The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-08-20 00:00:00

, tllfl I STATMIAN.

!

THEATRICALS.

•
--ear— •
The Managerinf the Haymarket will do well to remem-
ber...the danger of being " weary of well doing." The
brilliant success of this Theatre, has been deserved by the
constant production of exquisite novelties. .The revival of
the Africans is not in keeping with the past tans, of the
management. it has been threadbare fur years. We ima-
gine, it would be a very difficult thing to find a prototype
in nature for a savage, labouring under a sort of senti-
mental Hippochondriasis—a melancholy foreboder of
mischief like .Yelieo, whom Mr. Commit bad to
represent. He sustained the character with consi-
derable effect, however, but failed in one or two pas.
sages where he attempted to cart y all beford him,hy the
use of those abrupt transitions, which, when sparingly and
judiciously introduced, operate scr powerfully on the midi
ence. Mrs. CHATTERIEY could not do otherwise than
make an interesting Befits°, and Mrs; C. JONES played
and sang very prettily as the black .girl Sulfa. Her duet
with LISTON, who, of course, played Mr. Henry Actuates
Muff, the ivory turner, from Snow-bill, and Secretary of
State to his Mending. Majesty, wa.s loudly encored. His
Majesty, after depopulating and devastating the conntry of
his peaceful neighbour.. having occaaion to moralize on
the evils of war, was represented byour old friend Air: Pore,
who did him ample justice. We must not forget Mr. VINING'S
31(111160o which he played with great spirit,nor Miss Horce's
Darin° in which maternal affection was well ponrtrayed.
Mr. HORGEROW played Torribal, well enough in some
parts, but in•others be was wide of his mark. Felten's&
was well done by Mr. Williams; and Mr. WTNNE delivered
himself very well as Daneare. Mr. HAMMOND'S caricature
of Marrowbone was laughable, as the author intended it
to be. Mr. YOUNGER, also, acquitted himself well as the
benevolent priest Farulho ; but nearly all the principal
performers betrayed a want of perfectness in their parts,
which was very palpable.
- - -

We were happy to see the exquisite little Comedy of
Simpson and Cu., translated from Drury-lane to this thea-
tre. It was, in fact, a remove to the native soil —and all the
points of genuine Comedy, in which it abounds, told with
a ten-fold farce, by the approximation of the actors to the
audience. We prophesy it will be a standing treat for the
rest of the season.

Mrs. Glans, ever lively and ever young, was the repre
sentation of Mrs. Simpson, and lost nothing by a compari_
son with the original. Miss CHESTER, was Mrs. Davison's
substitute, and she had youth, beauty, and all its attendant
charms upon her side. We are determined to sea it our-
selves, as often as it is performed.

MR. UItAIIANI'S BALLOON.
The Right of this abortive production was of very short
duration, it having fairly grounded at Stamford hill,
about four mites from the place of its ascent. l!s weight
owing to its size and the material of which it was made,
was more than tsso and a half hundred weight greater than
the silk balloon by %Odell 31r. Green ascended. Although
it had been exhibited for a week at the Pantlian, it had
only been filled with atmospheric air, and was found, at the
critical moment of trial, Rat altogether impers:aus to the
superior subtlety of the gas, the copious escape of a hich
was painfully experienced by all present. Under these cir-
cumstances, nothing. hut a rapid supply of the requisite
quantity of gas could have ensured even a partial success.
(lad the tube employed on sips occasion, been of a larger
calibre, so as to defy by the rapidity of supply, the counter-
acting op-ration of the escape, there is no question, but the
scheme of Monday last would not have failed, and
the public would have been gratified by the as-
cent of the aeronau-s, although not without con
siderable risk to themselves. The lists Company to
prevent, if possible, disappointment to the public, continued
the supply of gas near an hour longer than the time stipus
awl until the moment that some persons connected
with the balloon released it, by unfastening the cords; and
it appears that more than double the necessary quantity of
gas was drawn from the works, which would ,mt nave been
the case had the balloon been composed of tnaeriala capa-
ble of retaining gas. All these circumstances, with the in•
formation given yesterday at White Conduit 'louse, dis-
prove any scheme f t disappoint or defraud. TheLindlord, it
scrota, has asserted that Gentlemen had come forward on
the behalf of Mr. Graham to guaran-ee the ample repara•
tion of himself anti neighbours for the damage dune to their
premises and property. And it is also said that it is in
contemplation of 31r. G. to ascend shortly in a balloon dif-
ferently constructed, when he will endeavour by some means
to make good his late deficiency to those who were the in-
dividual losers on account of it. The dilapitlations at
White Con kit. House are very great. Not only is the ex-
ternal paling torn down to the length of 150 yards, and the
railings which surrounded the detached shrubberies in the
garden are completely demolished, but trees are torn
up by the roots, and the glass panes of tt.e summer-house,
to the number of upstart's of 130, are entirely smashed.—
Mr. ficAlisin is an ingenious man' who has previously
profitteil by his inventions, acid resides, we understand, at
the Pantheon, where the public exhibitions of balloons may
have probably suggested to him the idea of the late enter-
prize.
- •

Amongst the various claimants for recompence upon this
occasion is the toaster of a brick field adjoining the pre-
mises, in which incalculable mischief has been done. Of
the rows of onburnt bricks, how many were trodden or
broken into the state of their original clay, we cannot pre_
tend to account ; but we are told, and verily believe, that
many stately mansions were on this awful occasion stran-
gled before they saw the light. During the many howls
that the populace had to wait for the destined boar of dis-
appointment, among the various pastimes in which they
engaged, that which partook of the nature of the mil.tary
skirmish or sham light seemed to be the favourite. The
mania for brick throwing spread far and wide, and the flan•
gerous missile was every where seen in fearful elevation
through the field. Various, and in some instances, ludi-
crous, were the groups engaged in this novel warfare. In
one quarter a row of unfinished houses in the carcase were
occupied by those curious to witn•ss the great attraction of
the day. Here a fierce contention raged between those who
occupied the chimney heights and the ground below. Vic-
tory
was, is this case, soon declared in .favonr of the
former, who, although less numerous, were too well
posted to be dislodged by their humbler enemy. In an
other part of the well contested field (brick field be
it remembered) a party headed by a chimney-sweep
wes hotly engaged with another under the command
of a son of Mars, who bore all his blushing ho-
nours on him. The dire effects of this contention were
not confined to the combatants only—many innocent
spectators, upon neat al ground, were invited to paricip.ite
in the field exercise of the disputants by the salutation of
blows which brought many to the ground and inflicted
some very ugly wounds. flow this might have terminated we
know not, bad not the general attention been turned to the
fate of the balloon, and thus given a new and even more
mischievous direction to the predominant spirit. We bars
already described the alarm excited' in the Hardens by the
fierce attack wade upon the fence. The Tavern inmates
fled in the greatest confusion and precipitation without
stopping to pay their reckoning ; and nothing less was ex-
pected by the proprietors than the total destruction of them-
selves and their hnilding. Many of those who tell into the
hands of the police, to the number of 20 or 39, were yester-
day disposed of at the different police offices.

Mr. William Fri►r, a butcher, of Great Missenden, has
a sow only thirty months old, which calved for the second
time a few days ago, having in boils cases carried its young
the fall term prescribed by the l►ws of nature.