tea, a quarter of a pound of coffee,
three-quarters of a pound of sugar; for each child
bread and sugar only. Any of these things
can be changed for oatmeal, arrowroot, sago,
and so forth, if required. Extra rations for
sickness according to doctor's orders.

The town is divided into districts; to each
district two members of committee are
appointed, who have to visit the recipients of
relief in their district, and report on the cases
to the general committee at least once a month.
Special orders in cases of necessity can at any
time be given by members of committee to
poor in their own districts. Such orders are
available for two weeks, after which applicants
must appear, or their cases must be reported
on to the committee by the person granting the
order. The president can at any time grant
relief, or admit in urgent cases. We thus try
to avoid all unnecessary routine while guarding
against imposition, and the self-respecting poor
have not to be badgered by heartless officials,
but state their case to gentlemen who know
how to respect poverty.

Thus it is that we treat our poor in Victoria;
the Ballarat Asylum is a sample of many
others. We have not yet learnt that poverty is
a crime. There is no doubt we are sometimes
imposed on; but it is far better that some rogues
should be kept by our generosity, than that our
fellows, Christian or not Christian, should bear
unmerited suffering which it is in our power to
alleviate.

      LAST OF OLD STORIES RE-TOLD.

THE ACCIDENT AT THE BRUNSWICK THEATRE.

On the morning of the 25th of February,
1828, there was a great hammering and sawing
at the New Brunswick Theatre, Wellclose-
square, Whitechapel, as the house was to be
opened that evening. The theatre had been
run up in seven months by Mr. Stedman Whitwell,
C.E., and it had a ponderous iron roof and a
façade, the design of which had been borrowed
from that of San Carlos, at Naples. It stood
on the site of the old Royalty Theatre, opened
in 1787, under the management of John Palmer.
Lee, Lewis, Bates, Holland, and Mrs. Gibbs
were then of the company; and that fine singer,
Braham, made his first appearance on its stage,
in the character of Cupid. It was originally
intended for the performance of legitimate
five-act pieces, and had opened with As You Like It;
but, the patentees of the other theatres
memorialising the Lord Chamberlain, the new theatre
was tyrannically restricted to pantomimes and
burlettas. The original theatre had been burnt
down in 1826.

From the first opening of the Brunswick
Theatre, a vague sense of danger had filled the
minds of every one connected with it, except the
proprietors: who were too eager for profits to
listen to anything that might cause delay. A Mr.
Pulsford, employed to survey and measure the
work of the smiths, carpenters, and bricklayers,
had repeatedly, even from the beginning of
January, warned Mr. Maurice, one of the most
active of the proprietors, of the insecurity of
the roof, and of the danger of suspending heavy
weights from the iron ties or chord bars. He
had told Mr. Maurice (a bustling self-sufficient
man, by trade a printer, in Fenchurch-street,
who had from the beginning run counter to the
wishes of the architect) that there was danger,
and that it would be well to consult some
scientific and practical men. He proposed Mr.
Bramah, a civil engineer of Pimlico, and Mr.
Moorman, an eminent smith in Old-street. Mr.
Maurice declined, and one day came to the
theatre and read to some of the workmen a
letter from the contractors of the roof, dated
Bristol, which said that the roof would bear any
dead weight, if it was perfectly steady.

Mr. Shaw, the carpenter who built the
stage, had felt an insurmountable alarm, which
various small circumstances had tended to
heighten. There were forty or fifty men
hammering, sawing, planing, and gluing,' in the
carpenters' shop, which was attached to the new
roof. On (Monday) the opening night, a small
but ominous accident also occurred, which struck
terror into the minds of two or three intelligent
overlookers.

The crowding of above one hundred persons
in the 0. P. flies, which were hung by iron
crooks to a plank that lay edgeways on the ties
of the roof, suddenly made them sink about two
inches. The plank had fallen flat, the hook had
slipped, the rod had fallen with all its weight on
the wing groove, and prevented the scenes from
working. The actors were already putting on
the last touch of paint, the orchestra had begun,
the audience were subsiding into their places.
Mr. Whitwell, alarmed, called Shaw, the
carpenter, and questioned him. Shaw said that
he thought some gasfitter, in putting up his
tubes for lighting the wings, had let his plank
fall on the grooves.

The curtain must rise soon, so Mr. Whitwell,
the rather incompetent architect, said, in a
flurry:

"Come up the fly, and I'll go up with you."

They went up, but found no plank.
Mr. Whitwell then said to his reluctant and hurried
companion:

"Now, Shaw, whip over; get upon the
groove, and see what is the matter."

Shaw did so, and, after peering about a few
minutes, cried out:

"Eh! Gad! there is one of the iron straps
of the roof dropped on the groove. But I'll
soon adjust that, with the pole from the
carpenter's shop."

Whitwell said: " But, Shaw, the curtain is
going up in a few minutes, and you are wanted
below."

Shaw then came down, and gave orders to a
man named David Wales to fix the tackle and
free the scene, and they then lashed the tackle
together to prevent its slipping.

In the mezzonine gallery Mr. Whitwell met
his old opponent, Mr. Maurice, told him of the