The Sun.
London, England, 1826-02-07 00:00:00

BY 140 RD BYRON.

When I belonged to the Drury-lane Committee,
and was one of the Stage Committee of Management, the num.
ber of plays upon the shelves was about five hundred. Con-
ceiving that amongst these there must be tome of merit, in per-
son and by proxy, I caused an investigation. Ido not think
that of those which I saw, there was one which could he con-
scientiously tolerated. There never were such things as most
of them. 3laturin was very kindly recommended to me by
Walter Scott; to whom I had recourse, firstly, in the hope
that he would do something for us himself, and; secondly, in
my despair, that he would point out -to us any young or old
writer of promise. Muturin sent his Beriram„ and a letter
without his address; so that at first 1 could give him no answer.
When I at last hit upon his residence I sent him a favourable
answer, and something more substantial. His play succeeded,
but I was at that time absent from England. I tried Coleridge,
too, but he had nothingy, feasible in hand at the time. Mr.
Sotheby oblingingly offered all his tragedies; and I pledged my-
self, and, notwithstanding many squabbles with my commit-
teed brethren, did get /ran accepted, reach, and the parts distri-
huted. But low ! in the very heart of the matter, upon seine
' tepidness on the part of Kean, or warmth on the part of the
author, Sotheby withdrew his play. Sir J. B. Burgess did
also present four tragedies and a farce, and I handed. them I
to the Oreen.room and Stage Committee; Inn they would
not do. Then the scenes I had to go through ! The authors
and the authoresses—the milliners and the wild Irishmen—
the people from Brighton, from Blackwell, p
fromclkwaulln,dee_
, wChloiateaharnme,
from Cheltenham, from Dublin, from
in upon me!—to all whom it was proper to give a civil
answer, and a hearing, and a retuling. Mrs. Glover's father,
an Irish dsneing-master, of sixty years, called upon me
to request to play " Archer," dressed in silk stockings on a
frosty morning, to show his legs (which were certainly good
and Irish for Ida age; and hail been still better). Miss Emma
Somebody, with a play entitled the Bandit of Bohemia, or
some such title or production; Mr. O'Higgins—then resident
at Richmond—with an Irish tragedy, in which the Protagonic
was chained by the leg to a pillar during the chief part of
the performance. lie was a wild man, of savage appearance,
and the difficulty of not laughing at him was only to be got
over by reflecting on the probable consequences of such a
cachinnation. As I ant really a civil and polite person, and
do hate giving pain when it can be avoided, I sent them up
,to Douglas Kinnaird, who is a man of business, and suffi-
ciently ready with a negative, and left them to settle with him ;
and as at the beginning of next year I went abroad, I have
since been little aware of the progress of the theatre. Players
are said to be an impracticable people. They are so; but I
managed to steer clear of any disputes with them, and ex-
cepting one debate with the elder Byrne about Miss Smith's
pas de=-something (I forget the technicals), I do not remem-
ber any litigation of my own. I used to protect Slim Smith
because she wall like Lady Jane Hurley in the face ; and like-
nesses go a great way with she indeed. In general I left
such things to my more bustling colleagues, who used to re.
prove me seriously for not being able to take such things in
hand, without buttoning with the histrionians, and throwing
things into confusion, by treating light matters with levity,
Then the Committee—then the Sub-Committee—we were but
few, and never agreed. There was Peter Moore, who contra_
dieted Kinnaird ; and Kinnaird, who contradicted every body.
There were two managers, Rae and Dibdin, and our secretary,
Ward—and yet we were all very zealous, and inearnesttio dos
good, and so forth. Hobliouse facornuillmelegdileunsc we. ith prologues
to our revived old English plays, but was not pleased witi us
for complimenting him as the " Upton" of our theatre (Mr.
Upton or was, the poet who writes the songs for Astley's),.
and almost gave up prologuizing in

By ad vices from Bombay of the ltitlr of Sept.;
the Simpson, the Gloriosa the Bombay Castle, and Caledonia,
had been taken up for an expedition to Cutch, at 45 rupees per
ton a month. The Simpson Wll3 expected to return to Bombay
the end of October, and load for London. The Calcutta was
to sail from Bombay for Liverpool the 1d of October.