nd you will
own you could not strip the scene of these effects without stripping
Shakespeare himself of half the richness and depth of his conceptions.
But that was the least merit of that glorious management. Mr. Macready
not only enriched the scene, but he purified the audience; and for the
first time since the reign of Charles II, a father might have taken his
daughters to a public theatre with as much safety from all that could
shock decorum as if he had taken them to the house of a friend. And for
this reason the late lamented Bishop of Norwich made it a point to form
the personal acquaintance of Mr. Macready, that he might thank him, as a
prelate of the Church, for the good he had done to society.

Gentlemen, I cannot recall that period without a sharp pang of indignant
regret, for if that management had lasted some ten or twelve years, I
know that we would have established a permanent school for actors--a
fresh and enduring field for dramatic poetry and wit--while we should
have educated an audience up to feel that dramatic performances in their
highest point of excellence had become an intellectual want that could
no more be dispensed with than the newspaper or review. And all this to
be checked or put back for ages to come! Why? Because the public did not
appreciate the experiment! Mr. Macready has told us that the public
supported him nobly, and that his houses overflowed. Why then? Because
of the enormous rent and exactions, for a theatre which even in the most
prosperous seasons, make the exact difference between profit and loss.
Gentlemen, it is not now the occasion to speak of remedies for that
state of things. Remedies there are, but they are for legislation to
effect. They involve considerations with regard to those patents which
are secured to certain houses for the purpose of maintaining in this
metropolis the legitimate drama, and which I fear, have proved the main
obstacle to its success.

But these recollections belong to the past. The actor--the manager--are
no more. Whom have we with us to-day? Something grander than actor, or
manager: to-day we have with us the man. Gentlemen, to speak of those
virtues which adorn a home, and are only known in secret, has always
appeared to me to be out of place upon public occasions; but there are
some virtues which cannot be called private, which accompany a man
everywhere, which are the essential part of his public character, and of
these it becomes us to spe