cording to the testimony of Dr. Burney. Frederica Wynne, when six years old, executed the lessons of Scarlatti with precision. Mozart, at the age of four, was not only capable of executing lessons on the harpsicord, but actually composed some in an easy style and taste.* But William Crouch, born at Norwich, July 5, 1775, is perhaps the most celebrated instance of early proficiency; he having of his own accord, and without any previous instruction, played a popular tunet on an organ constructed by his father, when only two years and three weeks old, and a voluntary in about a month after.

But it is surely far more difficult to create an actor than a musician. In the latter case it is only necessary to possess one sense in an exquisite degree, and this is not unfrequently obtained at the expence sometimes, perhaps, of the understanding. But to make a great actor, the union of a variety of qualifications becomes absolutely necessary: voice, manner, memory, judgment, person, and mental acquirements. To these are to be added several other requisites, such as dancing and fencing; and to complete the whole, music itself should assuredly be included.

By means of all the necessary accomplishments, added to a free and easy air, young Betty is enabled not only to tread the stage with elegance, but occasionally to engage in combat with a degree of science

Philosophical Transactions, vol. Ix, for 1770.

+ God save the King.

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that

that astonishes even an expert swordsman. None of our veteran actors exhibit a greater degree of self-possession: this is requisite in every performer, and in a hero indispensable. He himself also is carried away by the enthusiam of the moment, and appears to feel as if the scene were real;* in short, his powers are so various, that he in some respects resembles the "admirable Crichton."

Such is our description of this new Roscius at the present moment. What he may be hereafter, depends upon his parents and himself. They must. be already in possession of affluence from his earnings, which have been beyond example abundant; and whether it be intended that he should retire wholly from the stage, or adopt it as a permanent profession, something should be done on the score of education; for it is evident that more pains have been necessarily taken to cultivate his memory than to instruct his mind, and that he has hitherto become better acquainted with words than with ideas.

* The author of this article was behind the scenes, and at his side, when he retired, as Douglas, to inflict the bloody wound on his forehead, by means of a little red paint, and can testify. that every muscle of his countenance was agitated by the same passions that were likely to be displayed in real life. In short, he appeared for the time to conceive the whole to be true.

In 1805, young Betty got from fifty to one hundred pounds per night. In 1728, the celebrated Lavinia Fenton, afterwards Duchess of Bolton, for a salary of fifteen shillings deserted the Hay Market for Covent Garden; and deemed herself enriched when, after performing Polly in the Beggar's Opera, she was raised to thirty shillings per week.

It

It appears absolutely necessary, therefore, for the benefit of his health, as well as of his studies, that he should retire for a time from public life. The warmest of his admirers cannot maintain that he has as yet attained the climax of excellence. Much remains to be accomplished; and when the novelty of precocious talents is gone, other supports, and those of a more durable kind, will be wanting. Let it be recollected, that all our great actors endeavoured by study to add to the advantages, or supply the defects of education; and that although they have held in no small estimation

"The scenic triumph and the loud applause;

The robe of purple, and the people's gaze;"

yet even they have at times experienced the caprice of fortune. It is a well-known fact, that the greatest of our players, although backed by nature and Shakespeare, was overborne for a while by the torrent of Rich and Pantomime, and that he retired for a time from mere disgust. By unceasing study and attention, however, he rendered himself a complete master of his art, and in his turn triumphed over the muscular exertions of flying Harlequins, the mechanical dexterity of showmen and scene-shifters, and all the pageantry introduced by this rival.

It is thus, and thus only, that young Betty can ever attain excellence; and it is by these means alone that he may at length be enabled to equal, for it is hardly possible to suppose that he will ever excel the veteran actors of the last age. Premature L13

powers,

powers, after blazing forth like a meteor, have suddenly become dim, as if nature had been exhausted. It is by a judicious course of study, by toil and industry alone, that lasting fame can be attained. With the assistance of these, young Roscius may attain the summit of his art; while without it, like Master Crouch, he may prove but the wonder of a day.

REV. HENRY BATE DUDLEY.

IN a country like Great Britain, the government of which is linked together by the sacred ties of religion, the character of a clergyman will at all times find from society a sort of reverential awe, an awe which is inspired from the most virtuous of motives; so that the divine truths which he is chosen to disseminate, must flow from his lips with a double effect.

Among the most dissolute in society, there is not one who is callous to the voice of Omnipotence. However he may outwardly affect the sneer of contempt when the word of God is dealt out from the pulpit, that stern monitor, conscience, which is implanted within his breast, is present to his view, and in spight of his mockery compels him to acknowledge the existence of a Creator.

In all ages then the cloth has been held as respectable; and its professors have found in all

countries

countries that deference and regard which is due to them as the ministers of God.

The subject of our present memoir is a clergyman. He is the son of the Rev. Mr. Bate, of Worcester, a clergyman of the greatest respectability, who conducted a seminary for the education of youth; and had to boast of having instructed the sons of the principal nobility and gentry in his neighbourhood.

The amiableness of Mr. Bate's character endeared him to all acquaintance. The present. Mr. Bate Dudley, (who took. the name of Dudley in consequence of the will of a friend, who left him an estate), was the second child of twelve born to his father in wedlock. Upon the death of the old gentleman, the younger branches of the family were left in some measure unprovided for; it therefore ought to be mentioned to the honour of the fraternal feelings and beneficence of Mr. Bate Dudley, that he appropriated the whole of the emoluments arising from the living of North Fambridge, which he held very early in life, to the maintenance and education of his orphan brothers and sisters. Actions like this are traits in the characters of men which the world know how to appreciate, and to the mind possessing such benevolence, must be a source of intellectual delight which none but feeling hearts can know.

At the proper age, Mr. Bate Dudley was entered of Queen's College, Oxford, where having finished his studies, he removed from thence, and was or