314 
author’s wish to leave it to the managerial 
judgment, whether his play should be con- 
sidered as the offspring of Thalia or Melpo- 
mene. One Theatre, after some hesitation, 
in the first instance pronounced it a Comedy, 
the other Theatre pronounced it a Tragedy ; 
further consideration made both reverse their 
judgments, and the former advocates for its 
‘comic rights now pronounce it a Tragedy, 
while the latter are “ fearless in giving their 
opinion”? that it was intended for a Comedy. 
Until the point is settled, the proprietorship 
is held in abeyance. Several Operas are 
conjectured at Drury Lane, where Young is 
engaged. Charles Kemble is stated to have 
sold his interest in Covent Garden to Mr. 
Willett. The projected arrangement with 
Mr. Harris is put aside for the time. M. 
Laporte, who has not been shot by his 
heroic ballet-master, nor, we rejoice to hear, 
kept back by the tyranny of the Théatre 
Francaise, for the puypose of playing the 
principal roles in Paris, promises to open his 
“Theatre in December with an influx of 
singers and dancers unparalleled since the 
Norman invasion. The grand Opera of 
Monthly Theatrical Report. 
[Serr. 
the ‘“ Eumenides” is to be among the first 
achievements, and Pasta, Sontag, and 
Pessaroni, are to play the three furies. In 
the course of the year we are, we understand, 
to have two new Divertisements, which is 
one more than we had in the last ; and one 
new Ballet which the manager may assure 
himself will be a novelty—if the news be 
true. 
The showers have washed Vauxhall nearly 
out of recollection. But the lamps glitter 
there still. Mr. Cooke plays his pleasant 
caricature we presume, and from the shots 
heard in that direction about the witching 
hour, we have reason to believe either that 
Vauxhall exists, or that the French have 
sent an expedition up the Thames, and are 
storming the Commons of Clapham. 
However, the weather must grow dry 
some time or other, and as the managers are 
really active, and have made Vauxhall a 
really pleasant place, instead of the tedious 
affair that it was before their reign, we wish 
that they may be able to revenge themselves 
for the showers by a full tide of the monied 
currency, before their season be over. 
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 
DOMESTIC. 
ROYAL SOCIETY. 
May 8.—A communication was read to 
the Society, containing some particulars of 
the earthquake felt in the Netherlands, and 
in some of the frontier towns of France, on 
the 23d of February, in a letter to Captain 
Sabine, from Professor Quetelet, of Brus- 
sels. It was particularly felt along the banks 
of the Meuse ; its greatest violence was in 
the towns of Liege, Tongres, Tirelemont, 
and Huy; many of the walls and buildings 
of which suffered considerable injury, but no 
lives were lost. In the adjacent towns of 
Maestricht, Namur, Louvain, and Brus- 
sels, strong shocks were also experienced, 
but their violence diminished in proportion 
to-the distance from the former or principal 
seat of concussion. An account was also 
read of some particulars of an earthquake 
experienced at Bogota, and in the Cordil- 
lera, between Bogota and Popayan, on the 
16th of November, 1827, in a letter from 
Colonel P. Campbell. The city was in 
great measure destroyed, but not more than 
five or six persons were killed. To the 
north of Bogota the earthquake was not 
much felt, but to the south the devastation 
has been most extensive. Popayan, which 
is 200 geographical miles S. S. W. of Bo- 
gota, and Patea, still farther to the S.S.W.., 
have suffered severely.—May 15. A long 
and elaborate paper was read, entitled, A 
Comparison of the Changes of Magnetic In- 
tensity in the Dipping and Horizontal 
Needles throughout the Day at Truernberg 
Bay, in Spitzbergen, by Captain Foster. 
Also was read a paper on experiments, re- 
lative to the effect of temperature on the 
refractive index, and dispersive power of 
expansible fluids, and on the influence of 
these changes in a telescope with a fluid 
lens, by Peter Barlow, Esq., from which it 
appears that the author considers it as pro- 
bable, that in all expansible fluids the index 
of refraction varies directly as the density : 
on the other hand, it would appear that the 
dispersive ratio remains at all temperatures 
constantly the same.—May 22. A_ letter 
was read from Fhomas Andrew Knight, 
Esq-, containing an account of some cir- 
cumstances relating to the economy of bees. 
He infers that not a single labouring bee 
ever emigrates in a swarm without having 
seen its proposed future habitation. He 
finds that the same remark applies not only 
to the permanent place of settlement, but 
also to the place where the bees rest tempo- 
rarily soon after swarming, and also con- 
cludes that unions of swarms are generally, 
if not always, the result of previous concert 
and arrangement. — June 5, A paper was 
read, entitled, Description of a Sounding 
Board in Attercliffe Church, near Sheffield, 
by the Rey. J. Blackburn, minister ; it is 
the section of a paraboloid, and so placed, 
that the mouth of the speaker is in the 
focus. 
FOREIGN, 
INSTITUTE—ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
Paris, May }2.—A sealed pacquet, con- 
taining a memoir on urinary concretions, 
and a note on a new treatment of gravel, 
