traditional doom of Vauxhall seems to be
upon him; and, after all, the legitimate drama
may not have suffered greatly through his
competition.

But it may be said, that if the French
Government picks the purse of the theatres,
it is accustomed also to make compensatory
presents to them, and to help them out of
difficulty by subventions. It takes indeed
money from all, while there are only five to
whom a portion of their money is returned.
The live theatres rejoicing in the privilege of
such artificial support rendered by the State
are, in the order of their official precedence,
the Grand Opéra, the Comédie Française, the
Opéra Comique, the Théâtre Italien, and the
Odéon. This compound system, therefore, of
help and hindrance offered by the Government
interfering with the theatres of Paris, cramps
their energies and meddles seriously with
their profits.

A king of France has even thought it
worth his while to undertake the active
management of the Grand Opéra, to order
yards of satin for costumes, to let boxes, to
monopolise the right of giving free admissions,
and to keep, as his own private affair, debtor
and creditor accounts of the concern. The
laws regulating theatres were, by statute made
and provided, framed with the same legislative
pomp and exactitude as the whole code of
civil law. One of the articles propounds
"That the theatrical year shall commence with
the calendar year." The code defines every
duty, and awards every degree of fine and
imprisonment. It took years to complete, and
it did not receive the imperial assent until
1812; when Napoleon signed it amidst the
smouldering ruins of Moscow. In London,
now that patent rights have been abolished,
theatres suffer no further special interference
from the State than the censorship of the
Chamberlain; which, being a ridiculous thing
itself, is, we are happy to say, ridiculously
exercised; and will, in time, go the way of
all nonsense. With this exception, English
theatres are suffered to stand or fall by their
own merits, and have free liberty to make
exertions and enjoy whatever profit they can
get. This difference having been duly taken
into account, we will now proceed to details
upon matters which belong to the routine of
every theatre. We should not omit to state,
however, that the twenty-five theatres of
Paris upon which the succeeding calculations
have been founded, are the theatres of Paris
strictly, and do not include eight that are
established in the liberties, or the three
theatres of Saint-Denis, Sceaux, and Choisy-
le-Roi.

There are in the provinces of France eighty-
five dramatic companies, covering a body of
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five
actors: eleven hundred and five men, and
seven hundred and sixty women. In the
theatres of the department of the Seine,
omitting those of Paris, there are eighty
actors and sixty actresses. In Algeria, there
are thirty-six French companies of actors,
having, on an average, fourteen actors and
eleven actresses in each. Finally, four
hundred and thirty-eight actors, and three
hundred and fifty-five actresses, are attached
to the theatres of Paris.

There appear also upon the stage of Paris,
in addition to these more isolated artists, five
hundred and fifty-two of a gregarious kind:
members of choruses and corps de ballet, or
pupils, and six hundred and ninety-eight
supernumeraries. The total number, therefore,
in Paris, whose bread is earned behind
the curtain but before the scenes, is two
thousand and forty-three, of which number
one thousand one hundred and forty-two are
men, and nine hundred and one are women.
The payments made to all these people make
on the whole a sum, expressed in English
money, of one hundred and forty-seven
thousand two hundred and ninety-one pounds.
This money is distributed, of course, in
payments varying extremely in amount; from
about forty pounds a week to a star at the
Opéra, down to four shillings a week to a
supernumerary at the Théâtre Rollin.

The payments made to singers in Paris,
although very high, and very much higher
than they used to be, are small in comparison
with the price paid to the same artists in
London. The whole rate of admission to the
theatres of Paris is lower than in London,
and the scale of salaries is lower in the same
proportion. The dearest place in any Paris
theatre, whether in the Opéra or the Théâtre
Italien, costs at the box-office not more than
eight-and-fourpence. The cheapest place, in
the second gallery of the Théâtre du Petit-
Lazari, costs three-halfpence. A seat in the
pit at the French or Italian Opéra costs three-
and-fourpence, instead of from seven to ten
shillings, as it is with us; at the Comédie
Française, or the Opéra Comique, it costs two
shillings and a penny. A pit seat at the
Vaudeville, Variétés, or the Gymnase, costs
one-and-eightpence, and at the Odéon, one of
the theatres supported by subvention, only a
shilling and a halfpenny, or one franc twenty-
five centimes. French managers, who have,
moreover, the Right of the Indigent to pay in
the shape of an eleventh of their gross
receipts, cannot afford London salaries. In the
case of the Grand Opéra it is also to be taken
into account, that it not only charges lower
prices, but accommodates a smaller audience
than either of the Operas in London.

In 1713, a chief singer at the Opéra in
Paris received a salary of sixty-two pounds
ten shillings a year. Between 1782 and 1786
the payment was from two to six hundred
guineas yearly; under the Empire, from seven
to eight hundred. The salaries now range
between two thousand and three thousand
pounds a year, passing sometimes to a few
hundreds beyond. Madame Saint Huberty, a prima
donna much applauded seventy years ago,