The Press. — London, England, 1854-07-22 00:00:00

JULY Q 2, 1854. tha w every word is as much the result of inspiration .as if no use had been made of human instrumentality. Dr. Baylee says it is "exceedingly difficult to meet '" with precise objections to verbal inspiration," and states that he shall be happy to receive communica tions on the subject, and to meet any objection 'which may be raised. One he overlooks, viz., that as no translation exactly renders the original, only .those who have a profound and a critical knowledge , of Greek and Hebrew can, if his theory be correct, really read the Bible. The theory of verbal inspira tion is in no wise essential to the authority of Holy Writ. PERIODICAL LITERATURE. THE Quarterly Review has of late years opened a new vein of interest, which it has diligently worked to its own credit and the advantage of its readers. In a series of sketches, written with much skill and piquancy, it has delineated various institutions, establishments, and manufactories, of public or semi public character, describing their mechanism, tracing the course of their working processes, and making intelligible to the dwellers in the outer world a mul titude of mysterious operations hitherto known only to the initiated. The post-office, the printing-office, the railway system, are among the more memorable • subjects of which these papers treated in times past. Two additions to the series are presented in the • number of the Quarterly just issued, devoted re spectively to the House of Commons and the Elec tric Telegraph. To the former is assigned the post of honour in the present number. It describes the house with little reference to its architectural and none at all to its political condition. It takes neither Mr. Hayter's nor Sir C. Barry's point of vif w, but ' treats of the place in what is after all its true aspect,l as a " manufactory of statute law." The article wil be interesting, and we fancy instructive, even to many hon. members ; it will enable the visitor in the . Speaker's gallery to see his way through the per plexing technicalities in which every night's " des patch of business" is wrapped up; and furnish the world out of doors with some means of understanding how acts of Parliament are made. The paper is penned in a lively strain, and uses a wit's privilege :in dealing with important subjects and eminent per ,:manages. The sketch of a committee of supply is a woad example of the writer's pleasantry : "".Tiot first vote proposed was, that the sum of 135,8631. be granted to her Majesty to defray the expenses of the royal palaces. "Mr. Wise s n'sbed to know why the front of Buckingham Palace had been imitated. It looked very ugly ; and paint ing stone was quits' ridiculous. " Sir William m a i:9eworth said that the process had been rendered necessary, N 3cause the stone-work had suffered from weather. " Mr. Hume said that was no answer. Bad materials 'must have been furnished ; and there must have been some 'body on duty to see that the materials were good. Whose business was it? " Lord Seymour said that st, me was a very hard thing— i(a laugh )—to get good. • " Mr. 'Williams said that was ba cause application was not 'made in the right quarter. Priva, •e individuals could get 'gold articles ; but Government had the monopoly of being all served. "An honourable member said that 1 is house was built of very good stone. " Mr. Wilson said that he was very i nk I to hear it, he was 'sure ; but honourable members woul d bet that this was no 'reason why her Majesty should not have t. te necessary re pairs executed. " The vote was agreed to. " Mr. Bouverie.—Order, order ! The next v. ate was that 66,5851. should be granted for keeping in repair , the lodges, fences, roads, and paths in the royal parks and pleasure grounds. " An honourable member took this opportunity rat n 'callin S g attention to the disgraceful fact, that he saw a boy James's Park on Thursday last pitching little pebbles into the mouth of the great mortar, A policemen was start in g at Storey's•gate, but did not interfere. Now, at a time L • " e this, when we were spending millions on our ordnance, 1 e thought that this was, to say the least of it, very incon sistent. Sir William Molesworth said that unluckily the mortar could hardly be called a public statue, and therefore the new act for the protection of the statues did not allow him to interfere ; but the police should be spoken to. " Another honourable member wished to know whether the public had a right to the chestnuts that fell from the trees in Bushy-park. He mentioned this, because in riding through the park he bad frequently seen numbers of pic-nic parties collecting them in large numbers, and carrying them away in pocket-handkerchiefs. He did not intend to move any amendment, but wished the Government to be aware of the fact. " The Chancellor of the Exchequer said that Govern ment had to thank the honourable member for bringing the subject forward. Difficulty had arisen in legislating on the sub,ect, on account of the articles in question being entirely useless to everybody ; but the ranger had taken the matter into consideration, and he hoped that ere long a satisfactory regulation would be affixed on the park gates. " The vote was agreed to." In the paper on the Electric Telegraph the intri cate details of apparatus and manipulation are Tim April number of our transatlantic contempo rary, the New York Quarterly, contains ten arti cles, all of them, except perhaps one, meritorious, and some deserving of higher praise. The first, on the " National Post-office," is evidently by an American : it begins, " The Post-office is one "of " the permanent institutions of the country " ; and that "permanent institution," in the course of a few lines, becomes, by the force of metaphor, successively " a machine with wheels and axle—a universal " errand-boy—a bank of discount, exchange, and " deposit—the wings of a bird of knowledge—the " postal chain is a link, a bearer of despatches, the " ship of Jason, Briareus," 11/c. Such is the pleasing variety of its aspects in a land of liberty ; but in England it appears in a monotonous form. Here " it is the instrument of a despot, used to betray and " murder the innocent." This is in reference to Sir James Graham and the brothers Bandiera, of whose tragic death an erroneous description is given. Those hapless youths were deserters from the Austrian service, and were captured when in arms against the Neapolitan Government. Had the in surrection spread, Novara would have been antici pated by some two or three years. With regard to the power of opening letters, it is sanctioned by act of Parliament, and is as old as the institution of the Post-office. In Lord Clarendon's history there is a passage stating that when the virtuous Lord Falk land was Secretary of State he would never exercise the power himself, although he fully recognised its existence and admitted its legality. When the writer abandons metaphor and political allusion he proves he can tell a plain tale very well ; and, from a com parison between the number of letters " mailed " in England and the United States, and the expenses of the two systems, he comes to the conclusion that the English establishment is much the better managed of the two. The "Politics of Russia" is the second article, and seems to us to exhibit considerable ignorance of the state of Europe. The third, the longest in the Review, discusses the Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the State of the University of Oxford. The writer natu rally finds many things which in his opinion require alteration, but the article is not bigoted in its tone, and that so much space should be devoted to the subject shows the interest which Americans take in the "permanent institutions" of the old country. " Popular Amusements " is the title of another arts. cle, chiefly treating of theatricals. Shakspeare and the great dramatists of England here naturally oc cupy the greatest space. "The Great Want of New York City" is the title of an article in which the inefficiency of the municipal government of the com mercial capital of America is laid bare. We com mend the following extract to the attention of Messrs. Cobden and Bright:— " The truth must he confessed, that now for many years the municipal government of New York has been perverted to an increasing extent for purposes of private advantage, while its functions have been growing less and less effective for their legitimate results of public peace and security. Many offices have been rendered enormously and absurdly lucrative, by extortionate constructions of fee-bills, while it has seemed impossible to procure proper legislation to check the evil. The doings of the Common Council have t ' , eel' dictated by private interests and influence ; and it is 'nerallv believed that bribery, direct or indirect, has been gt ulo3 ed to an alarming extent. The number of persons CM iected with the city government, whosefinancial condi coni don , 'las . become greatly changed immediately upon their mg office, can not be accounted for but on the sup obt pos i t i m that public station has been made unduly subser nrivate emolument. vient to evils of official corruption could be endured, after " Theit a sort, mi. •ch more patiently, if they were not attended 'ally increasing impotency in the administration with contint rrient. In a prosperous community like ours, of the goven w h ere the wh ole number of officeholders is comparatively small, and the capacity of the population for the production and acquisit i on of wealth absolutely boundless, the 'on and extortion that is possible bears so extent of peculst. a „ ronnrtio , Ito the aggregate accruing wealth of the small people, t 'h at rih ey w ill bear it submissively for a long time, provided the actual administration of the government is he public protection and safety. We made effective for could a ff ord to en more than the four or five millions 691 otdollars now annually expended, and the unknown addi tional millions exacted in the form of fees, assessments, bribes, and so forth, if we could have an efficient govern ment for the money. But the aggravation becomes into lerable when the people find that they are fleeced without rule or measure, and get little or nothing iu return." The cause of the frequency and severity of fires in New York is explained by the avocations of the Fire Brigade, who thus test the strength of their helmets, the temper of their axes, and accustom themselves to be cool and steady under fire : " During the past year several extremely violent fights have occurred between companies; pistols and other den gerous weapons have been brought into requisition, the al.- paratus upset, and nearly destroyed; the worst of which were between engine companies Nos. 6, 18, and 44, and hose companies Nos. 10 and 17 ; yet no punishment has been awarded (except that No. IS was suspended for three months), although the facts were duly reported to the Common Council, who, instead of investigating the circum stances, allowed the matter to lie for several months, and then adopted a resolution directing the chief engineer to return the apparatus which he had taken from them." Mr. Grote's "Greece " is reviewed, if without parade of learning, with much good taste, and in a most agreeable manner. The description of an Italian improvisatore is so vivid that we regret our space is too limited to extract it. The New York Quarterly is a review of a superior order, free from prejudice and intolerance, with few national peculiarities, and worthy of the country which in fiction has produced a Cooper, in poetry a Longfellow, and in history a Bancroft and a Prescot. BOOKS RECEIVED. BOOKS. Minstrelsy of War. A. B. Richards. Blackwood. The Young Poet's Assistant. Saunders and Utley. The Nations of Russia and Turkey. Ivan Golovin. Triibner and Co. Itoutledge. Wilson . Fun. A. Crowqnill. Handbook for Advertisers. Attila. G. P. R. James. The Dark Lady of Doona. W. H. I•tazwell. The Head of the Family. Chapman and Hall. How to Learn Latin. A. J. King. Jarrold and Sous. PAMPHLETS. Four Sermons Preached at Rome. Rev. F. Garden. Rivingtonr. Dangers to England. Victor Schoelcher. Triibner and Co. An Account u/ the Decimal Coinage. J. Pitmen. Pitman. Hodgson. Ditto. ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA. A CONCERT given by the management on Friday last led to a scene of a most disgraceful nature. The first act of the programme consisted of the Stabat Mater of Rossini, in which Mme. Grisi and Signor Mario were announced to sing. Mme. Grisi, who was said to be ill, never arrived at all ; and Signor Mario, who was said to have mistaken the time, made his appearance just one hour and a half after the concert had commenced. When Signor Mario did so far condescend as to sing he gave the tenor song in a whisper, and very carelessly. This led t o his being hissed, whereupon he flounced off the stage, and left the theatre. As one piece of impudence often leads to another, Signor Tamberlik took into his head that he need not trouble himself, and on the public expressing vociferously a different opinion hg threw down his music and also left the stage. A general row followed, and, the management being unable to fulfil their engagements, the money was ultimately returned. It will scarcely be credited that on the following night Signor Mario, after such conduct, was received in the Favorita as if nothin g had happened. It is a great misfortune for Englan d that the public should show so little respect for itself. Had such a scene taken place any where on the Conti nent, or in America, the offenders would never have been allowed to appear again without making ample apology for their unpardonable insolence—nor, in deed, even with us would a native artist be allowed to take such a liberty; hut foreigners are all licensed, and we submit to their caprices as if we were their slaves. For this state of things the leaders of society are in a great measure responsible. English talent, no matter how good, is essentially unfashiona ble : foreigners must be engaged to give a ton to the private as well as the public entertainment, and the characters, conduct, and capacity of the artists themselves seem never even to be worthy of a mc ment's thought. --- THE programme of the forthcoming Triennial Musical Festival, which is to be held at Worcester in the first week in September, has now been decided upon. The engagements include Madame Clam Novello, Madame Castellon, Miss Dolby, Madam• Viardot, Mrs. Weiss, Mr. Sims Reeves, Mr. Lockey Signor Gardoni, Herr Vormes, and Mr. Weiss in the vocal department. The band and chorus are to ex. ceed 300 performers. The oratorios to be performed entire are The Messiah, Elijah, The Creation, and Last Judgment, and among the secular pieces are Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream, the Lorely fragments, and Weber's Oberon. TT-1E PRESS. rendered perfectly intelligible, and even amusing, by dextrous handling, aided upon occasion by explanatory diagrams. There are several other articles of much merit in the present Quarterly. A paper entitled "Queen Elizabeth and her Favourites" contains a well-weighed judgment upon the personal character and attribtites of the Virgin Queen. lman's "History of Latin Christianity "is reviewed chiefly in its bearings upon the subject which current events render most interesting—the spirit and in fluence of the Greek Church—which the writer de scribes as being, alike in its spiritual, its ceremonial, and its artistic development, essentially Oriental and semi-barbarian. With the bare titles of articles upon the drama and classical dictionaries we must con clude our notice of the literary contents of this number, which is one of unusual brilliancy and In terest. The only political article in the Quarterly is the last, " Lord Lyndhurst and the War." ~~._.. ] .. • ! 4 I. r.'ll4e' L