S02 ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF THEATRES. 



particularly in ploying it almost entirely in the erection of public buiM- 

 h)£s/^ "' " ^"?*> especially theatres; and although 1 am not an sd- 

 rairer and enconrager of theatric representations, but, on 

 the coutsary, tliink they are injurious to a state, as conta- 

 minating the morals and habits of a people, and consider 

 Theatres mn- them as the very seat and emporium of vice and immorality, 

 nlur'aHtv^ ""' ^^'^ "^^ ^^^*^' "^^ permitted, it is a desirable thing, to have 

 them erected in snch a way, that, for safety's sake, the fre- 

 quenters may not be in danger from any accident or other 

 Two burnt cause. We have se«'n the two national theatres destroyed 

 * entirely, and that with a rapidity that no human exertion 



could put a stop to. Their destruction arose no doubt from 

 and One re- an unpardonable neglect, or a worse cause: one has risen 

 ^" ' like a phoenix from its ashes, more beautiful than before, 



but not secured but is it not risen with all the dangers of destruction in it- 

 agymst le. f^\{'} ]j ought to have risen immortal ; it ought, as a na- 

 tional establishment, to have been composed of such ma- 

 terials, as would mock a second dreadful devastation. A 

 fire once commenced, would it not, in this new tiieatre, 

 communicate to all its parts ? would it not put at defiance 

 the power of man to suppress it, and in a few hours would 

 it not again be a heap of ruins? Drury Lane is still in 

 Others about this situation ; aud as it is in contemplation to raise it to its 

 so e ertcie . ^-^i.^^gp splendour, and as another theatre is about to be 

 erected also, I do hope, before they are erected, that the 

 proprietors will carefully 'consider how absolutely necessary 

 it is to compose them of such materials, as will endure for 

 ages, aud that cannot be again consumed with fire. The 

 dV'struction of Covent Garden was accompanied with the 

 loss of so many lives, that no care or expense can be too 

 much to guard against so dreadful an accident. I mention 

 not the loss the proprietors sustained, I take not that into 

 the scale, lor what is the loss of, property, when compared 

 The!r<:'>shunre with life? The nation ought to superintend the erection of 

 jkl:oii d provide j^-g public buildings, especially those buildings set apart lor 

 for tiivibecurity r. i ■• r- i ■ -^ , ■ •- i- i 



• f iniblicbuikl- aTiusetnent. 1 he lives ot nis Majesty s subjects ought to 



^'gS' be as carefully provided for by tlie legislature, in their 



meetings together for atnuscment, as it provides for them 



Danger from from their enemies from without. I always have considered 



crowds trying all such places as extremely dangerous, not that I suppose 

 xo escape, "^ ' ^ ^^^^^ 



