The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-05 00:00:00

CANADIAN LAND AND EMIGRATION.

The annual general meeting was held yesterday
at the London Tavern, Mr. H. Montgomerie in the

chair.

The report stated that the directors had adhered
very closely to the estimated expenditure for the
year. The amount at the debit of road making was
decreased, claims to a much larger amount than the
expenditure for the year having been allowed by
the Crown Lands Department. Although the
sales of land during the past six months had been
somewhat less than that for the first half of the
year, the directors trusted that, as the settlers were
thriving and found markets for their produce at
remunerative rates, the coming season would at-
tract purchasers to the company's land. The sale
of timber in Guildford produced an amount con-
siderably above the estimate of its value. The re-
ceipts from sale of land and timber, &e., in 1867,
amounted to £2,350, and the expenditure to
£1,858, the balance being carried forward.

The CIIAIR➢iAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said the sale of the land owned by the com-
pany had not been so great as they could wish.
The settlers on the estate were doing well, and
when the advantages of the locality became better
known settlers would be attracted to it, and the
land would then realise a good profit.

The report was adopted, and a vote of thanks to
the chairman closed the proceedings.

ERIE.

The traffic receipts on this company's line for the
month of January amounted to $1,031,320, and for
the same month of 1867 to $918,556, showing an
increase of $112,761.

PLAY BILLS OF THE PAST.

"Come like shadows, so depart."-31ACIIETII.

The old man comes over us as we review the
Play Bills of the Past," already published in this
journal, and taken at random, as they have been,
from a most extensive collection of some thousands
courteously put at our disposal. by a distinguished
amateur. These bills possess an interest far more
deep than the mere cast of characters at a certain
date, which might be derived from many of the old
and even modern acting editions of the British
Theatre, as they show the exact state of the matters
theatrical, and how things were done in the days to
which they refer; but to come to the subject, and
dive " in mall. Ls res." In the year 1785—two years
before the birth of E linand Kean, whose worthy
son we have lately lest—we find " Douglas" played
at the Theatre Royal, Liverpool, the first (or one of
the first) play his sail son appeared in in London,
in 1828, at the age of 17, now 40 years since,
nuking an 83 years' interval; so that it is probable
no man living can remember the night the bill held
in our hand was sold at the Liverpool pit door by
the orange woman or other invariable attendant at
such portal. To the theatrical amateur all these
reflections and a thousand others will occur. Of
Mr. Whitfield, who played the principal character,
Young Norval, we have nothing to say, because we
&now nothing—though no doubt he must have been
a man of some eminence in his profession to satisfy
the tastes of a Liverpool audience, who have since
sent us such men as Charles Young, Rae, Vanden-
' hoff, Stuart, Barry Sullivan, all of whom served
their apprenticeships there--to say nothing of 'John
Cooper, G. V. Brooke, James Wallack, and others,
who may be said to have come from the same
practice-ground. We see by this bill that even in
those remote days men would leap (by means, we
suppose, of a rope) from balcony to balcony, ascend
in " tremendous showers of fire," and could produce
the Chinese shades, with skeleton scenes, we
imagine, after the manner of the chamber of petri-
faction, believed to have been invented by old
Astley, reminding us that there is nothing new
ander the sun. But depart we to metal more at-
tractive. IVe find by the next bill published, that
on the 23d August, 1786, "King Henry the Eighth"
was produced at the said Theatre Royal, Liver-
pool, written, as we are told, by Shakespear—
we give the spelling of the great dramatist's name
as we find it,—Cardinal Wolsey by Mr. Kemble,
then in his 29th year, with all the vigour and
nobleness of one formed to grace the stage. This is
82 .years since, and yet how fresh come on our
minds the names who assisted the great actor in
this one of his greatest parts—viz., Barrymore,
Quick, Jones, Mrs. Crouch (with a song), Mrs.
Mattocks, &c. ; but this freshness is the recollection
of these great names twenty years after the evening
in question, when they were fixtures on the boards
of the patent theatres in London. Pass we now to
the year 1814, memorable for the introduction of
Edmund Kean and Miss O'Neill to the London
stage; a year during which, perhaps, a greater
number of fine actors were employed at the various
metropolitan theatres than ever before or since.
Our bill of this date presents us with the opera of
" Artaxerxes," thus supported at the " Theatre
Royal, Covent-garden :" Artaxerxes, Miss Rennell ;
Artabanes, Mr. Incledon ; Arbaces, Mr. Sinclair ;
Rimenes, Mr. Treby ; Mandane, Miss Stephens;
Setnira, Miss Carew. We question if what may be
called an English opera has been at any other time so
strongly cast—certainly not by artistes all " native
here and to the manner born," as were the whole of
the above, a'id most certainly not for finer voic:s.
Who does not remember (be he or she old enough)
the manly notes, round, resonant, and mellow from
the chest of Incledon? Who the delicate timbre and
sweet wire-drawn falsetto of Sinclair? Who the un-
exceptionable voice—a pure soprano—and faultless
execution of Kitty Stephens, as she was en-
dearingly called by her enthusiastic admirers ?
We may truly say " We shall not look
upon their like again." We have heard
one Titan in the vocal world remark of Incledon,
that he was blessed with as fine a voice
is ever mortal inherited." Yet this artiste him-
self certainly possess ed one of greater compass and
power, and his name was John Braharn ! Truly,
•' there were giants in those days." Bat we cannot
;ingor with oar 1111.3iCal friends above name 1, as we
nave to chroaicle from the s time bill, this—the first
season of " The Miller and His Men," with Bishap'e
" When the Wind Blows," a.rgund that the great
Rossini sang the motive ,out of compliment to
our countryman on his. introduction to him
Paris,--showingin at once that he knew
the English composer's music, and be-
lieved in it. Our old heavy friend Farley
played Grindoff ; Vining, the Count ; Liston, Karl ;
Miss Booth, Claudine. Nothing could be better,

we
but still we may not dwell on these names, for

have as great in their vocations to follow on the
same evening, viz., those of our old favourites Gri-
maldi, Bologna, and Ellar, in the pantomime.
Here is an evening's entertainment to ruminate
over, and ask managers who talk now of powerful
casts to look "on their picture and on this ;"
whilst it must further be remembered that John
Kemble, Emery, Fawcett, and others were re-
tained in the Covent Garden company this season.
Next in our list comes a bill of the Exeter Theatre,
26th December, 1811, when was presented the
celebrated play (so descrP)ed) of " The Curfew,"
but of which—though we believe our knowledge of
dramatic literature ranks high—we must confess
we cannot call to min I either the author or a line
of his drama. One thing, however, we do know,
which is, that Edmund Kean—the great Kean—
then 24 years of age, played in it a character
called " Fitzharding, Leader of the Banditti ;"
and after the melodrama—for such we sup-
pose it was—the same great actor,—great in all
he did, a genius iu everyaing,—played harlequin
in a pantomime called '' The Judgement of Paris."
We had heard of Kean's having done such things,
but never witnessed them ; nor did we ever s.;cl a
bill, until the one we now discourse of, in which
his name appeared as Harlequin. We know also he
had ridden at a circus, but this too we had not seen,
and we can imagine, when he worked thus his hardest,
he would have but an uncertain salary of about
£3 per week. Think of this you " great" music hall
drudges of the present day, who earn your £2O per
week and champagne, a beverage the majority of
you certainly never would have known the taste of
had you been on any other boards! Well, " eat,
drink, and be merry," we do not blame you, however
worthless ; it is no fault of yours you are not pro-
perly appreciated, but that of the public, whom it
seems to us you in
°some measure lead by the
nose and are permitted to educate. But we digress
for no worthy object. Vividly can we picture to our-
selves Kean playing the romantic part of the leader
of the Banditti, young, full of fire—extravagant

if you will—but terribly in earnest in all he did.
Unrestrained by the chill of a critical London au-
dience, the performance of such a character as this
by Elmund Kean must have been a wonderful,
chivalric, dashing piece of business, that no words
can pourtray. Kean, then an enthusiast in his pro-
fession, emulative, active, and untiring—a thorough
master of his sword, both in stage play and earn-
est, could and did arrange such combats as were
never before or since seen on the boards.
They might in truth be called terrific. Who does
not remember the fights in " Tekeli," Richard III.,"
and " Macbeth," all diametrically different and cha-
racteristic of ,their epochs, but all equally great,
and apparently savagely real,—his attitudes, every
one in the succession of lightning, being a study,—
his deaths, each a picture. We need only in-
stance Richard striking, and almost biting,
at Richmond to the last gasp, the serpent-like
crawl of Macbeth towards Macduff, to re-
mind those who have seen and raise the
envy of those who have not seen these startling
displays.

" There's a language that's mute ;"

and this was the language of Edmund Beau's great
death scenes. It was not written, but portrayed;
and his author, could he have seen Kean work out
his stage direction, " dies," would have, like our-
selves, acknowledged the effect we have very weakly
endeavoured to describe. Poor Kean !

" We could write on this theme,
Until our eyeballs would no longer wag."

But this is not now our vocation. We are called
to the wing for the " Fifth Act," a pleasing though
melancholy one, which is that of chronicling the last
appearance but one of Mrs. Jordan on the Liverpool
stage in 1310, where she was an especial favourite.
Of course, it may be said, " Where was she not ?''
Well, we will pass over the cause of the leave-taking,
and merely remark this particular night's perform-
ance, having been asked ab3ut it by a correspondent,
and fortunately able to print the bill—a very
interesting one. " The Child of Nature," as we
shall ever remember Mrs. Jordan, on the
evening in question played Belinda in Murphy's
" All in the Wrong," and the never to be tired of,
never to be forgotten "Nell" in " The Devil to
Pay." The beautiful beaming face, the ringing
silvery laugh, the impulsive passionate acting of
Mrs. Jordan, will ever be remembered ia these and
other parts she made her own. Her choral lips com-
pressed, her bewitching glance, her hands placed
t.)gether by the tips of the fingers (her favourite
attitude for an exit), lur figure of unre-
strained grace, which could not take an unbecoming
bend, all combined to make her the natural
—not goddess? not queen? but —child of comedy.
We have seen more imposingly beautiful women on
the stage. We have seen, for instance, Miss Foot'
Miss Mellon, Mrs. Robinson, Miss Chester, Dirs.
Nisbett, and Mrs. Stirling ;

"And could not flatter if we would,
A face se fair, a heart so good."
We have seen Vestris, Honey, Murray, and all the
stage beauties of half a century. Yet we say (re-
fraining for obvious reasons from particularizing
those who at present grace the boards), without
fear of contradiction, the unadorned, spon-
taneous—so to speak—fascination of Mrs. Jordan
—" was an alarum to love," possessed by no otbeC
actress—and so consoling ourselves with a glance'
at her sweet dimpled face in a likeness " rarissi-
mus," we close the notice of this our fifth " Plar
bill of the Past."—Racing Times and Amateur Dra-
matic Chronicle.