The Press. — London, England, 1854-11-04 00:00:00

P - NOVEMBER 4, 1854. Mies of Wednesday last we noticed a very disagree able sneer at the " want of foresight" evinced by Lord Raglan in not having intimated to Admiral Lyons "his desire that the Agamemnon should meet him at " Balaklava, as soon as it was resolved to transfer the "basis of operations to that harbour." This e.ccusa ti is unconsciously answered in the present article of the Dublin, in which it is clearly explained that the allied generals had intended to land their siege train and materiel at Belbeek, but, finding a strong fortified work commanding the mouth of the river, they at once altered their whole plan of operations, and " with an ability and celerity deserving the highest " admiration executed a flank march to Balaklava." During the first night of the march, Lieut. Manse, who was expected by Lord Raglan, arrived with des patches from Admiral Lyons, and immediately re turned with orders for the squadron to come round to Balaklava. Considering that the distance by sea from the mouth of the Alma to Balaklava is so trifling, and can be reached in a few hours, we really cannot see any such extraordinary want of foresight, or " lamentable oversight," in the arrangements of Lord Raglan. It is to be regretted that those who know so little about the operations of war, and apparently less of the distance that a steam-ship can accom plish in a few hours, should find fault with the arrangements of others who have the experience of a lifetime in the profession to back their judgment. The concluding paragraph in this article, we see, extracts a passage from the PRESS upon the death of Marshal St. Arnaud. Of the other papers, nine in number, "The Slingaby Wedding" is an amusing little story, and the two sketches of Wolsey and Cardinal Ximenes are good in their way. Wolsey the writer represents as the founder of the " Balance of-Power " system in European diplomacy, and one of the greatest men and most enlightened diplomats that England has ever produced. The characteristic sketch of Ximenes we think we have met with before inpresscott's "Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella." The " Greek Dramatists " is a well-written paper, and the "Reopening of the Danube" is a pleasant little brochure upon the main points of Lord Aberdeen's past and present policy with regard to Russia and Turkey : England, nay Europe (says the writer), has to thank Lord Aberdeen for the treaty of Adrianople, the most disastrous treaty that history has ever set down in her almanack, new or old—a treaty designed in fraud, gained by fraud, signed in fraud, used for fraud We 'pay possibly have at the opening of next session protests 'ions of the perfect confidence of the Government in the good faith and upright intentions of the Emperor of Russia; but Russian good faith, and upright intentions, and " longanimity," are not quite in favour in the olfactory nerves of the British public ; nor is Lord Aberdeen. Fraser opens with a long review of the novel called " Heartsease." The critic commences with express ing his sense of the lofty mission of a novelist:— To the novel alone we must now look to fill amongst us the place of the epic poem of earlier days; in like manner to affect the mind with an admiring revential love of virtue, and to impel the soul to aspire after goodness. This is the work which the novelist has set before him, the vocation to which he is called, and it is one which the most aspiring genius need not disdain, since, worthily performed, it gives him an influence over his fellow-men, equal in power and enduring iu effect to any that was ever wielded by his ancestors, the rhapsodists and bards of remote ages, or the dramatists and poets of times nearer our own. He thus panegyrises the powers of the author before him, and gives copious extracts from this new pro duction of the author of the " Heir of Redclyffe;" but we cannot concur with him. The reviewer also over-estimates the "reception which Miss Austen's " novels met with on their first appearance." Lieu tenant Royer's " English Prisoner in Russia" is the subject of the second article, and the lieutenant is sarcastically criticised, and is taught the lesson that the critical, like certain of the European powers, can exercise the knout. " London Stout " is discoursed about in the next paper, and we are introduced to Truman and Hanbury's brewery. We must say that these descriptions of great factories are allowed to intrude too much into periodicals which ought to he devoted exclusively to science or literature. " A Handful of Italian Patois Books," by one of the family of " Smatterling," is light and lively, but too careless and colloquial in its tone for a review. "General Bounce" is continued by the author of 1 ‘ Digby Grand;" we must hint that the writer is getting rather heavy, and we hope that he has not exhausted the vein. His manner of telling a story is becoming less dramatic. In the article on "Land scape painting in England " there are some sound views put forward. The following observation is worth notice:— Landscape-painting in England has culminated in a school of naturalist painters, who are unrivalled through out the world. And the same principle has been working its way gradually through all classes—this love of Nature. The causes are many. Civilisation, after it reaches a cer tain point, becomes weary of courts, and camps, and crowded streets, and pants for " fresh fields and pastures new" —for the purling stream and the flowery mead. Ex citement produces exhaustion, and the patient sighs for and country air. This feeling is leavening our • -.iJr• .1111 - THE PRESS. literature to a great extent. Our novelists excel in the delineation of scenery by a few rapid, characteristic touches, and our poets too. Open a novel of thirty years ago, and the chances are that you will find, cipriTos of the hero or heroine, that he or she is represented as standing, walking, or sitting in some grand, Utopian scene, which it takes the author at least six pages octavo to describe; and when he has dune his best you have about as good au idea of the appearance of the place as when you open the book. Scott was excellent at describing a landscape, and, in different styles, Mr. Ainsworth and the authoress of "Jane Eyre" have great skill in picturing English scenery. " Songs from the Dramatists" are reviewed in the next paper; and we are happy to find that so able a critic corroborates the views that we have taken of Mr. Bell's meritorious labours. Amongst other remarks, it is here said We maintain that he well merits the designation of a careful editor. For, in the first place, he has on every occasion reverted to the most reliable and authentic texts of his authors—whether it be found in an early or a late edition. He has expunged the errors and amended the caprices of former editions ; he has rescued many a pas sage from the repeated blunders of printers, and—no trifling service to all parties, the dead as well as the living--has heedfully adopted a consistent scheme of punctuation. " Of our pleasant vices the gods make whips to scourge us," and this is just measure; but it is not meting justly to twist a rod out of our merits and apply it to our hacks. Yet this is the measure which, from some quarters, has been dealt, heaped and running over, to the editor of this series of English poets. And some severe remarks are added on the unjust attacks made on Mr. Bell, already noticed in our columns. There is, however, a literary error in reference to Sheridan's song of "Oh! the days when I was young." The reviewer says : In some genial moment, when not too full of the grape, and not more than usually vexed by dune and bailiffs, our incomparable lirinsley penned his famous song, be ginning, Oh, the days when I was young, not perhaps without some compunction for his own grizzled hairs and declining powers of enjoyment. It professes ft comfortable philosophy, although not of the more rigid school. If glees be sung in Hades, we can fancy Ana creon, Propertius, and Walter de Mapes joining in the chorus. But Sheridan's hairs were not then grizzled: he was not thirty years of age, and he had not then taken to the bottle. The concluding article is the " Russian Defeats." But it is written in the see saw style of a Coalitionist., and we scarcely know what side the writer espouses. Sir Jots Trolloppe is complimented by the essayist at the expense of his party; and we are sure that the worthy baronet would not accept the equivocal praise offered to him. Takedaltogether, the ',resent number of Fraser is interesting, various, and readable. - - Tait has not much to recommend it this month beyond a number of light literary rapers. The best article is that upon the " Pension List," wherein the late correspondence between Lord Wrottesly and Lord Aberdeen upon the subject of pensions to men of art and science is very ably reviewed. This esti mable man, Lord Aberdeen, tells us that " poverty must accompany the merit " that he rewards, and that, as far a.: the sum of 1,2001. being insufficient, literature and science had better not depend upon receiving even that ! In exposition of which principles his noble lordship confers a pension of 2001. a year upon Mrs. Fullerton. Who is this Mrs. Fullerton that she is to receive one sixth of the whole sum yearly appropriated to the reward of literature and science ? Mrs. Fullerton is the widow of a late Scotch judge who for twenty five years had been in the receipt of 3,0001. a year as salary. And it is under such circumstances as these that Lord Aberdeen thinks fit to bestow a pension of 2001. a year ! Truly there must be some Scotch cousinship here; for to suppose that a man, and a Scotchman, too, who had received some seventy-five thousand pounds of public money during the latter part of his life, should not have put by sufficient to keep his widow in decent poverty, is preposterous ; and in these days, when so many men of talent themselves, and the widows of so many others, are starving, or at best existing, upon a paltry pension, perhaps of 501. a year, it is a most gross injustice to give the widow of such a man as Judge Fullerton (whom few people ever heard of be fore) a pension of such an amount as is rarely doled out to necessitous merit. Objects in Art-Manufacture. Edited by Charles Tomlinson. Issued to Schools by the Board of Trade Department of Science and Art. London : Harrison. THIS first number of a new series of treatises upon " Objects in Art-Manufacture " is issued by the Board of Trade, for the instruction of pupils upon the scientific principles which form "the foundations "of the useful arts and manufactures." The subject of this treatise is the history, manufacture, and ap plication of paper, accompanied with accurate wood cuts of the different machines used in payer•making, and twelve specimens of English•maaufactured -. • • 1051 paper, from the "yellow-wove" down to the " curl and•comb pattern" of bookbinding. The treatise is well written, at once practical and concise, and the series, if continued in the same style, will be a va luable contribution to educational w orks on an manufacture. How to Nurse Sick Children. London : Longmans. A LITTLE 1300 K written with the object of pointing out the special duties of a nurse towards sick chil dren, under all circumstances of diseases. Its profits are intended for the benefit of the Hospital of Sick Children, established in 1851, in Great Ormond street, Queen-square, the funds of which are so limited that " only thirty beds can be kept open for in-patients," and this in a metropolis where the mortality of young children under ten years of age is upwards of 21,000 per annum. The boos is written with a thorough knowledge of the forms and symp toms of the diseases of , :hildren, and the necessary treatment to be pursued by the nurse, and hence may be widely useful for the instruction of mothers and the management of nurseries. No events of any 'war ever undertaken have ever been so ably illustrated with maps and plans as have the past and present state of the war in the Crimea, at the skilful and diligent hands of Mr. Wyld. Every succeeding plan that issues from his establish ment is an improvement upon its immediate prede cessor. His new map of the " Environs of Sevastopol, with the Batteries and Approaches," is admirable for its clearness of design, its minuteness of detail, and its precise accuracy, which at a glance explains the position of the allied forces better than a dozen letters from " Our own Correspondents." Yet pos sibly another week will see the indefatigable " royal geographer" publishing a plan that will even excel this, which yet for its subject, seems excellence itself. Ax excellent sketch of the battle of Alma, by Captain Biddulph, of the Royal Artillery, has just been published by Mr. Stanford of Char►ng Cross. The extraordinary strength of the Russian position, the great height of the hills crowned by heavy batteries, and the immense difficulties attending the attack, are cleverly shown in this sketch. Having been made by a gallant office', himself en gaged in the action, the plan derives additional interest apart from its merits for accuracy and detail. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. May and December. -- Skeet. Annotated Edition of the English Poets," Walkr." Yorker and Son. Platonic Protagoras. W. Wnyte, R.A. Bell. Ethel. M. James. Oroombridge and Sons. Bentsen. G. P. R. James, II odgeon. Habits of Men. Dr. Doran. Bentley. Matrimonial Speculations. Mrs. Moodie. Ditto. Haps and Mishaps. Graoe Greenwood. Ditto. Hecollections of Literary Characters. Mrs. Thompson. Ditto. The Prudent Man. W. Bridges. 'Where. Post. Office London Directory. Kelly. Commercial and General London Directory. Watkins. The Fortunes of Colonel Turloch O'Brien. ltoutledge. Educational Lectures. Ditto. Domestic Economy. Ditto. The Old English Gentleman. J. Mills. Ward and Look. Hogarth's Own Joe Miller. l)itto. Nick tithe Woods. Ditto. Johnson's Live. of the English Poets. Vol. 11. P. Cunningham. Murray. PAMPHLETS Letter of the Emperor of the French on the Eastern Question. Ridgway. Ballad of the Battle of the Alma. harry Corerdale's r tehip. Part T. E. F. Smedley. Virtue, Hall, and Co. Handerahan, the Irish Fairyman. Mrs. S. C. Hall. Tweedis. The Stepping Stone to Animal and Vegetable Philosophy. Mary Shield. Longman. and Co. A NEW PLAY, written by Shakspeare's " spirit," is announced by the Alta California. It is said to consist of a regular five-act tragedy, comprising some 4,00 linen, and written, under spirit impulse, by the hand of Mr. Isaac C. Pray. The play is stated to have been read to the manager of the Broadway Theatre and a select number of critics and editors, and all concurred in awarding to it literary merit of a very high order. One of them went so far in his admiration as to declare his belief that no living writer could equal it. It was written with great ra pidity, and very few erasures or alterations are to be found upon the manuscnpt. A GREAT CONTEST is going on at the present mo ment for the seat in the French Institute vacated by the death of M. Ancelot. The candidates are MM. Jules Janin, Emile Angier, Philaret Chasles, and the Viscomte de Fallout. The three first mentioned candidates are distinguished in literature; the fourth, whose claims arc almcst entirely political, will, it is believed, prove the successful competitor. FR - .41