10 THE OLD ACTORS. 



been destroyed in the debate by the appearance of a new element, 

 deprived until now of all influence the people. There no longer 

 exist various degrees of privileged classes they are now reduced to but 

 two, or as, with aristocratic irony it has been expressed, to " those 

 who have, and those who have not." The great question " of the 

 Poor" is now agitating the surface of modern society as violently as 

 did formerly the question of Slavery the Roman world, when at the 

 summit of its greatness. From these causes, then, arises an inability 

 on the part of this country to go to war. All the aspirations and 

 sympathies of the nation have taken an internal direction. We are 

 aiming towards a higher freedom than even political freedom at 

 an organization founded on the wants of the people, and not of the 

 aristocracy ; an organization that shall provide for all those changes 

 which the effects of machinery have and may still further produce 

 upon our social system ; an organization which will ultimately lead 

 to a more equal distribution of property. It is round these points 

 that the attention of the nation is now gravitating. 



Meantime England must resign herself to the stern necessity of 

 abdicating her proud rank of the arbitress of nations, and see her 

 foreign influence decline. That she has already done so, is evident 

 from the passive endurance, the almost cynical indifference with which 

 government has looked on the fate of Poland, and on what is passing 

 in the East. 



RECOLLECTIONS OF THE OLD ACTORS. 



BY A SURVIVING SPECTATOR OP GARRICK. 



No. I. 



IT was a rule of my family to let all the children see a given number 

 of plays yearly, at each of the theatres, winter and summer; by this 

 practice we saw the most favourite pieces, and the most eminent 

 performers, as they passed in succession before the public. In that 

 course I witnessed the last scintillations of Spranger Barry, the once 

 formidable rival of Garrick ; of 'Powell, who received instructions 

 from Garrick; and of Garrick himself, during the last three or 

 four years he trod the stage. I repeatedly saw him in several of his 

 comic characters ; in tragedy he performed but seldom, and when he 

 did the crowd was so great, and the avenues to the theatre so incon- 

 venient, that, young as I then was, it was thought too dangerous for 

 me to make the attempt. He was so different from, as well as 

 superior to, every other actor, that I preserved his intonation, 

 accentuation, and other peculiarities of speech, as well as his general 

 mode of representing his characters; and for several years afterwards, 

 when the same characters were performed by others, I compared 



