contradiction with his alms-demanding occupation. But it was soon discovered that the individual in question was a young man of some ability, who had been a victim to dramatic composition. He had supplied the Pavilion and other minor theatres with melo-dramas and other pieces at so much a head, either singly or collectively, on the most moderate charges, which, at most, if we are not mistaken, amounted to the sum of two guineas, while many were paid for at a much lower rate.

And here it will not be irrelevant to say a word concerning the "minor theatres;" concerning the hardships and persecutions of which the public compassion has been excited a great deal more than they really deserve. The stream of sympathy has indeed flowed in favour of the said oppressed Minors, and thoughtless people have espoused their cause, from looking upon them as the weaker party, without troubling themselves much about the merits or the strict justice of the case. What is the chief grievance of which their lessees and proprietors complain? Simply, that they are not allowed to represent the master-pieces of Shakspeare and our best authors with a company of actors, whose capabilities of performing those dramas are quite upon a par with those of the audiences to whom they play of understanding and relishing the beauties of those productions. All the minor theatres in London are now under the absolute controul of an actor-manager; and, highly as we may appreciate the histrionic abilities of these gentlemen, we cannot persuade ourselves that their judgment is either a safe or infallible one in questions of literature. Their theatrical experience, certainly, may be of use in forming an opinion, but we apprehend that something more is required to entitle a man to sit in judgment on dramatic compositions. Now-a-days, however, an actor who has been fortunate enough to save a little money, feels a craving for the honours and charms of stage-management; if he succeeds in getting a theatre, from that moment, mirabile dictu, he becomes (as if by magical process) endowed with every sort of requisite necessary for the undertaking; and it is not long before we hear from those oracles, the journals, that such and such a theatre is conducted with great respectability in what this respectability consists we cannot possibly divine. Is it in having a poor scribbler to supply the theatre with pieces at thirty shillings a-week? or in the system of shilling orders? or in the behaviour of the audience? or in the merits of the dramas produced, and the actors who perform them?

The Haymarket and the English Opera we do not reckon among the Minors.

The truth must out. The greater number of these interesting "minors" are nothing but a singular medley of noise and confusion-a hot-bed for prostitutes, pick-pockets, and bad characters of all descriptions-an arena for the bandying of oaths and indecent jokes-a mixture of drunkenness and the most offensive exhibitions; the whole seasoned with a compound of the most offensive smells. There are exceptions to this remark: two or three theatres are patronized by a more respectable audience, and are frequently visited by the higher ranks; but, in this, as in every thing else, fashion has exerted her capricious power, for, without wishing to speak against the merits of the extolled pieces acted at these theatres, we think it very problematical if the greater part of them would escape condemnation at Drury Lane or Covent Garden.

This general decline of the drama, as we have already stated, has given rise to much speculation, and various reasons have been assigned to account for it. Every one knows that the patent theatres have been ruinous concerns for a long succession of years. Every new lessee is compelled to pay an enormous price for the pleasures of management; and year after year we are told that the want of encouragement is such that nothing can prevent those tottering establishments from closing their doors. Among the reasons assigned for this neglect of the patent theatres are the following: 1st. The late hours, not only among the upper ranks, but the middling classes of society. 2d. The growing taste of the public for reading, and the establishment of clubs, which almost supersede the necessity for theatrical pastimes. 3d. The inferior quality of the dramas produced, and the unsatisfactory manner in which they are represented. 4th. The enormous size of these theatres. 5th. The high prices of admission. There can be little doubt that all these causes operate to a certain extent; but it would be an idle attempt to analyze the exact operation of each when the whole system is bad and conducive to inevitable ruin. Besides these we have already mentioned, there are other reasons to which this melancholy state of things is to be ascribed, and among them none exercises greater weight than the discredit into which the theatres have fallen among a vast number of families, who are kept away simply from motives of self-respect and the dread of contamination of their younger members from the scenes which are nightly exhibited there among the audience portion.

It is impossible to shut one's eyes to the fact that the upper parts of the patent theatres are admirably adapted-it would perhaps be more correct to say that they are expressly calculated to answer the purposes of a market for prostitution.

Connected with this is the half-price admission, which is the signal for a number of drunken clerks and dissipated characters rushing into the theatre for a very different object than witnessing the play. These half-price gentry are become an intolerable nuisance. It is quite useless to pay any attention to the performance if you unfortunately chance to be near them. We put it fairly to the managers, if the money derived from this sort of play-goers and from the pitiable, unfortunate creatures who come nightly to exhibit their marketable charms, can in any way compensate for the loss of that profit which would necessarily accrue from the attendance of the numerous families who are now kept away by this disgraceful abuse? With what face can they presume to call the stage a "school for morals," with such exhibitions staring one in the face? "Necessity" has been always pleaded by ruined or bankrupt managers for the continuance of a system which their better sense condemns. We say it advisedly, that, unless this monstrous nuisance is fairly abolished, the long toleration of which in this "most moral and christian country" fully sanctions the charge of hypocrisy which it has brought upon us from our less straightlaced continental neighbours, among whom no such abuse vails, the theatre will never become the habitual resort of the respectable middle classes. The half-price ought also to be abolished there, and another and more equitable scale in the prices of admission adopted. Nothing can be more absurd than to demand the same price for the second tier of boxes as for the dress-circle. The profuse distribution of orders ought also to be stopped, or at least restricted within reasonable bounds. Reduce your prices, but still preserve certain localities sufficiently high, for the accommodation of those with whom cheapness is synonymous with vulgarity.

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But perhaps, were all these reforms made in the patent theatres they would never become profitable, unless they were relieved from the enormous weight of their personal establishments, which are generally twice too expensive both in the number of, and the scale of remuneration to, their actors. To effect this, a system of rigid retrenchment ought to be adopted, the very opposite to that of profusion, which it has been the fashion of late years to incur. Managers have been playing the desperate game of almost ruined gamesters, who double their stakes and hazard their all, with a view to recover their losses. Actors must lower their pretensions; high as their talents may be, there is no earthly reason why, at a time that every other class of the community is compelled to make sacrifices, they alone should be exempted from the general rule. It is a fact, not less curious than true, that they are far better paid now when nothing but ruin hangs over

the stage, than they were in the most prosperous days of the drama. These remarks are not prompted by any feelings of hostility towards the actors, with several of whom we have been long connected by ties of personal friendship,-but, on the contrary, by zeal for the prosperity of the drama, with which their interests are necessarily connected. Without theatres they cannot live, and theatres cannot be supported much longer on the present system.

With regard to the pretended growing distaste of the public for the most rational and intellectual of all amusements, we cannot be made converts to the belief of its existence. At all events, we cannot affront the taste and good sense of our countrymen so far as to suppose that this vast metropolis does not contain a sufficient number of men and women competent and willing to enjoy the beauties of a good tragedy, comedy, or farce, or that a theatre properly conducted for such purpose would fail in obtaining success. What may be the result of the present crisis in theatrical affairs we are not presumptuous enough to foretell; but there is one ray of comfort and hope in the midst of the gloom which it inspires-matters cannot possibly be worse; they must either end in dissolution or lead to improvement.

ART. III.-Reise zum Ararat. Von Dr. Friedrich Parrot. (Journey to Mount Ararat. By Dr. F. Parrot.) 8vo. THOUGH this visit to Mount Ararat was undertaken nearly six years ago, and some particulars of the results have at different times transpired, the full account of it, contained in the work before us, was published but a few months since at Berlin.

Twenty years ago Professor Parrot, being on the summit of the mountain Kasbeg, in the Caucasus, beheld in the distant horizon a lofty, isolated, snow-capped summit, which he presumed to be the silvery head of Ararat. From that time he had constantly cherished the wish to undertake a scientific expedition to this mountain, and if possible to reach its summit, which had from time immemorial been deemed inaccessible. But the difficulties of such an undertaking might be considered as nearly insuperable, so long as Ararat was on the frontiers of two great powers, both inimical to Christianity. An important and unexpected change had, however, taken place. The peace of Turkmanschai, between Russia and Persia, was concluded in 1828, the dominion of Christianity extended beyond the Araxes, and Ararat became the boundary of Russia towards Persia and

Turkey; but the predatory Koords still infested the country towards the north and south, when war broke out between Russia and the Porte. The Russian troops crossed the Araxes, and occupied the pashalik of Bayazeed, by which the roving tribes of banditti were driven away; and this favourable opportunity revived the Professor's desire to realize his long-cherished plan. Passing over all the preliminary details, we merely premise that it was arranged that the Professor should be accompanied by Mr. Behagel, a pupil of Professor Engelhardt's, as mineralogist; Messrs. Hehn and Schiemann, two medical students of the University of Moscow; and a young astronomer, Mr. Federow, who was studying in the Imperial School at St. Petersburg. The Emperor not only granted his consent, but highly approved the plan, and ordered one of the class called feld-jägers, often employed as couriers, to accompany the party on the whole journey. The expedition was recommended to the special protection of Count Paskewitsch.

They set out on the 20th of March, 1829, which was later in the season than might have been wished. As our chief object is the ascent of Mount Ararat, we shall not dwell much on the particulars of the journey. The Professor had intended to go to the Caspian Sea, in order to obtain by actual survey a confirmation of his opinion that the Caspian and Euxine were once united; but in this plan he was disappointed.

We shall make a few detached extracts from the Journal previous to the attempt to ascend the mountain.

"At Wladikaukas we met with the Persian prince Chosref-Mirza, one of the 380 male children and grand-children of the Kadschar Feth Ali, the reigning Shah of Persia, who already in the year 1826 had eighty-one sons and fifty-three daughters, and who is not the first who has had twenty members added to his family in the course of one week. Wladikaukas still continues as heretofore the most important military central station, whither all those flee for refuge, who after dangerous journeys have escaped the pursuit of the Tscherkessians and Kabardinians ; and in the environs of this place the old rude mode of life still prevails, so that even the shortest excursion, unless under military escort, is attended with danger, and for this reason strictly prohibited. A short time ago, ninety-five horses were carried off close to the fortress, and, during our stay of only two days, we saw, quite unexpectedly from the walls of the fortress, a large body of Ossetes settled here under Russian protection, who, without any assistance from the military, were driving home before them, with music and loud acclamations, amid the waving of caps and the firing of musquetry, a flock of 600 sheep, which they had taken from their neighbours, the Tschetschenzes, by way of retaliation for their having carried off 400 of their oxen."

On the arrival of the travellers at Tiflis, on the 6th of June,

VOL. XV. NO. XXX.

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