of Lombardy. Had it not been for Commerce, Venice would never have had the School of Painting for which she is so illustrious. Had not the family of Medici, afterwards allied to so many royal houses, and the parent of so many sovereign Princes, been successful merchants, half, perhaps, of the precious remains of antiquity which we now possess, would not have reached us. Far be it from us to deny or undervalue the obligations, which Learning and Science, owe the monarchs of the earth, or to the ranks which immediately approach them. To these much, very much, do Learning and Science owe; but were they not themselves continually enriched by the commercial part of the community, scanty indeed would be their means of remunerating, or encouraging either the Artist or the Scholar.

On the other hand, Science has ever been auxiliary to Commerce. Not a step can Commerce safely take, either in her most simple or her most complex operations, unless the Sciences of Numbers and Measure attend her. Nor should it be forgotten that many even of those rules,

are

"Which boys can read, and girls can understand,”

the result of most profound and laborious investigation, and that the midnight lamp has, over and over again, been lighted to the scientifick men by whom they were discovered.

To Navigation, Commerce almost wholly owes her existence. From the felling of the tree to the launch of the ship, and from the launch of the ship to her arrival in port, every thing now appears to be reduced to rule, and the rules appear so simple in their theory and so easy in their application, that they seem to be carried into effect by a kind of intuitive readiness, and a process almost mechanical. But to form these rules, apparently so simple and so easy, the minds of scientifick men had been employed for ages on the most extensive and abstruse researches. It is literally true that, in the circles of Art and Science, there is scarcely one which has not been brought into the service of the ship-builder, or of the mariner. In those lines of Trade and Commerce which are employed on the metallick productions, or forming or compounding colours, there scarcely is a process which the workman does not owe to Chemistry, and which it did not cost the Chemist the toil of years to disWhen the drainer of a marsh uses his spiral screw,

cover.

he avails himself, of a process, the discovery of which was thought to do honour to one of the most renowned of the ancient Mathematicians. When the land surveyor measures a field, he does it by rules laid down in a small Greek book, which appeared two hundred and forty years before Christ. To come to our own country, and nearer to our own time, the steam Engine, now applied to so many useful purposes, and every day discovering new powers, was one of the inventions which, in the reign of Charles the First, employed the learned leisure of the Marquis of Worcester. To the divine mind of Sir Isaac Newton we principally owe the quadrant, which, with Hadley's name, is now in the hands of every mariner.

But to prove the general utility of Science to Commerce, it is unnecessary to travel back to the ancient history of other countries, or to the former history of our own. At the instant I am speaking, Science is advancing towards us with an invention, which, to the latest period, will prove incalculably beneficial to humanity in general, and to Commerce in particular. You have frequently read in your newspapers of the horrid effects of the firing of a mine. A very recent paper has given an account of such a disaster. Now within these few weeks, one of those men, the homines centenarii, Scaliger called them, who exist but one in a century, men who elevate the country in which they are born, and even the age in which they live, our illustrious countryman, Sir Humphrey Davy, has discovered a process, by which this evil principle in nature is absolutely subdued, and all possibility of danger from it is altogether removed.

A stronger proof of the utility of Science cannot be required. Now, perhaps, among those who frequent or who may soon frequent your library, or your chambers of experiment, there may be some whose bosoms are pregnant with celestial fire, and who only want the facilities of acquiring knowledge, which these means afford, to become, like that great man, leaders in Science and Benefactors to humanity, but who, without these, would live and die unknowing and unknown. What a satisfaction it must be to the friends of the London Institution, to call forth the energies of such a man!

Thus in every age has Science been subservient to Commerce. When they are separated, Science loses all her utility; Commerce all her dignity. When they Vol. III. No. 8.

21

are united, each grows with the growth and strengthens with the strength of the other, and their powers appear unlimited. They ascend the Heavens, they delve the depths of the earth, and fill every climate that encourages them, with Industry, Energy, Wealth, Honour, and Happiness.

These being the happy effects of their union, must it not be the desire of all who wish well to either, and of all true and enlightened friends of their country, that every measure should be adopted, by which it can be cemented and invigorated? Permit me to add, that should science ever be neglected in this country, while encouraged by others, the Commercial part of the community would, in all probability, suffer soonest and most from the consequences.

In a conversation which a very inveterate and acute, and once powerful enemy of England, held with a friend of mine at Elba, he spoke of her in terms of respect, and even admiration; but said, "the term of the transcendant glory of England must now approach near its end. Years ago she took a spring, and left the nations of the earth at a distance behind her; they will soon take the spring, and, not having your burthens on Commerce and Arts, they will pass you. Vain be the augury! We trust, and we feel it will. But were there the slightest grounds for it, one powerful means of defeating it would most assuredly be, to promote the union of Science and Commerce; to stimulate Science to every exertion likely to prove serviceable to the Commercial Interests of the community; to furnish Commerce with the means of affording to Science and her followers, every facility of research and experiment; to invite Science within your walls, and to establish on a wise, and enlarged, and a dignified plan, on a plan suited to the high character of a British merchant, such Institutions as that which the ceremony of this day has placed under the protection of the City of London, and her opulent, honourable, and discerning sons.

FROM AN ENGLISH MAGAZINE.

Miss O'Neill.

Miss O'Neill may be said to have been educated, not enly for, but on the stage, having come out at the age of

twelve years, at the Drogheda Theatre, of which her father was manager. Though so young, she exhibited great capability, and was very soon in possession of the most important parts, both in comedy and tragedy. The more northern theatres were at that time, under separate management, being directed by Mr. Talbot, who, we believe, performed some nights, a few years since, on the London boards. Belfast, long considered as the Athens of Ireland, being at that time his head-quarters, he was prompted to engage Miss O'Neill, at a first rate salary. He was amply remunerated for this liberality, by her exertions in Belfast, Newry, Derry, &c. Her rising fame soon spread to the Irish metropolis, where the theatre as well as the manager's purse, was at a very low ebb, for at one house Henry Johnson had been obliged, in 1810, to lower the prices; whilst at Crow-street, the receipts had so completely failed, that the manager was forced to look for new recruits, and to find out novelty at least, if he could not procure excellence. Even the exertions of Mrs. Bartley, then Miss Smith, failed to fill the house; and in August, 1811, Incledon's benefit was unproductive, facts which can only be accounted for by the dis-tresses of the time.

It was at this period that Miss O'Neill entered into an engagement with Mr. Jones, and appeared, strange as it may seem, in the character of Widow Cheerly. The applause that accompanied this debut was universal, and followed by crowded houses, who considered her fame as established in the first walk of comick characters. The Dublin publick were however even more astonished, when a short time afterwards, the illness or inattention of another actress brought her out as Juliet. The best testimony of publick opinion may perhaps be drawn from her overflowing benefit, on the 27th May, 1811, when she performed Lady Townley to Conway's Lord Townley, with Maria, in the farce of the Citizen. To those who have only seen Miss O'Neill in tragick characters, it may seem strange that she should have depended upon her comick powers for a full house; but it may seem stranger, when we enumerate a few of her characters during that season, such as the Unknown Female in the Foundling of the Forest, Catherine, in the Taming of the Shrew, for Mrs. Cooke's benefit, to Conway's Petruchio, together with Desdemona, for Conway's benefit, when he first appeared as Othello, in Dublin, soon

after which she undertook the arduous task of Lady Macbeth, in all of which she met with unrivalled success.

It is not our intention to pursue this delightful actress through all her cast of early parts, but we cannot refrain from noticing the criticisms of that day, in which it was acknowledged that, with the exception of Miss Smith, she threw every female performer, who for a long time had been seen on the Dublin stage, to an immeasurable distance, so that, whilst the absence of the one was lamented, ampleconsolation was felt from the presence of the other. "In Miss Smith," said the Hibernian critick, (C we perceive studied effects of art-in Miss O'Neill, we feel the genuine effects of nature. Where terrour is to be raised, the first is pre-eminent; where pity should be excited, the latter is more impressive." After some further due praise to the excellencies of Mrs. Bartley, it was added, "that Miss O'Neill, resembled the sun shining through April clouds, wh. that luminary bursts forth with wondrous splendour, after the atmosphere is cooled and refreshed by a fructifying shower," and also, that "her representations excited the idea of Iris, extending her radiant bow in the heavens, a certain presage of approaching fineness."

After three years of constant applause, Miss O'Neill directed her steps towards the summit of histrionick exertion, being engaged for the season of 1814 at Covent Garden, where she made her first entrée as Juliet, on the 6th of October, being at once recognised as the first Hibernian actress, who had joined transcendant beauty with rare histrionick talent, since the time of Mrs. Woffington.

We know not if it is true, that the dramatick taste of the city of Cork is so low, that only a month before, Miss O'Neill had been playing there to empty benches, as was then asserted; but our readers may all remember that her first appearance on the Covent Garden boards was hailed with repeated shouts and peals of applause, vindicating the taste and judgment of a London audience, whilst she did honour to herself in a most remarkable and commendable diffidence, evidently the result of modest merit, instead of that kind of stage effect, which has so often exhibited to us some good ACTING, on the part of the apparently timid debutante.

London audiences had for some time been accustomed to see Juliet performed, without that engaging softness, which