The Press. — London, England, 1857-08-15 00:00:00

we think the spirit-stirring descriptions of the " grand army" more than compensate for their absence. The L•ish are a peculiarly military people, and in our opinion the three best narrators of the more exciting scenes of warfare at the present day are Irishmen Maxwell, Lever, and Napier. Nothing can bo finer, in our opinion, than the battle of Auster litz in "Tom Burke " ; while the ordinary camp life of those reckless and enthusiastic soldiers is painted by one who evidently ap preciates to the full the temperament of the true professional soldier—of the man who sees in his sword his only means of subsist ence, and his only instrument of advance — whose uniform is his only dress, and whose regiment is his only home. As a whole story, "Tom Burke" is less interesting, perhaps, than Mr. Lever's three preceding tales, prin cipally from the absence of a regular heroine —like a landscape without a river, or a palace without a garden. But we deny that it evinces any decay of genuine power, and must be accepted as a proof of the versatility and not the decline of Mr. Lever's genius. PERIODIC AL LITERATURE. WE have this month a very interesting number of the North British Review. The contents are various and well timed. We have five articles bearing on questions of the day, which, even where we do not agree with them, merit our approval from their can dour and ability. China and India, the Divorce Bill, and Scottish Lunacy Bill, and the French treat ment of criminals, are the subjects chosen ; and we are happy to see that, on the whole, they confirm the views we have long entertained on these ques tions. Of the Arrow it is said : The calm and judicious statements of the character and occupations of those who employ lorchas of the Arrow class, aliould suggest to our Foreign•otlice the necessity of giving positive orders to our representatives in China to discontinue countenancing them. All who know China, and take an interest in the people with whom we now have such close mercantile relations, protest, equally with Mr. Fortune, against permission being given to vessels of this kind to sail under British colours. In the Indian article the writer demurs to the charge of mismanagement against the East India Company. The degree to which they are blameable is, of course, a matter ot opinion ; but the reviewer does not seek to disguise the magnitude ot the crisis, and narrow down the wavering allegiance of a nation to the transitory discontent of a class. In the article on the Divorce Bill, the writer regrets that Lord Itedes dale's amendment, relieving the clergy from the compulsory clause, was not carried in the House of Lords:— We confess that we are sorry fur this, and for more reasons than one. We respect all scruFles of conscience, and we can readily believe that many clergymen of the Church of England, considering the terms of the service which they are called upon to perform over all persons thus admitted into the " holy " bonds of wedlock, may feel their consciences outraged by the compulsory performance of the ceremony over persons brought together primarily by guilt; but we lament it still more, because it w►ll turn the hearts of many against a measure, which, but for this, they might have approved and supported. Literature is represented in this number by " Bacon's Essays," " English Metrical Critics," and " Early Christian Songs." The second is, perhaps, the most noticeable of these three. But the author, though he commands our respect for the knowledge dis played, is somewhat too much of a pedant and a hobby-rider. On this subject the public is really the best judge, and we cannot at all agree with the following remarks : Most readers of poetry, and, we fear we must add, modern writers upon it, know nothing, and feel nothing, of the laws of metre as they have been practised by all great poets. " Smoothness" is regarded as the highest praise of versification, whereas it is about the lowest and most easily attainable of all its qualities. The consummate perfection of the versification of all Milton and Shake spenre, and much of Chaucer, Spencer, Fletcher, and Cowley, would not now be tolerated in a new writer; we should find it held up to ridicule and contempt; facetious critics, stringing together separate lines or short passages, each a brilliant, but, separately, unintelligible, morsel of some mosaic of harmony, would ask, " Is this music ? is this verse 7' perfectly safe as to the reply, for it is certain that, in the greatest work of the greatest metrist who ever lived, Milton, there is no long and elaborate strain of verse without one or more lines which, though probably the most effective in the passage, will seem to be scarcely verse at all when taken out of it. " Smoothness" might just as reasonably be called the chief merit of natural scenery as of poetry. Now, poets like Cowley may bo all very well, and undoubtedly possess high merit. Yet to prefer their style of versification to the simpler metres of the present day seems as odd a proof of taste, as to prefer the towering head-dresses of our great-grand mothers to the easy and graceful arrangement of the hair in a modern drawing-room. A very nice article THE PRES S, AUGUST 15, 1857. is one upon Isaac Watts; it is written in a pleasant style, and is agreeable mixture of biography and criticism. . _ . The most noticeable articles in our two Scotch magazines, i.e., Tait's, and the West of Scotland, are upon the trial of Madeleine Smith. Both main tain her innocence, though with different degrees of positiveness. This is certainly a curious circum stance. With the remarks of the writer in Tait upon circumstantial evidence, we entirely agree. Part X. of the National Magazine contains a good story, entitled " Greenhill Hall." " The Silver Fan," by G. W. Thornbuty, is rather pretty. The en. gravings are well selected, and the whole number good, though a little overloaded with domesticism. The Train and the Commercial Travellers' Moga zine contain plenty of light readable matter, and show no symptoms of decay. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED—Auoust 13. BOONS. Leonilda. By Felix Mildred. Mitchell Passages in the Life of a Soldier. 2 vols. Hurst and Blackett Yonge's History of England. By Charles Duke lunge. Rivingtons A Safe and Sure Method to acquire French. By C. Dagohert. Shaw Jane Eyre. By Currer Bell. Smith and Elder L'Eco Italiano. By Eugene Camerini. Trubner and Co. Pk:ItIODICALS. Putnam's Monthly lie; ' ''''''''''' Low—United Sta tee Magazine, Colt—The Journal of the United Service Institution, No. 1. The Right Word in Mc Right Place Shaw—Which is Which? ditto—Elocution, ditto—Modern Schools, Groom bridge. THE SIXTEENTH VOLUME of M. Thieve "History of the Consulate and the Empire," which has just made its appearance, shows in strong relief the ex traordinary infatuation of Napoleon, in refusing the conditions of peace offered to him in 1813. These conditions he carefully concealed, not only from the country, but from his most confidential Ministers, because he felt that no one but himself would be capable of rejecting a general peace on the brilliant terms offered to France. After the reverses in Spain, and after the disaster of Moscow, Austria, according to M. Thiers, said to France, " We will let you keep Belgium, the Rhenish provinces, Holland, Piedmont, Tuscany, the Roman States, Westphalia, and Lom bardy and Naples as vassal kingdoms; but the Grand Duchy of Warsaw must be dissolved, the Hanseatic Towns restored to Germany, the Con federation of the Rhine suppressed, and we (Austria) will resume possession of Elyria. On these terms you shall have a general peace on sea and land. We guarantee you these conditions, and if any hesitation is made about accepting them in any quarter we will be on your side." But Napoleon was so confident in his mi litary genius that he could not believe in the possibility of his being conquered as long as he made no concession. All that he dreaded was the loss of prestige. He could not endure the thought of any incomplete victory, much less of a defeat, were it only a diplo matic defeat, and his idea was that he could not in reality be master of France unless he appeared to be master of Europe. These views were developed in the celebrated and dramatic conference of June 13, 1813, which has never hitherto been fully reported. When Metternich spoke of the sacrifices which a continuance of the war must necessarily entail upon France, Napoleon exclaimed in a passion, " What signifies the loss of two hundred thousand men to me ?" To the representations of M. Metternich that the conditions offered were extremely advantageous for France, and that as to the concessions asked from him, he could not expect to pat a less price for the reverses of 1 12, he replied, "Your sovereigns cannot understand my sentiments. They may return to their capitals after having been beaten, and find themselves none the less powerful among their sub jects. But lam a soldier. Honour and glory are to me necessities. I cannot face my people if lam to be in any way humbled. I must continue to be great, glorious, and admired." He terminated the conference by saying, "Ah ! you persist. You will try to dictate to me. War then let it be ; but our next meeting will be at Vienna." M. Thiers recounts the events of 1813, which resulted in the invasion of Paris. THE FIRST GRAND FETE on behalf of the funds of the Early Closing Association will take place at the Crystal Palace this day, when a concert by three hundred members of the Vocal Society, with instru mental music by the Crystal Palace band and the band of the Scots Fusilier Guards, besides the playing of the upper fountains, and " a great cricket match between eleven warehousemen and eleven clerks of the city of London," promise to make up an attractive entertainment. KEW-GARDENS. — The Victoria Regis, or royal water lily, is now flowering in the tropical aquarium, re cently erected for growing it at a cost of 3,000 guineas. The gardens and lawn of one hundred acres are now most delightful after the rain. Itusir. 808 ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA. THE ELEVENTH SEASON. IT was assumed, after the fatal conflagration in 18.)11, that Mr. Gye was the veritable possessor of Aladdin's lamp, and that the director had the power to erect a new temple of art in a single season Such impatient spirits forget that this is a material age—miracles are not likely to take place—and that the building of a theatre involved many important and serious considerations, not to mention the large capital required for the purpose. That Mr. Gye should have brought to a sueoeisful conclusion his negotiations with the Enke o Bedford for the site, and should have been able at such an early period to have reached the foundation-stone of the ancient theatre, in clearing the ruins, sufficiently prove that no small amount of energy has been evinced, and afford guarantees that the same determination will eventually accomplish his object, in the erection of a magnificent edifice worthy of the fame acquired by the Royal Italian Opera, the twelfth season of which will in all probability be inaugurated in the new building in 1858. The director is prepared, however, at all points. He has made his engagements and arrangements for the ensuing year, even if he be not in the position of restoring to the Royal Ttalian Opera, as soon as he expects, " a home equal, if not superior, to that of which it has been deprived "—to cite the simple but significant words in his programme of the past season. The perversity of the renters of Drury-lane '1 heatre forced Mr. Gye, at the eleventh hour, to occupy again the Lyceum Theatre, and on Tuesday, the 14th of April, he reopened with BelJini's Paritani, ter minating on Friday, the 31st of July, with Donizetti's Favorita. The annexed returns are an index to the doings of 1857 : Puritani Norma If ELLIN T. No. of Tion!s. POSIZETTI. La Favorita Lucia No. of Times. Sonnambula 'MEM in MOZART. Don Giovanni Trovatore T ravia ta Rigoletto DONIZETTL Maria di Bohan 2 _ AUBEI2. Fra Diavolo Mr. Gye's subscription was for forty nights, and there were only fifty-one operatic performances during the entire season. To these may be added the Crystal Palace Concerts, with the Royal Italian Opera orchestra, chorus, and principals, which began on May Ist, and with one exception (the Friday in the Handel Festival week) were continued every Friday until the 31st of July. The Ristori representations commenced Monday, June Bth, and were given three times a week, with four additional performances at reduced prices, the last taking place on Saturday the 10th. It is therefore obvious that the Royal Italian Opera per se could not have been carried on at such a small theatre as the Lyceum, and it has been found imperative, this and the last season, to have re course to extraneous entertainments. The report of the Crystal Palace Company's special committee would indicate that the concerts, however beneficial for Mr. Gye's interests, were not productive to the company itself. Whether this result is owing to bad management we have no evidence before us to prove, but one fact is pretty clear,—that it was an act of insanity on the part of the company, having the Royal Italian Opera engagement in liana, to embark into the Handel Festival in the middle. of June, during the very best period of the year for the Italian concerts. No possible step could have been more effectually taken by the Crystal Palace directors to annihilate their regular season; and it is pretty well known that the Monster Festival has accom plished this end. If the grand gatherings, therefore, killed the ordinary attractions at the Palace, it also must have affected more or less the Italian Opera season, already compromised at its very outset by a death in the Royal Family. Hence it is that we observe—what has assuredly been before unusual in Mr. Gye's annual programmes—a non-fulfilment of the pledges contained iu the year's prospectus—a document which once issued by a director ought to be regarded as his solemn promissory note, payable with commercial accuracy at the proper dates. The works announced which were not produced were Herold's Zampa, Cimarosa's Matrimonio Segreto, Mozart's Nozze di Figaro, I)onizetti's Don Pasquale, and Nlercadante's Il Giurameato. Now, as regards the Matrimonio and Don Pasquale, the director has a clear plea of "force majeure," Lablache's serious illness having for the second time prevented his re turn to fulfil his engagement with Mr. Gye. We bear that Tamberlik's return from the Brazils was looked for to mount the Giuramento ; but Zampa and the Nozze could have undoubtedly been presented with I