following year a hideously unintelligible play called Zingis, forced upon Garrick by a 'distinguished officer in the India service,' and by Garrick forced nine nights upon the public, as to which the same process again took place, under resolute protest from the gallant author. 'I think 'it very unnecessary,' he said (and being a stronger man than Goldsmith he carried his point), 'to submit the 'tragedy to any man's judgment but yours. I know not 'in what manner Doctor Goldsmith came to a knowledge 'of this transaction; but it is certain that he mentioned. 'it publicly last night at Ranelagh, to a gentleman who asked me in a jeering manner, What sentence the com'mittee of critics had passed on my play?'

Such was the state of affairs, and of feeling, between Garrick and Goldsmith, when a piece of news came suddenly to their knowledge, in no small degree interesting to both. Beard's uncertainty as to his own and his father-in-law's property in Covent Garden had closed at last, in a very unexpected arrangement. Early in the May of this year Colman's mother (who was sister to Lady Bath) died, leaving him a legacy of six thousand pounds; and this strengthened him for a step, of which it is probable that Garrick, in a letter already quoted, threw out the first brooding germ. They had but patched and darned their quarrel; and on the occasion of a comedy by Colman from Voltaire (The English Merchant) produced in this preceding February, new rents had shown themselves. Meanwhile it was reported that two men of mere business, named Harris and

Rutherford, were in treaty with Beard; but another rumour was with greater difficulty believed, that successful inducements had been thrown out to Powell, notwithstanding his habit (according to his own letters) of teaching his wife and children to bless Garrick's name, to withdraw him from his Drury Lane engagements and enlist him in hostility to Garrick. 'I have not always met with gratitude ' in a playhouse,' said the latter, while Powell's gratitude was overflowing; and here was an illustration of it quite unexpected. There is no reason to doubt the interest which, in the midst of all his jealousies of temperament, the great actor had evinced for his young competitor. From a narrative which necessarily throws into prominence the weaker points of his character, it should not be omitted that he really loved his art, and desired always to see it advanced in esteem. Make sure of your ground in every step you take,' had been his advice to Powell. The 'famous Baron of France used to say, that an actor should 'be nursed in the lap of Queens; by which he meant that the best accomplishments were necessary to form a great actor. Read at your leisure other books beside plays in ' which you are concerned. Do not sacrifice your taste and 'feelings to applause: convert an audience to your manner, 'do not be converted to their's.' It was ill return to find Powell now secretly deserting to the camp of the enemy! 'It is impossible that it should hurt us,' he nevertheless wrote to his brother, with a sense that it would hurt them visible in every line. If Powell is to be director, we have

reason to rejoice; for he is finely calculated for manage'ment. What a strange affair! We shall know all in 'time.' He knew more when he next wrote, and was less able to comprehend it; but protested that every body would be surprised at the ease and little concern he should manifest on the occasion, and proceeded to give his brother amusing proofs of equanimity. 'I am sure there is something in it, and

yet the more I think of it, the more I am puzzled. Who 'finds money? what is the plan? who are the directors? 'Damn me, if I can comprehend it! but I shall know more. 'I have not the least notion of their doing anything to give < us one moment of uneasiness. What! has Holland no 'hand in this? Is he hummed?' Holland, though a young actor in the same walk, and of ambitious expectations, had a most romantic friendship for Powell; had first introduced him to Garrick; had surrendered parts to him which at the time were understood to be his own; and, strangely enough, while the sudden death of Powell was matter of general regret in less than two years from this time, himself very suddenly died. But he had not the means to join Powell in such a scheme as the present, and the doubt of Powell's own means was a very natural one on Garrick's part. The money required, as he had himself before stated, was sixty thousand pounds, of which Harris and Rutherford contributed half; and with whatever reason he questioned Powell's tact for the management, his inability to supply the money he might at any rate rely upon. But even he seems as little to have known what a fashion his

handsome young rival had become, without as well as within the theatre, as that in two short years this fashion, and its attendant dissipation, would claim their victim. Eleven thousand pounds were advanced towards Powell's share in the patent, by the means and intercession of a famous beauty; and Colman, having added to his mother's legacy by a loan from Becket the bookseller, consented to supply Powell's ignorance of management, and become purchaser of the fourth share. The matter was finally arranged; another important desertion effected from Drury Lane in the person of Yates and his wife (an exquisite, gentle actress, though Kitty Clive, in one of her letters, objects to her habit of 'totering about to much, and flumping down 'to often'); and the agreements signed; before Garrick again wrote from Bath to his brother. He was now uneasy enough. Powell is a scoundrel,' he said, 'and Colman 'will repent his conjunction in every vein. I hope to 'God that my partner has not talked with Powell of any agreement, or a friendly intercourse between the houses; 'that would be ruin indeed! I cannot forgive Powell.' His partner, Lacy, had so spoken, and had indiscreetly promised a continuance of friendship; which Garrick at once withdrew; and exacting, as he had a perfect right to do, Powell's bond of a thousand pounds forfeited by the breach of his engagement, he brought over Barry and Mrs. Dancer to Drury Lane by a bribe of £1500 a-year, and openly prepared for war.

From the Yateses, with whom he was well acquainted,

Goldsmith probably heard of all this while in progress, naturally with some satisfaction, and made immediate overtures to Colman. By midsummer, Powell being in Bristol, and the other two partners abroad, Colman was in the thick of his new duties; and, fortunately for Goldsmith, being left to make his preparations alone, his first acts of management (as he afterwards stated during his disputes with his fellow patentees) were to engage Macklin, and accept Goldsmith's comedy, ' without consulting Harris and Rutherford, as he knew 'not where to direct to them.' Very creditable, in all its circumstances, was this manifestation of sympathy on Colman's part to an untried brother dramatist; and Goldsmith, though so wearied already with his dramatic experience as to have resolved that his first should be his last comedy, might fairly think and rejoice, for others if not for himself, that dramatic poets were likely for the future to have a protector who would decline taking advantage of their dependant situation, and scorn the importance derivable from trifling with their anxieties. The words are in a letter he addressed to Colman, which now lies before me; which was found the other day among the papers of Colman's successor at the Haymarket; and of which I present a fac-simile to the reader, who will not fail to observe that the handwriting is somewhat steadier than when Goldsmith last appeared at a managerial bar. A man's handwriting is part of himself, and helps to complete his portraiture.