The National Register.
London, England, 1808-03-06 00:00:00

159

is ib
no t to batter the beautiful cornice, but to sweep away the
cobwebs that defile it.
Tie first and greatest offences are those which relate to public
decency, either on the stage, or in the front of the house. The
Proprietors sanction, in the old plays, the continuance of a
thousand indecencies, which if they should now he produced,
would bring down, upon the production in which they should
appear, the merited execration of the whole body of the audi-
ence. John 8011, as the British public, is very familiarly
called, however, he RI:1 V want tine taste, certainly does not
want honest feeling: and we regret that the obscenities of the
eid play: have continued so long to he tolerated by him. At
revival, the spectators have indeed sometimes evpres-eel their
di‘spprobation of indecency :and Dryden's coarse interpola-
tioat were almost fatal to the reproduction of The Tempest last
year. But the plays which are performed every now and
Owls, preserve their dirt with their merits, for the habit of see-
(n them, reeneciles the people to their indelicacy ; and intel-
lectual like bodily prostitution, becomes familia^ by repetition.
Bet is it to he endured, that the Proprietors of a theatre shall
force the disgusting images of vice upon the public eye till their
nakedoess is no longer obseryPd, and corrupt those moral feel-
ings which they ate commis.imied to guard ? Ought not rather
all these who have wit daughters, or sisters, to rise up in
the theatres, and by a gewral exclamation to sound their ah-
horence of the vices that are ohtroded, and their indignation
against the Patentees ss ho obtrude them ? We should hail,
with tie greatest delight, the triumph of this right feeling; we
aeknowledre ourselves to he of that very small sect who ena-
sider it as a very ungentlemanly, and, to make use of a coarse
but stroag expression, a blackguard habit, to hiss in a theatre;
but tkere are some attacks which render all arms lawful. When
tedereuey of morals is to he repelled, no nicety of man-
ners can be important ; and if some, independent man, capable
of feeling for female delicacy, would set the example of exe-
crating the odious custom, who could refuse to support him,

.•
That bad a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage•. to make l.is love Lnow•n ?
to our next number we ',peal( of some indecencies that
are tolerated by the Proprietors in the front of the house.

LORD SOMERVILLUS SPRING sIIOW OF CATTLF..

On Monday commenced the Exhibition of Cattle by Breeder=.
anedidates for prizes so nobly offer,4l by Lord Somerville, as the
means of promoting national improvement. It was certainly
the best meeting we ever witnesseel.
The Exhibition was renewed on Tuesday, and at five o'clock,
aumerous Company had the tumour by invitation to dine with
Lord Sonterville,at the Free Mat ou's Tavern t among the com-
pany were the Duke of Clarence, Duke of Bedford, the Mar-
quisseg of Tweedale and Huntley, the Earls of W incliekea. and
Errwrout, Lord Harewood, &c. &e. tire. After dinner t'le ad-
ration of the prizes by the Rev. floury Bate Dudley, Thomas
ker, Richard Maddox, William 'Watson and John Bannister,
were read, viz.
To the Duke of Bedford. for his Devon Oxen, the first
prize.
To Mr. Martin Webber, fur his pair of Devon Oxen, the
second prize.
To the Duke of Bedford for the best pair of five Southdown
ewe hogs—The Prize.
The Earl of Bridgewater, Arr the best pen of five Southdown
Wethers—The Prize.

To Mr. Dodd for his Suffolk pig—who received a Cup from
the hands of his Lordship.
Mr. Edward Platt, shelved the Carcase of an enormously flit
tbree-shear Leicester wetlier; and Mr. Wm. Boultbie, a 7
Months Leicester pig, fed on oatmeal, whose live weight wa,
Itht. Mb. A too share plijugh was shewn, which had been used
sal found admirably to succed in stiff clay soil on Lord Somer-
vines' net. farm in Cobham; Mr. Lester shewed his revolving
potatoe ashen, and one of his large chaff-cutters.
Mr. Joao] Jones, de'tributed particulars of the three threshing
mills which he has erected in different parts of the kingdom.
•Messrs. Budge and Par,:oiim slimed various agricultural seeds.
Messrs. Marshall and Wall exhibited some turther specimen,
of suanuaxtured yards from the wool of Lord Somerville and Mr.
Tole t.
Mr. W hitworth shewed specimens of sash line made of long
coarse wcol, a branch of manufacture likely to lessen the drug
Of course wool, and the' scarcity of hemp at the same Ow.
The Joidies recommended Mr. Terret to his Lardship's notice

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