of
which we are seeking our proper sphere. Poor vexed spirits! We do not
belong to the old world any more! The new world is not yet ready for
us. Even Mr. Gladstone will not let us into the House of Commons; the
Geographical Society rejects us, so does the Royal Academy; and yet who
could say that any of their standards rise too high! Some one or two are
happily safe, carried by the angels of the Press to little altars and
pinnacles all their own; but the majority of hard-working, intelligent
women, 'contented with little, yet ready for more,' may they not in
moments of depression be allowed to picture to themselves what their
chances might have been had they only been born half a century earlier?

Miss Mitford, notwithstanding all her troubles (she has been known
to say she had rather be a washerwoman than a literary lady), had
opportunities such as few women can now obtain. One is lost in
admiration at the solidity of one's grandparents' taste, when one
attempts to read the tragedies they delighted in, and yet 'Rienzi' sold
four thousand copies and was acted forty-five times; and at one time
Miss Mitford had two tragedies rehearsed upon the boards together; one
at Covent Garden and one at Drury Lane, with Charles Kemble and Macready
disputing for her work. Has not one also read similar descriptions
of the triumphs of Hannah More, or of Johanna Baillie; cheered by
enthusiastic audiences, while men shed tears.*

*Mem. Hannah More, v.i. p.124.

'Julian' was the first of Miss Mitford's acted plays. It was brought out
at Covent Garden in 1823, when she was thirty-six years old; Macready
played the principal part. 'If the play do reach the ninth night,' Miss
Mitford writes to Macready, 'it will be a very complete refutation of
Mr. Kemble's axiom that no single performer can fill the theatre; for
except our pretty Alfonso (Miss Foote) there is only Julian, one and
only one. Let him imagine how deeply we feel his exertions and his
kindness.*...'

*In Macready's diary we find an entry which is not over gracious.
'"Julian" acted March the 15th. Had but moderate success. The C. G.
company was no longer equal to the support of plays containing moral
characters. The authoress in her dedication to me was profuse in
her acknowledgments and compliments, but the performance made little
impression, and was soon forgotten.'

'Julian' was stopped on the eighth night, to her great disappointment,
but she is already engaged on anothe