favoured me with an opinion? All these ideas rushed upon my mind, before I could collect myself to stoop and recover the letter still lying upon the ground before me; but which, upon actual examination of the envelope, (whose seal was already broken,) I discovered to be superscribed-" Samuel Whitbread, Esq." -and the contents as follow:

SIR,

"Having taken the liberty of addressing myself "to you before, upon a similar occasion, (altho' not honoured "with any answer) I apprehend I may be deemed too presuming "in thus troubling you again, notwithstanding the warm-recom"mendation of my friend, and your kind assurance, at the time, "that his request should be attended to. I, however, can't but " believe, from the circumstances then stated, that if any thing "else, judged better entitled to your patronage, should be offered, "it would afford you pleasure to patronise it: and as such, Sir, "I have most respectfully to intreat your countenance for a "Farce, now at Drury Lane, and which is of great, consequence "to me, and I trust will not be found unworthy of your notice."It is called "The Hoax," and was sent to the Theatre about "five weeks ago, in consequence of a very obliging letter from "the Secretary, and his assurance that it should be attended to: "but not having heard of it since, my anxiety, and a hope to "interest and engage your powerful protection for it, has induced me to take this liberty, for which I have to solicit your pardon. "I have the Honour to be, Sir,

"with due respect,

"Your most obedient

"Humble Servant

"S. S De

Cottage, near

"

"19th Feb.

There were three conclusions which I now

drew from Rejection the Sixth, accompanied, as

1st.

it was, by this extraordinary enclosure. That Mr. Whitbread, whatever pleasure he had derived from the perusal of my letter, had derived none from that of my Piece; and that he had consequently dispatched it, along with a score or two besides it might be, all of which he had read with equal care, for the verdict of the theatrical censors; making only the small mistake of putting a letter, to which I had no manner of claim, into "Act III. Scene 2." of my Play, instead of into his coat-pocket.* 2ndly. That the aforesaid theatrical censors had at length unwittingly hit upon a method of convincing me, by nothing less than demonstration itself, of the veracity of their claims to "much attention" in reading the pieces upon whose dramatic fitness they decided: for it was impossible to suppose otherwise, than that it was by a most uncommon accident they had overlooked the two pages of the Piece in question, from between which the Letter of S. S

* The original of this Letter is now in the Publisher's hands, in order that "S. S De- -," may re-possess himself of his rightful property, if he desires it, upon proof satisfactorily made of his title thereto. Or, as the deceased Patriot was as liable to mistakes with regard to one author as another, and as it is clearly possible, therefore, that he might have placed my Letter in the leaves of "The Hoax" at the same time that he deposited this gentleman's within those of my Play,-perhaps an exchange, by which we might mutually recover our addresses to the said Patriot, would be agreeable to both parties.

De, slipped into my custody, which letter, in consequence of such accident, they had not discovered. 3rdly. That my former most exalted notions of the care and nicety with which the same theatrical censors handled the productions entrusted to them, were now irrefragably confirmed: for had not those gentlemen minutely weighed and considered every couplet, every line, of my luckless manuscript, (the two pages alluded to alone excepted,) without disturbing the quietude of a document, which my ruder fingers, in the simple opening of the said manuscript, had immediately brought to the ground?

Not

And now, reader, thou wilt conclude a very furor dramaticus must have obtained possession. of the unhappy writer thus making a confession. of his offendings, when he tells thee that all his past experience did not reform him from the "cacoëthes scribendi"-for the Theatres. but that my poor "Play" was returned to its shelf, with little idea that any future circumstances could by possibility recal it from its resting place. But the mania, most unhappily, seized on me under a new form, and with aggravated symptoms: for I, who had been content with infusing a small portion of the vis comica into my first drama-which in truth might have been called "Smiles and Tears" with as strict

propriety as the happy and accepted Piece performed to applauding audiences under that appellation-L, reader, was now so utterly abandoned by my better genius as to indite a FARCE! The consequences thou wilt conjecture: it was dispatched, in nothing short of absolute insanity thou may'st well say, to both Houses, and produced Rejections Seventh and Eighth.

From the period of these rejections, until nearly four years subsequently to the return of my first piece in the society of a certain epistle neither proper to its contents nor of right pertaining to its author, my Muse, finding her "occupation gone," slumbered, or, more properly to speak, became so nearly torpid, that the every-day concerns of life at last began to possess that relish for me, which, I regret to say, during the rage for theatrical acceptance, they had in great degree lost. How the return of my distemper was brought about, though painful to relate, it becomes a part of the duty I have imposed upon myself to declare.

Calling one morning upon the friend and former school-fellow before-mentioned, among other kind enquiries after my welfare and pursuits, he asked-" Well, and how goes the Piece?" I frankly told him, that I had given up all thoughts of ever witnessing its performance; and then for the first time apprised him that I

had farther sinned in the production of a Farce, whose dramatis personæ, any more than those of the Play, I never expected to see actually personified. "What, my friend," he exclaimed, "write a Play and a Farce, and not send them to both Theatres alternately every season, until one or both are accepted!" “ Nay,” returned I, "you must be conscious that you are now perfectly extravagant." "Not at all, not at all," he replied: "remember, my good friend, how my convictions appeared to be verified, that your piece had not been read: though I must own myself a little out in my calculations as to the service O

might have rendered it.-And now mark me: did you send both your dramas, to both Houses, not once but thrice, in each successive season, you might be confident that neither the names of the pieces themselves, nor that of their author, would ever strike the theatrical critic as having been previously before them: and thus would you receive ex-officio rejections ad infinitum, until at last-hey! my friend!-'tis a complete lottery, take my word for it; and who knows but a prize might one day turn up for you?-Believe me, I do not blame the censors so much, as, from what I have said, you might imagine me inclined to do: why, man, it would be the labour of their lives, not

L