Titeatricul Review. 435 



to Jupiter without tube, steam, mercury, or sal-volatile at all have in their 

 reports uttered much nonsense. It would be well, if their nonsense had been 

 harmless ; but, unfortunately, it too often happens that men in temporary 

 office, such as the Commons' Committee men are, a fig for their privilege, 

 swayed] from a just decision by the overbalancing influence of rich proprie- 

 tors, rich speculators, &c. &c. ; and we have strong reasons to suspect, that 

 the railroad transactions, generally speaking, are not what they ought to have 

 been, commonly honest. Time will prove. 



Our opinion is most decidedly, that the men who have ventured so much 

 in the cause of locomotive'steam application as Messrs. Dance, Ogle, Hancock, 

 &c., ought to be duly nay, handsomely rewarded ; and we do not think that 

 a parliamentary grant, say 20,0001. to be divided between the three parties 

 that we have above mentioned, would be more than justice requires from 

 England to her enterprising Children. 



NOTICE TO AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS. 



SEVERAL publications having reached us rather later than usual, we are 

 compelled to defer our notice of them till the ensuing month. Lockhart's 

 Life of the late Sir William Scott is the subject of a general article, for which 

 we have been unable to find space in the present number ; and several novels 

 and romances demand a more detailed account than our present time and 

 room will allow them. We have not forgotten them. 



THEATRICAL REVIEW. 



ITALIAN OPF.RA HOUSE. 



ON Saturday, the 25th of February, the Opera House opened, the 

 promised performances being Norma, and a new Ballet on the 

 subject of the Opera of Fra Diavolo. In Norma, Giannoni was 

 advertised to perform the part of Adalgisa, but indisposition of some 

 kind or other prevented her appearance. The consequence was, 

 that more than half of the music was omitted, including every por- 

 tion, without exception, which is in itself pleasing, independently of 

 the accessory circumstances of the drama. No effort was made to 

 supply the vacant place, or to substitute another opera. Truly, as a 

 French lady near us observed, les Anglais sont trap bons, which 

 softened expression might be less ceremoniously and more faithfully 

 turned, les Anglais sont trop betes, for John Bull not only courts a 

 foreign mistress (a very attractive one we allow) instead of a legiti- 

 mate English wife, but suffers himself to be most woefully henpecked 

 by the aforesaid stranger. If, however, the audience at the opera, 

 notwithstanding its deterioration of late years, is still too genteel to 

 express disapprobation, these gross impositions will continue to be 

 practised on the public to the end of the chapter, and so we take our 

 leave of them. To return to the mutilated opera, Blasis filled the 

 part of Norma, which was written expressly for the display of 

 Pasta's peculiar powers, and, as in every point, except the shortness of 

 her person, Blasts is essentially different fr^om her greater proto- 



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