e
a few verbal alterations in it, to have it acted and printed as his
own.[N] Metayer, incensed at this piratical proceeding, appealed to the
public, and had his own work printed. The literary thief excited the
contempt and detestation such a base procedure merited.

* * * * *

_Charles Macklin._

This actor has the credit of having checked a nefarious practice, which
has prevailed to a certain degree in almost every theatre, and of which
Philadelphia and New-York have exhibited some striking instances. I mean
the practice of certain meanspirited wretches, who bear malice towards
particular performers, and make parties to hiss them off the stage. It
is not easy to conceive of a greater degree of baseness, turpitude, and
cowardice, than is manifested by this conduct. The object of their
malice is unable to defend himself from their attacks. This, to a
generous mind, would be an aegis, and protect the person who could make
such a plea, as completely as her sex protects a woman. But with the
persons here contemplated, the impunity they expect is the very
incitement to their inglorious warfare.

Some of these ruffians having in this mode assailed Macklin, he singled
out as many of them as he could identify by the deposition of competent
witnesses. Against these offenders he commenced a prosecution[O] in
which they were found guilty, and exemplarily punished. The salutary
effects of this spirited procedure, I am informed, are still perceptible
in the London theatres.

* * * * *

_Richard Fullerton._

While I am writing on this topic, I may be allowed to drop a tear to the
memory of this unfortunate victim to the brutal system I have referred
to in the preceding paragraphs. That he was hunted to suicide, I could,
if necessary, establish by indisputable testimony. A very worthy man, of
the most strict veracity, now residing in Baltimore, informed me that he
was in a corner of the green-room, in the theatre of this city one night
when Fullerton was actually hissed off the stage. When the poor
persecuted actor came into the green-room, he did not perceive the
gentleman, and clenching his fists, struck his forehead, and swore with
a most desperate oath, that the ruffians would be the death of him. His
sensibility to outrage and insult overpowered and unmanned him. A few
days afterwards he consigned himself to the waves of the Delaware, to
escape from the fury