de, melodrama, pantomime, or other entertainment of the stage,
or any part thereof."

Thus, at last, more than a century after the passing of the Licensing
Act, certain of its more mischievous restrictions were in effect
repealed. A measure of free trade in theatres was established. The
Lord Chamberlain was still to be "the lawful monarch of the stage,"
but in the future his rule was to be more constitutional, less
absolute than it had been. The public were no longer to be confined to
Drury Lane and Covent Garden in the winter, and the Haymarket in the
summer. Actors were enabled, managers and public consenting, to
personate Hamlet or Macbeth, or other heroes of the poetic stage, at
Lambeth, Clerkenwell, or Shoreditch, anywhere indeed, without risk of
committal to gaol. It was no longer necessary to call a play a
"burletta," or to touch a note upon the piano, now and then, in the
course of a performance, so as to justify its claim to be a musical
entertainment; all subterfuges of this kind ceased.

It was with considerable reluctance, however, that the Chamberlain, in
his character of Licenser of Playhouses, divested himself of the
paternal authority he had so long exercised. He still clung to the
notion that he was a far better judge of the requirements and desires
of playgoers than they could possibly be themselves. He was strongly
of opinion that the number of theatres was "sufficient for the
theatrical wants of the metropolis." He could not allow that the
matter should be regulated by the ordinary laws of supply and demand,
or by any regard for the large annual increase of the population.
Systematically he hindered all enterprise in the direction of new
theatres. It was always doubtful whether his license would be granted,
even after a new building had been completed. He decided that he must
be guided by his own views of "the interests of the public." It is not
clear that he possessed authority in this respect other than that
derived from custom and the traditions of his office. The Act of 1843
contained no special provisions on the subject. But he insisted that
all applicants for the licensing of new theatres should be armed with
petitions in favour of the proposal, signed by many of the inhabitants
in the immediate vicinity of the projected building; he 'required the
Police Commissioners to verify the truth of these petitions, and to
report whether inconvenience was likely to result in the way of
interruption of