A DUNEDINITE IN VICTORIA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 274, 1 May 1873, Page 9

A DUNEDINITE IN VICTORIA.

,Mr Faircloagh, the new tragedian, is not a lu^cesß* < it Theatre Royal, Melbourne. The criti(»lteW ; ft£«*» nd » rd » the guiding-stars of which are Tr— C *"" J " "fr™ f ffMnery.- and any would-be star who does not reach, tb'iß~ standard is crucified. It is little wonder that English an 1 American stars care not to cross a dangerous ocean to ' find themselves bankrupt in reputation and pocket in a oity of a few thousand inhabitants. No such standard prevails in England, but I see it prevails in everything in the Colonies. I think that nature ia toe best standard, but as nature is rather vague, ■or as the human mind, perhaps it is better to say, on the average, is incapable of condensing its interpretation of nature without help, perhaps it is well to accept nature personified in a Brooke or Montgomery, although such personification may result rather harshly to those who, like Mr Fairclongh, do not possess the physical advantages of the two "fortunate — unfortunate " actors referred to — two mefi, who in one sad sense of tho paradoxical phrase may be said to have been victims to their own golden prosperity, thus reversing the 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 "Riohard III. " was only 10s.! Mr Fairclough's Richelieu seemed to give almost complete satisfaction. But his ill financial success, as a whole, has' so Eressed on his mind:that, like Miss Ernstone, c will, I believe, go at once home to England, immediately after the conclusion of his first engagement, which speedily comes to .a close ; after which will be produced either Mr and Mrs Belton, personal intimates of the late Charles Kean, or else a play on supernatnral topics, by W. 8. Gilbert, author of the "Palace of Troth," and "Pygmalion and Galatea " Thi» new f aity play is called "A Wicked World." In "Pygmalion and Galatea," Miss Carey as the animated statue achieved an immense success, and, second to her, Mias Hattie Shepparde was very Successful. Miss Carey seems to be getting the start of Miss Shepparde. >he (Miss C. ) has the reputation of being very studious, bo much so that- she played Desdetnona 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 the 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 to- Sydney), have gone to Adelaide. A magnificent new theatre will shortly be erected at Sandhurst. The first lease of it will be taken by Mesgrs Coppin, Stewart, Harwood, and Hennings, who are lesscea of the Melbourne Royal. The Sandhurst temple of the drama will, it is said, be larger than the Royal. If this be bo, the now theatre at QaartzopolU

will indeed be a fine one. There is also a project" for establishing a theatre at Coilingwood, which will, I believe, be 'realise'! The opera — Italian— now located in the late Prince of Wales Theatre, Melbourne, haß been a great and brilliant success. It :s,: s, as a business, a large shareholding affair, for which Lyster, as manager, gets LI.OOJ per year, and several shares in return for his properties and scenery. The exchange of parts by Signore Coy and Bosisio, the performance of Rosnatiin "L'Ebreo," the reproduction in a better place with better "points" of favorite operas, and the addition of Signor Susini, a splendid basso, who replaces Signor Grandi, and acts parts Signor Grandi could not attempt, nave all "conspired" to make the present opera season both a financial and artiatie success. Poor Beaumont leaped from a stage window and sprained his 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 thftnselves, and the Catholics have also been making fools of themselves. This is an age when religion is a matterbetweenall theforces of the mind and of the word and man himself. If I hurt my neighbor by word or deed — by inference or direct hurt— -1' 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 calk Popery. He has no right to uproot Pop ry. If Popery is wrong, the God of Nature in his own good time will nproot it. If Protestantism ia wrong, the God of Nature in his own good time will uproot it. To try and uproot a religion like that of Romanism is in effect to .make a Catholic hate a Protestant. Now, to do this, apart' from religion , is a great evil in all eyea> Bub it is just as great an evil, if not a greater evil, to do so in connection with religion. Fenianißm, and Orangeiam, and Spiritism, are all opposed to the great agencies now abroad for civilisißg man. Why have we steam wherewith to bridge distance? why have we electricity whereby to cause instantaneous comunication ? why have we cheap postage to cause the universal spread of communication and brotherly love? why have we all the various agencies of the Press man is made known to man? why Is woman coming to the front intellectually if Feniani-m is to narrow our actions down to the work of destroying all who differ from it ; if Craugeism 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, uudefiled teaching of Christ, is lost in a gilding of commentaries and so called evangelical teaching. I am, with others, quite at a loss to know why Sir Charles Duffy got Sir to his name. The giver and the receiver are both worthy of blame. Mr Gladstone could not name one action of Sir Charles's which renders him deserving of the honor. If to endeavor to separate England from Ireland is a cause forthe honor, then the honor is deserved. But that is not aIL Events show that Sir I Charles is as great a rebel as ever. This event is otic more proof of the truth that merit seldom gets' its reward. Mr O'dhanassy, 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 i? to say the Imperial Government exercised a' r«rign ofterror. Now-adayu, 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 soletv to an impartial tribunal—not to each other— make religious toleration the order of the day, and put down Orangeism with a strong hand, which the English Government has never yet done ; take the wind out of the sails of professional agitators, but govern with a full knowledge of local Irish wants, and a will to satisfy them : do .this, and Ireland" 'wr^i^°?P er> Sending -English and Scotch fcolr3als*^L «n° oaM ß»°B . IrUh f emigration, will notafe^eslfi^P 1 ?* 1 ? 11 / events in Ireland; for it is juhnvOTHSS™?"? that all other nationalities who settle in tW^ land become more Irish than the Irish themselves. The early English colonists of Ireland became the most bitter enemies of the English Government. No; you must give Ireland a good tenant law, plenty of self-government, and fall play to the national party, and then Ireland will be prosperous. I am thoroughly persuaded that Catholicism is not the beat religion, but the fact remains , that Ireland and the Irish will not have any other religion ; and any man who ignores facts of the clear and the pregnant- lessons they, teach ia no statesman. But if ProtesI tants, and people of creeds of more toleration 1 than Protestantism can boast, should be i taught by the scientific evidence of the preL sent time, Catholics, should also be taught by i such evidence ; but she will never be taught I by such evidence until she abandons (as, in I fact, she has abandoned, so far as the City of Rome is concerned fall attempts at temporal, at political sovereignty. It is a bad rather than a good compliment to pay to Rome, to say that toleration will never be thewder of the day until she (the Church of Rome) embraces, not theoretical, butreal toleration; and when Rome, asjt Church, abandonsworldly politics, territorial diplomacy, and temporal power, she will then, I am quite , confident, lead the way to a practical recognition of her religious power -as 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 time, the disconnection of the English throne -with creed. The provision that England's throna should be occupied by a Protestant sovereign is anti-Catholic, just as the Church ef England is more negative than positive — more anti-Catholic' than philo-christian. That England's throne should be occupied by a Pioteatant sovereign solely is nontoleration ; 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, enormous— speaking absolutely — error of it being law, that any special creed should illumine the first magistracy of the lingJom, must continue : not because we love Komei*les3, but because we love that toleration which Rome dislikes, more. Which would you have— a strong Catholic influence in all ear Councils, or a Queen nominally Protestant on tfie throne of Englaud ? 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 uo-creed monarch, which would* place our lives at the beck and call of a creed , wbigh ail history proves U» abu»edit»pro»;

Pjrity, and is never taught any lessen If it» At first the children rtuhed our schools: now a thinner attendance shows that juveuJ f\l"? , abat<KL Compulsion is the ik \ - at ** w nmßt be administered if tne Act is to he a mirror of its framert' intentions.The story goes that the gutter children have their places occupied by the offspring of parents who can well afford to pay. But it is also true that numbers of parents, such as clerks, who are forced to keep a good appearance, must regard the Act as a boon. But it is quite evident that th« very people who are being benefited by the Act are these whom it was never intended to benefit. A clerk, or chemist, or draper, or mechanic, no matter how poor, waa never dreamt of • whereas the chUdren of the drunkard, libertine, andloafer, for whomitscompulsory clause I was ongmaUy intended, are left out in the S». SfJ* 1 thei / p , laceß 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 m number, and their salaries S* Bttt th « Act provides a pension after fifteen years' service. With this tho teaoW- especially assistant- are not satis, fied. Most of the teaohera lose about L3O per year by the new Act. Add to this that their examination is made so strict that in » late trial abourSO out of 60 failed ; and add female be first assistant, and yon will at JKTKT *** tbe pe T on > whi0 ™ * futtiro, .does not apparently compensate for present ills to which tutorial flesh is heir. I «*y«*»y^hereyou *£;j£ f £° l8 ' Viet O"«* teachers envy you. You have gentlemanly and expenenc«i and friendly inspectors. The inspecters here think themselves good, and gve thenuelres ridiculous ai N ; and Mr eZSSt tl M^r<*Edneatiou,is .mere tteons^ wh», however capable to underJtedthemuoipliMi of lay, compulsory, and secular teaching v evidently quite iacom. patent 1 to administer its details; and more lamentable stall, is quite oblivion of his o«aLS" ll^' hut on the contrary" his dogma that none but young teachers are good for" anytmng, which is* identiS Y fch . > ,"Experfence is not of the slightest use," a veritable rcducth ad ab. in Victom, have not been morally 22?T ; 8 ° has been sent to taem by a providential dispensation as a Mr Stephen had not been sent perhaps locusts , orsomeother dread visitation wouS things constitute the essential beauty of a papal confessional. uv**»y tit i}™?' ! think J Bhonld «ention that Mrs Steele has made a great inpressum at the Royal, although^ in a £t g Pnt - 1 , think Won* Sat Sydney. Oluarini's circus hai besm a vast SSTS.*?! ? f contribttt ed not a little to £i «£? attend »?c« .at the Royal. ConsiderPrii^TrT^^P^^ 1^ closed the ™ ?"' .Jlrt? the °P«nlng of the CoHing«!s *? * a \ tQea fncal profession, who now must either travel or starve. I take it for ganted that the theatrical developments reCoUier and Mr Douglaa, who are now with you^nd who are well thought of here. Mr Lawrence and Carry George are in India. If you are prosperous here, when you are Th^ g , y< S,l re BUre *° S eb a t<*timoniaL Thus, as Shakespeare makes the Duke say "V y^JV'^give "our sum 0$ more to that which hath too much." The whole of the Colonies seem to be one vast mutual admiration society, which I would , !? m^l h C(sn d«au if the society was ■ eclectic ; but when the society elects to give I purses and- parchments to men who have merely won in a horse race, or won in Parliament or anywhere else— who, in short, have P »ade caah^ 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 ~ife is success, strongly remind me of the conrentaonal widow's epitaph-" Here lies John Smith, a faithful husband, an affectionate father, a loyal citizen ;» whereas the said John Smith was an unfaithful husband, a brutal father, a carolesa 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, wouid find, if he could rise from- the grave, himself to be, in other eyes, though not in his own, like King Rtchar.l, "a marvellous proper man." My opinion is that, when all the rest of the alphabet gives a piece of lying vellum and a mis-appropriated purse to some valedictor^cokiJ|i^^^2»MrZ^=allth^ "^NWueT irom A to V mean merely to " £hew off their digestive and post-prandial oratory at the, expense of (mentally) poor Z, who aU congratulates his dear, self on.feeinjj the observed of all observers, the glare of fashion, and the paragon of animals— and so he is, in the Darwinian sense. At faster there will be a "Greenwich" lair at Sandhurst and a military camp at 1 Melbourne. The Presbyterian Church is very progressive here, and from any of the dissenting churches no sound ef " starvation " emanates. This shows the soundness, even practically, of the voluntary system. Au revoir!