lain, and which are, every season, listened to without disapprobation, or any discernible ill-consequence, in the tragedy of "Venice Preserved,"* and other dramatic productions. But very different has been my fate. In

* The following are some of the passages in "Venice Preserved," here alluded to.

ACT II.

JAFFIER.

Could I kill with curses,

By Heaven, I know not thirty heads in Venice,
Should not be blasted!-Senators should rot

Like dogs on dunghills. Oh, for a curse
To kill with!

ACT II.-line 227.

JAFFIER.

Command this steel, if you would have it quiet
Into this breast, but if you think it worthy
To cut the throats of reverend rogues in robes,
Send me into the cursed assembled senate.
It shrinks not, though I meet a father there.
Would you behold the city flaming? Here's
A hand shall bear a lighted torch at morn
To th' arsenal, and set its gates on fire!

ACT III.-line 63.

JAFFIE .

Nay, the throats of the whole senate

Shall bleed, my Belvidera. He, amongst us,
That spares his father, brother, or his friend,
Is damn'd.

d

deed, the unsparing mutilation, the minute political purification which my tragedy has undergone, from the microscopic scrutiny, the lacerating alacrity, and alarmed moral zeal of the new dramatic censor, would seem to indicate that a new era had opened for the stage-that new principles of censure were to signalize the new ap

ACT III.-line 227.

RENAULT.

But above all, I charge you,

Shed blood enough; spare neither sex nor age,
Name nor condition: if there lives a senator
After to-morrow, though the dullest rogue
That e'er said nothing, we have lost our ends.
If possible, let's kill the very name
Of senator, and bury it in blood.

ACT III. line 251.

RENAULT..

Without the least remorse then, lets resolve
With fire and sword t' exterminate these tyrants
Under whose weight this wretched country labours.

ACT IV. Scene in the Senate.

PIERRE.

Cursed be your senate, cursed your constitution!
The curse of growing factions and divisions,
Still vex your councils, shake your public safety,
And make the robes of government you wear,
Hateful to you, as these base chains to me.

pointment, and that henceforward, every sentiment of political liberality and patriotic virtue,—every exprsseion which could be construed into a disapprobation of tyranny, usurpation, and oppression,-even the very words

tyrant," "despot," "slave," " shackle," and "chain," however introduced, accompanied, or recommended, should be considered as an inexpiable offence against the new code of dramatic decorum, and visited by the vengeance of theatrical exclusion.

My respect for your Grace's wisdom as a minister, and liberality as a man, will not allow me to believe, for a moment, in the possibility, that such a system can be adopted in these enlightened times, and in this free country.

Considering the character of the age in which we live, and the practice of that tempered rule by which we have been hitherto governed, I cannot be persuaded, that your Grace will readily sanction the policy of holding forth to the public of this great empire, that they cannot be trusted to hear the language of freedom uttered in dramatic representation. That sentiments expressing the most tempered and general condemnation of tyranny and oppression, are considered as calculated to make them discontented or disaffected, under a system of lawful sway and just authority; that, in short, the

hero, and the patriot, are to be interdicted on our stage, as characters of fearful influence, and dangerous example; and that the vigour of our national drama, so long the boasted organ of manly sentiment, and liberal principles, must be, henceforward, emasculated to a tame, spiritless, and hypocritical exhibition of poetical subservience and political servility.-Your Grace's enlightened mind will rather prefer, in the administration of your important office, the adoption of maxims different from those which must lead the dramatic writers of our day to infer the existence of intentions so unfavourable to their interests, on the part of those authorities, whose sanction is essential to their success. You will not think it just, or politic, to treat their productions with a severity unparalleled since the days of "Gustavus Vasa," and unexampled in the practice of states, less free in their institutions, and less liberal in their principles.Your Grace will see the true enemies of public order, and national contentment, in those who would stimulate the temper of legitimate power, to the suspicious irritability which belongs to conscious misrule who would persuade the organs of public authority, that the just censure of universally acknowledged tyranny abroad, was a dangerous masked battery opened against rational and regular government at home, and who would de

grade, libel, and vilify a constitutional sovereign, and a free system, by the slanderous supposition that they can be satirized, or in any manner endangered by the most open and indignant reprobation of rapine, usurpation or oppression.

I have, my Lord, expressed myself warmly, but I hope respectfully, on this point, because, conscious of the honesty of my intentions, and the innoxious character of my work, I feel that I have been injured in my interests, and unjustly deprived of my fair share of whatever profit or reputation, my tragedy was calculated to produce.

I am, my Lord, the father of a large family; I have sons, whom it has been my highest ambition to educate in the principles of honor and virtue-to make good christians, good subjects, and good men. I trust they will never have cause to blush for the conduct, or opinions of their father; and I thus respectfully, but earnestly protest against a decision, which holds me out, as the author of a work of immoral tendency-a work, which inculcates sentiments dangerous to the peace, order, and civil policy of my country, which calls for so unusual an intervention of your Grace's authority, and merits the stigma of official reprobation.