452 Dramatic Register—Drury-Lane. Nov. 1, a new piece, entitled Jean de Paris, was produced, and received with considerable approbation. It is a pleasing trifle, a free translation from the French, and was a great favourite on the Paris theatre. The plot is somewhat romantic. The Prince of France, (Elliston,) enamoured by report of the Princess of Navarre, (Mrs. Edwin,) sets out with a view of meeting the princess on her way to Paris, where she was to choose a husband, in order to discover whether ber beauty and accomplishments equalled their fame. Disguised as a merchant, under the name of Jean de Paris, with a large train of attendants, be anticipates the princess's arrival at one of her stations on the road, bribes the landlord into a surrender of the apartments, and even the banquet intended for her, and astonishes the old Seneschal, who comes to announce her approach, by declaring, that if her highness is to dine at all, she must be indebted to his hospitality. The princess arrives, and being apprized of his disguise, agitates her merchant, by declaring that her heart is already disposed of delights him by involuntary admissions of his taste in providing for her reception-beguiles him into panegyric on her beauty, and only, after having exhausted all the ingenious tortures of a woman's spirit of teazing, acknowledges that he is the "lord and lover." There is a slight underplot, in which the young hostess falls in love with the daughter of the Seneschal, (Miss Kelly,) who is disguised as a page. This affords matter for one very good scene. The second act opens with a tasteful ballet, in which Miss Smith delighted us with her elegant and agile movements. The piece received throughout unbounded applause. Nov. 3, Mr. Kean appeared in the character of Luke, in the comedy of Riches, which he brought out last year for his benefit. The part of Luke is well adapted to the talents of this distinguished actor. He delineates the deep and dark hypocrisy of the sycophant, with the most appropriate expression; but we think he was not equally fortunate in displaying the hauteur of the upstart. He wanted the demeanour of assumed stateliness; and though the poet in tended that the innate littleness of the heart should peep through the lofty air of the rich man: yet, the acute and discriminating actor should have given to the deportment more of a specious out [Dec. 1, side than was visible in Mr. Kean, after he put on his gaudy apparel. He was in his rich dress as much the creeping creature as in his dependent poverty;he had the same contraction of shoul ders-the same bustling walk and gesture as in the previous condition: but he marked the strong passages with an em pliasis that gave them all their intended effect, unless occasionally, when he lowered his voice at the latter end of a sentence, and we could only collect from his countenance, but not from his words, the meaning of what he uttered. This is a habit into which he has been drawn by the small extent of the theatres in which he has been accustomed to petform. In country theatres we have no doubt that those under-tones were met merely distinctly heard, but sensibly felt. In the wide area of Drury Lane he inust sacrifice, in some degree, stuse to sound, for his first duty is to make him self audible; but it is on the whole a masterly portrait of a most difficult cha racter. Nov. 5, Mr. Kean presented the public with a fresh effort of his powers, in the character of Macbeth. Macheth is probably the noblest proof of its author's powers as a dramatist. The scene after the assassination was a master-piece. It is not necessary to mark its inimitable excellences, but the strongest testimony was to be found in the unbreathing sa pense of that vast auditory, and the rehement applause with which they fol lowed the actor's departure. His remorse and terror-the repentant agony and sudden subduing of his mind-the contrast between the innocent sleep of his victims, and the fearful and wretched watchings of their murderer, uttered in a voice broken by terror, inward torment, and hopeless despair, among the most masterly performances that perhaps the English stage has ever produced. were His death was admirable; full of that fine contrast of fierceness and feeblenessthe spirit fighting, while the body was perishing under mortal faintness, winch first attracted public fame to his chard, and which leave him, in those eforts, almost without a competitor. The most lively expectation excited in the public mind by the announcement of Miss Walstein, was, on Nov. 22, gra tified by her appearance, in Calista, in the Fair Penitent. Though her talents will in no degree abate the popularity of Miss O'Neil, she displayed powers of 編 1814.] Performances of Miss Walstein. mind and qualities of organic fitness for the higher characters of the drama, that justly entitle her to commendation. Her face is peculiarly adapted to histrionic expression. Her eye is brilliant and piercing-the eye-brow fuli and finely arched the features, when softened to tenderness, bewitchingly seductive -and when animated by indignation, strong and commanding. Her fault is a sententious delivery of the text, more in the style of sonorous recitation than of natural speaking. With a voice truly musical, and capable of the finest modulation, its effect on the ear is weakened by the measured and equal distance at which she brings forth the words, and by which the rhyme and harmony of the verses are affected. This was particularly noticeable in the declamatory passages-but where she had to display the vehement or the tender emotions of the soul, her feelings seemed to break through the restraints which habit had imposed on her tongue, and she gave the passages in the scene of violent indignation with Horatio, and of penitent sensibility with her father, in a way to touch the sympathies of the house, and to procure her universal applause.--She has a fine person, and is graceful in her action. This lady appeared on Nov. 22, in the sharacter of Lætitia Hardy, in Mrs. Cowley's Belle's Stratagem. The play is one of the most graceful and various of the modern stage. The chief interest falls on the heroine; and the powers which can sustain Lætitia have little to 453 fear in the future difficulties of genteel comedy. There are two scenes which, however, call those powers into peculiar trial-that in which Lætitia, conscious of her first failure on the feelings of her future husband, determines to revolt him altogether; and that in which she pours on him her full attractions. In the first Miss Walstein entirely succeeded. Her half idiotism, the idle and vague wanderings of the eye, the aukward and hoydenish hilarity of her movements, were admirably given; and the vulgarity on which they so naturally and clearly verged was avoided with a skill that drew down and deserved universal applause. Elliston bore his part in this display, and exhibited corresponding ingenuity. The masquerade scene is of a superior order. Miss Walstein's figure, striking and stately, is well adapted for higher life. To form the idea of perfect captivation, more of animated elegance and flexible grace might be required; but the taste must be severe, which could not find in the shape and gesture that then moved before the audience, much that makes the interest of cultivated woman. She sung two brief melodies, the first of which was encored; the second was merely an "adieu," and it was impossible to recall the singer. Her voice is pleasing, and with some touches of softness and skill which came with an occasional surprize on her ear; but her forte must lie in her impression as an actress, and here she has hitherto succeeded in a very ample degree. REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, July 1, 1814. YOUR committee, in the first place, proceeded to inquire what measures had been taken to establish uniform weights and measures throughout the kingdom. They found that this subject had engaged the attention of parliament at a very early period. The statute book, from the time of Henry the Third, abounds with acts of parliament enacting and declaring that there should be one uniform weight and measure throughout the realm; and every act complains that the preceding statutes had been ineffectual, and that the laws were disobeyed. The select committee of the house of commons, which was appointed, in the year 1758, to inquire into the original NEW MONTHLY MAG.-No. 11. standards of weights and measures in this kingdom, and to consider the laws relating thereto, made a very elaborate Report on this subject, in which is con tained all the information that is necessary with regard to the inquiry into what were the original standards of weights and measures: such parts of that Report as have appeared to your committee to be most important, are inserted in the Appendix to this Report. The committee of 1758 first gave an abridged state of the several statutes which have been enacted relating to weights and measures: 1st, so far as they establish any weights or measures, or standards for the same; and 2d, so far as any means, checks, or sanctions, VOL. II. 30 454 Report on Weights aud Measures. [Dec. 1, 25th day of May; and these bills, which (as far as can be collected from the Journals) were approved of by the house, were thus unfortunately lost. Since that period, little has been done to accomplish this important object. A committee was, indeed, appointed in the year 1790; but they do not appear to have made any progress, as your committee have been unable to find any minutes of their proceedings. are provided to compel the use of the established weights and measures, or to punish disobedience. The committee then point out what appeared to them to be the principal causes which had prevented the attainment of that uniformity, so much and so wisely desired by parliament. These are stated to be the want of skill in the artificers who from time to time made copies of the standards kept in the exchequer; and as these imperfect measures were again copied from, every error was multiplied, till the variety of standards rendered it difficult to know what was the real standard, or to apply any adequate remedy, In the second place, the multiplicity of statutes made on this subject, many of which are at variance with one another, and in many of which there are Your committee now proceed to state partial exceptions of particular counties, what appear to them to be the principal and particular articles, from the opera- Causes which have prevented the esta tion of the acts, appeared to the commit-blishment of uniform weights and mea tee to be the principal cause of the various errors which were every where found to prevail. Upon an accurate comparison of the various measures preserved in the exchequer, and which are directed to be used for sizing and adjusting all other measures, they were found to differ materially from each other, and yet (the committee observe) as the law now stands, all these measures must be understood to contain the like quantities, are equally legal, and may be indiscriminately used. Of these various measures, the committee recommend the adoption of the ale gallon of 282 cubical inches, and to abolish the use of all the others. They also recommend that the troy pound should be the only standard of weight. Though your committee agree entirely with the Report of the committee of 1758, that there should be only one gallon for measuring all articles whatsoever, and only one denomination of weight; yet they cannot concur, for reasons which will be hereafter stated, in the selection made by that committee in appointing these standards. This Report was agreed to by the house; and, in the year 1765, two bills were brought in by Lord Carysfort, who was chairman of the committee of 1758, for the purpose of carrying into effect the resolutions of that committee. These Lills were severally read a first and second tine, and committed; and the bills, as amended, were ordered to be printed on the 8th day of May. Parliament was, however, prorogued in that year on the Two acts were passed in the years 1795 and 1797, the 35 Geo. III. cap. 102, and 37 Geo. III. cap. 143, which empower justices of the peace to search for and destroy false weights, and to punish the person in whose possession they are found; but no mention is made in these acts of deficient measures. sures, and to state the reasons which have induced them to differ from the committee of 1758 in some of their resolutions. It appears to your committee, that the great causes of the inaccuracies which have prevailed, are the want of a fixed standard in nature with which the stan dards of measure might at all times be easily compared, the want of a simple mode of connecting the measures of length with those of capacity and weight, and also the want of proper tables of equalization, by means of which the old measures might have readily been converted into the new standards. Some rude attempts scem to have been made to establish a mode of connecting the measures of capacity with weight. In an act of the 51st of Henry the Third, intitled, "Assisa Panis et Cerevisiæ," it is declared that an English penny called the Sterling, round without clipping, should weigh 32 grains of wheat, well dried, and gathered out of the middie of the car; and 20 pence to make an ounce, 12 ounces a pound, eight pounds a gallon of wine, and eight gallos of wine a bushel of London." Nothing, however, can be more uncertain and inaccurate than thus method of determining the size of a gallon measure by the weight of a certain number of grains of wheat, which must vary ac cording to the season and the nature of the soil and climate where they are produced. In order to obtain some information as to what were the best means of com paring the standards of length, with 1814.] Report on Weights and Measures. some invariable natural standard, your committee proceeded to examine Dr. W. Hyde Wollaston, Secretary to the Royal Society, and Professor Playfair of Edinburgh. From the evidence of these gentlemen it appears that the length of a pendulum making a certain number of vibrations in a given portion of time, will always be the same in the same latitude; and that the English yard has been accurately compared with the length of the pendulum which vibrates sixty times in a minute in the latitude of London. The length of this pendulum is 39.13047 inches, of which the yard contains 36. The French government have adopted as the standard of their measures, a portion of an arc of the meridian, which was accurately measured. The standard me tre, which is the 10,000,000th part of the quadrant of the meridian, which is engraved on the platina scale preserved in the National Institute, has been compared with the English standard yard, by Professor Pictet of Geneva, and was found to exceed it, at the temperature of 32°, by S.3702 inches; and at the temperature of 55°, by 3.3828 inches. The standard yard may, therefore, be at any time ascertained, by a comparison either with an arc of the meridian, or the length of the pendulum, both of which may be considered as invariable. The standard of linear measure being thus established and ascertained, the measures of capacity are easily deduced from it, by determining the number of cubical inches which they should contain. The standard of weight must be derived from the measures of capacity, by ascertaining the weight of a given bulk of some substance of which the specific gravity is invariable. Fortunately, that substance which is most generally diffused over the world answers this condition. The specific gravity of pure water has been found to be invariable at the same temperature; and by a very remarkable coincidence, a cubic foot of pure water (or 1,728 cubical inches) at the temperature of 561 by Fahrenheit's thermometer, has been ascertained to weigh exactly 1,000 ounces avoirdupois, and therefore the weight of 27.648 inches is equal to one pound avoirdupois. This circumstance forms the groundwork of all the succeeding observations of your committee. Although in theory the standard of weight is derived from the measures of 455 capacity, yet in practice it will be found more convenient to reverse this order. The weight of water contained by any vessel affords the best measure of its capacity, and is more easily ascertained than the number of cubical inches by guaging. Your committee, therefore, recommend that the measures of capacity should be ascertained by the weight of pure or distilled water contained by them, rather than the number of cubical inches, as recommended in the fourth resolution of the committee of 1758. Your committee are also of opinion, that the standard gallon, from which all the other measures of capacity should be derived, should be made of such a size as to contain such a weight of pure water of the temperature of 564° as should be expressed in a whole number of pounds avoirdupois, and such also as would admit of the quart and pint containing integer numbers of ounces, without any fractional parts. If the gallon is made to contain 10 pounds of water, the quart will contain 40 ounces, and the pint 20. This gallon recommended by your committee, will contain 276 48 cubical inches, being nearly 3 per cent. larger than the gallon, or eighth part of the Winchester bushel, as fixed by the act of the 13th and 14th of William and Mary, cap. 5, which contains 268.803 cubical inches, and the bushel will contain 2211.84 cubical inches, instead of 2150.42. Your committee are of opinion, that this departure from the corn measure, which is employed in the collection of the malt tax, and is supposed to be the most generally used throughout the kingdom, is justified by the advantages which they anticipate from the change. General uniformity cannot be expected, unless some simple and accurate method of checking the standard measures is adopted; and as the weight of water appears to be the best and most simple method of checking measures of capacity, it is desirable that all minute fractions of weight should be avoided. There will be much less chance of error in weighing the water contained in any measure, if only one or two weights are to be employed, than if a greater number were necessary, which would be the case if fractional parts were required. The difficulty of remembering long fractions is also an important consideration, and would very materially impede 456 Report on Weights and Measures. the attainment of that general uniformity which is so much desired. If this gallon is adopted, the bushel will contain 80 pounds of water, or 2211.84 cubical inches; the quart 69.12 cubical inches, or 40 ounces of water; the pint $4.56 cubical inches or 20 ounces of water: the half pist will contain 17.28 cubical inches (which is exactly th part of a cubical foot,) or 10 ounces of water. Any smaller measures might with great propriety be described, according to the number of ounces of water they contained. Your committee are of opinion, that the simple connexion which will in this manner be established between the standard of weight and measures of capacity, will greatly tend to preserve the uniformity of those measures which are found to be most liable to error. They have, besides, been induced to select this size of measure as a standard, both because it very nearly coincides with one of the standard corn measures preserved in the Exchequer, namely, the standard pint marked 1602, which contains 34.8 cubical inches; and also because it possesses the advantage of bearing very simple relations to the gallon measures which are employed in measuring ale and wine. The calculations, therefore, which would be necessary for ascertaining the corre sponding duties, which must be charged upon exciseable liquors, would be easily made. Your committee will now proceed to state their opinion with regard to the standard weight. Although the troy pound is the only weight established by law, yet the avoirdupois pound is so nuch more generally known and used, that your committee cannot hesitate to recommend it in preference to the troy pound. Your committee are, however, inclined to recommend two exceptions As the goldsmiths regulate their traffic by the troy weight; and considering the connexion of this branch of trade with the standard of the coin, it appears advisable that gold and silver should be sold by troy weight. Your committee would also recommend that the apothecaries' weight should remain without any alteration, as any change in the weights employed by them in compounding their medicines might be attended with dangerous consequences. It appears to your committee that the most accurate mode of ascertaining the [Dec. 1, standard pound, is to immerse in water a solid cylinder of brass containing 27.648 cubical inches, and to ascertain the dif ference between its weight in water and its weight in air, by means of the common hydrostatic balance. The difference between its weight in water and its weight in air (or the weight of the volume of water occupying the same space) is the pound avoirdupois. This method is recommended, as it has been found to be much more easy to ascertain the solid contents of any body, by taking its external dimensions, than to find the exact contents of any measure by guaging. In this manner, the standard of length is kept invariable, by means of the pen dulum; the standard of weight, by the standard of length; and the standard of capacity, by that of weight, Your committee have not gone into any detail of the inaccuracies of the present system, as they are very fully stated in the report of the committee of 1758, before alluded to. In order to preserve uniformity in the weights and measures to be used in future, your committee would recommend that no person be allowed to make or sell any weights or measures without having obtained a licence for that purpose, on payment of a certain sum; and that all weights and measures should be marked with the name of the maker, and the intrals of the person who examines them. The person who last examines the weights and measures should not be per mitted to alter them; but, if he finds them to be incorrect, should return them to the maker, to be properly sized and adjusted. All new weights and measures will, therefore, in this manner, undergo a double examination, Your committee are of opinion, that the powers given to justices of the peace by the 35 Geo. III. cap. 102, and the 37 Geo. III. cap. 143, to search for and destroy deficient weights, and to punish the persons in whose possession they are found, should be extended, so as to give them the same powers with regard to false or deficient |