304 GBOSEl's TEBATMENT 1794 TUngB were brought to a crisis on one Saturday evening, A playhouse the 18th January, when a play was being performed by the freed men* and convicts, with the permission of the Lieu- tenant-Governor, who was present at the entertainment.f It is clear from what followed that the soldiers had made mStetod ^P *^®^^ mind to create a disturbance. Some time before dteturbanoe. the performance commenced, one of the non-commissioned officers of the detachment. Sergeant Whittle, entered the theatre, and insisted on occupying a seat which had been reserved for the Lieutenant-Governor's servants. He was remonstrated with by a discharged convict, named Crowder, who was a constable as well as one of the managers of the entertainment. Whittle refused to give way, and a scuffle ensued, in which he received a blow from Crowder. The disturbance which resulted was over before King entered Soldiers the the place. He noticed, however, that a number of the aggressors. •*■ soldiers had come into the playhouse ill-dressed and dirty, and with a demeanour that indicated their temper- After the performance a collision between the soldiers and their opponents took place, which wore a serious aspect from the fact that the soldiers, who were very excited, had, in defiance of orders, armed themselves with bayonets. King, whose house stood not more than twenty yards from the place of King quells entertainment, heard the tumult and ran out. Seizing the disturbance, first man he could get hold of, a soldier named Bannister,
- Men Trho had been conTicts, but had become settlers upon the expintion
of their sentences or by emancipation. t King, in his Journal, explains his reasons for sanctioning the plaj : — " A short time ago one of the magistrates informed me that some of the free men and couTicts had applied to him to request mj permitting them to got up a play, and to allow them to perform it on Saturdays, when thej were perfect in their respective parts. As indulsing them in this request did not interfere with the publick work, and as such amusements (when unattended with licentious behariour) tend to unbend and divert the mind, I very readily gave my consent, on condition that the magistrate who made Uie application would see it conducted with decency and propriety. With some little assistance the scenery, &c., was well arranged, and two plays were performed during this month, in which the actors acquitted themselves with great pro> griety, and the utmost regularity and decency was observed." This was in eptember, 1798, three months before the disturbance occurred. Theatrical performances were afterwards prohibited.
