The Press. — London, England, 1854-09-23 00:00:00

908 stanzas as the following, in Whial the third line wants rhythm:— " Weep not, dearest mother, thus o'er my pale hand; I cannot remain with thee here, I must go to that pure and heav'uly land : Oh dry up that fiat falling tear." She ip not always happy in the choice of her snb jects, and a young writer should avoid conventional themes that have been treated of by practised pens. The volume is published by subscription, and is dedicated to the Duke of Rutland. Indestructibility. By Henry G. Cooper. London : Groombridge and Sons. A SMALL treatise, designed to prove the immortality of the soul, by analogy, from the indestructibility of matter, displaying a fair acquaintance with the com mon experiments and facts of chemistry ; but in the statements of mechanical truths Mr. Cooper ex presses himself with a vagueness that is quite incon sistent with even a moderate knowledge of the subject. The Book of South Wales. By Charles Frederic Cliffe. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co. A autpx Book to the beauties of South Wales, con taining a vast amount of local information and legendary lore, written by an accomplished author, who had a real, unaffected love for his subject. A third edition is sufficient proof of the estimation in which the book is held by tourists and the public generally. The Volunteer Rifleman and the Rifle. By J. Boucher, of the sth Dragoons. London : Robert Hgr4wicke. A KNOWLEDGE of the use of firearms is becoming much more general than formerly among the middle classes, and the present formation of volunteer rifle corps is a step of some importance towards the attainment of that proficiency in the use of the rifle which in case of war and invasion would, after all, be found the best defence of the country. The volume before us is full of useful instructions, practical directions, and plain facts, upon the principles of rifle practice, and contains much good advice upon all points connected with the formation of rifle corps. BOOKS RECEIVED. BOOKS. The Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. W. H. Prescott. Bentley. History of the Conquest of Mexico. W. H. Prescott. Ditto. Hhe BMWs Commonwealth. H. Cox. Longman and Co. andbook for Ireland. J. Fraser. J. McGlashan. Diprose's Funny Book. Hardwicke. The Real Salt. F. yrai!eis. Piper, SteplieMion and Co. ' ". Francis. Ditto. Pickackafax. F. __....... The Young Ladies First French Book. Ft. Aliva. Hope and Co. Gays Fables. Routledge. The Lofty awl the Lowly. M. Mc Intosh Ditto. Fern Leaves front Fanny's Portfolio. Ward and Lock. Life of Julius CWsar. Nenerable Archdeacon Williams. ltoutledge. HOGLATH'S FOROETFULNESS.—Many stories are told of his absence of mind. On one occasion, soon after setting up his carriage, be went in it to visit the Lord Mayor. When he left, he forgot his newly-acquired grandeur, and, finding it had begun to rain, called a chair : not getting one, he sallied out at a different door from that at which he had some in, and at which his carriage was waiting, and reached home wet through and covered with mud.—Our Friend. BEGINNING AND PROGRESS OF RAILWAYS.—Fran cis Fortune, then the projecting engineer of Lombard- ' street, London, many years ago—the exact year is not now recollected—came down to Bristol with the grand scheme in his head of having a railway constructed from Bristol to London. He asserted that, by means of such railway, travellers might breakfast in Bristol, dine in London, and return the same day to supper in Bristol. The people said, as they do say in the first instance of m 0.4 great designs, " The man is pad!" Mr. Fortnne however, perseyemd, and among the earliest to Whom he applied was the editor of this journal; and it is still a source of much gra tification to him that he was enabled, though even ip a wall degree, to Intl Mr. fortune in bis noble pro ject. To this almost first cause must be ascribed }lie extension of railways nearly all over the world. The only one before the Great Western Railway was the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Mark the re sult! Mr. Fortune has long been gone to That undiscovered country, from whose bourns No traveller returns. No public acknowledgment was ever made to him ; and but few—very few—it is believed, even know to whom the world is indebted for this wonderful mode of transit.—Pope's Journal of Trade, 1854-15. THI PRESS. usit. Ar LIVERPOOL there has been this week a regular musical festival, in honour of the opening of St. George's-hall. The singers were festival singers, the pieces festival pieces, and the prices festival prices ; thu consequence of which was that the huge hall was lamentably empty. The closing day, Wednesday, was made a people's day, the prices be ing lowered from fourteen shillings to halt' a crown. Unfortunately, the great singers, Clara Novello, Castellan, Formes, Sims Reeves, Gardoni, and Bel letti had already taken flight, so that the people, after all, got little more than their half .crown's worth for their money. Viardot Garcia, be it re membered to her honour, remained behind, though not bound by her engagement, and sung gratuitously. The " people's concert" was not a bad thing as a speculation. It realised 3501.; while the two other evenings, at the high price, realised no more than 3151. and 3851., and the expenses were about one third. There will remain a surplus of some four or five hundred pounds to hand over to the hospitals. The inauguration closed on Wednesday evening with a grand dinner, given by the Mayor in the Town-hall. THE engagement of the Italians at the Theatre Royal, Dublin, terminated on Tuesday night. The opera of Ota/o was to have been performed, but Mlle. Cruvelli, most unfortunately, was unable from severe illness to appear; the manager, tnerefore, was obliged to substitute one act of IL Barbiere di Siviglia, and the opera of Ernani, iu which Mlle. Albini took the part of Elvira at a very short notice, and sustained it crediably. Signor Tamberlik also appeared. The audience bore the disappointment with good taste and consideration. The change in the performance was communicated to the public by placards, and personally by the different persons deputed to admit them to the theatre, and the ill ness of Mlle. Cruvelli was vouched for by the cer tificate of Drs. Forrest and Macnamara. The house was crowded, and the performances passed off with eclat. Mr. Beale's admirable company opened at Cork on Thursday, but Mdlle. Cruvelli did not appear until Friday. THE DEBUT OF MARIO AND GRISI IN NEW YORK was already secure from the known enthusiasm of the Americans in favour of musical stars and specu lation—two things always connected in the mind of a genuine Yankee. The New York correspondent of a London paper writes thus on the subject :—" In spite of hard times, falling railway secprities, the debut of Mario and Grist has been successful, both in the numbers attracted to the house and the reception of the artistes. The place which Mr. Hackett was obliged to select for their first appearance, Castle garden, although in some respects unequalled, sur rounded as it is by water, with promenades from the galleries opening out on the bay, is too far down town fc,r the convenience of a New York audience. No body confesses now to living below Washington-place, at least two miles above Castle-garden ; and most of the fashionables live between there and two miles further on. It is true that the fashionables of 1854 have not quite as much money to spend as the fashionables of 1653 had, but times must be vary hard indeed to keep a New Yorker, as well as a Parisian, away from a place of amusement so rea sonably within his reach. Notwithstanding the remoteness of Castle-garden it was crowded on Monday to excess, and the reception of the great artistes must have been extremely gratifying to them. This is particularly pleasing to the more sober Ame• ricans, as Mr. Hackett's management has been of the old, gentlemanly kind, without the claptreps of Barnum, and G. V. Brooke's claqueurs. The opera selected for the first appearance was Lucrezia, which is to be repeated through the week, and succeeded by Norma next week. The orchestra is highly praised. New York is now so full of foreigners, and the de mand for good music in the salons is so great, that there is not much difficulty in establishing the opera on a metropolitan scale. In addition to the many and excellent theatres, we are to have this winter two Italian opera troupes, with full orchestflig put 9119- ruses." Nyo4 ) I !Ls WWI 141 3 Previsignt taste for innsiP Lo ti)to hest accognt, he monster popeert ql fresco it; the Thiefgarten hronght in least 16,000 a f faer4 l thp funds ior tte relief of the sufferers in gilesia. The Pripoe o . frosia bee enbeeribed 1,000, various privateindividNl4 have subscribed 500 and 1,000, and oneFiro and 4ssurance-office has made a donation of 10,000 thalers. The p ”rovince of . Silesia, however, contains 3,000,000 ofinhabitants, and, though all are not ruined, there are not many who are not materially damaged by the floods. CONTINENTAL THEATRES sometimes present strange scenes. The following is an account from an Antwerp paper of a scene in that city :—" The opera Les Noces de Jeannette was given at our theatre two nights ago, and Mme. Carman had just sung her grand air with great ability ; and was much ag- SATURDAY, plauded. Still some marks of disapprobation were heard, when, all of a sudden, two bands were seen to be thrust forward front behind the side-scenes, ar. plauding loudly, as if in defiance of the public. Some of the audience soon recognised that the hands belonged to M. Carman, and cries of Away away!' arose. M. Carman did not seem to pay at tention to this intimation, but crying out, Alfons done ! ' made a gesture of bravado, which called down a shower of hisses, and the curtain fell in the midst of the noise. Some minutes after the curtain rose, and the manager, coming forward, addressed the audience in these terms :--` M. Carman regreti exceedingly that he gave way just now to a move ment of vivacity.' But the public was not contented with such a submission, and cried out, ' Let him come forward himself and say so. This is the third occasion on which he has insulted the public.' A great uproar then arose, and the curtain went down a second time. When it arose again the manager came forward, and said that M. Carman was not at that moment in a state to appear before the audience, but that in the last piece, Le Maitre de Chapelle, in which he was to till the principal part, he would apo logise. This announcement at once restored calm, and the piece concluded very quietly. When the curtain drew up for the second piece, M. Carman ap peared ; but in place of apologising, he proceeded to sing his part, as if nothing bad occurred. Then the hisses and confusion became louder than ever, and and cries of Apologise! apologise I' arose from every part of the house. Al. Carman appearing still inclined to resist, the manager came forward and seemed to urge him to make the reparation which was expected from him. At last M. Carman ad vanced, though with evident repugnance, to the foot light, and said, "ro the public who have applauded, I have to apologise—(great noise)—to the public who have applauded'—the noise recommenced louder than ever, and cries were heard of, If he does not apologise, he shall not appear on our stage again !' The curtain again fell amidst great uproar, and at last the manager appeared and made the fol lowing announcement lu presence of the obsti nacy of our comrade Carman, the authorities have ordered the performance to be terminated.' The spectators then dispersed in considerable agitation." lilt frama. HAYMARKET THEATRE. MR. HUDSON, alter a long absence abroad, made his appearance on Monday night at Vile theatre, in the character of Sir Patrick O'llenipo, in the Irish Ambassador, end met vri,,h a cordial reception from a crowded house. The engagement with the Spanish troupe is drawing to a close, but the interest in their performances has by no means diminished. ADELPHI. ON Monday evening this theatre reopened after a short recess. The performances pommenced with The Piscarded Son, the same cast in the prinpipal characters being followed as on its original pro duction last year. We need only remark that the acting throughout was as good as ever, Miss Woolgar and Mr. Leigh Murray calling, perhaps, for parti cular notice by the easy simplicity and correct con ception of character which distinguished their per formances. The novelty of the evening was the re appearance on the stage, after many years absence, of Mr. Morris Barnett, in his well-remembered cha racter of Monsieur Jacques. The miserable refugee, who for twenty years is sustained in all his misfor tunes by the one fixed idea that his wife will yet come to him—his deep emotion as he hourly reads and rereads her last letter, now twenty years old, proiniAng to come soon "—his insane wanderings down to the beach to meet her on her arrival, and his bitter disappointment every day, yet softened with the gleam of hope that tells him she will come, " Yes, she will come, nut to day, no; male peat-titre, to-morrow, yes, to-morrow she will comer—his care worn, grief.stricken mind, and the flashes of charac teristic gaiety that. sparkles out now and then under all his privations and miseries, as he either antici pates the success of an opera which he has com posed, or cheerfully consoles himself with his piano, for his want of breakfast—his intense happiness et finding a daughter, and his deep grief on hearing that his Mariana is dead—are all represented by Mr. Barnett with a pathos and truthfulness scarcely to be surpassed. The feeling with which he 'acted throughout called fopth hind and cmitinued applause at the close of the performance. Miss Woolgar sup ported the character of the daughter, and performed the part in her usual charming and unaffected Fotylo. The theatre has been thoroughly redecorated and painted, and presents now a light and elegant ap pearance. LORD JOHN RUSSELL has taken apartments at the Crown Hotel, Scarborough, and was expected to reach Scarborough on Tuesday last with his fainily. The Earl of Carlisle is among the distinguished visitors sojourning at Scarborough.