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

NovEmnrn 11, 1854. treat with the splendid sensuousness and sumptuousness of Titian's " Diana and her Nymphs interrupted at the Bath by Acuson ; " " Diana and Calisto ; ' " Venus rising from the Sea." Titian, it seems to me, was essentially a heathen painter, revelling iu all the refine ments of natural and physical beauty, his highest raptures seldom rising above the half-sensual, half poetic joys of Olympus, and his noblest visions taking in but the nude graces and entrancing beauties of goddesses and nymphs. His colouring is so wondrously soft, yet rich and radiant., his figures are of such surpassing grace and voluptuous loveliness, that I should suppose the young, passionate, and impressible, must, iu gazing on them long, feel the moral sense grow bewildered, and reel with the intoxication of their subtle sensuality. How different is it with the works of Raphael, over which the religious master's reverent genius threw a calm and heavenly purity ! From London she starts for a tour through Ireland, and visits Dublin, Cork,Limerick, Kil larney, and Belfast. While staying in Cork she inspects several of the country cottages of the working peasants, in company with one of the landed proprietors. The old story is still to be told of the misery and idleness of this class : In but one out of six did I find a regular fireplace and chimney ; in but one was there a window of glass, and that clnsisted of a single pane. The others had—with the ex ception of the door, and a hole in the roof, from which the smoke, after wandeting at its own sweet will through the cabin, found its way out—no opening whatever for light or ventilation. But I forget—we did remark a sort of improvised window in one other. In a low, miserable hovel, belonging to a carman, we found a horse occupying full a third of the scanty room; and above his manger a small opening had been made through the mudwall, the good man having found that the health of the animal re quired what himself and his family lived without—air. To the mistress of this unique habitation, whose one apart ment served for kitchen, sleeping-room, stable, and hall, I said, in horrified amazement, " How is it possible you can live with that horse ?" "Sure, miss, he's no throuble," she replied ; " and its little room he takes, after all; for the childer can sleep on the straw, under him, just, and creep between his legs, and he niver harming them at all, the sinsible crater." It is a common thing to see hens drying their feathers by the genial peat glow, and pigs enjoying the pleasures of the domestic hearth. At Limerick, again, she remarks : Ah, there is little need for the tourist to pass through this part of Ireland, " spying oat the nakedness of the land ; ' it is thrust upon him at every turn. Yet you must not believe that all this outward wretchedness is real, ne cessary, and helpless. By far the larger number of those who apply to the traveller for charity are vagabondish in their instincts and indolent in their habits, and prefer to beg rather than to labour, either in or out of the work house. The professional beggar dresses for his part with as much care and skill as any other actor ; and the whine, the limp, the melancholy tale, the blindness, palsy, widow's tears, and orphan's wails, are often the results of laborious practice and splendid triumphs of art. You must bear this n mind, and "set your face as a flint," if you would enjoy Ireland. The contrast which has struck all travel lers between the south and the north of Ire land is eloquently described by this fair tourist : It were scarcely possible to express the feeling of relief, consolation, and cheering pleasure which I experienced on visiting the north of Ireland, after my tour in the south. The difference is wondrous to behold. I could scarcely believe such utterly different sights and scenes to exist in one and the sante country ; but, as if by some potent en. chantment I had been transported, in a single night, to another, a fairer, and a happier realm, I gazed about me in a sort of pleasant bewilderment. The north-east portion of Ireland, in the cultivation of the country, the prosperous and businesslike appearance of the towns, and the condi tion of the working people, to a casual observer, at least, falls but little behind England. Crossing from Belfast to Ardrossan, Miss Greenwood visited Scotland, and is enchanted with the laud of " mountain and of flood." Upon the drive to Stirling she tells a capital story of Scotch precaution: — Crossing the bridge over the. Forth, on entering the ancient town of Stirling, reminded me of a characteristic anecdote I had lately heard of a sturdy Scotch dame, who once, during a stormy season, bad occasion to cross the river at a ferry some twenty miles below. The ferryman told her that the waters ran high, and the wind promised a hard blow, but that, as her business was pressing, he would do his best to get her safely across• "Is there muckle danger, mon ?" she asked. " Ay, woman, the passage wad he perilous, but ye maun put your trust in Providence." "Na, na," says the prudent dame, drawing back, " I'll no' trust in Providence so lang as there's a brig at Stirling," and actually set forth to walk the whole distance round. There is a volume of national character in this little story An Irish woman would have trusted in Providence, or rather in Saint Patrick and the " holy virgin," and told her heads across the perilous passage, rather than wearied her bones by taking the safe, roundabout way. Passing rapidly through Scotland, she re turns once more to London, and ultimately starts for the Continent, where we have scarce spaco to follow her. At Paris, during her few days' residence, she moved in an atmosphere THE PRESS. of " molten beauty and glory." Genoa, in its turn, is visited and imaginitively sketched : Genoa is to me, in recollection, like a gorgeous dream of grand palaces, old churches, splendid and strange—narrow streets', leading up steep acclivities, and down into dark hollows, lined with towering houses, whose outside walls are painted more brilliantly and variously than interiors elsewhere—with animated and striking groups of pie tutesque people—pale women, with shining black hair, and long white scarfs gracefully disposed about their heads, and falling in light folds over neck, arms, and bosom, walk ing everywhere about the crowded dirty streets, as though through carpeted drawing-rooms, with a regal yet uncon scious elegance,—wen, with rich olive complexions and glossy black beards, wearing caps of brilliant red, or brown, or purple, and t Liking and gesticulating on the most triding topic, with marvellous waste of passionate energy and dramatic effect; children, limbed like sculptured Loves, with luxuriant hair, brown or raven, and cheeks round, and red, and goldened, like ripe peaches—and all these speaking in a language wonderfully melodious and impres sive, and looking out of large, deep, lustrous, yet melan- choly eyes. Lucca, Pisa, and Rome, all come in turn. Some of her criticisms upon the works of art in Rome are given with great feeling and ap preciation for the beautiful; but Italy, she truly remarks, is, perhaps, the country of the whole world where your eye is most often offended and your ear agonised by bad pictures and bad music. Throughout her travels Miss Greenwood makes it a particular point to notice the polittsse of the men to the women. While her own countrymen arc lauded as being the beau ideal of good breeding and politeness, we come off the worst: — I must say that no roughest boors, I had almist said beats, can surpass in rude selfishness and cool incivility the promiscuous Britons in omnibuses and steamers, the general John Bull of public assemblies. My own countrymen, how inexpressibly proud I feel of them for the generous kindness, the chivalric gallantry, which everywhere mark their manner towards woman, in what ever guise or character she appeals to them. How grate. fully and mournfully I think of them when I am elbow ed and thrust hither and thither in crowded passages to places of amusement, or when I am sent pitching headlong to the farthest end of an omnibus—for here the gentlemen move towards, not from, the door, when a lady gets int 9 that commodious vehicle. 0 young and gallant republican, let it still be your pride to sustain this honourable distinction of the American gentleman—a chivalric consideration fo► woman ; yet be grateful, not boastful ; for as the old Turk said to his son, while pointing to the Franks, " But for the special grace of God, you might have been as one of these." We arc not inclined to contest the justice of these remarks. Whoever has witnessed a dozen people gathered round a second or third class pay-place, must have noticed the selfishness, either rudely or cunningly ex pressed, with which some men will endeavour to push forward—women, as the weakest, com. monly suffering most in this contest for priority. It is a pity that, amidst all our adoption of French fashions, the queue has not yet been legitimatised amongst us. Our pushing pro pensity, as minutes or places run short, is so apt to exceed all bounds of civility as to call for the restraint of recognised social customs. Conscious of our national sin, we read, with great concern, that, while on the voyage from Leghorn to Civitit Vecchia, poor Miss Green wood was left forlorn and hopeless upon the deck of the steamer, without pillow or mattress, some boorish fellow having appropriated hers as well is his own to make a comfortable bed for himself. We made sure that the thievish rascal would turn out to be a Briton, and most likely a Cockney, and we experienced a feeling of relief scarcely to he described on discovering that Colonel Marshall of Kentucky, and United States Minister to China to boot, was the audacious brigand who stole a woman's mat trass and pillow to enhance his own personal comfort. Rough and selfish as we may be, we are left far behind by this " pink of polite " mess and chivalric consideration for woman," the Kentucky Minister. In her lively sketches of places and persons Miss Greenwood proves herself to be possessed of much descriptive power, but her similes at times are forced, and her use of superlatives tiresome. A window in Westminster Abbey is described as " acoiled rainbow." Upon arriving in London, she tells us her mind is "surcharged, " as it seems, with the grandest, fearfullest, " proudest, and mournfullest memories." The Coliseum at Rome is " the most interesting, " impressive, enchanting, the grandest and " dearest place upon earth." If "nicest" had been added, the array of superlatives would have been complete. This wordiness, with a straining after effect, are the leading faults of the book. Here and there the writing is ueg- 1075 ligent and ungrammatical, but generally spark ling, and always sincere. Her expressions are the result of genuine feeling, set down upon the moment of immediate impression, in the freshness and bloom which " tardy recollec tion " never could bestow, and " Haps and Mishaps," with all its little inaccuracies and errors, will be found an entertaining and agree able specimen of American writing. Captain Canot; or, Twenty Years of an African Starer. By Brantz Mayer. Loudon : Bentley— Routledge. CArraini CANOT has been treated as a fabulous hero by some of our contemporaries, but, that there really was such a man as "Theodore Canot," well known for many years on the coast as a slave-dealer, and better known latterly as the" suspicious trader" at Cape Mount (just below the Gallinas, one of the most famous of slave depots), is a fact that every one is cognisant of who has any knowledge of the history of the slave trade, more particularly as carried on at " Sher hero and the Gallinas," or any acquaintance with this locality of Cape Mount, where Canot finally estab lished himself as a lawful retailer (according to his own account) of palm-oil and ivory. The editor of this " memoir," as it is styled, assures us that he was introduced to Canot by Dr. Hall, the founder of the American colony of Cape Patinas, on the west coast of Africa, and that the narrative is compiled from notes he took of Canot's disclosures. That the outline of the adventures here detailed was thus obtained is probable enough, but the adventures themselves seem to have been filled up by a person otherwise quite un acquainted with his subject. Some of the leading inci dents we believe to be accurately related, as perhaps they were minutely dwelt upon in relation ; but all the accessories of a slave-dealer's life are so over looked or distorted as to show great ignorance on the part of the narrator. in the main, though partly marred by a straining after dramatic effect, the book contains a sketch of the manners and customs of the aboriginal Africans, more particularly the coast tribes, such as a man of Canot's experience and observation would be competent to give. The subjoined notice of the manner in which captains-general of Cuba are accustomed to wink at the slave trade, when tribute is duly rendered, reads much like fact : Many of the Spanish governors in Cuba have respected treaties, or at least promised to enforce the laws. Squad rons of dragoons and troops of lancers have been paraded with convenient delay, and ordered to gallop to plantation' designated by the representative of England. It generally happens, however, that when the hunters arrive the game is gone. Scandal declares that while brokers are selling the blacks at the deot, it is not unusual for their owner or his agent to be Ibund knocking at the door of the cap tain-General's secretary. It is even said that the Captain- General himself is sometimes present in the sanctuary. and after a familiar ;hat about the happy landing of " the con traband," as the traffic is amiably called, the requisite rustled:lux are insinuated into the official desk under the intense smoke of a fragrant cigarillo. The sale is of course conducted as rapidly as possible, in order to forestal the interference of the British officials with the Captain- General. General O'Donnell, now Minister of War at Madrid, could, we believe, certify to the truth of Canot's sketch. THE Art•J ournai for November, among many instruc tive papers upon art, int hides the first part of an old MS. upcn painting anti drawing. Mr•. S. C. Hall appears to think that this M.S. is the work of Sir Peter Lely, the Court painter of Charles 11., as the method of treating portraiture hero described agrees so well with what is known of Lely's style. The MS. was found in the 1 larlean collection. There are three engravings in the present number from pictures in the Vernon Gallery, and the usual articles upon foreign art and artists. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. Moose. Works of Samuel Warren, D.C.L. Vol. IV. Blackwood and Sons. Institute of 3felaphysirs. Professor Ferrier. Ditto. England's !lope. Sermons. Rev. B. L. Witts, tiewling. Wilson. The New Eristence. Part V. R. Owen. The Discontented Children. M. and A. Kirby. Want and Griffiths. Words by the Wayside. E. Ayton. The Planetary Worlds. J. Breen. Hardwicke. Robespierre. A Tragedy. H. Bliss. Kimpton. Anne Boleyn. Saunders and Otley. Wild Flowers and Green braves. Ditto. Gleanings from Eueern Europe. Miss A. M. Birbeck. Dorton and Co. PAMPHLETS Amusing Tales. Miss Corner. Dean and Son. THE BISHOP OF DURHAM offers 6001. for the erec tion of a new parish church at Gateshead, and 306/. in case the old church is repaired. His lordship also subscribes 1501. to the Relief Fund, 54)1. to the New castle Infirmary, and 251. to the Gateshead Dir pensary. Ilim