The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-09-25 00:00:00

THE MANAGER IN DISTRESS.

A NEW COMEDY NOW ACTING IN ALL THE THkATRES OF
FRANCE.
Scene--A1 the chief place in the department of Eu.—The
. ; Cabinet of the Prefet.
(Enter the Prefet and the Manager Of the Theatre.)
Prefet.—lf I have summoned you here, it is, sir, as you ought
to know, in execution of the new law which gives to the prefer
in every department the right of censorship —the preventive in-
spection, I should say—upon the repertory of the theatre, a
right reserved in Paris for the minister of the interior, (draw-
ing himself majestically.) You will conceive, sir, that I repre-
sent here the minister.
. Manager.—Allow me, Mr. Prefet, to say one word. The
law in question, for which I profeiss all the respect it merits, es-
tablishes the censure only so far as concerns new pieces, and
does not apply to pieces that have been already played.
Prefet.—l represent the minister now, sir; it is the minister
who made the law, and he has a right to enlarge it. This• is '
perfectly logical. Besides, fear nothing; we love the dramatic'
art, and will protect you. Let us see, sir, what you mean to
perform this week.' We must have no seditious pieces; take
care, I have the theatre by heart.
Manager.—You will see, M. Prefet, that our repertory of
tragedy, of comedy, of tragic comedy, of opera, of comic. opera,
of vaudeville, and melodrama, is of the most perfectiunocence.
Here is a notice all along,- first, for to-morrow, (Sunday,) the
Merope of Voltaire.
Prefet.—Merope! Is this what you call innocent? An
usurper, whom they have dared to represent—sa usurper!—that
young Egyste—a member of a fallen family, who comes to re-
cover his rights, and is allowed to succeed; and then such
verses as this—
" Is he of any other party but that of your kings?"
And so you would wish to play a piece eminently Carlisle!
Well, as -I love liberty to madness, I permit you to play Merope;
but I a arn you that if there should be the least noise I shall close
your theatre, and that the Procureur du Itoi will invite you to
pay him a fine of 50,000 francs.
Manager.—illy receipts for three months! Just Heaven !
I would rather give up Merope. I meant to give, with the tra-
gedy, a certain comedy of Delaiuval, ( l'Ecle des Bourgeois,)
the School for Citizens-
Prefet.—ln which figures M. Pot de Via; is it not so ?
,Alanager.—Precisely ; a roguish intendant.
Piefet.--I do not see that. He made some small profit, that
is all. This name, Pet de Vin, is an unworthy illusion. If 'De-
lainval were not dead we should send him to Sinamari. The
author not being forthcoming, I confiscate the piece.
Manager.—But.Mr. Prefet-
- Prefet.—lu the name of liberty, not one word. Let us see the
rest. .
Managen—The Impossible Marriage, (la Marriage lmpossi-
' )an inoffensive vaudeville, if ever there was one.
Prefet.—lnoffensive !—a piece of raillery so directly levelled
against a young hero who—sir, your Marriage Impossible must
not be played.
Manager.—Yfia astonish me, Mister Prefet. Yon will Surely
permit the New Lord cif the Village? (Nouveau Seigneur de
Village.)
Prefet.—That you may have it-sung in a full theatre—
"'You are not in your place."
I An incitement to overturn the government, a crime punished
by transportation. Every otie is in bis place in France, sir—
and then a valet who puts on the clothes and assumes the qua-
lity of his master. Infamous work! See further.
Manager.—The. honest Malefactor, (L' Honnette Criminal,) .
by Feueuillet de Faihair, a philosophical and sentimental
drama.
Prefet.—That tends to show. that scoundrels are not always
destined for. the gallows. The hue and cry to your Ronnette
Criminal. What else:
Manager.—My whole repertory will share the same 'fate.
The Cid has been ulreadv censured under Cardinal Richelieu.
Prefet.—That is'no reason. If it were not for the affairs of
Spain we might tolerate the Cid. But that hemistiche—Naea-
reue' Appear, (Parraissez Navarrois,) is an evident appeal in
favour of Don Carlos. Postpone the Cid Until the triumph of
Queen Christina.
Manager.—l give it up for good.
Prefet„—Well, proceed.
Manager.—" Junot, or the Beaten pay the. Penalty," (Junot,
on les battus paient 'amende,) an old piece of Dorvigny. I
hope that this at least is totally unobjectionable.
Prefet.—What that ?—Such an excitement to hatred against
power and against the law of the press! That the defeated
should pay the pet-Catty, "that is good, very good; but this does
not say So. To the next, sir, to rho next.
Manager.—The Pleaders, ( Les Plaideurs.)
Prefet.—How? Another attack upon the paternal law of
Monseigneur Persil—anothei allusion to the proceedings
against the press—a monstrous personification of our supreme
Justice in. the character and name of Master Perrin Dandin,
who would bring everybody to trial. Pass on, pass on.
Managers—Ali, hold, Master Prefet! Here is a work to
which no suspicion can attach (Latude.)
Prefet.—After the two escapes of the prisoners of Sainte
Pelagic ?—a
.—a provocation full of derision against the court—the
most clear-sighted add the most honest of policies—a crying
outrage against its virtuous chief—l prohibit Latude. Is this
the whole of your stock ?
Manager.—Nearly, sir ; have pity on me. If now you pro-
hibit The Dumb Girl of Portici, (La Muette de Portici,)—a
piece corresponding in circumstances with the three days!—
this work of glorious recollections, a sample of resistance of all
official representation in the last six months of 1830.
Prefet.—This was very good then ; at present it is quite the
reverse. Masaniello was an anarchist who deserved to be
brought before the Court of Peers between two Bens d'armes
—I suspend the Muette. What else l
Manager.—Alas! lam come to the end of my repertory. I
go now to close my theatre. Already three-fourths ruined
within these five years, the censure finishes me. Nothing re-
mains for ine now but to throw myself into the river.
Prefet:—Go, sir, liberty does not prevent it.—La Mode.

BALLAD.

BY HENRY ALFORD.
The Baron is back from his hawking come,
At the close of the summer's day :
But the spots of red blood danced over his eyes
That he might not see the nlay--7
And the heavy deep bells were tolling.

The Baron is back to his banquet come,
And hath sat him down to dine;
But his thoughts they ra❑ on the red red blood
That he might not taste the wine—
And the heavy deep hells were tolling.

Now where were ye, sister, when I rode by ?
For ye were not in your bower:—
Oh I was chasing 'a bright butterfly
That flew from flower to flower—

Where the summer rose-buds were blowing.
And where were ye,
_sister, when I rode hack ?
For ye were not i❑ your hall:—
Oh I was watching the large sun set
From off the castle wan--

When the yellow wall-flowers were closing.
whole:were. ye, siater,--at mid of night?
V-o'r ye were not laid asleep:
Oh I looked for love of the pale round moon
In the moat so still and deep—
When the loud night-birds were singing.
The Baron looked over the castle trees
At the turning of the sun;
And the Lady wailed and tossed' her hands
As she would never have dune—
For her own true-love she's weeping.
The Baron looked over the dim churchyard
As the moon was oit the wane;
And that Lady lay by a new-turned grave,
She never may rise again—
With her own true-love she's sleeping.
Now up, thou Baron of Taunton tower,
To the holy cloister flee ;
For thou bast slain the truest pair
In all the West countree.
And the heavy deep bells are tolling.

THE CHARACTER OF OTHELLo.—Othello must not be con-
ceived as a negro, but as a high and chivalrous Moorish chief.
Shakspeare learned the character from the Spanish poetry,
which was prevalent in Eng And in his time. Jealousy dues
not strike me as the point in his passion. I take it to he rather
an agony, that the creature whom he had believed angelic, with
whom he had garnered up his heart, and whom lie could not help
still loving, should be proved impure and worthless. It was the
struggle not to love her. It was a moral indignation and regret
that virtue should so fall. "But yet the pity of it, layo—O,
layo, the pity of it, logo!" In addition to this, his honour was
concerned. logo would not have succeeded but by hinting that
his honour was compromised. There is no ferocity in Othello—
his mind is majestic and composed. He deliberately deter-
mines to die; and speaks his last speech with a view of show-
ing his attachment to the Venetian state, though it had super-
seded him. I repeat that Ido not think there is any jealousy,
properly so called, in the character of Othello. There is no pre-
disposition to suspicion, which I take to be au essential term'in
the definition of the word. Dc:sdeiriona very truly told Emilia
that he was not jealous—that is, of a jealous habit; and he says
so as truly of himself. lago's suggestions, you see, are quite
new to him. They do not correspond with anything of a like
nature previously in his mind. It Desdemona 'had in fact been
guilty no one would have thought of calling Othello's conduct
that of a jealous man. lie you'd not act otherwise than he did
with the sights he had; whereas, jealousy can never be strictly
right. See how utterly unlike Othello is to Leotttes iu the Win-
ter's irale, or even to Leonatus,. in Cynil,eline. The. jealousy of
the first proceeds from an evident trifle, and something like
hatred is mingled with it ; and the conduct of Ler•natns in ae-
ecptieg the wager, and exposing his wife to the trial, denotes a
jealous temper already formed.—Cult-ridge's Table Talk.

THE MAURITIUS

TO TIE !EDITOR' OF TU GLASGOW coultinn

SlR,—Allow me, through your columns so frequently the ad-
vocate of the cause of the unjustly calumniated, persecuted, and
oppressed, to notice, as shortly as I can, the infanious and the
false accusations which have lately been so boldly and so pub-
licly brought forward against the colony of the Mauritius, of
&illegal importation of slaves to the extent of 20,000, 40,000, and
by the more hardy even 50,000, as has been advanced in various
publications. The polluted and mischievous sources from
whence the-se statements emanate are so well known that lam
astonished that any thinking man can give credence to them for
a moment. Mr. Jeremie, and Mr. George Stephen, the solicitor
for the Anti-Slavery Society, are so well known in the history
of the colonial controversy, that it requires merely to point them
out as the chief circulators of such statements,,, to have them
scouted and disbelieved.

To their,false'statements, and the exaggerations arising from,
these, I shall oppose simple and official facts, which I defy;
either of them, or any one of their numerous dupes and cham-
pious, to contradict or deny.
The slave trade was abolished by Great Britain on the Ist of
January; ,The island of Mauritius, and its dependencies,
were captured by Great Britain in • January, 1811, till which
period the slave trade was not uulaWful in them. According to
Sir Robert Farquhar's despatch—" Mauritius, Jan: 80,'1811;"
to Lord Liverpool, (see par. pap. 295 of 18260 the island of
Mauritius contained, in 1809, 60,000 slaves, from 7 to 60 years
of age ; and forlBll, according to his despatch, " 28th July,
1812," 59,734, within the same limits as to age, exclUsive of the
population of the Sychelles, and its other dependencies, then ex-
ceeding 6000. According to the report of the Commissioners.uf
Inquiry into the Receipt and Expenditure of Colonial Revenue,
(par. pap: No. 194 of 1826, p. 20,) the slave population of the
Mauritius, between 7 cud 60 years of age, and exclusive of the
Sychelles, stood, by the tax-rt;lls, as under, viz. :

1811 . * 61,918
1812 60,817
1813 61,365
1814 • ...62,927 '
1815 62,927, &c.
The number of the births in the seven years preeeditag Vl-
ceeded 13,000. -A. return which I have for 1827, when the re-
gistration was more perfect, gives for the Mauritius and its' de-
pendencies 75,78/ In this important return the ages are dis-
tinguished for distinct periods. There stood as follows :
Under 6 years of age
Above 60 1661

Together
This, in the same ratio, would bring the total number in the
Mauritius, by Baron Unienville, colonial archievest, the number
of slaves taxable in the Mauritius, (I select from his list ex-
teisding from 1767 till 1826,) was, in the undermentioned years,
as follows :--

, Number. Imported. Births. Deaths.
1809....67,310 1100 2039 2243
1810....68,177 600 2065 2272
1811.-68,556 None. 2077 2285
1812....67,677 None. 2050 2255
1813....67,336 None. 2040 2241
1814.-66,791 None. 2024 2226
1815—.66,406 None. 2012 2213
1816....66,123 None. 2003 2204

In 1812, 863 were imported under license from Governoi Far-
quhar, from Tamatave, Madagascar, as legal private property,
upon the abandonment of that settlement, previously belonging
to the government of the Mauritius.
In 1816, after the registration law came into operation, the
number rose to near 80,000, because every slave, of whatever
age, was included; and because the law, at first not being well
understood, and carrying confiscation of property for not regis-
tering, the number was raised beyond the real number by differ-
ent persons having iuterest in the same slaves—each registering,
these separately, as was also done in the West Indies at the
commencement of the registration laws, but which subsequent
registrations, and a clear exposition of the law, corrected and
put right.
In 1811, then, there must have been in the Mauritius and its
dependencies, slaves, of all ages, to a number exceeding 77,000;
and yet, with this fact before him, General Hall, the original
author of all these fabrications, dared to assert that (see letter to
Lord Bathurst, 28th May, and June 16th, 18100 there were in
the Mauritius 40,000 more slaves than were registered,, (the
number returned that year was 80,015,) meaning thereby to in-
sinuate that so many had been illegally imported. The number,
however, as we have seen, was, and must have been, above the
number previously stated, becaus9 it was well known that at that
time many slaves were omitted to be returned, in order to' evade
the heavy poll-tax that was levied upon them ; and the law at
the period mentioned was not severe upon delinquents.
The number of slaves iu the Mauritius and Svchelles, being
then, in 1811, say 78,000, the number on the Ist of August, 1831,
or rather Ist of February, 1835, is, according to the official re-
turn received by the Slave Compeusation Commissioners, 68,613
—a decrease of 9000, sufficiently accounted for (ruin the disparity
of the sexes, which was always great in that island—the number
carried off by the small pox and cholera in 1817, &c.,—the con-
siderable nuither freely emancipated, by government and by
private individuals, since the former period, and about 3000,
which, according to Lord Glenelg and Lord Rippon, in the
House of Lords, were wrested from them, and set free, under
seizures, on account of suspicion of illegal importation.
That some attempts were made to smuggle slaves into the
Mauritius in 1816 and 1818, is,.l believe, true; but in looking
over the parliamentary returns connected with these subjects, I
cannot find a greater number even supposed to be illegally im-
peded, and these almost all seized either at the time of the at-
tempt, or shortly after it, than about 700. If any more were
introduced, the numbers were so small, (it was quite impossible
there could be many, because the way they are stated to have
been introduced was by one and two at a time, in vessels trading
to Madagascar,) and they are so mixed with the rest of the slave
population that they could not be discovered even after recourse
had been bad to the most arbitrary and inquisitorial proceedings
'and acts—acts: which the British government were obliged to
check and to condemn, and which even Judge Smith refused to
sanction or participate in. The colony of the Mauritius, more-
over, was the port where all the slaves, captured in the Indian
Ocean, were taken to and liberated ; and I find from official
returns that the whole captured from IEIIS to 1826, whether
French or English, were, British 1260, French 790, all of whom
were apprenticed as the law directed ; and from the same official
sources I learn that the number of

Apprentices on the 21st Dec., 1828, was 4674
Children of ditto 362
Apprentices whose time was out
Do. refused to return to their masters

Do, discharged by do. 6
Thus both the number captured and condemned, and appren-
tices, are fully and fairly accounted for, and thus all the
hideous and vindictive accusations against the Mauritius fall to
the ground.
The inhabitants, in answer to these changes, told, the govern.
meat to punish, and that they never screened or would screen
the guilty, but not to punish a whole people for partial and fic-
titious crimes. The authors of these fabrications are well
known. I hold in my hands receipts from some of the loudest
of the accusers, for the hire of the apprenticed Africans, which
they hired out contrary to law, and pocketed the money; and
hired them, too, as their own receipts express it, as their own
staves! The profligate hypocrites !
' The history of feremie's hatred against the Mauritius is as
well known as General Hall's. Both 'shOuld remain silent.
Jeremie was sent out by a domineering faction to do that in the
Mauritius which neither law, justice, truth, nor honour could
warrant being done. Strange as he might think it, I could tell
him, were it now of any use to do so, the most secret part of
the work he was sent to do. He fail.ed. The blow' recoiled
upon the heads of its authors, notwithstanding that influence
which procured the keeping in thit country, fur upwards of eight
months, the order in council of 1831, for all the crown colonies,
and after it had been duly proclaimed in Demerara and Trini-
dad, that he might have time to begin his operatious—kept back
till a question put in the House of Commons late in 1832
brought out the acknowledgment of the disgraceful fart.
Jeremie, I repeat, failed in the intended and projected sweep
over the Mauritius; and then the colonial office, to screen
itself from odium, threw him and others overboard; and he now, '
to make peace with government, is ready, or has, as I have
been intormed, left others in the lurch, and whom be had in-
volved in his fall. It may be well for Jeremie and some others
to expose the conduct of the colonial office. In that' uarter,
they may take their range and their will ; but what have the unfor-
tunate people of the Mauritius to do with these squabbles?
Why should they suffer where others only are to blame—they
who were actually the victims destined to the sacrifice ? Jere-
mie is wrong to attempt to injure, calumniate, and defame the
inhabitants of the Mauritius at the expense of truth and justice
—a population which, as a conquered, ceded, and
.retained
' British colonial possession, is entitled to the same protection
and privileges which every other British colonial possession re-
ceives, and is entitled to receive. Jeremie must remain silent.
Ilis bitter malignity has returned on his own head. He returns
to the Mauritius no more. The shade of the injured General
Stewart bids him betake himself to straightforward courses—
bids him beware! He is a man whom every British colonist
ought to despise and to scorn—their bitterest foe!
I have no ambition to appear before the public, but you are
welcome to give my name to whoever may require it.—lam, &c.,
Glasgow, 17th September, 1835. Tau.' H.

Some of our. .contemporaries hare indulged in.much minute
criticism about the proprietv.of selecting, for the celebration, of
the third cenienary of the rabrmation, the year in which Covei-
dale completed abroad the first English edition of the entire
Scriptures, because the Bible did not for centuries after Wards
acquire that free circulation contemplated by its.tranalation into
the vernacular tongue. This is like quarrelling with parents
for keeping the birthday of their first-born son, instead of wait-
ing for the opportunity of commemorating with suitable honours
the period when he shall come of age. Cloverdale's translation
was the foundation and chief corner-stone of the glorious edifice
of our protestant civil and religious liberties. More too was
accomplished at the time than the objectors are willing to allow.
The prinCiple of the right of the laity to possess and peruse the
sacred volume was publicly recognised. Fur it seems probable
from the dedication itself, that the translation was permitted to
be read by the people. At all events that permission very
speedily received the royal sanction. Fulke relates, that when
Coverdale's translation was finished, and presented to 'Henry,
he gave it to Bishop Gardiner and others to examine;, who kept
it so long, that at last the King had to call fur it himself.
"When they delivered the book, he demanded their opinion of
the translation. They answered, that there were many faults
in it. Well,' said the King, 'but are there any heresies men-
tioned in it ? replied, 'There were no heresies they
could find.' If there be no heresies,' said Henry, 'then in God's
name, let it go abroad among our people.' It is matter of his-
tory also, that in the following year, 1536, a royal injunction
was issued to the clergy to provide in every parish church in
England, a look of the whole Bible, both in Laten and also in
English, and lay the same in the quire for eeerye man that will
loke and reade thereon."—Watchman.

ARTESION Wxu.s.—Much light has been thrown of late
years on the theory of springs,_ by the boring of what are called
by the French "Artesian Wells, ' because the method has long
been known and practised in Artois; and it is now demonstrated,
that there are sheets, and in some places, currents of fresh water
at:various depths in the. earth. The instrument employed in
excavating these wells is a large auger, and the cavity buract is
usually from three to four incites in diameter. If a hard rock is
met with, it is first triturated by an iron rod, and the materials
being thus reduced to small fragments or powder, are readily
extracted. To hinder the sides of the well front falling.ini as
also to prevent the spreading of the ascending water into the
surrounding soil, a jointed pipe is introduced, formed of wood
in Artois, but in other countries more commonly of metal. It
frequently happens that, after passing through hundreds of feet
of retentive soils, a water bearing stratum is at length pierced,,
when the fluid immediately ascends to the surface and flows over.
The first rush of th,i water op the tube is often violent, so that
for a time the water playsiike a fountain, and then sinking, con-
tinues to flow over tranquilly, or sometimes remains stationary
at a certain depth below the orifice of the well. Th,s, spouting
of the water in the first instance is probably owing to the disen-
gagement of air and carbonic acid gas, for both of these have
been seen up with the water.—Lyell's Geology.

The North Salopian Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry, under
the command of Sir Rowland Hill, Bart., will assemble, for
Permanent duty, on the 29th instant,- at Whitcharch.—The
South Salopian regiment, under toe command of the Viscount
will assemble, in Shrewsbnry, on the same day.