The Press. — London, England, 1856-10-04 00:00:00

OCTOBER 4, 1856. and interesting account of some of the oldest forest trees in these islands, with the historical associations connected with them. Most of the remaining con tributions are continuations. In Bentley "The Joint-stock Banker " is brought to a conclusion. This somewhat audw...ious attempt t) create a novel out of contemporary crimes, has not been more than partially successful. "The Young Clergyman and his Anti-Macassars" is a good Bentleian tale, but exaggerated. In the Oxford and Cambridge an essay upon Twelfth Night shows taste and considerable criti cal power. " The Sceptic and the Infidel" is an able review of the novel of " Perversion." The story of "Cavalay " is well continued. And the residue is not below the average of magazine writing. The London University Magazine is got up with great care. The subjects are well selected, and, as a rule, treated with ability. " The Plea of Insanity" is a noticeable article, but not in our opinion correct. Taft's Edinburgh Magazine is of average quality. Two or three fair reviews, a good tale, some in different poetry, and still more indifferent politics, make up the bulk of its contents. " Gleanings and Fragments" is, however, a style of article we should be glad to meet with oftener in our periodical lite rature. The article on " Peers for Life" is merely a resume of arguments that have been answered over and over again. The Churchman's Magazine deals boldly, though in our opinion unwisely, with the great ecclesiastical questions of the day; is in favour of a stipendiary clergy, and other changes which strike at the roots of the peculiar character of the Anglican Church. It contains a sensible article on domestic servants, and some sound remarks on Archdeacon Denison. NEW NOVELS. THE appetite of novel-readers is insatiable, and to meet the ever recurring demand several fictions have lately appeared. As, however, we do not observe among them any of much mark or originality, a brief notice of those on our table will suffice. The authoress of "Charles Auchester" and "My First Season" has failed to correct or restrain that tendency to extravagance which was visible in her first, but by far her ablest, book. It has run wild in The Double Coronet.* Flashes of cleverness are not sufficient to redeem its rhetorical absurdities. To describe the story would be to expose it to ridi cule. The authoress is wasting her gifts. She will find speedily, if she has not done so already, that no amount of mental energy will atone for the absence of mental discipline. However wide the limits we may allow to romance, the extravagance of this story exceeds them. It inclines to rant, a tault always fatal to the fiction pretending to portray society of the day. The tale by Dr. Owgan,+ a name new to us, shows thought and talent but wants tact. It is a narrative, and the narrator is the hero of his own story—a most sensitive, high-spirited gentleman, who throughout his varied adventures contrives to bear on his shoulders an accumulated load of woe. In the course of his career he becomes the head of a school, and at an evening party he is asked to dance. His reply is a key to the tone in which the book is written : "Me 1 Mrs. Wilson? of course not. Why should dance? To wreathe an iron chain with flowers would be t io bitter a mockery." The merits of the story are its movement, its viva cious sketches of character, and its masculine style ; but we get somewhat tired of the misanthropy of the hero, and of his iron chain "—misanthropy the less excusable as the story ends happily, the author re ceiving f. handsome Government appointment, and a beautiful intellectual girl, sick for his love, recovering when he visits her to assure her that her devotion is not unreturned. The author promises us three volumes more on the same theme should he receive encouragement. In that case let him by all means relieve his hero from his "iron chain," and make him talk and act more like a rational being. Three more volumes of raving egotism would be intolerable. Old Memories: is a domestic story, written in a somewhat old-fashioned manner, but touched with pathos, and not lacking the constructive skill neces saryto weave a readable tale. It is free from pre tension, and we think is of " the harmless and blameless" sentimental kind which seems to find favour with the circulating libraries of provincial wns. Tender and True,; by the author of "Clara Mor rison," is a tale of superior class, and,though at first intending to include it among these notices, we shall reserve it for separate criticism. • The Double Coronet. Hy the Author of Charles Auches ter." Two Vols. London: Newby. + Out in the World. By Dr. Owgan. Three Vols. London: Hurst and Bleekett 1 Old Memories. By June Melville. Three Vols. London Newby. Tender and True. By the Author of " Clara Morrison." Two Vols. London: Smith and Elder. THE PRESS. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.—Ocr. 2. EOOKS. Poems of Pail Years. Sir Arthur H. Elton, Bart, Smith and Elder Father Daey. Parlour Library. Hodgson Margaret Graham. Do. Ditto The War. W. H. Russell. Routledge Health and Beauty. Darton and Co The Dramatic Works of William SliakespPare. Bell and Daldy Tender and True. Smith and Elder Works of the Rev. Thomas D.D. Blackwoods PERIODICALS. Church of England Monthly Review Simpkin and Marshall—London University Magazine. Hall and Virtue —The Monthly Review. Mitchell—The Commercial Tra• velkr's Magazine. Kent and Co—Le FoUet. Simpkin and Marshall—The Art Journal. Virtue and Co—The United Chrueh Journal. Seeley and Jackson—Royal Gal lery of Art. Colnaghi and Co—The National Programme. Levey and Co—The British Controversialist. Houlston. CORONATION FETES. TEE balls of the British Embassy at Moscow, it is reported, have eclipsed those of M. de Morny. M. de Morny danced incessantly himself, but be had not a Mme. de Morny to receive nor a Scotch piper to play up : The ball given by M. de Nforny on Monday night, although lacking nothing in the number and dignity and rank of the company, was, it is said, inferior in splendour to the en tertainments of a similar kind given by the English Am bassador and the Countess Granville. The rooms of the Gruiani Palace are better furnished, more rich, and at the same time more comfortable than those of the French Embassy, and, what is a good deal more to the purpose on such occasions, the wine and the suppers are better. Indeed, Lord Granville has done his best to make the Russians familiar with the contents of an excellent Eng lish cellar, and he possesses another advantage in having Lady Granville to preside at his entertainment. The supply of dancing ladies is described as being very inade quate to the demand last night, but the French Ambassa dor is the gayest and the best boat possible, and did his utmost to atone for the absence of a Mme. de :Horny by dancing incessantly. It would be well if some of our younger men made themselves equally useful in filling up figures and surrendering themselves to the abandon of waltz and mazurka. It must be by no means inferred from this that the French Ambassador's ball was not very splendid. It is only fair to state that the Embassy of England has the advantage in Moscow, just as in St. Petersburg M. de Morny was able to give better and more frequent dinners than Lord Granville.—Times cor. McAllister, the Sutherland piper, at Lady Gran ville's ball on the 17th ult., broke through all rules of etiquette, and astonished the company with a burst of martial music. The Grand Dukes Con stantine and Nicholas, with their families and suite, were present McAllister was in attendance in the ante-room in full uniform, kilt, and philibeg, it being the intention of the noble host that in some interval of the dance the Russian guests should he made acquainted with the peculiar cha- racteristics of Highland music. But the herdic soul of McAllister was impatient of restraint. For some moments he remained standing in the ante-room, beating time to an imaginary reel, and champing like a war horse impatient of the bit, until at last, what with the strains of rival music from the band, the intoxicating influence of a thousand wax lights reflected from the porcelain walls, and the bright forms of beauty that flitted to and fro before the gaze of the bewildered Highlander, flesh and blood could bold out no longer; the inspired Gaul shouldered his pipes, and, striking up a pibroch that would awaken the dead, marched, with measured tread, as if at the head of his clan, into the centre of the brilliant ring round which Grand Dukes and Duchesses were at that moment dancing the polonaise. Loud above the puny attempts of catgut and brass rose the wild martial notes of the bagpipes. The musicians threw down their instruments in despair, the company ceased dancing, and McAllister was in a moment the centre of an admiring circle, completely ab sorbed in his pibroch, and beating time with as much accuracy and sangfroid as if unconscious of the presence of the foremost of the world's elite. I watched the effect of this strange music ou the unaccustomed ears of the Russians with great interest. They were at first evidently astounded, the officers putting their hands to their ears, and the ladies crossing their hands and gazing on the kilted Loins in mute surprise. But soon it became evi dent that there was a sympathy between the warlike race on the one side and the warlike music on the other. Both ladies and gentlemen chatted, smiled, and listened ; and, when, shortly after, the Grand Duchess Constantine, one of the most beautiful women in Russia, retired to another apartment, she sent for McAllister, who played " The White Cockade " in a manner that elicited her Imperial Highness's gracious commendation. From that moment he became the fashion, and several times in the coarse of the evening he played again to admiring audiences. I may mention before parting with our musical friend, that since his arrival he has been quite a lion amongst the Russians, who follow him in crowds through the streets. There is much speculation amongst the mujiks as to his real character and functions ; but the most prevailing impression is that he is the chief of all the foreign am bassadors, and that, with a fastidious refinement of hauteur, he prefers walking, on the ground that none of the car riages are grand enough for his notions of personal dignity. D. News cor., Sept. 19th. 955 Neither the Emperor nor the Grand Duke Con stantine keep much state on ordinary occasions : The Czar, although be likes keeping up the dignity and state of the Imperial office, is not ostentatious or extrava gant in his tastes, and rather affects the simplicity and freedom of the late Emperor. He has been seen driving about the streets in a one•horse drosky without an escort or single attendant of any kind, and the other day the Russian hall-porter at Lord Granville's was terribly alarmed at the apparition of a quiet gentlemanly•looking officer in the hall, who stepped out of a drosky at the door, and simply asked, "Is the Ambassador at home?" It was the Emperor, who had driven up to pay a friendly visit en pas sant.—Times cor., Sept. 19. The Grand Duke Constantine is rather below the middle height, being about five feet six inches in height ; his figure is slight, but compact and well built, his face is oval, his hair light, moustache and whiskers small and fair, his eye, notwithstanding the shortness of his sight, is keen and very intelligent, and his mouth, jaw, and forehead, indicate great firmness and decision of character. He speaks English perfectly well, and to the knowledge of that language he joins of course the usual acquirements of Russians of rank, French, German, &c. His air is not so sombre as that of the Emperor : he speaks with quick ness and energy, and is rapid in his movements, and altogether has a gayer and brisker look than his Imperial brother. Night and day he worked at Cronstadt while our fleet was before it, and he is now with the utmost deter mination and perseverance creating for Russia a very for midable force of steam gunboats, of which there are no less than seventyfive in the Baltic, all built within the last twenty months; some of them are worked by the locomotive engines of the railway, fitted for that purpose; others are provided with engines made at the Government factories, but these have given the Grand Duke some trouble, as they are liable to aberrations and s to execute mechanical manmuvres not designed by their manufac turers.—Times cor. The Times correspondent has a sneer at Sir Charles Napier and Cronstadt : Sir Charles Napier, in the account of his extraordinary experiences of Cronstadt, forgot one important fact—he talked much of the difficulties and insinuated the impos sibilities of an attack on that place, and mentioned espe cially the impediments created by the genius of Todtleben in the passage at the north of the forts, but Sir Charles did not tell his countrymen what the Grand Duke is at no pains to conceal—that the passage was quite practicable when the allied fleet first came off Cronstadt, and that the impediments to the passage of large ships were not formed till the winter of the second year of the war. The Rus sians were perfectly aware that the northern side could be forced, and that it was quite possible for a determined enemy to run past the forts, most of which are constructed on arcs of spheres, have their maximum amount of fire directed in front, and have only part of their guns available for an enemy passing their right flank. They had ever such a casualty in view, and the most desperate resolves were spoken of in case the fleets forced the Neva and St. Petersburg was at their mercy. The opportunity was lost, and the Grand Duke and Todtleben took care it never should occur again. The moment the allies retired before the grip of winter thousands of men were set to work, who sunk stones all along the northern channel, or heaped piles of hundreds of tons of blocks of granite on the roe, which went through to the bottom as it melted and formed a line of artificial rocks across the passage. On some of these rocks batteries were erected, guns were placed to cover the approach, and the place was indeed rendered un assailable by large vessels. Why did not Sir Charles Napier tell us when this was done ? Surely nothing of the kind took place till after his abortive demonstration in the summer of 1854.—Times cor. We may here add that to this charge Sir Charles Napier has replied, but the Times refused to publish his letter. It appeared in the Daily News of yes terday. Sir Charles in a few words demolishes the Times correspondent, by recalling two little facts be had overlooked—viz., the shoal depth of water on the north side, and the heavy line•ot-battle ships he (Sir Charles) had only under his command in 1854. The passage was only available for gun or mortar boats of light draught. An absurd accident happened on the 16th to the Empress Mother in the midst of a religious cere mony : You will laugh to hear that the Empress Dowager of Russia has received a black eye from a Greek priest, in her capital of Moscow, in a chapel, in the midst of a religious ceremony. It was at the Foundling Hospital, where, in the chapel, she was stooping to kiss an image. The priest, a man with a long white beard, in the extreme of age, sprang forward in his seat, and threw open the glass door of the shrine to enable her Majesty to kiss the image without the intervening impediment. The heavily em bossed binding of the glass caught the Empress, fortunately not on, but just below, the temple, and raised a blue and black wale, which quickly swelled. Her Majesty uttered a cry of pain ; the old priest burst into tears at what he had done, and at what he was near having done. The other priests flew to tell the Patriarch of the delinquent, whom you may be quite sure the Empress will not suffer to be in the least annoyed for an unintentional mishap. I had the whole story from an eye-witness.—Pest ror., Sept. it. The people's dinner and the people's ball were the two great events of the week before last. Every ar rangement on the dinner day was excellent but that of the weather ; it rained incessantly the whole day. From early morn the people streamed out of the town to the great plain of Kadnika, where dinner was laAl for 200,000 guests :