The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-02-01 00:00:00

CONCE2T OF ANCIENT MUSIC.

Yesterday forenoon the first general rehearsal of
the Concert of Ancient Music took place, in the
great Concert Room, at the Opera House.
The performance was under the direction of the
Earl o utSTERFIELD, whose selection upon the
occasion. dick infinite credit to his judgment and
taste.
It commenced, as usual, with HasnEes celebrat-
ed coronation anthem, " Zadock the Pr:est ; after
which Mr. Ni El. D sung " for ever blessed," froni
JEPT II A. The delightful trio from siciS and Gala-
tea, of the "Pod shall leave the Mountains," was the
next. vocal treat brought forward by the noble con-
ductor of this elegant musical festival. It was exe-
cuted by MTS. BILL INGTON, Mr. HARRISON, and
Mr. LEArz, who officiated' in the absence of Mr.
BA RI T. EA ;it afforded a rich repast to the ama-
teurs who were present. A °grand full concerto of
GF.N4 I N 1 , interspersed with beautiful scdoc for the-
violin, phiyecl by Mr. CRAMER in his finest style,
imparted an agreeable variety to the plan of the
Concert. Mrs. BII.I.INOTUN gave the recitativo,
• " re sacred Priests," accompani,d by the principal
violin, and afterwards sung the enchanting air,
" Farewell ye Limp d Streams," in a manner incon-
ceivably impressive—every note spoke to the heart.
FORM'S much and justly admired madrigal, " Since
.first I saw," by Mrs. BILLINGTON, M.T. HARU-
soNo Mr.. I*.EATI:v. and Mr. Kakivvvrr, was highly
applauded. The sublime chorus of " The Passions,'',
from HANuLt.'s Oratorio of Solomon, 'concluded the
first act.

The second commenced with the introduetion and
chorus, '4' Ye J`nns of Israel,". froth the Oratorio of
yelhea. This grand composition; which eminently'
displays the energies of its divine author, had ample
justice done to it by the skill and ability of the in-
strumental-performers. The Qu elm° and Chary,
" Doan Pace," from Fr.aviu:, one of H..tignet.',
Orutoriosewa.s suit with a most cliarniiim effect by
Miss T NANT, Miss CROSBIE, Mr. HAItILISONIA
Mr. KNYVET :hid Mr. LEATE. HANDLL'% SUI
grand Concerto, the delightful canzonet, " Soft Cu-
p:d,".by ANtLits, and many other pieces, expres-
sed with the stamp of superior merit, added to the:
pleasure of die entertainment. W must further
notice the air of Pouo Morir, by its, B. 4. •r. o
in which that most favoured daughter of Harmony
had full scope to develope the unspeakable powers
of her art.

This A6t terminated with the Crar.d Hallelujah
Chorus from the NIL SS 1 A

From the effect of this rehearsal we may form an
accurate judgment of what the performance ,e
Wcinesday will produce, honoured, as we under-
stand it. will be,.- by the presence of their Majestiec,
and the mcst distinguished
samong the hereditary
supporters of the Throne.
On the evening of the grand performance, Mr-
BA RT L EASON Will asseme that si.i.uation in the Con-
cert, which has been tilled in his absence by Mr:.
LEATE.

W:e are fully justified in observing that the Band
and CHorus ate complete—every part appears to be
well filled, and the whole establiF,hrvm7 is every
way worthy its liberal andmunificont patrons.
Among the comßany who honoured the rehea.-
sal, we noticed, asides 'Tor& Cturrrritrirto the.
Steward, the Lords Uxottiocr, DaaT'srorrn,
WILLIAM r T., and a numerous assemblage of
Ladies and Gentlemen of the first fashion.

THEATRICAL INTELLIGENCE.

I) It UR Y-L ANL.

The new Comedy of Hear both Sides, was per
to an overflowing audience yesterday evei-
ing, and received with great applause througou%
Mr. Hot.cauer will be in high luck if this piece
rows into popularity. It' certainty slims great
knowledge amen nd manners in its author, and
the possession of considerable literary powers ; but
it cannot, by any judges of dramatic composition, be
classed in the rank of Comedy. Quilla ouzht Indic
putably to be produced in the last scene, as an evi-
dence to clear the character of Fa rfsx, who IS
wrongly employed in delivering a hacknied disserta-
tion on the circumstances in which Lawyers are
placed by their profession, and the acceptation:
they are subject to, in the last act of the Play, where
the Fele business of the scene should be the unfold-
ing of denouement.
The Performers yesterday evening, as on Satur-
day, exerted thernselv#,S most strenuously, to give
the Play every support that could-result from good
acting. Mrs..lokoAN sustains arr improbable cha-
racter most powerfully. Her vivacity and spirit lend
a new life, as it Were, to every scene in which slit
appears. Mr. DowTos, it must be confess
displays great vigour, and produces adequate ef-
fact. Young Collins played admirably, and Mr.
Cll ER R Y'S last scene of Quillet, was given with a
natural feeling, correspondent expression, and cor-
rect character. Mr. BANNISTER, Mr. C. KEA.-
el,E,^ and the. other Comedi.ms, merited the Au-
thor's thant:s.

COVENT GARDES.
Tile gentleman who appeared for, the first tillu:a
fo. rtlight ago, in the very difficult character of
Othello, repeated-o'ot f4;r the th=rd•time, yester-
day evening, and we are sorry to add, to a very thin
audience. This gentleman recites the *dialogue with
a degree of correctness that does credit to his admo-
nitory friend, (who, we understand to be that 1,0,-
nerable veteran of the stage, Mr. Hu i.e) but unfot-
tunately the v vida vi: an m , and the strong expres-
sion of glowing feeling which SH AKS e ARE has if-
fused into the soul of &hello, after the first spark of
jealousy has warned his breast and wrought it into
a flame, are wanting, in most of his scenes. In
truth, Ufa is the most arduous for a novice to ap-
pear in ; he must display with rage, nature, and
energy all the various motions of a mind enraged
to madness—a dispiar which none but practised to-
medians, and those most able ones, can be expected
to make.
An apology was made for Mr. Cooar's nOt play.
ing the character of lazn, on account of indispositiOn.
Mr. Mt KRAY came forward as his substitute, and
Flayed the character well, excepting the error of ad-
dressing his soliloquies. directly to the audience;
•an
error we were surprised to see so good an actor
guilty of.

Several of the. papers cl yesterday, gave a Ihenf
the grand panne'. of the county of Sorry,_ to the
'number of between ihree.and four hundred perions,
as the jury, wbo are to try Colonel VESPAka.......
•fh Sheriff mew provide a itsrj: jury box.

lIIONTHLr RETROSPBC7' OF POLITICS,
FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC, FOR JAN. 1805.

Amidst the lapse of time, and the fleeting nature
of human affairs, it may not be deemed altogether
unnecessary to endeavour to arrest the attention of
the public, from time to time, and at certain stated
periods, take a retrospective view of poLtical events.
To decide dogmatically on what is to come, were
presumption, but to deduce effects from cattses, and
augur in respect to the future from the past, has in
no age been deemed unreasonable.
Europe, an interesting congeries of free and en-
slaved States, appears to have regulated the desti-
nies of mankind for upwards of two thousand years.
After subduing, by means of her armies, all nations
on whom she has been able, en account of their
geographical position to make war, she practises the
gentler and still more profitable arts of commerce,
by means of which her merchants and manufactu.
rers arc enriched, and her industrious poor fed by
the inhabitants of the most distant climes. A long
and disastrous war, in which all her principal go-
vernments have by turns been engaged, although it
bas left her the same boundaries, has Made a ptodi-
pious change in the relative situation of each, on ac-
com:t of a new. distribution of the parts. It is to be
feared that her motions ate no longer balanced by
the sameoluilibrium, and that the many welik and
feeble, when vic'eed singly, can no longer counter-
poise, as formerly. the bias that may be produced in
the political by the Aberrations of the few
powerful Statel. If .this should prove to be the case,
and that quarter of the globe which rules the other
three, be considered as typified by the famous
image of antiquity, some of the members of which.
were of iron and others of clay, the wildest dreams
of human ambition may be realized, and the world,
as in the days of the first Cssaas, be regulated by
Lie nod of one capricious mortal.
Let us take a rapid view of the scene itosmd us.

*ITALY,

that once happy country, where the arts were nursed,
l•t:ers revived; and the ingenioes but di cult policy
of balancing the power of great nations, and thui
Preventing the subversion of small ones, first ori-
ginated, has acmorica a new face. No longer the
grave of the French, as in the Jays of Fa at ts I.
and Cn A at. rsVIII. it has become one of their strcin,t-
est bulwarks. Venice, indeed, with a pOrt;on of
Istria and Dalmatia, are assigned to a warlike
power, but the fertile plains of Lombardy; and the
exoxiv, frontier:: of Genon, appertain to the Cisalpine
and Ligurian Republics, at once allied to, and de-
pendant upon France, while all Piedmont, impli-
citly submitting to her dominion; checks the ambi-
tion, and insures the submission of the nascent Com-
sitonwealths:l . -

SPA!!..

The Ciowrnment of this country, :t.e.r having re-
Mquithed Louisi.int to France, by whom it was
criginally settled, planted and transferred, apps ars
to be occupied about domestic regulations, the ex-
clusion of heretical books from abroad, and the abo-
lition of monasteries at home. By the P.rst cf r..esc
measures, it is intended to prevent ihnovationN in
rNauers cf religion and by the second, which is
confided to the joint care of the Prince of PE Act
and the Archbishop of Tottoo, to remit' the enor-
mous dil.ipidations occasioned by the war.

TILE NORTHERN NATIONS,
LIE present, appear torpid, froth their po,:tioi, and
their seeming deficiency in respect to energy ; but
Sweden and Denmark have acgered both wealth
and strength from their politic neutrality. Rus'ia
too, dues not seem inattentive to her best interests,
for the F.mp'ror A LEZANDKR•PAULOVITCH, instead
of following the brilliant but destructive career of
his predecessors, wisely encouragel trade, and copy-
ing the example of the States of Provence, during
the fifteenth century, is anxious to render the situa-
tion of a merchant respectable, by prevcneng nobi-
lity from :ece;ving a s:aia from commerce.
The [louse of Aust:ia is recovering slowly from
a war, in the course of which she displayed tnore
bravery, perhaps, than policy ; while that of Bran-
denburgh, her rival, is exhibiting pregnant marks of
that hereditary prudence which distinguishes the
character of FaLDERICICWILLIA:4 111. and was
not entirely unknown to his father.

GREAT BRITAIN
begins to enjoy all the advantages, as well as all the
blessing' of petice. 1 his is ftilly evinced by tile an-
nihilation of discontent, and an increasing rei-enue.
Yet the prosperity of a nation depends not so much
on fiscal receipts and an o►erflowing treasury', as in
the happiness of individuals, and their will and abi-
Ety to bear extraordinary imposts on the spur of the
occasion. If the Stocks be considered as the barometer
of finance, the index under the cupola of the Bank
augurs but unfavourably for those who would wish
to plunge us one day into a war, about the form of
government that is to regulate the distant mountains
of Switzerland, and on the next make us squander
away millions for the dye-stuffs and mahogany pro-
duced in the swamps of ITotfriras. In the mean
time, the accounts from Ireland are trulylamentable;
but it affords sum? consolation to find, that the dis-
turbances in the South, are not in the least.degree
tinctured with disaffection.

IREL/IND,
_____ •

• DUBLIN, JAN. 25.
Mr. Wickham arrived at the Castle Last S aturday,
on his return from Limerick.

CORV, JAN. 2i.
Mr. Wickham and the Solicitor G..ncral are at
Limerick. An Address to the Lord Lieutenant,
signed by several of the principal gentry, was pre-
sented to Mr. Wickham, by Colonels Odell and
Vereker. It states in substance; the disturbances in
districts of the county, and calls for the incruur of
troop:, as the effective means of their suppression.
Secretary WiCkham's answer expresses the anxiety of
Government to preserve the public tranquillity, and
concludes with the following temperate, firm, and
judicious passage :
" In the mean nine, as several of the offenders have been ap-
prehended, and J 1 it appears that a very material body of evi-
dence, tending to affect many of these deluded persons, and
leauling to a diviovery of all their accomplices, has been brought
forwArd subac went to the meeting of the Magistrates, and a 4
ar • already given to furnish every aysiatait..e to the civil
p6u,er, his Excellency wishes to tuggim the expediency of de-
laying the execution of smite of the important in...l.:lire: re-
commended by the Magistrater, moil the eff...ct of those already
allot red shalt Ave bceit fully Ascertained."

• ••• LIMEItICK. JAN. 22.
We 'lavabo doubt ink the wise and firm mea-
sures of Government will restore this county to
perfect tranqUill;ty.
Thursday morning Mr. Wickham visited several
of the merchants' stores, the new quays, &c. with all
of *Melt he expressed himself highly Pleased, and
held a conference with the principal merchants on
the most effectual mode of improving the trade and
harbour of this city, and declared hi? readiness to
for rard any plan that should be thot!ght adviseable
to c:trry their intentions into Offect.
Thursday last, Mr. Wickham was elegantly en-
tertaiaed at dinner at the niercaritile coffee-house, by
the bankers and merchants of this city.
Yesterde morning Mr. ‘Vickhain and his Secre-
tary !et ttf fbi Dubl.n. .