1 27 J Notes for tht Month. 507 



correspondent, that the mules employed at the amalgamatory mines in 

 Mexico, are opened after death, and that from two to seven pounds of 

 silver are often taken out of the stomach. The writer adds, that he is in 

 possession of a specimen which is perfectly pure and white, as they gene- 

 rally are." This is a fact that was not known to us ; but it explains the 

 reason why so little silver comes to England from these Mexican mines 

 The mules eat it ! 



" The celebrated Mr. Abrahamson," a French paper says, <c we are happy 

 to announce, has published his third report on the progress of the System 

 of Mutual Instruction," at Copenhagen. He states that the happiest 

 results have been obtained from it in all parts of the Danish territories." 

 This is the system lately described in an Irish work upon Education, by 

 which two persons, who know nothing, are enabled to teach one another. 



English Drama in Paris. We adverted in our last number to the diffi- 

 culty or, as we considered it, the impossibility under which the critics 

 of every country must labour, in attempting to draw conclusions as to the 

 merits of foreign dramatic performances. And an article in the French 

 Globe, of this week, upon the representations of the English theatre in 

 Paris, affords a curious illustration of this very difficulty, and of the danger 

 which even able people incur, in meddling with matters which they do 

 not fully understand. We select this article in preference to many others 

 before us, no less on account of the general talent of the journal in which 

 it appears, than because some parts of it are written in a sound and liberal 

 spirit of criticism. 



We pass over the admiration given to the actors (which we have suffi- 

 ciently noticed before) the applause given to the excellence of Mr. Abbott 

 in Mercutio ! the ravishing talent of Miss Smithson, in Juliet, &c. &c. 

 to come to the point where the critic tumbles in, smack out of his 

 depth over head and heels in examining the acted play of Othello, and 

 " retrancbements" that " Les Barbaras" (" nous parlons des arrangeurs 

 de Covent Garden, et de Drury-lane") have made in Shakspeare's text. 

 The writer here falls into the true French error : not contented to 

 speak for the taste (though hastily adopted) of himself and his countrymen, 

 but boldly anathematising the u arrangeurs" of " Covent Garden and 

 Drury-lane ;" and it is whimsical to observe ivhat are the scenes and 

 passages which he considers our English audiences wronged in being 

 deprived of. 



In the first place, he says " On efface un role entier, celle de Betauca !" 

 This is a " role" upou which we shall say a word, because some of our 

 readers may not be aware that it ever existed in the tragedy. It is the 

 character of a " common woman," whose ministry is not in any way 

 necessary to carry on the business of the play, but rather soils and 

 weakens it. And here comes the woe of speaking where we are only 

 superficially informed the writer is not aware that it is a description 

 of character which English custom (let that custom be right or wrong, 

 the " arrangeur" has nothing to do with it) has banished entirely from 

 the stage. In all plays where sucli a character has existed, and can be 

 omitted as in Otway's Venice Preserved it is entirely left out. And 

 even where the development has been less offensive, and it is impos- 

 sible to get rid of the part entirely, we have found the necessity of cut- 

 ting it down quite to shadow : Lamorce in the Inconstant, and Myrtilla 

 in the Provoked Husband, are barely permitted to utter so many words 

 as will serve to link together the action of the piece ; and people begin to 



3 T 2 



