184 Letter on Affairs in general. [FEB. 



the public in every trade is the competition between one dealer and another ; 

 and of that competition in life assurance, we already have a great abun - 

 dance, and are likely if the trade be really a profitable one soon to have 

 a great deal more. 



That excellent paper, the Morning Post, which is always occupied with 

 some scheme for the public advantage, contains an admirable letter this 

 morning, (23rd of January,), on the impropriety of boys making slides in 

 frosty weather in the kennels. There is an eloquence about the writer's 

 manner, which assures us that he speaks from a full understanding of the 

 evil against which he declaims : that he has had at least three falls, for 

 instance, during the present winter, and perhaps a snow-ball or two, by way 

 of accompaniment, into the bargain. 



Music. A punster the other day, speaking of Mr. Bochsa's indictment 

 against the Examiner newspaper, and expressing surprise that Mr. Bochsa, 

 after all that had passed, should bo continued in his office at the Opera 

 House, a gentleman present, observed, that " he thought Mr. B., whatever 

 his faults were, had been hardly attacked ; and that such persons being 

 merely public exhibitors might well enough be admitted within a certain 

 pale." " You are right,*' returned the first " It should be a very large 

 pail and very full of water. 1 * 



MORE Music. Boieldieu's opera of the White Maid, which there 

 was a great fuss set up about Miss Paton's refusal to play in, has been 

 brought out at Covent-Garden Theatre, and sufficiently explained the 

 cause of the lady's contumacy it was laughed at on the first night of 

 performance, and withdrawn on the fifth. It is best, I rather think, to 

 leave the managers and the actors to settle their differences among them- 

 selves as they can : because it is always very difficult, in any dispute, to 

 determine which is in the right ; especially if as generally is the case 

 both are in the wrong. And, as for calling performers the '* servants of 

 the public" they get a great deal more money, very often, than their 

 comparative merits, or importance in society would seem, perhaps, to 

 entitle them to but the notion of their being the " servants of the public" 

 or owing any thing to the public is trash cant fit to use no where 

 but at a " Theatrical Fund'* Dinner mere " subscription benefit'* cant. 

 No actor nor any author is read or run after from any charitable 

 feeling towards himself; or from any end beyond the gratification of those 

 persons who read, or run after him. He is commended and received by 

 men of sense, because his merit in his calling renders him valuable and 

 acceptable to such men : and fools follow him because they must follow 

 something, and because they fortunately have an instinct to be led by 

 those who are wiser than themselves. * But what duty, or service, can 

 any artist owe to the public, when that public never notices him, until 

 his powers, by gratifying their appetite, have made his presence a luxury 

 for which they are content to pay ! An actor, like every other trader, is 

 entitled to take both in meal and malt in money, and money's worth 

 which is the privilege to be impertinent for the talent, which is the com- 

 modity that he has to dispose of just the highest price that it will fetch. 



It is said that, in consequence of the death of His Royal Highness 

 the Duke of York, and of some unfortunate occurrences, which will be 

 generally recollected, which took place during his illness, the Catholic 

 question is to be abandoned for the present Session of Parliament. There 

 can be no doubt but that, under existing circumstances, this course is the 

 politic one ; for it would be impossible to mention the claims of the 



