The Press. — London, England, 1858-09-18 00:00:00

I.'HE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 18, 1858. - - 1 half is occupied with their love-making. This is all told in the most natural and easy style, and many pretty sketches of English country life and picturesque groupings are woven into it. Up to this point Eva is the happiest of women, though her lover has never formally proposed to her ; but in the middle of the second volume a change comes over the scene : The first cloud that obscured the fair sky of Eva's bliss came in the shape of a letter. A letter from Ernest, mitten a few days after his departure from Hislop. Mrs. Herbert opened the bag, looked significantly at the letter, anti handed it to her niece. It was a long letter, but not of unusual length fur him ; it contained several pages very closely written. Eva drew but one from the envelope and read it. She did not observe that her aunt was furtively watzhing her while she read : her face was bent over the letter, and she was not aware of the stealthy glances cast upon her. As she read, her face became grave and a little downcaat ; more than once tears gushed impulsively to her eyes. In a short time she left the room. In her own— the door bolted—the remaining sheets were drawn forth, and first, hastily, and then slowly and attentively perused. The bright and sunny look again dropped from that soft brow, and she sat pensive and meditative, a look of puzzled won ler in her eyes as if trying to realize unexpected dis appointment. She was disappointed in her letter. It was not the kind of letter she hail expected would follow his lest visit—nay, more, she could detect in it a difference from his other letters ; so slight a difference, indeed, that tact lese refined and acute than that of a woman who loves would never have discovered it ; but subtile and wily must be the dissimulation that eludes the vigilance of that all penetrating magician Love :—to any other Ernest's letter would have read a counterpart of his former ones ; but it did nut read so to Eva, or she would not have thus sat listless and perplexed, the open letter on her knee, and the sunshine darkened on her brow. True that the letter, as multi, recapitulated all his movements from the time he had parted with her until the hour he was writing it, told even the time of his going out and coming in, but there was more fact and less sentiment in the narrative than was wont. He told her he should not be able to see her again until she went to Oakstone ; he expressed regret for it, but he gave no reason, he lett her to infer that it was caused by the annoyance he had experienced from Mrs. Herbert durin g r , his last visit. In his writing there was a constraint, as if he were not telling all he had to tell. He hinted obscurely at inclination often running counter to duty, and he spoke with a tinge of sadness of the slight portion of happiness which fell to.the lot of mortals : all this from a lover who had just expressed his love and been assured of its return, sounded very strange. At the conclusion of the letter he said he thought he had told her everything that could in any way interest her. What boundary was he drawing? Every thing connected with him had interest for her; he was used to think so when he outpoured every secret thought in trust and confidence before her. When Eva went to bed that night she read the letter over again, and for the first time since she had been corre sponding with him, instead of putting it under her pillow with a smile seraphic m its love and peace, with a sigh she placed it between the leaves of the Bible from which she hsd been reading the evening chapter, and laid it aside where she should not see it. The cloud, however, passed away for the time, but only to return blacker and heavier than before, and charged with a tempest of affliction for the too credulous and lovesick damsel. Ernest's father and his sister Agnes have set them selves steadily against the match—have impressed very strongly on the lover that he must marry for money. lle gives way to their representa tions, and after torturing Eva by his assumption of coldness and indifference, at length breaks the fatal truth to her that all the past must be forgotten. So ends the first part of " Eva Desmond." Agnes had wanted for herself; is in love with Miss Myra, who had always taken Eva's part. Mr. Stanhope makes a great impression—be comes very popular—and Eva is as happy as the day is long. Time rolls on. Ernest's wife goes into a mad house, and Ernest himself into the Church of Rome. Young Edward succeeds to the inheritance of Oakestone, which he rapidly dissipates, and the house itself is sold for the establishment of a sisterhood. This was the end of marrying for money. Eva, on the other hand, sees her hus band advance from the curacy to the rectory; from that to the dignity of archdeacon ; and at the close of the third volume we find him on the right rev. bench. Eva meanwhile has had an opportunity of paying back good for evil to Ernest Clifton. She discovers in a little gipsy boy a natural son of that unfortunate man, whom she adopts and educates. His talents are of the highest order. He becomes a professor. And, to judge from the final scene, there is a proba bility that the son of Eva's first lover will be happier in his wooing of another Eva than his miserable parent. Such is a very brief outline of this interesting novel. On the whole, it reminds us more of Mrs. Marsh than of any other writer of the day. But no clue to the authorship is furnished by the titlepage. The characters in " Eva Desmond " are almost all well drawn. The two which challenge most attention are of course Eva and Ernest Clifton. The latter, we think, is very true to human nature. It is difficult to describe him—nequeo monstrare et sentto tantum—but many of our readers, we think, who have been mixed up with ecclesiastical enthusiasts will have met with such a man,—the man so occupied by a sense of divine obligations as to be liable to forget human ones, and whom the most fervid religious aspira tions are powerless to preserve from baseness in his worldly dealings. Eva herself it is difficult to praise too highly. She is full of fun, and full of seriousness ; a pretty flirt, and a sober matron ; a graceful and refined lady, who can busy herself about her husband's collars, and is not ashamed of being caught bthe bishop dining on potatoes and milk. Whether her cor dial acceptance of Charles Stanhope so soon after her heart had been broken by Ernest Clifton is quite true to nature is a question on which we leave the authoress to ponder. Old Mr. Clifton, too, the petty disciplinarian, impatient of every thing that did not originate with himself, is a capital sketch. The language of this story is pure and simple. There is in it no striving at effect, and no pur purei panni. When the author would describe emotion, he does so successfully, in virtue of his natural sympathy with it. The conversation is the conversation of gentlemen and ladies, and evinces an easy familiarity with the usages of cultivated people. The moral is perhaps rather too commonplace. That love is better than a stalled ox, the world has been told already ; and that a heavy retribu tion awaits the trifler with a female's affections, is a recognized axiom with novel-readers. We may, however, say of "Eva Desmond" that the plot is ingenious and the narrative graceful ; that the characters show considerable observation of life ; and that the moral is not below the average. The patronesses of the circulating-libraries may send for many a worse novel than " Eva Desmond." recornm3nd this little volume to all persons intereste in such questions, whether genealogically or politi cally ; it is nicely printed and got up, and has sofa useful zlotys by the translator. A sensitive and devoted nature like Eva's does not readily recover from such a wound as this. However, she returns to her family in Ireland, and bears her fate with as much resignation as she may. Mr. Desmond's affairs are in such a condition as to render his children's prospects exceedingly precarious ; and it is under the pres sure of this conviction that Mrs. Desmond points out to Eva the expediency of marrying, if she can by any means reconcile her mind to the idea of a new suitor. The necessary man is found before long in the person of a young Irish curate, of good family, and great university distinction. Eva marries him, and love follows the marriage. This portion of the story is the most charming and graceful of the whole. Eva's little economical shifts—her anxiety about her husband's dress and appearance—her determination to cut his hair— and her efforts to coax him into a clerical waist coat—are told with great fun and piquancy, and bear, we think, unmistakeable traces of a lady's pen. Here perhaps we may say that the second division of the story ends. The next part brings us back again to Eng land, where Eva's husband, th e R ev . Ch ar l es Stanhope, has obtained a curacy near Oakestone. Ernest is married to Clara /seville—very rich, but abominably ugly, and little more than half-witted ; and Charles Oakley, whom Cousin PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED—Sepr, 16. BOOKS. The History of the British Empire in India. E. Thornton, EF q. Origin and Progress of the Ocean Electric Telegraph. Johnscn Roman Beauties and Trojan H um b ugs. By Rattlebrain . Tweedie. I. James Martineau. Longman. gßusit A Handbook of the Principal Families in Russia. By Prince Paul Dolgorouky. Translated into English by F. Z. London : Ridgway. WE don't exactly know what Mr. Thackeray might say of this little volume,—he who has spoken so cruelly of that " odious and disgusting Peerage " which lies on so many of our drawing•room tables at home ; but we ourselves are under the impression that it is a very useful, as we are sure it is a very interesting, hook. It is nothing, in fact, but a Rus sian ltvd-hook. But then in Russia it is said that powerful influences for good are buried beneath the degradation of the aristocracy, and in a very curious introduction the author traces with great minuteness the relations that have existed between the Czar and the nobility from the earliest times to the present. The highest nobility of the empire are all, it seems, Varangians or Varagians, descendants of those fair haired life-guards of the Byzantine Empire of whom Scott has left us a portrait. It is remarkable, by the by, that the posterity of those men whose duty it was to guard Constantinople from invasion should now be among the foremost of her assailants. We can Studies of Christianity, THE LEEDS MUSICAL FESTIVAL THE first musical festival held in this wealthy and music-loving borough was brought to a most success ful conclusion on Saturday. The second miscellaneous concert on Thursday evening, down to which our last notice was brought, was attended by a large and brilliant audience ; and the performance, which Included selections from Mozart, Rossini, Mende's. sohn, Donizetti, Spofforth, and other eminent corn posers, passed off with spirit and slat. This was the first and only occasion during the festival of the appearance in one performance of the whole of the Italian vocalists, namely :—Kme. Clara Novello, Mlle. Piccolomini, Mme. Alboni, Signor Vialetti, Signor Giuglini, and Signor Rossi. The third morning performance, on Friday, con sisted of " Spring " and " Summer," from Haydn's Seasons, and Handel's Israel in Egypt, both of which were given with unqualified success. The solo singers highly distinguished themselves. In Haydn's work the "principals" were Mesdames Novello, Weiss, and Sunderland (sopranos), Messrs. Wilbye Cooper and Sims Reeves (tenors), Messrs. Wion and Santley ( basses) ; in Israel the same, with the ail& tion of Miss Dolby (contralto). Miss Dolby's two airs—" Their land brought forth frogs," and " Thou shalt bring them in "—were pure and faultless; Mme. Novello's clear and resonant soprano, in the solos ot' Miriam, the prophetess, penetrated in liquid tones to every corner of tho spacious edifice; Messrs. Weiss and San tley;declaimed the showy bravura duet, " The Lord is a man of war," with wonderful energy; the duet, "Thou in thy mercy," was carefully given by Miss Palmer (whose ready and efficient perfor mance of Miss Dolby's duties on the first day, when the favourite contralto was prevented by indisposi tion from appearing, has met with general recog nition) and Mr. Wilbye Cooper ; equal praise may be bestowed on " The Lord is my strength," by Mes dames Sunderland and Weiss ; and, to conclude, " The enemy said I will pursue " was one of those displays of vocal skill united to expression and power in which M:. Sims Reeves stands wholly without a competitor. The choruses, both in The Seasons and Israel, were executed in such a manner as to warrant unqualified eulogy. The third miscellaneous concert followed in the evening. On Saturday Handel's Messiah brought the festival to a triumphant close, the oratorio having been per formed in every respect worthy of the character of all that had preceded it. After The Messiah, the National Anthem was sung, Mrs. Sunderland taking the principal solos. On its conclusion Professor Sterndaie Bennett received at the hands of the gratified audience an ovation which proved how great wits the estimate of the professional services he hail rendered as conductor. Nor was civic dignity and personal worth, iii the person of the newly - knigh te,i mayor, forgotten, and three hearty cheers were givei. for Sir Peter Fairbairn, who acknowledged the cow; pliment from his seat in the gallery. The expenses of the festival have been very larger' nearly 6,oool.—but they are more than covered by the receipts, which are upwards of 7,500/. This balan c e further swelled by donations from ime of th e principal performers will make up about 2, 1 which will be handed over to that excellent, local charity, the General Infirmary. Z4t pramit. Dnun LANE.—English Opera again finds itself established in "Old Drury," the theatre having been opened on Monday last for an operatic season of thirteen weeks, under the direction of Miss Louisa Pyue and Mr. W. Harrison. Balfe's pretty opera, the Rose of Castile, which was most effectively brought out, was selected for the inauguration. Tbe W. principal characters were supported by Miss Louisa Pyne, Miss Susan Pyne, Mr. F. Glover, Mr. Harrison, and Mr. G. Honey. The cast was much the same as when the opera was introduced et the Lyceum some twelve months since by this compasY• The exception was in the case of Mr. F. Glover, who was substituted for Mr. Weiss as Don Pedro. !ills, Louisa Pyne, who as the Queen sang with her usual exquisite grace and sweetness, was greeted ou her appearance with loud applause by a crowded audience. Mr. Harrison, as the Muleteer, was good voice ; and Mr. Honey gave unmistakeable