The London Theatres Thirty

which , have almost obliterated the olcl distinction between the winter and the summer theatres are ¦ worth remembering at this season . If Ave glance back through the vista of some thirty years Ave shall find that special attractions were offered at

this period to the dwellers in the great city which are now no longer existing . "With , the help of a few old play bills , and some aid from our memory , Ave may contrive to remind our more matured readers of the condition of things theatrical in'August ,

1836 . The Haymarket . then under the management of Mr . Morris , and regarded at this time as the chief summer theatre in London , Avas representing the higher form of drama , with a very strong company . In Talfourd ' s tragedy the names

of Miss Ellen Tree , as Ion , and Vandenhoff , as Adrastus , were prominently conspicuous , and the revived comic opera of " John , of Paris , " which music hall proprietors might advantageously bear in mind if they obtain those privileges they seek ,

was a lively afterpiece well supported . As a specimen of the elaborate programmes to Avhich Mr . Morris then treated his patrons ,, we might refer to that of the llth of August , in the above year , and which comprised the play of " The

Tempest , " the drama of " The Youthful Queen , " a musical piece called " Second Sight , " ancl the farce of " My Husband's Ghost . " Owing to the length of tbe playbill the farce did not begin till one o ' clock in the morning , and Mr . Webster , as

Corporal Musket , and Mr . Buckstone , as Drummer Gilks , Avere called upon to exert all their powers of humour to keep their audience awake till tAvo . Fortunately for onr actors , managers more strictly observe the early closing system

now-a-days . The English Opera bill then looked pleasantly cool with the opera of " The Mountain Sylph" as the chief attraction , and in which the once popular vocalist , Miss Sherriff , was extending ber reputation as a vocalist by appearing for the first time as Eolia . The Strand AVUS nourishinc

with the lively burlesque—though it had scarcely a pun in it—of " Othello , " aud Douglas Jen-old ' s "Bill Sticker" and "Tlie Perils of Pippins " were helping W . J . Hammond to fill his theatre nightly . At Astley's DUCI-OAV ' S grand

hippodramatic spectacle of " One Hundred Battle Steeds " was drawing crowded bouses . At the Surrey , Rice , in the first bloom of his Jim Crow popviliinty , was filling Davidge's treasury , and old Vauxhall was resplendent with attractions , AAdiich were then thought irresistible , though , apart froai all asso-

The London Theatres Thirty

ciations , they would have shone but indifferently compared with the more varied allurements of the modern Cremorne . For those country cousins Avho Avere only permitted a milder kind of recreation , there AA * as little in the way of amusement

beyond Miss Linwood ' s Needlework and Madame Tussaud's WaxAVorks , unless they saw the Diorama in the Regent ' s-park , with the Church of Santa Croce illumined by shifting lights and sliadoAvs . The music halls , as Ave UOAV understand

the term , were Avholly unknoAvn , and to the Grecian or White Conduit Gardens those must have gone AVIIO wanted to enjoy a little music Avith alcoholic stimulants . It should be borne in minds that at all these places the summer season was distinguished by a class of entertainments peculiar to the period , and

annually looked forward to by the dwellers in the metropolis . With theatres wdiich enjoy the privilege of remaining open all the year round , so long as somebody can be found to undertake the managerial responsibility , this distinction is no

longer observed , and a glance at the theatrical announcements of the present month would by no means assist the inquirer to ascertain the exact progress of the Calendar . Although the population of London has become so vastly increased

during the last thirty years that an attractive entertainment ought always to secure a remunerative audience , it might , perhaps , be Avorth the consideration of modern managers to adopt one part at least of the old system , and preserve a more distinct character in the summer programmes they lmt forth .

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

THE PAX-THEISM OF THE HINDOOS . A brother describing himself as a member of a Bengal lodge , asks in a long letter numerous questions respecting Eastern Pantheism . There is only one of these questions to which my reading enables me to give a satisfactory answer . The question

relates to the kind of Pantheism adopted by the Hindoos . There are two kinds ; one kind is mystical , the other kind is atheistical , as is shoAvn by the folloAving passage taken from a volume of the " Dictionnaire des Sciences Philosophiques , " which happens to be within my reach : — "Le premier systeme

orthodoxe , fidele a Tesprit des vedas , tend ouvertement a sacrifier lo nature a Dieu , et se jette aux dernieres extremites du mysticisme ; le second , le systeme Sankhy a fait effort pour se derober aux pentes mystiques sur lesquelles toute philosophie orientale tend a glisser , et , dans son naturalisme hardi , il