The Press. — London, England, 1855-01-06 00:00:00

20 La Fleur et la Feldlie. The Floure and the Leafe. By Geffrey Chaucer. Translated into French by Le Chevalier de Chatelain. London : Jeffs. THE Chevalier de Chatolain is well known as an accomplished translator of English into French, and at this time his translations of English works will be welcomed cordially as adding another link to the chain which binds the two nations together. It is, no doubt, difficult to convey with spirit and fidelity the terse, rough thoughts of Garrey Chaucer into a foreign tongue, but, on the whole, Le Chevalier de Chatelain's attempt must be pronounced very credit able, though here and there he has taken undue liberty with the text, as, for instance, at page 36, where, in the French translation, the meaning of Chaucer is totally eclipsed, and the "pretty tendir floures" quite neglected by the upstart " Phokus " of the translator's creation. In spite of such casual blemishes, it is to be hoped that the Chevalier's attempt will meet with sufficient encouragement to induce him to furnish our continental friends with further specimens of the Father of English Poetry. Knowledge is Power. By Charles Knight. London: Murray. Tilts beautifully-printed and profusely-illustrated volume is another contribution to useful and agreeable knowledge from the well-known pen whose labour has been so various and so valuable as to make its owner almost a candidate for Goldsmith's epitaph. The work is described as, " A View of the Productive "Forces of Modern Society and the Results of " Labour, Capital, and Skill." Beginning with a study of man in the most helpless condition, Mr. Knight conducts the reader through a long series of illus trations of the appliances of progress as supplied by knowledge, and the expedients of political economy arising out of accumulated wealth and skill which are calculated to add continually to that accu mulation. The tone of Mr. Knight's political economy is thoroughly wholesome. His examples and descriptions are various and his deductions clear and just. Indeed, whether to pass an hour for the sake of amusement, or for the more solids pur pose of philosophy, the book will be found one of its author's most pleasing productions. Remarkable Sieges. From Constantinople, 1453, to Sebastopol, 1854. By Henry Ottley. London : Ingram and Co. THESE " Remarkable Sieges," though offering in no instance much resemblance to the operations against Sebastopol, yet show the obstinate and desperate tenacity of defence usually offered by besiegers to vastly superior forces, even when the place has been completely invested. Rhodes in 1522, with its small garrison, resisted for six months the 150,000 soldiers brought against it by Solyman, and Haarlem in 1572-3 kept the Spaniards at bay for seven months, and after all obtained fair terms, which were, how ever, treacherously broken. The facts collected here naturally suggest the lamentable inadequacy of the Crimean expedition to accomplish its purpose. A passage quoted from the sieges of Sir John Jones is applicable to the existing struggle :—" Sieges have " frequently been undertaken without fully investing 'the place, and even with the side open by which " supplies could be most readily received, and the "result has invariably been a very protracted or suc " cessful resistance." It is to be recollected that in this case the allied commanders never contemplated the siege of Sebastopol, for which their forces were manifestly inadequate, and even to the latest dates the operations have been but a preparation for a grand attack. The question now is, will that attack be made, or will Sebastopol be formally invested ? In the latter event, Mr. Ottley, who shows much intelli gence in his little essay on siege operations, supposes that an army of not less than 200,000 persons would be required. These sketches extend from the siege of 'Constantinople in 1453 to the battle of Inker mann ; they are judiciously compiled, and form a good shillingsworth of instructive reading. do Essay upon the Philosophy of Evidence. By Watkin Williams. London : Ridgway. Mn. WILLIAMS'S acute tract is well worth the atten tion of those who take an interest in metaphysical disens•ion. though the views enforced are not remarkable for novelty, yet the work is rendered valuable by the clearness of the statements and the copiousness and excellence of the illustrations em ployed. The subjelts treated are—" The Ground of Induction," " The Idealism of Berkeley," and " The Theory of Cause and Effect ;" an application of Mr. Williams's views to the subject of clairvoyance, and its theoretical improbability, concluding the essay. The doctrine o:* Hume and Brown with respect to the causal nexus is adopted by the author, and Whatkley's reduction of all reasoning to the syllo gism (in contradiction to Locke) rejected, though Mr. Williams appears to us to have been betrayed into an overstatement of the functions and value of the syllogism. THE PRESS. History for Boys; or, Annals of the Nations of Modern Europe. By John G. Edgar. London: Bogue. Tins history appears to be correctly written as to facts, and well adapted to fulfil its professed end of " rendering historical knowledge interesting, without " any sacrifice of accuracy." It contains faithful sketches of the countries of modern Europe, and forms a safe and agreeable introduction to a more enlarged course of historical reading. A Boy's Adventures in the Wilds of Australia. By William Howitt. London : Arthur Hall, Virtue, and Co. It is singular that most persons who relate their ad ventures in Australia seldom describe the country or its characteristics correctly. We lately had occasion to notice a book on Australia by Mrs. Clacy, in which the statements were so incontestably opposed to fact as to call for sharp censure ; and now we have a book by a Mr. Howitt whose statements are not much more accurate. Mr. Howitt, the well-known author, went out with his sons to Australia, and until lately was residing there. His son, unsuccessful at the diggings, like many other gentleman of literary tastes and un-navigator habits, took, we believe, to driving a dray ; and he has our best wishes for his success in this new occupation, though the production of this book does not seem as if he took to it very heartily. As the book is written for boys and meant as a romance of bush-life, we are not dis posed to scrutinise it very closely. But when he describes a bird well known to all Australians—the "laughing jackass"—as being jolly and full of fun, of a merry voice, &c., we wonder how an observer of nature like Mr. Howitt could, in editing the work, pertnit so curious a mistake. If ever there was a bird remark able for profound gravity of countenance and dignity of behaviour it is this one, and hence the mirth it excites. For who can resist laughter at hearing a sound like the German "hock," and seeing a ridiculous bird with a short, grey,dusty body, no tail, nor, apparently, legs, and disproportionately long beak, sitting gravely upon the branch of a gum-tree, and, while spying about for a stray worm, uttering dolorous shouts without moving a muscle or being at all aware of the fun he is creating' For the engravings Mr. Howitt may not be answerable. One depicts an Australian shep herd as a model Corydon, with a crook in his hand ; and another represents the hero of the book as having climbed a smooth gum tree after opossums, a feat seldom accomplished by any but aborigines. There is no reason why boys should not as well have truth told them as adults, and, indeed, in the relation of the positive facts of a bush-life there would be found quite enough to excite the youthful mind, without any of the soave licor of the poet. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. Boors. • Food and ils Adulterations. A. H. Haan% M.D. A 3fonth before Sebastopol. Longman and Co. Do. Essap from the" Edinburgh Review." H. Rogers. Do. Geographical Dictionary of the Bible. A. Arrowsmith. Do. The Chinese Ensp;re. M. Hue. Do. _ _ . Historical Mem o rials of Canterbury. A. P. Stanley. M array. Johnson's Lives of the English Potts. Vol. 111. I)o. Gibbon's Roman Empire. Vol. VI. Do. Approach to the Altar. Bishop Kerr. Do. Exposition of the Apostles' Creed. Do. Do. The Court of England under the Stuarts. J. H. Jesse. Bentley. Diary and Correspondence of Samuel Pep ye. Lord Bray brooke. Horst and !Hackett. The Crescent and the Cross. Vol. 11. E. Warburton. Hurst and Blackett. The ll'itness of the Spirit. Bishop Jackson. Skeffington. The Olden and Modern Times. Poems by W. S. Marriott. Rvingtons. Horses and Hounds. Routledge. Australia and its Gold Fields. E. H. Hargraves. Ingram and Co. The Elements of Algebra. Do. PAMPHLETS. Biographical Sketch of the late Mr. G. Robins. Minn] A Letter to Col. Chesney. Booth _ _ Charade.. A. Bowman. Rontledge. Sonnets on the War. A. Smith. Bogue. Fairy Library, " Cinderella." Do. Punch and Judy. Ingram and Co. COVENT GARDEN, JOLLIER'S CONCERTS— During the week we have had some excellent selections of music at these popular concerts, and two perfor mances 'n the violin by Ernst. On Tuesday next we are to hgve the hiendelssohn festival, upon which occasion Mme. Pleyel will perform the whole of the grand concerto in O minor, and Ernst the concerto for the violin. The rest of the first part of the con cert will be devoted to a selection from Mendels sohn's works, and the second part, as usual, to a miscellaneous performance. The house has been crowded every night, and we anticipate a very full audience on Tuesday. .SATURDAY, tor tip Xiteraturt, tkr. THE CHURCH OF SAN FRANCISCO, at Cadiz, now attached to the hospital, contains the splendid "Marriage of St. Catherine," the last work of Mu. rillo, and which caused his death, as he fell back. wards from the scaffold while receding to see it better. It is a precious relic of art, and the gem of this great master. The church itself was almost ruined—it was in such a state that divine service could not be performed in it, the roof was falling in, and very shortly the rain and wind would hav e driven this picture out of the place where Murillo had placed it himself. In allowing this church to go to decay, under the unpardonable indifference of the Cadiz authorities, there was a sort of double irreverence ; and Lord Howden has, therefore, en tirely restored it at his own expense, opening it again to public worship, and preventing this splendid picture of Murillo being taken from the place which has acquired so peculiar and melancholy an interest from the circumstances attending the death of the painter. TILE number of new pieces brought out at the different theatres of Paris during the past year amounted to 255, viz.:—Opera, 2 ; Theatre Francais, 11; Opera Comique, 5 ; Italian Theatre, 2 ; Odeon, 10; Theatre Lyrique, 11; Vaudeville, 19; Gymnase, 10; Varietes, 50; Palais loyal, 28; Porte St. Martin, 6; (lake, 7; Ambigu Comique, 10; Cirque, 3 ; Folies Dramatiques, 17; Delasements Comiques, 25 ; Beaumarchais, 10; Luxembourg, 25; and Choiseul, 3. THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION in France has raised the salaries of professors of the faculty of medicine from 6,000 f. to 7,0001. He has also in creased the allowance to professors of the faculties of letters and of sciences present at examination from five francs to seven francs for each examination. He has, moreover, decided that the maximum of what is called the eventual (what is received from the pupils) shall be 5;0001. for professors, 2,5001. for agreges, and 5,000 for secretaries. AN IMPERIAL DECREE orders that no more gold coins of 40f. shall be coined, but that, in Addition to the pieces of 20f., 10f., and sf. in gold, there shall be struck off others of the value of 100 f. and 50f. CAPTAIN CLIAS, the establisher of gymnastics, not only in France and Switzerland, but in England, having been professor at most of the large public establishments of this country, died lately at Berne, where he lived in comfortable retirement. He has left to that city several considerable sums for public purposes, under the condition that his skeleton should be exhibited in the Cabinet of Natural History of Berne, as a palpable confirmation of the beneficial effects of gymnastics on the human body. THE ARTIST WORLD or ROME is alive and active. Gibson is busily occupied with his " Clemency." Crawford, the American sculptor par excellence, is engaged on a colossal work for the Capitol at Wash ington. Riedel is painting a picture in which he has outdone himself. Oherbeck is engaged in his Via Crucis, for,the Pope, perhaps the most classically per fect series he has ever executed. Among the younger English sculptors Mr. Spence is decidedly the most eminent, both from the merit and the importance of the numerous works he has executed. His statue of " Lavinia" is one of the most graceful works of modern days ; his " Highland Mary"—a commission from the Queen, and included in her private collec tion at Osborne—is full of beauty; both statues pos sessing that ideal and poetical individuality investing works of imagination with every suggestive attribute proper to the original impersonation shadowed forth by the poet. A grand work is his " Liverpool"—exe cuted for the Crystal Palace at Sydenham—and about to be erected, by general subscription, in his native town of Liverpool. He has been most suc cessful in a bas-relief, forming part of a monument to Mrs. Smith, of Leeds, representing the " Angel of Death bearing the Soul to Heaven." A Venus and' Cupid, as yet only in the clay, will, when chi selled in snowy marble, considerably increase his well-merited celebrity—Galignani. SACRED HARMONIC SOCIETY, EXETER• HALL—Men delssohn's Elijah Was performed last evening at this hall. Mme. Clara Novello, Miss Dolby, Miss Bas sano, Mr. Sims Reeves, and Mr. Weiss were the prin cipal vocalists. QUEEN'S CONCERT-ROOMS.—The Aztecs and Earth men exhibited at these rooms form one of the most interesting exhibitions of the season. They are much improved sinco their first appearance in Lon don, for not only can they spell and pronounce many words of our language, but they can walk upright, and with a certain degree of grace in their motions, in which they were sadly deficient at first. Numerous visitors daily inspect these curious specimen% of hu manity at both periods of the day during exhibition hours.