68 
of which is to contribute various useful and 
ornamental works; the funds for which 
are distributed among the sufferers from 
the late inundations. 
SWEDEN. 
Stockholm.—The Swedish admiralty are 
sending commissioners to England to get 
information respecting the various improve- 
ments in building vessels, and naval tactics ; 
they are to receive all necessary aid from 
our government. 
NORWAY. 
Norway.—In March last, a school was 
opened on the Lancasterian system in the 
town of Christiana, It is astonishing the 
extent of information that is spreading all 
over the world, through the establishment 
of these schools ; they are rising even in 
the remotest villages. 
/ 
Theatrical Review. 
(Aug. 1, 
The Horticultural Society of London 
has lately received, from New South Wales, 
a fine healthy hive of native bees. They 
differ materially from the bees of Europe, 
being infinitely smaller, and, like the Mexi- 
can, wholly without stings. The honey 
which they produce is said to be of excel- 
lent quality, and is distinguished by a 
peculiar fragrance; it is one of the few 
products of that singular country which 
serves as food for the natives. 
Unicorn.— Mr. Ruppell wrote from the 
interior of Africa to a friend in Germany, 
that a native had spontaneously mentioned 
the existence of an animal which he had 
seen, about the size of a cow, with a long 
straight horn growing from its forehead. 
'‘ THEATRICAL REVIEW. 
COVENT-GARDEN. 
HEtragedy of Orestes, of which we took 
but a slight and hasty notice on its first 
appearance, has continued to be oecasion- 
ally repeated, and to be received, though 
with applause, not with the appearance 
either of enthusiasm or sympathy, which 
promises any long career of favour. The 
actors did their utmost to sustain the in- 
terest of the representation: but it must 
be admitted that Miss Lacy, though she 
delivered several of the passages, and played 
seyeral scenes of Electra, with ability, does 
not give, either to the eye or ear, the 
image of that beau ideal of tragic grace and 
dignity which we expect in the Grecian 
heroine; nor can we admit to Mrs. Bart- 
ley, in Clytemnestra, all the queen-like 
energy and maternal agitation, to a part 
which requires something, at least, like the 
talent which a Siddons would have brought 
to it, to render it dramatically respectable. 
Cooper deserves the praise of doing for 
Pylades, all of which the part is suscep- 
tible; and Mr. Kemble, who poured all 
his energy into the part of Orestes, looked, 
most assuredly, the very Grecian. He 
must excuse us, however, if we hint, that 
in several passages, in the scenes especially 
before his discovery by the tyrant, he in- 
dulges in more vociferation than is per- 
fectly consistent with the dignity of the 
character, however impetuous, or with any 
consciousness, however irksome, of the 
situation in which he is placed: such, in- 
deed, as we cannot but have a feeling, 
must inevitably have alarmed the palace, 
and led to the instantaneous discovery of 
the disguised and pretended bearer of the 
ashes of Orestes. It is surprising how lit- 
tle attention is paid by performers to the 
cultivation of those apparently restrained, 
but yet powerful tones, which belong to 
the deep and resolute passions of our na- 
ture, and are capable of spreading, with 
forceful impression, through an extensive 
area, without suggesting the idea of loud- 
ness. These are the tones, however, which 
should have belonged to many of those pas- 
sages to which Mr. Kemble gave all the 
loudness of yehement yociferation. We 
cannot but think, also, that in several of 
the ambiguous speeches (speeches, at least, 
of which the words have an artful, and 
even elaborate ambiguity), in the scene 
where he presents the urn, both the pur- 
posed ambiguity and the scenic probability 
were destroyed by the elaborately-marked 
and obviously-purposed sarcasm—the bit- — 
ter and rancorous irony of the delivery. 
His horror at the discovery of having 
slain his mother was finely acted: though 
the occurrence itself, by the way, is not, as 
the play now stands, very intelligibly, or 
very credibly, made out to the audience. 
Of Mr. Bennett, in Agystus, we can only 
repeat, what we have had such frequent 
occasions to observe, that he shews himself 
to have the physical powers and endow- 
ments of an actor, if his taste and judg- 
ment were but sufficient to lead him to 
nature, by a path suggested by his own 
feelings and capabilities, instead of con- 
descending to be a mannerist and an imi- 
tator. 
The winter Theatres have at last 
closed a most unprecedentedly protracted 
season. They produced however but little, 
during that protraction, to require the dis- 
criminative animadversion of criticism. Both 
of them got up, at inordinate expense, a 
pageant of the Coronation of Charles X. 
We suspect they were bad speculations ; as, 
notwithstanding the taste and splendour,pro- 
duced by the respective artists, in costume, 
scenery, mechanism, &c., public curiosity 
does not seem to_have been so forcibly ex- 
cited, 
