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his favourite character of Othello, but without success; indeed it may be said, it was the only part he ever failed in; yet I have heard it said by those who were reputed good judges, that he struck out many new beauties in it, never before hit upon his not succeeding might, in a great measure, be attributed to his want of height, being much below Barry's;-he also dressed it in a shape which was not then the custom. It was, too, the fashion of those days for ladies ef quality to have a little black boy, in a fancy dress and turban, to wait on them with the tea-tabl equipage; and the celebrated actor Quin, being in one of these parties, was asked what he thought of Garrick's Othello ?— Why,' says he, the boy plays it well enough; but confound it, whenever he came on, he put me in mind of little Pompey there with the tea-kettle.' This ludicrous remark hurt him more than his want of figure;-he immediately gave it up, and soon was universally admired in the same tragedy, by his judicious acting in Jago. In King Lear, Jaffier, and many other parts, they were likewise powerful rivals. Their opposition in the first occasioned some remarks, which I remember reading in a paper with the following lines: "The town has found two different ways To praise the different Lears; To Barry they give loud huzzas, To Garrick only tears!" Which had the greater compliment, I submit to the judicious reader.”

The jealous irascibility of the temper of Mr Garrick is well illustrated by the next anecdote we shall lay before our readers.

"As Garrick advanced in life, and still

increasing reputation, so he still, if possible, became more and more tenacious of it, and more easily disconcerted; therefore, during the last two years of his acting, he requested the musicians not to leave the orchestra for the future when he played tragedy, as their going in and out, and the doors opening and shutting, caught his eye and ear, and distressed him. Till this time, after playing the music between the acts, the band used to bob under the stage, and in their music-room enjoy themselves quietly at a game of whist or drafts, till the prompter's bell gave them warning that the act was just over: this in future they were obliged to forego when he performed tragedy. His first part after this order was Macbeth; and, conformably to the same, all the musicians reluctantly kept their seats. But a Mr Cervetto, well known to the galleries by the appellation of Nosey,' who had belonged to the theatre above forty years, and repeatedly seen Garrick in all his characters, now deprived of his customary indulgence, found it difficult to keep awake during the first act; after playing the music to which, he profoundly fell asleep! The longest pause that Garrick ever made was in this

part, and in the second act, previous to his saying,

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Is this a dagger that I see before me ?" "At this moment the house was all eyes and ears, all silence, all attention; I suppose no one thought they were in a theatre; tained the deception which it aims at, and the " very cunning of the scene" had obwholly engrossed all their faculties. At this critical moment, unfortunately, poor Cervetto awoke with an uncommon gape; a loud, long, uncouth, tremendous gape! such a one ne'er heard before! The howling of a dog, compared to it, was harmony! audience, they could not have been more Had a loaded gun been fired among the alarmed: they were electrified, then, in a few seconds, went into a general laugh; indeed 'twas irresistible. However, they restored themselves to order, and Garrick became composed as soon as possible; but when once he got into his room, after the demanded to know who it was that made play was over, the storm broke out. He that infernal noise from the orchestra. On being told, Cervetto was brought up to him; judge with more anxiety and trepidation and perhaps no criminal ever came before a

than he did to Garrick.

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"On his entering, the enraged Roscius incoherently exclaimed, What! is it possible? can it be you, sir? is it you, who have been in the house with me so many years? is it you that made that cursed outlandish noise from the orchestra, and set the whole audience in a roar of laughter ?" He went on, till poor Cervetto could just get an opening to say, Sir, I am extremely sorry." "Confound your sorrow, sir! what's your sorrow to me? You have ruined me; I all the reputation I have gained in forty could not recover myself the whole night; crable noise. You must have been suborned; years, I have lost in two hours by your exeyou've been hired to destroy me; you have joined with assassins, to stab me in the vulnerable part. No, sir, I assure you I was not hired; I abhor the idea, and tomorrow you will do me the justice to believe me, but you are now in a passion.' sir, and no wonder; but how came you to fall asleep? Did my acting displease you? sleep? No, sir; but the house was so was it so tiresome as to make you go to attentive, so very silent, and your acting was so wonderfully great, so much beyond, I thought, what I have often seen you do in overpowered with sensations that I cannot the same part, that I was overcome, quite express, and involuntarily dropt into sleep. always do so when I am very highly I know not how to account for it, but I pleased.""

Ay,

Perhaps no theatrical occurrence ever excited a greater sensation in the public than the farewell appearance of the great Roscius on the stage. The following account of his last performanc“

is extremely well given, and will carry with it greater authority, as coming from the pen of one of the few remaining eye-witnesses of that affecting scene. Mr Everard appears to

think that Mr Garrick's character was not so unfeeling as it has generally been represented. On the present occasion he certainly both excited and displayed extraordinary emotion; and we think his farewell was his proudest, as it was his last triumph.

"The first tragedy their Majesties ever commanded, I believe, was to see him play Richard, being intended for the last night of his performing. Had the theatre then been five times larger than it is now, it would have been full; persons numberless were at the pit and gallery doors soon after ten o'clock in the morning, the places in the boxes taken, and might have been let ten times over. In the evening, after their Majesties arrival and being seated, the play, as customary, immediately began; but the noise made without doors with people pressing to get in, the confusion which prevailed among those who were in, and could not squeeze themselves into a seat, was such, that, notwithstanding the presence of Majesty itself, not a single syllable was heard till the first act was nearly over, and Garrick had to make his appearance; the audience, for the most part, knowing this; the people without doors finding in vain their efforts to get in, and those who were in, having crammed themselves together as comfortably as they could, in a minute all was silence; but in the next moment all was noise again and uproar; the galleries insisted on the play beginning again, for, as I have said, not a word had been heard; his Majesty, on being asked, consented to this, and moreover, knowing Mr Garrick's dis position, sent Lord Harcourt to him, telling him to make himself perfectly easy, and by no means to hurry or distress himself, but take his time, for they would patiently stay till he was collected. After this compliment, the play, strange to say, began again! Determined as he was to finish still with Richard, he was prevailed on to perform it again; previous to which, by strong solicitations from many of the nobility, he consented to play one night more, assuring them positively that it should be the last, as indeed it was. He played Don Felix in Wonder;" I am not ashamed to say, that on that evening I played the little part of Vasquez. He spoke the last time as Don Felix; I can give but a very poor description of the loud plaudits that ensued from all parts of the house, and, I believe, from every one in it, ladies as well as gentlemen. He, with the other performers, Mr Smith, Mr King, Mrs Abington, Miss Pope, &c. kept retiring to the back of the stage; Garrick then slowly advanced, leaving the rest standing in a circle behind. In an instant a different sensation ran through

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the house; till then it seemed as if they had quite forgot that this was positively the last night of his ever appearing. He addressed ful profound silence ensued. them in prose, seemingly without any study, saying, that The jingle of rhyme, and the language of fiction would but ill suit his feelings." After expressing his most grateful acknowledgments for their kindness so many years bestowed on him, he took his final leave, and quitted the stage on the 10th of June 1776. The applause he received at the conclusion of the play was very different to what was given now; it then was long, loud, unanimous, rapturous; now, it was "Not loud, but deep"-not rapturous, but like a muffled drum-not unanimous, for the hands that a minute before were together beating, in rapture, especially the ladies, were now employed in using their white handkerchiefs ;—

6

And tears are honest, when the hands are not.'

His universality has been acknowledged by his cotemporaries; such or such an actor in their respective fortes have been allowed to play such or such a part equally well as him; but could theyperform Archer and Scrub like him, and Abel Drugger, Ranger and Lusignan, Bayes and Benedick-speak his own prologue to "Barbarossa," in the character of a Country-boy, and in a few minutes transform himself in the same play to Selim? Nay, in the same night he has played Sir John Brute and the Guardian—

Romeo and Lord Chalkstone-Hamlet and Sharp-King Lear and Fribble— King Richard and the School-boy! Could any one but himself attempt such a wonderful variety, such an amazing contrast of characters, and be equally great in all! No, no, no!" Garrick take the chair!" Or allow me to bid farewell to him in his loved author's lines:

He was a man, take him for all in all, We ne'er shall look upon his like again."

It is now several years since this aged adventurer visited our northern metropolis. He was refused, and indeed could not well expect, an engagement by Mr Murray, and he has since had little else to support him than the small produce of an annual benefit allowed him by the charity of the manager. That support also, we understand, has been now withdrawn, and the attempt to attract an audience to his own performances has repeatedly failed. The lovers of light reading will derive from this volume a far more harmless amusement than they find in the vile trash they devour from the circulating library, and the purchasers of the work will have the satisfaction of knowing, that they are contributing to sooth the declining years of an infirm and destitute old man.

ON THE STOCKS, OR PUBLIC FUNDS.

MR EDITOR,

As I have no doubt of your desire to contribute to the instruction, as well as the amusement, of every individual among your readers, who pays down regularly his half-crown for your monthly bill of fare, I shall make no apology for troubling you with a few remarks on the subject that stands at the head of this paper. There are few topics of conversation perhaps more frequently introduced, and, at the same time, less generally understood, than that of the Public Funds, and I know few subjects on which the uninstructed can derive so little information from books. Systems of political economy, and profound disquisitions on the national debt, are indeed every day issuing from the press; but in none of these that I have met with, not even in the luminous pages of the Edinburgh Review, which, of all other works, is supposed by its admirers to go to the bottom of every subject, will ordinary readers find any explanation of the first simple principles of the Public Funds? It is for the instruction of such readers, then, that I would now beg leave to occupy a page or two of your Magazine; and though I am quite aware, that my observations will cut a very sorry figure beside the nervous declamation of Idoloclastes, or the sarcastic humour of Timothy Tickler, I am nevertheless certain, that I will render a very acceptable service to many, and these not the least respectable of your readers, if I can throw so much light upon the subject as may enable them to understand the prices of the Stocks, as given in the public papers.

It is perhaps hardly necessary to remark, that in every war in which this country has been engaged since the Revolution, the amount of the annual taxes has been found inadequate to defray the expenses of government. To supply the deficiency, our rulers have generally had recourse to loans, that is to say, they have borrowed money from such individuals as were able and willing to lend it, giving these individuals a security for the payment of a certain annual interest. To explain the nature of this transaction, I shall take a very simple case. Suppose, then, that £100 is the sum which government wishes to borrow, and that an individual offers to lend that sum at an in

terest of 5 per cent. On paying down the money, the lender receives a bill, bond, or acknowledgment, for the amount; by which acknowledgment, he is entitled to draw yearly from the public revenue £5 of interest, but on the express condition, that he is not to demand repayment of the principal, or sum lent, unless government is willing to repay it. The person who thus possesses the bill or acknowledgment, is said to be a holder of £100 of 5 per cent. stock, and the money lent upon that bill constitutes a part of what is called the national debt, because it is in fact borrowed by the nation, and the interest is paid out of the taxes. It is obvious, however, that few persons would be disposed to lend money on the condition of never being allowed to demand repayment, even though they were quite certain of receiving annual interest, and of transmitting the right to that interest to their posterity. To remedy this inconvenience, therefore, the lender who wishes to employ the sum which he lent to government in any other way, though he cannot directly demand repayment, is at liberty to sell his bill to any body who will purchase it, and for any sum that another may be willing to pay for it. In doing so, he merely sells to a second person the right which he himself possessed to the annual interest of £5, and that second person is of course at liberty to dispose of his right to another in the same way. This transaction, in general, is called a transfer of stock; and in the particular case which I have supposed, the one is said to sell, and the other to buy, a £100 of 5 per cent. stock. If 5 per cent. be considered as a fair and equitable interest for money lent, it is obvious, that such a bill as I have now been speaking of, or, in other words, that £100 of 5 per cent. stock, is just worth £100 sterling. It is possible, however, that in certain circumstances, the holder of that bill may receive more, or be obliged to take less for it than £100. If two or three individuals, for example, have each a sum of money which they are anxious to lay out at interest, but find it difficult to do so, a competition will naturally take place among them to become the purchaser of the bill in question, which will always secure to the holder £5 of yearly interest. The possessor of the bill will of course tal advantage of this competition, and r

his price, say, to £105. The purchaser, therefore, pays £105 for £100 of 5 per cent. stock, or he lays out his money at an interest of £5 for every £105, which is at the rate of something more than 4 per cent. If, on the other hand, however, the possessor of the bill or stock is anxious to dispose of it, while few are willing to buy it, he will be forced to offer it for less than £100, say, £95. The purchaser, in this case, pays £95 for £100 of 5 per cent. stock, or he lays out his money at an interest of £5 for every £95, which is at the rate of something more than 5 per cent. For simplicity of illustration, I have supposed, that £100 is the sum borrowed by government, and that of course there is just one bill to be disposed of, or transferred by, the lender. If it be supposed, however, as is really the fact, that the loans generally amount to several millions, the necessity which the lenders are under of selling their bills, or, in other words, transferring their stock, will be more apparent. The transaction between government and the lenders, is precisely the same in the case of millions as in that of a hundred, and it is unnecessary, therefore, again to illustrate the general principle of that transaction. It is evident, however, that even the most opulent merchants, who are generally the lenders, cannot be supposed to have such a command of money as to be able to advance ten or twelve millions to government at once. When they contract for a loan, therefore; that is, when they agree to lend to government the sum required, they generally pay the money by instalments, or partial payments, at certain intervals, say one million a-month, till the whole is advanced. In the mean time they sell, or transfer the bills or securities which they receive from government, to those who may have money to lay out at interest, and who of course will be disposed to purchase such bills, so that the sale of the bills of the first instalment may enable them to pay the second. In this way, government securities or bills become articles of commerce, and their price is regulated like that of any other article, according to the supply and demand. If we suppose, as before, that the contractors for the loan, that is, the original lenders, receive from government a £100 bill for every £100 sterling that they lend, bearing 5 per cent., they

will gain or lose by the transaction, according as they can dispose of these bills, for more or less than £100. If the buyers are numerous, compared with the quantity of bills; that is, if there be a great number who are anxious to have their money laid out at interest, they will be tempted perhaps to give, as was before supposed, £105 for every bill; for though, by doing so, they will have only 4 per cent. for their money, still it may possibly be more than they can draw for it in any other way, while the security is better than if they lent their money to private individuals or companies. In this case, the contractors would gain 5 per cent. upon the loan, or £50,000 on the whole ten millions. If, on the other hand, however, comparatively few persons are found disposed to lay out their money at 5 per cent., the contractors may be obliged to offer their bills for less than £100, say, as before, £95. In this case, the contractors lose 5 per cent. on the loan, or £50,000 on the whole ten millions. It is easy to see, from this view of the subject, how the price of stock is liable to fluctuation, from accidental circumstances. I shall not attempt to enumerate these; but it may be worth while to point out how it is affected by peace and war, as these two states of the country are generally found to have the greatest influence in raising or depressing the value of stock. In the time of war, then, the price of stock is comparatively low, because, in such a state of things, it is likely that government will be under the necessity of borrowing; and as every loan produces new bills, the quantity of those to be disposed of, or, in other words, the sup ply of the market, will be increased. The price, therefore, will fall, for the same reason that the price of corn falls after a plentiful harvest. In time of peace, again, the price of stock is comparatively high, because, in such a state of things, the taxes are likely to be sufficient to defray the expenses of government without any loans, and consequently no new bills are to be disposed of, or the supply, though not positively diminished, ceases to be augmented. For the same reason, the price of stock in the time of war is materially affected by the nature of the intelligence that comes from the scene of action. If that intelligence be unfavourable, stock will fall, because

there is a prospect either of protracted warfare, or of the necessity of more vigorous exertions on the part of government; in both which cases, new loans may be necessary, and consequently a new supply of bills will be thrown into the money market. On the other hand, should the intelligence be favourable, the price of stock will rise, because the prospect of a successful termination of the war renders it probable that there will be no new loan, and consequently no new supply of stock. It is this variation in the price of stock that gives room for the nefarious practice of stock-jobbing. That practice consists in raising and circulating reports, calculated to raise or depress the price of stock, according to the particular views of the individual. If he wishes, for example, to sell his stock or bills, he endeavours to propagate some report or other, favourable to the issue of the war, and the establishment of peace, in order, if possible, to raise the price of stock; and if he wishes to buy, he propagates reports of a contrary tendency. It is painful to think, that this abominable system is sometimes carried on by men, whose rank and station in society, to say nothing of the obligations of morality and religion, might be expected to place them far above any such disgraceful acts; but, in general, I believe it is confined to men of desperate fortune and little character, who subsist by a species of gambling, to which the finance system of this country has opened a wide and extensive field. I allude to those men who make a practice of buying and selling stock, without actually possessing any; and whose transactions, therefore, are nothing more than wagers about the price of stock on a certain day. To explain the nature of the transaction by an example, I shall suppose, that A sells to B a government bill of £100, or a £100 of 5 per cent. stock, to be delivered on a certain future day, and that the price is fixed at £102. If, when the day arrives, the price of stock shall have fallen to £100, A would be able to purchase the bill in question for £100, while, in consequence of his bargain, B would be obliged to pay him £102 for it, so that A would gain £2. If, however, stock had risen to £104, B would still be obliged to give only £102, so that A would lose £2; but instead of actually buying and sell VOL. IV.

ing the stock, the bargain is generally implemented by A paying to B, or receiving from him, the £2, or whatever may be the sum of loss or gain. In such a case as this, it is obviously A's interest that the price of stock should fall, and as obviously B's interest that it should rise, between the day of the bargain and that of settling, and hence the temptation held out to both to circulate reports favourable to their own particular views. B, or the buyer, is usually denominated a Bull, as expressive of his desire to toss up; and A, or seller, a Bear, from his wish to trample upon, or tread down. The law, of course, does not recognise a transaction which proceeds on a principle of gambling; but a sense of honour, or, what is perhaps nearer the truth, self-interest, generally secures the payment of the difference, as the person who refuses to pay his loss, is exhibited in the Stock Exchange under the designation of a lame duck, a disgrace which is considered as the sentence of banishment from that scene of bustle and business.*

I have, in the preceding remarks, for the sake of simplicity, represented the transfer of stock, as carried on in a way somewhat different from that in which it is really conducted. I have considered the securities which government gives to those from whom money is borrowed as consisting of bills, and these bills as uniformly bearing interest at 5 per cent. Neither of these statements, however, is, strictly speaking, correct, as I shall have occasion more particularly to explain in a future communication; but as my object in this introductory paper was to simplify the subject as much as possible, for the sake of those who are unacquainted with it, I have chosen an illustration that appeared to me most elementary, and which, if well understood, will enable ordinary readers to comprehend with little difficulty, the more intricate parts of the subject, to which I shall take the liberty hereafter to direct their attention. To many, I have no doubt, my observations will appear not only sufficiently simple, but abundantly silly, and as containing nothing but what every body knew before. Now, I do boldly aver, that every body does not know what I have above explained, and I

See Hamilton on the National Debt, notes, p. 182, first edition. H

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