The Press. — London, England, 1857-04-18 00:00:00

Ann., l Bt 1857, since. There were but two or three critics who sdp ported the undertaking at the starting. The press was all but unanimous against the new enter prise—a portion of it being disgracefully rabid and rancorous. What has been the boasted power of antagonistic journalism against the force of truth? Those wise seers who predicted that the attempt to extend the domain of art was wild and chimerical, were compelled, one by one, to acknowledge that the masterpieces of the French and German schools, under the presiding genius of Costa, could be successfully presented in this country. And every distinguished musician who visited Lon don, every continental critic of note, every accom plished amateur, found a pleasure in recognising the perfection of the performances at the lto) al Italian opera. What effects have thus been produced on the progress of the lyrical drama, and on the ad vance of public taste ! And although at the Lyceum this year the performances must be looked upon more in the light of cabinet pictures than of those grand and gorgeous tableaux which were gazed upon in the theatre that was destroyed, still, with the orchestral and choral resources, the attributes of the leading singers, and the undiminished energy, tact, and taste of the musical director, gems of art will be appreciated by discriminating connoisseurs. There may be two distinct audiences perhaps to be found for both houses, the one contented with one ruling star in an opera, and a brilliant ballet, and the other, more severe and exacting, expecting an ensemble in the details as well as first-rate ability in the prin cipals. Be this as it may, bygones should be bygones ; and the diurnal critics, whose notices reach the public before the aspirations of the hebdomadal press, will do well to discard personalities, eschew sycophancy, and abandon partisanship. Let the elevation of art be the watchword in writing for the public, and the interests both of managers and artists in the long run will be the better consulted than by indiscriminate praise of the good, bad, and indifferent : a fulsome and servile tone ought not to be the characteristics of English journalism—let us leave that to the Parisian prtas. SACRED HARMONIC SOCIETY. Tite greatest performance ever beard of Handel's martial and dramatic oratorio Judas Maccabeus was that. of last night at Exeter-hall. More soul-stirring choral singing cannot be conceived. There was a vigour and precision in the attack beyond all descrip tion. Costa has got his forces completely under command. Sims Reeves sang the music of Judas Maccabeus, Mr. Thomas was assigned that of Simon, his brother ; and the parts of the Israelitish men and women were divided between Mme. Clara Novelle, Mme. Rudersdorff, Miss Dolby, and Mr. Monteni Smith. The colossal choruses, " 0 Father " and the exciting "We come, we come," narrowly escaped encores, the presence of the Princess Royal and suite perhaps preventing the delighted auditory from insisting on repetitions. If not Handel's masterpiece, it is one of his noblest works, full of grand and touching contrasts. " Fallen is the foe" and " See the conquering hero comes" are sublime aspirations. Mme. Novello had the well-known airs, " Pious orgies" (Mr. Lucas violoncello obligato) and " From mighty things," and Sims Reeves " Sound an alarm." No doubt the magnificent results achieved last night are to be ascribed to the careful rehearsals of this oratorio, which has been judiciously selected for one of the performances at the Crystal Palace in the Handel Festival in June. It was remarked. that there was no inconsiderable muster of Jews amongst the larger masses which filled the hall. The heroic actions of the Hebrews, as narrated in the first Book of Macca bees and Josephus's " Antiquities 01' the Jews," having been selected by the Rev. Dr. Morell for the plot of the oratorio, will account for its popularity amongst the Jews, who, it is recorded, supported the work at its production in 1740, when composed within a month by Handel as a compliment to the Duke of Cumberland after the Battle of Culloden. lntitstments, &t. THE DIRECTORS OF THE CRYSTAL. PALACE have issued their programme for the ensuing season, which will commence on the Ist of May. The sea son will be opened by a grand morning concert, by the artistes of the Royal Italian Opera ; and, in con sequence of the approbation they met with last year, arrangements have been entered into for a similar series of twelve concerts during the cresent season, supported by the principal artistes of the Royal Ita lian Opera. The two-guinea season tickets will be available for these concerts. Transferable tickets will also be issued for each concert at 7s. ad. each. The directors have also made arrangements with the Cologne Choral Union (Colner Manner Gesang- Verein) for a concert in the centre transept of the Palace on Saturday, the 6th June, and both classes of season tickets will be available for it. The dis plays of the whole system of fountains, cascades, and jets d'eaua will be resumed, and continued during the whole season. There will be two grand horti- PIIE PRESS. Cultural and floricultural fetes during the present season—one in May, and the other, which will extend over three days, in September. There will also be two poultry shows in the course of the season—viz., in August and January. The Government of Canada have undertaken to form and maintain in the Palace a collection which shall completely set forth the condition of the manufactures and other industry and resources of that important colony. The di rectors further announce that they have entered into arrangements with the Sacred Harmonic Society for a grand series of three performances of Handel's oratorios, to take place in the centre transept of the Palace in the month of June. Her Majesty and his Royal Highness Prince Albert have been gra cioth,ly pleased to extend their especial patronage to the festival, and have expressed their intention of honouring it with their presence. The performances on this great occasion will be on the most gigantic scale, far exceeding anything of a similar nature hitherto proposed or carried out in this or any other country. Mr. Costa has accepted the office of con ductor. The festival will form the subject of an entirely separate subscription. . . EASTER ENTERTAINMENTS.—In addition to the usual attractions of the stage, the other evening entertainments of the town seek to obtain their share of patronage at Easter. "Mont Blanc," by Mr. Albert Smith ; " Lion Hunting in Africa," with descriptions of the countries passed through by Dr. Livingston, by Gordon Cumming; Bur l'ord's Panorama, with the beautiful View of Moscow ; the Colosseum, with its new series of dissolving views from Nash's well-known work, " Mansions of the English Nobility ;" the Poly technic, with its series of dissolving views of Inker mann, and Egypt before the Pharoahs ; and " Tom Thumb," that illustrious little great pan, are among the most popular and attractive exhibitions of the day. To these varied sources of amuse ment must be added Wyld's Great Globe in Leicester square, which now contains a museum of Crimean trophies, and a series of dioramic views of Europe and Russia; and the Monday Evening Con certs at St. Martin's-hall, in which Mr. H. S. Carle ton gives some capital impersonations of Buckstone, Keeley, Phelps, and Robson. Other exhibitions of scientific interest, such as Dr. Kahn's Museum, continue justly to attract numerous visitors ; while Cremorne Gardens once again throws open its beau tiful grounds, and on the 11th May next commences its legitimate season with a grand THE MANCHESTER ART.TREASURES EX I-I IBITION. THE interior preparations of the great building in which the unsurpassed art treasures of the empire will be contained are rapidly approaching comple tion. The building itself, in form a parallelogram, upwards of 700 feet in length, 200 in width, and covering some three acres of ground, is erected at Old Trafford, a distance of some two miles from the Manchester Exchange, and exhibits an appearance which, if without pretensions to high architectural beauty of design, is still effective. The great eastern facade, built of white and red bricks, supports three semicircular arches, the central one being of glass and iron, the other two of corrugated iron, glazed merely along the central section of the roof. "On entering the building from this end," says a letter from Manchester, " the harmonious and really beautiful colouring of the interior must be even more apparent than the great area of the hall. The semi• circular ribs of the roof of the nave are ornamented with scrools of Vitruvian and Grecian character, in crimson and white, and the face is relieved with gold and light bronze. The panels between the ribs are of a pale aerial blue, of the same tint as a clear sky, seen through the glazed portion in the centre. Looking along the rcof from either end of the hall, the coloured lines fade into a beautiful blending at the other extremity, especially when the sunlight plays upon them. The nave is divided from the aisles by coupled columns of light bronze, relieved with gold." Along the nave the sculpture and general museum of art will be arranged. The gallery of British portraits will cover the walls of the aisles, while the north and south naves will be respectively filled by modern and ancient paintings. The works of art have nearly all arrived, and are being rapidly arranged in their respective departments. Eve►y preliminary, it is said, will be concluded by the sth of May, wnen the ceremony of opening the exhibition is fixed to take place. His Royal High ness Prince Albert, accompanied by the Prince of \Vales and the Princess Royal, will ba present. The collection of ancient pictures, some nine hundred in number•, to be exhibited in the south gallery, has been placed under the charge of Mr. Scharf, jun., who has adopted a novel plan in its arrangement. He has proceeded upon the broad principle of devoting one entire wall to the works of the Italian and Spanish masters, and the other to the productions of Germany, Flanders, Eng land, and all countries foreign to Spain and Italy. But that is not all. The pictures on both sides of th. 391 gallery are arranged in chronological order, so that the works of each master of Italy or Spain are placed opposite those of a painter belonging to some other country who lived in the same period. Angelico da Fiesolo, for example, is opposed to John Van Eyck, Rubens to Guido, and Vandyke to Velasquez. The lesser divisions of schools, which are those of Tus cany, Siena, Naples, Umbria, Cologne, Flanders, Saxony, and Nuremberg, are marked by being kept in distinct groups, and arranged for the most part in parallel lines one over the other. With a few excep tions, the pictures exhibited are those of masters who flourished between the years 1400 and 1700, a period of three centu►ies. The latest painting in this gallery almost corresponds in point of date with the commencement of the modern English school, and consequently no place is given here to the pro ductions of Hudson, Hogarth, Thornhill, Richard• son, or any of the English masters who lived at the beginning of the eighteenth century. One of the objects aimed at by Mr. Scharf in the formation of the gallery has been to reunite, as far as possible, the scattered fragments of the Orleans, the Solly, and the Rogers collections. He has succeeded in doing so to a great extent, and the visitor will have an opportunity of viewing, recollected in these galleries, collections whi.•.li are renowned throughout the world. The British Portrait Gallery will number some 4qo paintings; the Gallery of Mo lern Masters (1700 to present day) will number about 900 pic tures ; while the water-colour, photograph, anti miniature collections, will he very extensive. The arrangement of these galleries is under the care of Messrs. Creswick and Egg. The general museum of art, besides containing valuable specimens of ornamental art from the Anglo- Saxon period to the present day, selected from the richest private collection in the country, also includes the entire Bernal and Soulage collections, and richly and fully illustrates every species of manufacture and decoration in glass, earthenware, marble, wood, ivory, and the precious metal;. The glass, gold metal work, majolica, and ivory sections are espe cially rich in materials for illustration, while the vast collection of brilliant enamels, rare mosaics, costly jewellery, and masterpieces in bronze and terra cotta will justly excite the praise and admiration of all beholders. The collection of arms and armour will also form "a prominent and attractive feature " in the exhibition. In fine, says a recent letter from Manchester, " it would be vain to attempt to enumerate, within rea sonable limits, a hundredth part of the objects con tained in the general museum. Whole classes even must be left unnoticed. Some idea of the extent, richness, and variety of the collection may be formed when it is stated that upwards of 6,000 articles, each remarkable for the beauty of its material, the bril liancy of its colour, and the exquisite taste of its workmanship or the elegance of its design, are com• bined in one dazzling mass to astonish and delight the beholder. The labour required to collect and arrange such a vast multitude of treasures must have been immense, and still greater, if possible, must he the liberality and public spirit of those who have consented to part for a season with possessions so rare and valuable." Plug Prim anb tit Itttistigma. FRIDAY EVENING. ME return of the Bank of England for the week ending the 11th inst., shows the following ci.anges compared with that for the week preceding : Increase in Circulation Decrease in Public Deposits Increase in Other Deposits Decrease in Government Securities 312,14414 Decrease in Other Securities Decrease in Bullion Decrease in Rest Decrease in Reserve Bullion in Both Departments .. 9,001,612 Circulation, including Bank Post • Bills There is quite sufficient shown by this comparison to con firm the expediency of the Bank policy in adopting the restrictive measures of last week, for it reveals an ex• ceedingly weak and discouraging position. Indeed, if there were not reason to anticipate that the succeeding returns will be of a totally different character, the present would suggest apprehensions in which it would not be agreeable to indulge. The Bullion shows a failing off of 279,1081., following another of no less then 643,8391., making a total of nearly 02:1,0001. within a week, and re• dining the stock to a mere fraction above 9,000,0001. BO the next week's return will disclose a recovery of about half a million. The Reserve shows a still greater falling off. The decrease in the Public Deposits is owing to the payment of the April dividends, and the diminution of the Rest is ascribable to similar payments on account of the Bank proprietors. The large. reduction in the Private Securities has brought that item down to 18,9R4,6401., or nearly 10,000,0001., still a very heavy amount, and one more likely to increase than to diminish. The other changes shown by this comparison do not call for any par ticular remark, being only such as are usual at ibis period.