where there is one good actor, and all the other parts are inhumanly
murdered. This latter is too often the case on our stage for with
us art does little, nothing being taught systematically. The French
players, on the contrary, are thoroughly drilled, and well instructed,
in every requisite.

* * * * *


BISHOPS' SLEEVES.

To Joan it has been always conceded that she is as good as her lady
in the dark, but it is only of late years that Joan has presumed to
rival her mistress in the light. The high price of silks and satins
protected the mistress against this usurpation of her servant in the
broad day. Clad in these, she was safe, as in a coat of mail, from
the attack of the domestic aspirant, who was seldom able to obtain
possession of the outworks of fashion beyond an Irish poplin or a
Norwich crape. The silks and satins were a wall of separation, as
impenetrable as the lines of Torres Vedras, or the court hoop and
petticoat of a drawing-room in the reign of George III. The new
liberal commercial system has entirely changed the position of the
parties. The cheapness of French silks, and other articles of dress,
has placed female finery within the reach of even moderate wages, and
a kitchen-wench will not condescend to sweep the room in any thing
less than a robe of _Gros de Naples_ or _batiste_. Something must be
done on the part of the mistress to arrest the progress of invasion,
and assert the vested rights of the superior classes of female
society. Invention is the first quality of genius, and to woman it
is granted in a high degree. Thus gifted, the mistress, in a happy