Grace was pleased to promise him in Mr. Currie's letter of the 9th of last August.* Application was then made to one, to whom no application, where right or justice, property or character, are at all involved, was ever made in vain-to the DUKE OF WELLINGTON, from whom the subjoined reply was instantly returned: "The Duke of Wellington presents his compli"ments to Mr. Bunn. "The Duke suggests that before he should see Mr. Bunn, that gentleman would be so kind as to send "him any information which he might think useful * This letter, being a reply to one I had taken the liberty of submitting to this enlightened nobleman, explanatory of the steps that had been taken, in the hopes of securing a majority in the House of Lords, I here subjoin: "Old Palace Yard, 66 "SIR, "I laid your letter before the Duke of Devonshire when he passed through town to Chatsworth, and he desired me to say that he is "sensible of your attention, and in acknowledging the receipt of 66 your letter to his Grace, to state that it will always give him plea 66 sure to attend to any communication you may make on the subject "of the two patent Theatres, whose interest and success he must 194 REJECTION OF THE THEATRICAL BILL. "to enlighten the Duke's judgment on the subject "of the Theatrical Bill. "London, June 16, 1834." The original letter, containing these few words, shall never go out of my possession; nor can the recollection of his Grace's affability, judgment, and clear view of the case, at the interview with which he honoured me, ever fade from my memory. The bill thus supported was thrown out a second time in the House of Lords, by a majority of fourteen; and with this repeated defeat died away all further attempt to enlist the aid of Parliament in such unworthy proceedings. Divested of any petty or personal feelings involved in this controversy, if such it may be called, it could not reasonably be supposed, even in days like these, upon which we are fallen, that the legislature would sanction the passing of a bill in direct violation of the NATIONAL FAITH. In the first place, as respects the two patent Theatres, nearly ONE MILLION OF MONEY has been expended upon them, through a sole reliance on the integrity of the Crown, held inviolable since Charles the Second. It has been, moreover, admitted-and no one maintained such argument more strongly than Mr. (now Lord) Stanley in the previous session, in his remarkable speech on the Slavery Emancipation Bill -that, BY THE CONSTITUTION OF THIS COUNTRY, NO MAN CAN BE DEPRIVED OF HIS PROPERTY WITHOUT COMPENSATION. One kind of property has the same claim on the equity and justice of Parliament as any other: and if a proposition had been made of holding out to the proprietors a reasonable indemnification for the loss of their rights, as was done in the Emancipation case, the affair would have assumed a different aspect ; nor can there be any rational cause assigned why, if TWENTY MILLIONS were voted by the British Senate to please a given quantity of saints, ONE MILLION might not have been given to indemnify a given quantity of sinners. This is the real English of the transaction, torture it into whatever shape you may. The civil war, which at one' time threatened to be a very uncivil one, was however put an end to, and matters resumed the even tenor of their way, until the beginning of July, and the ONE HUNDREDth REPRESENTATION of Gustavus brought the first season of the UNION to a close. Has there not been already exhibited (to say nothing of what is to come, and "the worst remains behind") enough of the difficulties which a manager has to battle against, to bear out the assertion already advanced, that the bed he reposes upon is not "a bed of roses ?" Has the reader any doubt that his sovereignty is by no means an absolute one-that he has subjects whose treason no arm of his laws, or those of his country, can check or punish-that the many faults of which he stands accused, from being the only tangible person in authority public opinion can be directed against, may be traced with truth to the doors of other people rather than to his own? If he has any doubts still left upon the subject, only let him muster up patience to read on, and he may depend upon it they will speedily be dispelled. 197 CHAPTER X. A visit to Germany, and its theatres-Advantages of a Dutch townMeat regulated by quantity rather than quality—Arnheim— Lord Howick--Mrs. Trollope's ideas of comfort-Professor Livius at Dusseldorf-The value of Kings and Kings' bones-the Rhine a case of Rhino-A touch of Poetry-Distance between the "diet "of worms," and a cold chicken-singular rencontre of three singular characters-Studying German-Heidelberg and its gloriesStrasburgh and its pâtés-Mr. Charles Kemble-Reduced prices, and their consequences-Young actors in Shakspeare's plays-Mr. Forrest-Mr. Murray-Mr. Bishop-Manfred-The Morning Chronicle-Payne Collier-Pierce Egan. WE will have a little more journalising now, if my enduring reader has no objection. Beating about on the ocean is pleasanter any day than being beaten about in either House of Parliament; so, having got through the breezes of the latter, and the fineness of the weather holding out no threat of any of the former, I determined upon an inspection of some of the theatres of Germany, to see if any novelty might be procured for the next season. It is agreeable to oneself, if the recital be not so to others, to skim over the surface of the world, and after dipping a feather of |