in the hands of Patentees who so utterly misconduct their concerns; and look to the meeting at the Thatched House, lately held to determine upon the erection of a new Theatre, with well-founded hopes, that, through the intervention of persons of real taste, spirit, and talents, your Petitioners may be recalled from their present exile, and restored to their ancient rights.

Your Petitioners beg leave to say, as for the abovementioned Sheridan, that, in consideration of his having done credit to their order, by the production of certain most ingenious and amusing afterpieces, they have pardoned, excused, and forgiven him, on the express condition that he never more repeats the above-mentioned enormity of bulls but that Harris and Kemble having, in the utter barrenness of their brains, no atonement to offer for their most unprovoked and gothic attack upon our rights and privileges, we do most cordially and solemnly condemn the said Harris and Kemble as recreants to true dramatic dignity, taste, and feeling, and do esteem them no longer in the illustrious rank of our progenitors, Garrick, Foote, Murphy, and Colman, but consign them to the class of jockies, stable-keepers, mountebanks, and buffcons.

That your Petitioners, though they suffered materially by the O. P. war, lament that public indignation wasted itself on an object so comparatively trifling as the occupation of a few private boxes by a certain description of wealthy idlers, esteeming that mischief, great as it was, infinitely inferior to the present endured by your Petitioners, who are, with our excellent and esteemed representatives, Liston, Munden, and other our well-beloved coadjutors, absolutely shut out from the performance of what is not less our pleasure than our imperative duty.

That, under these circumstances, your Petitioners do humbly expect that you will, in your wisdom and humanity,

ADDRESS TO THE FRIENDS OF REFORM. 205

humanity, take such steps in these premises as may relieve your Petitioners from this their distressing pre dicament, and restore them, and the drama in general, to their proper place, and their appropriate functions. And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever make you laugh.

[From the Morning Chronicle, May 6.]

EPIGRAM.

[From the same, May 7.]

No more the poet's strains engage

Our admiration of the stage;
For there, instead of actors playing,
Nothing is heard but horses neighing,
While they curvet it on each leg:
But none have wings-alas, poor Peg!

Hampstead Heath, May 6.

CIRCULAR ADDRESS TO THE FRIENDS OF
REFORM,

AS PERFORMED BY MAJOR J. CARTWRIGHT,

AT THE SELECT MEETING HELD BY THOSE GENTLEMEN ON THE 6TH OF APRIL.

A CANTATA:

CONTAINING THE ORIGINAL SENTIMENTS AND LANGUAGE OF THE CIRCULAR LETTER SINCE DISTRIBUTED AMONG THE SUPPORTERS OF THAT GOOD OLD CAUSE.

[From the Morning Post, May 8.]

MAJOR CARTWRIGHT.

AIR" Sir, prior to the Revolution."-See Address in the
Morning Post of Friday last.

SIR, prior to the Revolution,
Notwithstanding all the teaching

Of our holy Constitution,

Rights from Magna Charta preaching,

Parliament

Parliament was never free:
Slav'ry nick'd us,
Tyranny kick'd us ;

Oh! Sir Francis-deary me !!!

Ever since the Revolution,
Notwithstanding Declarations,
Bill of Rights, and Constitution,
With new Mayors and Corporations,
Parliament was never free :
All they wanted

Then was granted ;

Lord! what's that to you and me ?

RECITATIVE (ACCOMPANIED BY W. BOSVILLE
J. BIRCH).

"A free Parliament," &c.—See Address.

A free Parliament did the Lords all propose,
Who went out to Holland from Dover;
A free Parliament was the very first cause
For which William profess'd to come over.

A Long Parliament and a Rump they had tried,
But never could hit on a free one;

AND

Their lengths and their breadths Pitt and Grenville supplied,
But they never set Cobbett and me on.

A free Parliament, as the Bill of Rights told,
Was the birthright of all British people;
But the poor Revolution is growing so old,
It's almost as grey as the steeple.

AIR-Adagio.

"The violation of fundamental principles," &s.

Violation may be slow,

Its results are but so, so;
Complicated violation
Acts for ages on the nation,
Just as drams of aqua vitæ
Poison an old man of eighty.

RECITATIVE,

ADDRESS TO THE FRIENDS OF REFORM. 207

RECITATIVE.

"To speak in the words of the present Head," &c. To speak in the words of the Head of the Russells, The heir to their virtues, who farms, puffs, and bustles.

AIR-Allegro.

"The source of all evils

(I don't mean the Weevils) Is inadequate Representation; Your returns to secure,

You must take for manure

The refuse and scum of the nation."

RECITATIVE.

"It being visionary to expect," &c.

It's vain to expect from these obstinate elves,
That ever the Commons will turn out themselves;
So we'll make them all swear, like that puppy King John,
To a new Magna Charta, a job of our own;

Or else take them all, like the Catholic James,
And settle them snug in a boat on the Thames;
While Finnerty, Cobbett, and public opinion,

Fawkes, Burdett, and Cartwright, shall have the dominion.
The Barons they fought, and the Barons they bled,
But we run away, and write pamphlets instead;
They carried their point by dint of hard fighting.
The thing now to stick to is spelling and writing; .
With dinners and speeches, and riots at home,
The people shall shout, and corruption be dumb.

AIR-Andante.

"Magna Charta, &c. proved despotism," c.

Magna Charta prov'd despotic ;
The Bill of Rights,
By William's slights,

Was a paltry Dutch exotic.

Reform will restore

What, I told you before,

A

We

We never have had or have heard of;

An old constitution that never existed,

Old rights which our ancestors always resisted, And many wise people despair'd of-(Da Capo.)

CHORUS.

We'll recover and 'stablish fair Liberty's reign;
We ne'er had it before-so we'll get it again.

GRAND MOVEMENT.

"Those whose guide is truth," &c.

The men whose guide is truth are the enlighten'd,
Those who appeal to reason can't be frighten'd ;'
We're temperate and moderate, wise and chaste;
Be just in future, we'll forget what's past.
Fee-faw-fum,

This is the way to tranquillity;
But falsehood, fraud, force, and oppression,
In vain hope for any concession,
Or even for common civility.

MADRIGAL.

"As the beneficial effects," &c.

As nine parts in ten

Are not Gentlemen,

Of those who attend at our meeting,
If a few would but come

To keep up the hum,.

They should not complain of their treating.
Or if even their names,

To strengthen our claims,.

Would give an eclat to the party,
Though in person they fail,

From sickness or jail,

We'll swear that they 're all well and hearty.

Then, Sir, let me put

Your name at the foot

Of my list, and believe an old stager,
If your friends too should come,
There is plenty of room,

And I rest your obedient MAJOR.

IMPROMPTU