had great pleasure in giving. He was sure that the
stage had in all ages a great effect on the morals and manners of the
people. It was very desirable that the stage should be well regulated;
and there was no criterion by which its regulation could be better
determined than by the moral character and personal respectability of
the performers. He was not one of those stern moralists who objected to
the theatre. The most fastidious moralist could not possibly apprehend
any injury from the stage of Edinburgh, as it was presently managed,
and so long as it was adorned by that illustrious individual, Mrs. Henry
Siddons, whose public exhibitions were not more remarkable for feminine
grace and delicacy than was her private character for every virtue which
could be admired in domestic life. He would conclude with reciting a few
words from Shakespeare, in a spirit not of contradiction to those stern
moralists who disliked the theatre, but of meekness: "Good, my lord,
will you see the players well bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well
used, for they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time."
He then gave "Mrs. Henry Siddons, and success to the Theatre Royal of
Edinburgh."

Mr. MURRAY.--Gentlemen, I rise to return thanks for the honour you have
done Mrs. Siddons, in doing which I am somewhat difficulted, from the
extreme delicacy which attends a brother's expatiating upon a sister's
claims to honours publicly paid--(hear, hear)--yet, gentlemen, your
kindness emboldens me to say that, were I to give utterance to all
a brother's feelings, I should not exaggerate those claims. (Loud
applause.) I therefore, gentlemen, thank you most cordially for the
honour you have done her, and shall now request permission to make an
observation on the establishment of the Edinburgh Theatrical Fund. Mr.
Mackay has done Mrs. Henry Siddons and myself the honour to ascribe the
establishment to us. But no, gentlemen, it owes its origin to a higher
source--the publication of the novel of Rob Roy--the unprecedented
success of the opera adapted from that popular production. (Hear,
hear.) It was that success which relieved the Edinburgh Theatre from
its difficulties, and enabled Mrs. Siddons to carry into effect the
establishment of a fund she had long desired, but was prevented from
effecting from the unsettled state of her theatrical concerns. I
therefore hope that in future years, when the aged and infirm actor
derives relief from this fund, h