The Sun.
London, England, 1809-11-16 00:00:00

TO TILE EDITOR OF THE SUIV

• MR. EDITOR,
Prat-.allow a place in your valuable Paper for. thi
Leo from a Plain Old Man, upon the subject i
dispu: - at Covent-Garden `Theatre.
What, Sir,'has been.'t he plea of every tradesman
in this country for raising his
.price ? it.not be-
cause he cannot buy the same thing' Of any sort
for the same sum as formerly, an.! therefore cannot
sell it at the former price. This is and has betln the
plea of every one of us : upon this we ground our
right to an advance, and out of a Theatrcits'justice is
universally acknowledged ; but, Sir, why' not in' a
Theatre ? why in the name of common ' honesty,
when all ranks of men in the Kingdom, except
Proprietors of a Theatre, are allowed to raise their
prices, are they to• be excluded ? Say the opponents
to the New Prices, Covent-Garden Theatre possesses
. .

a monopoly, and therefore ought not to have raised The ATTORNEI-GENEL,--111'siipport of the pro-
their prices ; give us, say they, a rival Theatre, and secution, said, that a good deal had been urged on
then charge what you • please, but do not advance the ground ot.the frequency of place-advertisements':
till then. I beg leave to submit a few words in an- the fact was, that such
.advertisements were by no
swer to this. If it were right to pay three shillings means common; and though they might appear to w
and sixpence for an admission into the Pit twelve be not illegal On the face of them, when you came
years ago, can four shillings, amidst such a mighty to the enquiry, they could nor appem- otherwise.—
increase of every expellee, be thought too much now ? There wasaiot a single person who did not believe,
One thing is certain, the rise at the Theatre bears , after enquiry at the Defendants' office, that a very
no proportion to the rise in other things ; but it is scandalous sale of offices was going on ; and the ex-. •
said the profits were sufficient, and therefore the tent of the mischief which this impression produced
price of admission ought not to have been raised. was, that all public offices were objects of traffic.
rive as respectable men, I belieire,.as any that are to By this means the Government was brought into
be found at any time in Covent-Garden Theatre, disrepute; and thus the mischiel was effetted. The
have declared,that after having had recourse to every Attorney-General rejoiced in the assertion, that
information, oral and written, they
.are'of a different since the present trial, this traffic, had ceased ; but
opinion. it would not cease if a preventive punishment was
. But suppose them to be wrong,. spew me in all not awarded in the present instance. The Defend-
England, if you can, a single individual who ads, or , ant, Pohlman, the Learned Attorney-Generai con-
who, has aced, upon the principle recommended : tended, was not entitled to indulgence after his pre-
where lives the man, whatever his pryits might have sent evasive affidavit ; as to his not knowing of the
been; who leas not raised his price when the price illegality c-r his proceeding, he urged that illegality,
was raised to him ? Sir; there is no such person : and the proceedings of the House of Commons, as
.Then upon what. prineiple of justice is it that a -an excuse for his not completing his undertaking :
Proprietor of a Theatre is to be singled out from the and as to his regard for an oath, the oath, in the
herd? Is this doing as we would be done unto present instance, • was stated by him to have been
I was .never acquainted with a theatrical-man in only a little trilling oath that the party had not pur-
my life : Ido not know a single individual belong- chased the place; a circumstance which at once
ing to any of the Theatres, but, to see a Play well shewed the Defendant's knowledge of the illegality
steed is a great pleasure to me ; andl am grieved to Of his proceeding, and his connivance at perjury.—,
see those belonging to it- so cruelly ill treated. j The Defendant Pohlman, too, conversed at Mrs.
I remember bearing Mr. Sheridan say " the Harvey's with a third person, who talked about
People of England . were often wrongheaded, but another place, as a qualification for which, the oath
never wronghearted :" generosity is natural to an bad been stiff, but swallowed. When persons who
Englishman : justice, I trust, will ever rule were brought up to receive punishment before his
when he refieds. Let those then who arehow ene- Lordship; defended their conduct' aistead of apolo,
mies to Covent-Garden Theatre pause a moment, gizing for it, they were open to the severest censure.
and-consider whether, ruder all the circumstances, The conduct of the Defendant Keylock had not
the Proprietors of that House have merited all the been so bad, but it was far from being blameless;
sufferings their countrymen have intlided on them.. ' knew what was going on,,•and shaleu the profits.
Your's, ' The Learned Attorney-General could not compre-
A QUIET OLD MAN, bend how their office could be beset from mot ning
u night, as they stated it to have been, and yet no

Nov. 14, 1809.

other instance of the sale of ate office to have ocduraw
red, as they stated it. But supposing all these De-
i'endants swore to be true; the mischief to the public
was done in answorig engotries, by professing to
lmve the ineansvol selling public offices of trust, and
the publ.: mind had in tad been so imt,ressed. As
to the innocence of these De'eridants,
be had to learn till to-day, that tiii,se who kept
houses to decoy prostituttff, were less Wat»abie han
the prostitti•e-s As to the Defendant,
Sarah ,u hose ginit, according to the D.
fel-1(1,1-s of Pfitihnan and Keylock' infinitely exceeded
theirs-, that wti 1)t- the consideration of the. Court.
6ha threw the Odium from herself to Redingi
the prosecution of the Court could be directed. only-
2.r.inst the-artors in 'the affair; and it it were not So
•
it would he in the power, any. •person to place
himself behind, to the evasion of public justice. The
'Learned Attorney-Geaeral wished that Pohlman and
Keylock had stated who applied to them to open an
office for the sale of public places, and what those
places were;• but k was clisinised to think their
whole pretended authority- and. power untrue.
Lord ELLENBOROUGH adverted to an important
document annexed to the affidavit of the Defendant
HarVey, in which 9601. were said to be received by.
Sikes, Snaith, and Co.

Mr, GURNEY.—" %VWCh sum she handed to
Redlng."

.1,061 ELLENBOROUGA....-" She is not implicated
in this; the bearinii lies in three other direction.
Let the several Defendants be committed to the cns•
todv of the Marshaist•a of this Court, and brought
up for judgment on Saturday 'se'nnight.

THE KING V. CLAIiKE.

Mr. RAINS moved tor a Rule to chew cause why
an information in the nature of a Qua if/qiianto
should not be dirk:led, calling' on the Mayor and
Corporation of Liverpool to strew cause by what
aiz-
thorny the Dcleudant, Mr., Clarke, acted as Ma) or
of Liverpool. The choice of -Mayor lay the whsle
body, but it had been customary, that the'Eleaion
might be completed within the d.ay, to carry :t on by
tallies. The two Candidates at the last deEtion
were a Mr. Drinkwater, and the present .D.len:iant.
It was proposed by the friends of the former, in or-
der that no advantage might be taken, that the par-
ties shOuld toss up for the first tally, but Mr.
Clarke's friends opposed this, stating, however, at
the same time, that each should have his turn. They
then proceeded to take the tallies, beginning. with
Mr. Clarke. When at the third tally they came to
Mr. Driukwater's side, his tally not being com-
pleted, they returned to Mr.. Clarke's, which wets
also incomplete. They then requested to return to
Mr. Drink water's, which was now full; but this-
they refdsed, and entering fire inure votes to Mr,
Clarke., made proclatnation of the Election in his
, favour, at the h-ur of twelve o'clock, although the
Eleaion did not commence till ten o'clock.----Rule-
granted.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS.
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 15.

The Court were for a considerable tiLue occupied
in bearing bail justified.

CLIFFORD V. BRANDON.

Mr.,Set-jcant SHEPHERD, for ,the 'D4endant in
this cause, which was an anion for assault and false
imprisonment, on the part of the Plaintiff, who is a
Barrister at Law, against the Delendatit, who is' the
Box-keeper of Covent-G.irden Th.:atre, moved for
a Rule to sne:,v„canse why the action should not be
set aside, upon a variety O. grounds which he had
to plead in justification of the Defendant's contiuct.
-7--F•irst, That the! Theatre was duly licensed ark!
authorised to represent comedies and
.tragedies, and
the Managers to demand such prices as they should
de-ern most expedient, for the admission of an au-
dience to different
,parts of , the house.—Secondly,
That the Plainlid; accompanied by t:aree other per-:
sons, on
.the night stated, did illegally commit a
trespass in: the said Theatre, for the purpose of
obliging the Managers to reduce their prices ) for
that during the exhibition of the farce, the said per•
.
sons did create a disturbance and riot, to the liner-
ruption of the perforMance, sand the, great annoy,
ance. of the peaceable persons there assembled to
enjoy the amusements of the evening ; and that the
Defendant being a principal servant of the house,
did, as he conceived to be his duty, give the Manna
in charge to a Constable, in order to restore and pre,
serve the peace. of the, house, and-j,•event the fur-
ther progress of,riot.—Thirdly, That the Plaintiff
did, on the same evening, instigate many othei per-
sons .by his example to make disturbance and riot!
and to interrupt the performance onkthe stage.
These were the principal grounds of the Learned
Serjeant's ruo.tion. He regretted the necessity ;of
urging sa many different pleas on this occasion but
they were rendered necessary by the different ob=
jeets of the riot and disturbance in question.
Sir. JAMBS MANSFIELD readily granted the Rule
to shew cause, as being the usual mode of proceed-
ing adopted in such cases. His Lordship said, that
he had been given to understand it was the declared
opinion of some learned Counsel; that it 'was lawful
to pull the Theatre to pieces, and even knock the
'.performers' on the head. His Lordship, however,
(dissenting most essentially from this dodrine) ob-
served, that if the Managers, instead of holding dii-
turbers to bail, had brought their a&ions against such
persons as were able to pay damages, the reStatt
would be Widely different from any that bad yet
occurred. •

• Yesterday his Royal Highness the Duke of CAM,
BRIDGE had a grand dinner party at his house in
Berkeley-square.
On Tuesday evening died, at Lansdowne House,
iti Berkeley-square, the Must Noble the Marquis of
LANebowNR. His Lordship was for many months
in a'declining state of health. In-the autumn of the
present year, by the advice of his medical attendants,
he was preparing to embark for Lisbon, to try the
effect t of the temperature of the atmosphere of that
country. Previously to his intended departure, he
visited his favourite Castle at Southampton, and
finding himself daily getting better, he abandoned
his intention of going to Portugal. His disorder v+ as
a liver complaint, to which he had for many years
been subjeti. His Lordship was married a le.w
years since to Lady GIFFORD, but he left no issue.
His title and estates devolve in consequence to his
only brother, Lord HENRY PEE-NY, nvw Marquis of
LANSDOWNE.