neglect amongst us of the lifelike dramatic method, alike in instruction, recreation, and mere amusement, and the disrepute and injurious and absurd prejudice attaching to everything theatrical. No doubt there had been some good cause in the low quality of most of the past and current theatrical entertainment, and the consequent secondary position of the acting world in general. He advocated even the direct intervention of the State to lift the drama effectually out of the mire into which it had so long fallen, so as to make the profession perfectly respectable, and thus restore to society one of its very best and most powerful resources.
There was lately another incident, characteristic of Reed, at the marriage of one of his daughters. He was for everybody being fully and usefully occupied in the world, and would speak poetically of The Crown of Labour, as that which was to excel and outlive all other earthly crowns. My wife, who had been much gratified by the invitation she received on this happy occasion, had a mind to specially please Reed and the young bride, by saying, in their hearing, something, as she thought, extremely complimentary. Watching, therefore, her opportunity, she dropped the remark that the young lady, with all her expectations, might fairly have aspired even to marry a title. The fair bride was, in fact, to marry only an intelligent young merchant, who had still his way to fight in the world, and who sought a wife to fight it along with him. But judge of the amazement of my better half when Reed replied that he both approved and preferred the choice the girl had made for herself. There were three classes, he went on to say, whom he would rather his
