Star.
London, England, 1826-02-06 00:00:00

LORD BYRON'S STAGE MANAGEMENT.

When I belonged to the Drury-lane Committee, and
was one of the Stage Committee of Management, the
number of Plays upon the shelves was about five hun-
dred. Conceiving that amongst these there must be sonde
of merit, in person and by proxy, I caused an investiga-
tion. Ido not think that of those which I saw, there
was one which could be conscientiously tolerated. There
never were such things as most of them. Maturin was
very kindly recommended to me by Walter Scott; to
whom I bad 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. Maturin sent his Bertram, and
a letter without his address; so that at first I could give
him no answer. When lat 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 nothing feasible in hand at the time. Mr.
Sotheby obligingly offered all his tragedies; and I
pledged myself, and, notwithstanding many squabbles
with my committeed brethren, did get Iran accepted,
read, and the parts distriboted. But, lo !in the very heart
of the matter, upon some tepidness on the part of Kean,
or warmth on that of the author, Sotheby withdrew
his play. air J. B. Burgess did also present four tra-
gedies and a farce, and I handed them to the Green-
room and Stage Committee ; but 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' Blackwall, from Chta-
ham, from Cheltenham, from Dublin, from Dundee;
who Ca= in upon me !—to all whom it was proper to
give a civil answer, and a hearing, and a reading. Mtn.
Glover's father, an Irish dancing-master, of siXty years,
called upon me to request to play " Archer'," dressed in.
silk stockings, on a frosty morning, to chew his legs,
(which were certainly good and Irish for his ag-, and
had been still better). Miss Emma Somebody, with a
play entitled the Bandit of Bohe►nia, or some such title
or production; Mr. O'Higgins—then resident at Rich-
mond—with an Irish tragedy, in which the Protagonist
was chained by the leg to a pillar during the chief part
of the performance. He was a wild man, of savage ap-
pearance, and the difficulty of not laughing at him was
only'io be got over by reflecting on the probab e con-
sequeuces of such a cacrunnation. As lam 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 sufficiently 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 excepting one debate with the elder
Byrne about Miss Smith's pas de—something (I forget
the technicals), I do not remember any litigation of my
own. I used to protect Miss Smith, because she was
like Lady J 3ne Harley in the face ; and likenesses go a
great way with me indeed. In general, I left such
things to my more bustling colleagues, who used to
reprove nee seriously for mit being able to take such
things in hand, without buffooning with the Histroni-
ans, and throwing things into confusion by treating
light mitters with levity.
Then the committee—then the sub•committee—we
were but few, and never agreed. There was Peter
Moore, who contradicted Kinnaird; and Kinnaird, who
contradicted everybody. There new two Managers,
Rae and Dibdia, and our secretary, 'ard—and yet we
were all very zealous, and in earnest to do good, and
so forth. Hobhouse furnished us with prologues to our
revived old English plays, but was not pleased with us
for complimenting him as the " Upton" of our theatre,
(Mr. Upton is, or was, the poet who writes the songs for
Astley's)and almost gave up prolog uizi lig in consequence.

Saturday, a deputation of G sidemen connected with
the Silk Trade, waited by appointment upon Llrd
LIVERPOOL, at Fife House, where they met his Lord-
ship, the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, the PRE-
SIDENT and VICE-PRESIDENT of the BOARD Of TRADE,
and Mr. HERRIES, the Secretary of the Treasury., for
the purpose of receiving an answer to certain reports
which they had delivered respecting the &tate of the
Silk Manufacture of the country, as compared with
that of the Continent. Messrs. Gino/4, HALE, JAMES,
BELL, BALLAPCE, MORSE, Woi.t.Rst, &c. attended.
After an inteicourse of more than two hours, during
which the various topics connected with these Reports
were fully and amply discus.ed, with various degrees
of success, as far as regards the present admission or
postponement of foreign
.manufactured silks, the depir•
tation received the unqualified answer of .Lord
LtvaA-
POor. and Iris 'colleague', that they sate no re 'son
ever tor recommend ng th Paili.tment the postpone
ment of the .ntrocictwn of foreign wrought silks be-
yond the sth of July bext.
An Eliglish oni.rn will love yots;a Scotch woman
will co wrse with pm, and an,lrkl• worn in will fight either for
too or wall you, accor•ling *to ear, mtttnces.