The Press. — London, England, 1853-12-17 00:00:00

DECEMBER 17, 1853. respectable in the place, though, strangely enough, it is not mentioned in the leading Oerman handbook of the day, while two others are, though of a decidedly aiterior kind. I could not, perhaps, give a better proof of the su periority of the Hotel de Haden to the other similar estab lisluneuts iu the place than was afforded by the fact that on the night when 1 was there the Princess of Prussia put up at the same place. On seeing her arrive 1 could not help being struck with the contrast between the outward forms of royalty in our own country. and those which are to be witnessed on the Continent. Here was an elegant, handsome princess—decidedly the greatest rierman beauty I had seen, and about thirtyfour or thirtytive years of age --coming to au hotel in a carriage drawn by four horses, which in England would not cost more than twenty Isom& a piece, and which, instead of being finely caparisoned. had on other harness than two or three pieces of leather and two or three pieces of r►pe. There was not even so much as an ounce of ornamental metal of any kind about the harness. Possibly the horses may have been hired ; but the carriage, I should suppose, belonged to the prin. tees, and it was as devoid of ornament or style as the her I could name London physicians and lawyers by hundreds whose carriages would thouw the carriage of the Princess of Prussia completely into the shade. Her royal highness was attended by a lady companion, two ladies maids, and two gentlemen in waiting ; the latter acting, I suppose, as a sort of body guard but that was all the pomp, if so it may be calledot Ilia characterised the arrival of this beautiful princess at the Hotel de Haden. To Amsterdam our tr►►vellcr devotes not quite two pages ; and his account of " the held of Waterloo" is decidedl3• the ►nor4t ori ginal we ever read. It is well worth extract ing:— Of the field, or rather series of fields, on which the greatest conflict recorded in modern times took place, I will not attempt a description. That, indeed, at this dis tance of time, and with so many &tallest aeeo►u►ts of the events of the three days, of such cast• access to all classes of readers, would be in bad taste. The visitor will find on the spot Intelligent guides, who are acquainted milli every locality which has Required celebrity as living the theatre of important incidents on that eventful °evasion. The charge will be four or five francs. Some years ago Ser geant Cotton, a Scotchman, who himself look part in the action, and was present during the whole of the three daya, was the favourite guide. I had the benef►t of his services when I went over the place a few years ago; but he has since died. I shall never forget the enthusiasm► with which this old Seotchtuan—though he l o ud done it thou. sands of times before—pointed out every interesting spot, and the earnestness wit► which he dwelt on the deeds of valour which were performed under his own eye. Ile was himself well known to have been one of the bravest of the brave ; but he said nothing of himself, beyond pointing out the various places whence he saw what was going on, during three days of carnage which have few examples in history—a carnage so great that 70,0tm1 human kings were left weltering in their gore on the field of battle after the slaughter was over. May the world he spared the eight of another such scene. The cool way in which the writer refers us to " the intelligent guides," tell us what to pay them, and that it would be "bad taste" to describe the locality, contain sonic of those fine touches which in a future age will verify the unconscious humour and innate drollery of this style of literary performance. What art there is in appealing to Sergeant Cotton's memory, while the magnificent contempt for accuracy in quietly stating that "serenty thou sand (I) human beings were left weltering in their gore" is enough to wrinkle the noses of the com mittee of the Statistical Society. Battle-fields were painful topics to the memories of certain classical celebrities who had more ability for the tongue and the stylus than for the sword or buckler; but our author has boldly shown that in his " Records of a Rm► " the field of Waterloo must be excepted, and, though Napo leon scampered away front it, " Mr. James Grant " has not shrunk from the terrible scene, but has actually slain more thousands than Blucher himself. In future he ought not to shock the economists of the Peace Society by being so excessively sanguinary in his statistics. _ Hating shown his originality in figures, Mr. Grant must next exhibit his subtlety in criti cism. He says Pope, whose lines I have quoted, has, I nifty here re• mark, not only written Deism, without knowing it. lint Atheism also. The sentiment contained in his well•knosti lines+ "AU are but ',art.; of one stupendous whole, Whose body Nature is, and God tke soul " is as rank Atheism a wits ever penned. Those who wool.' exelnie the ides from the universe of sn intelligent sn• preme Being always pints the lines in question with great delight. Had Pope's poetry been no better than his tips,- logy, the sooner his name and works were eonsigneil to oblivion the better, on every account, would it be for the world. Mr. Grant perpetually introduces religious topics, and he should study them more before ho writes of them. There has often been a charge wade against Pops of having writte THE PRESS. " Deism, - and that he knew it ; but, if he wore at all obnoxious to the charge of Atheism:. a certain William Warburton, who delighted in lacerating the literary ancestors of Mr James Urant., would never have published au elaborate commentary on the Essay on Mau." We do not ourselves approve the theology of Pope, but for reasons not hinted at by our author. But we must now proceed to con clude with an original and practical sugges tion which Mr. Grant gives to all travellers on the Continent. After recording that hi. travels cost him rather less than a guinea each day, he winds up his volumes with the following passage : There is no item in the bill of au Englishman whirl startles him more thau that which he nods annexed to the word " boogie," which is the Freneli for wax candle. A &nue is the charge for n " boogie, - although the party may not have used its light for tome than ten or fifteen minutes. This is a monstrous extortion, and I never email undendand why it is made in countries where every. thing else is chan t 's' nt so moderate a rate. nut of one of these " boogies " hotelkeepmw will sometimes make five or six shillings, each rally using it nut hating, nu an average, burnt it more than twenty mottoes. In order t o escape so glaring on overcharge, moue ',cisme: do not ask fiir any " boogie " alleles - Ith to light them to lied. I knew one professional gentleman. from Southampton, with whom we travelled a considerable part of our journey, who resolutely refused to pay for any " bliarca" a t Ile enentetieally insisted that the item shoo ,t t a i st ru ck out of his bill. And by threatening to expose the extol.• fitment demand in the English newspapers he invariably succeeded. And here I may mention, by way of parenthe sis, that all the lending continental llntelkeepern stand ju KIVU( awe of the English grew, bemuse they know that were they, 1114 the Speaker I.l . the House tit Conitutios would hay, "maned" in a [moduli journal, in eiranection with an ) - thing unfavourable, their establishments would sutler greatly trout the circumstance. Itllt 11/4 sonic of my readers would nut, if !training 1.11 the. Continent, like the ides of going totted without a light. and ) ci, would nut have the COlirligt . ho CUllitelit OW its - au in their Lille, as my Soullauuptiin companion (hit, 1 will throw out a suggestion fur their benefit. I would advise them to take half a dozen or a dozen wax candles with them, according to the length of • they mean to lie away. I shall suppose two pcnaras in it six weeks' journey the sum they would have to p a y r ot " boogies," at the rate of a franc each per night, would be shout four po Is. Now, unless when they Pitt op late, a dozen candles, costing them a few shillings. would last them during the whole of their journey. A tin sir wooden ease WOlllll fria b le' tiallifita to catty a fcw wax otialks with them with t difficulty. Every we feels it necessary to take Reap with them: why net candles also ? It was right to finish there the "Records of a nun." Who emtld go further than this? Mr. tirant has omitted, however, to tell us whether we should carry our candlesticks and snuffers. But possibly he reserves that information for his " second edition " of a work which will in nowise detract from the character gained by its •" thirty " predecessors. Convereatioms ott the Choral Serrii.e. Being an Examination of Popular Prejudices against Church Music. London : T. Harrison. Sinyk and Donlde (lariat?. Composed for the 1'•Ko of the Choral Service of Westminster Abbey. fly James Turk, Organist, and Master of the Choristers. London► : .1. A. Nor•clln. Tin: author tells us that the object of these conversations is to eonfront the current prejudices against church music, with the arguments for it. We very much doubt whether at the present moment any such prejudices exist : certainly for st time. 1% hen the vagaries of ultra High Church clergymen were the continual subject of public discus sion, objections to the choral mode of cele brating divine service were frequently taken and intemperately urged ; but, now that at tempts to force unwilling congregations are comparatively rare. persons of observation will agree with us that in places of worship where choral music is decently performed it is popular with all classes, and that there is no small significance in the nu merous and increasing congregations which are to be found attending not only the Sunday but even the daily services in cathe dral and collegiate churches throughout the country. This work emanating from •"the Parish Choir," we must not be surprised to find it tinged with the views that periodical was wont to advocate. Strange as it may appear, ultra High Churchmen. to whom choral service ought to look fur protection, are, 785 in fact, its greatest enemies. The published opinions of the Ecelesiologieal Society ipassing over the ravings of its " honorary secr e tary in Waist Cal show the same 11111OUUt of pedantry, ignorance, And folly upon the sub. Ject of church music as with reference t o tho sister arts of arehitecture, painting, and sculp ture : in eommon with the followers of the late Mr. Pugin, they advocate oyez' , species of medievalism : the close imitation of Burnish ceremonies. and the restoration of the prac fives that prevailed in the period of their idola try, is apparently their object ; and they would gladly sacrifice the noble English choral ser- vice, the groundwork of which was laid by Tanis. and the superstructure raised by the Ninth of those ablts English church WillsichtllN Who have never been wanting from the tune oldie WWr . matiois to 11w ill'esCht. fOr the sake of gl'u tCtoille 11111104 which have neither nevoid, melody, nor meaning, and prefaces, hymns, and responses which resemble more the at• tempts of a drunken Mall to snagitprohlllo melody than musie dedicated to the highest and holiest. purposes. Though our author evidently leans to medievalism. there is melt in his work which we highly approve. The general arguments in fav,,ur of choral service in cathedrals aro well put, find w e agree w ith him that at the coronation of que e n Victoria the whole devotional effect of the litany was destroyed by being read instead of Lein; rhouttni by two bishops. Not satiatied, however, with proving that ehoral men ire is proper in eatheilrals and eollegiate churches, the author goes on to say :-- We flint in cxistetive t moil,. or er kbenti l ig thn English must ill most parish churches ; thu other Cathedi iota collegian, elottelo a. 111 Ike Una the rem ice is rend in the common colloquial tons or Tu ico 111114 in common life ; in the oilier it is Hing. . ..... I hold that the choral is the legiiinudc aunt peetvet haste of celebrating (brine merrier ; Mnd that the other is hitt PI 014.111. in throligh CiIiVIOAI4II•I4K, INiVOrty, oY loss of correct principles. • We beg to exprcsn our unqualified dissent from thin proposition. Choral nervii e dorm not possess nowt! ardent A4lialivers or more will ling advocates than ourselves ; but to hold that the ordinary Anglican paroellial service him crept in through poverty, carelesmneas, and lone of correct prineiples, in an absurd tin it 18 untrue. No religious denomination is without it n unmusical service (e. g., the low mass and the read mass atuongst the litanntt ibtsl ; tad 101'01101 . 1y so, beetnike, in all coin s tries. the proportion of persona to whom musie is not all incentive to devotion is very greet. In thin c o untry, too, the muss of ilie people prefer to have the Pollee read : and who can say that they are wrong l'herc Are timer when It e munt have KII felt that music in out of plaee in 41111 . devotion, RIM that the unas sisted human voice best expresses the cum • Lions of our beaks. Again, whatever our medieval friends nifty say to the contrary, i t fl affirm thnt no clergyman eon chant evil and devotionally unless lie has had a good musical eiltteation, or is born with all ittlitillially eniTeet. ear. Bail reading (of wide)) there is miltappily no lack in these days) is deplorable enough, but bad chanting is intolerable. (hie reason why the chanting of lloniinh priests in 50 re. lotlsive iv beeatise every one in holy loillt.r6, whether eompetent or not, is eempello4l to Omni Would our congregation" like to havo the nasal twang of Popery transferred to the Anglienn ritual ? We think not. We differ from the author's view that it is p_OFthible IA) !MVO eilOrtil 1 1 141 . 1Viei . in all eliiirelies. He Nays : There net4lbe uo diiii ttlty wltateviu• in the thing. What is wanted for R service whirl; is meant to nnite the voices Of the whole population is ronsie whieh shall too sot alusplo that every person who has any ear and any mire at all ran sing it ; wed whitit la. the 1•1111111 t 111 % rbuirls, ao that, let a Mall go to chinch %allure he ma). In wort With the *mine tioi.ie, joi.t as Ile (1, e, snit ilio• same liturgy. 'I his is just the tonsie which was provided at the Reformat' in l'rittitner'a litany and in the Eefuruit r Mar. brek's " 'onitnott l'rajer Noted," anal which bast bet n cheaply published iu " The Parish &lair." '1 hose simple and most touching musical phrases fur the respon.es and litany, the noble old elituldi t 4.11 1 .11 the 'Marna, and a spore*imply nietriral psalm nut hymn nines. smnlll unfbee. They might 1w honrnt by ear, and Nona loy the whole population all over the land. I would nutlet take to tewelt the whole of it m floret days to any tsunibet of eliddren, an any pansh iu Two objeCtiotim kill hutli,•e to explutle this theory. First, the author applies Itis obserru•