foreign theatres, on the contrary, and especially in France, the whole performance is more equal, and consequently more agreeable.  There is perhaps less difference than is commonly supposed between the best performers and those in the next class.  Whatever the difference be, it is an inconvenience and an imperfection that ought to be palliated; but we aggravate it.  The first-rate actor always does his best, because the audience expect it, and reward him with their applause; but no one cares for, or observes, the performer of second-rate talents:  whether he be perfect in his part, and exert himself to the utmost, or be slovenly and negligent throughout, he is unpraised and unblamed.  The general effect, therefore, of our tragedies, is very unsatisfactory; for that is far greater, where all the characters are tolerably well supported, than where there is one good actor, and all the other parts are inhumanly murdered.  This latter is too often the case on our stage for with us art does little, nothing being taught systematically.  The French players, on the contrary, are thoroughly drilled, and well instructed, in every requisite.

* * * * *

BISHOPS’ SLEEVES.

To Joan it has been always conceded that she is as good as her lady in the dark, but it is only of late years that Joan has presumed to rival her mistress in the light.  The high price of silks and satins protected the mistress against this usurpation of her servant in the broad day.  Clad in these, she was safe, as in a coat of mail, from the attack of the domestic aspirant, who was seldom able to obtain possession of the outworks of fashion beyond an Irish poplin or a Norwich crape.  The silks and satins were a wall of separation, as impenetrable as the lines of Torres Vedras, or the court hoop and petticoat of a drawing-room in the reign of George III.  The new liberal commercial system has entirely changed the position of the parties.  The cheapness of French silks, and other articles of dress, has placed female finery within the reach of even moderate wages, and a kitchen-wench will not condescend to sweep the room in any thing less than a robe of Gros de Naples or batiste.  Something must be done on the part of the mistress to arrest the progress of invasion, and assert the vested rights of the superior classes of female society.  Invention is the first quality of genius, and to woman it is granted in a high degree.  Thus gifted, the mistress, in a happy moment, conceived the idea of bishops’ sleeves, an article of dress which precludes all hope or chance of imitation in the kitchen.  A muffled cat might as well attempt to catch mice, as a maid-servant to go about the business of the house in bishops’ sleeves.  She could not remove the tea-equipage from the table without the risk of sweeping the china upon the floor; if she handed her master a plate, he must submit to have his head wrapped up in her sleeve;