The Press. — London, England, 1857-10-31 00:00:00

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 31,1857. Musir. THE morning papers of Friday are unanimous in recording the success of Balfe's new three-act comic opera, The Rose of Castille, adapted by Mr. A. Harris, the stage-manager of the Royal Italian Opera, and Mr. E. Falconer, from the Muleteer of Toledo, originally produced in Paris, and the music of which was composed by the vivacious Adolphe Adam. We are not sorry that our absence from the Lyceum on Thursday night will prevent a detailed analysis in THE PRESS, for first nights at opera-houses have become a perfect farce, like county meetings, accord inng to the well known opinion of the Duke of Wellington. One remark may perhaps be not con sidered here out of place as regards the libretto. Mr. Balfe has three times availed himself of the poems set to music by other composers—namely, that of Ricci in the Siege of Rochelle, that of Halevy in the Daughter of St Marc, and now of Adolphe Adam in the Rose of Castille. This system may be considered courageous, but it provokes comparisons, and Mr. Balfe will not be disposed to relish a renewal of the discussion as regards Ricci. It is certainly flattering to the dramatic poets of the country that not one could produce a hook acceptable to our most popular English composer. Whether the " Rose" of Balfe will " smell as sweet" as the" Muleteer" of Adolphe Adam will be duly announced in next week's issue. taining a good many practical hints, conveyed in an easy and unassuming tone, which such readers would be likely to listen to. Here and there is a taint of Claphamite cant which we could well spare ; but on the whole the book may be recommended. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVE' DOORS. Letters of Horace Walpole. Vol. V. Bentley. The Oxonian in Norway. Rev. F. Metcalf, M.A. Hurst and Blackett. , Chicol, the Jester. Hodgson. Aladdin; or, the it ondeful Lamp. J. W. Parker. 2'he Ethics of Aristotle. In Two Vols. Vol. I. J. W. I'arker. Lectures on Roman Husbandry. J. H. and J. Parker. Torchcster Abbey; or, Cross Purposes. Catherine Sinclair. Simpkin and Marshall. Adeline. A Tale of the Mysteries and Reality of Jewish Life. Ditto. 'The Metropolis of the Water Cure. Ditto. John If. Steggalls. A Real History of a Suffolk Man. Narrated by Himself. Ditto. 'Brenton. Georgiana M. Craik. Three Vols. Smi'h and Elder. The Home Affections, by the Poets. Selected and Edited by Charles Mackay. Routledge. Debit and Credit. A Novel. Gustave Freytag. Bentley. The Prince of Peace ; or, Lays of Bethlehem. Selected from the British Poets. Illustrated. Seeley and Jackson. A Sermon preached by the Rev. IL Sulivan, M.. 4., on the Day of Humiliation. Hatchard—Preacher's Duty. T. Shann. Hatchard—The Bank Charter Act of 1844. Ed. Norton. W. Skeffington—The Bank Charter Act of 1854. E. Skeffington—Oar Life Boat. E. Stanford—A Bsrd's 'eye View of India. Partridge—. 4 Lecture on India. Wm. Vansittart, Esq., M.P. Brown—Memoranda relative to the Intermediate Convict Prisons in Ireland. Thoma and Sons. UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE. OXFORD. The election of a Clinical Professor in the room of the late Dr. Ogle, who held the office from 1830 up to the time of his death, a few weeks since, took place in the Convocation-house on the 27th, and resulted in the return of Dr. Acland, F.S.A., of Christ Church and All Souls', by a majority of 248 over Dr. Jackson, D.M., New eolle g e, the numbers being—Dr. Acland, 470 ; Dr. Jackson, 222. In a Convocation held on Thursday, Count Aurelio Saul was unanimously reappointed Italian teacher in the Taylor Institution, for a period of five years. CAMBRIDGE. The Vice-Chancellor has given notice that the place of a professor of the university in the council of the senate has become vacant by the resignation of Professor Sedgwick. The election of a professor to , fill the vacancy will take place in the Senats•house on Tuesday, Nov. 10. The professor elected will held office as a member of the council till Nov. 7, 1858. MR. EDWIN ARNOT.D, M.A., has sailed from Eng land for Poonah, having accepted the appointment of principal to the college in that city. THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY held a very success ful autumn exhibition of fruit, at their grounds, at Chiswick, on Saturday last. The fruit exhibited was divided into eighteen classes ; one class was devoted exclusively to fruit shown by fruiterers, and the remainder were for grapes,pineapples, pears of home growth, and pears from foreign countries, apples of home and foreign growth, oranges, peaches, necta rines, melons, plums and prunes, figs, Alpine straw berries, currants, raspberries, and, lastly, one special class for the new description of fruit called the ' 4l Eugenia Upni." The grspes of the Duke of 'Sutherland and of ➢lr. Sneyd, and the pineapples of Lord Lansdowne, and the pears of Lord Evesley, were very tine. The " Eugenia Ugni" attracted much attention. The fruit is a small red berry, somewhat resembling in appearance the well known '" hips and haws." The berries are juicy, and have a pleasing acid flavour, but, however recherche they may he considered, will certainly never prove for midable rivals to the better known classes of English fruit which are not favoured with so lofty a name. One of the results of the show has been to inflict an unmerited slight upon one of the most favourite of English apples—the old fashioned " Ribston Pippin" has been supplanted by " Cox's Orange Pippin," which has carried off the highest honour as a dessert apple. It is, no doubt, a remarkably good apple, handsome in appearance, and excellent in flavour. This fortunate " pippin" is grown by Lady Moiyneux, on her grounds near Windsor. The finest American dessert apple is not the " Newtown Pippin," as all the world supposed, but it is called after the name of an Englishman, who a few years since took the fruit over to America, " the Baldwin." SACRED lIARNIONIO SOCIETY. Os the 27th of the ensuing month the twenty sixth season will be opened at Exeter hall. The oratorio will be Spohr's Last Judgment ; and Mendels sohn's cantata, Praise Jehovah, and Haydn's Third Mass will also be included in the night's perform ance. The resumption of the fine interpretations of the great masters, under Costa's baton, is one of the most agreeable announcements that can be beard by the true amateur. We shall have again serious music really seriously rendered, free from mounte bankism and pretentiousness. Emboldened by the success of the great Handel Festival, arrangements have been made for a series of choral rehearsals, at which about 1,200 choralists will be combined. THE PRESS was the first to turn attention to these magni ficent displays, some of which rivalled, if they did not surpass, even the doings in the transept of the Glass Palace. The committee are very properly taking effective measures to secure efficient preparation on the part of the executants. The 1857 precursor of 1858 will bear its fruits. In 1859 the Handel Cen tenary Festival will be held. The seed has been sown, the harvest was a successful one, and finan cially the Sacred Harmonic Society is armed for the renewed homage to Handel—homage which, in pro portion to the genius of the composer, can never be framed on proportions too colossal, and in gatherings too grand and gigantic. M. JULLIEN'S CONCERTS. THE quietest and best-behaved audience ever assem bled at Jullien's opening promenade concert was assuredly the one gathered last night within the walls of Her Majesty's Theatre, and yet the pit flooring was crowded to excess. It is true that after the National Anthem and Rule !Britannia, the pitites singing the latter with great gusto, their spirits began to be effervescent, and the classical games of forming a ring and of bonneting with obligato cries and exclamations were commenced ; but Jullien, who since the failure of the Surrey Gardens has turned orator, addressed the mutineers, and in plain terms requested them to conduct themselves as gentlemen, oddly enough reminding the yelling " sepoys" of the house that the Casino had lost its licence, owing to the misconduct of the frequenters thereof—a hint to the disaffected which Mr. Lumley must have considered highly complimentary to his aristocratic establishment. The appeal, however, was not made in vain, and there was " silence in Israel" whilst the new operatic selection;on themes from Don Giovanni was performed. It was concluded by some amateurs that Jullien had effected a revolution in the prome nade blackguardism of the former days. May it not be ascribed to tither reasons ? How was it that the lovely andante from Mendelssohn's " Italian Sym phony," and the grand storm-movement from Beethoven's " Pastorale," were heard without a hand? Are the promenade frequenters tired of being told to admire fine mw-ic ? Has not high art at a shilling at the Surrey Gardens signally failed ? M. Jullien's polka-mazurka— which, after all, is nothing but a mazurka, albeit " originated by a curious incident at a Moscow ball on the occasion of Alexander's coronation"—and his English Quadrille, evidently tickled the ears of the masses hugely. Jetty Treffz, from Vienna, is to be the ' vocal star this season of Jullien's concerts. Her 1067 voice, never very good in quality, is not what it was, and her style of drawling " Vedrai carino" was monotonous. She was well received, not the less, and was encored, giving poor Sir Henry Bishop's " Home sweet home " with such excellent accent and simplicity, as really to touch her hearers. Perhaps the recollection of absentees in India might have come across many minds. The soloists of the night were T. Harper, whose "Soldier tired" on the trumpet was mercilessly redemanded, in spite of its enormous and trying difficulties for the excellent player ; Mr. R. S. Pratten, flute ; Lavigne, oboe ; Lazarus, Iclarionet ; De Folly, piccolo, Sec. Romig was announced, but did not show ; his place was filled by the first cornet-a-piston from the Coldstream band, a decidedly clever player. The orchestra, although not so strong as at former concerts, is effi cient. Willy is chef d'attaque. General Wilson having just taken Delhi to oblige M. Jullien, the last-mentioned commander-in chief has issued the following order of the day :—" In active rehearsal and shortly to be produced, a grand descriptive com position entitled ' The Fall of Delhi,' composed by M. Jullien, as a companion to the ' British Army Quadrille' and the ' Fall of Sebastopol.' Consider ing the quantity of artillery employed at the late assault, it may be assumed that Jullien's efforts will be "stunning." A month of these musical caricatures from the idiosyncracy of the conductor may pass muster with the English public, but to associate such exhibitions with art progress is an insult to the common sense and good taste of the metropolitan amateurs, who believe such assurances as much as they credit the musical martyrdom at the Surrey Gardens of Jullien, " with his personal expenses at V. per week," his nightly mist en seine alone con tradicting his economic theory. The interior of the theatre has been decorated precisely as it was last year, and the effect is animated. THE GREAT EASTERN. As the period approaches for the launch of this leviathan, and of the definite settlement of the many great questions involved in her success or failure, not only as a vessel, bitt as a mercantile speculation, public interest is stimulated, and a general desire exists to become thoroughly acquainted in detail with every practical fact connected with this superb vessel. Since onr last notice of the building of this nauti cal wonder she has rapidly and steadily progressed towards final completion. The hull is entire, its double machinery is in and fitted, the bulwarks are up, and the internal fittings inilsuch a forward state as to show the launch is near at hand, and that, if necessary, the Great Eastern could be ready to make her first voyage by Christmas next: The machinery for both screw and paddle engines is in with the exception of the crank shaft, which is being forged, and the screw shaft, which, though placed, is not yet put together, or connected with the screw engines. Both engines are of such ponderous calibre and strength that the visitor;gazes ou them, as they lie ranged beneath him, with the dumb feel ing of surprise that a sight of the tremendous rock hewn monuments of Egypt always occasions. They look so dark and massive beyond all other engines that it seems difficult to imagine how they them selves can be put in rapid motion, though, once at work, you can readily understand the amount of speed at which they would force even the Great Eastern through the waves. They are beyond all doubt the largest and most powerful engines by some thousands of horse power that have ever yet been constructed, and some of the largest pieces of wrought iron that have ever been forged, and the largest castings that have ever been run in one cast. ing, are used in their manufacture. But all the parts of the engines are so constructed and propor tioned that they will work safely and smoothly at eight strokes per minute, with the steam at 251 b. and full on without expansion (beyond wh'tt is unavoidably effected by the slides), or at 18 strokes per minute, with the steam in the boiler still at 251 b., and the expansion valve cutting off at one-fourth of the stroke. Under these last-named circumstances the paddle engines alone will give a power of about 5,000 horses. The screw engines consist of four cylinders of t 4.4 inches diameter and four-feet stroke, working hori zontally. As with the paddle cylinders, each of the four is in itself a complete and separate engine, capable of working quite independently of any of the other three. They work up to an indicator power of 4,500 horses of 33,0001 b. when working at 45 strokes a minute, with steam in the boiler at 151 b., and the expansion valve cutting off at one-third of the stroke. They are, however, made to work smoothly either at 40 strokes per minute, with steam at 251 b., without expansion, or at 55 strokes a minute with the ex pansion cutting off at one-fourth of the stroke. Under these circumstances they will be working at the tremendous power of 11,500 horses. It will thus be seen ;that the paddle and screw engines, when