The Press. — London, England, 1857-02-07 00:00:00

FEBRUARV 7, 1857. rood, and to strive rather at real excellence on one or two subjects, than to entice readers by a various table of contents. The object defeats itself, for a bad paper is not more readable because it is brief ; and the more such are found within the two covers the stronger is the impression conveyed of general incompetency. The only good article in the number is the review of Stanley's "Palestine," and that is fifteen pages. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.-FEB. 5. BOOKS. The lloyal Gallery of Art. Edited by S. C. Hall, F.S.A. Calnaghi and Co. The Philosophy of Common Life; or, the Science of Health. John Seoffern, M. B. Ward and Lock The Elah. Daravelia. Hardwicke Episode on the War. Calder Campbell. Skeffington The Fear Book of Facts in Science and Art. John Timba, F.S.A. Bogue How to Make Home Happy ; or, Hints and Cautions for AU. W. Jones, F.S.A. Natural Religion. M. Jules Simon. Translated by J. W. Cole. Bentley Lucy Aylmer. Author of " The Curate of Overton." Bentley History of the It in Afghanistan. John William Kaye. Boutley is puma. PRURY•LANE THEATRE. TREATIMAL audiences are easily pleased in the present day. They possess a catholicity of taste which is all but identical with its entire absence. Their charity is of that all•embracing character which abolishes the distinction between dramatic Good and Evil and accepts with the same applause, and an unquestioning belief in the equal excellence of the two—the refined wit of Sheridan, and the heavy platitudes of the last " new and original " three-act drama, the stolid buffooneries of some ponderous low comedian, and the graceful and intelligent by-play of a finished artist. It is beside our present purpose to enter into an investigation of the causes of this tolerance. The fact is patent to all unprejudiced observers ; and there can be no better illustration of the truth of our position than the success of an adaptation of Lea Memoirca de Diable, recently produced at Drury Lane. Never was such a dreary affair as the Black Book. It is more depressing than a family dinner on Sunday in a serious family—duller than Cambridge in the long vacation, and more solemn than Harley-street at any period of the year. There is not the faintest glimmer of wit in it from beginning to end. All the jokes (three at the very outside) go off like a damp squib ; a miserable puff, a gleam no brighter than the glazed light in the eye of a frog in arlicido mortis, and all is over, except the roar of delight with which the audience greet the miserable exhibition. The characters talk like shy young gentlemen, as if they felt an overpowering necessity of saying something, and did not exactly know what to say. They remind one of the manager in " The Great Hoggarty Diamond ;•' you only know tlo their faces when they are making a joke. The main idea, that of giving a supernatural air to the prin cipal character by furnishing him with minute and mystc. riot's information about the private affairs of the rascaldotn of the play. which he employs in the rescue of distressed Honesty, has been worn threadbare ; and the action drags sadly in the early scenes, and is nearly stationary until near the end of the last act. Yet, in spite of all these gross defects, night after night the chief actors are called before the curtain with as much enthusiasm as if they had been playing the principal character in Sir Bulwer Lytton'a Lady of Lyons, ur one of those brilliant " bits " of comic dialogue with which Shirley Brooks used to delight Lyceum audiences some twelve years since. If some magnificent and unexpected national success had elevated eke spirits of all London to a dangerous or even inconve •nient pitch of excitement, we could assign a reason for the production of such dreary trash as this. The most violent maniac might be depressed into tame rationality by one visit to the Black Book. In lowering effect, the first two acts are equivalent to a copious venesection ; while the whole three might be administered, with good hope of <success, in cases of insomnia resisting the most powerful narcotics. The only difficulty would be in persuading patients to repeat the application. Of course we are •speaking of persons not habituated to theatrical amuse ments (!) It seems odd that the idea of employing the drama as a hygienic agent should never have occurred to the medical profession. The majority of the plays pro duced by " enterprising" managers are really good for nothing else. yEathetically, they are worse than useless; they are actively injurious. I'ublic taste is at so low an ebb, that Shakespeare must be played to empty houses, or as a mere appendage to splendid scenery and gorgeous costume, except in the remote regions of Clerkenwell, where Mr. Phelps still fills his little theatre by the ordinary and legitimate attractions of good plays and tolerable act ing. All evil, according to some modern metaphysicians, arises from the non•adaptatron of constitution to con ditions, or from some incompatibility between the organism and the medium by which it is surrounded. This may be very true in most cases ; but, unless what was called " bad taste" in the last century be consieered no evil in the present one, it is perfectly clear that the appreciative faculty and the material which supplies it may be each THE PRESS. perfectly adapted to the other, and yet both unquestionably bad. Both being so in the case before us, it remains to consider what remedies are to be applied for their ame lioration. Meanwhile, we are quite sure that our sug gestion might be adopted with benefit to invalids; and we look forward, with all the faith of discoverers, to the day when a physician shilll send a private box instead of a pill box, or write an order for the theatre where he now Las guises in bad Latin the elements of a nauseous draught. Corrtsponttutt. THE FALKLAND ISLANDS. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—ln your two last numbers, supporting the advocacy by Mr. Eddy of the eligibility of the Falk land Islands for a convict settlement, you quote from my despatches to Sir John Pakington, in 1853, reporting the increase in the price of land near the town of Stanley, which appears to you to be incon sistent with the statement I lately made in reply to Mr. Eddy's first letter in the Times. As I have had no reason to change the opinions I expressed to Sir John Pakington regarding the "favourable prospects which the Falkland Islands afford to steady and industrious emigrants," I will (as briefly as I can) explain the circumstances to which you allude. The town of Stanley, the seat of Government, is laid out in'two lines of allotments, of half an acre each, on the shore of the harbour. The fixed upset price of these allotments is 501., or at the rate of 1001. per acre. To occupy the frontage is a great advantage to trading, but unimportant to the labouring classes ; and the suburban lots, occupying the third line from the water, being only valued according to the Government regulations at 2/. per acre, some of the working people who had made a little money were anxious to acquire pieces of land on which they could build and cultivate gardens. Hence the com petition, which rose the price to 121. per acre. In no case, however, during my administration did the price of rural land ever exceed the Government upset price. My recommendation of the Falklands to steady, industrious emigrants, as the despatch shows, refers to the class of town settlers who purchased the land alluded to. In the town of Stanley there were during the whole of my tenure of office, extending from 1848 to the close of 1835, always good opportunities for a moderate number of artisans and workmen, who found employment in a variety of ways, com prising repairs and refits of shipping, constructing of houses, fences, raising vegetables, &0., on account of the colonists ; and by the local Government in works necessary for the convenience of the settlers and shipping, including jetties, an iron lighthouse, reservoir for water, slaughterhouse, wells, streets, drains, barracks, and battery, .t c. The question, however, at issue between Mr. Eddy and myself is whether the climate and soil of the Falklands are adapted for the employment and ultimate settlement of say five or ten thousand con victs. The observations I have made have always had reference to an extensive criminal settlement, for which purpose I differ entirely with Mr. Eddy as to their eligibility. I will not, however, discuss theoretical speculations—facts are the foundation of the statements I have made. From what Mr. Eddy and others have written, it might be supposed that the Falklands are an untried field for enterprise. Let me, however, either remind or inform them that about fifteen years ago a large awl well-formed ex pedition (called the Falklands Agricultural Associa tion) sailed for Port Louis, the site of the original seat of Government, and one of the most favourable situations in the colony, where agricultural and grazing farms and fisheries were commenced with no lack of means and no proved inefficiency of management. Not a vestige of this company, ex eept some of their buildings, now remains. In 1846 Mr. Lafone, of Monte Video, contracted with her Majesty's Government for the purchase of a large tract of land, with the entire dominion over all the wild cattle, horses, pigs, &c., in all of the islands. A sum of 10,0001. was paid to her Majesty's Govern ment as the first instalment, and I was led to believe that Mr. Lafone's wealth, energy, and acquaintance with the South American cattle farming, would enable him to accomplish the magnificent projects which lie held out to her Majests's Government for colonising the islands with graziers, fishermen, &c. On my arrival at the Falkland islands, only two years after this prospectus was issued, I found the prospect beginning to cloud over, and a succession of complaints of disappointment and losses were sent to me for transmission to the Home Government, praying for remission of terms of payment, .5.7 c., until Mr. Lafone finally disposed of the whole of his interests and privileges to the Falkland Islands Company, now his successors. Mr. Eddy has quoted Captain Sulivan, R.N., as a practical witness opposed to my views. His evidence before the committee of the House of Lords on transportation last session may be seen in conjunc tion with mine. Both are at considerable length. I will, therefore, only transcribe one of his replies to 139 questions put to him on the general subject. The committee present were Earl of Harrowby, chairman ; Marquis of Salisbury, Earl Stanhope, Earl Delawarr, Viscount Dungannon, Bishop of Oxford, and Lord Colchester. Chairman to Captain Suliven, Q. -041.---What induce ment is there which will draw to the Falkland Islands a considerable free population and capital ? A.—There is no inducement except grazing farms, which will never employ a large population, and that is the great drawback to it as a convict colony. The report of the committee, fourth section, says : That, according to the evidence laid before the com mittee, it would not be desirable to send convicts either to Moreton Bay, or to the Red River, or to the Falkland Islands. In your first notice of Mr. Eddy's letter you alluded to the favourable reports of Captain Fitzroy and Lieutenant, now Captain, Sulivan of the eligibility of the Falklands for a convict colony. Captain Fitzroy never tested them practically : Captain Sulivan, however, bas done so, and in some of his answers to the Lords' committee he acknowledges his want of success. On my appointment to the governorship in 1847 Captain Sulivan called on me, and said that it was his intention to follow me soon after to the islands with some (,f his friends, who were determined to establish grazing farms to a great extent, as well as to carry on the fisheries, on both of which pursuits a careful calculation on paper ap peared to hold out splendid returns. In a few months I had the pleasure to welcome Captain Sulivan and a numerous party, provided with all the requisites for the purposes above mentioned. In less than four years, however, I regret to say, the brilliant anticipa tions of Captain Sulivan and his friends, as to graz ing and breeding cattle, as well as fisheries, ended in disappointment and heavy losses. I might add descriptions of other individual failures; but is there one of success to be pointed out? I know of none. Capital, energy, talent, and knowledge have hitherto failed in developing those capabilities which Mr. Eddy and his supporters maintain exist in the Falk land Islands. It appears to me they are bound to prove that in the instances I have described incapa city must have largely prevailed, before they can justly expect the public to believe that criminals without capital, and probably every other qualifica tion for industrial purposes, have any chance of suc ceeding in a field which has hitherto been so unfruit ful. The wild cattle succeeded well when left alone, but every attempt yet made to tame and congregate them in large numbers has failed, mainly, I believe, from the poverty of the pasturage, which is unable to maintain more than one animal for twenty.five to thirty acres. Consequently, large herds will dete riorate from the great range they must graze over to find food in sufficient quantity. In giving publicity to those views, I have only obeyed what appears to me to be a public duty, in order that a vast expenditure should not be incurred in founding a convict colony in an ineligible situation. It is far, however, from my intention to depreciate the value of the Falkland Islands as an appanage of the greatest maritime nation. They form the key to the western, as the Cape of Good Hope does to the eastern, hemisphere. They abound with safe, natural, and landlocked harbours: that of Stanley, the principal settlement, is in fact a large dock, and requires little more in addition to the wo:ks already made than a patent slip, which I have repeatedly urged her Majesty's Government to construct. I showed in my first reply to Mr. Eddy that means of repairing and refitting shipping had been provided, but any additional accommodation of that descrip tion would be most desirable. The small population of the islands were supplied by rations sent annually from England, which I stopped very soon after my arrival there in 1848 ; and, although some uneasiness was felt at first, the colonists, with a little assistance from the local Government, were soon enabled by importations, not only to provision themselves, but to supply all the shipping which required replenish ment, up to the time I left the islands. Some mis apprehension exists as to the speed with which repairs ought to be made at the Falklands. It some. times happens that no damaged ship enters the harbour for one or two months at a time : a tempest off Cape Horn occurs, and several enter in a day. 1)o those gentlemen who cry out for shipyards, docks, J:c , expect that shipwrights and artisans will wait in great numbers for employment so casual ? If they are kept there, it must be at the expense of the Government ; and if fifty or sixty selected con victs, fitted to assist when required on work of this kind, could be sent, I think their services might occasionally be very useful. In my evidence before the Lords. I stated, on the authority and by the per mission of Mr. Hunt, who was long resident at Monte Video as Vice-Consul and acting Consul-General, that the number of ships coming there for repairs has very considerably diminished since the means of refit were supplied at the Falkland Islands. Mr. Eddy says (on what authority I know not) that coal exists in the Falkland Islands. I can only reply that I never heard of it; and the colonial ~_