increased taxation necessary, and the objects to
which its production is to be applied; the
latter deals only in the loose and general plea
of necessity, and scorns to enter into
explanations."

"Don't contaminate the British stage with
Italian duplicity or French trickery."

Several other appropriate and pungent placards
were exhibited, which, joined with the martial
tempestuous music of trumpets and bugle-horns,
and the frequently repeated challenge of the
great belligerent power, rendered it at last
necessary, on the part of their opponents, to
make an overture of negotiation.

Mr. Kemble appeared upon the stage: there
was instant silence. He proposed that the
affairs of the theatre should be submitted to a
committee of gentlemen; and this proposition,
which appeared to the audience to have the
complexion of a trick, was very ill received by
them.

A leading feature of the proceedings on this
evening was a very generous and chivalrous
speech made to the audience by a Mr.
O'Reilly, who, after severely censuring the
manager, said, in common justice to Catalani,
"Some artful people avail themselves of your
honest indignation against the manager to
promote their interests, to gratify their prejudices,
by exciting you to abuse an unoffending
individual. How can you be so imposed upon?
How can you be so inconsistent? How can you
be so unmanly as to abuse a woman? What
has Catalani done to offend you? (Applause
and hisses.) I see the placards of 'No
Catalani!' with disgust, but I see those of
'Dickons and no Catalani!' with disgust and
astonishment. For what a contrast!—let me
appeal to your common sense. This Catalani,
whom I never saw or heard but on the stage,
is capable of affording the most exquisite pleasure
to all who have any taste for vocal power.
She stands confessedly unrivalled. Then, if
you desire the pleasure of hearing her, is it
not more for the interest of you, the people, to
have her here, where you can hear her for one
or two shillings, than to have her at the Opera
House, where you cannot enter without paying
five shillings or half a guinea, which many cannot
afford. Will you, to gratify others'
prejudices, deny yourselves pleasure? I have
heard it whispered that a great many insidious
manoeuvres are going forward against this
woman, and therefore I am interested for her.
I have even been told that it is not improbable
the managers would have no objection to an
apology for rescinding their agreement with her.
It may be calculated that as Madame Catalani
has been detached from the Opera House, that
there is now no danger of her being able to
procure an engagement elsewhere which can
produce any of that counter-attraction to this
theatre, to guard against which was probably a
main cause of her original engagement here.
This calculation I state as merely possible—but
will you second it? Will you promote the
unworthy speculations of selfishness?"

This speech was received with general
applause.

On the 23rd, Mr. Kemble came forward and
stated that a committee of gentlemen was
appointed to inspect the accounts, and to decide
if the old or the new prices were the most fit
and reasonable, and that, till that report was
sent in, the theatre would be closed. The whole
audience rose at this triumph, and shouted and
hurraed for Mr. Kemble. He announced that
Madame Catalani had relinquished her engagement,
and retired amid counter-storms of
applause and disapprobation.

The new sensational placard that night was
one with a coffin and cross-bones on it, and
the words, "Here lies the body of New Prices,
who died 23rd September, 1809, aged 6 days."

The following epigram appeared a few days
after:

   John Bull has gained one point, that's flat;
   For Kemble has whipt out the CAT,—
   Shut up his house and gone to bed,
   With fewer AITCHES in his head.

The enraged and stubborn English public had
no mercy for its dogged opponents. They forgot
that Lord Mansfield's right of expressing
dislike to piece and actor did not also include
the privilege of stopping the whole performance,
of ruining the proprietors, scaring away quiet
people, and destroying the property of the house.
They would not listen to the fact that while the
property of Covent Garden Theatre was divided
into twelve shares, Mr. Harris had seven;
Messrs. Martindale and White, who married the
daughter of Mr. Powell, the celebrated actor,
and who became a purchaser at the same time
with Mr. Harris, three; and Kemble only
two.

The committee consisted of the following
gentlemen:—Alderman Sir Charles Price,
Bart., M.P.; Sir Thomas Plumer, Kt., the solicitor-
general; John Sylvester, Esq., the
recorder of the city of London; John Whitmore,
Esq., governor of the Bank of England;
and John Julius Augerstein, Esq. The report
of this committee was: "That the rate of profit
actually received upon an average of the last
six years, commencing in 1803 (the period of
the then co-partnership in the theatre), upon
the capital embarked therein, amounted to six
three-eighths per annum, charging the concern
with only the sum actually paid for insurance
upon such part of the capital as was insured;
that if the whole capital had been insured the
profit would have been reduced to little more
than five per cent, though for want of this full
insurance the proprietors, being in part their
own insurers, sustained a loss by the late fire,
for which no compensation has been made, to
the amount of their whole profits for the above
period of six years." The report further stated
that the committee was fully satisfied that the
future profits of the new theatre at the
proposed advance in the prices of admission would
amount to no more than three and a half per
cent per annum upon the capital expended upon