by frightful hisses and outcries, equal, perhaps, to what were ever heard at a Roman amphitheatre.”  The author, however, having in part tamed this wild audience by his flattery, secured ultimately its absolute favour by humouring its prejudices after the grossest fashion.  He brought upon the stage a figure “with black eyebrows, a ribbon of an ell long under his chin, a bag-peruke immoderately powdered, and his nose all bedaubed with snuff.  What Englishman could not know a Frenchman by this ridiculous figure?” The Frenchman was presently shown to be, for all the lace down every seam of his coat, nothing but a cook, and then followed severe satire and criticism upon the manners and customs of France.  “The excellence and virtues of English beef were extolled, and the author maintained that it was owing to the qualities of its juice that the English were so courageous and had such a solidity of understanding, which raised them above all the nations in Europe; he preferred the noble old English pudding beyond all the finest ragouts that ever were invented by the greatest geniuses that France ever produced.”  These “ingenious strokes” were loudly applauded by the audience, it seems, who, in their delight at the abuse lavished upon the French, forgot that they came to condemn the play and to uphold the ancient liberties of the stage.  From that time forward, the Abbe states, “the law was executed without the least trouble; all the plays since have been quietly heard, and either succeeded or not according to their merits.”

When Garrick visited Paris he declined to be introduced to the Abbe Le Blanc, “on account of the irreverence with which he had treated Shakespeare.”  There can, indeed, be no doubt that the Abbe, although he wrote amusing letters, was a very prejudiced person, and his evidence and opinions touching the English stage must be received with caution.  So far as can be ascertained, especially by study of the “History of the Stage” (compiled by that industrious clergyman, Mr. Genest, from the playbills in the British Museum), but few new plays were produced in the course of the season immediately following the passing of the Licensing Act; certainly no new play can be found answering the description furnished by the Abbe with due regard to the period he has fixed for its production.  Possibly he referred to the “Beaux’ Stratagem,” in which appear a French officer and an Irish-French priest, and which was certainly represented some few nights after the condemnation of Mr. Jacob’s “Nest of Plays.”  Farquhar’s comedy was then thirty years old, however.  Nor has the Abbe done full justice to the public opposition offered to the Licensing Act.  At the Haymarket Theatre a serious riot occurred in October, 1738, fifteen months after the passing of the measure.  Closed against the English actors the theatre was opened by a French company, armed with a license from the Lord Chamberlain.  A comedy, called “L’Embarras de Richesses,” was announced for representation