PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 303 



end of a tube about half an inch in diameter, and the tube was then 

 filled with sand and held in an upright position, without the escape 

 of the sand, although the wafer adhered very slightly. It was 

 shewn, also, to be impossible to push sand out of a tube, even 

 when inclined as much as twenty degrees downwards, the pressure 

 being transmitted to, and resisted by, the sides of the tube, which 

 would ultimately give way. This fact explained how, in the blast- 

 ing of rocks, sand is as effectual in filling up the hole, as a plug, 

 or the most compact driving, whilst, at the same time, it is free 

 from the dangers unavoidably attendant on these latter contri- 

 vances.* 



The following is a brief analysis of Mr. Taylor's interesting 

 lectures " On the early English Opera" :— ' 



Lecture I. — Mr. Taylor commenced by saying that the history 

 of the national opera presented a more interesting and more exten- 

 sive field of inquiry than the subject on which he had before ad- 

 dressed the members of the Institution, (English Vocal Harmony), 

 since its range was more extensive and its influence more powerful. 

 It had been said that the English had no national opera ; but that 

 all their notions of it had been derived from Italy. He proposed to 

 inquire into the correctness of this assertion. The records of the 

 English Opera were exceedingly scanty and imperfect; and, in fact, 

 its history, connectedly and fully, had never been written. To this 

 circumstance, many erroneous opinions were to be traced. 



The earliest dramatic exhibitions in England, as in every other 

 part of Europe, were in the 12th century, when it was customary, 

 on festival days, to dramatize and represent portions of scripture. 

 In the reign of Henry VIII., tournaments were succeeded by the 

 more peaceful exhibition of the pageant ; and in the masques of 

 B. Jonson the })ersonages and characters of these several exhibitions 

 were united and grouped into a classical form, with the addition of 

 dialogue, scenery, and music. Here, then, was the germ of the 

 opera. 



Mr. Taylor then reviewed the history of the stage, before and at 

 the time of Shakspeare, and the history of music as connected 

 with the stage. Some very curious illustrations were introduced : 

 masque music, in the reigns of Henry VIII., Elizabeth, and 

 James I., both dances, songs, and chorusses. Elizabeth fostered and 

 encouraged the musical talent of her subjects : James banished these 

 from his court and favour, and introduced a set of foreign musicians, 

 whose works are now only known to collectors, and whose merits 

 were in every way inferior to those of the English writers of the 

 preceding reign. A very beautiful composition, by Wilbye, in 

 honour of his royal mistress, concluded the lecture. 



Lecture II. — Charles I. manifested the same predilection for 



*The law mentioned in this lecture, — that of equal quantities of sand flow- 

 ing through the same aperture in equal times,— Jias been applied to an use- 

 ful purpose in Birmingham, in regulating the equal supply of fuel to the fire- 

 place ot steam engines, without the superintendence of a workman. 



