The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-22 00:00:00

Gentlemen, I do not wish to be understood as de-
sirous to excite or encourage any popular feelings j
against any individual or body of men ; but I must be
permitted to say that I cannot help feeling a certain
degree of regret at the existence of patents for theatri-
cal performances as perpetual properties.—( Hear.) I
can never comprehend how patents should be for more
than a certain number of years, or why they should be
perpetuated. However, it appears that they are so
looked on, and that, in the light of perpetual properties,
money has been raised on them. All I can say on the
subject is, that the sooner some compromise is come te
respecting them the better for the public.—(Cheers.)
Of this I am thoroughly convinced, that unless the
arrangements of a theatre be looked on as every other
arrangement in society, you will act contrary to the
true spirit of trade and the true interests of commerce.
You might as well say the same of railroads as the
patentees say of their theatres, and with the same rea-
son. It was said that theatres were falling off, but
those who said so should consider the hours when the
performances formerly took place. But there was, in
fact, no falling off in the desire for good representa-
tions.—( Hear.) In an ardent desire to serve the cause
of a theatre, there is no one more anxious than I am,
and I am greatly delighted to have this opportunity
afforded me of expressing my good feeling towards the
theatre and its supporters on the present occasion, as
well as to acknowledge the obligation which I and you,
and all of us in common, owe to Mr. Macready,
and the opinion of this most unanimous meeting on
the subject.—( Hear.) I hope, however, that our tes-
timony to his merits will not be confined to this dinner,
because I believe some friends have the idea of offering
him a more solid and substantial testimonial of their
esteem.--(Great cheering.) For one, gentlemen, I
am happy to say that I shall be pleased and proud to
follow up any such proposal.—(Cheers.) It now only
remains for me to apologise to you for trespassing so
long on your time, and interposing between you• and
the object of your good wishes this evening ; to add
more to your acknowledgments of the obligation we
owe to Mr. Macready for his exertions • in our behalf
and that of the public—for the pains he has taken and
the trouble he has incurred in the past two years to
secure our gratification—to convey them to him, ac-
companied with the good wishes of this great meeting,
and the approbation of all the lovers of the drama,
and to drink his health.—( Hear.) The Illustrious
Duke then proposed—" The health of Mr. Macready."
The toast was received with the greatest enthusiasm,
and drunk with all the honours.
Mr. MACREADY then rose, amidst renewed cheering
waving of handkerchiefs by the ladies in the gallery,
and every demonstration of esteem and public approba-
tion. He appeared to be under a great degree of em-
barrassment, and spoke, somewhat inaudibly, nearly as
follows :—Your Royal Highness and Gentlemen. I
really do not know how to reply to the very flattering
address which you have just spoken—to the very flat-
tering compliments of the Illustrious Duke, beyond
thanking him and you for the great honour which you
have done me.—(Cheers.) At the same time, I must
express my deep regret that, to do justice to your kind-
ness, I feel to be utterly impossible.—(Cheers.) In
any labour which I have bestowed on the legitimate
drama—in any sacrifice of personal pleasure or profit
which I may have sustained in that undertaking, I
never contemplated such a repayment as I meet with in
this unlooked for reception.—( Hear, hear.)— Some al-
lusion has been made to the revival of the legitimate
drama, and I have been lauded by the Illustrious Duke
for the share I took in it. Gentlemen, I thank his
Royal Highness, but I have been only the humble offi-
ciating priest at the shrine of our country's greatest
genius.—(Cheers.) And, indeed, I can honestly take
credit for little more than the true devotion, zeal, and
good intention—for my constant faith in the power and
triumph of truth—however humble my sphere.—
(Cheers.) In that faith, and with that spirit, I have
only endeavoured to piece out the imperfections, as it
appeared to me, of our existent theatrical system.
It has often struck me, among other causes capable of
producing the dramatic declension which we all so much
lament, that while other branches of art were in advance
and of daily progression, except in respect of what was
done by that great artist, John Kemble, the proprietors of
the English stage have remained the same—stationary
and fixed on the authority of the leading actors who hail
gone before us. When I recall to your recollections
the Witches in Macbeth, the Roman Senators in Co-
riolanus—" Senat us populusque Romanorum" the
Grand Council of Venice—the moving of Birnam Wood
to High Dunsinane-hill—you will understand my mean-
ing. It has been my humble endeavour to reform, if not al-
together to alter, these anomalies ; and to make the stage
of our country, possessing as it does such magnitude of
literary power, equal to the occasion, and the circum-
stances of our condition.—(Cheers.) All that my own
imagination presented, as I turned over the pages of
the immortal poet, I have endeavoured to place before
the public in the most striking manner. Ariel is now
no longer, as he was heretofore, " a thing of the earth,
earthy," but either a wandering voice pouring out a
stream of sweetness, or a thing of air flitting about in
his own element amid the streams that enchanted and
the melody that subdued.—(Hear.) We have endea-
voured to make palpable the meaning of the poet we all
worship, and to that honest purpose we alone ascribe
our transeendant:success. By following an observation
of Sir T. Lawrence—that a picture to be well painted
requires the same care and attention in every part—
we have prospered ; we have endeavoured to spread over
the whole scene, the whole play, that interest and that
attraction which, under the old system, was heretofore
confined exclusively, and zealously appropriated, to the
principal performer.—(Hear.) In this endeavour to
transfer from the poet's mind to the stage a picture com-
plete in all its parts, we have the satisfaction of record-
ing the success of a season unequalled by any, not hav-
ing a striking new performer to produce, for the last
sixteen years.—( Hear.) And this I the more particu-
larly rejoice in, for the reason that it is a conclusive
evidence that there is no lack of taste in the public to
appreciate our noble drama, and to give its honest
votaries all necessary support.—(Cheers.) My hope
and intention was, if my ability kept pace with my
means, to have left the theatre a complete series of
Shakspeare's plays, of which the texts should be purified
from the gross errors which disfigure and distort its
characters ; and to make the arrangement. of the stage
so perfect as to form the best edition of our im-
mortal poet's illustrated works ever presented to the
public. -Yet, though I may not again be called on to
bear any part in:that labour of love, to share the never-
dying glory of our immortal bard, I must still indulge
the hope—the fond delirium it may be termed—that
the path which has been so auspiciously opened will con-
tinue to be trodden by my successors ; and that the na-
tional theatre will ever remain the temple of the poetry of
our own Shakspeare—a fane dedicated to the highest
intellectual amusement—no longer attended as a place
of licentious resort, but as a sanctuary for the
highest genies.—(Hear, bear.) And I trust that
never again will it be degraded, as it was, to the lowest
character of any similar place of amusement in European
nations.—( Hear.) I must beg to trespass upon your
patience a few moments longer.--(Hear.) In the first
place, to thank his Royal Highness for the high honour
he has done me : in the next, to take the opportunity
which your goodness affords me of publicly returning
_thanks to those friends whose ardent zeal and sincere
friendship have laid me under obligations to an amount
which I can never hope to repay.—(Cheers.) I would
particularise among them, as of the foremost on all oc-
casions, Sir E. L. Bulwer—(Cheers)—who not only
wrote that most delightful of plays, the Lady of Lyons—
(Cheers)—to serve my interests at the moment, and the
interests of those mixed up with me in my efforts for
the drama—but who, when public opinion had stamped
that production as one of the very best that had been
written for years, constantly and undeviatingly refused
to look upon it in any other light than as a gift to me,—
(Cheers.) Allow me also to include in this list of names
that of my esteemed friend Mr. Stanfield—(Cheers)—
Mr. Dickens—(Cheers)—Mr. Serle--(Cheers)—and
Sergeant Talfourd—(Great cheering.) With my best
thanks to them, and my warmest feelings towards you,
let me repeat my assurances of my lasting gratitude for
the kindancm with which you have overwhelmed me, and
which, while I remember at all, I shall never forget,—
(Cheers.) Mr. Macready then concluded amidst a re-
newed burst of applause fully equal to that which
greeted his commencement, and which lasted several
minutes.

Glee—" The Witches' Chorus in Macbeth," sung by
all the vocal strength in the room.
The Duke of SUSSEX said that the next toast which
he had to propose was the health of her Majesty's late
Lad Chamberlain, and he was convinced that this toast
would be received with approbation, because it must be
known to every gentleman present that the Noble Lord
to whom he alluded had both protected and encouraged
the drama, so long as he had power to do so.
The toast was drunk with loud applause.
The Marquis of CONYNGHAM said that the honour
which had been conferred on him was so unexpected
that he knew of no adequate terms in which to return
his thanks. It, however, afforded him very great plea.
sure to have this public opportunity to offer his humble
admiration to the eminent and talented individual who
was the object of their meeting, and who had done so
much to restore the drama to that lofty position which
it ought to occupy in this enlightened age and country.
—(Cheers.) He saw around him many dramatic
authors of the first celebrity. They were men whose
works were an ornament to any age or country ; and he
could only say for himself that he had never had the good
fortune to witness their productions without deriving
both delight and information from them. He sincerely
regretted the circumstances which. had compelled Mr
Macready to abandon his laudable undertaking ; bur,
although they might be deprived of the advantage of
his exertions for a time—and only for a time—he still
hoped that they would long he able to derive that intel-
lectual enjoyment which his eating never failed to com-
municate on the metropolitan boards..--(Loud cheers.)
The Duke of SussEx said he had now to claim their
attention to a toast with which was coupled the name of
a gentleman of high fame in the theatrical protesiion, I
but who had retired, for some' "time past, from the
public service. . It was with no .tmall,satisfaction, he