eat object of the will of this worthy
citizen, and there is every prospect of its fully answering the purpose,
since it has already set the whole community by the ears, and promises
to prove as prolific of evils as the strong box of Miss Pandora, without
having even Hope at the bottom.

This man, who has been so much eulogized dead, seems, as well as I could
glean amongst his contemporaries, to have been anything but estimable in
his living character. He is universally described as having been tricky,
overreaching, and litigious in his dealings as a merchant; an unfeeling
relation, an exacting, ungrateful, and forgetful master; and a selfish,
cold-hearted man: unoccupied with any generous sympathy, public or
private, throughout a long life, devoted to one purpose with sleepless
energy, and to one purpose only--making and hoarding money; which,
living, he contrived, as far as in him lay, to render as little
beneficial to any as possible, and, dying, disposed of to his own
personal glorification, but to the vexation of the community, amongst
which he appeared to have lived unhonoured, and certainly died
unregretted!

I am aware that "de mortuis nil nisi bonum" has usually been applied to
cases similar to the above; "nil nisi _justem_" I think a sounder
reading where a man is held up as a public example, and deem that the
selection of a church or a college for a monument should not be
permitted to shield the base from animadversion, or call for honours to
the worthless.

THE THEATRES--WALNUT AND CHESTNUT:

So called were the houses at which I first acted here, situated in the
two fine streets bearing the same names.

The Walnut is a summer theatre, and the least fashionable; and here it
was my fortune to make my _debut_ to the Philadelphians with good
success: a French company occupied at the same time the Chestnut, where,
after a seven nights' engagement at the other house, I succeeded them;
the proprietors being the same at both.

These houses are large, handsome buildings, marble-fronted, having ample
and well-arranged vomitories; and are not stuck into some obscure alley,
as most of our theatres are, but standing in the finest streets of the
city, and every way easy of approach: within, they are fitted up
plainly, but conveniently, and very cleanly and well kept. I prefer the
Chestnut, as smaller, and having a pit--as I think all pits ought to
be--nearly on a level with the front of the stage, instead of