Downing-Street, May 27.-BrigadierGeneral James Montgomerie appointed governor and commander in chief in and over the island of Dominica, in America. Whitehall, June 14.-Right Rev. Dr Folliot Herbert Walker Cornewall, bishop of Hereford, recommended, by congé d'elire, to be elected bishop of Worcester, vice Dr Hurd, deceased.

Carlton-house, June 28.-Benjamin Tucker, Esq. appointed (by the Prince of Wales) surveyor-general of his royal highness's duchy of Cornwall.

Whitehall, July 9.-Thomas Erskine, Earl of Kellie, permitted to accept and wear the ensigns of a knight commander of the royal order of Vasa, conferred on him by the King of Sweden..

Whitehall, July 16.-Right Rev. John Luxmoore, Bishop of Bristol, translated by congé d'elire, to the see of Hereford, vice Cornewall, deceased.

War-Office, Aug. 6.-Gen. Sir W. Medows, K. B. appointed governor of Hull, vice the Earl of Clanricarde, deceased; and Gen. E. E. Gwyn, to be lieutenant-governor of the Isle of Wight, vice Medows.

Whitehall, Aug. 20.-George Ferguson, Esq. of Hermand, appointed one of the lords of justiciary in that part of the united kingdom called Scotland, vice Sir William Nairne, Bart. of Dunsinnan, resigned.

Whitehall, Aug. 23. Rev. William Lort Mansell, D. D. recommended, by congé d'elire, to be elected bishop of Bristol, vice Dr Luxmoore, translated to Hereford.

War-Office, Sept. 3.-Col. J. Robertson, on half pay of 92d foot, appointed deputy-governor of Fort George, vice Steward, deceased.

Whitehall, Sept. 6.-Robert Blair, Esq. dean of the faculty of advocates, appointed president of the college of justice in Scotland. Ilay Campbell, LL. D. of Succoth, county of Dumbarton, late president of the college of justice in Scotland, created a baronet of the united kingdom.

Whitehall, Sept. 13.-Right Rev. Tho

mas Dampier, bishop of Rochester, translated, by congé d'elire, to the see of Ely, vice Dr James Yorke, deceased.

Admiralty Office, Sept. 20.-His Majesty has been pleased, by his order in council of the 28th instant, to confer upon the masters of his royal navy the rank of lieutenants, according to the following regulations, viz. that they shall take rank in the ships of which they shall be warranted masters, immediately after the junior lieutenants of such ships; and that they shall have precedence in rank of surgeons of the navy.

Foreign Office, Oct. 8.-Right Hon. John Hookham Frere, appointed his Majesty's envoy-extraordinary and minister-plenipotentiary to his Catholic Majesty Ferdinand VII.; and to reside in that character at the seat of the central or supreme junta in Spain.

Downing-Street, Oct. 8.-LieutenantGeneral George Beckwith, appointed governor and commander in chief of the island of Barbadoes.-Sir Charles Brisbane, knt. captain in the royal navy, to be governor and commander in chief of the island of St Vincent.-Hugh Elliot, Esq. appointed captain-general and governor of the Leeward Islands; and William Wooley, Esq. to be lieutenant-governor of Berbice.

Whitehall, Oct. 15.--Rear-Admiral Richard Goodwin Keats, nominated one of the knights companions of the most honourable order of the Bath.

Carlton-house, Oct. 21.-Lieut.-Colonel Bloomfield, of the royal regiment of artillery, appointed (by the Prince of Wales) gentleman-attendant to his roya highness, vice Lord Lake, deceased.

Foreign Office, Nov. 2.--Anthony Merry, Esq. appointed his Majesty's en voy-extraordinary and minister-plenipo tentiary to the court of Sweden; and Augustus John Foster, Esq. to be his Majesty's secretary of legation at that

court.

Queen's Palace, Nov. 16.-Sir Charles Brisbane, knt. captain in the royal navy sworn captain-general and governor in chief of the islands of St Vincent, Bequia,

and such other of the islands commonly called the Grenadines, as lie to the north ward of Cariaccou, in America.

Queen's Palace, Nov. 23.-Right Hon. George Coventry, commonly called Lord Viscount Deerhurst, sworn lord lieutenant of the county of Worcester, and of the city of Worcester, and county of the same, vice his father, the Earl of Coventry, resigned.

Whitehall, Nov. 26.-Hon. William Harcourt, appointed gentleman and master of his Majesty's robes, vice Lord Selsea, deceased.

Downing-Street, Nov. 29.-Hon. Francis Nathaniel Burton, appointed lieutenant-governor of Lower Canada, in America.

Whitehall, Dec. 3.-Rev. Walker King, D. D. recommended, by congé d'elire, to be elected bishop of Rochester, vice Dr Thomas Dampier, translated to the see of Ely.

Downing-Street, Dec. 18.-Henry Bentinck, Esq. appointed governor and commander in chief of the settlements of Demarara and Essequibo.-Charles Bentinck, Esq. to be governor and commander in chief of the settlement of Surinam, vice Hughes, deceased.

Foreign Office, Dec. 16.-Right Hon. William Pitt, Lord Amherst, appointed his Majesty's envoy-extraordinary and minister-plenipotentiary at the court of his Sicilian Majesty, vice Drummond, recalled.

Downing-Street, Dec. 20.--LieutenantGeneral Sir John Stuart, K. B. appointed (by a commission dated Feb. 11,) commander of his Majesty's forces in the Mediterranean, the garrison of Gibraltar excepted.

SHERIFFS,

Bucks, Rich. Dayrell, of Sillingstone,

Esq.

Cambridge and Huntingdon, Sir H. Peyton, of Emneth, Bart.

Cheshire, C. Trelawney Brereton, of Shotwich-park, Esq.

Cumberland, Thomas Irwin, of Justice Town, Esq.

Devonshire, Sir H. Carew, of Haccombe, Bart.

Dorsetshire, Nicholas Charles Daniel, of Upway, Esq.

Essex, John Coggan, of Wanstead, Esq.

Gloucestershire, Sir Thomas Crawley Bowey, of Flaxley Abbey, Bart.

Herefordshire, Samuel Peploe, of Garnstone, Esq.

Hertfordshire, James Smith, of Ashlyn's-hill, Esq.

Kent, Charles Milner, of Preston-park,

Esq.

Leicestershire, G. Finch Simpson, of Launde Abbey, Esq.

Lincolnshire, The Hon. W. Beauclerc, of Radbourne.

Monmouthshire, William Morgan, of Mamhilad, Esq.

Norfolk, J. Thornton Mott, of Barmingham, Esq.

Northamptonshire, G. Fleet Evans, of Saxton, Esq.

Northumberland, Cuthbert Ellison, of Broomhouse, Esq.

Nottinghamshire, J. Manners Sutton, of Kelham, Esq.

Oxfordshire, The Hon. T. Parker, of Enshamhall.

Rutlandshire, Thomas Bryan, of Stoke,

Esq.

the year 1808.

Suffolk, J. Vernon, of Nacton, Esq. Surrey, James Mangles, of Woodbridge, Esq.

Sussex, W. Stanford, of Reston, Esq. Wiltshire, J. Helten, of Grittleton,

Esq.

Ir we would acquire a thorough comprehension of an individual's character, it is expedient to know, not only the striking features of his genius, the course of his studies, and the tenor of his principles, but also those gayer pursuits, that unfettered ease of his intercourse, and those fleeting varieties of involuntary inclination, which mark so lightly, and yet so truly; and all those thousand minute shades of disposition, which, though almost imperceptible in themselves, diffuse a distinctive air and manner wherever they play, and constitute what may be denominated the expression of the mind. By the same variety of evidence, a nation must be content to have her character appreciated. The records of her domestic history, and the annals of her foreign relations, the awe of her arms, and the credit of her commerce, furnish the fundamental topics by which the estimate is formed; but the more delicate lineaments must be gathered from less obvious circumstances, by an observation of her literature and amusements, and by an attentive regard to the condition and influence of her manners and her arts. If we may speak what we feel without being accused of unduly magnifying the subject immediately under consideration, we shall confess our persuasion, that, amongst all

these lighter evidences of our national character, there is none so copious or so instructive as the drama. For the theatrical performances of Great Britain unite in themselves almost every intrinsic power, and almost every adscititious qualification, to produce an insensible, and yet not unimportant influence upon the pub. lic mind. They constitute at once a considerable profession, and a general amusement, they rank with the most convenient resources of idleness, and among the noblest exhibitions of the fine arts.

It is true that their title to this last distinction has been frequently and clamorously denied; but such a denial, even when most ingeniously urged, has always seemed to us the mere prejudice of a class of people, exceedingly common in society, men acute, but not with enlarged minds, reasoners professing a sort of vulgar cleverness, and prone to undervalue all pursuits, except those in which themselves are enga ged, or which the united suffrage of mankind has placed beyond the possibility of depreciation. Surely the honourable distinction we have been speaking of, is not unjustly assigned to a pursuit, which, independently of its own individual charms, comprehends the advantages and pleasures of almost all the other fine

arts of poetry, of painting, of sculpture, and of music. The works of the poet are summoned from the darkness of the closet, and here endued with a fresh existence. The lights and the shadows of his work assume a broader and a more striking boldness; the beams of a new glory begin to gild his scenery; a mist is dispelled; and the fair face of the prospect glows in animation and beauty. The fleeting expressions of passion, and the perpetually varying attitudes of body, the agitation and repose of drapery, the perspective of scenery, and all the effects of individual splendour and general combination in the apparel, in the ornaments, and in the grouping of pomps and processions, are sources of pleasure to the lovers of painting and sculpture, and certainly may of ten furnish hints, not altogether useless, even to the professors of those noble arts. On the excellence of the music that we hear in our principal theatres, it is quite unnecessary to enlarge; nor is dancing any where carried to such perfection as on the stage-if indeed that elegant, but unintellectual pursuit may be classed among the fine arts at all. And since the generality of enlightened persons actually consider the drama in these points of view, and unequivocally allow both its dignity and its influence, we are a little surprised that it should never have excited a greater degree of literary attention that no critic should yet have arisen, to analyse it upon principle in a lasting publication, and rescue its exhibitions from the ignorance of writers in newspapers and magazines.

In this record we aim at objects widely distant from those of the ordinary periodical criticisms. To some readers it may be matter of regret

that our work of necessity excludes those minute anecdotes, those party disputes, those temporary declamations, which, while they last, are so much more interesting than the discussion of first principles, and the illustration of permanent axioms in taste; and it certainly is not to be wondered at, that refinements, which few are able to understand, and still fewer disposed to relish, should be infinitely less agreeable topics to the mass of readers, than the jealousies, hopes, and fears, of performers, or of their injudicious friends; than the piques or ignorance of authors and critics; than the mal-administration of managers; in short, than any of those numerous questions of passion and personality, that excite so strong and so perpetual an agitation in the theatrical commonwealth. To us, on the contrary, it is rather a source of satisfaction, that the period which must always intervene between the occurrences of the subjects for our criticism and the publication of the criticism itself, will place us above the necessity of temporary dissertations, and rank us rather as historians than as advocates.

We shall take a new ground for our observations; and it is but fair to explain our creed before we begin to reason from it.

The system, then, which we have proposed for ourselves, is to try the exhibitions of the drama by the touchstone of the same general truths which are the basis of excellence in other arts; in spite of that prevalent theory, which, on this subject, excludes all idea of science, and refers every thing to momentary sensation. With the believers of this notion, experience, however necessary to the criticism of any other analogous pursuit, is totally super,