The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1818-05-18 00:00:00

To 7711 mlsmarßs or THE STOCK
EXCHANGE.

I called your attention to the subject of Finance
in a Letter published in this Paper on the 7th of
February, to which I refer you. wherein I apprised
you of the Minister's wools, notwithstanding the
assertions I heard him mike in the House of Com-
mons, that he had paid in the peer three millions
mom titan be had borrowed, and which he could
only have stated for the purpose of raising the
Funds, because he at that time knew the account
stood es under, viz.--
&edam, of the year 0.11,000,000.11,000,000
Ditto on Consolidsted Food Di 2,1100,000
alto so f`burches
00,0
Ditto on Fortresses ....... 1,000
....... . . 700,000
Total Deficiency ...... Z. 10,300,000
Now, this deficiency of the year has only been
provided for in part, agreeably to the Minister's
statement, which is a very fallacious one, and ought
to have been thus, vix.—
s isAietkoson as above.
11.•••••••••••=••••
94100,000 to pay off the Beek.
2.37,3i/0,900
The Minister has borrowed thirty million, out
of which he has to pay as above ; consequently the
amount of Exchequer Bills left in the market will
be filly millions, and out of the thirty millions he
has now borrowed, he emu only appropriate
51,700,000/. to the liquidation of these fifty millious;
consequently at the end of the year 47;300,0001. of
Exchequer Bills will remain unfunded, to which
he will have to add upwards of twelve millions fur
the service of 1819; consequently in May, 1819,
be will have an sufusided debt of fifty-none millions
And upwards, •in addition to the creation this year
of thirty-five millions of 3 per Cent. Stock, and a
creation of Stock in Si per Cents. equal to three
millions of money. For this creation of stock,
equal to thirty-nine millions. be has as yet provided
no fund for interest. Why ? because he lies none,
and can only pay it by diminishing the Sinking
Fund. Now, Geotl;asen, let me put you on your
guard against this new attempt to raise the Funds
unfairly, lest you should fall into the snare.—
Can a new creations of Stock of nearly thirty-nine
million,, (without any Fond to charge for interest),
with Exchequer Bills unfunded at the end of twelve
months to the extedt of nearly sixty millions, be
good cause for the advance of Stock ? Can the
return of the Allies from France add to our seen-
rity ? Can the determination of the Bank to lessen
its eircelatiag medially (as stated by Mr. Tnoan-
TO! in the Roue of Commons a few days since)
raise the Funds ? Can the preparation of the
Bask to pay in specie raise them ? Can the reduces
tion of the Sinking Fund raise them ? Can the
French Loan abort to be mode. of twenty million,
sterling. raise them ? or can the great buyers, the
Jews, raise then). under such pressure as I have stat-
ed ? (arid I defy any one to contradict what I have
put before yen.) Notwithetandieg the charge of the
Minister against the Stock Exchange for Opposition
to his wild plans, I will ask any reasonable person
whether the probability in not, that 3 per Cent.
Consols will be nearer 70 than so within six
months from this period ? I sincerely wish I could
draw a more lively picture, but I have determined
to put before you a true statement, and leave the
Jews and their ally, the Minister, together with
the boasting Courier, to make their efforts to mis-
lead yob and the public.
I am really ashamed to see the daily puffs of the
Clerks of the Treasury in The Coiner, evidently
calculated to raise the price of Stock, without any
regard to the consequences. Refer to the letter al-
luded to, dated 7th February, and you will dis-
cover that I did not there over-rate the deficiencies
of this year, and you may, therefore, reasonably
rely on the statements I have now offered you.
May 14, ISIS. Yours, &c. xith x.

DRATII IF LIGHTNING.

On Thursday maim( Kr. Turner, a schoolmaster, about
3e yeas of age, was killed by beanie, as be 'Sras a farm yard, at Owlertoo. E was potshot
very (Meade Wom an/mot
w completely stripped frees Ids body, except a stria, of his
wows.:
areve, wthishich,adhered from his oecupatioli of a schoolmaster, he
to his ano, aad was nearly the ally em-
blem by willed' his Maned aad emaciated person could be re-
cognised. Small vestiges of his clothes, which thee,cc
laid had partly 'adored se tinder, were lodged bon and
there in the crevices of lite wall, ageism whirls tbe body was
eiseewered ; tbe watch, mak, sad chain, were eerie found is
differsist directions fres tin body; sod
it umbrella, which
belonged to the deceased, woe whipped to its skeletn. The
deesseed was gams on a visit to a friend he Owiertos, sad
was seen tit pass throogio a Arm yard but a few nolootes be-
fore tbeskiiekieureataaropbe boppased. A maa at work in
the farm yard, ae well as inanyetbirs is tbe neighbrood,
experimerd she game ef ale mem : he had jest buried she
fork be was min is a mime, win, be was knocked down by
the lightisieg ; as weft also &little boy who steed near hint,
awl • lib Mirk that wee at a elseet dietance,{tikt"l4l
lereuriv

Peon Laws.—One of the best emendations in
any new Bill would he the abolition of the clause
which obliges parishes to And an house or shelter (or
Iltchoose to burden them by imprudent mar.
der he 'el that the ha heti
t ea t y must ye
tenon found for them. This peronismo alone induces servants to leave their places, and marry without
having any property to meintain a wife or family,
leaving the distresses that ensue to Providence and
the perish. If no such provision were to be made
for them by compulsion, a young men and woman
would be led to consoler where they were to reside
before they formed these rash connections.

DRDRY-LASII4
Mr. Zitt?lntlS'S tragedy of Bertram wee per-
formed on Saturday evening. Miss NACAULEY
sustained, for the first time. the character of /no-
gime—mid surprised us by pley of energies.
which her subdued manner, iiithese
most impassioned
scenes of Lady Randolph. did not lead us to ex-
pect. Lavine is a creature of the Germareachool.
She understand., perfectly well, the theory of vir-
tue--but she is oat quite so perfect in its practice,
She is aware of the duties which the endearing ties
of wife and soother impose upon her—..yet, trem-
blingly alive as she apiaries to he to those duties,
site consents to meet the declared foe oilier Lord—
the foe of him who had rescued her family from the
depths of poverty—she consesats to meet that man,
whom of all others she should have avoided. In
these cases--
" Tks misuse who deliberates is lost ;'•
and inrogine, overcome by the intoxication of a
criminal passion, returns from the fatal interview,
guilty and despairing--te minion of a villain,"
The character is out of nature—and. therefore,
however beautifully written, cannot commaild our
sympathies. There hasty transitions from virtue to
vice--and from vice to repentance, do not belong
to air sphere. " No person," say, the adage,
" becomes very wicked on a sodden." The acme
of vice is the infidelity of a wife to an honourable,
afrecrionste husband. That crime once committee!,
the cOnscieuce, fora time, at least, becomes seared,
and rarely dues contrition resu,n, till reflection
is awakened
the s by the apathy, if not the contempt,
of poiler. Faulty, however, as the character,
if analysed, must appear, it cannot he denied,
that, in its principal scenes, it affords " ample room
and verge enough" for the exhibition of histrionic
powers of the first order. To say, that Miss
MACAULIT merely supported the character well,
would be proof, either of want of candour, or of a
deficiency in judgment. Till she performed the
part of /ravine we never save it played. Her passion
was without extravagance but it was not methodi-
col. It was not the rooting of a heroine—nor the
whimpering of a girl. At.times, indeed, it came
on us a little too abruptly—but, unlike all other
storms. it pleased us most when we were in
the midst of it. In her first scene with Bertram,
we think she was peculiarly successful. The
answers of the stranger recal more forcibly to
her recollection her own accumulated woes.at the
moment, when, thinking of him to whom her faith
Was plighted, ihe seeks to retire—dm hand, which
was once all gentleness, rudely arrests her progress
—that Bertram, once all loveliness, but now, pale
and einaciated.the fires of life burning fiercely
and feverishly, ere they are extinguished for ever--
appears before her. Miss MACIIVLET sustained
this scene with great talent. Here, to a mind of
meagre judgment, there is ample opportunity for
" tearing a passion to tatters," Miss MACAULET
has too much taste to accept the invitation. She
gave to the various feelings of lateens a due de-
gree of force—the picture was not overscoloured its
any instance--and in no instance was it tame or
spiritless. In the fourth and fifth acts, as the re-
Iweseutation became more difficult, Miss Mac-
MILES'S powers appeared to acquire additional
strength. The soliloquy which follows her criminal
interview with Bertram, and her subsequent meet-
ing with St. Aldobreottl, were, throughout, marked
by genius of no ordinary character. In some minor
points, Miss MACAULRY did not plense us. She
occasionally rolls her eyes, as if she would shoot
sparks from them—but no sparks come. Amongst
ladies, we are sure, the next fault we point out will
be accounted a virtue. Miss MAEAULIT dims not
fall well. She has not studied pantomime much_
and yet that is a branch of the art which ought
not to be totally disregarded. This lady falls
something like Corpora( Trim's hat—"f had it
been filled with lead, it could not have fallen
more perpendicularly." In the art of the mo-
dulation of voice, she also appears to be
deficient. Her scream is the peacock's note.--
IVe are sure, if she essayed the task, she could
render her shriek equally expressive and somewhat
more musical. These are trifles—these are vingu.
larities—and genius never existed without them.
As an actress of more than common powers, we
are happy to see her snatched from " the side of
a bleak hill" and planted in a warmer soil. That
she should so long have been absent from the me-
tropolis. is a matter at once to be wondered at and
to be regretted. Her performance was received
not favourably, but esithusiiietically. Of Mr.
KEAN'S &HMV, it is ueineeelonty to speak at
length. He hasa monopoly of the superior order of
theatrical villains, and he plays them well. He
never played Bertram better.
After the tragedy, a new afterpiece, entitled
" The Bleektimaar's Head." was performed. We
have tar hesitation in saying, that the head which
produced it was not iuhabited by a large family of
Maas.
Rlackanse
The piece epees at a mass ementry bro.-she sign, The
mid Martin ees Head--wbere Major Dash well, Charles Aubrey,
take refu Sharp, the servant of the Major, are obliged to
ge, is consequence of the upsetting of the mail.
Aubrey, a poet and fine gentleman, finch himself within a few
miles of Hymn Hall, thereat of Sir Oliver Mellon, a id-deonal
pacer, who has retired from the city, in order that be may
have a proper opportunity of grumbling in quietness
arid
peace. To his measles the poet repairs. Aubrey, from his
childhood, has been betrothed to Miss Huntley, who is
seder else joist guariliaasbip of Sir Oliver Melton, and her
aunt bliss Detwiler, a lady who acts, all occasions, no.
eurdiug to themeet rigid rules of diplomatic etiquette;
except by knee, she disdains to give as answer to the must
trivial question. Aubrey has Never seen his intraded
Inas, hat
come e Major Dashwell has met her at a ball—bas be-
nsmoured other--sed his pinion is nursed. Just
as the Major has ordered a postchaiss to remove him from
she Blackasnores Head, his servant ketones him itay
Hisolky and leer seat have arrived. Sharp imthatmediaMtel
adviser his stager to introdece himself, by letter, to the
suet as Mr. Aubrey, whom she hod sever seen, and to take
his valet with him, as Major isitger. The advice is cam-
plied with. Desbwell (Miss Header Careering the deceit)
is received as Mr. Aabrey—mol mewl, Masters
as Captain amigo& A sew difficulty row arises. Miss De-
leeuw is prorordiag to Hymn Hall— there Dashwell brows
be will meet with the /rue Simon Para. Sharp
the hire to
premed—end, to encourage him, assumes the character of
Comeau, Hosoce. The partite meet at •Sir Oiver'sruer.
siderable diliceslty ocirasioesit by the appeareace et two
debases to the mane of Charles Ambrey—bitt at leigth
Admiral
theyAel arrives—cisims the poet (strange ofhpring
of a tar) as e—ail settles the mintroversy with respect
to Bat all parties mast be made hippy--and very for.

E. Bens" Esq. of Shrewsbury, has issued an address to
the Electors of Stafford, soliciting their suffrages at she en-
sale( Election. Mr. Esoson's re-election is, by his friends,
amahlerod certaio. Mr. Wright, the beaker, of Conduit, is
anetstionod as the third candidate.
At Newcastle, Robert Wilmot anal W. S. Kyosersley,
Entre. are the declared fresh candidates. The Corporation
of this Boroagh are said to have extended their privilege of
at voters, beyend all precedent in the charter.
AI Tainwortb, things will remain dais rte. The agent
of the Towashend interest contradicted some time ago, the
report that sack lowest was Oversew, ur compromised.
la Lichfield, it la reported that tbe Huta. T. Austin will
offer his services to the Electors.
It is generally reported that Alderman Heygate intends
offering himself for Sudbury at the casein (fractal Elcc-
tioa.—(Chrlmaford Paper.)

-------,--..-......,- -
LIGHT READING.-It has been observed, that no
men is more addicted to novel reading than au old
Fellow of a college, and tnr these
ren•otto: he has
had, as he thinks, a sufficient quantity of heavy
reading to qualify him for his present pitnntion. and
1 he now whales to indulge in the light and airy,
which he imagines is about to fit him for his entrance
into the public world, of which he known nothing.
For these reasons, the Universities have no objec-
tion to all the novels being preserved to them gratis,
from the publishers, as they msy do them win*
good, and condo them no harm, from their age and 1
discretion.

MitsteletTY.--Therectin be no greater proof how
regularly established this trade is, than the observ-
ance of every town previous to any public meet-
ing. At Doncaster, and many other assemblages
of company at races, there arrive, nreviou, to the
days of meeting, regular troops of beggars from
various parts of toe kingdom, to make their mar.
kets from compassion, upon mounted &dominos,
voluntary blindlievs, mid fabricated lameness; and who all disappear as WWI 1411 the ineetiog is over,
and migrate to some new scene for impthitton.