456 The Dramatic Monopoly. [APRIL 



The basis of any enactment to afford a real and permanent relief, 

 must be the utter destruction of any fixed monopoly. It must have at 

 least the spirit of existing competition vitally animating its operations. 

 To throw down one class of vested interests for the mere sake of pro- 

 tecting others, and, as far as property goes, inferior ones, would be an 

 absurdity. The only vested interests which claim respect, in a question in 

 which their value is an absolute tax either upon the public or the artists, 

 are such as are conferred by the reputation of able and efficient manage- 

 ment. The moment any exclusive right enables an individual or a 

 corporation to exact, in the shape of rent, more than the proper interest 

 for the building and its situation, that extra rent is an oppressive and 

 unjust tax. Let it be levied on whom you will, its ultimate effect is the 

 deterioration of the public entertainment in some one advantage of 

 quality or of cheapness. Let it lessen the actors' salaries, the best per- 

 formers will go elsewhere ; let it decrease the means of expenditure in 

 scenery or dresses, the public are the losers ; let it appear in high 

 prices, it will destroy the public opportunities of amusement, and 

 reduce the theatre to a desert, or an unprofitable receptacle for free 

 orders. Of all amusements this is one which ought to be cheap. Those 

 who indulge in it should be led into no crime against the more serious 

 calls upon their resources. With the lower orders it should not be the 

 ally, but the antagonist of the gin-shop ; with those of decent medi- 

 ocrity of circumstances it should be a relaxation, the price of which calls 

 for no privation in other matters. The hours, too, of amusement at all 

 the theatres should be much fewer. No theatre ought to be permitted 

 to be open for more than three hours and a half, or, at the very utmost, 

 four hours; and effectual penalties should be levied for any infringe- 

 ment of so important a rule. The pleasant, perhaps necessary dissipa- 

 tion of the evening should leave no sting for the next day. It might 

 be made the usual and delightful alternative with music or cheerful 

 conversation, and should scarcely interfere more than these would with 

 ordinary household arrangements. In speaking of the classes we have 

 enumerated, we have mentioned almost all the real supporters of the 

 drama. The higher ranks of society, with a few illustrious exceptions, 

 have abandoned the theatre for frivolities which lay less burden upon 

 the thought, which appeal almost solely to the senses, and ask no occu- 

 pation of the intellect. They interfere sometimes with an absurd and 

 baneful patronage, make fashions of foreign novelties, build saloons, and 

 uphold the particular interests of actresses; but seldom, very seldom, do 

 they interfere with an art which, from want of information, they 

 despise, unless to degrade it by their own misuse, and to disgust those 

 of its professors who regard it with respect and enthusiasm. The proofs 

 are not far from us ; at what time were the stage and its followers so 

 justly regarded, as under the almost absolute control of one of their own 

 order, David Garrick ? We should say to the actors, as, indeed, to the 

 whole people of England, leave off the affectation of aristocracy, which 

 is losing you the substance of comfort and respectability, by offering 

 you a shadow ; be as proud of the name of plebeian as others are of the 

 rank of patrician, and at least regulate the affairs of your trade arid 

 calling with less deference to birth and title than to skill and expe- 

 rience. 



The public should, we conceive, be allowed to be their own judges 

 as to the necessity of any increase of the number of places of amuse- 



