The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-20 00:00:00

THE ROYAL DRAMATIC COLLEGE.

' Our readers will remember that a public meeting
was held at the Princess's Theatre on the 21st of
July last to receive an offer of five acres of freehold
, land on which to build houses for aged and infirm
members of the theatrical profession—a dramatic
college in fact. Mr, Henry Dodd, by whom the
land was offered, was represented on that occasion
as a gentleman of large property and a truly bene-
volent heart, so kind, indeed that he desired never
to be known as the generous donor whose
praises were to be chronicled throughout the
land, and who had only been induced to give
his name by the repeated requests of the
provisional committee which had been formed
to organise the proceedings and to obtain funds to
erect the houses and provide pensions for the occu-
pants. Mr. Dodd, it was further stated, had also
promised to build a hall, to form the centre of the
intended dwellings, and to add one hundred gui-
peas to the fund•for general purposes. Much more,
• indeed, Ras apukcii of as the probable result of his
' great wealth and charitable disposition; but to
, the land, hall, and money only wae ho di.tlnetly
) pledged. There were two conditions annexed to
his offer, viz., that the public meeting should give
evidence of a desire to provide homes for worn-out
members of the theatrical profession, and elect
four trustees to receive a conveyance of the
land; this done, the laud was to be con-
veyed immediately and unconditionally. The
meeting responded to Mr. Dodd's demand in a
manner which must have been very delightful, even
if he was only enjoying a joke at the expense of
" the poor player."
For three months the committee patiently await-
ed the deed of conveyance, and not until the middle
of October did any expression of anxiety on their
part receive other answer than that the benevolent
gentleman had a way of his own as well as a will,
and that he must be allowed to ride his hobby
after his own manner. At length a draft was pro-
duced of such a preposterous length that it might
have been supposed a number of ingenious lawyers
had been trying how many conditions it was possible
to. cram into one deed of gift for five acres of land.
This deed and its conditions the provisional com-
mittee declined to accct as a performance of the
promise made by Mr. Dodd ; and subsequently
several other drafts containing conditions equally
numerous and equally absurd, were received. At
length the executive committee, digusted with
this paltering, called a special meeting, to lav
the facts before it. Mr. Macphail attended, and
made the same speech he had delivered at
several previous meetings, but convinced no-
body that he had spoke to the purpose. The
result of the special meeting was a call upon Mr.
Dodd to complete an unqualified conveyance of the
land on or before Tuesday, the 14th inst., and an
intimation that in the event of his not doing so, a
public meeting should be called to receive a state-
ment of the facts, and to authorise proceedings to
be taken to establish the college without his aid or
assistance. To this many members of the com-
mittee objected, thinking that he had taken quite
time enough, and several of them offered liberal
amounts towards the purchase of land. The ma-
jority, however, yielded to the desire that he should
be allowed the option of compliance before a public
meeting was called on the subject.
At a meeting of the committee, held on Saturday,
two long letters were read, one from Mr. Dodd,
containing many excuses for not having transferred
the land, and refusing to do so without conditions ;
the other from Mr. Macphail, attempting to prove
that nobody was able to arrive at a proper conclu-
sion but himself. In consequence of Mr. Dodd's
default several other offers of land have been re-
ceived. The " poor player" need have no fear that
the haven of rest held out to him will. be any
longer " Like to the baseless fabric of a dream.”—
Observer.