Child. Here, my dear papa

(With frong and infuppreffible emotions of filial respect.) Princefs. Come to my arms, and kiss your own mamma * (The Princess embraces the Child with a burft of maternal tendernefs; fhe hugs him; he hugs her, and papa hugs them both; they all cry in unifon, and then wipe their eyes dry.)

Song by the Hermit.

My daddy is dead and quite cold,

And buried in yonder church-yard;
Alas! I am growing fo old,

All my profpects of marriage are marr'd,

I wish I could get a good wife,

Or fee my poor daughter once more;

I then fhould enjoy all my life,

For counting my beads is a bore t.

Hermit. Here fit we down, and 'gin to eat our fupper.
(With a look of hofpitality and hearty welcome.)

Peter. Oh, what a blow I've got upon my crupper!

(Querulously forrowful.)

'T was when I fell, as late I faw the Ghoft

March to flow mufic, ftiff as any post.

(Mimicking the Ghoft.)

Princess. Say, fhall I help you to fome apple-tart?

(Her eyes beaming with conjugal tenderness.)

Prince. Yes, if you please, my love, my joy, my heart. (With a bow replete with gratitude.)

Hermit. Suppose you add a custard to your pye?

(Eyes denoting epicurean devotion.) Princess. With all my heart. (Gaily.)

*None but perfons of the most refined fenfibility can tafte this elegant fimplicity, fo peculiar to the German drama. Our English dramatists are afraid of venturing fo boldly. They fearch for pearls, when lefs coftly materials would be infinitely preferable. They are deaf to this felf-evident truth, that fimplicity is one grand fource of the fublime.

+ A palpable imitation of this fong has, we believe, been omitted fince the first reprefentation of Joanna.

Prince

Prince. And I. (Pleafantly.)

Child. And I. (Greedily.)

Peter. And I. (Very greedily.)

Hermit. Here is an olio, cramm'd with all that's nice.

(With an air of liberality.)

Peter. Excellent! Sir, I'll touch it in a trice.

(He can fearce contain his agitation, and fnatches the dish with
the utmost impetuofity, and fpills fome of the gravy.)

Hermit. Suppofe you add fome falad to your falmon?
Prince. With all my heart; and eke a bit of gammon.
(With an air of eafe and indifference.)

Peter. Of all inventions cooking is the best *.

(Extremely felf-important and confequential.)

All other science is a mere dull jest.

Princefs. True, Peter, true; the tempting fricaffee
And rare ragout is juft the thing for me.

(Smacking her lips, whilft the water runs from her mouth.)
Peter. This grifkin will eat nice with four crout +.

Hermit.

Ha! what is that which makes fo dread a rout?
(Extremely agitated and alarmed.)

(Guns and fhrieks are heard.)

We have juft received an order from the L-d C-n's office to prevent our inferting any more of the tragedy. We fuppofe an application has been made to the above-mentioned quarter by the managers of Drury Lane. They wish to aftonifl and furprise the public, and therefore the tranflator cannot venture to oblige our readers any further: he is very forry for the disappointment, and is merely permitted to add, that each fucceeding fcene and act rifes in pathos, dignity, nature, and fplendour of stage effect. In the feventh act there is -but we fhall forget ourselves again.

Many of our first-rate fcholars, including the Lord Mayor and court of aldermen, are of that opinion.

What an exquifite touch of nature is this! the mentioning four crout reminds you that the fcene is in Germany. Upon the whole, it must be confeffed that this is one of the most favoury fcenes that ever greeted the eyes, ears, and noles of a British audience. Befides, it must perforce be adinirably performed, as moft of our performers are perfectly au fait upon these occafions.

VOL. IV.

C

PANOP

PANOPTICON PRISONS.

[From the Morning Chronicle.]

MR. EDITOR,

THE

HE fcheme of a Panopticon prifon, upon a deliberate view of all its parts, I am free to fay is the most liberal plan of which this enlightened age has to boaft.

When I fay liberal, I allude to the very fair offers of the ingenious projector to Government; and Government, Sir, will be juftly blamed for having loft all its economical propenfities, if fuch a plan is rafhly rejected. It is no fmall thing to confider that by this plan felons may be moralized twenty-five per cent. cheaper, and better, than by the bulkish scheme of reformation fo long practifed to little purpose. Nor, Sir, is it a fmall thing to reflect, that in an age when religion, morality, and focial order are in great demand, we know at length where to go to the cheapest market; and that while our rents are raifed, our taxes multiplied, and all the neceffaries of life at an exorbitant price, we can yet fay that virtue keeps low, and that morals may be had very reasonable. Far otherwife has been the cafe lately. Indeed we fcarcely fee any men stand up for morality and focial order who are not men of property; and we have witneffed many inftances in which our minifters have been obliged to fupport the virtue of their friends when tottering, by pensions, finecures, and other buttreffes.

A fecond inftance of our ingenious projector's liberality is his engaging "to furnish the prisoners with a conftant fupply of wholesome food, not limited in quantity, but adequate to each man's defires." On this fubject I wish to fay a few words. I remember last year, that an enlightened philofopher published a pamphlet (which I am forry to fay our graceless reviewers laughed at), in which he proved that all virtue and vice depend

depend upon our food. I beg leave, therefore, to recommend this author as an affiftant to the Panopticon reform, for which he feems in every refpect qualified. According to this fyftem, the wholesomeness of the prifoners' food must be regulated: for I can have no doubt, after reading the pamphlet, that most of the Old Bailey vices arise from irregularity of appetite. It is easy to conceive that French cookery will incline a man very much to fedition, and that things of an opening nature may lay the foundation for housebreaking. The Spectator fancied that he faw gouts, droplies, and fevers, lurking among the dishes of a plentiful table. I have lefs difficulty in feeing highway robberies, petty larceny, and even forgeries, skulking under the covers of fome luxurious treats. When, however, it is once known that there is an intimate connexion between the ftomach and the heart, care may be taken that no particle of felony shall enter into the diet of Mr. Bentham's pupils, that no treafon fhall be ferved up in a tureen, and no fedition fwallowed in the form of foup. It must also be a facred condition with the market contractor, that he fend in no joints but what are far from every fpecies of corruption, and that in his choice of poultry and of fith, he be guided by no other confideration than tenderness of confcience: drinks, likewife, must be examined by the fame moral criterion, though here I confefs there will be fome difficulty; for if the governor does not lay in his own wine, he will be very much puzzled to find an honeft bottle!

A third instance of liberality is the projector's engagement "to pay a fum for every one that dies." If Government does not accept this, I don't know what they will accept. There is a novelty in the offer that muit ftrike every man. None but a German prince ever contracted to be paid for dead foldiers. But the liberality of the prefent offer fo plainly fpeaks for itself, that it would be fuperfluous to fay more on the

C 2

fubject.

:

fubject. All I hope is, that generous conduct on the one hand will produce generous conduct on the other, that our courts will fend no convicts to the Panopticon but who are in good health, and that no person will pick a pocket, if he is at all in a bad way. It may be alfo neceffary, in order to fecure the projector, that his pupils fhould be obliged to pafs through the purgatory of an hofpital before they arrive at the blifs of a Panopticon.

The only other inftance I shall mention of extreme liberality, and which certainly exceeds all the reft, is, the offer to pay a fum of money for every perfon who shall commit a felony after his discharge." If any man can contemplate this offer without fentiments of admiration, I would ask him what would be the case were a clergyman to be obliged to give fecurity that none of his flock fhould commit any of their old fins? or if a phyfician who had cured his patient of a severe difeafe, were obliged to be refponfible for his health ever after? or if a lawyer who had brought a quarrelfome fellow cleverly through a vexatious fuit, fhould be obliged to return his fees if he ever got into a scrape again? Truly, Mr. Editor, I know not how to speak of this part of the fcheme in language adequate to its novelty and merit. The English tongue is a poor beggarly fund in fuch cafes. And yet all this is a neceffary confequence of the Panopticon fyftem: it is a part without which it would be imperfect; and what is more, it will not be attended with fo much difficulty and risk, as in the first burst of our admiration we are apt to suppose. The whole Panopticon fyftem is founded on what its author calls "the fentiment of an invifible omniprefcence." Now, Sir, it is only giving the prifoners their discharge and this fentiment together, and the bufinefs is done. The most hardened apoftate to his old ways will inftantly draw back his

hand