[Anon.], ‘Popular Amusements’, London Review and Weekly Journal of Politics, Literature, Art, and Society (1860)

The amusements of a people may be regarded, in some measure, as an exponent of their civilisation. The importance of providing the people with amusements is well recognized under arbitrary governments; hence the subvention for the theatres of Paris; of the toleration by the Austrians of the trials of strength between the Castellani and Nicollotti among the populace of Venice. With the progress of education and increased intelligence refinement has come, and now some dramatic or musical form of entertainment engages most pleasure-seekers in quest of an evening’s entertainment. Within a very few years a new class of entertainment has sprung up in the metropolis – a class of purely native growth, which, from the humblest beginnings, has now assumes colossal proportions, so as at length to vie with and even rival the theatre in attraction.