character of Acres with the most judicious discrimination, the duel scene is effective of the utmost mirth by the oddity of his action and richness of humour.

We now come to a part that requires a greater variety of talent for its support than almost any character in the English Drama. Colonel Feignwell in "the Bold Stroke for a Wife," contains a com pound of almost every passion that is allied to our nature, and requires an opposite cast of features, manners, and action; yet, Mr. Bannister assumes all the changes of person with the happiest effect, and those who are unacquainted with the Comedy, would be led to believe that the various individuals he represented, were not performed by the same person, but personified by different actors from the accuracy that accompanies his change of countenance, the position of his limbs, with all those delicacies of description that colour the efforts of a great actor.

Those persons who saw EDWIN in Lingo supposed it presumptuous in any one, to sustain this part immediately after the demise of that celebrated and justly admired comedian, and many we recollect went prejudiced to see Mr. Bannister in that part, expecting a disgusting failure to be the result of his arduous effort, but the audience became almost electrified, when they saw this gentleman give his author with the best possible effect unattended with servile imitation, in which he evinced original. conception, and the ability to display the richness of its source in all the various paths allotted to the Comic muse.

Sylvester Daggerwood is an unique piece of acting of the most whimsical kind, and we may venture to affirm the part could not be sustained by any other performer with such a happy effect.

There are many other characters that must live in the recollection of our readers, which shew the versatility of his powers and a refined judgment in the adaptation of his action to the multifarious parts he represents in the course of a season. Bannister

runs from one passion into another with consummate ease, and with all the advantages that are reported to have made LEIGH conspicuous, as mentioned by Cibber. GARRICK is also said to have had the ability to change his nature into various forms, even in one part; this happy art of transition from passion to passion, was obvious in his per sonification of Archer, he was one person with Cherry, another with Scrub, a third with Boniface, a fourth with Mrs. Sullen, and with Aimwell two distinct persons; and in every one of the scenes of the Comedy, there was a wonderful difference in his action, voice and features, and his nature was capable of suffering a suddeu metamorphosis as soon as the character required the transition. It is no ill compliment to observe, that Mr. Bannister seems to have studied Garrick with great success, and imbibed many of the beauties which raised his immortal master above the generality of Stage professors.

Our Work does not profess to narrate private character, otherwise Mr. Baunister gives ample room for panegyric, and we hope it will never betray the feature of low scurrility which has too often charac

terised publications of this nature, but as the management of the Stage is a public concern, we therefore cannot feel any indelicacy in making it the sub-` ject of our remark. Having been particular in our inquiries with respect to the internal regulation of the Theatres, it gives us infinite pleasure to observe, that Mr. Bannister has the happy talent of enforc ing the Performers to the discharge of their professional duties without that rigid discipline, which has often been thought indispensible in a Theatre; he appears to exist with his brethren as a father and friend who has their esteem and affection, and the Performers feel a pleasure in obliging him, in all the necessary duties of his government.-As a ruler Mr. B. may be fairly said to live in the hearts of his people. With respect to the pecuniary affairs of Drury Lane House, the Performers have, (we understand from good authority), expressed their highest approbation of the gentlemanly and friendly conduct of Mr. Graham, who has been indefatigable in his endeavours to render them as happy in that particular, as the embarrassed state of the Theatre would admit of. He has hitherto made them the first objects of pecuniary consideration, and has been of the utmost consequence in regulating the monied concerns of that establishment, and putting them in a fair train for early adjustment.For strength and refinement of mind and all those qualities that constitute the polished gentleman, no one is more conspicuous or better calculated for the arduous office be occupies than Mr. Graham; doubtless the Lord Chancellor would not have reposed such important trust in that gentleman had his

Lordship not been well acquainted with his superior talents, which his recent management of the Theatre, has most agreeably evinced.

Before the present season Mrs. St. Ledger was but little known to a London audience, and as the evil is removed that once impeded her interests on the Stage; motives of delicacy prevent our canvass of the iniquitous cause which kept her three years almost unemployed in the Theatre. The managers must know as well as many of their observers, that it is their interest to foster the efforts of a woman so divinely formed as this lady, when talents accompany the graces of person. An audience feels an additional pleasure in seeing the Stage graced with a creature whose symmetry is elegantly correct and enchantingly captivating, and a female with such a cast of frame and dignity of mien, is no doubt a potent medium of public attraction. In this lady may be seen all those beauties of form that painters aim to delineate, and had she been a native of Athens when its people were in the zenith of their glory for the cultivation of the arts, her personal perfections would have filled the poet's song and occupied the sculptor's labour. It not unfrequently occurs, where nature has lavished personal attraction she has been niggardly in intellectual endowments, but we understand that Mrs. St. Ledger was formed in one of those propitious moments, when nature was equally munificent in uniting the mind of Minerva with the beauties of Venus. As an actress this lady has many claims to our notice, though the characters she at present personifies are not of much importance, yet Mrs. St. L. gives the

author with becoming propriety, and attaches great interest to the parts entrusted to her. Mariana in "Measure for Measure," is a part of no great consequence, but when accompanied with her elegance of action and justness of delineation, it carries no ordinary degree of importance. The Queen in "Hamlet," has become a more prominent portrait of Shakespeare's pencil since it has been assigned to her care. She sustained Queen Elizabeth in "Mary Queen of Scots" with appropriate dignity, and drew an ample share of public approbation to all her Scenes. There are many other characters of an opposite nature, which evinée a versatility of talent and sufficiently display: her capability for the support of business of a far superior description to what she has hitherto assumed. We have been told that Mrs. St. Ledger was once the idol of the Dublin Stage and possessed a voice enchantingly mellifluous, but that severe indisposition has weakened its powers.

We must confess, we felt much surprize at the beginning of the season in seeing this lady all at once burst on public sight after having been shamefully thrown into the back ground, for a considerable time; we had however the pleasure to find that both Mr. Harris and Mr. Kemble were not insensible to her professional powers, and have given her a friendly portion of Stage employment; and we cannot dismiss this, subject without expressing that we shall always feel a greater desire to serve the talents and interest of those who foster insulted merit and the efforts of an unprotected female than when oppression accompanies power.