ALTHOUGH the Benefils have engrossed nearly all the nights of the past month, this Theatre has not been without novelties, and perhaps there has not been a more amusing Farce introduced during the present season, at Covent Garden, than Cent. per Cent. or The Masquerade; which, in defiance of the improbability of the plot, and the broadness of some of the allusions, has been favourably received. Its main incidents arise chiefly from the scheme of the wife of an old usurer to give a grand masquerade in the house of her husband, without his knowledge, and which she hopes to accomplish, after she has failed in her attempts to send him into the country, by the aid of an impudent Irish empiric and a draught of his tincture. At this masquerade no less than three pair of lovers design to carry off their mistresses to Gretna-green; the first of whom consist of his own daughter and a gay spendthrift deep in his debt; the second of his elderly sister (Mrs. Davenport) and the Irish ruffian (Mr. Connor), who are appropriately habited as a shepherdess and a Cupid; and the third are a young lady and gentleman of no value at all but to fill up the scene. Unhappily, however, Mr. Pennyfarthing (Farren), the usurer, cheats the doctor; awakes to be astonished and "perplexed in the extreme," and finally mingles with the maskers, locks up the supper-room, and retaliates his own amazement on the company. The Miser causes a report to be circulated that he is very ill; the Doctor thinks this no reason for postponing the supper; but the young lover insists that no dish shall be tasted till his safety is announced; on which Mr. Pennyfarthing gives him his daughter, though he had that morning attempted to arrest him for 6001. Notwithstanding these absurdities, there are two or three as pleasant scenes in this Farce as we have lately witnessed in any piece of the kind.

Since our last number an event has occurred, which we were among the first to predicate would prove most successful, we mean the appearance of Miss F. H. KELLY, in the character of Belvidera in Otway's affecting tra gedy of Venice Preserved, which she performed for her benefit. The Public were so eager to testify their ap probation of this young lady's Juliet by an early attendance at her Benefit,

that the pit was full in the extreme before the rising of the curtain; and more than one hundred applicants were obliged to leave the Theatre for want of places in the boxes, before the first act was over; for there was not a single place vacant, except the back seats in the slips, which were opened on this occasion; a circumstance almost unheard of at a benefit. The boxes were filled with the most numerous and highly fashionable company witnessed at this Theatre, since the last visit of His Majesty; and the cordiality with which Miss Kelly was received, and the unequivocal testimonies of unbounded applause from an elegant, enlightened, and unbiassed audience, have securely seated her on the vacant throne of Melpomene. The public are now perfectly convinced of the powers of this young actress; and the sneers and malignant aspersions of theatrical envy, which, in the absurdity of its folly, asserted that she was unable to perform any character, but that of Juliet, now recoil on their authors.

Although evidently labouring under considerable agitation, occasioned by the singularity of her situation, which might in some measure be considered a second first-appearance; though conscious that all her future expectations of fame and fortune depended on that evening's result; though almost oppressed with gratitude for the high estimation in which the public held her, as evinced by the unparallelled overflow of the house; and impressed with a strong sense of the injustice which she had experienced in almost every department of the theatre; and almost sinking under the timidity and gentleness of her disposition, heightened by her extreme youth and comparatively slight experience in the business of the stage; this amiable and accomplished young lady surmounted all the difficulties of her situation, and her performance that evening has fixed her in public opinion as the first actress of the day. Miss Kelly has performed Belvidera a second time, when she even improved on her first performance. "Wherever she resigned herself to her own feelings and gave vent, with a semblance of artless simplicity, to that fond and devoted tenderness which constitutes the very essence of this character, she was irresistably delightful. The softened tones of her voice came to the heart with all the

charm of pathetic harmony, and found an echo there to convince us that a stronger mind than that of Jaffier might have been strayed from its purpose by such a Belvidera. Nor was she less successful in the passages of more frantic emotion. The approximations to derangement in her last scene but one, when Jaffier tears himself from her arms "for ever," and the desperation of anguish that drives her to the brink of insanity, were as effective as we ever witnessed." The paroxysms of that derangement, in the concluding scene, were exhibited in a style admirably chaste and effective. We consider Miss F. H. Kelly to be an actress of more native genius than her

far-famed predecessor, Miss O'Neil, who certainly had the advantage in age and experience. It is said, and perhaps with truth, that Miss O'Neil excelled Miss Kelly in the declamatory parts. This is but a meagre and very equivocal superiority, for, at the same time, it is admitted that Miss Kelly excels Miss O'Neil in delicacy, tenderness, and unaffected bursts of native feeling. We admit the justness of this criticism, well knowing that declamation, which is the cold fruit of study, may be easily acquired by experience: delicacy, sensibility, warm and tender bursts of feeling, never!nascuntur non fiunt.

We have the pleasure to announce the re-opening of this favourite theatre, so well adapted to the display of histrionic talent, being neither too large nor too small. We may trace the commencement of the decay of the regular drama to the period, when Drury-lane and Covent-garden theatres assumed the dimensions almost of Roman amphitheatres, from which time they have been principally devoted to that for which they are most fitted, gorgeous spectacles. It is true that Drury-lane has undergone almost incredible improvement in this respect previous to the opening of the present season, and we can now bear and see with tolerable precision. The unambitious size of the Haymarket theatre, and the genteel company that patronize it, will always render it one of the best schools for actors in the metropolis. The theatre has been re-touched in the painting, and the most scrupulous attention seems to have been bestowed upon its neatness and convenience, we therefore have no doubt that it will prove a very attractive place of amusement during the time the winter theatres are closed; especially as the following performers are engaged whom the public have long sanctioned with unequivocal applause. Messrs. Liston,Terry, Cooper, and Harley; Mesdames Chatterley, Or. ger, and Madame Vestris; Misses Pa. ton, Chester, Booth, and Love.

The first piece represented this season was a delightful little drama in one act, taken from an old play, and enti tled Summer Flies; or, The Will for the Deed. Among the novelties selected by the Manager for the present season, is Mr. Vining, from the Bath theatre, who appeared as Young Rapid in the droll and varied Comedy of A Cure for the Heart Acke. The ap

plause which he received must have fully answered his own expectations, for there is always some mixture of fear with the most sanguine hopes, and there was no unpleasant mixture with the applause he elicited. His performance of this character is a very clever and lively piece of acting.

Another new piece in one act has been produced under the title of Mrs. Smith; or, the Wife and the Widow. The jest on which it turns is rather a stale one-the commonness of the name of Smith. Two ladies, each of whom has a legitimate title to the honours of the name, occupy apartments in the same boarding-house; one of them (Mrs. Orger) is the wife of Mr. Smith, whom Liston personates; and the other (Mrs. Chatterley) is the widow of Mr. Smith deceased, and quite willing to resign her name for the more distinguishing appellation of Wentworth.The husband and the lover talk each of his Mrs. Smith in such a manner as to excite each other's jealousy. The ladies are accused to their utter asto. nishment, and the widow's uncle is on the point of becoming second to the adversary of his nephew, when the two Mrs. Smiths appear at once, solve the mystery, and conclude the piece. The equivoke is cleverly sustained.

In the Marriage of Figaro Miss Johnson, from the York theatre, made her first appearance as the Countess. She possesses the advantage of a fine person, and an air and manner much further removed from vulgarity than is usual with actresses, who have undergone the ordeal of country theatres. As a singer she will perhaps never rank very high, but there are gleams of archness and indications of sense and spirit in her acting, which may render her a useful acquisition.

DURING the month the Marriage Act has been discussed in limine by the Upper House, and several salutary alterations have been made in its enactments, and some of its most objectionable provisions have been got rid of. The want of the consent of parents or guardians, or the non-age of the parties, was enacted to be no ground of nullity-by a division of 28 to 22. The publication of bands was continued by the Committee, as well as the prohibition of marriages within the degrees of consanguinity contained in the table published in 1563.

The Marquis of Lansdown moved the second reading of the bill for relieving dissenters from the obligation of celebrating their marriages according to the rites and tenets of the Established Church. The bill was ably supported by Lords Ellenborough and Calthorp, and opposed by several of the bishops, and was lost by a division of 27 to 21.

On the 19th the Duke of Devonshire, in a speech not often surpassed in either House, called the attention of government to the dreadful state of Ireland. His Grace very pertinently observed, that in a county where the laws were despised by all the lower orders, and considered as lawsof oppression rather than of protection; in a country where the lower and the upper classes of society were invariably in a state of hostility against each other, and where the poor are divided amongst themselves and in a state bordering upon barbarity, it behoved a govern ment to be diffident of their system, and to inquire seriously into such an extraordinary and alarming state of things. His Grace forcibly argued, that during the existence of the present laws which degraded the Catholic, or in other terms, the majority of the people, it was impossible for the go. vernment to pursue that system of equal justice which could alone tranquillize the sister kingdom. His Grace with great moderation, but with great force stigmatized the present measures of administration, as measures of trimming and of paltry indecision, which would irritate the one faction without pacifying the great body of the people, He observed, that it was absolutely necessary either to adapt the government to the general sense of the people, or to strengthen the orange faction to a degree that would enable it to rule the majority of the country by terror and by force. He concluded, by moving several resolutions, which de

clared in substance, that the miseries and frightful anarchy prevalent in Ireland, arose from inherent defects in the system of government, and that it was the duty of the House to inquire into the means of effecting a permanent amelioration. The motion was supported by Lords Clifden, Caledon, Gosford, King, and Darnley, by the Duke of Leinster, by the Marquis of Lansdown, and by Lord Holland, in a most eloquent speech. Lords Liverpool and Maryborough, and the Earl of Limeric opposed the motion, which was eventually lost by a division of 59 to 105. This very unusual number of opponents to government in the Upper House, evinces the momentous consequences attached by the peerage to the present system pursued by his Majesty's go vernment towards the Irish, and nothing can more completely establish the patriotism and the enlightened views of the Duke of Devonshire, than the reflection, that of all individuals he would personally suffer the most by the tythe commutation bill, and by the system of measures that he so strongly recommends.

In the House of Commons the inquiry into the conduct of the Sheriff of Dublin has been brought to a termination. The criminal, if not blasphemous oaths and proceedings of the Orange Society were revealed to the House. The oath of the Orangeman makes his allegiance to the king and government conditional, upon his approval of his Majesty's measures, and is therefore treasonable to the highest degree. If one religious faction may take such oaths, all may take them, and we need not say that no state of society could exist if every member of the community were allowed to bind himself by an oath not to "defend or support" the sovereign, but on the coincidence of his measures with the individual's religious notions. The whole of this investigation proves, that the laws are partially and iniquitously administered in the sister kingdom, and that from this mal-administration of the laws arises that spirit of faction, and of furious hostility which renders Ireland a scene of rapine and desolation. With respect, however, to the charge against the Sheriff, it is understood that further proceedings will be staid, owing to the indisposition of the member who was to have made a motion upon the subject. To recapitulate this extraordinary, and perhaps unprecedented proceeding, we must remind

our readers that it originated in a serious charge of perverting the laws made by the majority of the House against the Attorney General of Ireland, who defended himself by pleading that his conduct had been rendered necessary by the extreme corruption of the Sheriff of Dublin. The House therefore instituted an inquiry into the conduct of the Sheriff; his guilt, and what is of more consequence, the general mal-administration of the laws is established by evidence, which has cost the country a large sum of money, and which has consumed a valuable portion of the session; and yet, after the termination of the evidence, the whole proceedings are dropt at a tangeut. We are disposed to dwell upon this question, as it forms a remarkable feature in our domestic government. A question, somewhat analogous to the preceding, was discussed in the House on the 4th of June. We allude to the mode of empanneling juries in England. Those members who asserted the present practice of empaneling juries to be corrupt, supported their case by a quotation of several very strong instances of packing juries, and they argued with great force that the Clerk of the Crown could not possibly persist in a mode of empanneling juries which left the nomination of every juryman at his sole and arbitary command; but from some sinister motives, that the Clerk of the Crown having his appointment, his means of support, and his prospects dependant upon the government, could not be impartial in his selection but upon the supposition of his possessing more virtue than has ever been attributed to mankind; virtue sufficient to make individuals prefer abstract right and strict duty to their interests and inclinations: they therefore urged that juries should be chosen from the freeholders book, by ballot, or by other means that would give accused persons a chance of being judged by the aver. age state of knowledge, and of sentiments amongst their fellow-citizens. The question was concluded, by Mr. Williams promising to bring in a bill to enact, that special jurors should in future be elected by ballot.

Lord Nugent brought before the House a proposition to place the Catholics of England and Scotland on an equal footing with those of Ireland. Mr. Peel objected to the benefits being extended to the Catholics of Scotland, as such a measure would be incon sistent with several of the conditions of the Act of Union, but he fully agreed that the elective franchise and elegibility to the office of magistrate ought

to be extended to the English Catholics, but with respect to the propriety of admitting Roman Catholics to higher offices, he would reserve his opinion to a future stage of the question. The House was unanimous upon the two first points, and Dr. Phillimore and Mr. Brougham were appointed to frame a bill to that effect.

Lord Archibald Hamilton brought forward a motion relative to the imperfect state of the representation in Scotland. He stated, that in Scotland representation bore no relation either to property or to numbers. Rich proprietors might have a vote by granting copyhold property of one shilling value per annum to each tenant. That in all Scotland there were only 2,889 electors, his Lordship himselt possessed numerous votes in five counties, without owning an acre of land in any, and he might do the same in every county of Scotland. The majority of Scotch voters were situated in a manner simiJar to his Lordship. Some Scotch counties had only nine voters, whilst none had more than 240. His Lordship after exposing the scandalous corruption to which such absurdities gave birth, concluded by moving resolutions, pledging the House to take the subject into consideration. The House divided upon the motion, ayes 117, noes 152. — On the succeeding day a charge of unjust and oppressive conduct was made against the Lord Advocate of Scotland in the discharge of his official duties, and the House divided, 102 against 96, leaving the Lord Advocate a majority of only six.

The able and eloquent member for Lincoln, Mr. Williams, brought before the House a motion upon the present state of the Court of Chancery. He animadverted upon the vexatious and ruinous delays in the proceedings of the Court, and upon the indecision of the Chancellor's character. In 1813, when the Vice-Chancellor's Court was about to be established, there were 141 Chancery cases in arrear, with 61 exceptions; 16 pleas and demurrers, and 41 re-hearings; and now the arrear cases were increased by 20, and the exceptions were 64 in the year 1822; in Michaelmas term 1822, the pleas and demurrers were more than dou bled, whilst the forty-one re-hearings had been increased to 101, and whilst the Vice-Chancellor in eight years had decided 14,560, the Chancellor had decided only 5,155. He then went into the detail of several cases, to shew the expense, and absolute ruin inflicted upon unfortunate people, by the dilatory proceedings in the Chancery

Court, and he expatiated upon the proverbial delinquency of the Court in point of fees and procrastination. The motion was supported by Mr. M. A. Taylor, Mr. Denman, Mr. Scarlet, and by Mr. Brougham with considerable power; and it was opposed by the Attorney General, the Solicitor General, and by Mr. Wetherell. After an adjourned debate, the House divided, for the motion 89, against it 174.

Mr. Creevy called the attention of the house to the application of the fund, raised by the duty of four and a half per cent. upon five of the West India Islands, Barbadoes, St. Kitts, Moutseratt, Nevis, and Antigua. He observed that this fund had been imposed upon these Islands, for the purpose of their defence and of local improvements, and that its application to other objects was a breach of faith, and a violation of honesty, but nevertheless that pensions were secured upon the fund greater than its whole amount, and the deficiency had been made good by a seizure of sums from the Droits of Admiralty. He instanced pensions of 10001, a year each to two of the King's Sisters, the Duchess of Gloster and the Princess of Hombourgh; pensions of 5001. per annum each to the five natural daughters of the Duke of Clarence; pensions of 6007. per annum to each of Mr. Canning's sisters; and a pension to Mrs. Huskisson. Mr. Brougham expatiated upon the extreme distress of the West India Islands, and upon the strong injustice and cruelty of making the people in the West Indies pay for the support of ladies whose names they might otherwise have never heard of. The House negatived Mr. Creevy's motion by a division of 103 to 46.

Mr. Hume then brought forward a motion upon the expenses of the Coronation. He stated that the government had obtained the sanction of that House to the Coronation, by laying before it an estimate of 100,000l. and that the expenses had come to 238,000l. He then animadverted in strong terms upon several items in the accouuts, and particularly upon a charge of 111,000l., for fitting up Westminster Abbey and Westminster Hall; 24,7007 for his Majesty's robe, 90007. for the hire of the Crown, another charge of 50,0001. for fitting up Westminster Hall, and numerous charges of a most extraordinary nature. Mr. Hume's motion was lost by a division of 65 to 110. He then went into the Civil Contingency List, and after making many strong observations upon several of the items, he complained of the great

increase of charge, under the bead of Diplomatic Services, and drew a comparison between the expenses of this service, and what was incurred in 1792, the year which government had avowedly taken as the basis of their calculation. Mr. Canning entered into a defence of this excess, and assured the House, that the total charge of 252,2657. was within the sum voted for this service by the House in 1816. Upon a division Mr. Hume's motion was lost.

Although it will be seen by the preceding matter, that the parliamentary business of the month has embraced a variety of measures relating to our domestic policy, it is obvious, that the division upon each question indicates a continuance of our government in precisely the same principles of policy by which they have always been guided. We regret the evil effect likely to be produced upon the public mind, by the exposure of the expenses of the coronation, and of the pensions secured upon the four and a half per cent West India fund. We trust that the government will themselves meliorate the Court of Chancery, which, instead of being a fountain of justice, is a dreadful infliction upon a great portion of the community. One material feature in the parliamentary history of the month is the disposition evinced by the House to concede several important points to the English Catholics, and to restore to them their elective franchise, with the privilege of holding commissions of Justice of the Peace. We wish the same mild spirit of concession could be evinced by government towards the Irish, especially as the administration is strong enough to carry any measures against that faction which would reduce their country to a desert, for the sake of gratifying their religious bigotry. The most important debate, in relation to the liberty of the subject, was that upon the packing of juries by the Clerk of the Crown Office. It ought to be the effort of every government to approach as near as possible to the highest standard of moral and political excellence, and we need not observe, that a practice which un necessarily places any great public officer in a continual state of contest between his interests and his oath of office, and thereby endangers the very fountain of justice, ought to be reprobated by every person having the interests of religion and of human bappiness at heart. We cannot but regret the fate of Lord Archibald Hamilton's motion upon the system of representation in Scotland. The represen