THEATRES AND MANAGERS.
TIIE advocates for the Repeal of the Union of Drury Lane and Covent Garden Theatres, will not be sorry to learn that the sys- tem of charlatanism practised to maintain the unnatural conjunc- tion of the rival houses, is on the decline, at the important period when the town is more crowded than it has been for several years before. The judiciously-directed exertions made by the Manager of the King's Theatre have gained him the ascendancy ; and till the Monopolist of the British Drama fulfil the conditions of the pri- vileges vested in him as Lessee of the National Theatres, we must rejoice at the fairly-won triumph of his foreign rival. After having secured the success of his season at the Opera-house, by engaging the most brilliant Italian company we recollect to have seen in London, Monsieur has been successfully exerting himself in improving the French performances under his management at the Olympic. The most important addition that has been made to the company since our former notice, is M. L %FOND, of the Vaudeville Theatre in Paris; a most excellent and versatile. comedian, and—what is still more rare on the Parisian stage as well as on our own—he is an admirable representative of the polished gentleman. The indefatigable manager performs in nearly every piece that is produced ; and acquits himself so well in every character, that we can scarcely persuade ourselves acting is not the sole pursuit of his life. Yet we find, that, in addition to his Italian and French speculations, 1:c is about to introduce a German Operatic CoMpany at the King's Theatre. Advocates as we are of the " reciprocity system" in theatricals as well as in every other branch of literature, art, or commerce,—and recollecting the abrupt dismissal from Hamburg, that the late English dramatic visitants received in consequence of the jealousy with which their success was viewed by the German actors,—we are, nevertheless, not disposed to retort the unhand- some treatment our countrymen received, on the company which is about to appear before us, so long as their representations are con- fined to a theatre appropriated to foreign performances. But, now that one English company, not more efficient than used to be employed at each of our Great Theatres, is made to (10 the work of both, in order that the money saved by this unworthy con- trivance may be lavished on the most meretricious and worthless of outlandish exhibitions, every Englishman should (as his fore- fathers did) raise his voice against the employment of a single foreign artist in those buildings, which were exclusively privi- leged to be san4tuaries of the authors and actors of our native stage. We advise every lover of the drama to become an agitator in the good cause, before a system destructive to the national literature, morals, and manners—so far as these may be effected by any thing dune in theatres—become too deeply rooted to be overthrown.
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