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IMPOTENCE OF FREE CRITICISM
hinting here, coaxing there, anon under-
taking to give instructions as to his meting
out of praise or blame. I have known
many critics, and of the entire number
have known but one whom I beHeved to
be capable of corruption in his high office.
They were, and are, as square a set of
men as ever lived. But some of them
were hampered and handicapped by their
employers, and came short of rendering
the best service to the public because of
counting-room pressure in favor of liber-
ally advertising theatres, or against the-
atres whose patronage was less valuable.
Sometimes it has happened, also, — though
seldom anywhere, I suppose, and oftener
in New York than Boston, — that among
the actors there were friends or foes of
editors in chief or of owners, with the
shameful consequence that the critic was
bidden to be " a respecter of persons,"
and at the same time instructed to be
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