THE DRAMATIC PATENTS EXAMINED. 269 



claim for interest is a debt, notwithstanding they have both passed it 

 over as an annual charge ; for in 1832 an attempt was made to per- 

 suade the shareholders to relinquish^their claims to interest admitted 

 to be due, but not paid, and which, in some cases, amounted to a 

 larger sum than that originally subscribed by the shareholders, and 

 had, therefore, more than doubled the debt due to them. The company 

 of proprietors are their own insurers against damages by fire j and 

 this should also be made an annual current expense ; wear and tear, 

 which, at certain periods, costs much money, and casualities should 

 likewise be included in annual charges ; as should law expenses. 

 But all these items are omitted ; had they been admitted, as they ought 

 to have been, as is the common and rational practice in other con- 

 cerns, Mr. Harris would have had nothing left for him to denominate 

 profit, but would have had a considerable sum to set down as defi- 

 ciency of income to meet expenditure. Had the amount been made 

 up in a clear mercantile manner, the deficiency would not have been 

 set down at 48,000/., but probably at twice that sum, or 96,000/, as 

 the actual loss of the twelve seasons. 



Is the house then just the right size ? Do the public lie ? Is it 

 not too large, too expensive ? and has it not, therefore, been a losing 

 concern from the beginning? The best possible proof has been 

 adduced to shew that it is too large, too expensive, and, consequently, 

 a losing concern. The proofs are equally valid and equally clear, 

 that an income, equal to the expenses of this large and expensive 

 house, never can be realized ; that it will not be supported by 

 the public, to whom it never can supply the rational entertainments 

 they desire in the way which alone can satisfy them, by enabling 

 them to see the countenances of the performers and to hear their 

 voices. 



Mr. Harris has shewn, from the accounts of the theatre whilst 

 under his management, that the income produced by the regular 

 drama did not pay the current expenses, exclusive of interest on capi- 

 tal, &c. j yet there was in his time such a company as we can scarcely 

 hope to see again. Captain Forbes, in his evidence before the House 

 of Commons' Committee named most of the principal performers thus: 

 " John Kemble, Charles Kemble, Cooke, Lewis, Incledon, Munden, 

 Fawcett, Young, Jones, Blanchard, Emery. Liston. Mrs. Siddons, Mrs. 

 Dickens, Mrs. C. Kemble, Mrs. H. Johnstone, Mrs. Gibbs, and Mrs. 

 Davenport." Strange as it may seem, that with such a company of 

 capital performers, and with every department equally filled, success 

 should not have been securely and permanently established, yet so it 

 was; the size of the house, by preventing the audience from seeing and 

 hearing, gradually diminished its number, so that the money paid from 

 all sources was unequal to the expenses of the regular drama ; and, 

 but for the produce of the pantomines, to which the large house was 

 more especially adapted, the concern would have been as totally 

 ruined then as it is now. The company was not an expensive 

 company made up for the new house : all, or nearly all, of the 

 excellent performers named by Captain Forbes belonged to the old 

 house. 



The receipts above charges for current services have been stated at 



