1826. NEW YEAR'S DAY IN NEW YORK. 323 not on such an occasion altogether indifferent to their toilets. The street door is left open, and refreshments are laid out in an inner room. Every gentleman of their acquaintance who may have a leg to stand on, or a carriage to ride in, presents himself in the course of the morning to shake hands and to wish his fair friends and their families a happy New Year. The whole city is alive and radiant with good-humour, smiles on every face, and the spirit of good-fellowship brightening every eye. The streets present a most animating sight, swarming as they do with well-dressed men hurrying in every direction in and out of the hospitable doors, snatching a hasty grip of hands from friends and acquaintances as they make their way through the moving crowd, and almost shouting as they pass the benediction of the day. In the utterance of this day's good wishes old friendships are confirmed, new ones are cemented, social slights and offences are condoned, misunderstandings are composed; where intercourse has been, from whatever cause, accident or shyness, suspended, this day, if taken advantage of, replaces all on an amicable footing. Many and great changes have taken place in New York since the day when I enjoyed this exciting and, as I felt it, this touching spectacle. My friend Mr. Wilkes did not expect me to sympathise with this outbreak of social feeling, but it quite carried me away. It was a demonstration that made one feel one's kindred with mankind, and I trust, if every other celebration in this country were to be discontinued, that this will last whilst there is a heart to kindle with enthusiasm at its Christian catholicity. SELECTIONS FROM DIARIES. [THE autobiographical reminiscences (commenced in 1855) are not carried beyond the year 1826, but there remains a series of diaries affording Macready's own contemporary records of his daily life. From 1827 to 1832 the diary was kept in small pocketbooks, admitting only of a short daily entry. From 1833 and onwards, it was kept in books of larger size (Dunn's 8vo. Daily Remembrancer), with space for longer entries.] 1827. [The entries for 1827 are very few, beginning only in September, and furnishing no account of the return from America, or of the occupations of the first eight months of the year.] September 8th.-Leave Paris for Italy. (Lyons-Avignon - Nismes - Marseilles-- Nice- GenoaPisa-Florence-Bologna-Milan—and back.) October 30th.-London. November 6th.-House in Weymouth Street taken for six months, for £210, and carriage hired for same time for £16 168. November 12th.-Drury Lane begins. [Macbeth. First appearance for two years.] Auxilium viresque et animi et corporis, O Deus omnipotens! mihi affer; laboris patientis, verique scrutatorem diligentissimum, præmia laudis me sumere precibus meis concede. Sine te enim impotentia robora, inutilis occasio, futile est hominis ingenium. Tutamen adsis mihi in æternum, O Deus, precor.* * Almighty God, give me help and strength of mind and body. Grant to my prayers the reward of praise, as a most assiduous disciple of patient labour, and of the truth. For, without thee, strength is weakness, opportunity is useless, and the understanding of man is a vain thing. Be thou my defence for ever, O God, is my prayer.-Ed. Trans. |