The music-halls have beaten the theatres. The magistrate having decided
that a ballet was a stage play, Mr. Strange, lessee of the Alhambra, appealed to the Middlesex Quarter Sessions, and the Assistant-Judge and thirteen magistrates of the county unanimously decided that a ballet did not come within the pro- visions of the Act compelling theatres to take out licences. A ballet in fact is not a stage play, and the proprietor of a music-hall may exhibit anything except a regular drama. The decision is one more reason for abolishing the preposterous monopoly now conceded to existing theatres. In the face of such competition their lessees cannot afford the enormous rents now demanded for the most ill-designed public buildings in Europe. The use of the licenser may be doubtful, but that of the licence is nil, ex- cept to the few great owners whose rents are trebled by the pro- tection.
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