e any, in the opinions of those who
attend. They would approve the gift, although they might differ in other
points. Such might not approve of going to the theatre, but at least
could not deny that they might give away from their superfluity what was
required for the relief of the sick, the support of the aged, and the
comfort of the afflicted. These were duties enjoined by our religion
itself. (Loud cheers.)

The performers are in a particular manner entitled to the support or
regard, when in old age or distress, of those who have partaken of the
amusements of those places which they render an ornament to society.
Their art was of a peculiarly delicate and precarious nature. They
had to serve a long apprenticeship. It was very long before even the
first-rate geniuses could acquire the mechanical knowledge of the stage
business. They must languish long in obscurity before they can avail
themselves of their natural talents; and after that they have but a
short space of time, during which they are fortunate if they can provide
the means of comfort in the decline of life. That comes late, and lasts
but a short time; after which they are left dependent. Their limbs
fail--their teeth are loosened--their voice is lost and they are left,
after giving happiness to others, in a most disconsolate state. The
public were liberal and generous to those deserving their protection.
It was a sad thing to be dependent on the favour, or, he might say, in
plain terms, on the caprice, of the public; and this more particularly
for a class of persons of whom extreme prudence is not the character.
There might be instances of opportunities being neglected. But let
each gentleman tax himself, and consider the opportunities THEY had
neglected, and the sums of money THEY had wasted; let every gentleman
look into his own bosom, and say whether these were circumstances which
would soften his own feelings, were he to be plunged into distress. He
put it to every generous bosom--to every better feeling--to say what
consolation was it to old age to be told that you might have made
provision at a time which had been neglected--(loud cheers)--and to find
it objected, that if you had pleased you might have been wealthy. He
had hitherto been speaking of what, in theatrical language, was called
STARS; but they were sometimes falling ones. There was another class of
sufferers naturally and necessarily connected with the theatre, without
whom it was impossible