which we think our readers will derive some entertainment.

The parents of Mr Everard were respectable plebeians, who died in an humble situation, "leaving no blot on their fame." On account, however, of some casual resemblance to Mr Garrick, it was rumoured by the scandalmongers of the theatre, that he was indebted for his being to the unlawful embraces of the great Roscius; an opinion which, though utterly without foundation, Mr Everard was weak and vain enough to encourage, thus venturing to cast an imputation on the character of his mother, which, even by his own shewing, it was impossible she could deserve. On the death of his parents, he became an inmate of his uncle, Mr Cape, who kept a lodging-house in the Piazza, Covent-garden. This vicinity to the stage produced its natural effect; and he soon after came out at Covent-garden in the character of Cupid. He shewed considerable talents for dancing, and was placed under the tuition of an eminent master of that art, and had the honour of becoming a fellow-scholar of the celebrated Nancy Dawson. From his extreme youth, he became a favourite with the public, and, it would appear, gave promise of talents for the stage which he never afterwards fully realised. He attracted likewise much notice from Mr Garrick, who gave him occasional instructions, and encouraged him to persist in his theatrical career. For some years he continued to perform on the London stage with considerable success, but was at length left without an engagement, and compelled to seek a precarious subsistence by becoming an itinerant performer in the provincial theatres. It were needless to pursue him farther. The narrative of his succeeding life exhibits only a picture of respectable mediocrity labouring to attain success, but for the most part encountering disappointment. Those, however, who choose to read the work itself, will find it not unentertaining. We recommend it particularly to the perusal of all young stage-aspirants, who will there become acquainted with all the difficulties that await them, and learn how

"Hard is his fate, whom evil stars have led To seek in scenic art precarious bread."

To the present theatrical mania, we think, it will afford a complete anti

dote, and (if the would-be Romeos have one spark of common sense left) lead them to turn their abilities to some more profitable and respectable occupation.

The galaxy of talent which adorned the stage in the days of Garrick, Barry, Powell, Palmer, Mossop, Foote, Quin, Macklin, Clive, Pritchard, and Woffington, has since been wholly unrivalled. They not only raised their profession from the degraded condition to which it had been reduced, but succeeded, in a certain degree, in giving a tone and character to the taste and manners of the times in which they lived. The theatre and its affairs then occupied a much greater share of the public attention than they have since been able to attract. The witticisms of the greenroom were quoted in polite society, and the names of Garrick, Quin, Foote, and Palmer, have not only been transmitted to us as those of great actors, but as the first wits of their day. It was among these great men that Mr Everard made his theatrical debût; and we have many new and curious anecdotes, illustrative of their character and temper, in the work before us. We shall extract at random the following account of Mr Barry and Mr Garrick. We think he has discriminated their different excellences with considerable judgment.

"I remember the great Barry, in his decline, could scarcely walk off the stage in his unequalled Othello; and, after, he was too old for playing Old King Lear. He was, as Mr Fawcett observed, the " afflicted infirmity." And when the audience plainly actor, under the real pressure of age and saw that he could scarcely stand, that he could not kneel down without help, or rise again without evident pain to himself and great support, they forgot " King Lear," and remembered he was " Barry." Romeo, Othello, Marc Anthony, Varanes, and in all that may be called love parts, none ever sweet and harmonious, that he was called equalled him, I believe; his voice was so the silver-toned Barry, the tuneful swan.' His figure, too, was tall and even handsome, and in Romeo none could have stood against him but a Garrick. They played it in

opposition at the different theatres twelve successive nights. In the balcony or lovescenes, with Juliet, in the 2d and 3d acts, the critics gave Barry the preference; the 1st act, the scene with the Friar in the 3d act, and the last scene, they allowed it to Garrick; but I think, they never agreed or could determine, which, upon the whole, was greatest. Garrick then attacked him in

his favourite character of Othello, but without success; indeed it may be said, it was the only part he ever failed in; yet I have heard it said by those who were reputed good judges, that he struck out many new beauties in it, never before hit upon;-his not succeeding might, in a great measure, be attributed to his want of height, being much below Barry's ;-he also dressed it in a shape which was not then the custom. It was, too, the fashion of those days for ladies of quality to have a little black boy, in a fancy dress and turban, to wait on them with the tea-table equipage; and the celebrated actor Quin, being in one of these parties, was asked what he thought of Garrick's Othello? Why,' says he, the boy plays it well enough; but confound it, whenever he came on, he put me in mind of little Pompey there with the tea-kettle.' This ludicrous remark hurt him more than his want of figure;—he immediately gave it up, and soon was universally admired in the same tragedy, by his judicious acting in Iago. In King Lear, Jaffier, and many other parts, they were likewise powerful rivals. Their opposition in the first occasioned some remarks, which I remember reading in a paper with the following lines: "The town has found two different ways To praise the different Lears; To Barry they give loud huzzas, To Garrick only tears!" Which had the greater compliment, I submit to the judicious reader."

The jealous irascibility of the temper of Mr Garrick is well illustrated by the next anecdote we shall lay before our readers.

"As Garrick advanced in life, and still increasing reputation, so he still, if possible, became more and more tenacious of it, and more easily disconcerted; therefore, during the last two years of his acting, he requested the musicians not to leave the orchestra for the future when he played tragedy, as their going in and out, and the doors opening and shutting, caught his eye and ear, and distressed him. Till this time, after playing the music between the acts, the band used to bob under the stage, and in their music-room enjoy themselves quietly at a game of whist or drafts, till the prompter's bell gave them warning that the act was just over: this in future they were obliged to forego when he performed tragedy. His first part after this order was Macbeth; and, conformably to the same, all the musicians Peluctantly kept their seats. But a Mr Cervetto, well known to the galleries by the appellation of Nosey,' who had belonged to the theatre above forty years, and repeatedly seen Garrick in all his characters, now deprived of his customary indulgence, found it difficult to keep awake during the first act; after playing the music to which, he profoundly fell asleep! The longest pause that Garrick ever made was in this

part, and in the second act, previous to his saying,

Is this a dagger that I see before me?' "At this moment the house was all eyes and ears, all silence, all attention; I suppose no one thought they were in a theatre; tained the deception which it aims at, and the very cunning of the scene" had ob. wholly engrossed all their faculties. At this critical moment, unfortunately, poor Cerloud, long, uncouth, tremendous gape! vetto awoke with an uncommon gape; a such a one ne'er heard before! The howling of a dog, compared to it, was harmony! audience, they could not have been more Had a loaded gun been fired among the alarmed: they were electrified, then, in a few seconds, went into a general laugh; restored themselves to order, and Garrick indeed 'twas irresistible. However, they became composed as soon as possible; but when once he got into his room, after the demanded to know who it was that made play was over, the storm broke out. He that infernal noise from the orchestra. On

being told, Cervetto was brought up to him; judge with more anxiety and trepidation and perhaps no criminal ever came before a

than he did to Garrick.

"On his entering, the enraged Roscius incoherently exclaimed, What! is it possible? can it be you, sir? is it you, who have been in the house with me so many years? is it you that made that cursed outlandish noise from the orchestra, and set the whole audience in a roar of laughter?" He went on, till poor Cervetto could just get an opening to say, Sir, I am extremely sorry." Confound your sorrow, sir! what's your sorrow to me? You have ruined me; I all the reputation I have gained in forty could not recover myself the whole night; years, I have lost in two hours by your exeyou've been hired to destroy me; you have joined with assassins, to stab me in the vulnerable part. No, sir, I assure you I was not hired; I abhor the idea, and tomorrow you will do me the justice to believe me, but you are now in a passion.'' Ay, sir, and no wonder; but how came you to fall asleep? Did my acting displease you? was it so tiresome as to make you go to sleep? No, sir; but the house was so attentive, so very silent, and your acting was so wonderfully great, so much beyond, the same part, that I was overcome, quite I thought, what I have often seen you do in overpowered with sensations that I cannot express, and involuntarily dropt into sleep.

crable noise. You must have been suborned;

I know not how to account for it, but I

always do so when I am very highly pleased."

999

Perhaps no theatrical occurrence ever excited a greater sensation in the public than the farewell appearance of the great Roscius on the stage. The following account of his last performance

ON THE STOCKS, OR PUBLIC FUNDS.

ME EDITOR,

As I have no doubt of your desire to contribute to the instruction, as well as the amusement, of every individual among your readers, who pays down regularly his half-crown for your monthly bill of fare, I shall make no apology for troubling you with a few remarks on the subject that stands at the head of this paper. There are few topics of conversation perhaps more frequently introduced, and, at the same time, less generally understood, than that of the Public Funds, and I know few subjects on which the uninstructed can derive so little information from books. Systems of political economy, and profound disquisitions on the national debt, are indeed every day issuing from the press; but in none of these that I have met with, not even in the luminous pages of the Edinburgh Review, which, of all other works, is supposed by its admirers to go to the bottom of every subject, will ordinary readers find any explanation of the first simple principles of the Public Funds? It is for the instruction of such readers, then, that I would now beg leave to occupy a page or two of your Magazine; and though I am quite aware, that my observations will cut a very sorry figure beside the nervous declamation of Idoloclastes, or the sarcastic humour of Timothy Tickler, I am nevertheless certain, that I will render a very acceptable service to many, and these not the least respectable of your readers, if I can throw so much light upon the subject as may enable them to understand the prices of the Stocks, as given in the public papers.

It is perhaps hardly necessary to remark, that in every war in which this country has been engaged since the Revolution, the amount of the annual taxes has been found inadequate to defray the expenses of government. To supply the deficiency, our rulers have generally had recourse to loans, that is to say, they have borrowed money from such individuals as were able and willing to lend it, giving these individuals a security for the payment of a certain annual interest. To explain the nature of this transaction, I shall take a very simple case. Suppose, then, that £100 is the sum which government wishes to borrow, and that an individual offers to lend that sum at an in

terest of 5 per cent. On paying down the money, the lender receives a bill, bond, or acknowledgment, for the amount; by which acknowledgment, he is entitled to draw yearly from the public revenue £5 of interest, but on the express condition, that he is not to demand repayment of the principal, or sum lent, unless government is willing to repay it. The person who thus possesses the bill or acknowledgment, is said to be a holder of £100 of 5 per cent. stock, and the money lent upon that bill constitutes a part of what is called the national debt, because it is in fact borrowed by the nation, and the interest is paid out of the taxes. It is obvious, however, that few persons would be disposed to lend money on the condition of never being allow◄ ed to demand repayment, even though they were quite certain of receiving annual interest, and of transmitting the right to that interest to their posterity. To remedy this inconvenience, therefore, the lender who wishes to employ the sum which he lent to government in any other way, though he cannot directly demand repayment, is at liberty to sell his bill to any body who will purchase it, and for any sum that another may be willing to pay for it. In doing so, he merely sells to a second person the right which he himself possessed to the annual interest of £5, and that second person is of course at liberty to dispose of his right to another in the same way. This transaction, in general, is called a transfer of stock; and in the particular case which I have supposed, the one is said to sell, and the other to buy, a £100 of 5 per cent. stock. If 5 per cent. be considered as a fair and equitable interest for money lent, it is obvious, that such a bill as I have now been speaking of, or, in other words, that £100 of 5 per cent. stock, is just worth £100 sterling. is possible, however, that in certain circumstances, the holder of that bill may receive more, or be obliged to take less for it than £100. If two or three individuals, for example, have each a sum of money which they are anxious to lay out at interest, but find it difficult to do so, a competition will naturally take place among them to become the purchaser of the bill in question, which will always secure to the holder £5 of yearly interest. possessor of the bill will of course take advantage of this competition, and raise

It

The

his price, say, to £105. The purchaser, therefore, pays £105 for £100 of 5 per cent. stock, or he lays out his money at an interest of £5 for every £105, which is at the rate of something more than 4 per cent. If, on the other hand, however, the possessor of the bill or stock is anxious to dispose of it, while few are willing to buy it, he will be forced to offer it for less than £100, say, £95. The purchaser, in this case, pays £95 for £100 of 5 per cent. stock, or he lays out his money at an interest of £5 for every £95, which is at the rate of something more than 5 per cent. For simplicity of illustration, I have supposed, that £100 is the sum borrowed by government, and that of course there is just one bill to be disposed of, or transferred by, the lender. If it be supposed, however, as is really the fact, that the loans generally amount to several millions, the necessity which the lenders are under of selling their bills, or, in other words, transferring their stock, will be more apparent. The transaction between government and the lenders, is precisely the same in the case of millions as in that of a hundred, and it is unnecessary, therefore, again to illustrate the general principle of that transaction. It is evident, however, that even the most opulent merchants, who are generally the lenders, cannot be supposed to have such a command of money as to be able to advance ten or twelve millions to government at once. When they contract for a loan, therefore; that is, when they agree to lend to government the sum required, they generally pay the money by instalments, or partial payments, at certain intervals, say one million a-month, till the whole is advanced. In the mean time they sell, or transfer the bills or securities which they receive from government, to those who may have money to lay out at interest, and who of course will be disposed to purchase such bills, so that the sale of the bills of the first instalment may enable them to pay the second. In this way, government securities or bills become articles of commerce, and their price is regulated like that of any other article, according to the supply and demand. If we suppose, as before, that the contractors for the loan, that is, the original lenders, receive from government a £100 bill for every £100 sterling that they lend, bearing 5 per cent., they

will gain or lose by the transaction, according as they can dispose of these bills, for more or less than £100. If the buyers are numerous, compared with the quantity of bills; that is, if there be a great number who are anxious to have their money laid out at interest, they will be tempted perhaps to give, as was before supposed, £105 for every bill; for though, by doing so, they will have only 4 per cent. for their money, still it may possibly be more than they can draw for it in any other way, while the security is better than if they lent their money to private individuals or companies. In this case, the contractors would gain 5 per cent. upon the loan, or £50,000 on the whole ten millions. If, on the other hand, however, comparatively few persons are found disposed to lay out their money at 5 per cent., the contractors may be obliged to offer their bills for less than £100, say, as before, £95. In this case, the contractors lose 5 per cent. on the loan, or £50,000 on the whole ten millions. It is easy to see, from this view of the subject, how the price of stock is liable to fluctuation, from accidental circumstances. I shall not attempt to enumerate these; but it may be worth while to point out how it is affected by peace and war, as these two states of the country are generally found to have the greatest influence in raising or depressing the value of stock. In the time of war, then, the price of stock is comparatively low, because, in such a state of things, it is likely that government will be under the necessity of borrowing; and as every loan produces new bills, the quantity of those to be disposed of, or, in other words, the supply of the market, will be increased. The price, therefore, will fall, for the same reason that the price of corn falls after a plentiful harvest. In time of peace, again, the price of stock is comparatively high, because, in such a state of things, the taxes are likely to be sufficient to defray the expenses of government without any loans, and consequently no new bills are to be disposed of, or the supply, though not positively diminished, ceases to be augmented. For the same reason, the price of stock in the time of war is materially affected by the nature of the intelligence that comes from the scene of action. If that intelligence be unfavourable, stock will fall, because