r the present
circumstances.

Most of our theatres are run as a mere commercial speculation by people
who care little enough about art, and probably nothing about religion.
We have had one instance of the sort of thing that might be expected,
_The Sign of the Cross_, in which a commonplace melodrama was mixed up
with hymns and pseudo-religious talk and miracles, and a ballet as
immodest, as pulse-disturbing, as any given in the theatres or the
halls. Many visited the play who had never been to a theatre before,
since they believed that it was really a religious drama outside their
ban. Some were horrified, and from being potential playgoers became
rapidly adverse to the stage and all its works; others were shocked and
disturbed and delighted by the exhibition of female flesh in the ballet,
with a result which can easily be guessed. No doubt a number of persons
believed that the piece did good to them and other folk--some people
will believe anything.

The people of taste and sensibility, who, whatever their state of
religious belief, would regard with abhorrence the exhibition on the
ordinary commercial stage of the Christ whom they were brought up to
regard as Divine, have a title to consideration. The traffic in
blasphemy that would immediately follow the suggested enlargement of the
boundary of the theatre is horrible to contemplate. Such abominations as
a combination of Christ and semi-naked women doing more or less
mitigated _danses du ventre_, would be justified as giving an Oriental
colour.

There is another side. It may be taken that our laws against blasphemy
have moved a good deal since Lord Coleridge's famous summing-up
concerning the essential mutability of the Common Law about blasphemy
which he gave in Regina _v._ Ramsey and Foote; if the restriction were
removed what power would prevent the atheists from producing distinctly
anti-Christian plays which might very well cause riots, which certainly
would prove a serious counterblast, if discreetly handled, to the
efforts of the Church and Stage enthusiasts. One can conceive every
kind of crank with money producing a play to advocate his particular
brand of religion.

We could not expect all the actors chosen to represent Christ to be
gentlemen of fine sensibility, high character, and sincere feeling for
art, like Mr Forbes Robertson; it is hardly pleasant to think of the
character in the hands of some members of the profession. One can
imagine a feelin