But above all the absurdities connected with this national weakness, stands that of the public prints.  So much importance is given by the newspapers to every thing relating to the histrionic art, that we are daily informed of the whereabout of all the third-rate performers of the minor theatres; that “Mr. Smith, of Sadler’s Wells, is engaged to Mr. Ducrow for the ensuing season;” or that “Miss Brown, belonging to the ballet department of the Surrey theatre, has sprained her ankle.”  While two thirds of a leading print are occupied with details of the Reform Bill, or a debate on some constitutional question,—­or while the foreign intelligence of two sieges and a battle is concentrated with a degree of terseness worthy a telegraph, half a column is devoted to the plot of a new melo-drama at the Coburg; or to a cut and dried criticism upon the nine hundredth representation of Hamlet—­beginning with the “immortal bard,” and ending with the waistcoats of the grave-digger!—­The Opera, a Novel.

* * * * *

EUGENE ARAM.

The recollection of this man is still preserved at Lynn, in Norfolk, at which town he was for some time usher at the grammar-school.  A small room at the back of the house, in which he slept, was, until these last few years, (when it was pulled down and rebuilt,) mysteriously pointed to by the little urchins as they passed up to bed of a cold, ghost-enticing night, as the chamber in which the “usher, who was hanged for murder,” was used to sleep.

The tradition which remains of his character is, that he was “a man of loneliness and mystery,” sullen and reserved; that on half-holy-days, and when his duties would allow, he strayed solitary and cheerless, as if to avoid the world, amongst the flat uninteresting marshes which are situated on the opposite side of the river Ouse.

At Lynn the character of Aram was, until his apprehension, unexceptionable; but after that event, circumstances were then called to mind which seemed to indicate a naturally dark character; but whether these were all strictly founded in truth, or magnified suspicions arising from the appaling circumstances of the crime of which he was convicted, I am unable to determine.  The following, derived from unquestionable authority, having been related by Dr. L., who was master of the grammar-school at the time, may serve as a sample:—­there can be no doubt but that the worthy Dr. himself believed his suspicions well founded, as he used to tremble when he related it.  It was customary for the parents of the scholars, on an appointed day, to dine with the master, at which time it was expected they would bring with them the amount of their bills.  It was late at night, after one of such meetings, that Dr. L. was awakened by a noise at his bed-room door; he rose up, and going into the passage which led to the staircase, but which was not in the direct