much superior to those of our Italian Opera, the admission is about three and sixpence. At the Francois, where Talma, Georges, Duchénois, Mars, Fleury, &c. perform, it is about two shillings. At the Variétés, and the Vaudeville, where they have Potier, Brunet, Joly, and Gavandan-four of the most exquisite comic actors in Europe, and where they usually perform three or four little pieces, breathing the very spirit of gayety, wit, and light-heartedness-the admission is about fourteen pence. But in Italy the prices of adinission are still more moderate, while every thing else is nearly on a par with England. At the Scala at Milan- the very first theatre in Europe, with the exception, perhaps, of the new one at Naples-you sit or lye at the most luxurious ease, on couches with stuffed cushions and reclining backs, and hear the first-rate Italian singers, and see the very finest ballet in the world (much finer than the boasted one of the rue Richelieu), for less than eighteen pence; and at the King's Theatre in the same city you see the best actors perform a comedy of Goldoni's, and a farce, for half that sum! What do the English managers,-or-which is more to the purpose-what do the English public, say to this? On this point, too, we confidently anticipate, that, if the spirit of the one party does not bring about a change, the policy of the other very soon will. But these pleasant anticipations are making us forget Mr Elliston, and the furtherance that he is giving to them by the manner in which he has begun to conduct Drury-Lane Theatre. We thought what all the daily critics' cant about "public enthusiasm," and his own about the "classical drama," would come to. The combined result of them is as follows:-On the 20th of October we walked leisurely into the house at seven o'clock, and had an opportunity of choosing our seat in any part of it, to see the first representation of a new piece which had been studiously announced as the production of Mr Tobin; and it turned out to be a stupid and stupifying mixture of cant and cominon-place, that could not have been brought forward with any chance of success at the lowest Theatre in the metropolis. The announcement of the piece as Mr Tobins' must have been nothing less than a paltry trick; and we care very little whose authority we are impeaching when we state our belief, that little, if any of it, was written by him. He may have left the sketch of an opera, and amused himself by writing the songs for it; but the dialogue of the Fisherman's Hut could not have come from the terse and tasty pen of the author of the Honey Moon. The very circumstances (for it was circumstances, not nature, that made Mr Tobin a poet) which enabled him to write the one, made it impossible for him to write the other. We are spared the trouble of entering into a detailed criticism on the Fisherman's Hut, as the bills announce that it has been withdrawn "in compliance with the wishes of the public." The impudent charlatanerie of this statement can only be surpassed by that of the one which followed the first representation of the piece. Nearly the whole of the last act was inaudible, from the tumult of disapprobation by which the public expressed their "wishes" then; and, in answer to them, Mr Elliston, the next morning. announced that the piece had been completely successful, and should be repeated "every evening till further notice!" In fact, the managers of theatres now-a-days attend to no opin ion, and understand no criticism, but that which is written on empty benches: That there is no gainsaying, and n tampering with; and it works won. ders upon them accordingly. even more disgusting to us to point out these things than to observe them; but as it is evident that Mr Elliston has contrived to find favour in the eyes of those who ought to notice them, we must be content to take the odium of doing so-but we must, at the same time, claim the credit of it. The drama will never prosper while they are tolerated, because it can never deserve to prosper while they are necessary. It is Covent-garden has presented us with another fairy tale, called Arthur and Emmeline; but we shall spare the reader any very particular account of it;-not only because it is written by Dryden, and therefore well known,but because it is very dull, though it were written by twenty Drydens. The only part of this revival which is worth notice, is Miss Foote's performance, or rather appearance, in Emmeline. Her face, person, voice, and carriage might, for any thing we can fancy to the contrary, have been those of the true Emmeline herself-the mistress of the chivalrous and princely Arthur:-but we can hardly forgive her for loving the Arthur of Coventgarden Theatre, after she gained her sight. Indeed this character was given to Mr C. Kemble; but he has within these few days withdrawn himself from the theatre, in consequence of some misunderstanding with the proprietors. To us the only pleasing passage in this masque is the prattle of Emmeline to her own image in the glass. This is very pretty and natural; but, to make up for it, the managers have retained one or two of those refined vulgarities-those decent indecencies, of which Dryden was so fond-but which nobody likes now-adays, but the managers themselves,except some few of the persons who frequent the upper galleries; and they don't understand them, and could not hear them if they did. We cannot help thinking, too, that Purcell's music to this piece, as well as the gorgeous scenery, partakes of the general character of dullness. Indeed, the whole theatre, on the night we saw the piece, wore a rather gloomy aspectwhich perhaps arose from the gas lights not being in a very good hu mour. REMARKS ON DR CHALMERS' NEW WORK. IN our last Number we gave a short account, accompanied with extracts, of Dr Chalmers' new work on the Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns. The celebrity of the author, and the importance of his subject, may perhaps justify a more extended analysis than we have yet had an opportunity of attempting; and we shall therefore devote a few pages of our miscellany to that purpose. This number of the reverend author's new work, forms but the first chapter of a larger publication, which he meditates, and which is in the first instance to appear periodically. The present number is only introductory, and perhaps we ought to have waited for the complete developement of the author's plans in his successive publications, before giving any opinion of their merits. But if we mistake not, the opinion of Dr Chalmers on one of the most interesting topics which will be embraced by his larger work-we mean the moral and religious melioration of the lower orders, and the practicability, under an improved system, of dispensing with parochial assessments for the support of the poor, are not new to the world; and the pamphlet now before us, so far as it unfolds the means, or points to the accomplishment of this great reformation, may fairly be considered in connexion with the anonymous, but not unavowed speculations of the same reverend author, which appeared VOL. VI. some time ago in a celebrated literary journal. It appears then to be the opinion of this eminent person, that by an improvement in what he has denominated the Christian and civic economy of large towns; by the assimilation of their various districts to the moral and religious condition of country parishes; by the relief of the parochial clergy from the enormous pressure of secular duties with which they have of late years been overwhelmed; by the establishment of a parochial agency, created and controlled by the minister alone; by extinguishing the mischievous influence of the general sessions in large cities, which has paralyzed the benevolent energy of all local operations; by a return, in one word, in all populous and crowded districts, to the original simplicity of the presbyterian model, which still survives in some remote parishes, and sustains the worth, the dignity, and the independence of the population, such a mighty reform might be accomplished in the habits and feelings of the labouring classes, as would animate them to unremitting and unconquerable industry-inspire them with horror for a state of dependence on public charity-restrict the evils of pauperism within the narrowest possible limits of inevitable calamity; and, by bringing every application which might be made for relief within the scope of voluntary charity, rescue the people of Scotland from the cor * Edinburgh Review, No. 55. Z ruption and degradation inseparable from an established system of poor laws. Such was the author's confidence in his plan, that he suggested an immediate enactment, by which the parochial assessments established in large towns, should be appropriated exclusively to the relief of the mass of pauperism already existing, leaving every new case to be provided for by voluntary contribution alone; the assessments, as the demands upon them should be reduced or extinguished by the death of the claimants, not to be discontinued, but to be applied to the erection of new parishes, and the foundation of schools-to the multiplication of the sources of moral and religious instruction now scandalously deficient in the great cities; to the diffusion, in short, throughout the most obscure recesses of society, of that benign moral influence, upon the power of which the reverend author mainly relies, for the success of his great experiment. Dr Chalmers, without professing himself a convert to the doctrines of Malthus, upon which ignorance has endeavoured to cast so much odium, has substantially adopted his principles, and arrived in effect at his conclusions. The utter inadequacy of charitable institutions, however munificent, to support the mass of pauper ism, which they either find or create; the indefinite expansion, and ultimate triumph of the evil over their purest and most assiduous exertions; the impossibility of protecting the appropriated fund from the inroads of imposture, without the instrumentality of the most prying and intolerable despotism; and the consequent temptation presented to the increase of the malady, without limit, and without hope of relief, have been fully admitted by him, and have led him to conclude, that legal establishments for the maintainance of the poor, besides their malignant metamorphosis of the spirit of charity itself into the machinery of compulsion; their tendency to harden the hearts of the donors, and extinguish the gratitude of the receivers; to mar that moral refinement which is insensibly diffused over all classes of society by the free and cordial interchange of the offices of benevolence, have in truth no power to realise even their primary object, but, after exhausting all their resources, leave the field for the exercise of voluntary charity extended rather than abridged, and darkened by the shadow of their contiguous corruption. Mr Malthus has not in substance said more of those melancholy monuments of abortive legislation; and it will be seen immediately, that as he and the reverend author before us concur in their view of the causes, as well as in their general description of the character of the disease, so they do not essentially differ in their opinion of the only prac ticable remedy. The remedy proposed by Malthus, and suggested, indeed, by common sense, is moral restraint, including under this general description every arrangement or institution calculated to exalt the character and feelings of the lower orders, and to impart to them a provident, industrious, and in◄ dependent spirit. There is no striking or profound discovery here indeednothing to dazzle the imagination, or interest the pride of literary ambition; there is nothing more than the impartial developement of the ordinary maxims of morality, by enforcing the stern alternative which nature holds out in the shape of moral restraint, or of suffering and shame, and the clear exposition of the important principle, that the same contempt of prudence which involves individuals in misery, will, in the issue, cover society with wretchedness, and sap the foundations of empire. But the true dignity of moral science consists in the universal truth of its principles, and the genuine triumphs of the great masters of wisdom have been realised, not in daring eccentricities of speculation, which only betray an undisciplined fancy and crazed intellect, but by carrying acknowledged principles to their remote and sublime conclusions, and by subordinating the common reason and universal feelings of the species to the great ends of social happiness. It is easy indeed to say in general, that moral restraint is the only cure for pauperism and its attendant miseries; but it required a mind of more than ordinary powers to bring home this doctrine to the understandings and the hearts of enlightened men, and to render it something more than an insipid truism, repeated without emotion, and admitted without any purpose of political reform. This could be done only by tracing to the neglect of it the gigantic evils beneath which society already totters; by demonstrating their resistless and interminable ac cumulation, so long as this fatal neglect prevails; by exposing to the reprobation of sound philosophy the vaunted establishments in which the very spirit of evil is incorporated; by tracing the practicable combinations of skill and experience, through which the progress of the malady may be gradually but surely arrested; by elevating, in short, the vulgarity of a trite and barren maxim to the dignity of a great political truth, and reducing the vague and almost hopeless aspirations after an improve ment which seemed to elude every grasp, to the precision and energy of a practical system. Mr Malthus had the undoubted merit of leading the way in speculation; but Dr Chalmers, if we mistake not, has been the first boldly to vindicate in his writings, and to attempt to reduce to practice, what we consider as the leading principle of the whole theory of population and of pauperism. It is his opinion, that the moral restraint which Malthus enjoins, may be best created and invigorated by the agency of the ministers of religion zealously exerting themselves among their flocks; frequently communicating with them by offices of kindness and beneficence; descending to personal intercourse and familiarity even with the lowest and most depraved of them; and exercising a gentle but unremitting inspection over their conduct, which, after feelings of friendship and good-will have once been excited, cannot fail to have a powerful influence over the whole cast and temperament of their minds. There is in Scotland a mighty moral mechanism already established in the constitution of her church; in the habits, character, and functions of its ministers; in the temper and disposition of the people, which has hitherto, throughout the larger portion of the land, saved us from the disorders that have overtaken the sister kingdom. The first object of Dr Chalmers has therefore been to attempt the restoration of his own parish, situated in the most populous city of Scotland, to the purity and simplicity of the ancient model; and he has, on a former occasion, assigned the reasons which lead him to expect so many beneficial results from such a change, and explained the circumstances which render the ecclesiastical mechanism of a Scottish country parish so powerful an instrument in sustaining the decent pride and independent spirit of the people. The commission to the minister and elders, who generally reside within the parish, of the power of managing and distributing the funds for relief of the poor, the limitation of these funds in the ordinary case, to the collections made voluntarily at the church doors; the character of a voluntary contribu tion, which is carefully stamped even upon the extraordinary donations made by the heritors in seasons of general distress; the feeling which is thus dif fused among the poor, that for the assistance granted them they are not indebted to any right which they can vindicate, but to that benevolence which others are pleased to exercise; the consequent uncertainty of any provision for their wants; the powerful stimulus thus given to their industry; the deeper shame attached to an application for that aid which is considered as a matter of favour only, not of legal claim-all concur in animating the peasantry of Scotland to the hardest struggles with fortune, before descending to the degradation of pauperism. Add to all this, the narrow limits and scanty population of many country parishes; the general acquaintance and intimacy which subsist among the inhabitants; the deep reluctance which is felt at the exposure of misfortune, before those to whom the pauper has not only been long known, but with whom he has long been ac customed to live upon terms of equality; the dreadful humiliation of receiving aid from a fund which is not formed of the exclusive contributions of the rich, but into which the pauper's own neighbours and friends have also thrown their mite; the minute and degrading enquiries into the condition of the applicant, which the system of economy, in the management of a fund so limited, must imperiously demand-and compare these, and many other obvious circumstances which we have not leisure at present to detail, with the seductive obscurity attainable in our large cities under the present system; with the perplexing amalgamation of all interests and claims produced by the interference of general sessions; and, above all, with the fatal prevalence of legal assessments, which impart to the claim of the pauper the dignity of a right, and give to its final establishment, through resistance and litigation, the pride of a victory; and you can have no difficulty in discovering what has kept most of our country parishes aloof in their original purity, and what that fatal combination of circumstances is, which is fast approximating the population of the cities to the corruption and misery of the English system. It is true that the country parishes have advantages peculiar to themselves, which can never be communicated to great and especially to manufacturing towns; and we conceive that it is the greatest error committed by Dr Chalmers, that he has not duly considered the amount and value of these peculiarities, and that in the sanguine spirit natural to a great reformer, he has imagined it possible to transfer the quiet innocence of the country to the fevered and guilty combinations of a large city. Much of the purity and simplicity of character, and of the moral dignity and independence, which he so justly and ardently admires, and to which he has with great truth ascribed the inconsiderable progress of pauperism among the peasantry of Scotland, must be accounted for solely upon those principles, and with reference to that cast and description of feeling which can be created and sustained only in the comparative seclusion of a country parish, amid the regularity of its severe but animating toils, and the reserve and retirement of its scattered population. Transport such a body of people into the dismal alleys of a crowded city; give them, in place of their solitary and reflective habits, the discipline of a vast and noisome manufactory; substitute for their rustic toils the circle of its incessant and paralyzing labour; let them mingle in free and various communication with each other, and thus impart to the elements of contamination, which will certainly be found in every large assemblage, the power and the facility of affecting the whole mass; above all, let them exchange for the humble regularity of their former occupations, by which industry is never either starved or pampered into profligacy, the sudden vicissitudes and fatal revolutions of commercial and manufacturing labour, and it will be found, we are afraid, that although you may have the same individuals, you have no longer the same materials to work upon; and that the moral mechanism, which, under happier auspices, proved omnipotent in the support of virtue, will, in this altered state, have lost much of the energy of its operation. By what process are you, in a large city, to break down that barrier which, by separating the friends and acquaintances of an individual from his parochial connexion, extinguishes the natural pride upon which Dr Chalmers relies so much, and subdues the deep reluctance of the pauper to a disgraceful act, by enabling him to perform it under the eye of those to whose censure or approbation he is wholly indifferent? He may, indeed, if the plan of the reverend author shall be realized, act under the inspection of the minister, or some one of his parochial agents; but can this dim and distant regard, cast upon him from an higher sphere, approach in intense influence to the concentrated scorn, or the still more galling compassion of his equals ? But in what manner are you to put town and country parishes upon an equality in point of moral habitudes, or give fair scope for an equal trial of the provincial system in the heart of large cities? How are you to destroy the conducting power inherent in a dense population, by which vice is so rapidly disseminated; to arrest that degradation of mind inseparable from the cheerless servitude of the body; to animate to the vivacity of rustic occupation the care-worn tenant of an unwholesome manufactory; to rouse from the lethargy of dissipation the helpless being upon whom the grosser pleasures of sense have been obtruded by his exclusion from all higher and better excitement? How, above all things, are you to provide against these rapid transitions from comparative opulence to the depths of misery, which appear to be bound up with the very existence of an extended commerce, and which, by the violent agitation of the most powerful of natural feelings; by the sad and sudden scenes of domestic misery, reiterated till they have almost lost their power of exciting emotion; by the reckless and gambling spirit which they favour, and the induration of heart |