The Sun.
London, England, 1832-09-21 00:00:00

The following is a covy of the Report of the
Committee of the House of Commons which ,it
last Session, for the purpose of inquiring into the
state of the laws affecting Theatres and dramatic
literature in general :
" 1. In examining the state of the laws affecting the
interests and exhibition of the drama, your Committee
find that a considerable decline, both in the literature of
the stage, and the taste of the public for theatrical per-
formances, is generally conceded. Among the causes of
this decline, in addition to those which have been alleged,
and which are out of the province of the Legislature to
control, such as the prevailing fashion of late dinner
hours, the absence of Royal encouragement, and the sup-
posed indisposition of some religious sects to countenance
theatrical exhibitions, your Committee are of opinion that
the uncertain administration of the laws, the slender en-
couragement afforded to literary talent to devote its labours
towards the stage, and the want of a better legal regula-
tion as regards the number and distribution of theatres,
are to be mainly considered.
" 2 In respect to the licensing of theatres, your Com-
mittee are of opinion that the laws would be rendered
more clear and effectual by confiding the sole power and
authority to license theatres throughout the metropolis
(as well as in places of Royal residence) to the Lord
Chamberlain ; and that his—the sole—jurisdiction should
be extended twenty miles round London (that being. the
point at which Magistrates now have the power of li-
censing theatres for the legitimate drama). And as your
Committee believe that the interests of the drama will be
considerably advanced by the natural consequences of a
fair competition in its representation, they recommend that
the Lord Chamberlain should continue a licence to all the
theatres licensed at present, whether by himself or by the
Magistrates. Your Committee are also of opinion, partly
from the difficulty of defining, by clear and legal distinc-
tions, ' the legitimate drama,' and principally from' the
propriety of giving a full opening as well to the higher as
to the more humble orders of dramatic talent, that the
proprietors and managers of the said theatres should be
allowed to exhibit, at their option, the legitimate drama,
and all such plays as have received or shall receive the
sanction of the censor.

" 3. Your Committee believe that the number of
theatres thus licensed (although they might be more con-
veniently distributed) would suffice for the accommoda-
tion of the public, in the present state of feeling towards
theatrical performances, and also for the general advan-
tages of competition ; at the same time, as theatres are
intended for the amusement of the public, so your Com-
mittee are of opinion that the public should have a voice
in the number of theatres to be allowed. And your Com-
mittee would, therefore, respectfully submit to the House,
that if a requisition signed by a majority of the resident
householders in any large and populous parish or district,
be presented to the Chamberlain, praying for his licence
to a new theatre in the said parish or district, the Cham.
berlain should be bound to comply with the public wish.
Your Committee are of opinion, that all abuse in the ex-
ercise of the licence thus granted would be effectually pre-
vented by leaving to the Chamberlain the power of apply-
ing to the Home Department for the summary suppression
of any theatre which may have notoriously outraged the
conditions of its licence, or the rules of public decorum.
" 4. Your Committee would also recommend, that the
Chamberlain should possess the same power for the
summary suppression of any theatre,
.exhibiting any sort
of dramatic representation without the sanction of his li.
cence ; considering, that as the public can procure the
licence if it approve the theatre, so any theatre not licensed
would probably not be less opposed to the desire of the
public than to the provisions of the law.
"5. With respect to the licensing of plays, your Com-
mittee would advise, in order to give full weight to the
responsibility of the situation, that it should be clearly un-
derstood that the office of the censor is held at the discre-
tion of the Lord Chamberlain, whose duty it would be to
remove him, should there be any just ground for dissatis-
faction as to the exercise of his functions. Your Com-
mittee would recommend some revision in the present
system of fees to the censor, so (for instance) that the
licence of a song and the licence of a play may
not be indiscriminately subjected to the same charge;
and this revision is yet more desirable, in order
to ascertain whether, in consequence of the greater
number of plays which, by the alterations, proposed by
your Committee, would be brought under the control of
the censor, some abatement in the fees charged for each
might not be reasonably made, without lessening the pre-
sent income of the licenser.

" 6. In respect to the exclusive privileges claimed by
the two metropolitan theatres of Drury-lane and Covent-
garden, it appears manifest that such privileges have
neither preserved the dignity of the drama, nor, by
the present administration of the laws, been of much ad-
vantage to the proprietors of the theatres themselves.
And your Committee, while bound to acknowledge that a
very large sum has been invested in these theatres, on a
belief of the continuation of their legal monopoly of exhi-
biting the legitimate drama, which sum but for that be-
lief would probably not have been hazarded, are neverthe.
less of opinion, that the alterations they propose are not
likely to place the proprietors of the said theatres in a
worse pecuniary condition than the condition confessed un-
der the existing system.
" 7. In regard to dramatic literature, it appears mani-
fest that an author at present is subjected to indefensible
hardship and injustice; and the disparity of protection
afforded to the labours of the dramatic writer, when com-
pared even with that granted to authors in any other
branch of letters, seems alone sufficient to divert the am-
bition of eminent and successful writers from that depart-
ment of intellectual exertion. Your Committee, there.
fore, earnestly recommend that the author of a play should
possess the same legal rights, and enjoy the same legal pro-
tection as the author of any otherlegal production; and that
his performance should not be legally exhibited at any
theatre, metropolitan or provincial, without his express
and formal consent.
" 8. By the regulations and amendments thus proposed
in the existing system, your Committee are of opinion that
the drama will be freed from many present disadvantages,
and left to the fair experiment of public support. In re-
gard to actors, it is allowed, even by those performers
whose evidence favours the existing monopoly, that the
11 more general exhibition of the regular drama would afford
new schools and opportunities for their art. In regard to
authors, it is probable that a greater variety of theatres at
which to present, or for which to adapt, their plays, and
a greater secutity in the profits derived from their success,
will give a new encouragement to their ambition, and,
perhaps (if a play is never acted without producing some
emolument to its writer), may direct their attention to
the more durable, as being also the most lucrative, classes
of dramatic literature ; while, as regards the public,
equally benefited by these advantages, it is probable that
the ordinary consequences of competition, freed from the
possibility of licentiousness by the confirmed control and
authority of the Chamberlain, will afford convenience in
the number and situation of theatres, and cheap and good
entertainment in the performances usually exhibited.
" The following is a list of the Committee :—Mr. Ed-
ward Lytton Bulwer, Mr. Lamb, Earl of Belfast, Mr.
Sheil, Mr. Galley Knight, Mr. Stanhope, Mr. John Stan-
ley, Mr. Ellice, Mr. Evelyn Denison, Lord Porchester,
Mr. Lennart], Mr. Mackinnon, Mr. Gillon, Mr. William
Brougham, Mr. Alderman Waithman, Mr. Jephson, Co-
lonel De Lacy Evans, Mr. John Campbell, Mr. Henry
Bulwer, Mr. Duncombe, Lord John Russell, Sir Cherie,
Wetherell, Sir George Warrender, Lord Viscount Mahon.
" Among other witnesses the following were examined
before the Committee :—Thomas Beaucott Mash, Esq.,
Mr. John Payne Collier, Mr. Charles Kemble, Mr. Sa-
muel James Arnold, Mr. G. Colman, Mr. George Bolwell
Davidge, Mr. Edmund Kean, Mr. William Dowton,
Mr. John Brehm, Mr. David Osbaldiston, Captain John
Forbes, Mr. W. Thomas James Serie, Mr. Peter Francis
Laporte, Mr. Samuel Beazley, Mr. William Charles Mac-
ready, Mr. David Edward Morris, Mr. Thomas Morton,
Mr. Charles Matthews. Mr. Thomas Moncrieff, Mr. John
Poole, Mr. Richard Brinsley Peake, Mr. J. R. Planche,
Mr. James Kenney, Mr. E. W. Elton."

TIIE HARVEST.—The harvest in this put
of the country is now nearly completed, and from all
quarters we receive accounts of the extraordinary magni-
tude, and fineness in quality, of the crop, exceeding any-
thing ever recollected. During the past week there have
been a few Leavy showers of rain. We cannot hear of
any mischief they have dune in this neighbourhood, but
we observe that some of our provincial contemporaries
make heavy complaints. But such cecaplaints often arise
from interested motives.—. initehavtn herald,