The Press. — London, England, 1858-07-24 00:00:00

dramatists, and that his eloquent tribute to the character of Achilles, in the second ZEneid, is conveniently forgotten, both Mr. Gladstone and his critic overlook two considerations, which, obvious as they are, have never yet, we think, been allowed their due weight. Virgil was giving the Trojan version of the story. He could not well write a poem, of which Xneas was the hero, without some allusions to the siege of Troy ; and these allusions in the mouth of a Trojan would have been extremely unnatural if they had ex pressed any very warm admiration for the destroyers of his country. To a Trojan, then, Helen was the communis Erinnys. Independently of which, the character of Helen was common property, and Virgil had as much right to dwell on the bad side of it, as Homer had on the good. In the next place, we must recollect what in Virgil's day was the character which the Greeks bore. It is impossible but that his ideas of the ancients should be tinged by the dislike with which he regarded their degenerate posterity. The Fandi fietor Ulysses is only an anticipa tion of Juvenal's Gracia menda.r. While cer tainly a Roman, whose standard of female excel lence was so high, might be pardoned if in the return of Helen to Menelaus he saw rather a proof of the husband's laxity than of the wife's innocence. But, in truth, Virgil says very little about either of them. The burst of indignation which he attributes to Xneas at meeting Helen suddenly in the midst of his grief and excitement is as naturally conceived as it is finely told. But it might have been aroused, under the circum stances, by a lady in a much less equivocal position than Helen occupied at Troy. The other allusions in this paragraph are either unjust or unintelligible. The Greek dramatists could have had no motive for blackening the characters of their countrymen ; and we may be sure that what they wrote was merely the expression of a traditional version differing from that of Homer. The reference to the Simois and Scamander we give up in despair. At first we thought the critic must have alluded to the well-known passage in the third book ; but as we find on examination that this cannot be the case, even if we suppose the Trojan Xanthus and the Sca mander to have been the same (and if we do not, then we must remember that Virgil could not use the word Scamander in an hexameter line at all), we are flung back into perplexity, and resign all hopes of a solution. The article on Mr. Kingsley is nicely written, but in our opinion wonderfully wrongheaded. Mr. Tupper is chas tised with a severe but discriminating toe, which inflicts a heavy " thud" a tergo, while at the same time it removes the garniture from his deformities, and shows his half-civilized admirers what kind of animal they have been worshipping. "Comte's Life and Philosophy" appears to be a very able paper, though we have not yet had time to fully master it. The worst article in the number, as is usually the case in the National, is the so called political one. After everybody has been talking and writing of the fact for the last twelve month, we are informed with astonishing so lemnity that Parliament is no longer divided into great parties ; but that, when the causes which produce two great parties shall reappear, we may expect the parties themselves to follow. The causes will be found, the writer thinks (original dog !), in the efforts of the Radical party to give effect to their extreme views, which will unite all genuine Conservatives against them. We recom mend the really able managers of this Review to get rid of their political contributor as soon as possible. Ile knows nothing of practical politics, and he has a set of stereotyped prejudices which he reproduces on every occasion. lle is peevish where he might be smart, and pompous where he might be grave. The London Quarterly has a very readable article on Miss Young's novels. Of the writer's protest against this lady's theological opinions we have nothing to say; but it seems to us that there is a very obvious fallacy running through his remarks upon novels generally. The author who aspires to be a teacher will naturally employ what he considers to be the most impressive vehicle of instruction ; and we can no more quarrel with Miss Young for teaching Puseyism through the medium of novels in preference to a treatise, than with an enemy for being armed with revolvers instead of the ordinary pistol. The paper on " Marriage of the Deceased Wife's sister " " begins but breaks off in the middle." THE PRESS, JULY 24, 1858. We are still of opinion that the contemporary who stated " that the peace of twenty families " was of more consequence than the passions of " one" has put the truth of the matter in a form not easy to evade. The remaining articles are all of that careful and thoughtful but rather narrow character which usually prevails in this Review. We are sorry to find that we have less space for the passages we had marked for quotation from Mr. Murray's Quarterly than we anti cipated. Our readers will therefore lose some very entertaining extracts from the article on Blake, which we understand to be from the pen of a very clever naval novelist, and all we can afford is the following from the paper on India, which rumour assigns to the late distin guished Member for Aylesbury : The increasing estrangement between the English end the subject population had long been foreseen and deplored by our ablest Indian statesmen. During the earls occupa• tion of the country there existed a double necessity to mix with and conciliate the natives--a political and a social necessity. It was by securing the goodwill and sympathy of the people that we could alone hope to carry on the struggles in which we had engaged with powerful princes, and to extend our rule. We were almost entirely dependent upon the natives for our knowledge of the country and its resources and for the collection of our revenues. We relied upon their skill and their treachery in our intrigues and in our wars. We i n U•usted them with a large share in the administration, and an English civilian did not then believe it derogatory to his dignity to acknowledge the higher rank arid position of a native officer. The want of frequent and easy intercourse with Eng land, and the absence of female society, led to the estab— lishment of social relations with the natives, and to the adoption, in many respects, of their habits. It was the Anglo-Indian of nearly a century ago who furnished the type of the " Nawab," a race now almost extinct, that fertile theme for ridicule and caricature. He considered it no discredit to contract ties with the native women of India, which the customs and laws of the country did not condemn as either illegal or immoral. The picture of Clive and his Indian family is probably familiar to most of our readers. It might be considered invidious now to mention the names of other well-known men who have left descendants by Indian ladies, not undistinguished in our Indian annals. Such ties were not alone contcacted with women of mean condition or doubtful character. On the contrary, alliances were formed between British officers and some of the proudeat families of the peninsula. Colonel Fitzpatrick, many years holding the high office of Resident at the Court of the Nizam, married, according to the laws of the country, a lady of the house of the reigning sovereign. A dwelling of singular elegance, in the oriental style of architecture, which he constructed fur her residence in the very grounds of the Residency, still exists, although falling into ruins. Her tomb is a place of annual pilgrimage to the Mohammedans of Hyderabad, who preserve the tradition of her virtues and her charity. General Palmer married one of the liegums of Oude, and his descendants hold the highest rank amongst the " Eurasian " families of India. Colonel Gardiner was united to a lady of the Ira• penal house of Delhi. We are now familiar with many names distinguished in our former and recent wars, borne by the offspring of similar marriages. In many an '' Eurasian' house may still be seen a picture by Zetrany, or some contemporary painter, representing a British officer in the ungainly uniform of the last century, with wig, powdered hair, or pigtail, drooping epaulets and yards of gold lace, standing over a dark beauty, who, crouching under the weight of pearls, jewels, and kinkobs, the spoil of kingdoms, is surrounded by a bevy of dusky children. The Begum was then a lady of weight and authority in the household. Through her petitions were laid at the feet of the great man, and the thousand little intrigues, indis pensable to Eastern life, were carried on. She was con stantly visited by her family and friends, who were then seen by her lord. Every one acquainted with India knows that such alliances would, in these days, be no less repudiated by the natives themselves than by their English rulers. So the natives mingled in the am useniqnts and sports of the English. A series of engravings, which still adorns the walls of many a roadside inn, represents the magnates of ancient days, elbowing nawabs and rajahs in an eager circle round a cockfight. An old Indian native officer will relate how, in his boyhood, the Sahibs, before tbey married " Mem Sailibe " and lived upon gram to save money to send their children home, or to go there them selves, would take part in the rejoicings of the men, would lend their horses and their elephants to swell their marriage processions, and their tents and hangings to give splendour to their great periodical festivals; how they took part in their sports, and were frequently honoured guests at their feasts. Then it would have been impossible for a whole army to mutiny without some information having been conveyed to its officers, nor would those officers have been butchered without pity or mercy. Mr. Shore, an able and keen observer, who held high civil appointments in India, had watched this gradual estrangement between the English and the native popula tions, foreseeing that the time must sooner or later come when its results would be equally disastrous to both races. In his admirable " Notes on Indian Affairs" (Vol. 11., No. 40), he has traced the change that had taken place in the conduct of Englishmen tosarda the natives, from "the era of Lord Cornwallis's great reforms of 1793, by which natives were excluded from all employments, except such as no English would accept." " From that day," he de• Glares, " a separation seems to have taken pla ce b etween the two classes which has been widening ever since' " Formerly, much intercourse," he remark s , " used to I . kept up by means of entertainments reciprocally glven. Fifty or sixty years ago the ussulnian had n o scruple M about eating with an Englishman ; but they have changed their ideas of late years, and now there are few in ocuntry who would not think themselves degraded b y doing." PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.-JU LY BOOKS. How to Speak French, or French and France. Achille Albetes, LL.B., Paris. Loop:ism Traits and Stories of Anglo-Indian Life. Lieut.• Colonel Addison. Smith sod Elder. The Crisis in thr Paidatib,froin the 10th May wail the Fan of Delhi. F. Cooper, Esq., C.S. Ditto. A Long Vacation in Continental Picture Galleries. The Rev. 'l'. W. Jas. Blake, M A. J. W. Parker On the Authorised Version of the New Testament. Richer(' Chenevix Trench, I).D. Ditto, Chiming Trifles. A Collection of Fugitive Compositions in Verses on Subjects Grave and Gay. AnOzonian. Kent and Notes on the Revolt in the North-Weslern Provinces of J. Charles Raikes. Longman., The Private Journal of the Marquess of Harding. Edited by his Daughter, the Marchi oness o f Two Vols. Saunders and Otley. .4 Friend in Need. A Romance. Three Vols. Bentley. Health and Disease, their Laws; with Principal Preserip. lions for the People. Benjamin Ridge, M.D. Chapman and The Age ; a Colloquial Satire. Philip J. Bailey. Ditto. Pebbles and Shells. Elizabeth W. French. Hardwieke. The Ophthalmoscope: Internal Diseases affecting Me Epe. Churchill. The Primal Duties; o► Knowledge, Thought, and Action. Angus Macpherson. Holliston and Stoneman. Cases and ()Nervations on Spinal Deformity. Samuel Hare, F.R.C.S., Churchill. PERIODICALS. 3fel:ora. A Qnarterly Review of Social Science. . ridge and Co.—London University Magazine. Hall Virtue—The Quarterly Review. Murray.—The Quarterly. Simpkin and Marshall. PAMPHLET. Artistic and Descriptive Notes on the moat Remarkable Pictures in the British Institution. Bosworth and Harrison. Texas ; Her Resources and her Public. Crozet: the Construction and Principle of a Wave Screen. Weale. usir. HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE. THE " season " at this theatre closed on Saturday last, but the house remains open, with all its forces in statu quo, during a short time, to repeat what no longer an experiment, a series of representations at reduced prices. The success which attends these extra performances testifies to the increasing appre- ciation of good music in England amongst that por tion of the cammunitywho are not blessed, or cursed, with a superabundance of the means necessary to 0- cultivation and enjoyment of the Fine Arts. trust that, ere lung, a regular winter Opera may afford to those of this class whose circumstances comr them to remain in the capital during what is progerly termed " the dull season," an opportunity relieving the tediousness of the period of " Londoi, peculiars" and deserted streets with sound musical recreation, and not at ruination prices. That - possible to get together a very tolerable operatic troupe, even in the absence of the Grisis and Titiens, the Marios and Giuglinis, is placed beyond a doubt by the co-existence of three opera-houses this metropolis during the last three months. have no particular comment to make on any of past week's performances at this theatre. ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA HOUSE. ON Tuesday, Mme. Grimi obtained another most decided triumph over Time. We have before rected attention to that which she made in character of Deademona ; she has now had courage to show herself in her cape d'opera upwards of twenty years ago. and her daring 1 been crowned with success. We confess that when we saw Norma announced, with this lady as heroine, we had sundry misgivings as to the resut but we are bound to admit, after witnessing Tues• day's performance, that, though there may be more than one Valentina or one Lucrezia in the world, there is still only one Norma—that of Mme. Grim. It would, simply, be fulsome flattery to assert that there is no other singer who could execute the florid music of the nart as well as she ; nor should . perhaps, be justified in stating that no other actress is capable of doing such ample justice to the his trionic portion of the character. But we fearlesslY assert that there is no artiste living able to render, in such perfection, both the musical and the histrionic portions of this mostexacting impersonation.Never' she acted better, it may almost be said never so as now. Time, whilst engaged in robbing the singer , seems to have allowed the actress to snatch from 1-• hand an increase of power. But so well did minager (as the French say) her voice s that needed some acquaintance with the music of Norma -1 1111 between pl mote" tit id t o b e tt Y Pren. st scruple ft changed a in the 1 by su ! Achille )Priana. •Colonel I Elder. the Foil Ditto. H• The Parker. Richard Ditto, easittons lien. and Co. of ',ith. ngmen.. K.G i/ Bute. Otley. Bentley. Preserip• nil Ball. Ditto. rdwicke. e Epe. hurchill. 1 oneman. el Hare, hurchill Part. fall and ic Irish makable [affirm:on. set.—On Neale. atorday forces what is itations is these &ppm- iat por- mrsed, y to the s. We y afford compel t is so inity of :Jondon nusical it it is operatic is and beyond uses in 8. We of the r most fore di- in the ad the era of mg has t when as the result ; ; Tues- e more world, irt that florid uld we. ectress 3e his- irlesaly Eder, in itrionic ver has so well, singer, Tarn his did she that it irorma's