The piece was well mounted and well played, and there was much interest felt in comparing the new cast with the old. In a pleasant, half-sad meditation, my friend Mr. Clement Scott called up some of the old memories; the tyrant Death, he said, had played sad havoc with the original companies that did so much for this English comedy. “Far away, leagues from home, across the Atlantic sleep both Harry Montague and Amy Fawcitt. We may associate them still with Jack Wyatt and Lottie—who seemed the very boy and girl lovers that such a theme required—so bright and manly and noble, so tender, young, and handsome.” David James, as I have said, had taken the place of the oleaginous Honey, and for those who had not seen the latter, was an admirable representative of the part. The “Roses” were Miss Helen Mathews and Miss Emery. The manager, in his old part, received universal praise from the entire circle of critics. Some considered it his most perfect creation, and likened it to Got’s ‘Duc Job’ and Regnier’s ‘Annibal.’ It was certainly a most finished and original performance; but it must be confessed that the larger stage and larger house had its effect, and tempted the actor into laying greater emphasis on details of the character. An actor cannot stand still, as it were. Repetition for a hundred nights is one of the vices of the modern stage, and leads to artificiality. Under the old _répertoire_ system, when a piece was given for a few nights, then suspended to be resumed after an interval, the actor came to his part with a certain freshness and feeling of novelty. At the same time, it should be said that the play itself was accountable for this loss of effect. It was of but an ephemeral sort, and belonged to an old school which had passed away. Other players besides Irving, conscious of this weakness, have felt themselves constrained to supplement it by these broad touchings. The average “play of commerce” is but the inspiration of the moment, and engendered by it—authors, manager, actors, audience all join, as it were, in the composition. Every portion, therefore, reflects the tone of the time. But after a number of years this tone becomes lost or forgotten; the fashions of feeling and emotion, both off as well as on the stage, also pass away.