The Courier and Mr. Lightfoot, the tailor in Elizabeth-street, seem to be at variance, that journal asserting that there are thirty-two tailors out of employ, while Mr. Lightfoot denies that there are more than ten good workmen in Hobart Town. It is rather a new aspect to see the worthy Editor of the Courier in, as the champion of the journeymen tailors. Gardening, &c. MARCH.-Agriculture.-Wherever it is possible, too much attention cannot be paid to the fallows. It is in this particular, more than any other, that the Van Die men's Land farmer forfeits all claim to skilful husbandry-it is this that oftentimes causes his next year's crop to be deficient, and gives him weeds, and other sorts of rubbish, instead of good clean corn. He cannot now plough and harrow too actively. Turnips, that were sown in January and February, should be well thinned by the hoe in the early part of this month. Horticulture.-Plant cabbages, cauliflowers, brocoli, &c., for winter; also, endive and lettuces. Sow spinage, and also a little cauliflower seed, to stand the ARRIVALS. winter in the seed bed. Plant out small onions that were put aside when the general crop was gathered. Get ready your beds for seed onions, and remember they cannot be too richly or wel! manured. In this month, apples, pears, and other store fruits for the winter will be fit to be gathered, although they ought always to remain on the trees until thoroughly ripe. Sow cherry, plum, and peach stones for stocks to graft or bud upon, and be industrious in clearing your garden of weeds, and your trees of all sorts of suckers. Some gardeners sow onions as early as March, to use green, in the spring: but to succeed well, the ground need be extremely good. Shipping Intelligence. March 3.-The brig Cornwallis, from the Cape of Good Hope. March 4.The barque Cheviot, from the South Seas. March 6.-The ship Eldon, from Greenock, with a general cargo. March 9.-The ship Lonach, from Sydney, with troops. March 13.-The ship Resource, from London, with merchandize. March 14. The barque Clarence, from Portsmouth, with merchandize. March 15.--The schooner Fame, from Sydney, with a general cargo. March 15.-Arrived the barque Caroline, from the Sperm Fishery. March 15.-Arrived the schooner Prince Regent, from Launceston. March 19.-Arrived the barque William the Fourth, from the South Seas. BIRTHS. March 19.-Arrived the Prince of Denmark, from Sydney, with a general cargo. March 19.-Arrived the ship James Harris, from London, with merchandize. March 28.-The schooner Currency Lass, from Sydney. March 28. The schooner Adelaide, from the South Seas, with sperm oil. DEPARTURES. March 1.-The brig Amity, for Syd ney. March 8.-The ship Othello, for Sydney, with merchandize. March 9.-The barque William Bryan for London, with colonial produce. March 23.-Sailed the schooner Charlotte, for New Zealand. March 30.-The brig Lonach, for Swan River and Madras. Marriages, Births, &c. At Claremont, Clarence Plains, on the 12th inst., the lady of S. R. Dawson, Esq., J. P., of a son. H. MELVILLE, PRINTER, HOBART TOWN. THE HOBART TOWN MAGAZINE. VOL. III.] APRIL, 1834. [No. 14. MORAL TENDENCY OF THEATRICAL REPRESENTATIONS. BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE SCHOOLMASTER IN VAN DIEMEN'S LAND." Aristotle, in discoursing on Dramatic Poetry, has affirmed, that Tragedy purges the passions by exciting them; Comedy, by ridicule. From this definition it would appear, that scenic representations are favourable to the interests of virtue, and that plays, founded upon extraordinary and instructive events in history, or on moral tales drawn from private life, may be of admirable utility, by carrying, with irresistible force, conviction to the minds of the young. Among the ancients, theatrical representations were adapted to the noblest of purposes. In the Theatre, youths were taught to emulate the bright examples set before them, and to aspire to those honors, -the reward of merit,-which they witnessed. In these popular exhibitions of the deeds of their heroes and their statesmen, they relaxed from more intense studies and from graver cares; and while virtuous principles were thus instilled into the mind, the excitement of the passions strengthened their efficacy, and the impression made on the heart was rendered the more durable, by the captivating garb, in which the moral precepts were arrayed. Nor among the moderns. have there been wanting able advocates, who have recommended the Theatre, as a school for morals-Addison, Rowe, Young, and Hume, thought, that, by defending theatrical representations, they were raising the tone of public morals to its proper standard-and although a few dramatists, of a former era, have, sometimes, exhibited scenes, over which delicacy would have drawn the veil, still the abuse of a thing is, surely, no argument against the utility of the thing itself. But the dramas now admitted on our stage generally expose vice and VOL. III, NO, XIII, its never failing concomitant misery, while they stimulate to the practice of virtue; and if any evils do result from such spectacles, they are counteracted by the superior benefits which accrue from their exhibition. As the Drama represents the internal features and original causes of human conduct, and gives a history of the general passions, affections, and principles of the human mind, perhaps none, of all the different species of writing, is more calculated to produce great moral effects on the lives and manners of men. A good play, enacted before a well-bred audience, will raise very proper excitements to good behaviour, and is therefore, the shortest and most prevailing method of giving young people a turn of sense and breeding. There are displayed, in histrionic scenes, oppositions of right and wrong, which have their force in assisting the judgment, and, in the ruin of the votaries of crime, is taught the moral apothegm, that the best defence of innocence is the contempt of guilt. As virtue and vice are pourtrayed by dramatic writers in the most striking and lively forms, we are more readily inclined to admire and practice the one, and to abhor and shun the other, by the influence of these examples than by the lingering instructions derived from books, or even from scenes in real life;—and while propriety of conduct is held up, as in a mirror, to esteem and veneration, and moral obliquity to scorn and derision, the passions are so affected by the delineation, that the instruction thus conveyed, makes a lasting impression upon the heart;-more durable than could be effected by almost any other means. Tragedy, to the illiterate, is a lecture upon history-Comedy, a school for manners. To suppress these representations, then, were to perpetuate rudeness, and to extinguish the most amiable of ambitions. What form more alluring could morality assume, than that of relaxation and amusement? Many, who would listen with carelessness and apathy, to the voice of admonition, in a graver tone, may be suddenly warmed with a virtuous ardour, through the attractions of theatrical performances. Characters, the most dissolute and abandoned, will frequent the Theatre, but they will not enter the Sanctuary, unless compelled. While they hear, with callous indifference, the ministers of religion, they will listen, with avidity, to the declamations of a Kean, and thus learn to be virtuous, as it were, in spite of themselves. In a word, though they turn a deaf ear to the precepts of the Sacred Volume, they will attend to the morality of Shakspeare. Much as this is to be deplored in a religious point of view, still, in a moral and political sense,-in reference to such characters,-the encouraging a taste for histrionic recreations, so as to divert the mind from more noxious amusements, must certainly be conceded. That the Stage, when properly conducted, will excite the mind, enlarge the capacity, and prepare us for the exercise of many virtues,-is a point that cannot long be contested, while the common, but demo |