The Sun.
London, England, 1812-09-22 00:00:00

The first act of its new .Board of Management
has excited some sensation throughout the litee
circles. .It declares that there n ill 1;e a fair and
-free competition foe an occasional address, to be
spoken on the opening of the newly-erected Thea-7
tie ; a vast number of writers have consequently
tried their. talents, on the subject, and While they
and the public are waiting the deeisibn of that
critical tribunal to which their effusions have been
submitted,, it may no be uninteresting to inquire
what is likely to be the effect, in a literary point
of view, of so open and unqualified .a competition,
and.whether it is to be regarded as complimentary
to the state of poetic composition in.this country
• at the present period. • •
The Committee who are to Aise, from among.
these competition-addresses, one which will suit.
their purpose, must have formed some previous
notions in regard to the manner in which the
Tutatre will be managed. • They must have -de-
cided, in their own minds, whether to make a
bold stand in behalf of the genuine drama, by
presenting, the public with nothing but what is
' classical and elegant ;or whether to- pamper What-
ever absurd taste may rise up, by haying only
such pieces as are profitable and attrr.rti-,.'e. They
must, too, consider that the time'aod attention
which they have bestowed on the concern, their
inf.crumentality in raising ,again the demolished
sauctare and presenting it as a tribute to the
Muses,—entitle,3 them either to a portion, or to
none, of the merit which the public are ever dis-
posed to award to those who provide for them
gratifying entertainment.
Of these preconceived notions the preferred
/- address must say nothing ; or, if any_ thing be
said,' it must be in perfect unison with the views
and opinions of the Committee whatever they are.
This substantiates the opinion, that it will not
be the beauty or brilliancy of the sentiments and
allusions, which will guide the decision of the
judges, but their applicability to, and concordance
with, the ideas Which the Committee have formed,
in regard to the management of their new. esta-
blishment. How erroneous, therefore, is it to
regard this competition as a trial of poetic skill ;
or to imagine that its result will throw any
considerable light on the state of poetic com-
position at the present period. if Gifford had
enlarged the budget of addresses- by a spark of
his classic ,satire and caustic wit,—if Campbell
• had sent some of his strains, full of the true
fire and feeling of poetry,—if Crabbe had con-
tributed his portion of pathetic and natural
description,—or if both. Southey and Scott bad
consented to curb and ehasteo the • wild exu-
berances -of their genius for • the occasion—all
their productions would very pi'obably have been
laid aside, and the- effusions of some minor pen.
accepted. This would -Kaye been too bold and
severe in applying the critical scoar:ge, while that
Would have been too sanguine in'its anticipations;
and too warm in its exaltations at returning sense
and reviving' nature. One would, perhaps, have
too truly toil the degenerated state of popular
taste ; and the other would probably have taken
too high a flight to be able to stoop to pay. 3 pass-
- ing compliment to the exertions of the Com-
mittee. The talents of these great poets would
have been neglected, because their •anxiety for
the dignity and reputation of the genuine
drama had possibly betrayed them-. into some.
sublime (and consequently ir4ppropriate) allu-
sions,into some noble (and of conrse out of place)
sentiments., Poetic excellence would have been
overlooked in, the search after some neat, pretty,
well-t!trned compliment; and manly criticism,
•is feared, would have been passed -by, in an endea-
vour to find out some specious and -ingenious
• apology for complying with' the taste of an au-
dience. Unless the opinions of the several mem-
bers of the Drury-lane Committee, in regard to
dramatic, entertainments as at present conducted,
and as they ought to be. conducted, had been pub-
licly known before hand, it was absurd and idle to
expect any public trial of poetic merit : for a for-
tuitous, rather. than a natural, aptitia*.s; of thought
expressionrail will now bear away the palm ; and
some lucky versifier who may chance to have stum-
bled on the same strain of thinking with his judges,
Will beat down all oppisition, even that of genius
and excellence. •

The decision, however, in this thigular compe-
tition is not yet made known ; and although
Ott has been assumed respecting its result he
warranted by the greatest probability, there is
still a probablity that the Drury Lane addresS
may be every thing but what has been prethised.
It maybe a production of great talent, and it is
within the range of belief to suppose that it may
speak most glowingly and auspicio-iisly of the
future. It may he strong in its reprobation of
the ends 'to which the drama' has of late years
been perierted, and it may exult the exhilirat-
ing anticipation, that genits may again be per-
mitted to return, in all her glo?y, to adorn it; it
may hold out sonic cheering expectation that true
sense and nature will again be- recognised as its
auxiliaries and its guides, and that every fair
scope will lie given to dramatic writers, with a
prelerencetinly towards such as are pre-eminently
classical and elegant.--All thhi the successful com-
petition address may possibly be ; Suchr every
well-wisher to the - Stage will doubtlesS say it
ought to be. • but when We know, to what vile
purposes of private emolument ,and. mercen; ry
traffic the stage has latterly been directed, our
hopes on this. score fade into " airy nothings,"
and we are compelled to stand fast to the present
prevailing opinion among the liberal and judi-
cious, that the Drama, instead of being, as it
ought to be, the corrector of the vices, and the
softener of the grossest passions of the people', has
become the open encourager of the one, and the
insinuating pander of the other.,

The St. -Petersburgh Gazette, of the 3(1 of Au-
gust, contains two letters, the one from the Em-
peror Alexander, and the other from the Empress
Dowager Maria Feodorowna, signed by their own
hands respectively, to General Prince Kutusow,
the Commander-in-Chief chosen by the Nobility
of the Government of St. Petersburgh, for the le-
vies of that province. In the former, the Empe-
ror directs him to express his satisfaction and
gratitude to the Governor, the Marshals, and the
whole Nobility of the city, for the zeal With which
'they have shewil themselves -animated in the de-
fence of their country. • The Empress Dowager,
with her letter, transmits him .50,000 roubles, as
the first payMent of a contributiou of that suns
which she proposes to make annually a 8 long as
the %Val: continues.

From these considerations it will appear, that •
a public competition fOr the Drury Lane address
is by no means beneficial to the cause of litera-
ture : it will,do nothing (though some have said
it will) to the exaltation of ,the national poetic
fame; nor is it a certain or positive means of en-
abling t the Committee to 'open the new Theatre
-.with a composition of merit. It is by no means
complimentary to the known and living poasewrs
.of poetic talent ; for, instead of selecting one
from among theini---as was the case in-Older and
better times.,—putting po.session of the
views and prospects under which the new Theatre..
is to be opened, and then soliciting from him
composition on the subject, the Committee have,
by public advertisement, invited all the coupleteers
in England to turn over their rhyming dictionaries
on the occasion, and have begged—(where it is,
indeed, beggary to ply for praise),;---the a p very d-
. .c
'dicks in the 'waters of Helicon to puthp up the,
-forgotten fragments of their prosing poetics for
this important event, and pOur them all into their
competition budget. Upon the whole, it is really
to be.lamented that the former, and usual course
:Gf proceeding was not adOpted,—that of applying
for this address to some popular poet, of leading
and acknowledged critical powers. The public
would then have p9ssessed tlie certainty, which
they do not now, of seeing the new Theatre open
tv ith a prologue well conceived and expressed, and

That fine regiment, the Royal Ilorse Guards .
(Blue) have tlkiir head-quarters now at Romford,
and their cantonments extending as near the me-
tropolis as Hampstead, preparatory to their
shortly being inspected before going on foreign
service. Such is the ardour of the men in general,
that most of them have solicited to be alis)wed
to go on foreign service, but
.the orders; ,as yet,
extend only 'for two squadrons. Their recruiting
is so successful, that they have rejected many
men at five,feet ten, and more than twenty-one
years of -age. No- Officer can enter the regiment
but as Cornet; many.of their Lieutenant Colonels
have held the yank of Generals in the army.; their
officers seldom leaving them, as promotion is very.
slow. Their Colonels are selected from men of
the highest rank. The Marquis of GRA'ssy being.
at the head of them in his day. Their last Colonel
was the Duke of litcamoNn, and their pres:....nt is
the Duke of NOLTIIUMBERLAND.

Monday, a person was committed to llchester
gaol, for stealing yards of cotton print, from a
shop in that town.• His wife received such a snuck
at his misconduct, that the died the following day
of a broken heart.
The man who murdered the boy belonging to
the Ferry at )3ulwell, Pembrokeshire, was taken
onTuesdayl,iorning by a party of artillerymen, at
Templet-own, on the road to Tenby.

Mr. Grant, 01.:1 ugel7court, Throgmortem-street, '
the proprietor of the articles stolen, stated, that
having got information from, a Mr. Ross, that the
prit:oner had offered for sale some raw silk, which
he had reason to believe was his property, be had
him apprehended: Mr. L. Roas deposed, that he
was a silk dealer ; that sonic short time back the
prisoner: offered to him- for sale a small quantity of
Valencia silk. Suspecting, from the appearance of
the article, that it was part of that which had been
stolen from onboard the Sisters, he questioned the
prisoner closely, tind asked him whether he had
any more for sale. The prisoner said he had none
of his own ; but he knew those who had a large bag
and a trunk full of it, and promised to introduce
him to a man who_ had got it to sell. Witness
kept the sample, and made an appointment to meet
the prisoner the,following Sunday. In the interim
he went to tr.. Grant, and . they concerted a plan
for the purpose- of endeavouring to learn where
the great bulk of the silk was concealed. It was .
agreed, that Ross- should suffer himself to be ap-,
prehetuted with the prisoner, and in the mutual.
confidencd naturally arisiot..; from such a situa-
tion, to endeavour to extract from him the
whole of the secret. Mr. Russ accordingly met
the prisoner on the following Tuesday, and,
after endeavouring to learn from. him where
the large quantity of silk to 'Wliich he alluded
had been deposited, in vain, he gave a signal, an
'Oft:eer entered, and they were both conveyed to
the Poultry Compter. They had not long been
there, however, when Ross's plan was in some
measure defeated by,a boy, who told them not :to
write any letter to lie sent out,-for if they did, it
would be opened and examined. The pristtner,
thus put on his guard, (lid not, although he had
intended, svritelo his friends out of doors. 'Wit- ,
nes's endeavoured, in the course of the day, to in-
dace him to confess who were the persons con-
cerned with hiin, but he evaded his sblicitation.
In the course of the morning some person came
into the yard below their windows, with whom
the prisoner had some conversation'; witness did.
not hear what was said, but on the prisoner ceas-
ing 10 speak with this person, he turned round Kn.l
said, all was moved. off; he did not care. He also'
'said, that
,Edward Hackett, who lived at No. 2,
Lad-lane, had assisted in moving it away the
night before. Hackett,
,who was a servant to a
silk-dealer in "Lad-lane, was -apprehended. He
denied all knowledge of the business, but confess-
ed that be had knowdthe prisoner for some time.
_Upon inquiry, however, it turned out that hehad
heels absent from his master's house for irearly
two hours on-Tuesday night. In accounting for
his -absence, he said he had been to his shoe-
maker's,in Spitalfields, to speak about his shoes;
the shh9ntaker, however, denied most positively
that he had been to his house that night. The
prisoner Beyham, in accounting for the manner
in which the silk he offered for sale had come into.
his possession, said, he met a man some time
hack, at the 'corner of Shoe-lane, who seemed to
be a la.dh r, and who asked him to purchase it,.
and after some bargaining, he bought it for 51.
Eight of the persons charged with bein,, con-
cerned -in, the robbery of the vessel are in cus-
tody, and a, reward of 1501. has been offered for
the apprehension of five others, whose descrip-
tions have been learnt. The quantity of raw silk
found in the prisoner'Beyham's possession only
amounted to 4 lb. 6 oz. He -first asked 41. a pound
for it, but afterwards agreed' to -take 345. -the
pound, which was the real value. •

LONDON: Frinted bv THOMAS WOOD, of N 0.35, Mailen7lane, Covent-gnrden hi and Published by WILLIAM- ARMIGER7SCRIPPS, 'South Moho:
At tke Surf OkFzcE, No. 112, trar.(l., wigere Adveriise.neeints, Order/ for the Poper, Letters for the. Editor,Ac. (post paid), n 1