1827.] 



Monthly Theatrical Report. 



207 



There ;ire rumours of a change of perfor- 

 mers in the companies, and Jones, the live- 

 liest actor among the living, is said to bo 

 suspended, like Mahomet's coffin, between 

 the two theatres. If his engagement at his 

 old theatre is out, and he can get more by 

 going to the new, he is perfectly right in so 

 going. The life of an actor is precarious, 

 like ever} body else, and his powers are still 

 more so. The actor's talents are his stock 

 in trade, and no man mut expect him to 

 turn away from the best bidder. ButCovent 

 Garden would be more than foolish to lose 

 him, his place could not be filled up. There 

 are still actors who approach his style, but 

 none of them possessing his style ; the pub- 

 lic expect to see him wherever comedy is in 

 question, and the managers may be assured 

 that at whatever house the popular taste for 

 comedy can find Jones, it will be sure to 

 follow him. 



Morton's comedy " The School for Grown 

 Children," still fights its way. The panto- 

 mime brings up its rear with good effect ; 

 and the choice of the time does credit to 

 Morton's veteran sagacity. His work is 

 pleasant enough on the whole ; but the 

 talent of the author is Farce, and he has 

 made a five act Farce His habit is, plun- 

 dering the French ; and the foreign scribblers 

 are already crying out on the English gipsy, 

 who decoys away their dramatic children. 

 His taste is, unfortunately, moralizing on 

 all subjects, in the most long-winded and 

 unwarrantable manner. To compensate for 



the extraordinary quantity of virtue forced 

 into the lips of the ladies, he dresses uj> 

 Farren as a rake of sixty, makes him win a 

 boat-race, and do half-a-dozen other acts 

 worthy of boyhood and brainlessness, wind- 

 ing up all by a hornpipe, in which Farren 

 must have astonished himself. Jones is the 

 young rake reformed into an ceconomist, in 

 proportion as his uncle, the old one, grows 

 youthful and ridiculous. He made the most 

 of it ; but the plot is already before the 

 public. The comedy is feeble, yet it is still 

 worth going to see, and Morton worth so- 

 liciting to write. Covent-Garden should not 

 let him loose while he can hold a pen, or 

 pluck the feather of a French drama. 



A Miss Hargrave has appeared in tragedy. 

 She has hitherto acted under disadvantages. 

 The appearance of a powerful female trage- 

 dian would be a new era to the stage. 

 Why did not the managers, when Mr. 

 Beecher came bewitching Miss O'Neill, get 

 an order for his traasportaioH for the term of 

 his natural life ; or if that were too tardy, 

 appear at the altar, and boldly forbid the 

 banns. 



The King's Theatre, which, with great 

 propriety, closed for the melancholy loss of 

 the Duke of York, has opened since, with 

 " La Schiava en Bagdad/' an Opera by 

 Paccini ; popular abroad, and likely to be 

 a favourite here. The management proceeds 

 with spirit, is making new engagements, 

 and will, it is expected, have a triumphant 

 season. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



DOMESTIC. 

 ROYAL SOCIETY. 



Nov. 30th. Being St. Andrew's day, the 

 anniversary meeting was held for the election 

 of council and officers, and the awarding of 

 the new Royal and Copley medals. The 

 first royal prize was adjudged to Mr. John 

 Dalton, of Manchester, for the development of 

 the chemical theory of definite proportions, 

 usually called the atomic theory ; and for his 

 various other labours in chemical and physical 

 science. The second medal on the royal foun- 

 dation was awarded to James Ivory, A.M., for 

 bis papers on the laws regulating the forms 

 of the planets, on astronomical refractions, 

 and on other mathematical illustrations of im- 

 portant parts of astronomy. The medal on Sir 

 Godfrey Copley's foundation, for this year, 

 was given to James South, esq., for bis paper 

 on the observations of the apparent distances 

 and positions of 458 double and triple stars, 

 published in the last volume of the transac- 

 tions. 



Dec. 7. A paper was read on the compo- 

 sition of James's powder, and of Pulvis an- 

 timonialis, by J. Davy, M.D. 



14. On the relative powers of various 

 metallic substances, regarded as conductors 



of electricity, by W. S. Harris, esq., com- 

 municated by J. Knowles, esq. 



21. On an improved differential ther- 

 mometer, by A. Ritchie, M.A., communi- 

 cated by Sir H. Davy. The society inert 

 adjourned over the Christmas vacation. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Nov. 17. A notice was read on some beds 

 which extend through Yorkshire and Dur- 

 ham, associated with the magnesian lime- 

 stone, and on some fossil fish found in them, 

 forming a suit more nearly resembling that 

 of the carboniferous limestone than has gene- 

 rally been imagined, by the Rev. Adam Sedg- 

 wick, Woodwardian professor. Some " ob- 

 servations" were read on the bones of hyenas 

 and other animals, in the cavern of Lunel, 

 near Montpellier, and in the adjacent strata 

 of marine formation, by the Rev. W. Buck- 

 land, professor of mineralogy at Oxford. The 

 result of the professor's personal investiga- 

 tions, was to establish nearly a perfect iden- 

 tity between this cave and the one at Kirk- 

 dale, both in their animal and mineral 

 contents, as well 'as in the history of their 

 introduction. 



Dec. 1. An extract was read from a letter 

 of B. de Basterd, esq., to Dr. Fitlon, 



