stage."

The Act provides for no appeal against the decision of the
Chamberlain. His government was to be quite absolute. If he chose to
prohibit the performance of Shakespeare's plays, for instance, no one
could question his right to take that strong measure; only another Act
of Parliament could, under such circumstances, restore Shakespeare, to
the stage. Of the Examiner of Plays the Act made no mention: that
office continued to be the creation simply of the Lord Chamberlain,
and without any sort of legal status. The old Licensing Act of 1737
was absolutely repealed; yet, unaccountably enough, Mr. Donne's
appointment, bearing date 1857, and signed by the Marquis of
Breadalbane, then Lord Chamberlain, began: "Whereas in consequence of
an Act of Parliament, made in the tenth year of the reign of His late
Majesty King George the Second," &c. &c.

The intensity of George Colman's regard for "good manners and decorum"
has no doubt furnished a precedent to later Examiners. For some time
little effort was made again to apply the stage to the purposes of
political satire. Mr. Buckstone informed the Parliamentary Committee
that an attempt made about 1846, to represent the House of Commons
upon the stage of the Adelphi--Mr. Buckstone was to have personated
the Lord John Russell of that date--had been promptly forbidden; and
the late Mr. Shirley Brooks stated that a project of dramatising Mr.
Disraeli's novel of "Coningsby" had also, in regard to its political
bearing, been interdicted by the Chamberlain. Few other essays in this
direction appear worth noting, until we come to a few seasons back,
when certain members of the administration were caricatured upon the
stage of the Court Theatre, after a fashion that speedily brought down
the rebuke of the Chamberlain, and the exhibition was prohibited
within his jurisdiction. But the question of "good manners and
decorum" has induced much controversy. For where, indeed, is
discoverable an acceptable standard of "good manners and decorum"? In
such matters there is always growth and change of opinion. Sir Walter
Scott makes mention of an elderly lady, who, reading over again
certain books she had deemed in her youth to be of a most harmless
kind, was shocked at their exceeding grossness. She had unconsciously
moved on with the civilising and refining influences of her time. And
the question of morality in relation to the drama is confessedly very
difficult to deal with. "It must be