The Press. — London, England, 1854-10-28 00:00:00

OCTOBER 28, 1854. prospects ; he was a horticulturist, and succeeded in naturalising some valuable fruits and plants in provinces to which they had formerly been strangers, and in which they still flourish, and was as proud of his success as of a victory in the field of battle. All this he did in the midst of turmoil and war. In the course of his most important expeditions we find him inquiring after the progress of his improvements and expressing an earnest longing to be restored to the scenes and friends that he loved. It is not surprising that, with so inherent a love of knowledge, he should have been a patron of learning and of learned men, or that, by his liberality, he should have drawn many of them around him ; but the fact that, in a life so full of agi• tation and bustle as his, having from boyhood to age been in constant motion, he should himself have found time to cultivate the learning and knowledge of the age, is a proof how strong was the natural bias of his mind to useful and liberal studies. "He was," says Hyder Meerza, who knew him well, " a prince adorned with various excel lencies and distinguished fur his admirable qualities. Of all these qualities, his generosity and humanity took the lead. In Turki poetry, after Meer Ali Shir, none equalled him. He has composed a Turki Deivan (or collection of odes), of extreme elegance and vigour. He wrote a useful treatise on law and religion, which has met with general approbation. He also composed a tract on Turki prosody, superior in merit to any before written on the subject. The cßesaleh e Walidieh "of Hazret Ishan he v e rsified. His ommentaries, which he composed in Turki, are remark able for their easy and unaffected manner and great purity of style. He was also skilled in music and other arts. Such is the character given of the first prince of the house of Taimour who ruled over Hindoostan, and with this extract wewill close our notice of Mr Erskine's work. We could have wished to have been able to go through the eventful life and fluctuating fortunes of his son and successor Hoomayoon, and still more could we have desired that Mr. Erskine had been spared to complete his work on the original plan, so as to embrace the reigns of Akber, Jehangeer, Shah Jehan, and Aurungzebe. The life of Akber, the son of Hoomayoon, would have been peculiarly in teresting, because it was in his reign that the great revenue reforms were introduced which are detailed in the " Ayeen Akbery," or " Regulations of Akber," regulations which were productive of so large an amount of agricultural prosperity in India, and which will ever remain a monument of the wisdom, enlightenment, and liberality of that monarch and his minister, Todar Mull, by whom more immediately they were compiled. Though precluded, however, from entering into the history of these reigns, we trust we shall have said enough to awaken the attention of the reader, and to satisfy him of the value of Mr. Erskine's historical work. Indeed, it is only by a careful perusal of such works, which in England are too much neglected, that the public can arrive at any correct conclusion re . garding the races subject to our sway in India. It is the practice, because it is the interest, of Leadenhall-street to represent these as barba rians of the most rude and uncivilised type, men to whom the establishment of the very lowest class of governmental schools is likely to be a new and unheard-of boon. But he who reads the history of the several sovereigns of the house of Taimour will find that in the literature, the arts, and the sciences of the period—the science of government included — these sovereigns and their ministers were infinitely superior to the Hoggs et id genus ovine who now rule in their places. To talk of the ignorance of the natives, their unfitness for any but the lowest grades in the army, and their incapacity for all but the humblest and most subordinate offices in the Government, must surely be held a proof of the ignorance or the malignity of those who give utterance to the slander, when we see among the ances tors of these natives ministers like Todar Mull, sovereigns like Akber, and founders of dynasties like the illustrious conqueror, the brilliant scholar, and the sagacious and equitable ruler, Baber, the first sovereign in India of the house of Taimour. The Book of the War. Containing Full Details of the Battle of Alma. By Percy B. St. John. London : Ward and Lock. A liAsTux-comPILED sketch of the events of the war both in the Baltic and Black Seas, so arranged as to make a consecutive narrative for rapid reading. Mr. St. John has largely availed himself of the newspaper letters and correspondence, as well as of the private notes of a naval friend. The details are continued down to the arrival at Balaklam THE PRESS. Ballad of Babe Christabel, and Other Poems. By Gerald Massey. London : Bogue. A FOURTH EDITION of Gerald Massey's poems im plies the success of the poet's appeal to the sym pathies of society. His poetical merits are un questionable, but as yet he has "only inscribed his " name; " though his brilliant imagination, his exquisite feeling, and vigorous spirit, have sufficient quality within them to carry him safely from the ranks to the higher seat of fame and honour. The Falcon Family; or, Young Ireland. Loudon : Chapman and Hall. THIS entertaining sketch of the Young Ireland party, and still better picture of an energetic family who, without a certain income or fixed residence, manages to live better than nine-tenths of her Majesty's sub jects, is likely to form oue of the most interesting numbers of the " Select Library of Fiction." The Cast4ne. New Edition. In One Volume. - - London : Routledge. A CHEAP EDITION of " The Caxtons," carefully printed and serviceably bound, will be welcomed by all readers. ROUTLEDGE'S EDITION OF SIR BULWER LYTTON'S WORKS. A STATEMENT having been printed iu Messrs. Low's Publishers' Circular of the 16th instant, to the effect that " the agreement between Sir Bulwer Lytton and Mr. Routledge has been rescinded," Mr. Routledge has issued an unqualified denial of this assertion, which he does not hesitate to term " libellous," and says : So far from there being the slightest truth► in this attack upon our house, we most positively and unequivocally assert that not only does our agreement with Sir Bulwer Lytton remain intact, but that we have fulfilled every en gagement we enteral into with him. We have communi cated with Sir Bulwer Lytton, who is at present absent from town, but immediately that we are in receipt of his answer we shall make it public. We may also be allowed to add that, so far from the issue of Sir Bulwer Lytton's works not answering, us Messrs. S. Low and Son have in sinuated, the circulation has been quite equal to our expectations. - The answer of Sir Bulwer Lytton, since received, entirely confirms Mr. Routledge's statement Knehworth, October 21, 1854. Dear Sir,—l was as much surprised as yourself by the paragraph in the Publishers' Circular. Certainly there has never been, on either side, a suggestion to rescind our en• gagement, nor the least hesitation on your part as to the fulfilment of the contract you have hitherto carried out with equal liberality and honour. You say truly that the circulation of the popular edition of my works is equal to the expectations formed when we discussed the subject; and it affords me sincere pleasure to learn that you see no cause to apprehend that the ultimate results will leave you a loser by your spirited reliance on the increase of the reading public, and the steady and progressive demand for cheap literature, which is so distinguishing an attribute of our age.—Yours truly, E. Buxwxa LYTTON. G. Routledge, Esq., 2, Farringdon•street, City. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. Boons. The .4ngel in the House. C. K. Dighton. Parker and Son. The Golden Legend. H. Longfellow. Routlodge. Captain Canot. Ditto. Arran. C. M. Charles. Ditto. 1$ Sports in the Far West. F. Gerattecker. Ditto. Heartsease. Second Edition. Parker and Son. Sacred Poems. Mrs. Bruce . The Bengalow and the Tent. E. Sullivan. PAMPHLETS Cheu. A Poem. Objects in Art Manufacture. No. 1., Piper. Cholera : a Word for the Future. How to Nurse Sick Children. Harrison. Ditto. Ditto. Longman and Co. Mr. WYLD has just published a third edition of his Chart of the Arctic Regions, including the latest discoveries by M'Clure, Inglefield, and Belcher. This chart will be found eminently useful to all who take an interest in Arctic discovenes. At the samo time we must not fail to notice the " Plan of the Battle of Alma," which marks with accuracy the different positions of the allied and Russian forces before and during the battle. The immense ad vantage of the Russian position is singularly ap parent. A Mrsicia, INSTRUMENT MAKER of the Boulevards exhibits in his windows a monster fiddle, which is to he his contribution to the Exposition of 1855. Its proportions would send Jullien into ecstasy ; the strings are young ropes, and the instrument itself measures about eight feet and a half, so that it would be impossible to reach the upper part with the fingers without the aid of a ladder ; but to ac complish this in a more artistic manner, a sliding apparatus is affixed, which acts much in the same way as the tube of a trombone. The tone is fully an octave deeper than that of the double-bass, and with masters of dramatic situations it would doubt! , produce astonishing effects. 1027 ttt drama. PRINCESS'S THEATRE. The Heart of Gold and The Courier of Lyons have been alternately acted at this theatre during the early part of the week, but on Thursday evening 2'he Cor sican Brothers was substituted for Mr. Douglas Jer rold's drama, which, we presume, has for the pre sent been shelved. Much has been said upon the manner in which this play was put upon the stage, and of a certain (suppositious) malice prepense ou the part of the manager to insure the failure of the piece by the intentional neglect of those indis pensable accessories to the success of a new play— good actors and good scenery—but we confess that we cannot exactly see the benefit that would accrue to any manager by entailing on himself the great ex pense and trouble of bringing out a new play that it might have a failure. It is rather too late in the day, when the play has tailed, for the author to turn round upon the manager and complain of his thea trical arrangements. The scenery employed in the present instance was appropriate and good, and the cottage scene in the last act was particularly ap plauded. Upon the actors we have already given our opinion, but we doubt much, if Mrs. and Mr. Kean had even taken the parts of Maude and John Dymond, that the failure of the play would have been one whit the less certain. The plot is too obscure, the incon sistencies of character too absurd, and the action too tedious to obtain the public approbation after a "first night." Its literary merits are undoubtedly high,— it reads better than it acts, but can never, by any theatrical management, be so well lifted for the stage as for the study. OLYMPIC. A NEw drama, in two acts, entitled The Trustee, has been produced this week. M. Deslandes, a manufacturer of Soissons, has been entrusted with the care of 200,000 francs by an old friend, Col. Rim bault, who is about to join the army in the campaign of Waterloo, at which battle the Colonel is killed. During the invasion of France by the allies, M. Des landes suffers much mental anxiety for fear he should be robbed of the treasure in his keeping, but, beyond an attack by some marauding Cossacks, who in vain attempt to extort the secret from the old man, nothing material occurs. At this epoch the play opens. The Bourbons have returned, and with them the Baron de Matigirollts and his son Armand, who is engaged to Angeline Deslandes. The marriage is arranged, and the day fixed for the signature of the contract, when the nephew and heir of the late Colonel Rimbauld, M. Pierre Caussade, appears, and claims his uncle's money. M. Deslandes immediately goes to his iron box to take out the notes, when, to his horror, he finds the box empty ! He feels at once that no one would believe that. he had been robbed, and that there is but one way to save his honour, which is by paying the money out of his own resources. These unhappily are much straightened, and the only large sum of money which he can command is his daughter's dowry. The sacrifice is made, and the matter explained to the Baron, who, indignant at the loss of the dowry, compels his son to withdraw his pretensions to the hand of the now poor Angeline, and is about to leave tt.e château, when the same circumstances which led to the tem porary loss of the money now lead to its recovery. M. Deslandes is a somnambulist, and in a fit of somnambulism he himself has hid the money in his garden ; and, of course, when once awake, has lost all recollection of the fact. He now, very conveniently for the plot of the play, sinks into a temporary tit of somnambulism, goes out to his garden, and digs up the missing pocket-book in the presence of his daughter, M. Caussade, the baron, and Armand. Of course everything is Low explained, the dowry is still to be given, the baron consents to the lovers' mar riage, and the curtain falls. The success of the piece was entirely due to Mr. Wigan's elaborate study and admirable performance of the character of M. Des landes. His representation of the peevish, fretful temper of an old man, whose mind is harassed with a great dread, and whose nervous system is quite unhinged with the troubles and commercial losses of that distracted period—with his despair at the loss of the money, and his passionate misery at the sacri fice which his sense of honour compels him to make—was given with rare fidelity to nature. The other characters were fairly supported, but Miss Maskell is too tame as Angeline. Mr. Wigan was loudly called for at the fall of the curtain, and warmly applauded on his appearance. MARYLEBON E. MR. J. A. HIP.RAUD is remarkable for writing extra ordinary tragedies and unrepresentable plays, and his present production, Videna, which was brought out at this theatre on Monday evening, combines, as a tragedy, both qualities of his general rule. In the preface to one of his works Mr. Hemud remarks that " Managers are averse to ancient historical sub jects," and hereupon, with remarkable perversity, be writes a tragedy upon a subject that is not only pre historical but positively fabulous. The story relates mommilMlNEMllli