volved in a war with France, and a rebellion had broken out in Scotland, and extended itself into England. Under these circumstances of alarm, the rival of Cashel, taking advantage of the unguarded warmth of his temper, laid an information against him, in consequence of which he was taken up by a general warrant, and examined by the Secretary of State; but nothing worthy the notice of government appearing in his disfavour, he was set at liberty. The first place to which he resorted after his liberation, was the Bedford Coffee-house, where he found his secret and perfidious enemy waiting the issue of his information. To him Cashel was about very innocently to relate his unexpected adventure; but the scoundrel, shocked at the sight of the man whom he had so basely attempted to ruin, fled out of the coffee-house with all speed.

Soon after this transaction, news arrived of the battle of Falkirk, in which the rebels had gained some slight advantage, and the King was advised to show himself at the Theatre, and to com- ́. mand the tragedy of " Macbeth." As Cashel's examination before the council had become public, Rich felt some doubt as to the propriety of his performing the principal character before the

King, and Quin very liberally offered his services. as a substitute. The King, however, being asked if he had any objection to Cashel's acting before him, answered, " By no means, he would be altogether as acceptable as any other player."

Cashel did not survive this transaction many months; he was seized with an apoplectic fit while acting at the Norwich Theatre; and his enemy is said also to have died much about the same time.

THE CLERGY, AND THEATRICAL PERFOR-,

MANCES.

MR. Godwin, in his Life of Chaucer, tells us that the violent antipathy of the clergy to theatrical performers is of so long standing as the time of the holy mummeries of Mysteries and Miracles, in the middle ages; and was occasioned by the first institution of secular dramatic representations, which the clergy strenuously opposed, both with ecclesiastical denunciations, and (by their influence) with civil disabilities and punishment, from jealousy of this encroachment on a then-established branch of their profession, and " from the desire," as Mr.

Godwin expresses it,)" of being themselves the sole source of amusement to the people."

WOODWARD, AND SIR JOHN HILL.

SIR John Hill, the Atall, of his day, having occasion, in his " Inspector," to mention a riotous disturbance, which had taken place at the Theatre, in which he experienced personal violence, and where Woodward, the comedian, was a party, in a petulant and ill-natured way added, that a player was the meanest of all characters. The Knight forgot, or did not wish others to remember, that he had, himself, been a candidate for theatrical fame, in the various parts of Harlequin, Oronooko, Blandford, Constant, Lothario, and the Apothecary, in "Romeo and Juliet;" "in all of which," said Woodward, in reply to the illiberal censures of Hill," you grossly failed, except the last, although your associate in some of the characters, the lovely Peggy Woffington, might have called forth the talents of any man who really possessed them." Woodward, stimulated and assisted by the numerous enemies of Hill, afterwards attacked him, in a spirited pamphlet, which recalled many unpropitious passages of " the Inspector's" life to pub

lic notice.In this publication, the following imitation of the language, style, and manner of Hill, may be considered as a literary curiosity, a fac simile of his hand writing.

66

Epictetus somewhere says, that a man of wit should rise early in the morning, and Aristotle confirms this opinion: I do not pretend to learning, and yet, if I did pretend to that character, the public has given me sufficient foundation for the pretence.

"I rose, the other morning, and rung my bell: my valet presently appeared, and I ordered him to buckle my shoes.

"It is fit the reader should know, that I have lately purchased a new pair of buckles; it is fit he should know, I bought them of Mr. Deard. I do not, I need not, say, that Deard has informed me, he has sold several dozen pair of the same pattern; the desire of imitating a man, whose taste is fashionable, is natural, is common, I will add, it is decent.

"When I was dressed, I stepped into my chariot, and bid my footman order my coachman to drive to the Bedford; here I diverted myself till dinner, with some of the first wits of the age.

"At seven, I retired from champaigne, and toasting Lady ****, in a box, at Drury Lane;-I do not name the lady, I will not name her; the world, without my naming her, will guess; I am not ashamed that they should; the lady is not ashamed.

"Between dozing and chatting, to three or four women of fashion, I whiled away the idle hours till ten idleness is the privilege of business; few know this, fewer know the reason of it; but I know both, though I will tell neither.

"At a route, I finished the evening, where brag and fortune deprived me of fifty guineas; I lost them with unconcern; I have fifty more at home.

"At one in the morning, I returned to my own house, in my own chariot, drawn by my own horses, driven by my own coachman, attended by my own footman; such circumstances, in the history of some men, are immaterial; in mine, they are otherwise; the public is desirous of knowing every particular in my life; they have obliged me, and shall be obliged, they are my readers, I am their humble servant.

"One servant knocked at my door, a second opened it, and a third lighted me up stairs ;