TOPICS OF THE DAY.
EXETER HALL • FIRST PERFORMANCE OF THE RASTER SEASON.
EXETER HALL opened for the season on Tuesday last. The au- dience was not numerous; but the performers exerted themselves, nevertheless with both fire and spirit. Let Mr. Buckingham be on the alert, else the Foreign and British exhibitions in the Strand may prove dangerous rivals to those in Hanover Square. The amusement of Tuesday evening was dressing up a bugaboo; and both the dressers and the frightened parties (the willingly deceived) played into each other's hands to admiration. The simple material of the ghost was the very innocent addi- tional grant to Maynooth College: If we are to have Roman Catholic clergymen in Ireland, it is certainly desirable that they should be men of cultivated minds. The grant to Maynooth is intended to promote this object; and, when viewed in the broad day-light of common sense, it cannot inspire apprehensions in the veriest old woman of the Three Kingdoms. But in the hands of the managers at Exeter Hall, what with cross-lights and blue-lights, no turnip lantern elevated on a sheet-enveloped pole ever looked half so terrible. The additional grant to May- nooth was a breach of the constitution—forcing free-born Pro- testants to pay tribute to idolatry. The grant to Maynooth was buying gunpowder for another Guy Fawkes, to blow up Queen, Lords, and Commons, with Prince Albert into the bargain. Nay, the grant to Maynooth was enough to pull down the vengeance of Heaven on this unhappy land. The gentle auditors were terrified beyond measure by these - Boanerges denunciations. They huddled together, Ire-nab-1in ag, over, like villagers round a winter-fire listening to a tale of ' Revenge against Murder. Yet " 'twas a pleasing fear " : not one of them went into hysterics, or ate a morsel less at dinner ; and each and all, though morally certain that the additional grant to- Maynooth will be carried, slumbered that night without the slightest fear that the new Houses of Parliament will ever be blown up by- Popish gunpowder, or that fire and brimstone will one day rain down on idolatrous London as erst on the Cities of the Plain.
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