VICTORIA THEATRE.

MR. WM. CRESWICK

AS

KING LEARI

SUPPORTED BY MISS HELEN ASHTON.

How many and how various are the associations connected with the name of this famous actor. What sad and pleasant recollections are conjured up in the minds of thousands of our readers at its mention, and how quickly the memory will at & bound fly back to scenes and incidents of bygone days, when Australia was a terra incognita to most of us, Melbourne a place quite unknown, and Sydney, Adelaide and Hobart Town were probably thought to be merely different appellations for the same place. To Londoners especially Mr. Creswick's name is particularly familiar, and his appearance this evening, at the Academy of Music, will be to them as a vision of the past. Mr. Creswick has come among us in an unobtrusively quiet way, but it needs no other testimony, no diploma of his talent beyond his own high reputation, to commend him to us. To those who know him by name only, it will be best to state that for some years he has expressed himself desirous of seeing that larger Britian which so many of his eminent contemporaries have already visited, and the recent death of his wife (formerly Miss Paget), who was for some years an invalid, affording the opportunity, he has embraced it.

He is a native of London, and was born not far from Covent Garden. He entered upon a Thespian life as a grown boy, and having excellent natural qualifications, he rose rapidly, and by the time he was twenty-four he was the leading tragedian on the York circuit-at that time a position of distinction. His provincial fame having been fully established, he was offered engagements by London managers, but he declined them and his marriage with Miss Paget, who was at that time an actress of note under Madame Vestris's management at the Olympic, occurring, he accepted a lucrative offer to visit the United States, from whence, after a triumphal tour, he returned to fulfil engagements in Dublin,

Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, and Newcastle. The time had now approached for the event so much longed for, yet so much dreaded. He was to undergo the crucial ordeal of a London audience, and he accordingly made his first appearance at Sadler's Wells, then under the management of Mr. Phelps, in the character of Hotspur ("Henry IV.") His advent was so successful that on the termination of his season he was engaged for the Princess's to support Miss Fanny Kemble, who had then returned to the stage. His abilities were now fully recognised; The Times took him up, and in com. menting on his performance of Romeo it remarked:" Rarely, if ever, has the stage witnessed such an electric and startling denouement. Acting of such high order stamps Mr. Creswick as a tragedian of the highest class." Having finished a starring tour with Miss Kemble with the greatest success, Mr. Creswick accepted an engagement at the Haymarket, then under Mr. Benjamin Webster's management, and here he remained until he entered into partner. ship with Mr. Shepherd as co-lessee and manager of the Surrey Theatre. power and refinement of his acting raised the standard of the house immensely, and it became the most popular in that portion of the metropolis. In 1862 he retired from the management, and fulfilled several starring engagements, and in 1864 he went to Drury Lane, where he achieved his grandest triumphs. From Drury he rejoined his old partner, Mr. Shepherd, at the Surrey, and it was during the three years' alliance which followed that T. P. Cooke's prize drama, "True to the Core," was produced with such eclat. For a second time he resigned the management of the Surrey to perform starring engagements in London and the provinces, and again he sailed for America for a short season at Boston, in company with Mr. James Bennett and Walter Montgomery, the three English tragedians, as they were called, attracting the largest audiences ever known in Boston. On his return, he and Mr. Phelps were engaged by Mr. F. B. Chatterton for the Princess's, and for three months these renowned actors kept the house crammed.

The

No sooner was it known that he intended paying a visit to the Antipodes than all his old friends congregated together, and soon, from the Temple Club, a

We want

own declared convictions. men of sterner mould, who, in the

picture they paint on the page of colonial history-though the design may be crude and defective-will use whole colors in place of the neutral tints which have always pervaded the eternally shifting political panorama of New South Wales. We want action-active legislation carried through all its stages to its

legitimate end-instead of bills introduced only to be withdrawn, resolutions passed to be laid aside and forgotten, votes of want of confidence following each other in such

quick order that the commodity by

this time must be nearly exhausted.

The country has suffered grievously by the late numerous changes of Government, which have not, however, given rise to any change of policy, or brought forth any new or encouraging feature in the programme. The new Ministry take up the measures of their predecessors, and either press or keep them back, as their passing or withdrawal may secure the support of their own supporters. Some opposition arises, and these questions are shelved one after the other. The result is no legislation, and new Governments at intervals of about three months.

"You may censure or change them as much as you will,

The curse of inaction will cling to them still."

One of the prominent causes of this standstill policy is to be found in the very faint expression of the vox populi upon questions of public importance. It usually finds vent from the lips of deputations, who state their case fairly, but who are either too much overcome by the weather, or too apathetic to urge their demands with any force. Minister is prepared with a few diplomatic phrases; he concurs with the speakers in almost everything they say, and promises to bring the matter under the consideration of his colleagues without delay.

The

The deputation then, according to the daily press, thank the Minister for his courtesy and withdraw, and the matter hangs over for another six months. The Minister takes no further trouble in the matter, and the deputation do not care to wait upon him a second time.

This has been notably the case in respect to the agitation to obtain an extension of the railway into the heart of the city from the Redfern

terminus. We have heard that a man and a boy were noticed on one occasion in Upper George-street with a surveyor's staff and chain, but the vision was only seen once, and has not appeared since.

As to any justification for delay in this undertaking, there is absolutely none. Every year the cost of reclamation along the proposed line will become greater, while the traffic in the main thoroughfares which should be absorbed by a railway will become heavier and more obstructive. That the extension from Redfern to the Circular Quay would be a reproductive work, must be patent to every one, and we hold it to be a crime against the people of New South Wales, on the part of any Government, to allow large sums of public money to lie idle, or returning only 4 or 5 per cent. when they could be invested to so much better adyantage. There are no steep gradients or engineering difficulties to overcome, and the extension would benefit, not the residents of Sydney alone, but all travellers by railway. Especially would the extension from Redfern to the Circular Quay benefit the up-country population in the transit of goods, by the saving of haulage from the terminus; while visitors from the interior would derive equal advantage in being carried through to their destination without the extra charge for cab-hire, for which they have to pay pretty heavily. The extension would also, no doubt, facilitate the early delivery of mails both in the suburbs and elsewhere. Why, then, is the prosecution of the work so tardy and uncertain?

The answer is plain. A factious spirit pervades our Legislative Assembly, and retards all useful

We

legislation. However important the measure before the House may be, its importance is made subservient to party or private interests. want men who will put aside personal feeling and do something for their country; who will support any Ministry who introduce measures of public utility when they are so urgently needed, looking to the measures rather than to the men; and we want a statesmen capable of holding the reins of Government with a firm hand, who will identify himself with the policy he lays down, and act upon the principle

"That because right is right, to follow right

Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence."

MY TRIP TO PICTON.

SOME wags of my acquaintance have affected to doubt the explanation I gave of my involuntary absence from home on the night of Monday, 19th November, 1877, on the ground that, if I had really been carried on to Picton, I should have been able to say something more about that charming Australian village than that the scenery is truly rural and beautiful. But I put it to the reader whether a bird's-eye view of a place an hour after dark, and an equally short glimpse of it half-an-hour before daylight, are calculated to enable one to throw much light on the subject. This is how it all came about: I went, on the eventful day, to the Redfern terminus, intending to go home to dinner by the 6.30 train, being tired and hungry after a hard day's work. I scorn the imputation that my ideas were in any way mixed up or muddled, though they were not, as it proved, exactly in the right train. I might have been a trifle absent in not noticing that none of the carriages showed the well-known faces of suburban residents, but that was all. It was wittily remarked once, by London Punch,

that the one thing preferable to presence of mind in a railway accident is absence of body. My complaint, on this unfortunate occasion, was rather absence of mind and presence of body in the wrong place. But how was I to know that the Western train having just left, it was to be immediately followed by the mail train to Picton, and that the carriage which stood invitingly open before me was not bound for Croydon? Is it anything unusual for a passenger to seat himself on a comfortable cushion, a few minutes before the advertised hour of departure, and endeavour, by a perusal of the Echo, to impress upon his mind the lessons of wisdom learned in the morning paper? I was undergoing this course of instruction, and was just wondering how it was that the Turks still held the Schipka Pass, which had been in the possession of the Russians throughout the war, when the unearthly yell which characterises the American engine-something between a fog signal and the roar of a buffalo with a sore throatstartled everyone into activity, and we were in motion. Away we went, and I was pleased to find that we did not stop at Newtown, that station being associated, in my mind, with long delays for ticket-taking purposes. We did not stop at Petersham either, which was a further cause for rejoicing; and when we also whirled past Ashfield without checking our speed, I congratulated myself that this was the through train to Croydon. Gathering up my traps, I got up and stood by the door, ready to alight in another minute, when, lo and behold! the train dashed past the platform with undiminished speed, and bore away to Burwood as if another train had been close on its heels. I caught a glimpse of my house, where the evening meal was awaiting me, and a verse of an old ballad recurred to me

"Stop, stop, John Gilpin, here's the house,"
They all at once did cry;

"The dinner's waiting-we are tired "-
Said Gilpin, "So am I."

As I had never heard of a train not stopping at Burwood, I consoled my