Star.
London, England, 1830-01-16 00:00:00

PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

Thursday next is fixed for the funeral of the later Sir
Thomas Lawrence, and on the Monday following we
understand the election of a President of the Royal
Academy, will take place in the Council Chamber of
the Academy, in Somerset house. It is usual, after the
President is elected, to present him to the King, for his
Majesty's approbation, by whoui he is afterwards knighted.
Mr. Benjamin West, being a Quaker, declined the honour.
Mr. West was born in Amei ica, and no doubt his having
a personal knowledge of the appearance and costume of
the Indians of America, assisted him considerably in the
composition and grouping of his fine picture " The Death
of General Woolle," the proof prints of which arc so very
scarce that they bring a considerable price. The
sketches of Mr. West, and the designs from which he'
composed and painted his pictures, for spirit, boldness of
execution, and drawing, are not surpassed, and are held
in the highest estimation by all artists. His single por-
traits, though so great a master as an historical painter,
were of a very inferior character. The last he exhibited
at Somerset House was the worst in the exhibition.
Much about the same time Sir Thomas Lawence exhibited
a gigantic portrait of Satan, which attracted much notice
as a grand and bold effort of the art.

SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE.

POST-MORTFId FXANISATION.

On opening the chest about a pint of fluid was found
in the cavities of the pleura. The heart was somewhat
enlarged, with a good deal of fat deposited about it. Its
muscular substance, particularly on the left side, was
thickened, and singularly dense in texture. Morbid
appearances generally were observed in the valvular
system of the heart. In the tricuspid valve, the margin
of the cortina tendinea was preternaturally thickened
and irregular in the interspaces of the attachment of
the chordee tendinea. The semilunar valves of the
pulmonary artery were extremely thin, and the central
one was distended into the form of a large pouch.—
On the left side of the heart, the Mitrel valve presented
a similar appearance of thickening of the cortina tei:di
but in a greater degree than that of the tificligpid- valve,
and With bony deposits. A ridge of bone extended for
some way along the attachment of the cortina to the
auricular ventricular opening. The semilunar valves of
the aorta were also much thickened. One of them was
much distended, and a hardened ridge was obseived
following the line of attachment of the valves. In the
adjacent part of the aorta there were deposits of bone.—
The internal membrane of the aorta was considerably
diseased, thickened, and showing a 'disposition to bony
deposit in numerous distinct elevated patches over the
whole surface. The lungs were generally healthy, with
the exception of a strong adhesion between the upper lobs
of the left lung and the parietes. The viscera of the
abdomen were generally healthy. The kidnies were roam-
what larger, and more flaccid than natural.
(Signed) HENRY HOLLAND, M.D.
JOSEPH HENRY
January 10. JOHN FOSTER R
- - - •
A Correspondent of a Morning Paper says, " Del
phenomenon of the solution of snow or ice, by salt/ ap
pests to me to arise merely from the clerical action elf
the two substances, for, as the solution of a salt in a liquid
always redeem an increased *malty, so the snow oi ice,
the anymenles of which am mere remote than is welter,
returns to the %ail note. in coneelpietsce of that algal-
kudos of bath oNch is always the result of that species
of chemical action."


MOORE'S LIFE OF LORD BYRON.
The following are extracts from note-booke left behind
him by Lord Br ItOri :
" Peel, the Orator and Statesman (' that was, or is, or le to be')
was my form-fellow, and we wereboth at the top of our remove
(a public school phrase.) We were on good terms, hut his brother
was my intimatt friend. There were always great hopes of Peel
amongst us all, mitten and scholars—and be has not disappointed
them. As a scholar be was greatly my superior; as a declaimer
and actor. I was reckoned at least his equal; as a schoolboy, out
of school, I was always in scrapes, and be never ; and in school, he
always knew his lesson, and I rarely,—but when I knew it, I
knew it nearly as well. In general information, history, Ike Ste. I
think I was his superior, as well as of most boys of my standing."
" Yesterday, a very pretty letter from Annabelle Byron, which
I answered. What an odd situation and friendship is ours .
Without one spark of love on either side, anti produced by circum-
stances which hi general lead to coldness on one side, and aversion
on the other. ,sbe is a very superior woman, and very little spoiled,
which is strange in an helms—a girl of 20—ea peeress that is to
be in her own right—an only child, and a ansvotte who has always
bad her own way. She is a poetess—a mathematician—a meta-
physician—and yet withal very kind, generous, and gentle, with
very little pretension. Any other bead would be turned with
half her acquisidons, and a tenth of her advantages."
" Dallas called before I was
.up, so we did not meet. Lewis,
too, who seems out of humour with every thing. Whit can be the
matter ? Ile is not married—has be lost his own mistre.s, or au y
other person's wife? Hodgson, tun, came. He i. going to be mar.
tied, and be Is the kind of nun who will be the happier. He has
taleot, cheerfulness, every thing that can make him a pleasing eon,.
pinion ; and his intended is handsome and young, and all that.
But I never see any one much improved by matrimony. All my
coupled contemporaries are bald and discontented. W. and S. have
both lost their hair and good humour; and the last of the two had
a good deal to lose. But it don't much signify what falls et a mates
temples in that state V'

•• . •
•• When I belonged to the Drury-lane Committee. and was see
of the Sub-Committee of Alanagement, the number of plays upon
the shelves were about five hundred. Conceiving that amongst
these there must be some of merit, in person and by prosy I caused
au investigation. Ido not think that of those which I saw there
was one which could be conscientiously tolerated. There 111:1fCf
were such things as mo.t of them ! hiaturin was very kindly re-
commended to me by Walter Scott, to whom I bad recourse, firstly,
in the hope that be would do something fur us himself, and se •
fondly, in my despair, that be would point out to us any young
(or old) writer of promise. Maturin sent his &dries :oh a letter
without his address. so that at brat I could give him LO answer.
When tat last hit upon his residence, I sent him a favourable an-
swer, and something more sub•t ',Mal. His play succeeded; but
I was at that time absent Irons Englatid.
'• I tried Coleridge, too; but he bad nothing feasrale in hand at
the time. hlr• Sotheby obligingly&red .11 his tragedies, an.l I
pledged myself, and noiwith.tanding many squabbles with my
committed brethren, did get • Ivan' accepted, read, and the parts
distributed. But lo ! in the very heart of the matter. upon some
tepidness on the part of or warmth on that of the author.
Sotheby withdrew his play. Sir J. B Burgess did also present
four tragedies and a farce, and I moved green-room and sub Cl:LO •
miner, but they would not.
" Then the scenes I had to go through ;—the authors and the
authoresses, and the milliners, and the wild Irishmen—the people
from Brighton, from Blackwell, from Chatham, from Cheltenham.
from Dublin, rom Dundee—who came in upon me ! to all of whiint
it was proper to give a civil answer, and a hearing, and a reading.
Mrs. —'s father, an Irish dancing-master of sixty ye ers, called up:ift
me to request to play Archer, dressed in silk stockings, OH a frosty
morning, to show his legs (wfllch were certainly good and Irish hir
his age, and had been still better)—Miss Knima Somebody, with a
play entitled " The Bandit of Bohemia," or sonic such title r
production—Mr. O'Higgins, then resident at Richmond, with an
Irish tragedy, in which the unities could not fail to be observe
for the protagonist was chained by the leg to a pillar during he
chief part of the performance. He was a wild man of a savage
appearance, and the dillicalty of not laughing at him was only t,. be
got over by reflecting upon the probable consequeuc.:l of such
cachinat

" As I am really a civil and polite person, and do bite giving
pain when it can be avoided, I sent them up to Mogi» rd,
who is a man of business, and sufficiently ready with a negative.—
and left them to settle with him; and at the beginning of next
year I went abroad : I have since been little aware of the p: ogre.,
of the theatres.

" Players are said to be an impracticable people. They arc so ;
but I managed to steer clear of any disputes with then% ; and ex.
cepting one debate— with the elder Byrne ab tut Miss Smith's
pas de—(something—l forget the tectudeles).—l do not remember
any litigation of my own. I used to protest Mss Smith, heea.i4c
the was like Lad Jane Harley in the face, and likenesses ti t
way with me. Indeed, in general, I left such things to my m re
bustling colleagues, who used to reprove me seriously tut nut being
able to take such things in band without buffisnitng with the
trines, or throwing things into eoniti,ion by treating light to titer.
with levity.

0 Then the Committee i—then the suh-committee !—wr were
but few, but never agreed. There was Peter Moore who contra-
dicted Kinsaird, and Kinnaird who contradicted every body : then
our two managers. Rae and Dibdin ; and uur secretary, Ward ! •
and yet we were an very zealous and in earnest to do good and so
forth.
English plays ; but was not pleased with me for compliment-
ing him as ' the Upton' of our theatre (31r. Upton is, or W 44, the
poet who writes the songs for Astley's,) and almost gave up pro-
loping in consequence.

" In the pantomime of 1815.16, there was a representation of
the masquerade of 1914 given by • us youth' of Wader's club to
Wellington and Co. Douglas Kinnaird and one or two other.,
with myself, put on masks, and went on the stage with the
01 roLLot, to see the effect of a Theatre from the stage. It is very
grand. Douglas danced among the figuranti too, and they were
puzzled to find out who we were, as bring more than their num-
ber. It was odd enough that Douglas Kinnaird and I .hould have
been both at the real masquerade, and afterwards in the mimic one
of the same, on the stage of Drury-lane Theatre."