nd still
more to her coming to America. In obedience to a higher duty, however,
she followed the fortunes of her husband, and with the most poignant
regret left her native country and her father, to sojourn in a strange
land. On the 19th of September, 1796, they sailed from the Downs, and on
the 19th of October following landed at New-York.

Few country theatres in Great Britain have been able to boast of so good
a company as that which assembled at Philadelphia on the season which
succeeded Mrs. Merry's arrival. The theatre opened on the fifth of
December, with Romeo and Juliet, and the Waterman. The elegant and
interesting Morton played Romeo--Mrs. Merry Juliet; all the characters
had excellent representatives, and Mrs. Merry appeared to the audience a
being of a superior kind. That winter she played all her best parts, but
though supported by such a company it often happened that the receipts
were insufficient to pay the charges of the house, and the season was,
on the whole, extremely unsuccessful; a circumstance which at first view
will excite surprise, but at the time might reasonably have been
expected. This will be understood when the general financial condition
of the city is called to recollection. Every one who has known the
country but for a few years back must remember the almost general
bankruptcy occasioned by the failure of land speculating men of opulence
and high credit. During that time commerce in all its classes sensibly
felt the shock, and business languished in all its branches. No wonder
that the theatre, which can only be fed by the superflux of all other
departments of society, should droop, neglected and unsupported. The
prices then too were higher than now--the boxes a dollar and a
quarter--the pit a dollar. And here we cannot help expressing a wish,
founded we believe on justice and common sense, that admittance to the
pit were raised:--first, because it is, at least, equal if not
preferable to the boxes; and next because it would in some degree tend
to exclude many who, though fit to sit only in the upper gallery, make
their way into the pit to the great annoyance of those decent well
behaved people who go to enjoy and understand the play, and not to
blackguard and speak aloud.

When the theatre was closed, according to civil regulation, the company,
went to New-York. At that time Hallam and Hodgkinson had possession of
both the theatres of that city--the old one in John-street, and the ne