The Sun.
London, England, 1824-03-04 00:00:00

LICENSING OF PLAYS.

In the year 1737 the Bill was brought into
Parliament, agreeably to the provisions of which
no new dramatic piece can be exhibited without
the license of the Lord Chamberlain. It passed
almost silently, except on the part of Lord Ches-
terfield, who strongly opposed it. His Lordship's
speech was eloquent and forcible. He regarded
it as a measure of very extraordinary and dan-
gerous nature—as a restraint not on the licen-
tiousness merely, but on the liberty of the stage,
and as tending to a still more dangerous re-
strai►►t o❑ the liberty of the Press, which was
intimately and inseparably connected with the
general liberty of the subject. The laws, as
they then stood, were sufficient for the sup-
pression of immoral or seditious performances.
The best, indeed the only mode of avoiding pub-
lic ridicule and censure, was to avoid ridiculous
and vicious actions ; for the people will ►►either
ridicule those they love and esteem, nor suffer
them to be ridiculed. " I admit, my Lords, the
stage ought not to intermeddle with politics ; but
for this very reason, among others, I object to
the Bill before us; for I fear it will be the oc-
casion of its meddling with nothing else. It will
be made subservient to the politics of the Court
only. We know that Dryden, the Poet Laureat
of Charles the Second, made his wit and genius
subservient to the designs of the Court. When
the second Dutch war was in contemplation he
wrote his Auboyna, in which he represents the
people of Holland as avaricious, cruel, and un-
grateful. When the Exclusion Bill was moved for,
he wrote his Duke of Guise, in which the zealous
and persevering friends of the liberties and reli-
gion of their country were treated as a faction,
leagued for the base purpose of excluding from his
lawful rights a Prince of a heroic character,because
adopted a creed different from theirs. The
peculiar province of the stage, my Lords, is to ex-
pose those vices and follies which the law can't
lay hold of ; but, under the restraint of an ar-
bitrery license, it will be entirely perverted from
its proper use. To a man bred in the habits of
a Court, that may appear to be a libel against the
Court which is only just and salutary satire upon
its vices and follies. Courtiers are too polite
to reprove one another: the only place where
they can meet with any just rebuke is a free,
though not a licentious stage. But by this Bill,
instead of leaving it what it was, and always
ought to be, a " scourge for fashionable vices,
it will be converted into a channel for propagat-
ing them throughout the kingdom." Such
were the opinions of a very eminent man up-
on this Bill. Amongst the dramas rejected
under this Act were Gustavus Vasa, written by
Brooke (the author of The Fool of Quality),
Mustapha, by Mallet, and the Edwin and Eleo-
nova of Thompson, all tragedies. It is curious
to observe that the Chamberlain did not seem
so much to dread the satires on the Court vices
or follies, as the effects of these declamatory ex-
hortations in favour of general freedom. The
exercise of the restraint in those three instances
caused a great sensation in the literary world.

The continuance of this Trade in.the hands of
Foreigners gives to the Powers engaged in it tii•e
monopoly of the markets of Europe,in thesupp.l7
of raw, clayed, and refined sugar, :
The continuance of this Trade may, frOnithe
perpetual interference on our party Occasion SOonar
or later a war between this Country
Powers engaged in it.
The continuance of this Trade exposei-thts
Country to an expence annually of several .hutt=
drerl thousand pound,, viz.—
In the Bounties on captured Slaves to Officers of the Navy,
Governors and others.
In the support of a Navy on the coast of Africa and in:the
West Indies for this exclusive object.
In the subsisting the captured Slava.
In the subsequently disposing of them, as apprenticed, .and
when that term is expired, and of Commissioners for inquiring
into their condition.
In the support of the Establishment at Sierra Leone,
(30,000 annually) and on the African coast.
In the expence of Commissions at Sierra Leone Hayannah,
Rio Janeiro, and Surinam.

Independently of 400,000/. paid to Spain and Portugal for
illegal captures, an expence which is likely annually to be in.
curred to an extent which must depend on circumstances.
The Slave Trade is now More flourishing than
in other times, and the hold of a slave ship is,
compared with the same place in British ships,.
a disgusting scene of filth, disease, and death.
If the party called " Anti Colonists" are really
and truly in earnest—if his Majesty's Govern-
ment care about being believed to be in earnest
—they have a clear, simple course by which they
will, in 18 months, abolish the Slave Trade—
Save the expence of a navy for this object—of
bounties—of burthensome Colonies—(l meati
Colonies such as Sierra Leone, that export no
produce, to employ and pay for British industry
at home)—of commissions of arbitration—of en•
quiry—of indemnities to Government for spolia-
tions on their subjects, and a train of other
charges.

We are tired of and have long laughed at the
expensive humbug (to use a modern expression)
of foreign negociations on this subject, which have
been carried on for the last ten years, and have,
prod uced—friendly assurances—but an increase
of the Slave Trade, admitted by the naval au-`
thorities to exceed, viz., 50,000 annually ; in our,
time it never exceeded 30,000.

The remedy is a simple commercial regula-
tion, following the example of France and Hol-
land—fas est ab Haste doceri—by a bounty simi
lar, and on tl►e same principle, as that given by,.
those countries in order to undersell our sugar, -•
to do so likewise. By a bounty not so great at
the expence annually incurred in preventing the
Slave Trade—by a bounty of 300,000/. per an-
-num out of a revenue of four millions received
on sugar, you would make the Slave Trade to.
Foreigners not worth carrying on. You would
turn the commercial weapons against the rivals •
of this country. The Government would by a
master-stroke of commercial policy, enable the
British Merchants to undersell the Foreign Slave-
Traders, and prove that the interest of the coun-
try had a stronger influence than the love of pa-
tronage, a feeling which the anti Colonists
cherish and benefit by, and not the Ministers.
You would promote industry among the refiners,
and increase trade and commerce.
We may be told, " the days of bounty are
gone by :" the Ministers may say, we advocate '-
free and liberal principles,—we have advocated
the abolition of bounties,—and we know that if'
we give a bounty, the Governments of the con-
sumers will lay a countervailing duty, and thus
throw the bounty on the British subject; and the •
sum of 2 or 300,0001. will operate as a useless
sacrifice of revenue." This is fallacious—it is
not true in practice. The Governments of the •
consuming countries have not laid any such duties
in contravention of the bounties given by France
and Holland on refined sugar. But what has
our own Government done in respect to
the United States of American—they laid re-
strictions on our shipping—we laid an additional
duty of 10 per cent. applicable to American trade
with the West Indies. What is this policy ?
That of retaliation, and why not retaliate on
France and Holland, by giving a bounty on re-
fined sugar exported ?
When the anti-Colonists, when his Majesty's
Ministers, shall have done this, the people will
believe them to be in earnest as to the Abolition
of the Slave Trade, because, by so doing, they
will effect the object and benefit the industry or
our country.

MR. OW EN

AND THE PHRENOLOGISTS.

TO THE EDITOR or THE GLASGOW CHRONICLE.

SIR-I have just received the second number
of the Phrenological Journal, in which is given
what is called " A Phrenological Analysis of
Mr. OWEN'S New Views of Society."
Where the learned writer of that article found
this new view, I know not ; certainly not in any
of my writings, for in its most essential principle&
and practical details it bears no resemblance
whatever to the plan which I recommend.

And I solemnly protest against such a com-
pound of folly, absurdity and immorality being
given to the public for a system, the sole object
of which is to improve the moral and intellectual
powers, and to increase the happiness of man, not
by these wild imaginary flights of fancy, but by
well-devised, judicious, practical measures, found-
ed on a correct knowledge of the nature of mans
and upon the experience of his past history.
ROBERT OWEN,

New Lanark, 26th Feb., 1824.