The Press. — London, England, 1858-12-11 00:00:00

• &- r..11....11.1.111.1111M PRES S, DECEMBER 11, M. 1 2 19 11 -- - horrors, when it flashed over him that he bad made this Sue speech, word for word, twice over I Yet it was not true, as the lady might perhaps have fairly inferred, that be bad embellished his conversation with the Hums daily during that whole interval of years. On the contrary, he bad never once thought of the odious fowl until the recurrence of precisely the same circumstances brought up precisely the same idea. He ought to have been proud of the accuracy of his mental adjustments. Given certain factors, and a sound brain should always evolve the same fixed product with the certainty of Babbage's calculating machine. Here is another remark, which, if not alto gether original, is at least pleasantly repeated : We are the Romans of the modern world—the great assimilating people. Conflicts and conquests are of course necessary accidents with us, as with our prototypes. And so we come to their style of weapon. Our army sword is the short, stiff, pointed gladias of the Romans; tad the American bowie-knife is the same tool, modified to wet the daily wants of civil society. I announce at this table an axiom not to be found in Montesquieu or the journals of Congress:— Tne race that shortens its weapons lengthens its Imnd-- sties. Corollary. It was the Polish lance that left Poland at hat with nothing of her own to bound. Dropped ihen tier nerveless grasp the shatter'd spear ! What business had Sarmatia to be fighting for liberty with a Bitten-foot pole between her and the breasts of her enemies? If she had but clutched the -old Roman and young American weapon, and come to close quarters, there might have been a chance for her but it would have spoiled the best passage in " The Pleasures of Hope." There is both charity and geniality, too, in the discourse on drinking, but it is unfortunately too tong to extract. The Horatian maxim that an author should lay aside his MS. till the ninth year is applied with some humour to poetry, which is likened in that respect to violins and meer schaums. At the same time we doubt if all the " drying processes " in the world would ever take the damp out of such stuff as these lines on " Spring, intra muros," so that they should ring Eke true metal : The windows blush with fresh bouquets, Cut with the May dew on their lips ; The radish all its bloom displays, Pink as Aurora's fingertips. Nor loss the flood of light that showers On beauty's changed corolla•ahadaa,— 'The walks are gay as bridal bowers With rows of many-petall'd maids. The scarlet shell-fish click and clash In the blue barrow where they slide; The horseman, proud of streak and splash, Creeps homeward from his morning ride. Thantastes. A Fairie Romance. By G. Macdonald. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. 1. Loyal Heart; or, the Trappers. By Gustave Aimard. Translated by W. Robson. 2. Lottery. By Mrs. Jones of Pantglass. 3. A Lady's Captivity among Chinese Pirates. Translated by Amelia Edwards. London : Routledge. 1. THE first of these stories is one of the good old Indian narratives which used so to delight our youth. Redskins of marvellous denominations, stealthy war riors, hardy hunters, mysterious " medicine men," and a European or two, with a beautiful girl thrown among them, are the stapte constituents of the tale. In fact, its character can be read pretty well from the tifiepage, where " Eaglehead " is represented as having sprung on to the haunches of a hunter's horse, and then and there driving his dagger into the rider's throat. " Loyal Heart " contains plenty of stirring work, and will be a favourite with the juvenile novel reader. 2. " Lottery" is a little isle of a superior style to the above, but recalling a tone of feeling among fashionable people that we have some difficulty in realizing at the present day. The gist of it is the wooing of a young lady in humble circumstances by "a swell " of forty years ago, and bears about it an impress of truthfulness, though the Hon. Augustus Levinge is a being with whom no living creature at the present day could have the slightest sympathy. 3. "A Lady's Captivity among Chinese Pirates" is a very simple and interesting narrative of the sut• ferings endured by a young French lady, Mlle. Loviot, on board a piratical junk. There are no special or exceptional featu, es in her adventures to demand particular notice, but they are all told in a quiet, truthful manner that almost makes us wish for our own sakes that she had not been delivered so soon. THE above volume seems like the work of a man who bad been trying an experiment with his imagination. It purports to be the narrative of a walking tour di fairy-land by an ordinary well to-do English gentle. man, who flushes a fairy in an old family escr►toire, and, having thrown some doubt upon the reality of elf-land, is next morning surprised by a stream of water running through his bedroom, follo•viog the course of which he arrives at an enchanted forest, where his wanderings begin. We live, it seems, in a queer world, it we only knew it. All the trees, flowers, and even weeds round about us are full ofweird life. The lament of " the talking oak," it appears, is ill foundeJ, and merely the customary discontent of the laucintor teniporis actg. The days are still with us Whereof the poets talk, When that which breathes within the leaf Could slip its bark and walk. And, various as are the tribes and single potentates of fairy land, each has some distinctive peouliarity. But the groat tyrant and oppressor is the ash, though why that useful but rather commonplace piece of timber should have been invested with these attri butes it is hard to say. The moral of " Phantastes " is rather obscure ; but it seems generally to indicate the excellence of sell-denial, courage, and purity. The poetry scattered through the volume is of a high order, " most musical, most melancholy "; and, on the whole, we may fairly say that " Phantastes " is excellent for an after-dinner easy-chair entertainment. The three following little volumes of poetry—" The Mother," by Bryan York (Sainders and Utley), " The Maid of Norway," by John Waddle ( Marl borough), and " Codrus, King of Athens," by Richard Neale (Sampson L iw)—are not of a character to justify separate notices. They display taste, and feeling, and culture ; and the composition of them must at all events have the one good effect of keeping the authors out of mischief. Struggles in Foiling. By Henry I. Lister. Bentley. A Widow's Reminiscences of the Siege of Lucknow. Nisbett. Margaret Catchpool. By the Rev. R. Cobbold, M.A. Illustrated Almanack for the Year 1850. London : Deane and Co. Art almanack is a very modest title for this very amusing and clever little miscellany. Indepen- dently of the usual chronological information to he found in such works, we here have in addition capital selections from the best contemporary authors, both in prose and verse, and a very good original tale, en titled " The Speculator end the Poet," by Mr. Thomason. Altogether, Mr. Deane's publication is the best and most varied of the kind we know. Sinipkin and Marshall - . Memorials of Christian Martyrs in the Indian Rebellion. By the Rev. Win. Owen. Simpkin and Marshall. Christ and the Inheritance of the Saints. By Thomas The Book of the Church. By Robert Southey, Esq., LL.D. Seventh Edition. London : Murray. TIUT Southey's " Book of the Church " should have reached a seventh edition is, to use a conventional phrase, a great fact. In its present cheap and por table form it is certain to attain a still wider popu• larity, and to become a favourite with all who can appreciate genuine English dictio ~ Had Southey's poetic genius been in any way comparable to his talent for prose composition, his name would have occupied a far higher place in the roll of Fame. Even those who differ from his religious and poll tical views will derive unmixed plaasure from the chaste and classical language in which he narrates the history of the Church Establishment, from the introduction of Christianity into these islands down to the final triumph of the Protestant faith in the Revolution of 1688. This new edition is well timed, and may be regarded as a real boon to the public. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. BOOKS. Guthrie, D.D. A. and C. Black. The Essentials of Philosophy. By the Rev. George Jamieson, M.A. T. and S. Clark. Memoirs elf Alexis Soyer, with Unpublished Receipts. Kent Fitusital getritra. Impromptu de Concert upon Robin Adair. Composed by W. Vincent Wallace. London : Robert Cocks and Co. This piece, which has become familiar to the musical world through Miss Arabella Goddard's frequent and brilliant performances of it, needs no detailed description. That it possesses remarkable merits of a certain kind there can be no doubt whatever, and amongst these may be cited as one of the most conspicuous th e thoroughly " ptanistic " character of the entire work. Every passage—even the most difficult in appearance—is well and effectively written for the instrument, and of that peculiarly showy description which dazzles the ear and may enable performers to elicit from the uninitiated much more applause than is justly due to them. This is assuredly a great recommendation to ambitious pianists who would. shine on any terms. Horne, Sweet Home. :Ballad. • Transcribed for the Pianoforte by W. Vincent Wallace. London : Robert Cocks and Co. Trns is another production of about the same kind and degree of merit, and has, therefore, the best possible chances of becoming equally popular. If Miss Arabella Goddard can but be induced to take it up as she has done the " Impromptu de Concert," and other pieces by Mr. Vincent Vat• lace, the bright dreams both of composer and publisher will be speedily realized. The Young Middy. By C. Armstrong. London Castanet and Gay Guitar. Vocal Duet. Written by J. E. Carpenter; Composed by Stephen Glover. London: Robert Cocks and Co. : i THIS is a duet for soprano and contralto in the usual fluent, unpretending style of Mr. Stephen Glover. The singers are supposed to be " merry gipsies," a race of people for whom an astonish ing quantity of music is constantly being written, although it is the rarest of things to hear any of them sing. We presume that the composers of such pieces as "Two merry gipsies are we," " We are two merry laughing gipsies," " I am a merry Zingara," " I am a laughing Zingara," " I am the gipsy king, ah ! ah !" must have been confound ing Savoyards with the swarthy fortune-tellers and purloiners of children. We, at least, never heard any of the latter sing either solos or duets, or declare themselves to be hilariously merry on any occasion whatever. On the contrary, we have invariably found them very solemn impostors, spurious prophets, fierce in their aspect, as savage in their habits — people to be carefully avoided in secluded spots. Messrs. Carpenter and Stephen Glover have, however, adopted the popular view of the sub ject, and may reasonably hope to profit by it. USIC. and Co. Tales from Blackwood. Vol Il I. Blackwood and Sons. The Calamities and Quarrels of Authors. By Isaac Disraeli. Edited by his son, the Right Hon. B. Disraeli. Rout ledge and Warne& The Two Prigates. By the Author of " The Green Hand." Routledge and Warn a. Selections from the Charges and other Detached Papers of Baron Alderson. By Charles Alderson, M.A. J. W. Marlborough. Tuts is a good Christmas present for children : a tale of the last French war, in which two young men are lost in a boat at sea during a thick fog, picked up by an English privateer who treats them with great brutality, finally carried to a French prison, whence, after a variety of romantic adventures, in cluding, or course, a falling in love, they escape, with their characters as usual, much strength ened, and so forth. It is a fair average specimen of its class. Parker. The Two Mothers. By the Author of " Summerleigb Manor." J. W. Parker. Days of Old. By the Author of " Ruth and her Friends." Macmillan and Co. A Year's Campaigning in India. By Julius George Medley. Thacker and Co. Steam Communication between Europe and America. By Pliny Milts. Trubner. The Curiosities of Food. By Peter L. Simmonds, F.R.G.S. Bentley. Hanworth. J. W. Parker. DRURY LANE THEATRE. THE Pyne and Harrison season terminates this evening with a performance for the benefit of the lady, and we have no doubt that there will be a very crowded house as a fitti ig tribute to her grea t talent as a .inger . Will there be a speech , a farewell addrt as, on the occasion? We know not; but, there ilenld, we presume it will bo something this effect : We, Pyne and Harrison, having seen that it was a shame and a siu to have no National Op in our great country, so rich in dramatic compose and singers of the highest merits, whilst foreig musicians of even the most slander ability were te• ceiving an unprec , dented amount of patronage, chi valrously determined to hoist the union-jack, and show the world what could be accomplished by ! • A