NOTES OF THE MONTH. 589 



an intemperate indulgence of irritated feelings by the other party. 

 The bare fact of a separation on ill terms is bad enough, without 

 being preceded by a pugilistic contest between the manager of 

 a National Theatre and his principal tragedian. With the private 

 quarrels, however, of the servants of the public we have no right to 

 interfere, so " revenons a nos moutons." Mr. Macready appeared on 

 the boards of the " Garden" in the character of Macbeth, and played 

 it with even more than his usual success. There is a grace and 

 dignity in his manner which is always imposing ; and, though we do 

 not generally admire his reading or personification of Shakspeare's 

 characters, Macbeth is certainly an exception to the rule. His 

 delineation of the Scottish usurper, when horrors fall thick around him 

 towards the end of his career, was such that we can scarcely hope to 

 see it surpassed, if even equalled. Undoubtedly no tragedian now 

 enjoying a metropolitan reputation has the slightest right to dispute 

 the crown with Macready. If we mistake not, however, he will some 

 day find a rivial fully equal to cope with him in young Kean, whose 

 success in the provinces has been so decided that we marvel he has 

 not been made prize of by some of the London managers. 



Twice at Drury Lane a disgraceful comedy has been enacted at 

 the expense of some 400 guineas, if report be correct, to a soi-disant 

 Mr. Paumer. He seems to have caught the mantle of Romea Coates, 

 of laughable notoriety, and contrived to murder Hamlet and Richard 

 again and again, in the course of his two evenings of folly. We 

 are surprised that the public tolerate such an insult from a manager, 

 as foisting on them an incapable debutante, because forsooth he (the 

 manager) is borne harmless by the too-well-filled purse of the 

 wealthy idiot, who must needs expose his incapacity before the eyes 

 of the public, instead of hiding his head from those who would 

 certainly take little pains in seeking for it. 



NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



A Lengthened Speech. — The public complain, and assuredly not 

 without reason, of the great prolixity of parliamentary speeches. 

 The fact is that almost all our sixth or seventh rate speechifiers think 

 that the merits of a speech are not to be judged of by the ideas or 

 arguments it contains, but solely by its length. Hence the intolerable 

 long windedness. Mr. Borthwick, the Member for Evesham, is one of 

 the most prolific speakers in the lower house, though the Morning 

 Papers very judiciously spare their readers the labour of wading 

 through his orations. A few weeks ago, however, the hon. gentleman 

 threatened to surpass himself as regards the longitude of his speeches. 

 The patience of the house having very naturally become exhausted 

 by the infliction of upwards of an hour of his *' words, words, words," 

 as Hamlet says, it began to give him a few broad hints in the shape 

 of coughs, cries of " question,'' &c. that they would willingly dis- 

 pense with any further specimen of his eloquence. The hon. gen- 

 tleman for a time paid as little attention to these insinuations of the 

 temper of the house as hon. Members were paying to his speech, 

 but the interruptions eventually became so great ami frequent that 



