ALICE LOWE.
SINCE the time when the "identical horse and chaise" of the WEARE murder graced the boards of the Surrey Theatre, we have not heard that any manager has ventured on a more decided or liberal effort in catering for the taste of the town than that which resulted in the appearance of Miss ALICE Lowe at the City of London Theatre, this week. Its success appears to have been commensurate to its boldness ; since we are told that the house was filled at an early hour, not only with enthusiastic young gentlemen, but with such ladies as we may suppose most likely to be tempted by the cunning of the scene to qualify themselves at the first op- portunity for positions enviable as that of the heroine of the even- ing. Whether the effect thus produced was in accordance with the objects for which the yearly licence was granted to the establish- ment by the Magistracy, may perhaps form a fitting subject of inquiry when the next application is made for its renewal.
It is favourable to the aristocracy, that whenever a discreditable act is committed by one of their order, the lower classes gene- rally contrive, by the way in which they deal with the matter, to show that a passion for the very crime which they are so eager to denounce exists much more extensively among themselves. Thus, the exposure of the one case of Lord FesNicroirr has called up a number of persons, sufficient to fill a theatre for several suc- cessive nights, who, by their conduct towards one of the abandoned parties in the affair, have shown a disregard for public decency certainly as vicious as that which was displayed in the conduct of the personage whom they regard with so much indignation as her persecutor.
It is not upon the result of her intercourse with Lord FaaNnroax, but upon the subsequent conduct of her depraved champions, that Miss Lowz must now found her claim to be considered as a " vic- tim." She deliberately entered into an intimacy towards which no other incentives existed than lust on the one side and the desire of gain on the other, and she had therefore no right to expect forbear- ance under any circumstances that might afterwards occur. Having placed herself in a position which rendered her obnoxious to a charge of theft, it was not surprising that the man to whom she had tem- porarily sold herself, and whom she had offended, should prosecute her as a felon ; since the circumstance of two persons meeting only for the gratification of the most degrading vices, could hardly entitle either of them to expect from the other any very exalted exercise of delicacy or generosity. She came before the public, however, under different circumstances ; and the public have con- trived to seal her ruin. At the time when the wretched courtesan had just escaped froni the peril of the law, owing to the kind con- struction put upon certain facts by the Jury before whom she was arraigned, (for it certainly was a kind construction to regard snuff- boxes, under any circumstances, as probable love-tokens to a lady,) and when perhaps the only opportunity ever likely to arise of in- ducing her to fly from her former infamous pursuits was presented to such persons as might really sympathize with her condition, her eager admirers crowded round her with shouts of triumph sufficient to extinguish every awakening feeling of humiliation and repentance. She had presented herself to Lord FRANKFORT in the full confi- dence of hardened profligacy. He had neither made her what she was nor offered any direct impediments to her choice of a better life. It was reserved for the rabble, to whose taste the proprietors of the City of London Theatre have so amply ministered, to con- firm her in her depraved and miserable career.
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