1832.] A fairs in General. 225 



patriot, statesman, and philosopher. During all this time he enjoyed 

 unabated health and consequently felicity, for so intimate is the con- 

 nection between health and happiness there can be no true pleasure, 

 and not much social feeling, where the gastric juice is disordered. To 

 such a man the world was of course " good upon the whole ;" but his 

 was an extreme case ; and it is by general, not particular examples, by 

 the authority of the aggregate, not of the individual, that matters of fact 

 must be decided. Ask the majority of our Spitalfields, Manchester, 

 Macclesfield, and Congleton mechanics j of our labourers, West India 

 proprietors and ship-owners ; of our lawyers, clergymen, authors, actors, 

 half-pay subalterns, and tenpence-a-day soldiers ; ask each, or all of 

 these, what they think of the world, or even put the question to the 

 vote throughout the kingdom ; and let us be guided by them, not Jef- 

 ferson, in our opinion of its worth. For our own parts, so far from 

 thinking the ee world good upon the whole," daily experience convinces 

 us more and more that it is a sorry business at the best, and that Burns 

 and Chesterfield spoke but the strict truth, when the one declared that 

 man was made, not to rejoice, but to mourn ; and the other expressed 

 satisfaction that his bustling and varied life was at length drawing to a 

 close. The question is one to be decided, not by two or three major 

 authorities, but by a thousand minor practical ones. 



THEATRICALS IN HIGH LIFE. The Duke of Bedford and the 

 Marquis of Londonderry, however little they may agree in the House 

 of Lords, have exhibited something like a reciprocity of taste out of it 

 in running a race of private theatricals against each other. The Duke, 

 however, has not appeared himself; but at Wynyard Park, the Marquis 

 has superintended the production of the Wreck Ashore in which Lady 

 Londonderry, as Alice, entirely eclipsed Mrs. Yates ; while his lordship 

 but hear his critic : 



" The melancholy incidents of the piece were frequently enlivened by the 

 Marquis of Londonderry, and his talented son, Viscount Seaham ; the former of 

 whom, in the character of Marmaduke Magog, the parish-constable and beadle, 

 and the latter in " the cute country lad," Jemmy Starling, kept the audience in 

 roars of laughter, whenever they appeared on the boards. The Marquis possesses 

 a rich vein of comic humour, which he kept in full play throughout the whole of 

 his performance. His lordship reminded us of a popular actor, named Rock, 

 who figured on the Durham boards, some twenty years ago, and to whom, in our 

 opinion, he bears a very striking resemblance as a comedian, Of Lord Seaham, 

 who is not eleven years of age, we cannot speak in terms sufficiently intelligible, to 

 convey to our readers an idea of the gratification we derived from his perform- 

 ance. To say we were delighted and astonished, is to say too little; and we shall, 

 therefore, content ourselves, by simply expressing a hope, that the splendid talents 

 of the heir of Wynyard, developed thus early, may hereafter be employed in the 

 service, and to the advantage of his country." 



It is rumoured that John Reeve intends to start for America ; for it 

 it is evident that he has no chance against a Marquis, who happens to be 

 so perfect a genius in the parish-beadle business. The reference to Rock 

 puzzles us. Does the critic mean Captain Rock r Mr. Buckstone, also, 

 when he wrote and acted the part of Jemmy Starling, little thought that 

 he was so soon to be extinguished by so wonderful a little viscount as 

 Lord Seaham. How his lordship's capacity, however, for playing 

 Jemmy Starling is to tend, as the critic hints, " to the service an . ' , ,- 

 tage of his country," we cannot surmise except as it may tend to keep 



M.M. New Series. VOL. XIII. No. 74. Q 



