DEATHS. Feb. 16. At Shaldon Cottage, near Deal. Capt. E. Kittoe, RN. 20. At Chelsea, Lady Lydia Turnour, daughter of the late Earl, and of Ann, Countess of Winterton, and grand-daughter to Thomas Lord Archer. 21. At Hertbury, near Gloucester, in her 47th year, Catherine, lady of Robert Canning, Esq. of Hinlip, Worcester; and grand-daughter and co-heiress of the late Sir Walter Abingdon Compton, Bart. 22. At Holbeach, Lincolnshire, Jacob Sturton, Esq. aged 75. 23. Miss Lucy Burch, only sister of J. R. Burch, Esq. of Brandon, Suffolk, late MP. for Thetford. -In Fladyer-street, Westminster, Mrs. Sheldon, relict of Ralph Sheldon, Esq. MP. 24. In George-street, Portman-square, Lady Laforey, relict of Vice-Admiral Sir John Laforey, Bart. 27. In consequence of a fit of apoplexy with which he was seized while walking in his garden, the preceding Sunday, the Rev. Charles Talbot, Dean of Salisbury, youngest son of the late Hou, and Rev. Dr. Talbot. At Frome House, in Dorsetshire, Nicholas Gould, Esq. of one of the oldest families of that county, and brother of the late Countess of Stafford. March 1. Aged 25, Sophia, wife of W. S. G. Davies, surgeon, RN. 2. In his 64th year, Charles Drummond, Esq. Banker, Charing-Cross, after undergoing an ope ration for the stone three days previously. -At her residence, Stoke Cottage, near Guildford, aged 84, Lady Burnaby, relict of Admiral Sir W. Burnaby, Bart. of Broughton Hall, Oxfordshire. 3. At her house, in Stratton-street, Mrs. Craufurd, relict of Major-General Cutlin Craufurd. -At Rolls Park, after a few days' illness, and after having just completed his 21st year, Wm. Harvey, Esq. only surviving son of Admiral Sir Eliot Harvey, MP. for Essex. 4. At Bath, Isabella, relict of Admiral Arthur Philip. 5. In Burton Crescent, aged 29, Maria Hannah Isabella, wife of John Betham, Esq. late Police Magistrate and Coroner of Madras. 6. At his house, in Graftou-street, Jasper Vaux, Esq. in his 56th year. 8. In Lower Brook-street, Sir William Duff Gordon, Bart. many years Representative in Parliament for the city of Worcester. -In Somerset-street, Portman-square, in her 71st year, Mary, Countess Dowager of Roseberry. -At Cheltenham, Essex, Mrs. Scott, of Chigwell, Essex, relict of W. Scott, Esq. of Austin Friars, in her 64th year. -In Blandford-place, Regent's Park, John Armitage Brown, Esq. 9. At Gwynne House, Woodford-bridge, Essex, Henry Burmester, Esq. in his 78th year. 10. At his house, Charlotte-street, Bloomsbury, after a short illness, the Rev. W. Bingley, AM. FLS. author of Animal Biography, Useful Knowledge, and various other works of instruction. -At Reading, in his 80th year, Richard Maul, Esq. At Borough Bridge-hall, Yorkshire, aged 31, Marmaduke Lawson, Esq. late MP. for Borough Bridge. 11. At Brighton, Mrs. Gale, relict of Lieut.-General Henry Richmond Gale, of Bardsea Hall, Lancashire. 12. At his house, in Dean-street, May Fair, after a few days' illness, Lieut.-Gen. H. M. Gordon. - In Sloane-street, in his 67th year, Baron Best, one of his Majesty's Hanoverian Counsellors, KCH. and FRS. 18. At Rochett's, near Brentwood, in his 89th year, the Right Hon. John Jervis, Earl St. Vincent, GCB. His Lordship was made Post Captain, April 10, 1786; Rear Admiral of the Blue, December 3, 1790; Vice Admiral, April 12, 1794; Admiral, February 14, 1799; and Admiral of the Fleet, July 19, 1821. He was also appointed General of the Royal Marines, May 7, 1814. Mrs. Cooper, relict of the late Rev. Samuel Lovick Cooper, of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. At West Drayton, Mrs. De Burgh, relict of the late Fysh De Burgh, Esq. 14. At Turville-park, near Henley-upon-Thames, in his 85th year, the celebrated General Du mouriez. 16. At Aldborough, in the County of Norfolk, Geo. Rising, Esq. 18. At his house in Berkeley-square, Geo. N. Vincent, Esq. -In Derby-street, Westminster, Henry Gunnell, Esq. 53 years one of the Clerks of the House of Commons. -At Ashford-lodge, Halstead, in his 24th year. Angelo, youngest son of Firmin De Tastet, Esq, 20. In Half Moon-street, General the Right Hon. Sir George Beckwith, GCB. Colonel of the th regiment. ABROAD. At Nice, where he had gone for the recovery of his health, the Hon. Edward Spencer Cowper, brother of Earl Cowper. At Rome, in his 52d year, Edward Berkeley Portman, Esq. of Bryanstone. At Tours, in consequence of a fall from his horse, S. Atterson, Esq. late of Portland-place. At Abbeville, on his way to Paris, aged 20, Lord Caulfield, only son of the Earl of Charlemont, By this event the Hon. Henry Caulfield, brother to the Earl, and one of the Representatives for the County of Armagh, becomes presumptive heir to the title and estates. At Ghent, Sir Thomas Constable, Bart. of Tixall, Staffordshire, and Burton Constable, Yorkshire. At Calcutta, in his 38th year, of an attack of cholera morbus, Archdeacon Loring. At Paris, Robt. Heathcote, Esq. brother of Sir Gülbert Heathcote, Bart. in whom literature and the arts have lost a worthy patron. At Malta, Stephen Gaisford, Esq. of the Ordnance Medical Department. At St. Christopher's, aged 26, Mrs. Maxwell, lady of Chas. Maxwell, Esq. Governor of that Island, only daughter of Colonel Douglas, of Annan, and first cousin of the Marquis of Queensberry. At Rome, Charlotte, the lady of Joseph Jellicoe, Esq. of London, Merchant, and second daughter of Egerton Leigh, Esq. of High Leigh and Twemlow, in the County of Cheshire. At Versailles, Lady Smyth, relict of the late Sir Robert, and mother of Sir George Smyth, Bart. of Berechurch Hall, Essex. At Lausanne, (Feb. 26) in his 66th year, John Philip Kemble, Esq. This eminent tragedian was one of the greatest ornaments of the British stage, being not only a one classical actor in the higher walk of his profession, but an accom. plished scholar and gentleman, moving in the very first circles of society. By his present Majesty he was frequently honoured with marks of attention, and was occasionally a guest at the convivial parties at Carlton House. A life of him is preparing by a literary gentleman, who has enjoyed his intimate friendship during forty years. At St. Omer, aged 58, John Hudson, Esq. Post Captain of the Royal Navy. At Havre, Capt, A. Milner, of the Royal Navy. THE LION'S HEAD. THE following letter bears such evident marks of being intended for the public eye, that we print it verbatim. The writer, we will venture to say, never appeared to such disadvantage before. TO THE EDITOR OF THE LONDON MAGAZINE. 69, Berner's-street, April 20. Sir,-Accident made me acquainted a day or two since with your biographical account of the late Mr. Kemble, in which I perceive you have, neither in a gentlemanly nor candid spirit, amused yourself, and endeavoured to prejudice your readers, by the introduction of my name. I am perfectly aware, that the ill fate which condemns me to my profession, has rendered me liable to the abuse of any person, who, from interested or splenetic motives, may seek opportunity to decry me, and torture circumstances, over which I have no controul, into matter for my defamation. The vindication of my professional character I leave to the independence of the leading public jour nalists; to whose criticisms I proudly and gratefully appeal from the attacks of the London Magazine, which has (with other less respectable publications) since the accession of Messrs. Kemble, Willet, and Forbes to the management of Covent Garden, most industriously laboured to distinguish me by its censure. I am not weak enough to dispute your right of free animadversion on my different performances; but you have stepped from the limits prescribed you by your office, to misrepresent and to injure me: -you have chosen to assert, with a commentary worthy the truth of your statement, that I have been so stupidly absurd as to announce by public advertisement, that I would condescend to play the character of Hamlet," thereby exposing me to the indignant censures of every individual possessed of judgment, taste, or even natural sensibility. It has so chanced, Sir, that I have never read the advertisement to which you allude, and on which you found your right to traduce, and hold me up to ridicule and contempt. Even had I been guilty of such more than childish folly, as to authorize its publication, I cannot discover what appliance the sin could have to your subject; nor why it was indispensable to the funeral honours of your friend, that his successors, however unworthy, or incapable, in your estimation, should be dragged forward for immolation on his pyre. A generous regret might have erected a noble trophy to the merits of the highly talented dead, without founding it on the slander of the living. You have chosen to leave an honourable employment for a very base one. You have gone out of your way for the mere purpose of misrepresentation, and have put a false construction on an advertisement, for which I was in no manner responsible, and which nothing but the most vulgar obtuseness, or most wanton malice, could affect to misunderstand. I leave you all the satisfaction you may be able to reap from the indulgence of your most gentlemanly feelings, and as you have proclaimed one point of condescension to which I can submit, permit me to tell you those to which I cannot. I cannot condescend to the infamy of publishing a known falsehood.-I cannot bow myself down to the dirty work of levelling a secret blow at the reputation of an unprovoking individual. -Nor can I degrade myself to the paltry gratification of triumphing in the success of such an unmanly expedient. I am, &c. &c. W. C. MACREADY. -" a known falsehood!"-" dirty work of levelling a secret blow!" "unmanly expedient!"-These are hard words, Mr. Macready; so let us turn to the passage which has drawn down upon us such cruel language. In the paper upon Mr. Kemble in our last Number, the following passage occurs: In 1782 he (Mr. Kemble) proceeded to Dublin, and appeared in Hamlet. To perform this divine part was, in that time, considered a courageous and an honourable effort; and laurels reaped in Denmark were greenest of leaf. The time is changed: for it appears by a play-bill, very lately put forth by the Committee of the Western Philan thropic Institution for relieving the Poor, that Mr. C. Kemble being prevented, by his domestic calamity, from playing in Don John, Mr. Macready had kindly and generously, in their moment of distress, condescended to perform the character of Hamlet. Condescended!-condescended to play Hamlet!! Well! what comes next, Mr. Merri man ?" After the perusal of this passage, what becomes of all Mr. Macready's splendid invective! Have we charged him with writing the fulsome nonsense, we have remarked upon? Have we accused him, even by implication, of the stupid absurdity which has startled him into such a strain of eloquent invective? Have we sought to defame him for the sake of making Mr. Kemble appear more interesting or estimable? We must say, that a more idle, swelling, and intemperate letter never came under our observation. But let us go through this precious epistle. In the first place," accident" makes him acquainted with the article in which his name is offensively mentioned. But accident" also appears to have made him acquainted with several previous numbers, for he immediately asserts that the London Magazine has," since the accession of Messrs. Kemble, Willett, and Forbes, to the management, industriously laboured to distinguish him by its censure." We are said to have prejudiced our readers by the mention of his name! How prejudiced?-Mr. Macready then complains of the ill-fate of being an actor, of which we really think he has as little cause to complain as any man living. He next charges us with espousing the cause of Messrs. Kemble, Willett, and Forbes; and, to so extravagant an extent, as to carry us into an abuse-a malicious abuse,-of those very persons whose talents support Covent Garden Theatre. We need hardly say, that we have no interests to serve, but those of justice, in our dramatic criticisms; and, if we were foolish enough to determine upon upholding Messrs. Kemble, Willett, and Forbes, through wrong and right, should we be furthering our determination by reviling Mr. Macready? As to the sentence about his "condescension" at the end of the first paragraph of his letter,—we leave our own extract, the cause of all this trouble, to answer that. Mr. Macready says, he "never read the advertisement." Well-we believe him: indeed, we almost could believe (but that his name is mentioned) that he had never read the passage that has bewildered him. Do we "found a right to traduce him upon the nonsense we have quoted? Alack, rather than have such a high sense of injury, we would be set quick i' the earth, and bowled to death with turnips." He is angry that we mention his name in a paper upon Kemble-well, there may be reason for that-but then why, when he has run his head against a wall, should he keep it there? We are not in the habit of "immolating" living actors upon the " pyres" of dead actors. "Immolating" is an ill phrase, when applied to a performer at a playhouse." Slander of the living" too! Let him thank the Committee for that, or his own vanity, which makes such slander requisite. What "honourable employment have we left? And for what "base one?" "Oh thou particular fellow !" He says "we have gone out of the way for the mere purpose of misrepresenting," that we have "put a false construction on an advertisement," "which nothing but the most vulgar obtuseness, or most wanton malice could affect to misunderstand." We deny it. And, if Mr. Macready would read, or could understand what he read, he would see that we visited the stuff upon the real authors, and not upon himself. " |