loss of the Amphitrite convict-ship, which occurred, as it appears by the testimony of the surviving sailors, through the weakness of the surgeon and the pride of his wife, who, by the way, was going out with him without permission. This month we have to notice a case, which, if not involving so great a loss of human life, is characterized by quite as much ignorance or carelessness, and by some acts of atrocity, almost unparalleled in history-we mean as relate to the Earl of Wemyss smack.

Of the criminalities alleged against the man Reeve, who has been committed to Norwich Castle to take his trial, we have no intention to speak; for two reasons, one, because, pending a legal investigation, it would appear unfair to add anything to what is generally known on the subject likely to prejudice the case; and the other, because we consider the felonious part of the affair infinitely less culpable in the scale of enormities, than the besotted callousness which left eleven innocent women and children to perish at a moment when there were but eighteen inches water under the bow of the vessel within two hundred yards of the shore, which gradually shelved to a place of perfect security."

These unhappy persons were told by the master of the smack to get into the upper berths, and they would be quite safe; that the tide was ebbing, and that in an hour it would be so dry round the vessel, that they would be able to walk on shore without wetting their feet. · Dissuaded from immediate escape at the hazard of damping their shoes, these unhappy victims betook themselves to these upper berths, and lay there waiting for the water to decrease; and the master of the smack on deck, who could see, of course, what effect the time had produced on the tide, permitted them to remain there, although he found that instead of ebbing the tide was flowing.

But this is not the worst part of the history: the passengers, male passengers, huddled themselves on the companion stairs, where they were standing when a sea broke over the smack, and, breaking through the cabin sky-light, swamped the cabin; to what extent, the reader will understand by reading a letter which has been published by one of these passengers, in which he says, that after the sea had struck the skylight, he looked into the cabin, and that Mrs. Cormack (who was in one of the upper berths) held up her child to him and shook her head. Is it not clear that if, instead of acquiescing in her melancholy presentiment of death, these gentlemen had rushed into the cabin and hauled the helpless and frightened women out, that they could all have been preserved? Instead of that, these gentlemen were of such delicate tastes and fine feelings, that because it was the ladies' cabin, and some of the ladies were partly undressed, they were afraid or ashamed of taking the liberty of saving their lives! There they stood, till sea after sea burst over the broken sky-lights, each worse than the preceding one, as the tide rose, until the delicate gentlemen left their snuggery and got forward; whence they, the master and the crew, all got safe on shore, as soon as a boat could pull off to them.

The superfine gentility of the gentlemen passengers, however, might in a certain degree have been excited by that love of self which is inherent in the majority of human beings; they saved themselves: and as they were, as the sailors say, "only passengers," they were not, in point of fact, responsible for any one's safety except their own; but that the captain, wholly engrossed by the duty, which we admit to be a very important

one, of saving his vessel, should totally have forgotten the helpless and terrified women under his charge, seems almost inconceivable. It is clear he was in error about the tide; but it is also clear that he must very soon have discovered that error; and if he had discovered it before there were three feet water on the land side of the smack, he could have saved every one of his passengers by handing them over the side, and letting his men wade with them on their shoulders to the shore. The fact is, that he believed them to be safe and out of the way, and expected that the smack would float at the next high water; and the unexpected accident of the sea striking her, which ought to have been anticipated and provided against, by either battening in the sky-lights or covering them with tarpaulins, put an end to his scheme.

The strongest proof of the needlessness of this waste of life is to be found in the fact, that, before the ladies took to the berths, there were but eighteen inches water round the vessel, and that, after they were all drowned, a cart was driven alongside the vessel, and these yet warm bodies--outraged in their removal beyond precedent-were placed in it for removal to the church; the same cart and the same horses, it is quite clear, might have conveyed them to the dry land while they were alive and in safety.

We trust that the trumpery six-and-eightpenny feeling of human nature will not predominate in this affair, and that the paltry vengeance upon the supposed stealers of rings and reticules will not supersede the infinitely more just and noble indignation which every one must feel at the conduct of the master of the vessel, and that a question of murder, which might fairly arise out of his conduct, may not be stifled by the punishment of petty larceny, committed by an amateur wrecker, who had nothing whatever to do with the original cause of the mischief and misery.

The details of the unexpected and happy return of Captain Ross and his adventurous companions will be found in another part of our Number; it deserves a few words in our department, because, as it appears to us, Captain Ross, in his last expedition, has done what is the next best thing to succeeding in establishing the existence of a north-west passage that of establishing its non-entity-he has not only saved himself and his colleagues, but the lives of many others who doubtlessly would have made new attempts for the purpose of completing the discovery, if the gallant captain had not so completely extinguished the hopes of their enterprising spirits. Captain Ross and his nephew must, to be sure, have felt not a little gratified, when dining at Windsor with our gracious king, by comparing his situation with that in which he was placed a year or two years before on the corresponding day of the month. Of course, we shall have an account of his proceedings during his protracted absence published, which cannot fail to be highly interesting to his countrymen.

The most remarkable feature of our domestic politics during the month is the openly avowed determination on the part of the people not to pay the assessed taxes-a determination fraught, as it must be evident to the meanest capacity, with the most serious consequences, and one at which these popular orators and legislators seem to have arrived without the slightest reason.

In party politics, men providentially and naturally differ; some men

extol, while others others decry the present ministry. We have no political feeling one way or another, but a general desire and disposition to uphold the constitution and the state. In a ship, a mutiny may arise upon a question of destination; and those who dissent from the majority may have some hidden interested motive for wishing the vessel to go to Odessa, while the others rigidly maintain the original intention of steering for Ancona.

It may be, that this very difference of opinion is caused without any sinister intention, but merely upon a different view of the advantages of the probable results of one or the other course; and these bickerings and dissensions are only to be put down by the force of the authority which is delegated to the captain ;-but, let the storm lower-let the gale rise and the sea swell-all minor differences upon the point of whither the ship is to go, merge at once in the unanimous effort to keep her afloat, and secure her against the effects of the storm, and save her from wreck and destruction. So with the true patriot, whatever his private opinion of the individuals at the helm of the state may be, and however much he may differ with them on points of duty or discipline, the moment a storm threatens to overwhelm the country, he abandons all party feeling, and lends his aid to the preservation of her best interests and her valuable institutions.

It may be true that the people who now refuse to pay taxes are disappointed, because the performance of ministers has not equalled their promises; but they ought to recollect that all great changes require time to effect them, at least, if they are to be of any permanent service, and that it is not a question of promise or pledge which ought to invole an abolition of imposts which are actually and absolutely essential to the existence of the country as a nation.

Now, it is clear that whatever opinion the anti-tax people have formed of the present ministry, they are wrong in their facts;-they say that the assessed taxes were war-taxes, and, therefore, they will not pay them in time of peace; this is gratuitous nonsense: they have paid them for seventeen years in time of peace, and there is no reason upon earth why they should be repealed now more than there was four, seven, or ten years since; the action upon the public mind has been produced, not by this great discovery about peace or war, but because the people are disappointed by the effects of the Reform Bill, which, as these very orators tell us, has reduced trade in the metropolis to such a state of depression that they cannot continue to pay the taxes.

We suspect, although we are ready to admit that the extensive emigration of persons of rank and property must considerably affect the metropolitan tradesmen, that the shopkeepers of the present day are as well off as any class of the community: but whether they are or are not, it is clear that, if they choose to refuse their share of contributions to the exigencies of the state, they can claim no share of its protection: and what then? They weaken the arm of the law which protects their property, Might will overcome Right, and the whole country will present one extended scene of anarchy and confusion.

It is quite a mistaken idea to suppose that injuring a government is the way to produce content and comfort. Look at Belgium,-in consequence of the revolution in that country, trade is absolutely dead ;look at all the countries where the people have turned round upon their

rulers. We repeat, we are not talking of the present government here with any party feeling; we can see their faults as well as anybody,but we would even conceal them at present, because we are sure that, in enforcing a necessary taxation, they only do that without which the country cannot exist. If they have given pledges and made promises, they will doubtlessly redeem the one and fulfil the other; but let them wait until they can be called upon so to do constitutionally in parliament, and do not let a faction of turbulent and dissatisfied men (and it generally occurs that the most violent anti-tax payers are people who never paid a direct tax in their lives) thwart and embarrass the ministry by a resistance which, we have no hesitation in saying, is at once weak and wicked.

We do not venture upon the province of theatrical criticism in our commentaries, but really the gigantic undertaking of managing the two great houses by one hand deserves a word or two, rather under the head of "wonderful fortitude," than in a classification of dramatic memoranda.

Providence has given us two eyes; so that if one should be poked out by any accident, we may yet see with the other. So government gave London two winter theatres, not, perhaps, with the providential forethought, that if one were burnt down the public might use the other, but, as it seems to us, that they might emulate and stimulate each other to great exertions for popular edification and amusement; and it is quite certain that theatrical matters were never in such a flourishing state as when there were two distinct companies of actors, and when what is called the monopoly was in full force. Colman's "John Bull," and Sheridan's "Pizzaro," produced to the rival theatres, nearly about the same period, not less than fifty thousand pounds each. Where then was the great mart of talent?-it concentrated in what Mr. Spring, the boxbook and housekeeper, called " the Lane" and "the Garden," and blazed away in public splendour and private respectability, unknown the moment that playhouses sprang up like pumpkins, and scattered theatrical ability all over the courts and alleys of the metropolis.

The two great eyes,-to carry on the allegory,-got weaker and weaker every year till at last the speculation in either became very bad indeed. Mr. Bunn is endeavouring to cure the ophthalmia by taking both under his control; and as far as having them both he is, perhaps, wise;-in opening both, we think he is not,-unless he considers it right for the name of the thing, that both the patent theatres should exist.

It is clear to us, as a matter of profit, he would best succeed if he closed one altogether. A sportsman always shuts one eye when he means to make his shot tell; and, as far as the playhouses are concerned, it seems the most absurd piece of pains-taking to find Mr. King acting Rolla at the "Lane" one night, and the next playing Alexander at the "Garden "-a Mrs. Sloman (who they say is a very fine actress) practising the pathetic at the "Garden" on Monday, and doing the sentimental in the "Lane" on Tuesday. Select one housesay Covent Garden, because we believe it the larger-jam into it all the dignity, sentiment, pathos, pantomime, comedy, farce, and interlude to be got; stuff it like a turkey at Christmas, and shut up Old Drury. As it is, neither house is ever half full; then one might be crowded, and the

moment the public ascertained that it was inconveniently crowded, and that there was not a box to be had to see Mrs. Sloman act, or hear Miss Inferiority (or whatever the young lady's name is) sing, they would all conspire to squeeze each other, and the string of hackney-coaches would reach half up Long Acre.

For an enlargement upon the question of the majors and minors we have no room this month-we may have next; but we must just ob serve, that the acting of Mrs. Yates in a domestic drama (as it is termed) called "Grace Huntley," at the Adelphi, is just as near perfection as anything on a stage can be. She is a Garrick in petticoats, and symmetrical as her figure is, we hope never to see her in any thing else. If Mr. Reeve would act his fun in sober sadness, he would really be a good player; but, like another and a much greater mime, "the drink," as old Mrs. Hamlet says in the play, has exactly the opposite effect upon his fun that he wishes it to have; it makes him dull, stupid, and unintelligible.

Mathews's gallery at the Queen's Bazaar has closed; its exhibition, and its complete failure in attraction, shows, in a most curious manner, the value of a shilling in the estimation of man and womankind. While these very pictures were in his own house, huddled higgledy-piggledy in a small, narrow gallery, every body was dying to see them; half the lords in the creation and of their ladies, all the sages and even saints were on the qui vive to get a peep at Mathews's pictures. Here have they been better arranged than they ever were before, seen to infinitely greater advantage, and not ten people a day have been to look at them. To be sure, in going to Mathews's house, besides paying nothing for admission, the visiters were sure to experience the effects of his generous hospitality-and a more liberal man does not exist the cold collation was an invariable result of the warm reception; and it may be, as is the case with some connoisseurs, that the "plates" were a greater attraction than the "pictures." Be that as it may, it is certain that the absolute neglect of the collection, valuable as it is, in many instances, from the intrinsic value of the portraits, but in all from the peculiarity and exclusiveness of its character, has established the importance of twelve pennies in the public mind, and, what is more mortifying to a zealous friend of the craft, the entire absence of any interest about theatrical matters in general society.

The Garrick Club, recently established in King Street, Covent Garden, have been in treaty with Mr. Mathews for the entire collection. Should they agree upon terms, they propose building a room for its reception. We can conceive no destination so suitable-none so secure as to its remaining unbroken. No private individual could or would buy the portraits of four or five hundred actors. The collection, if brought to public sale, would be weeded of the good pictures, and eventually scattered and destroyed, which, after nearly thirty years' labour in the concentration of them, would be too bad. At this Garrick Club they would be deposited entire, and remain in the most suitable locale imaginable. We hope the bargain will be concluded, because we are sure it would be desirable to preserve the "Gallery" as it is, and pretty nearly certain that it would be the best bargain for Mr. Mathews himself.