, Germany, Austria, and other countries of Europe. It was shown,
that in France twelve typically efficient theatres received from
public bodies an annual subsidy amounting in the aggregate to
L130,000. The wording of the petition and the arguments employed by
the petitioners were applicable to drama as well as to opera. In fact,
the case was put in a way which was more favourable to the pretensions
of drama than to those of opera. One argument which always tells
against the establishment of a publicly-subsidised opera-house in
London does not affect the establishment of a publicly-subsidised
theatre. Opera is an exotic in England; drama is a native product, and
has exerted in the past a wider influence and has attracted a wider
sympathy than Italian or German music.

The London County Council, after careful inquiry, gave the scheme of
1898 benevolent encouragement. Hope was held out that a site for
either a theatre or an opera-house might be reserved "in connection
with one of the contemplated central improvements of London." Nothing
in the recent history of the London County Council gives ground for
doubting that it will be prepared to give practical effect to a
thoroughly matured scheme.

Within the Council the principle of the municipal theatre has found
powerful advocacy. Mr John Burns, who is not merely the spokesman of
the working classes, but is a representative of earnest-minded
students of literature, has supported the principle with generous
enthusiasm. The intelligent artisans of London applaud his attitude.
The London Trades Council passed resolutions in the autumn of 1901
recommending the erection of a theatre by the London County Council,
"so that a higher standard of dramatic art might be encouraged and
made more accessible to the wage-earning classes, as is the case in
the State and municipal theatres in the principal cities on the
Continent." The gist of the argument could hardly be put more
pintally. [Transcriber's Note: so in original.]

Of those who have written recently in favour of the scheme of a
municipal theatre many speak with the authority of exceptional
experience. The actor Mr John Coleman, one of the last survivors of
Phelps's company at Sadler's Wells Theatre, argued with cogency,
shortly before his death in 1903, that the national credit owed it to
itself to renew Phelps's experiment of the middle of last century;
public intervention was imperative, seeing that no other means were
for