Star.
London, England, 1812-02-07 00:00:00

C9PENT-GARDEN THE-AIRE.

Lact night, the ,new Operatic Dram.), entitled
7he Virgin of the Sun, was performed, for the sixth
time, to a crowded audience.
This piece is an alteration from Xorzr:nt: E and MAR-
NoNTEL's tale of the Inca:, by Mr. ltEvsoLns, and it
is but justice to observe,that, by his judicious selection,
the subject has been materially improved. A new
feature in ttage diet is introduced in this Drama: the
tagings of a storm, and the violence of an earthquake
are exhibited ; the whole stage is put in motion—trees
are seen wafted by the wind, and, as the storm in-
creases, are torn up and laid prostrate, and the frag-
ments of the splendid pillars of the Temple of the Sun
are scattered on the ground—the effect is grand and
p.cturcsque.—The performers are deserving of re-
spectal,le mention. Mr. YouNo, in Rolla, spews
himself to the best advantage, by the bold and ani.
mated manner in which he porn-trays this dignified
character ; and Miss SMITH displays those touches of-1
excellence in Cora, that draw down repeated plaudits. 11

L. if /V INN 'ELLIGENCE.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, FEB. 6.
11IE KING V. N IGON.

The defendant in this case was called on to receive
the judgment of the Court, having been convicted at
the last Assizes for the County of Kent, under the
following circumstances—The defendant is a Gutcher
at Maidstone, and he had entered into a contract to
supply the troops in that district with good and
wholesome meat, from the 25th of September, 1810
to 24th March, 1811. Within this period, it appeared
that he had once supplied the troops with bad ani
ulwholesome meat, and for this offence he was in-
iticted and found guilty.
The ATTORNEY GENERAL said it would not be ne-
ceFsaiy ter his Lordship to read his notes of the case.
The Comtnandant of the District had found it to
be his dace y to institute the prosecution in question ;
and, by the verdict wliich had been obtained, and the
effects of it, he was happy to think the end of the
prosecution had already been answered. The ex-
•' pesi?eof such a prosecution, their Lordships must be
aware, fell heavily upon the defendant, so mue.ll so,
as to amount to a punishment fully adequate to the
offence. The end of the prosecution was to satisfy
the soldiers that every attention should he paid to
their cetnfort and accommodation, and the Comman-
ding Officer of the District was satisfied that this end
had been attained.
Lord ELLENBOROUGH said, the Court could not
know what punishment would be adeqt,ate to the if-
, fence, or to the protection of the public against simi-
lar offences in future, if the notes of the trial were
not read.

/VII. GURNEY, for the defendant, submitted that his
client having been charged with one solitary offence,
the expences a:ready incurred were punishment suf-
ficient tor that of which he had been guilty. He
trusted, therefore, the Cow t would fall in with the
humane inclination of his Learned Friend the Attor-
ney General, by allowing tt.►e defendant to remain at
large on his own recogn►zance.
The ATTORNEY GENE►tAL agreed that the justice
of the case would be best answered by this arrange-
ment.—The Defendant was accordingly liberated
on his own recognizance, to come up for judgment
when called on.

HABEAS CORPORA.
Mr. PARK moved for a Writ of Habeas Corpora to
be directed to a Mr. Birch, a cotton spinner in West-
moreland, calling on him to bring up the bodies of
n.ne children belonging to the parish of St. George,
Hanover-square, in the County of Middlesex.
It appeared that the nine children in question had
been apprenticed out, under the Act of Parliament,
by the Overseers of the Poor for the Parish of St.
George, Hanover-square, to a manufacturer in Man-
chester, who had since become bankrupt ; the Over-
seers of the Parish of Manchester, on this event oc-
curring, without any intimation to the Overseers of
the Parish of St. George, Hanover-square, advertiz-
ed the childrtn as having become a burden upon
' them, and they were taken, also without any privity
on the part of the Overseers of the latter park!), into
the employment of Mr. Birch, against whom the
present appl:cat7on was made. The Overseers,
however, having come to the knowledge of these
circumstances, sent tsv of their officers to inspect
into the condition of the children, whom they
found to be over-wrought, badly fed, and badly do-
, thed. On this they sent a special messenger, and
again other messengers, desiring that the children
might he given up to them, but without effect. Mr.
Birch had offered to take the children as apprentices,
hut telused to deliver them up. In consequence,
the present application became necessary, and, as it
WaS too late to expect a return to the Writ within
the Term, it was prayed that it might be made at
Chambers.
Lord ELLENBOROUC:II thought the Rule should be
to thew cause, bo as Ha to occasion the expence of
bringing up the children in the first instauce. The
best way of shcwing cause, too, and the one which
he hoped would be adopted, would be to deliver up
the children.

THE KING v. WOODS AND OTHERS.
, The defendants were brought into Court at the in-
• stance of the
.City of London, as conservators of the
navigation of the river Thames. They were coal-
merchants, having a wharf at the bottom of Nor-
thumberlan&stteet, in the Strand, and they were con-
victed of a nuisance in mooring their coal-barges be-
, yond-the piles which limited their boundaries.
Ti-ey v ere discharged on their own recognizances,
and u.ktiettakittg not to encroach upon the navigation
'• of the ii‘er ;11 future.
Tile Kim: v. THE MAYOR OF CHESTER.
Mr. ToreiNo moved for a rule to shew cause, why
• a Mandamus should not issue to the Mayor cf Ches-
ter, commanding him to convene an assembly of the
c tlzens, for the purpose of electing from among them
'24 Aldermen and 40 Common Councilmen. He
did this upon an affiJavit, which stated that the de-
penent, a citizen of Chester, m had heard fro old free-
men of the city, and From his father, who Wits an at-
•j.nney there, that the city was incorporated by a
charter fri in King Htnry VII. which requited the
citizens to elect every year from among themselves,
a Mayor, 2 Sheriffs, (for the city) and the above
ii„mbers of Aldermen anal Common Councilmen ;
- an that Las charter had been accepted, acted upon

in various instances, and eongrmed by Queen Eliza-
beth. The right had been questioned in the celebra-
ted information of the King v. Avery, in which the
judgment of this Court for the defendant was rever-
sed by a writ of error in the House of Lords. In
that information reliance was placed upon a charter
of the 35 and 36 Charles 11. which, in the opinion of
the House of Lords, had not the effect of destroying
the original charter; but, since that decision, no
election under the original charter had taken place.
The Court refused the Mandamus upon loose in-
formation and belief of the applicant. In this way
any Corporation might be put, by a mere fishing-bill,
to shew under what charters it acted. The onus by
with an applicant for a Mandamus (first)) to prove
that such and such was the constitution of the Corpo-
ration, and (secondly) that the Corporation had, in
such and such instances, acted against that Constitu-
tion. The affidavits stated charters mod acts from a
printed report of a judicial decision, and there was no
search made for :,riginal documents recited in those
proceedings.—Rule refused.

mINErr v. BOXHAM.

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL applied to the Court to
advance this-special argument on the paper, since a
vast number of other cases were depending upon its
issue, and a great deal of property was hung up by
its suspension, and doubts were thrown upon mer-
cantile transactions of every day's occurrence. The
question is whether a foreign assured can recover in
an action upon a policy cf insurance against a con-
demnation by the act of his own State. _ . .

The Court could not adopt this system of selection
and preference, which would engender contests for
priority in every case. The parties would be usefully
occupied in the mean time, in considering whether a
condenmazion was equivalei,t to an act of the State.

LINCOLN SESSIONS, JANUARY 18.
TOLER,TION ACT.
At the Sessions holdol this day, no business of any
note occurred, except the application of two young
men to be permitted to take the oaths which are re-
quired of Dissenting Teachers. One of them, Mr.
Bumstead, has been an Itinerant Preacher nearly five
ye's, the other, Mr. Bacon, has been engaged in lo-
cal preaching about two years.
Some questions were put to them by the Magi-
strates respecting their employments and places of
abode ; and when they had received their answers and
the testimonials they produced, signed by four respec-
table Members of the Methodist Connection, the
whole Bench of Magistrates retired and left the Court
for nearly half an hour, after which they returned,
and informed the young men they could not be ad-
mitted to take the oaths.
Mr. Bacon asked whether he should be liable
to fine for preaching without having taken the oaths
which the I.lw prescribes, and which he then desired
to be permitted to take
The Magistrates replied, that was not their busi-
ness ; he might take the consequences. It has been
insinuated, that they would have licensed them to a
particular place, if they had been wholly employed as
Preachers. But to connect himself with a particu-
lar place, cannot be permitted to a Methodist Preach-
er, nor is it required by the law which tolerates them,
and directs Magistrates in what manner to proceed
with respect to taese religious Teachers. These two
young men will therefore continue to do what they
conceive to be their duty, in preaching to those who
will hear them.

4.• •
ROYAL INSMUTIOM ,
MR. DAVI"S LECTURES ON THE ELEMENTAST
CHEMICAL PHILOSOPHY.

Mr. DAVY delivered his second Lecture on Satur-
day last. He offered some general views conceniing
the different modifications of matter, and the active
powers engaged in the production of the phenomena
of nature, and of art ; he then directed the attention
of his audience to heat, or calorific expansion. He
considered its important and diversified agencies in
the economy of things, and after an elaborate discus-
sion concerning the mechanical and chemical hypo-
theses relative to the nature of heat, he concluded by
defining the limits of our knowledge on the subject.
The expansive energy, or power of repulsion pro-
ducing heat, attraction, which is either gravitative,
chemical, or electrical, or the active powers belong.
ing to matter, and cannot be separated from it.—
Matter itself may be considered as inert, and all
the harmonious arrangements in the heavens and the
earth, m IV be regarded as flowing from one primary
cause, winch, as it is intelligent., says Mr. Davy,
must be divine. _ _

The Professor entered into particular details rela-
tive to the effects of heat, its importance, and the
laws of its operations. The law of expansion is con-
nected with the equalization of the temperature of
the globe, the production of winds, and the preserva-
tion of animal and vegetable life. He particularly
pointed out its application to the ventilation of mines,
and the heating and ventilating of rooms. He exhi-
bited a model, illustrating the manner by which the
House of Lords is ventilated and warmed, after a
new plan proposed by himself. All the air deterio-
rated by respiration or combustion in the House,
finds a ready exit by means of three copper pipes
carried to the roof, and ultimately meeting in a
' single pipe ; the circulation of the air is assisted by a
furnace, and by means of ventilators below, there is a
constant supply of fresh air. Such a plan Mr. Davy
conceives might be adopted in large drawing-rooms,
or in crowded assemblies, with excellent effect and at
a trilling expence.
The formation of elasic fluids arising from the de-
composition of vegetable and animal matters, pro-
ceed very slowly under pressure ; in illustrating this
principle Mr. Davy referred to the method lately
adopted by M. Appert for preserving meat or vege-
tables, which consists of enclosing them in close tin
plate vessels, excluded from the contact of air ; pu-
trefaction cannot proceed unless zriform fluids es-
cape. Mr. Davy conceives that this method may be im-
proved by using stronger vessels, and compressing
into them a quantity of fixed air, which by its pres-
sure and chemical properties would prevent decom-

position.
In illustrating the effects of combustion, Mr. Davy
noticed some recent experiments made by Count
Rumford, who conceives that the light emitted is
proportional to the heat of the flame, and that it may
be greatly increased by bringing several parallel wicks
near each other. A model of what the Count calls a

polyflame light was exhibited. It had four wicks,
and the Count states that a lamp of this kind, when
properly constructed, will afford as much light as 50
wax candles.
Mr. Davy concluded his lecture by explaining the
phenomena of heat on the mechanical hypothesis of
its being a vibratory motion of the particles of bo-
dies, and accounted for latent heat, when solids are
converted into fluids, by supposing that the motion
is employed to make the particles revolve round their
axis. He offered this view, merely for the purpose of
comparison with the idea of a specific fluid, the exis-
tence of which had often been tooconfidently advanced
by some philosophers. On such a subject it was proper
to doubt. The facts of science should he kept per-
fectly distinct from th_ hypothetical opinions advan-
ced to explain them.
The truly philost,phical enquirer into nature, says
Mr. Davy, will not consider it as a disgrace that he
is unable to explain every thing. tle will feel that
truth is mote promoted by the minute and accurate
examinat;on of a few objects, than by any pr.:mature
attempts to form grand and universal theories.

To our various Clubs of Soc'al Fellows, Merry
Fellows, Odd Fellows, &c. that of Lucky Fellow: is
likely to be added on the Nth instant—From the
number of Individuals who will then Ee made happy
by the Drawing of the unexampled Little Lottery
of only 8,000 Twkets, with JE20,000 Prizes, and other
great Capitals.

To Medical Men of all descriptions, residing in
any of the Provincial Cities or Towns in the United
Kingdom—BARNETT GUEST thinks it necessary to
inform them, in order to save trouble and expence of
postage,' he sells his Medicines for ready money only ;
but they may be had from any of the respectable
wholesale houses in town ( which sell Medicines) and
receive from them such a discount as will be found
unusually liberal, on quantities not less than one dozen
of any of his undermentioned new-invented Ciymizal
Preparations : the Guestonian Lotion, for Gout, Bcc..
Guestonian Pills, for Gout, &c. Guestonan Bilious
%Bs, Guestonian Nervous Pills, Guestonian Asthma-
tic and Consumptive Pills, Guestnnian Tooth-powder,
which cures the Scurvy, and prevents the Tooth-ach,
Guestonian Tooth-powder, which cures the Scurvy,
and gives the Teeth a most beautiful colour, Welcome
Guest, which cures all descriptions of Tooth-ach,
Face-ach, Ear-ach, and Gum biles.—An extract from
this pamphlet may be seen in the SrAit Newbpapers,
from July, lBll, to January, 1812.