Of Mrs. Yates’s talents in her profession, it would be unavailing and useless to speak here. The few who remember her, cannot but allow, that in characters which required majesty, dignity of person, and of manner, she was incomparable. It is rather our province in this place to render the justice which is due to her pre-eminent intellectual endowments, her very highly cultivated mind, her polished manners, her graceful and elegant elocution, her urbanity, and universal benevolence. It was utterly impossible for a young man, hitherto ignorant of the world, and but little acquainted with the higher cast of society, to have been placed in a better school. Where she took a liking, (and no recommendation was so effectual to her as a desire of improvement) she enjoyed a particular pleasure in making a young person acquainted with those little, but inexplicable essentials, about which Lord Chesterfield has written volumes, and which the French emphatically denominate _petites morales_, _agremens_, and _bienseance_. Nobody understood them better, or practised them with greater effect. She was particularly partial to young clergymen, and as she was in no common degree delighted with the church service, and remarkably punctual in her attendance at public worship, she derived great satisfaction in instructing her young friends in the art of reading with emphasis and effect. She herself read the liturgy in the most impressive manner, and there were many clergymen who were not reluctant to acknowledge, that if they possessed this valuable accomplishment to any degree of excellence, it was imputable principally to her suggestions, taste, and judgment. For a considerable period, Mrs. Yates, in conjunction with her most intimate and beloved friend, Mrs. Brook, (hereafter to be mentioned) was manager of the Opera-house. Under the direction of their taste, the undertaking flourished to no common degree. This circumstance also increased the satisfaction of being an inmate at her house, which consequently became the resort of many distinguished foreigners. Mrs. Yates was, however, remarkably circumspect with respect to the characters of those, whom she admitted, and at that period, gave no mean proof of her discriminating sagacity, by the utter rejection of some Italian and French miscreants, who, though their services were found expedient in the Haymarket, could never find admission to the elegant parties in Stafford-row. Some of these wretches afterwards conspicuously signalized themselves on the theatre of the French Revolution, and ultimately met the fate they richly deserved. The taste of this Lady was remarkably correct, in her table, her furniture, her library, and indeed in every thing.