The Press. — London, England, 1854-02-18 00:00:00

FEBRUARY 18, 1854. her into the yard, and almost distracted ns with the number and variety of their questions. The noise they made was deafening. One would come, aud, having his question answered, retire again, and commence a magniloquent discourse to those near him, taking our answer for his subject. The imagination of the natives of St. Jean de l'Osne is extremely fertile, one word being enough for them to make a tale or even write a history. The Pro fessor was informing some ladies that we had crossed the Channel in a steamer; an imaginative bystander instantly ' caught the word rapeur, and away he hastened to inform his friends that the three Englishmen had crossed the Channel in their little boat, having exceeded in speed the fastest vapeur. The worthy Professor also mentioned that on our way we had i.topped at St. Cloud, and that the Emperor had offered prizes to be pulled for there, tte. This was transformed into a rumour that the Empe►or. hearing of our adventurous expedition, had himself pre sented us with a handsome gift at. St. Cloud, end that in addition to this we had won no end of cups and gold medals on our way. All these and many other similar rumours were confirmed by the Doctor's everlasting oui to all their in quiries. Had the question been, lto you not always make your boat leap over the bridges you meet with en route?' the g►►llible inquirer would have been met with the same invariable oui, out, strengthened, perhaps, by affirmxtive nods." It is thus throughout. The boa', the whole boat, and nothing but the boat, is the hero of the book. There are several illustrations, which the Captain says "can hardly fail" to please. They may please, but they are not good. Gibbon's Roman Empire. With Varionun Notes. Vol. 11. London : Bohr. Tnis is another volume added to Mr. Bohn's series of British classics. A reprint of Gibbon was much wanted, and the present is excellent in many respects. The type and paper are good; the text follows the best, that of the quarto, edition ; the notes added are by Guizot, Wenck, Schreiter, and Hugo. This, the second, is perhaps the most—if, indeed, there is a most in that great work—interesting of the six vo lumes which will complete " Gibbon's Roman Empire," as it contains the foundation of Constantinople and the chief part of the reign of Julian. "An English Church man," whose name is not disclosed, though strangely enough the preface states" a distinguished one," is the editor. Mr. Bohn's series of cheap standard works now extends to nearly three hundred volumes. The benefits be has conferred upon literature are gene rally acknowledged. We are therefore sorry to see in the preface a tone of asperity in alluding to cer tain remarks which are not specifically set forth. Mr. Bohn's works are themselves the best answer he can give to disparagers. 1. Reflections from Nature, S:c., and other Poems. By Richard Harris. London : Pickering. 2. The French Revolution. A Poem. By Joseph Monier. Canto 11. London : Bosworth. 3. Nuge : the Solace of Rare Leisure. By the Rev. James Banks, M.A. London: Hardwicke. 1. The author of the first of these little volumes tells us that he has " only recently finished his schooldays." This the verses themselves sufficiently indicate ; but one short poem on "Time" is better than such ju venile attempts usually are, and is the best in this book, which is published by subscription. No. 2 is an avowed attempt to imitate "Don Juan," from which poem the author regrets that he cannot transcribe whole stanzas, for the very excellent rea son that any fool may tell a single line Of 13yron's noble poetry from mine ! The second canto of " The French Revolution" is ab surd from the first line to the last. No. 3, "Nugre," is correctly described by its title. The verses generally display taste and feeling, and are such as may gracefully occupy the idle hours of a gentleman of education. Yet they are not poetry: they possess the form and the colour, but the heat of the sacred fire is wanting. As Mr. Banks, who is head master of Ludlow Grammar School, invites cri ticism "from which he may gather wisdom," we will point out that the. fourth verse of " The Warrior and the Poet" feebly expands a thought of Horace, which had been nobly rendered by Swift in these four short lines:— Virtue, which the poet's care Has not well consigned to fame, I.ies like, in his sepulchre, Some old king without aname. This Mr. Banks diffuses into six commonplace lines, beginning— For what is the hero by bards unsung? The same poem contains other similar blemishes, but we admit it is about the worst in the volume. That called " Cadwallon ap Madoc" has many pretty One of those persons termed " wicked would say that the "Nugfe" and "The lolution," conjointly, furnish an additional conjugal felicity and the poetical tempera incompatible ; for, whilst the latter is to ent possessed by Mr. Banks, he dedicates first to a friend, and only secondly to his THE PRESS. wife; but Mr. Monier, who has not an atom of poetry in his soul, dedicates the fruit of his labour unre servedly to his better half. Geological E.tcursions Round the Isle of Wight and the Adjacent Coast of Dorsetshire. By Gideon Algernon /dentell, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S., London: Bohn. Tilts, the third, edition of Dr. Mantell's well.. known and valuable work der:ves a melancholy interest from the circumstance that since the second appeared the scientific world has had to deplore the loss of the author. A supplementary chapter which he added to that edition has been preserved intact in this; but as geology is a science which, depending a it does perhaps more than any other on an accumu lation of facts, is continually and rapidly advancing, the present volume would be imperfect if it was not something more than a reprint of Dr. 31antell's work. Accordingly, the further progress of geological research down to the latest period has been traced by a friend of the lamented author and added to this book, which enjoys deservedly a high reputation. 1. Electoral Facts from 1832 to 1853. By Charles R. Dod, Esq. 2. Adams's Parliamentary Handbook. Edited by Edward Morton, Esq. London : Adams. 1. The first edition of this useful work was published in the early part of the year 1852, but, the general election in July of that year rendering a second edi tion necessary, we have it now before us. A detailed notice of a book the utility of which is so generally recognised would be superfluous ; but we may men tion that the particulars of the last general election are interwoven with the volume in their proper places, instead of being added in a supplementary chapter. The electoral facts comprise every lopic essential to a knowledge of the various constituen cies of the kingdom ; even the politics and amount of sale of the newspapers in each place are given. Mr. Dod's book may, to some extent, furnish data for an estimate of the results of the new Reform Bill. 2. This pretty little book, having a flexible cover, can easily be carried in the pocket. It contains all the usual information about the members of both houses, their families, connections, and political opinions. Whenever the last are explained at great length hon. gentlemen are their own historians. We thought Sir Benjamin Hall's description long until we saw Mr. Oliveira's, whilst Mr. Allot' !occupies more space than either. The editor says he has aimed at strict impartiality, justly remarking that in a work of this nature it is a condition essential to success. 1. Orr's Circle of the Sciences. Nos. 6,7, and 8. 2. The Family Friend. Nos. 84, 85, and 86. 3. The Home Companion. Nos. 5,0, and 7. London : Orr and Co. Ar.t. good in their way. We are glad to see useful knowledge supplying the place of tales in these cheap publications, except where the latter, which is rare, are possessed of solid merit. An engraving of Pens burst in No. 5 of the Home Companion is well exe cuted. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. BOOKS. The Carafe:4 of Maddaloni. Naples under Spanigh Do minion. Bohn. Dante. By Wright. Ditto. A Year with the Turks. By W. W. Smyth. J. W. Parker and Son Kelke's Family Prayers. Cox. Reminiscences of a Retired Physician. Routledge. The Money Lender. By Mrs. Gore. Ditto. The Grand Ilomish Policy. Sermons. By J. H. ; urney. Seeleys. PAMPHLETS. Who shall make the Law Makers! Smith. Plea for a Colonial and Missionary College at Cambribge, addressed to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. Hy J. It. Crowfoot, Hi). Hiyingtons. Colonial and International Postage. By H. Derecourt, Crawley. The Big Bully of Europe and the Blasphemous" Te Deum." By C. W. S. Collingridge. Minutes of the. Resignation of Sir Charles Napier of the Command of the Indian Army. Murray. Two Letters to the Marquis of Dalhousie on the Best Policy to be Pursued at Pegn. By M. F. Crisp. Maulmain, East Indies: Ranney. Sir E. Bearer Lytton's Speech at the Leeds Mechanics' Institution. Routledge. National Education with Religion, and without Rates. W. F. Wilkinson, M.A. J. W. Parker and Son. Decimal Coinage. A Letter from W. Brown, Esq., M.P., to F. Shand, Esq., Chairman to the Liverpool Cham• Ler of Commerce. Ridgway Speech of the Right Hrn. Lord John Russell in the House of Commons, Jan. 31, 1854. Ditto. Petition Presented by W. D. Seymour, Esq., M P., on Behalf of the Carnatic Stipendiaries to the House of Commons in the Session of 1853. Odell. ~ .....s _L int Vranta. DRURY LANE THEATRE. 163 IT would seem from the Drury. Lane playbills that Mr. E. T. Smith, flushed with the success attending the perpetual blazes of triumph which crown his ettbrts, has determined upon fighting a pitched battle with Mr. Kean for the possession of the chief place in the favour of the Tragic Muse. However this may be, it is clear that Mr. Kean and Mr. G. V. Brooke are now fairly contending in the same arena, and we shall therefore take an early opportunity of com paring the respective merits of these two eminent tragedians. ~. Mia illiiii passages. "wags" wo French Revs proof that c went are in some extent his work fir HAYMARKET. CROWDED boxes and scant standing room in the pit attest the attraction of Miss Cushman as Meg Merrilies in the revival of Guy Mannering. This part gives an opportunity for the display of all the merits, and but few of the demerits, that we have already indicated in the persouations of this eminent artist. [PitEfts, ante p. 92.] Stamped with distinc tive originality, the Meg Merrilies of Miss Cushman is elevated beyond its melodramatic rank, and is in. vested with the fierce intensity of an unearthly crea tion. The gipsy of Ellengowan presented by this ac tress startles us as a supernatural visitant, and, though sometimes trembling on the verge of the grotesque, the volition of the actress, and ber sustained force, carry her triumphantly through difficulties before which a less-gifted performer would have failed. That there is genius in this portraiture of Meg Merrilies cannot be denied ; yet the part would be more affecting if its mad laughs were now and again mingled with the womanly sobs suggestive of the anguish of the human heart. Our readers will have to remember that it is the Meg Merrilies of Miss Cushman, not that of the great novelist, or the feeble playwright (Terry), which they admire; and they will agree with us that the actress has done wonders in raising the histrionic rank of the part, and that it would be hypercritical to ask that the tender should be mingled with the terrible. Some no doubt will also protest against her physical portraiture of death. Her being slowly dragged from the stage, with stiffened arms, was one of those coarse effects in literally personifying the horrible for the modern introduction of which into high tragedy Mademoiselle Rachel is responsible. We were diaappcinted with the Dominic Sampson of Mr. Compton. It was too wooden and deficient in fun. Dressing the part like a seedy member of the Society of Friends, instead of the dry-as dust Dominic, he reminded us of Solomon in The Quaker. Some unlooked for comic effects were produced by the Dandie Dinmont of the night, Mr. Rogers, whose voice was wonderfully Hibernian for honest Douche, who was a borderer. The new scenery, by Mr. W. H. Callcott, is highly creditable to the painter. Some of the Highland views are painted with aerial lightness and dewy freshness, and are both pictu resque and well composed. Want of space leaves us no room to notice Ranelagh at length ; nor is there occasion for doing so. On its second performance on Tuesday the house was not well filled, and the curtain fell amongst mingled applause and hissing. The piece (taken from the French) was well acted, and the view of Ranelagh Hardens very striking ; but the Haymarket audiences are too accustomed to Mr. Buckstone and Mrs. Fitzwilliam mistaking each other for some one else, and the merits of the writing are not sullcient to atone for the recourse to such stock artifices. OLYMPIC. - WE have often heard playgoers of the old school refer to the apathy of modern audiences SA one of the great causes of the decline of the national drama. "How can you," they say, "hope for a better state of things when the spectators sit through the dullest pieces and see the most abominable acting in a state of stupid silence? Do you ever in these days hear of a play being damned or an actor hissed ? The audience must exercise their wits as well as the authors and actors ; and until they do there is no prospect of any solid improvement in the condition of our stage." Had any of the individuals who reason in this strain been present at the Olympic Theatre on Monday last they must have admitted that their argu ment has no longer its full application, for on that even ing a play in four acts, entitled The Love Lock, received so thorough and decided a condemnation that its name has never even reappeared in the bills. With out committing ourselves to the opinions of tl e class of critics we have before referred to, we wi►t admit that, in our judgment, the damnation of this play is by no means a bad sign, and that Mr. Wigan may comfort himself for this, his second failure during his brief career, by reflecting, first, that it is to the credit of his management that he should have been able to collect within the walls of hi? justly point lar theatre an audience sufficiently independent and in telligent to pronounce a decidedly unfavourable ver dict; and secondly, that he has done wisely in accepting that verdict as final, and not forcing the play through 7 . i