The National Register.
London, England, 1808-05-23 00:00:00

1111111M1824Wt

base feelings as lodividaals, bot they have on feeling as a bad%
bliss Pope was an actress of repute at a very early eses and
Chnteltill bas spokes of her merits in his Raided .
44 With all the native vigour of sixseen, •
Atemig the merry pomp* eompleomosseen, .
44 See lively Pope advance In* and trip,
" Corinne, Cherry, Honeycomb, and Snip.
44 Not without art, but yet to nature true,
" Site charms the town with hamouejust, yet new•"
Yo our times Migs Pope has not ventured on the youthful
performances which the poet commemorates: but we CAr
bare no doubt, from the concurring testimony of those who
Vaeolleet her earlier efforts, that she was an actress well deserv-
ing the eneomium here bestowed.
Her peculiar merit, ever since we can recollect her acting.
bas been the expression of pertness ; whether the low pertness o
r►.lfehlalbsrg,in The Clandestine Marriage, tile. lady like pert-
ness of Mrs. Candour, in The School for Scandal, or the half
genteel and half vulgar pertness of Flippanta, in The Confede-
racy. When Churchill said she was true to nature, he spoke
of a girl : but it has been the praise of Miss Pope to continue
at sixty as eatural as she is described to have been at sixteen.
And it must be observed that bee delineation of nature wa,
=rural, because it was exquisitely assisted by art : for of al►
the actre•ses we ever remember to have seen, Miss Pope appears
to have possessed in the most eminent degree the knowledge of
arcs and the practice of the stage : and Churchill would per-
haps have spoken inure accurately if he .had said,
" Not without art, and thus to nature true."
Art, when it does not improve nature, is not sa properly art.
as pedantry : its use is to adorn nature, not disguise her. If
this excellent kind of art, which is founded upet►a knowledge
of principles, were a little more universal in this country, we
should not hear, amid the abundative of comic talent that we
possess, a perpetual superiority allowed to the comic acting
of the French. It is not that they have more capability than
we, but that they improve their capability better. When we
succeed, we usually succeed by chance;, they succeed always,
beeause they succeed upon principle,

COVERT-GARDE.
A new comedy, called, Mitch-making, or, Its a wise Claud
that knows its own Father, was performed for the first time on
Tuesday last. We have not room to enter minutely into the
details of this very amusing piece: but. we have. no hesitation in
speaking of it in general n ith lively panegyric. It must be
observed, indeed, that this comedy has rather too much plot,
a fault not very usual with the plays that have lately been ex-
hibited : not that the fable becomes confused by its own weight,
but that there are tw•o serious interests in the comedy, and one
is in fact enough. There is a good deal of new character; and
the dialogue is exceedingly sprightly and laughable, containing
much excellent satire no fashionable manners, the Newspapers,
and other subjects, peculiarly well selected for the lash of
legitimate comedy. Perhaps we shalt give to this piece the
highest praise, by declaring, that though it constantly amuses,
it is a comedy, and not a five act farce. Mr. Liston's acting
Nerves to be particularly commended. He acted a modern fine
gentleman; and his lounging conceit was of a nature niore
entertaining, if possible, than his manner in The Widow's
Chia.

LAW REPORT.

"COURT OF KING'S BENCH, WESTMINSTER, MAY 25.
TRZEMEN OF LONDON LIABLE TO RE IMPRESSED IN COM-
MON WITH THE REST O+F THE COMMUNITY.
Mr. Garrow moved for a Writ of Habeas Corpus to bring up
Nathaniel Young, an impressed man, he claiming exemption on
the ground of his being a Freeman of the City of London. The
City of London claimed exemption of their Freemen from Im-
press, not only upon the immemorial use and understanding that
inch exemption was secured to them by their Charter, but upon
the Grants of the 15th of Edward 11. and of Edward 111. tl.
former of which set forth, that in consequence of the gratuitous
aid afforded his Majesty by the Citizens of London, at the Cas-
tle of Leeds, in Kent ; such Citizens in future should not he com-
pelled to go out of their walls for the purposes of war, /ix.
Lord lEllenborough.—" That grant only means that the Citi-
zens of London having in that instance given voluntary aid to the
,ILiag, the fact should not establish a precedent for calling them

MAY so.

. _
out of their walls oo every occasion. I fancy that the Statute
• ‘. ray, wnich recognizes the right of the Crown to call out
the subjects for the general defence of the Realm, applies as fully
the Citizens of London as to any other class of his Majesty',
Mr. Sorrow said it was a (Nestle% of great importance to the
'ity. and perhaps the Court would grant a conditional Rule, io
a• to bring that question fully beforethe Court.
Lord Ellenborougli.—" If, Sir, you could lay before es rca.
sonable grounds for supporting your claim to exemption, then
the Court would attend to it ; but it is giving a eomequence to
the application that does not belong to it, to grant a Rule in e.e
absence of such grounds. The Court bee nothing in the present
case to take the party out of the common liability."
Mr. justice Grose..-4. The exemption claimed would only
enable the City of Loudon to sell more freedoms."
Mr. Garruw took nothing by his motion.

EAST INDIA AFFAIRS.
Wednesday a Court of Directors was held at the East-India
House, when Capt. Jamieson was sworn into the command of
the General Stuart, destined to Madras and Bengal.—The Court
adjourned till Wednesday next.
The following ships, outward-bound, arrived off Madeira►
'the 28th April last, under convoy of the Thetis, viz. Europe,
William Pitt, Lord Castlercazh, Sovereign, Lord Keith, Sir
William Hensley, Euphrates, Northumberland, and Alexander.
The seven first mentioned ships parted from the Northumberland
and Alexander on the 28th April, and proceeded on '44
voyages; and on the SOth April the. Northumberland and Alex-
ander went into Madeira, aad were expected to sail from thence
' the 15th May.

DINNER OF THE WESTMINSTER ELECTORS.
Monday the Ekctori of Westminster met at the Crown and
Anchor Tavern, in the Strand, to celebrate the anniversary ot'
the Election of Sir Francis Burdett, Bart. as one of their Re-
presentatives in Parliament, which the dinner tickets designated
•as " the Triumph of AVestminster, or the Purity of Election."
Sir Francis took his scat at the head of the table. On his right
and left sat Mr. Byng, the Member for Middlesex, Major Cart-
'wright, Colonel Wardell, Messrs. Starch, Richter, Adams. and
• the rest of the Election Committee. A hand of music etas
placed in the orchestra, and the great room of the Tavern w:.s
completely filled.
After the cloth was removed, and several toasts had been
.drank, Sir Francis Burdett addressed the Electors to the fol-
lowing effect :
' Gentlewn, I find difficulty in expressing to you my sense of the
honor you have this day done me, but more particularly I ex-
perience a difheulty in expressing my sense of the honor you
have done yourselves. If any thing could afford a glimpse of
hope to my mind, in the present melancholy condition of the
country, it would be the spirited conduct of the Electors them-
selves, rather than any return I can make for the honor they have
conferred upon me. Yet as far as a steady and inflexible ad-
herence to the principles that first recommended me to your no-
tice, can compensate the hope yon have placed in me, so far I can
pledge myself to a faithful return.—( A cry of bravo !—it is a?! ire
want. )-1 am well aware that any little weight I may have
obtained with the country, is that which emanates from the
Electors of Westminster, rather than from my own in-
trinsic merits. To speak the voice of my Constituents, and
to represent their feelings and interests, will be my first
object and chief duty of my life. Yet I ant not pre-
pared to say that it will he of much use, as a single
voice can be of little effect with the majority. Bat this lam
prepared to say, that let our present dangers be external or in-
iercal, nothing in ntv mind can produce any rational hope in ef-
fectually warding off the dangers that threaten the land, unless
it is in checking internal corruption, which I presume to be the
only real source of external danger. I need not say, by check-
ing internal corruption, that I mean a reform in the represen-
tation of the people. it is childish to suppose that a repre.en-
tation, out of which one hunored and tifty Peers and powerful
'personages return whom they think proper to Parliament, can
be looked up to for a redress of grievauces. I have therefore
iso hesitation in saying, that a reform in the Representation of
the Commons House of Parliament is as necessary to the real