A DUNEDINITE IN VICTORIA.

Evening Star, Issue 3180, 30 April 1873, Page 2

A DUNEDINITE IN VICTORIA.

Mr Fairclough, the new tragedian, is not a success at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, The critics have a standard, the guiding-stars of which are Brooke and Montgomery, and any would-be star who does not reach this Standard is crucified. It is little wonder that Rnglisfa ‘add ‘JjoAericato Start care*bdt‘tc cross a dangerous oefean id find 11 themselves bankrupt in reputation and pocket $n a city of a few thousand inhabitants. No sucp standard prevails ip England, but I see it prevails ip cyerytping fn fihg Oqlqpies. I think that nature is ttye begt standard, but as nature is rather vague, or as tbe humap mind, perhaps it is bettpr to spy, on tbp average, is incapable of condensing its interpretation of nafpre without help, perhaps it is well tp accept nature personified in a Brooke or Montgomery, although such perBonification may result rather harshly to those who, like Mr Fairchmgh, do not possess the physical advantages of tbe two “fortunate—unfortunate” actors referred to —two men, who in one sad sense of the paradoxical phrase may be said to have been victims to their own golden prosperity, thus reversing tho usual rule of life It seems that Mr Fairclough was engaged on the sharing system, and the Melbourne correspondent of that excellent paper, the Hamilton Spectator, is responsible for the statement that his share for one night of “Richard III.” was only 10s.! Mr Fairclough’s Richelieu seemed to give almost complete satis'action. But his ill financial success, as a whole, has so pressed on his mind that, like Miss Ernstone, he will, I believe, go at once home to England immediately after the conclusion of his first engagement, which speedily comes to a close j after which will be produced either Mr and Mrs Belton, pergonal of the late Cbarl&i Kean, or else a , play cu supernatural topics, by W. S. Gilbert} author of the ‘f Ralace of -Truth,” and “Pygmalion and Galatea ” This new fairy play is called “A Wicked World.” In “Pygmalion and Galatea,” Miss Carey as the animated statue achieved au immense success, and, second to her, Miss Hattie Shepparde was very successful. Miss Carey seems to be getting the start of Miss Shepparde. She (Miss C.) has the reputation of being very studious, so much so that she played Desdemona on one night in a very bad manner, for which she was well criticised, and the very next night she played it so admirably that the critics say one could easily have believed that one was beholding a new actress in tho part. Mr Fairclough failed in Othello, and succeeded in lago and Richelieu; and Mr Stuart O’Brien made an excellent Othello. The late Prince of Wales dramatic company, excepting Mr S. Poole and Miss Patty Holt (who have gone j>o Sydnpy), have gone to Adelaide. A magnificent new theatre will shortly be erected at 'SapdVdrat:: The first lease pf it will be taken by Messrs Coppin, Stewart, Harwood, and Hennings, who are lessees of the Melbourne Royal. The Sandhurst temple of the drama will, it is said, be larger than the Royal. If this be so, the new theatre at Quartzopolia will indeed be a fine one. There is also a project for establishing a theatre at Collingwood, which will, \ believe, be realised,

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Tha opera —ltalian-— now located in the late Prince of Wales Theatre, Melbourne, has been a great and brilliant success. It is, as a business, a large a Web oiling affair, for which Lyatrr, as manager, gets LI.OOI per year, and several shawa in return for his properties and roenery. The exchange of parts by Signore Coy and Bosisio, the performance of Rosnati in “ L’JEbreo,” the reproduction in a better place with better “points” o' favorite operas, and the addition of Signor Susini, a splendid basso, who replaces Signor Grandi, and acts puts Signor Grandi could not attempt, have all “conspired” to make the present opera season both a financial and artistic success. Poor Beaumont leaped from a stage window and sprained bis leg, and is now hors de combat. He has only one eye, and surely the scene could be so contrived as to create the illusion, without the reality of leaping? The Orangemen having been making fools of themselves, and the Catholics have also been making fools of themselves. This is an age when religion is a matter between all the forces of the mind and of the word and man himself. If I hurt my neighbor by word or deed—by inference or direct hurt—l am a victim of a severe and just punishment. But he has no business with my unexpressed thoughts, or with my expressed thoughts, provided their expression does not uproot life or property, or endanger life or property. To be an Orangeman is to be a man who swears he will uproot what he calls Popery. He has no right to uproot Pop ry. If Popery is wrong, the God of Nature in bis own good time will uproot it. If Protestantism is wpng, the God of Nature in his own good time will uproot it. To try and uprpot a religion li|re of Romanism is in effect to rpake a Catholic hate p Protestant. 'Now, to do this, apart from religion, is a great evil in all eyes. But it is just as great an evil, if not a greater evil, to do so in connection with religion. Fenianism, and Orangeism, and Spiritism, are all opposed to the great agencies now abroad for civilising man. Why have we Stejpn wherewith to bridge distance ? why haye electricity whereby to cause instantaneous pomunjeation X why have we cheap ppitage tp cause the universal spread of communication and brotherly love? why have we all the various agencies of the Press whereby man is made known to man ? why is woman coming to the front intellectually if Fenianl-m is to narrow our actions down to the work of destroying all who differ from it; if Trangeism is to decimate all who do not wear a yellow anti-Papal scarf, and swear a great oath? We want far less creed and more good philanthropy—that philanthropy which, with an all-embracing benevolent eye, pierces beneath the sectarian husk, and sees beneath the human being, as made by God, not the certificated creed-bound slave made by the hellish society clad in purple and fine linen, with a god in the shape of a ledger, in week-days varied by a little sentimental game, played for the sake of appearances in a shop called a church on Sunday. We are cursed with Paulism and Peterism; but Christianity, the pure, undefiled teaching of Christ, is lost in a gilding of commentaries and so called evangelical teaching. I am, with others, quite at a to know wpy Sir Charles* Dugy gpt s|! to bis name. Iplie giver and the receiver are both worthy pf blame* Mr Gladstone could not name one action of Sir Charles’s which renders him deserving of the hopor. If to endeavor to separate England from Ireland is a cause for the honor, then the honor is deserved. But that is pot all. Events show that Sir Charles is as great a rebel as ever. This event is one more proof of the truth that merit seldom gets its reward. Mr O’Shanassy, who was never a rebel, and who did good service as an early colonist, gets merely a lower order of honor ; but Mr Duffy, a rebel, as he himself stated, “to the backbone and spinal marrow, ’ gets a full knighthood. In the olden times Ireland was governed by making the natives afraid-that is to say the Imperial Government exercised a r-igu of terror. Now-a-days, apparently, diplomacy is reversed—the natives make the Imperial authorities afraid, and thereby gain their ends. A successful Irish gunpowder plot is now usually the prelude to a batch of Irish knighthoods. Give Ireland a land law whereby both tenant and landlord will be responsible solely to an impartial tri-bunal-not to each other-make religious toleration the order of the day, and pat down Orangeism with a strong hand, which the English Government has noye i-yej; dqne : the out gf the jupls f of 1 professional agitators, but govern with a full knowledge of local High wants, and a will to satisfy them i do this, and Ireland will prosper. Sending English and Scotch to Ireland, and encouraging Irish emigration, will not alter .the complexion of events in Ireland; for it is known historically that all other nationalities who settle in Ireland become more Irish than the Irish themselves. The early English colori-ta of Ireland befiamj tljo jppst bitter enemies of the English Government. No; you must give Ireland a good tenant law, p’enty of self-government, and full play to the national farty, and then Ireland will be prosperous, am thoroughly persuaded that Catholicism is not the best religion, but the fact remains that Ireland and the Irish will not have any other religion ; and any man who ignores ;aets of- the clipar and fpe Regnant lessons iffey is'klo statesman; Bug'll Protes;ants, ahd people of creeds of more toleration ban Protestantism can boast, should be ;anght by tbe 'scientific evidence of the present time, Catholics should also be taught by sqch eyidppee j but she wIR npvpr be taught by speh evidence until she abandons (as, in she has abandoned,’ go far as the City pf Ropje is concerned | all attempts at temporal, &t political sovereignty- It is a bad rather than a good compliment to pay to Rome, to say that toleration will never be the order of the day until she (the C Imrch of Rome) embraces, not theoretical, but real toleration; and when Rome, asa Church, abandons worldly politics, territorial diplomacy, and temporal power, she will then, I am quite confident, lead the way to a practical recognition of her religious power religious power, pure and simple—and a very early sign of this new fact and better power in relationship to other creeds would be, after a tine, the disconnection ef the English throne with creed. The provision that England’s throne should be occupied by a Protestant sovereign is anti-Catholic, just as the Church of England is more negative than positivemore anti-Catholic than philo-christian. That England’s throne should be occupied by a Protestant sovereign tolely is nontoleratiou ; but it is non-toleration originally produced by bitter Roman Catholics nontoleration. Bigotry produces bigotry as surely as hens produce chickens, instead of doves. And so long as Rome arrogates to herself temporal power, the enormous—speaking abiplpthljt—■error of. ft being law, _ that any special creed should illumine the first magistracy of the kingdom, must continue : not because we love Home less, but because wc love that toleration which Pome dislikes, more. Which would you have—a strong Catholic influence in all our Councils, or a Queen nominally Protestant on the throne of England? I dislike anything that is merely nominal, but of the two give me a monarch who is nominally Protestant, to an influence created by a no-creed monarch, which would place our lives at the beck and call of a creed which all history proves has abused its pros" nerity, and is never taught any lesson by its decay. At first the children rushed our schools; now a thinner attendance shows that juvenile ardor has abated. Compulsion is the law, and that law must be administered if the Act is to be a mirror of its framers’ intentions. The story gpos that the gutter children have their places occupied'-by the offspring pf parents who can well afford to p»y. But ft is also tpup that numbers of parents, such PS clerks, who ape forced to keep a good appearance, must regard the Act as a boon. But it is quit§ evident that the very people who are being benefited by the A ct are those whom it was never intended to benefit. A clerk, or chemist, or draper, or mechanic, po matter how poor, was novw dreamt of;

whereas the children of the drunkard, liherrine, andloafer, for whom its compulsory clause was originally intended, are left out in th( cold. In short, their places are pre-occupied by the children of the genteel poor. So much is this the case, that in Melbourne a school solely devoted to gutter children has been successfully inaugurated. But if schools are multiplied, the teachers are reduced in number and their salaries curtailed. But the Act provides a pension after fifteen years’ service. With this the teachers—especially assistant— are not satisfied. Most of the teachers lose about L3O per year by the new Act. Add to this that their examination is made so strict that in a late trial about 50 out of 60 failed ; and add also that in each school it is provided that a female be first assislant, and you will at once perceive that the pension, which is in futuro, does not apparently compensate for present ills to which tutorial flesh is heir. To Otagonian teachers, I say stay where you are: don’t be fools. Victorian teachers envy you. Yon have gentlemanly and experienced and friendly inspectors. The inspectors here think themseVes good, and give themselves ridiculous airs; and Mt Stephen, the Minister of Education, is a more theorist, who, however capable to understand the principles of lay, compulsory, and secular teaching, is evidently quite lucora-f)p-tent to administer its details ; and more amentab’e still, is quite oblivious of his own obvious incompetency; but on the contrary, is arrogant and imperious: as witness his dogma that none but young teachers are good for anything, which ia identical with saying “Experience is not of the slightest use,” a veritable reductio ad ahsurdmn. But teachers, doubtless, especially in Victoria, have not been morally stainless ; so Mr Stephen has been sent to them by a providential dispensation as a punishment for past tutorial laches ; and if Mr Stephen had not been sent, perhaps locusts, or some other dread visitation would have helped the teacher to penance, contrition, and satisfaction, which three things constitute fbu essential beauty of a papal confessional. In Its proper plaoe, I think 1 should mention that Mrs Stocle has made a great impression at the Royal, although not in a leading part. I think Dolly Green is at Sydney. Chiarini’s circus has been a vast success, and has contributed not a little to thin the attendance at the Royal. Considering that monopoly has practically closed the Princess Theatre, the opening of the Collingwood and Sandhurst theatres will be a great boon to the theatrical profession, who now must either travel or starve. I take it for granted that the theatrical developments referred to will restore to Victoria both Mr Collier and Mr Douglas, who are now with you, and who are well thought of here. Mr Lawrence and Carry George are in In Ua. If you are prosperous here, when you are leaving you are sure to get a testimonial. Thus, as Shakespeare makes the Duke say in “As you like it,” we give “our sum of more to that which hath too much,” The whole of the Colonies seem to bo one vast mutual admiration society, which I would not so much condemn if the society was eclectic ; but when the society elects to give purses and th men who have merely wfin in a horse race, or won in Parliament or anywhere else—wdio, in short, have made cash ; when this is done, the praises bestowed lose real value, like the assignats profusely squandered during the first French Revolution, Praises given to mere success, simply because it is success, strongly remind me of the conventional widow’s epitaph —“ Here lies John Smith, a faithful husband, an affectionate father, a loyal citizen ;” ’whereis the said John Smith was an unfaithful husband, a brutal father, a careless citizen, a drunkard and libertine, and a wife-beater into the bargain. But no sculptor dare state the truth on the stone, and, therefore, a man who has been a blackguard all his life, would find, if ho could rise from the grave, himself to be, in other eyes, though not in his own, like King Richard, “a marvellous proper map,” My is tnat, when all the rest of the alphabet gives a piece of lying vellum and a misappropriated purse to some valedictory colonist—to Mr Z —all the alphabet from A to Y mean merely to “ shew off” their digestive and post-prandial oratory at the expense of (mentally) poor Z, who all the while mentally embraces himself and congratulates hia dear self on being the observed of all observers, the glare of fashion, and the paragon of animala~and bo he is, in the Darwiniqfl sengg.