238 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



CHAP. XV. 



Dissentiojis and Contests in the British Cabinet. — Duel hel'ween Mr. 

 Canning and Lord Castlereagh. — 0. F. War, or Uproars in the Thea- 

 tre of Vovent Garden, — Internal Affairs of France. — New Government 

 established in the Roman States annexed to the French Empire, — Revo- 

 lution in Sixeden. — State of Russia. 



DURING the last three months 

 of 1809, the aftairs of Eu- 

 rope were not regarded by the 

 people of England xvith much inter- 

 est or concern, at least not with 

 any emotions that might render 

 them objects of pleasing and volun- 

 tary attention. Austria was com- 

 pletely subdued. The British army 

 had been in part withdrawn, or in 

 part lay languishing in the pesti- 

 lential marshes of Holland. Bat- 

 tles had been gained in Spain, 

 but the objects of the cam- 

 paign had been lost. The brave 

 Tyroleans while they commantl- 

 ed our admiration, excited our 

 pity. We admired their virtue, 

 but deplored their fate. In a word, 

 the war on the continent had ceas- 

 ed either to feed our hopes, or 

 amuse our leisure. In these cir- 

 cumstances the public langour was 

 diverted by domestic dissentions 

 and contests; not amounting to 

 what is commonly termed war, but 

 yet not altogether without blood- 

 shed. There was a contest in the 

 cabinet which led to action, and a 

 contest between the audience and 

 the managers of Covent Garden 

 theatre, which also led to action ; 

 but both happily terminated with- 

 out any convulsion in the state, 

 and indeed without the smallest 

 loss, but according to general opi- 

 nion, in one of the cases, with very 

 material advantage to the public. 



When the new theatre was 

 opened this season, towards the 

 end of September, an increase of 

 price was demanded for admission. 

 This was resisted by the public as 

 unnecessary and unreasonable, and 

 as arising from an intention to take 

 advantage of the town, which, 

 Drury-lane being in ruins, had no 

 other place of theatrical amuse- 

 ment. Another, and still more 

 popular ground of resistance was, 

 the erection of twenty-eight private 

 boxes in the theatre, by which 

 the audience at large was exceed- 

 ingly cramped, and which were 

 generally supposed to have been 

 designed as resorts of impurity, 

 and to furnish facilities, which in 

 a British theatre ought not to be 

 suspected. The performances of 

 the actors were drowned and re- 

 duced to mere pantomisne, by 

 laughing, groaning, hissing, mew- 

 ing in imitation of cats, barking 

 like dogs, grunting like swine, 

 growling like tigers — in short it 

 seemed as if all the animal creation 

 had been assembled in Covent 

 Garden, as in a capacious Lyceum, 

 for the purposeof proclaiming their 

 existence by their instinctivesounds. 

 To all manner of natural sounds, 

 emitted or excited by all manner 

 of natural organs, was added the 

 aid of instrumental noise; such as 

 coachmen's horns and trumpets, 

 dustmen's bells, and watchmen's 



rattles, 



