bets of
four or five guineas that I could play it, and others betted
that I could not, so I said v) my frieuds whatever bets you
lay I'll take care that you shall not lose.' It was my know-
• ledge of the different opinions which were about, and of the
bets that were laid that encottraAed me to say so, and this
gave such a spur to my studies, and caused that appl.cation
to my part, thruJah which i so completely succeeded."

543

- - -
MF. COAT ES then'went on to give an account of his cha-
rities past, present, and to come. He had feigned to refuse
to play for Mts. CHERRY that he might not hurt the benefit
of the lady for whom he was previously engaged to perform,
but had always been anximis to serve her; and on the night
w' en he came forward for her if every thing was quiet, it
would then be seen whether or not he could play. He fur-
ther stated that he had offered to perform for the widows and
children of those who fell in the battle of Salamanca, and he
was ready to act Romeo for the benefit of the suffering Rus-
sians. These things ought to be made pubic, and I have
therefore added them to that which I at fiist intended to
give alone—the rise and progress of an Amateur. Having
stated thus much, I cannot hut say, in the words of Mr.
COAT ES, 4 1 am surprized that the 20 or 30 persons who re-
gularly go to hiss him, ale not turned out by the audience,' as
I think with him, they have no more right to kick up a
disturbance in a theatre than in a palace.'

I am, &c. &c.

PH l L 0-ROM EO4

ACCIDENTS AND OFFENCES.

Ffiday morning, a sh:rift's officer attempting to arrest a man at
l'adding;ol, who belonged to tlit Canal, was resisted by the defendant
w th a loaded pistol, and threatened destruction to him if he ap-
proached ; but the bailiff's fullow:•r getting round him, pinned down
his arms, by winch means he was secured, with his pistol and am-
muntion, an the prisoner safely conveyed to Newgate.
A lamentable case of parricide occurred at Carnwath, the end of
last week. A young man, named Aitken, having returned home
from an alehouse, and being reproved, account of his dissipation,
his father, Thomas Aitken, foim.ily carrier to Glasgow,- impiously
lined his hand against his parent, and with one blow killed him on
tit:. spot.
Thursday evening, between eight and nine o'clock, an alarming fire
broke out at a house iu Gloucester-place, Newiniton Butts, which
threatened destnieti• n to those adjoining ; but by the timely assist-
ance of several em.iii2s, and the activity of the firemen, th! flames
were sub :tied, and time whole extinguished without any other injury
'han destroying the interior of the premises where it began, together
‘1 it h the furniture.
•
Titosday, the Scrkins ended at the Old Bailey, when sentence of
deat:, w is passed on Ilse following prisoners ; vis. tlyiney Franks, fur a
ay rolkery ; Eleanor Conduit, Abraham Moses, and Join)
.1i•Dow,•11, for stealing in a dise:lino house ; Mainwright, for •
bondary ; Win. Allen alias ThomnAldridge. fur a like.odence ; An-
thony Joseph, Joseph Franks, Richard Robinson, Thomas Blade.
Edward Staples, Samuel Smith, Wm. Thompson, Win. 1-'eo ins, and
Mo,y Walker, alias Haul, alias Simtli, for piivately stealing in a shop.
—Five were ordered to be Iran:lmed for foureen years ;15 for ssvt.n
years ; nod a number of others t various periods of imprisonment.

The accounts given of the execution of Edith Morrey, are without
foundation. She will 11-4. he executed wail utter the next Chestea
siz-s. The pal agrapii, stating her execution, was copied from is
pro% incial [WILL

A very extraordinary system of depredation has been discovered et
Maresfield, Sussex, and iii the neighb,.tning parishes. Lord :Sheffield
Las committed to Horsham G al, a very old offender, who had not
long been discharged from the House of Correction ; and .dsu his
liree sons, charged by an accomplice, with !laving feloniously set fire
a 'large tagot-stack ; with having maliciously' poisoned with arsenic.
a heirse ; with buying stolen and killed several sheep ; and with having
infilieti loco and robbed upwards of twenty granaries, barns, stacks, &c.
&c. The exanikation occupied full two days, fi:um inornitigtill night,
when the four offenders were fully committed to take their trials at the
next Assizes

R(inacay.-7A gang of highwaymen, five in number, supposed to
11,f. the SR me who lately infested the neighhou.leaf of Wigton and
Carlisle, made their appearance at the Candlemas ruir of Dumfries, on
Wednesday se nnight ; and betwixt seven and eight o'clock that even.
i•ig, no less than nine different percons were attacked, -even of whom
were unhorsed aed rol)beii of their pocket-books, watches 6tc. be-
twixt the one and three mile atones on the Galloway road. The vil.
!sibs were well armed with bludgeons, &c. and all escaped,
owing to the alarm not being given in town till next morning. Sevet at
of the peop'e attacked are much hurt, and so cur as we have heard, the
cash taken amounts to upw Ards 10111. besides bills, &c.