34 
This fum of 253,000]. is about four 
times the original capital fub{cribed; and 
as the inftitution is to be eftablifhed on the 
principles of a tontine, the amount divid- 
ed among the furviving members, or thofe 
having a claim in right of nominees, will 
be very confiderable. ¢* On the whole,” 
fays Sir John, ‘* permit me to afk, whether 
it is poffible to lay out fuch a fum as 
70,0001. in amanner more likely to prove 
advantageous to the public, both from the 
important truths it will afcertain, and the 
valuable examples it will furnifh? And 
whether there is not every reafon to hope, 
that it will ultimately be produétive, not 
only of indemnification, but of profit to 
the fubfcribers? For my own part, I am 
fo thoroughly convinced of the fatisfa€tion 
that muit refult from carrying fuch a plan 
into effect, of the fuccefs that muft neceffa- 
rily attend it, and the certainty that it will 
yield a handfome recompence to thofe who 
_engage in it, that I fhould not hefitate to 
riik the whole capital that may be required, 
had I the neceflary funds at command ; 
but as that is not the cafe, I flatter my- 
felf, that. there will be found a fufficient 
pumber of public-{pirited individuals, who 
will co- goss together in venturing 
a part of their property (if any one can 
tuppofe there is any hazard in the pro- 
pofed undertaking) for the purpofe of car- 
rying through fo important a meafure, and 
one fo materially connected with the gene- 
sal iimprovement, the political ftrength, 
ie the mot effential interefis of their 
ountry. 
~ Anne to the pamphlet alluded to, is 
. A plan and elevation of a manufactur- 
ing village, confifting of twenty houfes, to 
be placed i in the centre of a field of twenty 
Englifh acres. 2. Plans and elevations’of 
circular cottages, fugeefted by the author, 
and fo admirably calculated as to endure 
for many years without the neceflity of re- 
pairs. And 3. a plan ofan Experimental 
Farm, confifting of 400 acres, divided into 
eight departments of 50 Bich: 
As the circulation of the plan may con- 
tribute not a little to its fuccefs, your im- 
mediate infertion of this letter will oblige, 
Sir, your very humble feryant, 
London, Fan. 18, 1800. Civis. 
= 
For the Moxthly Magazine. 
WIEW OF THE STATE OF THE STAGE 
IN GERMANY, BY A CORRESPOND- 
ENT AT WEIMAR. 
HO can attempt the tafk of muf- 
V tering each ftationary and wander- 
ing troop, which raifes on the boundaries 
View of the German Theatres. 
‘For, in anfwer to the quettions, 
[ Feb:;: I; 
and among the nations of Germany, 
Thalia’s ftandard? In this point, too, does: 
Germany wear the badge of her conftitu- 
tion, pieced out into fo many fmall and 
even petty ftates. And Leffing, when en- 
gaged for the German ftage at Ham= 
burg, when he wrote his excellent work 
the ”Dramaturgia, ‘purchafed with much. 
uneafinefs of mind the conviction, that 
among the people who fpeak German no 
real National Theatre can be eftablithed and 
fupported. For want of a fingle metro- 
polis, there can be only one particular 
national ftage, in Mannheim, in Vienna, 
or in Hamburg. But, even if the 
German Theatre-be deprived of all thofe 
perfections and advantages which, above 
ali things, the -concentration of one large 
metropolis offers in a very high degree to 
the Drama in feveral other kingdoms ; 
ftill, for that very reafon, do the annals 
of the chief theatres deferve, not merely 
the attention of fellow-artifts and real 
connoifleurs, but alfo in a more univerfal 
point of view the obfervation of the 
ftatefman, of the hiftorian, ana, en the 
whole, of the philofophieal. obferver of. 
the manners of the moft enlightened age- 
“What 
is the Public??? And, ‘* Does Germany 
ftill poffefs a public 2°’ before many other 
common ,inftitutions, the theatre, as 
Herder has fo beautifully fhewn in his 
Letters towards the Advancement of Hu-- 
manity and polite Learning, thould come 
firft into contideration. 
The four chief theatres, each of which 
with a louder or a more gentle voice lays 
claim to the honorary name of National 
Stage, are thofe at Vienna, Berlin, Ham- 
burg, and Frankfort. At Vienna, where 
Thalia in the boulevard-ftages of the 
fuburbs, under the management of the 
famous Shickneder and the Tyrolian 
Merry- Andrews Gafperle, often receives 
more bleffed confecration, than in the chief. 
temples of its theatrical Mules, was Kofze- 
bye (called from Livonia by the Baron 
Browz, manager in chief of the Burgh- 
theatre) feveral months ago the caule of a 
ferious difpute. His well-direéted {pirit 
of reform, the objects of which were 
highly necefary improvements, threat-— 
ened to lafh the folly of fome ftrutting felf- 
conceited actors in a Theatrical Journal, 
which, by a deep-laid fcheme of knavery, 
was fmothered in its infancy, and could 
be but poorly fupplied by criticifms on 
the theatre, officially inferted in the Court 
Gazette. Mr, Kotzebue engaged iome 
new actors of the firft line, amongft whom 
wers Mr, Koch and hia lovely daughter 
fron 
