620 NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



tious papa much more graciously than expected. In the course of 

 conversation with this gentleman Motley (C, Malhews) discovers that 

 the rival who is favoured by the father is one Dicky Darling (Oxberry), 

 a person he has particular reasons for disliking, and whose marriage 

 he accordingly determines to break off if it be possible. Just as he 

 is wanted according to the good old custom of the stage Mr. Darling, 

 who has unwittingly passed his future papa on the road, makes his ap- 

 pearance, and after being made a fool of by Motley in the assumed 

 characters of the gardener and a French danseuse, is induced by this 

 last personage to write to old Currant an impertinent letter abusing 

 his daughter, and resigning his pretensions to her hand. Of course 

 this is conveyed to the party to whom it is addressed, and produces 

 the effect desired by the intriguing actor, namely, the dismissal of 

 Darling and the acceptance of Sinclair in his stead. 



The plot is as improbable as it well can be, but it serves the pur- 

 pose of introducing the actor in different guises. Mr. Mathews was 

 oeminently successful in a Welch ballad which was very deservedly 

 encored, and in the French woman kept the house in a roar of laugh- 

 ter, no bad test of the merit of the performance. Mrs. Orger played 

 well as she always does, though her part is not very prominent. 

 However, she made the most of it, and who could do more ? Oxberry's 

 part did not we think exactly suit him: at least we have been much 

 better pleased with him on other occasions. The other parts are 

 merely introduced to fill up the outline, and could be made nothing 

 of, even if they were filled by first-rate actors, which of course they 

 were not. 



NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



THE LATE LORD COPELAND. This lately defunct civic lord appears to have 

 had a particular turn for engineering and mechanics, acquired we presume in 

 various excursions which his Civic Highness may have taken in the " Mag- 

 net" and various hireable steamers, that the inexhaustible purse of London's 

 far-famed city can command. We had previously, DO doubt that the son-in-law 

 (if we mistake not) of the great Spode would be able by the touch of the 

 knuckle to decide on the value of a piece of crockery or porcelain ; and we are 

 not unwilling to concede to the head of the largest crockery-shop in London 

 the credit of being able to determine the merits of those highly valuable arti- 

 cles that the enterprising spirit of Wedgewood and Spode brought first before 

 the public. It was left to us, however, to discover even at the eleventh hour 

 that Lord Copeland alas, now no more was a man of exquisite genius in 

 respect of mechanical science. One of the last acts of his reign was to give 

 his lordly " Imprimatur" to the Symington paddle-wheel. 



It may be that we radically inclined set the mayoral talent at too low 

 an estimate : but we certainly do say that the proprietors would have dons 

 much better for the interests of their patent, if they had consulted the steady 

 and abiding reputation of our best engineers instead of the ephemeral dignity 

 of a now defunet Lord Mayor. The vessel which is only a tug-boat has 

 been christened at the usual expense of a bottle of port and a dejeuner a la 

 feurchette " The Lord Copeland." Thus, and only thus, will the late Lord 

 Mayor's good qualities be transmitted to posterity. " Sic transit gloria Cope- 

 land-z. A. K. 



VALUE OF FAME. It is an extraordinary coincidence that within fourteen 

 days the great Forrest of Drury Lane, and Price the equestrian clown of 



