teem and good-will. In a certain sense
you are the manager's constituents. You cannot eject him from the
office, perhaps, with that directness which distinguishes the
Parliamentary operations. But you can stay away from the theatre, and so
eject his play. [Laughter.] On the whole that is a more disconcerting
process than the fiercest criticism. One can always argue with the
critics, though on the actor's part I know that is gross presumption.
[Laughter.] But you cannot argue with the playgoer who stays away.

I am not making any specific accusations--only remarking that it is
staying-power which impresses the importance of the Playgoer's Club upon
the managerial mind. Moreover, to meet you like this has the effect of a
useful tonic. I can strongly recommend it to some gentlemen who write to
the newspapers. [Laughter.] In one journal there was a long
correspondence--the sort of thing we generally get at one season of the
year--about the condition of the stage, and a well-known writer who, I
believe, combines the function of a dramatic critic with the
responsibility of a watch-dog to the Navy, informed his readers that the
sad decadence of the British Drama was due to the evils of party
government. That is certainly an original idea; but I fancy that if the
author were to unfold it to this company, he would be told that he had
mistaken the Playgoer's Club for the War Office or the Admiralty. Still
we ought to be grateful to the man who reveals a perfectly fresh reason
for the eternal decline of the drama, though we may not, perhaps,
anticipate any revolution in theatrical amusements even from the most
thorough-going reform of the British Constitution.

In the public correspondence to which I have referred, a good deal was
said about the need for a dramatic conservatoire. If such an institution
could be rooted in this country, I have no doubt that it might yield
many advantages. Years ago I ventured to suggest that the municipal
system might be applied to the theatre, as it is on the Continent,
though I do not observe that this is yet a burning question in the
county council politics, or that any reforming administrator has
discovered that the drama ought to be laid on, like gas or water.
[Laughter.] With all our genius for local government we have not yet
found, like some Continental peoples, that the municipal theatre is as
much a part of the healthy life of the community as the municipal
library or museum. ["Hear! hear