I cannot but say I am heartily grieved at the effects.
But I have already trespassed too long on your time.
I must now take my leave, and subscribe myself,
Your obedient servant, .

OLIVER OLD TIMES

THE AGE.

[From the same, May 3.]

HOW arts improve in this aspiring age!

Peers mount the box, and horses mount the stage;
While waltzing females, with unblushing face,
Disdain to dance but in a man's embrace.

How arts improve, when modesty is dead,
And sense and taste are, like our bullion, fled!

EPIGRAM,

ON THE VOTE OF THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY OF LONDON TO THE PRINCE REGENT IN A WOODEN BOX.

[From the Morning Post, May 6.]

TO Princely George they give a box of wood,
Knowing his loyal virtues are not sold ;

But thought a golden one for W. e good;

For well they knew-the patriot's price was gold.

OWEN AP HOEL.

THE PETITION OF THE ANCIENT AND COMICAL CORPORATION OF FARCES TO THE BRITISH PUBLIC,

HUMBLY SHOWETH,

THAT your Petitioners have a prescriptive right to

the occupation of the stage next in order to the higher and more honourable denominations of the dramatic art, Tragedies, Comedies, and Operas.

That, in consequence of this prescription, your Pe

titioners

titioners did, for many years, enjoy the said privileges unmolested, until the period of the governments of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, under R. B. Sheridan, who did thereon tolerate certain Bulls; and of Covent Garden, under Harris and Kemble, who have far exceeded the misdoings of the said Drury Lane; and have most mummingly and mountebankly introduced divers horses, tumblers, rope-dancers, and fireeaters, on the stage, against the statute of decorum in that case made and provided.

That, in consequence of such introduction, your Petitioners have, for weeks and months together, been deprived of their just privilege of amusing the public, while, for a series of forty, and sometimes fifty, nights, the same despicable display of equestrian abomination has been palmed upon the public, to their great detriment, and to the utter destruction, of your Petitioners.

That your Petitioners, the legitimate offspring of the brains of the best writers this country ever produced, feel themselves especially aggrieved, inasmuch as they considered themselves the means, delectando pariterque monendo, of correcting those levities and follies which were beneath the notice of their respected relations, Thalia and Melpomene; and that they thusacted as gleaners in the fields of absurdity, leaving no head of human absurdity unculled; and that this their appropriate and essential use is ammulled and rendered utterly abortive, by the perseverance of the above Harris and Kemble, in sanctioning, continuing, nay, it would appear perpetuating, the prancing of horses on the boards of a regular theatre, to the utter exclusion of your Petitioners.

That your Petitioners have heard, with sincere satisfaction, of the intended motion of Mr. Taylor for a Select Committee, to inquire into the relative advantages and disadvantages of a dramati: monopoly,

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,

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,

IR, 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 AND 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;

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," &c.

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.