Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][merged small]

No. 11. VOL. 1.] LONDON, Friday, March 14, 1828. [PRICE 6d.

FALL OF THE BRUNSWICK THEATRE!

THE THEOLOGY OF THE REVEREND MASTER'S MATE, Q. Ć. MITH, OF PENZANCE, ALSO THROWN DOWN WITH IT.

[ocr errors]

THE fall of the Brunswick Theatre, on the noon of the 28th ult. with the immediate destruction of a dozen lives, and the serious wounding of near a score of persons, is a subject alike painful and calamitous. We do not insert it here as a matter of news, Messrs. the Commissioners of Stamps, or we might have caught it for that purpose the first week. Nor shall we proceed to complaint upon the architectural part of the disaster. That will receive a better examination elsewhere. But the ground, on which we do proceed to notice this subject, is theological: we examine the hold which superstition has fixed on this disaster. Many weak minded, superstitious people will conclude, that it fell because it was a theatre; forgetting that all the other theatres have not fallen. The Reverend Master's Mate mentioned at the head of this article, has concluded, that it fell because the workmen were made to work on it on a Sunday; forgetting also, that men are employed at the other theatres every Sunday: and that rehearsals on a Sunday are very common. The cause of the fall was unquestionably a mechanical defect in the building, or a pressure too great for its support: and the power of mechanism is also unquestionably or positively known to be superior to the power either of god or devil, or of all the gods and devils piled together. We do not write irreverently of the great mechanism of the universe; when we write of gods and devils, we allude to the contemptible idols of mankind, not the least contemptible of which is the god of this preaching Master's Mate.

We are no great admirers of the theatrical profession, viewing it as a corresponding principle with that mass of fiction, of which all Printed by R. Carlile, 62, Fleet-street.

No. 1.-VOL. I.

theology is a part, by which man is so much degraded. Therefore, we come impartially to this subject, not seeking todefend the propriety of theatrical exhibitions against the theatrico-theological exhibitions of the reverend master's mate, not seeking to defend one craft against the assaults of another craft; but wishing to promote more truth at the expence of both.

The Reverend Master's Mate, G. C. Smith, who has occasionally promoted himself to the rank of a preaching lieutenant, was near the Brunswick Theatre, when it fell, and was active in his assistance, in rescuing many from the ruins. In common with every grateful spirit in the country, we thank him for this kind of assistance; but we must express our abhorrence, our detestation of the religious hypocrisy, imposture, and cant, which he nas mixed up with the calamity, and expose the flagrancy of his religious vices.

We have heard enough of this Reverend Master's Mate, to be safe with our veracity, in pronouncing him a religious impos. We once called him a religious vagabond, got scolded for te term; but could not retract it, nor have we since found any reason for retracting, but many for confirming the assertion. To our perceptions, he is clearly a vagrant, without any other ostensible means of living, than that of encouraging and preying upon the religious vices of the country. He has a species of ubiquity, and go where you will, you seem to have this vagrant, in his religious exercises, about you. We met him last year in Bath, in Blackburn, and in Preston. It was a report of some flagrant religious lies, in the exposure of which we were interested, that first brought us into quarrel with him. We have since sought evidence as to his origin and real character, and we find nothing in that character that has, or ought to have any association with morality. He is a man that hath devoured the widow and the fatherless, of which some particulars may be obtained at Bromley in Kent. He is a man addicted to excesses in gluttony and the bottle: and if he be sincerely religious, we should class him with that first of the four classes of mankind, which unites an excess of immorality with an excess of religion; or, as we presume, he will most religiously acknowledge himself to be a great sinnera very wicked religious man. We write in the moral and not in the religious sense of that expression.

On our more immediate topic, we first find the Reverend Master's Mate taking advantage of the terrified state of mind of a young female, who had narrowly escaped fom the ruins of the Brunswick Theatre with life, to inflict upon her a religious chastisement. Nothing but that brutal and insensate feeling which religion creates, could have induced such an attack at such a serious moment. The young creature fainting, under dreadfully alarmed and excited feelings, wanted the cordial of sympathy and congratulation on her narrow escape, and not the outrage of reli

gious condemnation, for having been in a theatre. We will give the Reverend Master's Mate's own account of the case.

the

"I saw a female death-like figure bursting from the further end of the ruins, and filled with horror, not knowing what to do; some men ran to her; I called out to them to help her over the ruins; they brought her to the edge of the floor, near the wall of the portico, and I raised her up on the floor, the people still digging in the hole by the door-way to release poor labourers, lest the ruins should fall on them. I entreated her to sit down a minute: her hair was dishevelled-her apparel variously torn -the side of her face covered with blood, and she supported her head, against my arm until I could get a clear passage for her to pass. She cried out, Oh, do let me go; oh, send some one to iny sister's to say I'm alive; oh, how grateful I ought to be that my life is preserved!'

"I said, 'Yes, it is a mercy, indeed, you will have to thank God for it as long as you live; you would not die in a Theatre of all other places, I hope you will obtain some other mode of life. It's a wonder to me how you could have been spared; bless God for it.' She grew faint, and I called out to the men below to stop digging, and form a lane to hand her along."

In such a case as the foregoing, the name of God is most horribly abused. If the Deity, taking it in the acceptation of an active personal being, be called in as the actor, in one part of such a scene, he must be also called in as the actor and director in all. If he save one being or more in a shipwreck, he must have caused that wreck to produce the secondary interference; so if God saved Mr. Farren, Miss Yates and others, at the fall of the Brunswick Theatre, God must be charged with the wanton destruction of the Theatre, and with the killing and wounding of so many persons as were there killed and wounded. If God save one or more men in a battle, God must also design that battle, and the major evil, to produce the minor salvation from that evil. Religious people never reason on both sides of a question; and, in the name of humanity, philosophy, truth, and common sense, we denounce and renounce the idea of such a God, as that which this Rev. Master's Mate has here set forth and we reprobate his conduct in thus addressing a female in so distressing a situation.

Secondly, we have another specimen of the Rev. Master's Mate's theological labours, in the following paragraphs. We introduce them, to set forth, the utter wretchedness of theological reasoning, and shall subsequently offer a few words by way of comment upon them-

"This is not, however, a time to bring such a subject forward.-What most unfeignedly affects my heart is the lives lost in a playhouse, where, I believe, very few persons would choose to die if they had a choice. A place evidently devoted to far other themes than the importance of time, the solemnity of death, and the tremendous consequences of a day of judg ment, when every man must give an account of himself to God of the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad. It certainly struck me, when removing the wreck of canvas-painted scenes, that far other doc

[ocr errors]

trines would have been inculcated in the Brunswick Theatre than those of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he said "Ye must be horn again."— "Except a man be born again he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven," and Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish," and "If ye die in your sins ye cannot be saved."-Certainly I could not but reflect when working about the ruins, and the dead bodies, that so extraordinary had been the haste to put up this Theatre, that even the holy day of God, the hallowed Sabbath, had been forgotten, and the sound of labour heard within the walls for some Sabbaths of late. Nor could I forget that after hearing repeatedly of this lamented profanation of the Lord's Day-last Sunday, I observed from my back window, the Theatre, at 11 o'clock, fully lighted up with gas, as for an evening's performance. I certainly thought those things will not do. "Who ever, in the history of the world, hardened his heart and prospered against God?" "He is a jealous God.""God is not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," is the declaration of holy writ. In the midst of judgment, however, God has remembered mercy-all are not dead-all are not killed! Two men have been in the Theatre-one is taken, the other left! Had it happened on Monday night, how many more lives would have perished. The following is the advertisement for the evening's performance when the Theatre fell.

"NEW ROYAL BRUNSWICK THEATRE.

"Will continue open every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, during Lent.

"The following Entertainments having been received with unbounded applause by crowded audiences, will be repeated THIS EVENING, and on Saturday :---A Romantic Melodrama, in three Acts, called THE MER. MAIDEN'S WELL. A new Ballet called THE HAPPY RETURN. To conclude with a new Musical Entertainment, called AN UNCLE TOO MANY. Doors to be opened at Six o'Clock; to commence at a Quarter before Seven.

"Had the Almighty, therefore, permitted the roof to have continued until eight o'clock at night, when the house would probably have been filled (as hundreds said they were going there), perhaps one thousand immortal souls would suddenly have been launched, unprepared by an interest in the precious blood and all-sufficient righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, for an eternal world. God, is therefore, to be glorified in his great mercy and goodness. His warning will be heard, but it is a merciful one. The prophet says, 'Shall there be an evil in the city and the Lord have done it ? and another Scripture says, The Lord's voice crieth unto the city.' The voice of the Lord is powerful; may those who are in their graves of folly and sin hear it, and seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near.'

[ocr errors]

"If any one shall be disposed to hug themselves in fancied security, and think how much better tlfey are than the people who have been killed in the Brunswick Theatre, I would recommend the words of Jesus to them, when some told him of eighteen persons on whom the Tower of Siloam fell,' he said, 'Think ye that they were greater sinners than all men that dwell at Jerusalem? I tell you nay; but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.'"

If people had a choice where they should die, I presume, there would be no more objection to a Theatre than to any other place. It is not a question worthy of consideration. Even upon the prin

ciple of a future state of rewards and punishments, if the life has been moral and good, it matters not where the body dies.

Throughout, this Rev. Master's Mate makes this God the author of the calamity. "Had," says he, "the Almighty, therefore permitted the roof to have continued until eight o'clock at night, when the house would probably have been filled, (as hundreds said they were going there,) perhaps one thousand immortal souls would suddenly have been launched, unprepared by an interest in the precious blood and all sufficient righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, for an eternal world. God, is therefore, to be glorified in his great mercy and goodness." This is as much as to say, that God thought it best to throw down the roof at noon, in preference to the evening; and God, of course, had his messenger, the Reverend Master's Mate, at hand, to read an insolent religious lecture, to the mangled and distracted persons. An admirable theology! It would be something to laugh at, were it not for the tricks and the pocket-picking, which these religious messengers unwhippedly practise upon the credulity of those who are weak enough to be duped by them.

Our Reverend Master's Mate has made a rich harvest of this godly fall of the Brunswick Theatre. His preaching place has been crowded to excess, and neatly has he touched the pockets through the medium of the superstitious and frightened mind. He has also got up a meeting at the Freemason's Tavern, under the pretence of getting an asylum erected for destitute seamen. Here hewas so big with suitable incidents, that he cried most religiously. He had the subject of the fall of the Brunswick Theatre and the convenient hint, that God and the devil had long been struggling for the possession of this spot of ground on which the theatre was built. That God had the first possession of the ground in a chapel that was built upon it. That the devil beat God for once, and got the chapel turned into a theatre. That God struggled again, and got the place converted to a sugar-baker's premises. The devil determined not to be easily beaten, got the Royalty Theatre built there. God caught the devil napping one night, and burnt the Royalty to the ground. The devil in the spirit of revenge, built up the New Brunswick Theatre. And God is master at this moment, in having thrown it all down again! It would be well, if this God and devil would come on Tower Hill and fight the matter out fairly, for the possession of this contested spot of ground, and not so bebother, bewilder, begod, and bedevil so many peaceable people about their foolish quarrels.

The Reverend Master's Mate wants to get the ground for the Asylum for Destitute Seamen. The subscribers for this purpose had better have some guarantee, that the Reverend Master's Mate and his God will be a fair match in beating off the devil, in all future encounters, or else get the devil to acknowledge that his purpose is served in the agency of the Reverend Master's Mate.

« AnteriorContinuar »