peatedly introduced into parliament, has not been allowed to pafs for these many years. In short, I hardly know of any laws refpecting debtors more fevere in any country except thofe of ancient Rome, which impowered the creditors either to fell their unfortunate debtor for a flave, or to cut him in pieces and divide his body amongst them, at their option. The continuance of this severity in the laws of England is the more furprifing, that the laws of Scotland, which has now been nearly a century united to it, are as favourable to the unfortunate debtor, as perhaps, in the prefent ftate of fociety, it is poffible to make them. No man in this country, who can give a fair account of his loffes, and who can take the oath preferibed by the Act of Grace, or who makes a fair furrender of his effects agreeably to what is called the Ceffio Bonorum, can be detained long in jail, unless something fraudulent is proved againft him. But in England a man may be laid in jail for a hilling, and himself and his family prevented from ever gaining another, by an accumulation of 8 or 9 times the fum in expences, through the rigour of a merciless creditor, unless fome generous perfon pay both the debt and the charges. To fatisfy your readers, that, in paying the juft tribute of praise to the law of Scotland, I by no means exaggerate the feverity of the English law, I fend you the inclosed extract from a fmall work, published by a philanthropic Society, in London, who have lately exerted themselves very laudably in diminishing the number of the unfortunate victims of this barbarous part of English jurifprudence; by inferting of which you will oblige many befides, Perth, 11th March, 1801.} SIR, Your's, &c. HUMANUS. THE following Statement is taken from an Account lately published by JAMES NIELD, Efq. Treafurer to the Society for the difcharge and relief of Perfons confined for fmall Debts, of the number of prifoners in the different gaols, in England and Wales, together with the refpective prifon allowance, as reported to the Society. "The following document," fays Mr Nield, is a litt of what are called Court of ConScience Debtors; of the dates of their commitment to Newgate; and of the charges accumulated for costs upon very inconfiderable demands. Reverence for the exifting laws, precludes us from faying more than Pity it is 'tis true." He He adds, that "Mr Kirby, confiftent with his wonted humanity, does not charge them any thing for room rent.” Dates of Warrants. 1797 Feb. 7 John Allen 35. 5d. 85. 8d.. May 11 William Gough 3 IO 8 ΙΟ Oct. 15 Thomas Blackburn Do 1798 April 12 Charles Burnett Sept. 20 Thomas Blackburn Nov. 9 Elizabeth Irvine 1799 Aug. 15 Caleb Only 22 Thomas Dobfon Oct. I Sufannah Evans March 12 July 24 Abraham Slater 4 ∞ ∞ ∞ 86 8 10 8 8 8 8 8 ΤΟ 10 3. O 6 "At Halifax, a prifoner, confined, on the 29th March, 1796, was fince difcharged by his plaintiff; but being a foldier when taken to prifon, his fon enlifted, on condition of his father's military difcharge, which not being yet obtain. ed, the debtor dares not leave the prifon. "Knaresborough Caftie.-The only prifoner here was William Elmsley, committed for debt 30th June, 1799, who, in a letter dated 29th June, 18co, fays, "Any perfon. wishing to fee him, upon obtaining the goaler's leave, muft pass through 6 doors: the yard he has to walk in is only 6 yards wide by 4; the window and wall fo high, that he has very little light or air: He had a fellow prifoner, but he lived only 10 weeks; and the prefervation of his own life was owing to the gratuitous attendance of furgeons Day, and Dent. His debt is 281. 125.” [From Kirkman's Life of Macklin.'] IN the year 1751, fome ladies and gentlemen of fashion became defirous of performing in public, in order to dif play their own acquirements and abilities, and, at the fame time, to give an inconteftible proof of Mr Macklin's eminence in Theatrical Inftruction. A Play performed on the common Stage, by persons of distinction, is an incident that s; that this nation has, perhaps, the honour of having first produced to the world. Some gentlemen, long celebrated for their taste and accomplishments, were determined to give their friends and acquaintances an uncommon entertainment, and to do it in an uncommon manner. Theatrical performances had been, at that time, often exhibited by characters in the upper circles, and always with fuccefs but the apparatus of a regular Theatre had been wanting in all those representations, and the whole had been greatly hurt by that deficiency. The juft fenfe that the perfons who were at the head of this scheme entertained of things, could not fuffer them to think, that, if the action itfelf were not blameable, the place, on this occafion, could not make it fo; nor could their spirit fubmit to their doing any thing imperfectly, either for the want of the neceffary expence, or of the courage to do what was no way really exceptionable, though out of the common road. They hired the theatre at Drury-lane, for the night; they gave their friends as many tickets as would fill it, and exhibited their Performance with all the pomp and decoration of the most regularly concerted entertainment of the kind. As but a thousand people could be happy enough to fee this, out of twenty thousand that defired it, very wife arrangements were adopted by the Managers to render every thing commodious and agreeable to the audience. It is greatly to the honour of thofe gentlemen, that the tickets were fo carefully difpofed of, that the women of the town, who can very feldom be kept out of any place of entertainment, who find their way into the boxes of the Opera, the pit at the Oratorio, and the private Masquerades of the first Nobility, and who had, at leaft, ten times as much mind to this, as they ever could have to any of those entertainments, yet found no poffibility of admittance. The Conductors of the plan knew that every part of the house would be full of perfons of the first fashion, and they paid them the just and fenfible compliment of keeping all improper people from among them. The tickets expreffed no particular part of the House, so that those only who came firft had the advantage of the best places: by this means the whole House was filled with equally good company: and half a dozen Stars glittered for the first, and probably for the laft, time, in the upper gallery. Part of the Royal Family did them the honour of filling the Stage Box, and every corner of the houfe befides glittered with diamonds and embroidery. The accommodations were fit for the company; the band of mufic was a very fine one, and the house was in every part illuminated illuminated with wax-lights: the fcenes were proper, as well as beautiful; and the dreffes not only magnificent, but well fancied, and adapted to the characters. Othello's was a robe, in the fashion of his country; Roderigo's an elegant modern fuit, and Caffio's and Iago's very rich uniforms. The play was caft in the following manner: Othello Jago Caffio MEN. Sir Francis Delaval. Brabantio and Lodovico Roderigo Desdemona Emilia WOMEN. Mrs Quon. Mrs Stevens. The terrors of an Audience to perfons not accustomed to speak in public, are not to be got abfolutely over by all the refolution in the world. It might eafily be perceived, that every one of the Performers laboured, in fome degree, under the effect of fear. The management of the voice, in adapting it to the space it is to fill, is another circumstance alfo to which thofe Performers must have been perfect ftrangers. A public rehearsal on the Stage could have done nothing towards informing them on this point, fince the fame houfe empty, and filled with an audience, is, in this respect, a perfectly different place. If we weigh thefe circumftances together, we shall fee the infinite difadvantages with which thefe gentlemen fet out, in comparison of those whose nightly task it is to act; and fhall be able to form fome judgment of what were their talents and abilities, when it is afferted, that the greatest part of the Play was much better performed than it ever was upon any stage before. In the whole, there was a face of nature that no Theatrical Piece, acted upon any private Stage, ever came up to. It was evident, that the Performers felt every fentiment they were to exprefs; and were not reduced to labour at an imitation of what would be done in real life on the occafion, but were infpired, by the fentiment, to be the thing the Author reprefented. The figure of Othello was undoubtedly one of the finest ever produced on a stage; his deportment, in the whole, was majeftic, without pomp; and his fenfe of the paffions, the Author has thrown into his part, quick, and exquifite. The animated expression— "Had all his hairs been lives, My great revenge had stomach for them all!" was was, perhaps, never fo well fpoken before: his expreffion of his anguish, by the monofyllable "Ob!" was truly af fecting. But what he was peculiarly fuperior to every perfon in, was the natural expreffion of the lover and the gentleman, when in the last act, he is informed, by Caffio, that he had given him no provocation for the revenge he had meditated against him, the Author gives him no more to fay than "I do believe it, and I afk your pardon!" But the manner in which Sir Francis took the hand of the man he had injured, while he spoke this, had fomething in it fo like the man of honour, and fo unlike all imitation, that the audience could not be eafily reconciled afterwards to the hearing it from any body elfe. His embracing Def demona, on their meeting in Cyprus, fet many a fair breaft among the audience a palpitating. His manner of throwing his arms about her, and the jocund expreffion of his countenance at that inftant, afforded the spectators a fine picture of Cowley's embrace "Then like fome wealthy island thou shalt be, Thou like fair ALBION to the failor's fight, Like the kind ocean I will be, With love's foft arms ever furrounding thee." Mr J. Delaval, (now Lord Delaval) in the character of Iago, was more than it was poffible to expect or conceive from a perfon who had not trod the ftage before. His ease in the character was amazing; his whole deportment fo much the gentleman; fo perfectly adapted to every circumftance of the character, and fo elegant in propriety, that his audience were not only delighted, but aftonished at his acting. He every where conveyed the full fenfe of the Author's expreffion, and exaggerated it no where. Hig eye worked as much as his tongue, and he was equally intent on his plots, when engaged in the dialogue, and when out of it upon the whole, the Player was loft in the Man. He was perfectly the character that Shakespeare drew, and yet he feemed modelled on his own thoughts; not reprefenting, but really tranfacting, the feveral fcenes he was engaged in. Mr Macklin got great honour, and defervedly, by his pupils on this occafion. The youngeft Mr Delaval gained great applaufe in Caffio, and he merited it all. The drunken fcene, which is the capital one in the part, and a very difficult one to fucceed in, he was very excellent in; and his recovery to lobriety, G though |