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Critique on the Blackamoor Washed White.

their difapprobation of a language and opinion which for feveral days had prevailed both within and without doors, that every idea of drawing a revenue from America, in order to alleviate the burdens incurred by defending that country, was given up as inexpedient if not totally impracticable. If this were to be the cafe, they very fairly declared, that fince the object in conteft was abandoned, they could never think of voting their money away to no purpose.

The Minifter affured them, that it was never the intention of administration to relinquish that just claim of the mother

country.

Feb..

He had all along steadily kept it

in their view, and as foon as they loft fight
of it, in his opinion there would be no-
thing left worth contending for; he had not
a fingle doubt on his own mind, that the
commercial fupremacy of Great Britain
could never be either efficaciously or benefi
cially exercifed, but in the fhape of a tax,
which ought to be fo framed as to preferve a
juft proportion, not only to the prefent ftate,
but future abilities of America.

The question was put at ten o'clock, ayes
182, noes 47.

L

For the LONDON MAGAZINE.

THE BRITISH THEATRE.

February 2.

AST night, a new mufical 'entertainment of two acts, called the Blackamoor Washed White, was performed for the first time at Dury Lane Theatre after the tragedy of Matilda. Some of the airs of this favourite fpecies of modern dramatic entertainment were very pretty, and the performers, as far as the general difapprobation expreffed by the audience would permit us to judge, acquitted themselves extremely well in their feveral characters. But the piece itself, as a literary compofition, was the most execrable that was ever attempted to be reprefented on an English ftage; the fable was improbable and abfurd, the dialogue in many places, low, uncouth, or barbarous, the fimihics vulgar and unnatural, and the wit, if fuch wretched ribaldry deferved to be claffed under that title, too obfcene and too coarse for the tender ears of the conefcenti who occafionly crowd the marble fteps of Hungerford and Billingfgate, and with greedy ears devour the precious morfels of aquatic oratory, daily dealt out by their brethren to applauding multitudes. We were informed by the author and his friends, that every thing materially objectionable had been truck out between the first and fecond reprefentation, and that it met no oppofition on the fecond night, but what proceeded from a factious fpleen, occafioned by a perfonal diflike to the author. This induced us to repair to the Theatre the third night of its being performed, in order to give it a fair trial. But to our aftonishment, the Theatre was turned into a bear-garden, and the leading part of the audience were ranged on either fide, marfhalled and arrayed as As foon fo many well inftructed boxers. up, therefore as the curtain was drawn fignal of battle was given by hifling, clapIndeed the ping, crying, off, off, on, on. Indian war-whoop could not be more terri

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ble nor more piercing. The combatants at length engaged with equal confidence of fuccefs,

but after a fharp conflict, in which we may prefume all the gymnafian arts approved and practifed from the time of the Olympic games to this day (for the field of battle being moftly behind the scenes, a love of ftrict hiftoric truth will not permit us to relate thofe atchievements which we were not eye witneffes of) were reforted to, the God of battles prevailed in his vocation, as it might be well expected, over the God of wit, and the public, or more properly speaking, the reprefentatives of the public were drubbed most heartily into an entire and hearty approbation of the piece. We could not however perceive that the Blackamoor Washed White had fuffered the leaft change of colour by all the fcrubbing he was reported to have received from his reverend master; he still remained a Black in every feature as well as in complexion. Before we can properly difmifs this article, it may be proper to obferve, that Apollo at length brought over Mars to his fide, and by this powerful union we are informed, that the victorious boxers were beaten out of the field on Monday evening the 5th of the month, and the fourth of the reprefentation, and that the piece, thus deprived of the only fupport on which it could fairly ftand, was ultimately damned and forever reprobated.

We should hardly have troubled ourselves or our readers with obfervations on a piece already, we prefume, facrificed at the thrine of that high-favoured Goddefs Cloacina, but with a view of introducing a few remarks directly and confeffedly within our province,

Firft, a manager ought to have that mo ral certainty which an honeft confcience and a clear unbiaffed judgment will always demand, that the difapprobation of an audience proceeds from factious and perfon al prejudices, before he takes a part which prefumes

that

Critique on the Runaway.

1776.
that his confcience is fatisfied, and his judg-
ment impartially determined.

Secondly, it is only upon the fulleft and moft complete evidence the nature of fuch a tranfaction will admit of, that he ought ever to have recourse to the civil power, in order to ftife what paffes for the opinion of the public, till the true caufes of that fpurious opinion are detected and fairly developed ; because without fuch proofs, and confequent expofure, it may be in the power of a weak, interested, or ignorant manager, to damn the best pieces, and fanctify the worst, according as intereft prompts, folly directs, prejudice operates, or favouritifm blindly inIpires.

Thirdly, if peace officers are to be vested with the dernier controul over our dramatic entertainments as minifters of juftice, they fhould be blind, for as they are not fuppofed to be called on in the character of critics, but as mere minifterial officers for the purpofe of preferving the peace, their attention fhould be directed only to that object, and they should never confider the moft material part of their duty to be the carrying into execution the wishes and ultimate views of the manager, be they what they may.

The first and fecond of thofe propofitions apply directly to the prefent obfervations, the third is a general one; and we cannot help affirming, that Mr. Garrick moft grossly offended against the rule laid down in the firft. He was either ignorant, that the piece did not deferve fupport; or he was not. If he thought it worthy of an English audience, and that it deferved every effort he made to force it down the throats of the town, then we do not hesitate to pronounce him totally deftitute of the power of dramatic difcrimination, and we are compelled to at least give teftimony to one inftance of his judgment, that is, in retiring from a fituation he was conscious he was no longer able to fill with credit to himself, or pleasure or fatisfaction to the town. If on the other hand he rifqued the contempt and indignation of the public, and his own and his brother manager's property in the theatre, to motives of patronage and favouritifm, we will not barely Tay that he was infolent in his office, ungrateful to his benefactors, and delerved to fuffer under the most marked resentments of an abused public, but we will add, that he betrayed fins of a total want of that species of prudence and forefight, which have at all times been allowed both by friends and foes (if any could be claffed under the last defeription) to be the leading characteristic of him, both as a man and a manager, fince his first appearance in either character.

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SKETCH OF THE FABLE.

EMILY the Runaway having eloped from her father's house, to avoid being married to a Mr. Baldwin contrary to her inclinations, is discovered fitting under a rookery by Mr.Drummond, who, compaffionating her as a female in diftrefs, takes her to his own house; but recollecting the impropriety of her staying in a place where there was introduces her into the Hargrave family, no female to entertain or protect her, he where, befides the father and fon, there were a niece and daughter. The point on which George Hargrave, who had been deeply the whole bufinefs of the play turns is, that fmitten with a young lady he met at a masquerade, after fome matters of no great moment, is agreeably furprized to find, that in fact the fame perfon. his fair incognita and the lovely Emily are

ing confpiracy formed to blaft the character The denouement is effected by a disgust of Emily, in which the is charged with having been a ftrolling player, when very opportunely her uncle arrives juft in time to preferve her from the difgrace this plot had nearly produced, and by a ftrange jumble of incident poetic juftice is done to all the parmatrimony with young Hargrave; and the ties. Emily is united in the holy bands of worthy Drummond enjoys the highest felicity at this fide heaven, that of contributing cious feaft he is made to partake by the auto the happiness of his friends; of this delithorefs, and emperors who have not a palate. him the enjoyment of fo glorious a banquet. for fuch an entertainment may well envy

This play was tolerably well performed, and where any want appeared, great allow ances ought to be made for the dffiiculty there arofe in the courfe of the performance, to appear to advantage in feveral of the scenes.

mond, was inimitable in fome scenes, and Mr. Benfley, in the character of Drumexcellent throughout. It is a fpecies of folly, as well as perverfenefs in the managers to force a performer to play a character, which neither nature nor habit ever intended him.

Critique on the Sirens.

72
This obfervation was never more ftrongly
verified than in the perfon of Mr. Benfley,
who is fometimes made to play characters
that no confideration fhould ever induce him
to attempt.

Mifs Younge was little inferior to what we may prefume Mrs. Abington would have been, had her indifpofition permitted her to perfonate Mifs Bell Sidney. The part was extremely difficult, as it prefented no particular object, nor dictated any uniform stile of playing; the feemed to have ftudied the part well, and her manner of speaking the epilogue was admirable.

Mr. Parfons was capital in the country juftice, and the audience apparently regret ted that they had not more of his company both as a juftice, and a player.

Mr. Smith spoil'd his George Hargrave, by copying Garrick's fidgettings, frifkings,and outre motions, in the two first acts. He recollected himself afterwards, but on the whole, we cannot fay with juftice, that he was entitled to the place we have even given him in this muster roll.

Mr. Yates was confiderably above par. He filled the character of the plain country gentleman very naturally, and in one or two fcenes with uncommon merit.

Mr. Brereton gave no offence in the character of the lover; his prologue was but middling, the prologue itself was indeed but little more.

If a certain appearance of ftupidity and
want of animation be a fure token or love
in a female Quixote, Mrs. Siddons acquitted
herself very well, as Mifs Emily Morley.
She was nevertheless on the whole very toler-
able.

Mrs. Hopkins does not feem defigned by
Her lady Dinah
nature for an actress.
thewed great industry, and was not entirely
deftitute of merit. The part certainly called
for more able fupport.

Aickin and Palmer played in their ufual
file. They created neither pleasure nor
difguft.

Mifs P. Hopkins fhould learn induftry from her mother, for it is only by great labour and attention to her vocation, that she can expect to make her way on the Theatre, both of which the feems at prefent to entirely neglect.

The fox-hunter's fong, and the scene which introduced it, had a very pleafing effect. Mr. Bannister looked and fung as if he had been in at the death of many a fox.

We shall close this very long article, with recommending to the new manager, to bring Mrs. Wrighten out more frequently in low comedy. She appears to poffels great merit, and feems to want nothing to make her a first rate waiting woman, but that kind of -confidence and adroitneis, which can only be acquired by frequent playing, and a more intimate knowledge of the stage.

Feb.

The Runaway is faid to be the production of a Mrs. Cowley, and from this first fpecimen of the lady's abilities, the lovers of the drama are led to hope much rational entertainment in her future labours.

For the Prologue to this Play, fee p. 107 of our Poetical Efays.

IN

February 23.

our last we gave fome account of Mr. Webster as a new performer. We are forry to say that his appearance in Edgar in King Lear laft night at Covent Garden, afforded no proof of his having removed the material impediments which in our opinion ftood in his way on his firft appearance in young Norval, from being claffed among be introduced into a caft of parts more fuited performers of the first rate; he certainly muft to his genius and abilities, otherwise he will remain till he grows grey in the fervice of the theatre in no higher a ftation than a to

lerable fecond-rate actor.

February 26.

AST night a new marque, called the

Larens, was for the first time repre

The

fented at Covent-Garden theatre.
fhortness of the time will not permit us to lay
it in detail before our readers; it is enough
to obferve that it is all fairy land. The
Dramatis Perfonae are a fpecies of beings
with whom we profefs to have very little ac-
quaintance; and as they act by no rules
which are prefcribed for the conduct of hu-
man actions, or are fapposed to actuate the hu-
man breaft, I mean as to the two great person-
ages of the drama, it would not be decent to try
them by fuch rules, or question the existence
of fuch paffions, though Homer was bold
enough to make the attempt.-Joking apart,
the mafque is far from being deftitute of me-
rit. Some of the airs are very pleafing, and
the performers gave univeríal fatisfaction,
particularly Lee Lewes, Wilson, Reinhold,
and Mrs. Mattocks.-The piece was receive
ed with deferved applause.

The characters were thus reprefented:

Grenade,
Carlos,

Mr. Mattocks.

Mr. Du Bellamy.
Mr. Lee Lewis.

Pennant,
Boreas,

Mr. Reinhold.

Mr. Mahon.

Mr. Quick.
Mr. Wilfon.

Mr. L'Estrange.

Traverse,
Gale,
Forecastle,
Druid,
Cornelia,

Margery,
Parthenope,

Mifs Dayes.

Mrs. Pitt.

Mrs. Mattocks.

Nymph of the Ifland, Mifs Barfanti,

For

1776.

SIR,

TH

For the LONDON MAGAZINE.

HE following remarks made on our prefent conftitution and fome fenators, by a judicious obferver of mankind, and a friend to his country, are fubmitted to the perufal of your readers, by

H. Y. "Nothing ftruck me fo forcibly on my arrival in London, as the decifive knowledge of all its inhabitants every one, faid I, is wife who lives in town; every one is ignorant who paffes his days in the country-no man can travel from Charing-crofs to Temple-bar, without ftoring his mind with rich ideas-fashions may be collected from the windows, information from the walls, and almost every paffing mechanic is a friking lecture on the importance of a man to his own felf. Such was the ftrange infatuation that feized me, on my first coming here; but in time I began to reflect, that the many were too much taken up with the trifling and the gay, to attend to either the folid or the ferious; that, though they all talked importantly on learned books, it was impoffible they fhould have ever read them; -that real knowledge was not to be collected from extracts, nor found fcience to be attained from the converfation of a coffee-houfe: in short, the more I heard, the lefs I refpected, and my regard for their opinions almoft entirely vanished, as I began to examine their principles.

"One of the ftrongest prejudices I brought with me out of the country, was a moft high veneration for the Houfe of Commons, which I really confidered in a religious light, and had ufed frequently to talk to a friend of mine (who was fomewhat heterodox) of the omniscience of their counfels. How happy, how excellent,' faid I, is that conftitution, where every branch of our civil polity fup. ports, and is fupported by the reft; where two houfes of parliament naturally drawing in two directions of oppofite intereft, and the prerogative in another ftill different from them both, mutually keep each other from Feb. 1776.

73

exceeding their proper limits! Like three diftinct powers in mechanics, they jointly impel the machine to a motion far different from that which either acting by itself could poffibly have procured;-a motion, though effected by each, yet arifing out of all -and though the Houfe of Commons may in fome refpects be confidered as the first mover, or leading principle, which, like the weight of a clock, fets the other parts in motion, yet

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pardon me,' fays my friend,-' [ muft here entirely difagree with you,

the whole is held together by the mixed nature of the crown, and by that executive and controuling power, which the House of Lords retain among themfelves;-but for the Commons, where fo many are chofen by that upper houfe, I can now confider them only as the chimes.

Here,' fays I, ' your notions must be erroneous, for those that compose this house are not indebted to rank, but merit, for their dignities

they are felected from the mafs of mankind as the wifeft, the ableft, and moft difcerning of their respective countries---though men are negligent in their choice of inferior officers, and regardless of the leffer duties in life, yet here we fee them all equally ftrenu ous and fteady to their principles--here no private motives can fway them from electing him, who in their eyes fhall appear the best qualified for fo important a truft.---To accomplish this great end, an honourable choice

they are even willing in the heat of contests, to facrifice the folace of fociety, and fink private peace in the welfare of the community ;-indeed if this were not the cafe, inevitable ruin must be the confequence; for the fcience they are to be engaged in, is of the most intricate, as well as of the most extenfive nature.--for it is not only required of them-that they fhould have "wifdom to difcern the real interests of their country, but goodness to endeavour to purfue that real intereft; and in fome degree, ftrength or power to carry their know

L

ledge

74

Qualities and Exercifes of British Senators.

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Feb.

ledge and intentions into action."-- the right hand-we then paffed thro' Now nothing, faid my friend, can a cavern, and a place fomewhat like be more oppofite than all your ideas--- an exhaufted coal-pit, and by a flight I confider the multitude as acting of fteps afcended into the lobby of from private and not from public mo- the House of Commons-the firft tives that elections are generally car- thing I heard was "Damn my foul to ried on at the expence of virtue, ho- hell, if I would have miffed that nour, and truth--and that if a race match yesterday for five thousand were every seven years to be run from pounds; I had back'd my lord BulSt. Paul's to St. Stephen's chapel, and let's black-legs for three thoufand, the first five hundred and fifty-eight and I was to run Whistle-jacket for were there to be admitted to take the fweepstakes"-" Damn me," their feats, it might be full as well for fays t'other, " if I did not lofe all the whole community;---that this that fum, and two more at the cockhoufe of parliament is no other than ing; but I got it all up again, before an annihilated fociety-for if it be I fet off for town laft night from the an established maxim, that no mini- hazard table."-For God's fake, fays fter can hold his place without a ma- I, to the door keeper, do reprove those jority--and if refignation be confi- men, they will certainly disturb the dered as neceflary when on any great great council of the realm---who question that majority is within fifty, knows but they may be now agitating of what ufe can be a general Houfe of within doors, a question of the laft Commons ---To fuch idle and abfurd importance to the welfare of the ftate? notions, I could make no reply, but "Zouns," fays he, "fellow hold your took my hat, and told him, that as tongue---why thefe are two of the we were that day both deftined to go main pillars of it."--I fain would to the House of Commons, I hoped he have feen who they were, but at that would bring home with him a better inftant the chaplain came by, and they fet of opinions.---On the road he ftill both went in to fay their prayers.--kept blafpheming both their wisdom We then went up ftairs into a room, and their principles, and I as con- which looked like a lottery-office, ftantly oppofed the dignity of parlia- where fome were calculating the chanment, and the real merit of all thofe ces, and others bartering for a prize. fpeeches that I had read in the newf- ---In one corner stood a pack of felpapers. Dignity!' fays he, I ap- lows eating oranges, and commenting peal only to their mode of enforcing on the play-bills; and in another, fetheir own laws-can any thing be veral members making parties to a more opprobrious, or more contempti- neighbouring coffee-house, to eat Ele, than to condemn a printer, and foup and play at whift, whilst the dethen acknowledge that they are afraid bates lafted, that they might not be of fending him to prifon?'-But we out of the way, when they were fent were now arrived at Westminster-hall for in to vote. After uselessly kick-and I begged for the prefent to wave ing our heels for an hour or two in the fubject. Here we ftopped a while the paffages, and commenting on the -the most experienced counfel were infolence of office, and the dignity of agitating a question of the utmost im- clerks, sub-clerks, and their fub-deportance; and from their pleadings, pendants; the fatal news was at last gave me the highest opinion, both of brought, that we could not that day their reading and abilities-cafes were be admitted into the gallery ;---"And opposed to cafes, and precedents quo- what is to be done now?" faid my ted after precedents-the acts of Hen- friend..." fuppofe we go to the House ry were urged against thofe of Ed- of Lords; but there we can expect to ward, and the acts of Edward against meet with no kind of instruction or thofe of Henry; but as right was an entertainment--if the qualifications tecedent to either the acts of Edward of a great orator here, are not to reaor Henry, I did not wait to hear the fon but to rail; if invective be subdecifion. The crowd being very great ftituted inftead of argument, and priin the paffage, between the courts of vate refentment gratified at the exChancery and King's Bench; we pence of public good---in the other were directed from thence to turn on (if we may believe Lord Chefterfield)

the

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