The Statesman.
London, England, 1809-10-31 00:00:00

.-•,11/1.

COVENT GARDEN THEATRE.
Modern warfare has been peculiarly distleguish.
cd by novelty of tactics—and in the portion of
the Theatrical Cempiign.tbnt bias already elapsed,
thb Martha: and .ojieers.• Of Covent Garden
Theatre hare varied .their ladies sod manzeuvres
as often as any army in Europe. To quell the
Opposition, every trick has been resorted to which
the ingenious imagination of Professor Brandon
and his worthy coadjutors and associates sou'
!suggest. But the system of coerciou having com-
pletely failed, the grand Council of the Theatre
have been compelled to play off another " ruse
vie guerre." The decision .of the Grand Jury of
-Wistreiester, Fctected entirely from the neigh-
bourhood of Covent-garden, has afforded to the
public a complete triumph.— A gaits st Ihosepersotn
who were committed, or held to bail, for using
rattles, horns, whistles, and other instruments,
for the purpose of expressing disapprobation,
true it is, that bills of indictment were presented;
but it is equally so, that they were all-thrown out,
from which the necessary inference is, that the
Grand Jury of Westminster deem the use of horny,
rattles, and other instruments, not less legal than
hissing, hooting and shouting. The Proprietors
can therefore have no hope that the Public will ab.
stain from expressing their future disapprobatioe;
whenever they may sec occasion, by performing un
those instruments, for using which the Proprietors
thought proper to imprison several individuals--
and fur which imprisonments, these same Propri-
etors anti their satellites will be amused by the
performance of divers melo.dranses in the Court
of King's Bench.
The opposition having latterly been confined to
the Pit, the exclusion of all but friends from that
'tart of the House, was therefore the grand
object of deliberation of the Dramatie'.Cuuncil
of War held immediately after 9.7 out of 39
bills of indictment were announced to have been
rejected. To fill, or at least to give.the appearance
of fullness to the Pit, awl to exclude the oppo.
action, was the determination of this Council. To
effect this, for a night or tzzo, there could be no
difficulty, and, as was foreseen and contrived, the
pre-occupation of the Pit at full price, totally
excluded the discontented, %v ho did not present
themselves at flue door, till the eectistomed hour of
half-price—when the word " Full" stared them in
the face, and the facetious dour-keepers compla-
cently assured the numerous applicants for *chills.
sion, that they had turned away two hundred ;no.
ney customers at full prices.
The orders that were issued yesterday are on a
piece of paper about three inches in length, and.
two inches in width. On the top and at the but.
torn are scrawled certain characters, iotdlipible
only to the receivers—in the centre of the order
is a number. By spreading out, the Pit, before
the second act was over, had the appearance of
being full ; but it was obvious to those in the
Upper Boxes that 'lid(' the utmost capacity of
the Pit been tried, aiiont two hundred more
might certainly have found sufficient space. We
minutely examined the company throughout the
house, and venture to assert, that the proper.
Lion of finales in every part was nearly that or
two ferrates to one male. The appearance of
the females was certainly decent an.l RepeCtable,
but they were obviously brought in for the ex.,
press purpose of excluding others. Previous toi
the coninteacement of The Grecian Daughter
Mr. COOL E delivered the fulkuwitse; Address:—
Tern:eh hostile rep so long within these wall
Hs% raised a tempest that var.+, heart appals,
. .
A Female Candidate comes forth t-i-oigat,
•W ho knows your kindness equals all your might.
Hence ou that kindness she e'en now relies.
While the winds roar, and whit( the billows vise;
For whatioe'er may Britons rouse asitear, '
With pride they still protect the -cutler sex.
Bat though our Novice ventures free from dread,
Lest the storm burst on her defenceless head,.
Et when her arduous enterprise she views.

The &lager awn her, and her power sabdinss
For fenr t hat Critics, a terrific train,
Her efforts should reject as rash and vain:
Succew Indeed those eforts oft have hand,'
And Hope has cheered her on provincial angled I
But here, 'cis said, that Jaigusent bolds het seat,
1 And Sages more profosodnod rigid meet;
Well, still she dons to erg. her hwadde pi*
Since Mercy softens ev'ry sten dents..
' Some parts of this address were indifferently re.
oeived; but the packed audience were certainly
1 faithful to the condition on which they were ad.
i milted to the Theatre, and loudly and indiscrimi.
natcly applauded every thing. Mrs. CLARKE, the
3 lady fur whose debut, the clemency of the *soli-
! once was thus implored, received every degree of in-
i dulgence that she could expect or even desire, twilit'
i teeth experienced the general approbation of the
audience. She has, however, yet to appear before the
Public—for to call the last night's stoffioz of the
Pit time PrOlic—were to insult the understandings
of our Readers. The rejection of the company
at the Pit, filled up the chasms that wore obscrv.
ahle before holf.price in the Seven Shillings Galle.
rtes and Pigeon-holes, from whence the vocal dis-
approbation of the company rendered the Flitch
of Bacon inaudible. Front the Pit we did not
hear any expression of disapprobatiou—but to-
waids the conclusion—Off, of'!—acquired some
strength in the loner Gallery. Professor Bran-
don, with his train of myrmidons, paid a
visit to one of the pigeon-holes, from whence
a gentleman had loudly expressed his dim!).
probation of the system of exclusion from the
Pit. One of the gang, who declined the thief°.
•vure. of his name, took no inconsiderable pains to
excite a riot by the liberal application of the gen-
..
'vai.epithet of " liar". to sonic Gentlemen, who
asserted that the Pit had not at any time, during
thiseveniag, hem full. Victory. was about to ensue,
bet the trick was so glaringly obvious, that the
isaraAtioil parties, into the fate of one of whom the'
gentleman rcithout a name thrust his tit, prudently
fratraiocil tiveir indignation. Professor Brandoo
decided the assertion that the Pit was not full. It
is, koweveri bat just to say, that he did not use
soy epithyt inconsistent with the manners of a
aesitlysian. The respectable unknown, on being
1 led en what printiple, authority, or by what he
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THE STATESMAN.

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so grossly misconducted himself, heroically .fe-
plied, " By the strength of this as The gang,
however, retired, and the curtain dropped, not us
is falsely, wilfully falsely, asserted in the simple
IPress,and the trimming Prints, amidst applanse,for
the roar of disapprobation completely overwhelmed
the feeble plaudits- of the wearied pet-limners in
the Pit, who, in truth, seemed so fatigued by
clapping, as to be scarcely ahle to raise their hands
fur the necessary operation of covering their
empty noddles. In less than 10 minutes the Pit
was completely cleared. The judicious introduc-
tion of two passages, formed by opening benches
'from the top to the bottom of the Pit, greatly fa-
cilitates both the exit and the entrance of the
company to that part of the House. Indeed we
have no reserve in expressing our opinion, that it
is the best and most convenient Pit that we have
t 1. seen in any Theatre. We wish that we
could honestly express an equal degree of tads-
faction with respect to the other parts of the
House, some of which are not less contemptible
and incommodious, than the Pit is agreeable and
convenient.
We have forborne to make any remarks on
the performance of the Lady who made her ap.
pearance—becanse the attention is necessarily, at
the present moment, too much diverted from the
business of the stage by the behaviour of the cow-
pany in the House, to admit of minute accuracy or
discrimination. Of themerits of this Lady, our upini-
on is upon the whole favourable, and we shall rejoice
to find that opinion confirmed on her future ap.
pearance. The plaudits on the appearance of Mr.
Youzse, were invariably loud and general. Rut
the appearance of Mr. CHARLES KINIBLZ was as
invariably hailed, nut by a concord of sweet
sounds, but by the delectably mingled harmony
of hisses, shouts, hooting, and clapping in the
Pit.
It is the misfortune of Mr. Charles limbic,
that he is one of the Kenebles. Report, however,
says, that he is such only in name—thus is ex.
emplified the old adage of " Give a dog an ill
name, 4c." lf, as we have heard it asserted, his
scutimeists arc net in unison with those of his ob-
stinate brother and his Ce.proprieturs, we lament
his misfortune in being one of the Kembke—
fur it is to that circumstance alone that he
becomes the object of public reprobation. If it
were possible for Mr. C. Kemble'to convey to the
Public his real sentiments, perhaps his reception
might hereafter be more favourable.
Tho triumph of the Proprietors when they cir.
culated at the doors of the Theatre the Charge of
that great Lawyer, Mr. MAINWAItINO, has been
as transitory as a shadow. They uuforturiatery
forgot that the Charge of the Chairman of the
Quarter Sessions was addressed to a body of men
selected from that part of the bridal' Public in
whom, perhaps, is resident Inure good sense
then ever ea. possessed by an equal number
of individuals—the respectable, middle rank of
Englishmeo. Time law with which Mr. MAIN-
WARING was evidently extraneously crammed,
had no more weight with the Greed Jury than
would have been produced by the, ravings of
Prifessor BRANDON. The Grand Jury eunsi-
&red themselves, as they in truth are, the
Grand Inquest of the Country, appointed by
the Constitution to consider, not wily the
law of the ex-parte cases brought before them,
but as bound to consider elan the justice—the
equity, the expediency, the tendency to tran-
quillity, and the general propriety of sending men
to trial Were a jury of tho country, on new-
fangled charges, for the first time charged as
crimes, and by whom ? fly the Proprietors of a
large Ilou • exclusively appropriated to t.ie
amusement of the People—to silence and crush
which people, an army of brutal ruffians has
been hired. IVho are the complainants ? not the
persons beaten, bruised, maimed, and dragged to
Prison—but the men who have paid Ruffians to
commit these acts of outrage upon the persons of
Englishmen, by whose favour they have amassed
priucely fortunes. The Grand Jury were not to
be led by Mr. MAlNlVAntsu's imperative recom-
mendation to divest themselves of evety feeling
but that of law. Tranquillity is the object of
law; but not that tranquillity which is produced
by the Fist, the Bludgeon, and the Bayonet.
The n imes of the Gentlemen on this Grand
Jury deserve to be immortalized—nor can they
ever Cease to live in the hearts of their fellow_
sakes'. This contest is not a struggle for shil-
lings and sixpences: the question is, whether the
people of England shall be dragooned in the
Reign of King Greece the THIRD, at the
very moment when the blessings of that Reign
are celebrating throughout thc empire by a
Jarbilee. The want of policy and common fore.
sight in the Proprietors is ahaulutsly-seerveffous.
; It is poinible, that the Public might have finally.
t ceased to express their disapprobation had they.
I not been insulted, abused, beaten and imprisoned
—but to expect that the operations of Dutch
Sam, and the tribe of Israel, the Row-street
uglicers, .constables, house carpenter s, and other
ruffians, with Proeessur Brandon at their head,
eau be forgotten by the present generation, is im.
pilling to the people of England a degree of tame
and servile submission, which has never yet
formed a part of their character. Will the Pro-
victors dare any longer to exclude the Public
filen the Pit of the Theatre ? Such et the pre-
sent moment b. the fact. At all events, the s.t 5.
tem cantle: last lung. " Pounds, Shillings,
and Pence," would themselves settle the busi-
ness. On the night when the Theatre opened,
between seven and eight hundred pounds in mo-
ney were received. On the night precediog the
rejection of the bills of indictment, not ens hun-
.dred and forty.
We rejeice to announce the restoration to free.
don, of Richard Draper, whom case we men-
tioued yesterday. lie was discharged, of cerise,
at the General Goal Delivery, no indictment
having been preferred against him—that being
the operation of a statute passed in the time of the
Stewart:, expressly to prevent long tyrannicalims
prisonmetits. But what is the reason that no bill was
preferred against the distributer of the hand-bills,
lie also will perform a part lOthe 3lelo:Dramein
Westminster-Ball. We shall, shortly, furnish our