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    bTATKOK MU^iC \SD TILL: DJt.UIA.

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    parliament ) , nor cause his ( Elizabeth ' s " still small' ) voiceto be ;¦ heard ( even ) in Fleet fetreet , where the papers are printed and sent to the editors :

    We were ignorant of a portion , at least , of the following : texts : " Mrs . Cottle ' lias hitherto had the ¦¦ ' Book of Lite - ' and papers printed oulv for herself , and has sent them out into all the world , ' without nfoney and without price , ' ( Isa . Iv . 1 , 3 , ) even for postage stamps . Matt , xx , 2 ; Luke xx . 24 . " - The following circumstance will reach most people for the first time : — " Summer is nigh ( May 25 ) , and it ( the ( Jottle . Church . ) is even at the doors ( of Kirkstall Lodge and All Saints' Church , and the doors of the Houses of Lords and Commons ) . " Here is a valuable ' article of faith : " New ( Cottle ) wine must be put into new ( Gottle ) bottles ^ and bo th ( the ' new and old wine ) are preserved ( "in the new heaven and new earth " of " the new name" of Cotfcte ) , Rev . xxi . 1 , 3 , 12 ; Isa . Ixvi . 22 , 24 . "

    A most important point is , to ¦¦ " renounce the devil , and nil his legal and theological works . " The latter condition would , perhaps , be no great trial . , We learn from Mrs . Cottle that these sentiments were forwarded iii manuscript to the " two emperors of France and Austria at Viilafi-anca ,- to the Pope Beelzebub , to Victor Emmanuel , the Queen , Lord Palrnerston and ministers , and the editor of the Tirncs . '' Tu judge from the title given to one of the intended recipients , we should'doubt if the document in that case ever reached its destination . ¦ ¦ . : ¦ .. , . , addresses Lord Pahner

    However , Mrs . Cottle , in October 1 S 59 , - stoii , and , although expressing 1 her satisfaction at the fact that seventy thousand papers of -the above description have been received " without dissent or . opposition , '' from which she augurs great things , nevertheless , she informs his Lordship that she " Mrs . Cottle c-auiiot- ' go on pouring out , the spirit any longer , for if she did , she would fail ( Isa . lvii . lO ); ' We may therefore conclude that there willbe a cessation of the ¦ la bours of the . Cottle propaganda . ] j . nt to speak seriously , ' what can be the circumstances nride . t which these impious ravings ( and we have ¦ made no unfair selection ) are printed and circulated ? They cannot be the work of one poor insane fanatic . - There nviSt be several sane persons associated with her- ; in fact , the wicked trash . ninstf"T ) o altogether disseminated by sane people . There must be an amanuensis iHid a other ministers tothe

    printer at least ; and probably many . grave recording of the passing extravagances of a deranged mind . Of what type of character or status in society these persons can bo , our readers will probably be as much at a loss to determine as Ourselves ; juulthey will ngree * with us , that they have been guilty of no small offence to decency and good morals . It is not enough to say that this- is but a harmless means of venting the delusions' . of a mind diseased . There can be no necessity that , tire desire of humouring the unhappy patient should be carried to the length of actual publication , to say nothing of the scandal promulgated , and the expense incurred . lit is only becoming that tine melancholy frensies of . the unfortunate victims of mental disorder should be kept as much from the public gaze as possible ; smd those who make an exhibition of . them are guilty of an uricallcclTlbr outrage on the deemicies of social life .

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    f , e > Jtui csC Jlorc : live i . c x $ : xue year g » x ^ uu u . m happily passed away , panics and prophecies notwithstanding , without the utter break up or violent convulsion in eithpr the great world itself , or in its satellite worldlets , the religious " , the fashionable , the nrtistical , or'the literary . In the latter , it is true that several notable new formations and re-formations are inaugurated with tlie new year ; not the . least valuablo of which is , wo apprehend , observable by our own subscribers ; but in the dramatic ; mid musical worlds / time lias wrought littlp enough during ( ho year lSo ' . ) , and wo see no reason to anticipate his violent notion during 1 . 8 ( 50 . The ?« Ketrospects , " " Keyiews , " nud "Obituaries , " that fill so much space in contemporary pages , remind us that wo too ought to glance at the progress or regress of the . musical and dramatic arts during the past twelvemonth ; ami in a few words wo will do so .

    The progress of the regular drama may bo sot down ns " Nil , " Its condition is onc-of unquestionable decay . Tho wido dispersion of our gqod actors siuco tho opening- of tho trade in theatres , the lack of rich new blood in the . shape of plays and plnycr * , have hud something to do with this . The increasing thirst for combined musio and beer , in such gorgeous , complute , nnd well-ordered palaces as those of Kvana ' , the Canterbury Hall , tho Hoi born Music Hall , and tho liko , has given the stage another shrowd blow . So has the musical—elegant musical taste ., so industriously nlnntod nnd fostered in the middle class mind by John Hullah , tho Chhppolls , nnd Uenodict . And lost , not least , we tako it , tho marvollous popularization of social tragedy and comedy , through tho action of tho cheap

    press for years , nnd latterly , through that of tho Divorce Court , hua almost given the coujt do gmco to tho legitimate , drama as those worda ' wore n few years ago understood . Whether tho failure in the crop of good players follows . that in the crop of good plays , or , vice vtifa < 1 , oomosof .. the cold Hhnclo thrown by mannger-aetora upon the rest of the profession , or what not , wo will not nrguo here . The question has been dinensfled ad )>« tt , ic « in , to our thinking , for yoara . It will riovor bo solved , and its nolutiou may after all never bo required . For if tho world roll but a few yeiu ' ti longer in its present groove , the dovnand for legitimate actors of thq order we aro now acquainted with , and legitimate dramatists , will have died out altogether . Tboro are , we beliovo , four fourpenny ,

    one threepenny , and a legion of penny daily London papers , which lay life tragedies and comedies , played in ; the day in Westminster Hall , or elsewhere , upon every breakfast table . The ijjan who rejoices in no breakfast table , often in only half- a breakfast , but yet who was one of the pluygoing class of former days ' , now commands , " whether in his modest garret or in his box at the coffee-shop , the luxury of such a meal of social revelations as might in one week fit a Lope de Vega with a very fair stock to commence work upon . What on earth can the horror and scandai-ci'ammed British public of this day care for greiiteel tragedy , or comedy as we find it embalmed in Bell's or . Cumberland's collections ? Were not the Palmer , Smcthursl , Archer , Rowley and Bell cases more tragic or comic , as the case may be , than any production of the school alluded to ? Are we not panting for new and piquant details of a new Norfolk tragedy , and particulars of the great Kentish scandal , fib to make one ' s hair stand on end ? Depend upon it , -your regular Drama has not half the flavour of the modern Law or Police cases , and 'Will-never hold up its head again while these morning performances are so regularly and so efficiently popularised . Such a piece as " The . Stranger , " which in our young days was considered tooVvapourish by half for a poco-euranie age , is not in its " pathos and bathos and laclivijm < c roareiu" very far below tlie pitch of our tragedies of modern society . It is possible , in a few years' time , that as the necessity for still stronger excitement supervenes with civilization and business pre-occupation , our public may seek new sensations in real heroic tragedy . They have not gone far in that direction at present , but the character of their demands in the contrary One seems . certainly to favour the argument . The successful comedy of the present day must be a string of rattling farce ? . The farce must comprise physical and practical jokes , stirred with the flavouring snbstaricc of antiqtie pantomimes . Puutornime itself has been sharpened to the same extent . Burlesque has been revived in our time , and carried to an extent that the author of Bombastes l ? u )' ioso never dreamed of ; and now the entertainments of the present Christmas tide number several hybrids , comprising not only the perfection of comic singing , ballot dancing . , comic word spin-Ming and twisting , but also those , of caricature ' drawing , dressing , and acting , besides a quality of sc-enepamting seldom before aimed at , and a full harlequinade to boot . The pantomime at the City ' of London Theatre is , we apprehend , one of the old school , written-by a masterof the art , and acted , machined , aud decorated in the old style . But in the above particulars , its eifSernble id no more to be compared with the entertainments at either of the six first West End houses . than Mr . Nelson Lee to Shakespcre . We have then £ o renprt that the decadence of the legitimate drama during the twelvemonth lias been progressive ; and we see no occasion to _ anticipate a change . A firsli-class and ¦ ferocious tragedy on the return . of the African ltoscius , Ira Aldridge , with a crop of St . Petersburg laurels , may just impede , for a fortnight , the gentle efflux of its life-blood ; but for the reasons stated and others , if we were put to them , we conceive that decay is in the constitution of the patient . There is , to use the laiiguagc of the mart , a better feeling for pure comedy , but no great tltimiUid . Farce is in recjuest :. the supplies from France are deficient in the element of laughing gas . From that country we have liad an influx of comedietta and small drama , but these have always required the assistance and support of burlesque , being not well able to stand up alone , Our children , old and young , insist upon going to the play for diversion , and diversion only ; and tlie new school of writers get more fun , money , and applause out of pun-embroidered , fables than weak mal-adaptations from the French . The greatest theatrical event of 1850 was the departure of Mr . K-ean for a long provincial tour : tho smallest , the publication of his . memoirs and autobiography . Holms already begun to reap the fortune for which he speculated so judiciously and so extensively during 1 l » is Loydon management . Mr . Greenwood , of Sudlors Wells , toolc , Just spring , n company of pantomiuiisls to . Berlin , whore the indiffbuos wore nearly as bowildered with the entertainment as the late Princo of Oude , who pronounced ono he saw to bo a beautiful poem , and ordered his moonshce to translate it at his leisure , Tho production of an intense drama , by Mr . J . A . Heraud ; tho opening of . tho Lyceum , by Madame Celeste ; the occupation of nine pluybills nt once by'TVli " . Tom Taylor ' s translations ; the great success of " One Touch of Nature ; " and ' The Dead Heart , " at theAdolphi ; the great merit of a charming comedy , " Homo Truths , " at tho Princess ' s ; and the death of Mr . Wright , comedian' —have , wo believe , been the most prominent opcur . ronces during , tho last theatrical year . Wo can have no objection to join our hopes with those of others more immediately concerned , that tho chronicle for } S <> 0 inuy bo richer , in important and interesting . matter . " , . Tho prospects of Mvsic , however , soom to brighten as thoso ot tho Du . vMAfado . Tho seed sown by Blainzer , Hiillah , and Jullion is bearing fruit , and tho English show strong symptoms of becoming a musical nation in a wido sense of tho word . That tho Pyno and Harrison enterprise maintained the high position it took nt starting , through tho year 1850 , in spite of interested auguries , baclced by stout oflbvts to the contrary end , was ono groat , fuot of the year . The naturalJKntion of " Dinorah , " tho CVystnl Palace and Bra ( 1 ford"Fe 8 ti , vi » lrt , 'the prolonged run of " Sntnnollu" b y one native composer , tho warm reeqptfN of "' " Viotorino u , by miotjior , all help to show tho way of the wind . Opera hero ! Opera there ! Ojjwh every where ! Oponi always at oho ofthe two groat Immimoh . Opon < intormittontly nt tho otlior . Opora by ( its and starts at tho IIII o h . . Inmoa ' s . ttims Keevcs rewarded onormously for Opuriuit Mioretfiloji . Mr Hn gh iiiiging oparn in Goodman ' s fields . Weekly eonc « H « of classical music nearly nil tho year round ut the IihIIh <> l bt . . / m «« e »

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• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 7, 1860, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2328/page/15/