The Press. — London, England, 1853-09-17 00:00:00

SEPTEMBER 17, 1853. Greeks to 3,6:10,000 Mussulmen. The reviewer assumes the extinction of Turkish rule to be not far distant : he seems ignorant of the sage aphorism of Montesquieu, that declining em. pares live long from the jealousy of other states contributing to their support. Ile is puzzled to conjecture how the fall he antici pates will be brought about, or what is to come after it. He trusts much to British in telligence and capital, (!) and is not without hope that those influences may in time lead t • Russia' being taught " Christianity more perfeetly." In the next article Southey's is Life of Wesley " meets with tardy criti cism and reluctant praise. The best part of Southey's book is that which is most strongly assailed. The followers of Wesley caunot bear that doubt should be thrown on the " Expo. rienee."—however frantic a shape it assumed, — by which, if we understand the reviewer cor. reedy, " God owned the labours of this great evangelists as well as of his brother Charles and Whitfield." A detailed notice of "Forbes's Ire laud " is followed by an intelligent paper on " Cryptogamic Vegetation ;" and then conies an exposure of the " experience" of table turning and spirit-rapping, two of the monstrous juggles which protest, by their success, against the claim of our day to infallible intelligence, and remind us that the nineteenth century has, like other ages, delusions of its own, with herds of fools to believe in, and knaves to profit by, them. We find here a good para graph on the silliness which claims belief for every extravagance on the ground that great trutfts have .at one time been deemed extniva glint : Mr. Spicer Fa spirit-rapping diw iplcl adopts the old cuckoo-cry of Adv.)," and declares that " this new phi losophy, if it be thing at all, is a subject for the consi deration, not of en , inrS and chassis. but Of m an ki n d,— a question, not of nations, but of worlds;" and , " Let us at least hope," he say , .;, " that the foul spirit of ignorance I p re j n ai ee which put Galileo to the torture for a trim di so w e ey, and in a later age nicknamed the first American piteant-host Fulton'sfid/y,' is not to be resuscitated in en livldened Ibitain." We 4I weary of this lialileo-cry. Because 4 :Mile° mu claimed a truth. athl wet with the fate of all gr e at t eac h ers . every noodle who vonceives r new extntraganee.--every in ventor who eonstriiets even a new cetfee-pot.—instantly mot h s hims e lf beside Galileo, if his extravagance or his cotreepot be not instantly adopted by a " persecuting world." It is One to stifle inquiry, anti persecute the in ; smother thing, to confront new schemes with the light of reason. or—if need be—ridicule. A groat master of human motive writes : Ititlivialan acrd Furtium se 10 , 11nri s tisbigures plerumque west res. Ridicule is often the best weapon than can be employed against the delusions of imp os tu re and the cant of hypocrisy. Among the recent converts to spirit-rapping we find Mr. Robert Owen, who thinks it more credible that tables should speak, and mean float in the air, than that the Christian evidences should be true. The reports of the Registrar-General supply the text of a paper on hygienic laws : " chairs of hygiene," it is tather oddly said, should be introduced in our schools, and sanitary im provement be inculcated as a Christian duty. The next article, " Secularism," grapples with the subtle theorists who would set natural against revealed religion. The great work of Butler furnishes the reviewer with the ground work of his well-reasoned and convincing paper. The Pantheists must always find it impossible to get over their own argument pushed to its legitimate conclusion : Mt, Holyoake insists that there are two Christs in the New Testament, beesum, our Lord unites in himself quail • tications appmently opposite : and, on the very foolish sumption that Christ did nothing, or should him'. diver nothing, but what we may imitate, asks, with great apla• rent simplicity, " Which of the two are we to imitate, the mild or the severe ?" Were Our fieotlarist apostle to believe in • Ood, he must, on the prineiple that he astierts the existence of two Christi. in the New Testament, maintain that there are two Gods in nature.-4 ;tal the gentle, and tiool the aus tere. He must say, " I could not trust Him who is said to he love, and to make his sun to rise on the evil and on the good ; while 1 thought of Him inflicting, in his provi dence, such judgments on men and nations." Even on the supposition of the truthfulness of his own dogma. that the nature we know is the (hod we seek, still there are the two aspects,—notittv the gentle, and nature the austere. — nature invested with sunlight, and shedding down benig nant gifts on the children of men, and nature wrapped in moms. and scattering desolation over the earth. lit the paper on " Public Education " the principle of combining religious with secular lubtruction its firmly iusibted on. " Ultramon. THE PRESS. tanism," in a kindred tone. manifests some alarm at the progress of Romish power in modern day. The priests of Rome are active even in educational labours. " The cane of " the master," says the Abbe tianme, the " sceptre of the world." Great regret is ex pressed that in Ireland " the feeble govern " meta of Lord St. Germans, too timid to take " a decided course," should have p erm itt e d WHO. , and his party to virtually break up the educational system, which was working so well. "The official twople." says the re% it`WiT. " assure us that the system will go on as " before ;" but he pertinently asks, " Are we " to trust to a Ministry wind' has been so " vacillating hitherto?" The number con cludes with a somewhat pomlerens risstme of English rule in India, and with a crowd of brief notices of recent publications. The &Heir altogether strikes as rather ex Wilting the influence which popular tmuden cies are exercising over Wesleyanism, than any power of impressing the age possessed by Wesleyanimm itself. The best educated part of the body seems willing to float with th e current of general opinion. and to be in want of those decided principles which are neees. nary to a propagating sect. Stray Thoughts on the Olden and Modern Times. By an Old Tory. WHoEvEit the " Ind Tory " 1118 y he, he is plainly a seholar and a gentleman. His rhymes have a rough vigour and Iludihrastic ring about them, which, in thi s age of tame feeling and unmeaning polish, plea singly remind us that manly, uncompted thought and sterling sense are yet In be found in many an English manse and manor. Though too braid ler a lawyer, he puts before us a plain issue : Disguise thf• trlllh as last you may, 11 ear what an honest haul will say— Then' Is a mildest how Is•g1111. 'IV hid* in its issue, lost f in w"11, I 'wolves old England's Pllt sire glu•) or—shall she only live iu sba 1 ! Shall landlonls gild the him cotton lords and M anehester ? In this spirit are the " Stray 'Fininglds " penned, the verse fitly embodying the indignant rentituent4 and hearty aineerity of the writer. Istory of France. By Etnilo dN Bouneeliose. Translated by William Robson. London : Rout ledge and Co. EIIMMES, as Mr. MUM has well observed, are chiefly useful at the beginning and end of the study of a particular subject; at first l i ar the sake of intro ductory analysis, and afterwards as a mnemonic exercise. The remark applies to all those books of which this thick and well-printed octavo volume is a favourable specimen. The work of M. de Ihemeele•se has been approved in France by the Council of Public Instruction, and it is a handbook at the Military College of St. Cyr. It is a good chart of French history, considered, of coarse, from the French point of view. The author has made skilful use of the works of Sismondi, Thierry, and others of the modem French school of historians. It might be greatly improvml in a future edition by the inser tion of chronological tables of contetnporary monarchs, and liy a couple of chapters treating of the growth of French literature. On all military matters the cpitemist is intensely national. On religious questions his tone is Christian. Percy Effingham ; or the Gcrnt of the World'it Esteem. By Henry Cockton. London : Routledge and Co. THERE is more refinement in this el than in other works from the same pen, but there is also more tameness. On perusing it, we RIP convinced that, even if his career had been prolonged, the late Mr. Cockton could never have taken a high rank amongst novelists. Ile had a certain amount of mechanical dexterity in constructing a plot, but he was deficient in analysim of character, and the glowing warmth of a poetical imagination never gave vitality to his por traitures. " Percy Effingham " 'professes to he a domestic novel, but, unluckily, the characters belong principally to " high lift.," with which the author had no acquaintance ; and. as the incidents are common place, we miss both truth of portraiture and exciting narrative. Adams's Parliamentary Ilandbank. Secotal Edition. Smith, Elder, and Co. Tur farts of "second edition," along % jil t ti„ e pectahle puhlishere names on the titlepalie of thim mail) izot-up work, are premimptive proof% that it merit. attention, latt w•e :mist decline to say more until w•e lime hail on opportuuity of thoroughly examining it. 475 Notes. Expianditory and Praetieol, oit the Book of Daniel. By the Rev. Albert Barnes. London : Routledge and Tins is a most valuable, exegetical contribution to theology, and sill raise still higher the reputation acquired by the author's " Notes on the hook of Revelation." He is profoundly read in divinity. and is successful in expounding critical prineiples with breadth of logic, and in illustrating points ot disputed scholarship with great variety of learning. Th., wit uC oniin4 is connnoinsi on in a series of elaborate dissertations that merit the attention of theologians. It is with pleasure that we receive this work front an American divine ; and we have no doubt of its point tar acceptation in this country. be !trams. DRURY LANE THEATRE. MR. iißoolit: kits PolltflbllWl with solves% his per formatiee% at this theatre, oecasionally playing /ago to the Othello 44 Mr. Davenport, when not him se lf performing the latter character. Ili% limp) I' no turally free from .oua• of the t hifeei.4 of hi ll ()th e w, and. together with Mr. M►cready Mr. Cherie% Kean. Mr. Brooke has the merit of eschewing the stage villain VOllOOl4Oll, a n d of playing tl►e cl►arw•ter with that amount of SOOIIIIIIII frankness and botikinm one which rendeni the Wi11t111.404 the Moor noire easily to he accounted for. Mr. Brooke has alimi per toru►ed the character of Si► tides Overreach, a part in which he certainly iihintst. A% yet, ha has nut undertaken iniy new character. OLYMPIC Mr. F. Itousoa, the actor whose original iityla of burlesque, in Shyloek, as well as some broadly hu morous Is•rt'ormauees in low eons...ly, has made linu the talk ibf the town, playe.l on the ►ccasion of his benefit a new part in the once favourite piece b:x chang• no Robbery. His performanee bids fair to show that the reputation he has enjoyed as a bur lesque act►rr will not he ephemeral, hut that 1W will exeel in characters of a more " legitimate " AST LEN'S AM NI I TII Tit►: new and ' , Whited inatiager of this attractive theatre has struek out a new style of piece • in the shale• of sill equ►strian burlesque, of which Phaeton furnishes the theme and the name. The /wilittary features of the modern burlesque prevail in this new it not Very admirable style of drautatie writing. The novelty consists in the introduistion of horses. The fall of Phaeton $l llll Ills 5te4,414 iM 111111 N 1• isellent piece of stage illusion. The miscues in the circle aro snore than usually good, and the perfor matives of Misty Kniily eimike, a chill remarkably fearless am a rider, tread closely on the exploits of the insist celebrated heroines of this equestriat► ring. Music. THE I;II.OI:CF.STEIt MUSICAL Fr.s.ri VAL. " Festival of the Three Choirs," after having languished ter some years until the cessation of this triennial celebration was imminent, has of late revived in a manner promising at least a restoration of its pristine importance. 'flue last gatherings at Ilere• font a n d Worcester proved that the old tousles' feel ing was not dead in thine+ districts. The festivals went oft in the most satimfaetery manner, partly through the public spirit of the eirighhouring gentry, and partly through the increased tame ter gran) choral and instrumental performances, ilitneted through the community from the splendid examples given in London, Birmingham, and elsewhere, tinder Costa's direct' . This triennial meeting at 'Boucot ter liar equalled, if not exeisslisl, in success the last festivals held at llereforil and Worcester. The lead ing nobility and gentry of the neighliourhood are to be found on the list of stewards, and, what is a still more conclusive evidence of Success, the receipts of the festival promise, independent of the usual contri butions from the stewards, to be adequate to the ex penses, an event almost without parallel in tiloticeei ter since these festivals first commenced more than a century and a quarter ago. The entertainments presented during this festival afford no scope for criticism with iitiy but local readers. The great works i•erfenneil, and the artists engaged in presenting them, lime been those' with which the London piddle are always familiar. Among the former have been the E/ijah, whirls grand work, we are happy to see, is now a sine yud nun at all great musical gatherings; the brad in Egypt, the Christus, and the Messiah. Besides these perfor mances of sacred mushc there have lwets the usual miscellaneous concerts, comprising selections from the hest as well as the most popular secular music. The artists were Mtne. Clara Novell°, Mae. Cass tellan, Miss Dolby, Mrs. looker, Mlle. Bellini, and Mrs. Weiss ; Issekey, Weiss, l'aglioliss, and Formes. One of the • honoured practices at these festivals is to entrust the poet of conductor to the organist of the cathedral in the city whore trim '