CHARLES KEAN played Sir Giles Overreach on Saturday. We did
not think it worth while to see the performance; feeling sure that, a an intellectual point of view, it would be nothing worth. That we were right in such anticipation, has been proved by the opinion of to enlightened and just critic, in the .Morning Chronicle, whose elaborate analysis of Mr. C. KEAN'S acting in Hamlet awl Richard-corroborating our own estimate of the value of both performances-enables us to rely with confidence on the accuracy of his judgment. This writer, whose patience is equal to his ability, has been at the pains to discri. minate between the good and bad points of Mr. C. KEAN'S Sir Gifu: and its minuteness prevents our quoting from the article with advas. tage. The sum and substance is conveyed in this brief sentence... " His Sir Giles Overreach is as devoid of soul, and as full of stage. trick, as his other performances."
This hottest and independent course forms an honourable contrast to the subserviency of a portion of the press. The influence of Manage: BUNN, and of the private friends of the actor, has prevailed to an ex. tent that is really surprising, as well as discreditable, in London. But the puffing system seems to have been still more successful io Edinburgh. A correspondent actually writes to us from thence, under. an impression that not one Edinburgh newspaper dares speak the truth, to complain of the "slavish adulation heaped upon the performances" at the theatre there ; and in particular the systematic puffery of Mr. CHARLES KEAN. Its effects must indeed be extraordinary ; for the good folks have been made to believe the young actor to be " a genius of the first magnitude." Our plainspoken opinion of his merits, we are told, astonished some, while others were more gratified than sur. prised. He is to play at Edinburgh in the beginning of April; and now the bellows are again at work, to fill the sail of the adventurer; but this time he may find the tide of public opinion not quite so strong with him. Partisanship in politics is bad ; in theatrical matters it becomes ludicrous. A Ministerial blow-pipe is a mean instrument enough ; but a Manager's puff-trumpet is a ridiculous toy-tool. Ass last effort, we shall expect the blank walls round town to exhibit in white-wash characters that he who runs may read-" See Charles Kean." We are really sorry to see a young man of talent, though mis- directed, mixed up with such miserable humbug.
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