The Press. — London, England, 1855-09-08 00:00:00

864 The Martins of Cro' Martin, Lever's clever tale, progresses swimmingly in the late number. Not much advance is made, indeed, in the story itself, but the personages of his plot develop their respec tive characters in very lively modes; and two new figurts are introduced, which promise well for the future entertainment of his readers. One of these newcomers is Captain Martin, the heir to the Cro' Martin estate, who is first seen on his return from service in India, and in whom the dandyism of a London Guardsman and the langour of an Oriental nabob are portrayed in delightful combination. He bids fair to become one of the most effective cha racters which even Lever ever drew. Handbook for Travellers in Portugal. With a Travelling-Map. London: Murray. PoRTUOAL is a country which even in these days is not often visited by tourists. Travelling through it is such an absolute labour as to deter most people front risking their pleasure and convenience in a country which scarcely boasts of a road, pos sesses hovels for inns, with maize-bread, pumpkin broth, and Sour wine as their good cheer, filthy boards for beds, and a dirty, lazy, passionate family for landlord and servants. " Roads " exclaimed a member in the House of Peers the other day (we quote on the authority of our guide), " Estradas! " para que queremos estradas, se nao for para " facilitar a invazao do amigso vizinho? "—What do we want roads for, except to facilitate the invasion of Our good Spanish friends ? But, says our guide, with good health, good temper, the right time of year, and, We would add, a love of scenery, the tourist will find himself repaid by a visit to Portugal. He must rough it, it is true, but who would not do that to behold such magnificent scenery as Portugal pos sesses in its romantic woodlands, its rich valleys and orange-groves, its magnificent mountains, its beauti ful cascades, its fine rivers? In a word, the tourist in Portugal will learn what he must be pre pared for and what he may expect to find. He must be prepared for the worst accommodation, the worst food, and the greatest fatigue, and he must not expect much that can interest in the way of architecture, ecclesiology. or the fine arts. But to one who is in pursuit of scenery, more espe• cially to the artist, no other country in Europe can possess such attractions and such freshness of unexplored beauty. We would conclude with the remarks of an earlier labourer in our own field: " To him who shall them go forth, bent on enjoying all that is enjoyable, both by day and night, this book is offered ; and if he take it in his hand, simply to assist him by the wayside, and not expecting that it always will be, nor insisting that It always should be, correct in its estimate of the actual beauty of given places, or in its admeasurement of distances, but as affording an ap- proximation to accuracy, he will probably, at the conclusion of his wanderings, be glad that his steps were by it directed to the matchless scenery of this physical penalise." An excellent travelling-map, with the various routes duly marked, accompanies the volume, which takes rank among the best of Murray's invaluable guide-books. PUBLICATTONS RECEIVED. BOOKS. Eight Sermons, preached before the University of Orford in the Year 1855. John H. Bode, M. A. Longnians. Handbook for Travellers in Portugal. With a Travelling- Map. Murray. Female Life among the Mormons. Routledge. The Crimean Enterprise. Captain Gleig. Blackwoods. PAIIIPTILETS. Anti-Maud. Poet of the People. Churton. German Voices and English Echoes. Oxford : H. Ladd. Tnstructions for the Framing of Rules of Friendly Societies. john Tidd Pratt, Esq. Eyre and Spottiswoode. Gymnastic Polymachinon. Captain Chiosso. Walton and Maberly. Harry Coverdale's Courtship. Virtue and Hall. The Art• Journal. Do. The Merchant's Magazine. Richardson. The Churchman's Magazine. Harrison. Evangelical Christendom. Partridge and Okey. Tail's Edinburgh Magazine. Do. The Signs of the Times. Do. The Atnateur ; or, Our Magazine. Hope and Co. The Evangelical litpontory. Ward and Co. Maophait's Edinburgh Ecclesiastical Journal and Literary Review. Simpkin and Marshall. MR. BEATTY has received instructions to form two hew lines of railway—one from the Col de Balaklava to Kamiesch to be worked by horse-power, the other from Kadikoi to the Woronzoff-road, near the Sar dinian position over Tchorgoun. THE RETURN OF MR. AND MRS. BRACEBRIDGE has been made the occasion of a seaso❑ of rejoicing and congratulation on the part of the inhabitants of Atherstone and its vicinity, who were determined not to allow their arrival to pass without some demon stration of unfeigned regard for their general benevo lence of character, and for the signal proof of it which they have given, in leaving Atherstone-hall to minister to our sick and wounded at Scutari. Au. the convicts in the gaols of Ireland are ordered to Spike Island. TIIE A mustintuts. MR. GORDON CUMMING'S EXHIBITION. EVERY one has heard of Gordon Cumming—the Nimrod of the age, the lion-slayer of the day—and many remember his interesting and successful exhi bition at Knightsbridge in 1851. With a museum combining all the attractions of that famous collec tion, he has now added to his new exhibition, lately opened at 232, Piccadilly, Haymarket, an evening lecture, which he delivers in person, upon his several exploits, illustrating them by a series of dioramic views of the most striking incidents in his hunting career. The lecture in fact is a consomme of his two volumes, receiving as it were his personal verifica tion as to the truth of the details there related. In the delivery of the lecture Mr. Gordon Cumming on the whole is very successful ; he relates his deeds in a straightforward, manly tone, and holds up the tail of his hundred and fourth elephant, or points out the skin of his forty-sixth lion, in a manner at once modest and unassuming, as if lions and elephants were the every-day game of our turnip-fields and preserves. But his tone deepens and his whole ex pression alters when he relates some desperate deed, some brilliant chase, or some terrible peril, through which his own indomitable pluck alone carried him safely. At such times the nature of the lion-hunter breaks through the thin crust of the white tie and tail•coat—he longs for kilt and rifle, an open plain, good horse and dogs, and the "noble beast" striding broadside past. Upon listening to his narrative, or viewing the many proofs of his daring—the skulls, antlers, tusks, and skins of wild beste, antelope, giraffe, rhinoceros, elephant, and lion—the mind is struck with the untiring activity, the wonderful energy, and the daring courage of the man who could track, hunt down, and slay so many hundred wild animals and gigantic beasts of prey. To the modern man of battues, or at best of deer-stalking, it seems incredible, but the testimony of living lion-hunters bears witness to the perfect truth of Gordon Cum ming's narrative : they themselves in some degree have often suffered similar misfortunes, escaped similar perils, and achieved similar extraordinary successes ; and any man with a love of daring, provided he is phy sically capable of undergoing the hardship and fatigue, and moreover possessed of coolness and intrepidity, may seek and find the same in Southern Africa. The illustrations are painted by Harrison Weir, Haag, Philipps; and Leitch; and, extremely well done, are valuable additions in aid of the lecture, which is as interesting as it is amusing, and in a zoological point of view more instructive than either. The rooms, since they have been opened, have been very fully attended every evening; but we would suggest that, as at a similar "exposition" in the neighbourhood of Piccadilly, the regulation of light should be entirely under the control of the lecturer, who, literally speak ing, should not be quite so completely in the dark him self. With these slight improvements, we have little doubt that Mr. Gordon Cumming's entertain. ment will take rank among the first in London. LYCEUM. THE Great Wizard of the North, the magician who has alike charmed and mystified children and poten tates, has once more opened his magic chamber for the benefit and amusement of the Londoners ; but what pen can describe his sleight of hand, his deli cate skill, or his surprising mechanical tricks ? Suffice it to say that in shaking sugar plumbs out of handkerchiefs, charming watches through chairs and tables, burning bonnets and restoring them whole neatly packed at the bottom of a nest of boxes, or in producing wonderful bottles which supply every man's taste and satisfy every man's thirst, besides an infinite variety of trick and juggle, he still stands out unrivalled, unsurpassed. But the most novel and catching trick of all is in his exposition of spirit rapping. To those credulous people who, because they cannot account for their sensations, assume them therefore to be supernatural, we cordially recommend Professor Anderson, with his rapping -tables and ringing -bells, which answer questions in a straight forward way, and will as well tell you whether or not it is a card you hold in your hand as detail its number and quality besides. But spirit rapping and every other trick is surpassed by the last, in which three or four boys and girls of moderate size disappear through a small table without a cover, one after the other, and are seen no more ! The house has been crowded every night, and on Saturdays an afternoon performance takes place at two p.m. for the younger children. SIR R. GAntrNER, late Governor of Gibraltar, and family, arrived at Southampton on Thursday by the Peninsular steamer. 1g541 Corrtsgontante. TO TTIF. EDITOR OF "TILE PRESS:" Sir,—An order of the Privy Council of the 10th instant is issued to prevent the exportation of certain descriptions of iron to the north of Europe, as it is affirmed there is a great scarcity of iron in Russia. This, of course, created some alarm in the iron dis tricts, and more especially in South Staffordshire, where that particular quality is manufactured which would be most required for naval and military pur poses. Of course inquiries and interviews were set on foot to know how the interests Of the ironmasters were likely to be affected, as it was an alarming sort of business to say " that iron was to be restricted from exportation to the north of Europe." I dare say it was not a very weighty question with those who sat at the Privy Council Board, who had only to make the order and leave it to subordinates to be carried out. But here begins the mischief—the clerks or others under the control of the Board, together with the Custom-house officers, really do not know what the intention of the Board is, i.e., they cannot tell the specification of the order ; and it is very natural that the practical men in the iron district should feel extremely annoyed at the sim plicity of officials who ask " what is the difference between bars of iron and iron bars?" or "strip-iron and strips of iron V' who are just sensible enough to retain in their memory that" rivet-iron is round," and who for that reason declare that the order must extend to all round iron, let the size be what it may. It is monstrous to hear because boiler-plates are prohibited, that the Custom-house people extend their ideas to the belief that all plates, or, as they in their wisdom title it, sheetplate iron, is included in the order! Now, in a question of such magnitude, is it not excusable that practical men should complain of the Government not taking sufficient paws to ascertain the position in which they place a large and important district. They can at all times know the real state of the case—first, by reterence to the returns made to the orders of the House of Com mons ; and next, to any one who understands the iron trade. No one is more easily approached than Philip Williams, of Wednesbury Oak, the chairman of the trade, a gentleman who would feel pleasure in giving any information upon the "specification of iron ;" and I dare say, if he were applied to, he would recommend the employment of a stocktaker out of his district, at a email salary, who would instruct the clerks and others in drawing a dis tinction between boiler-plates and sheetplate iron. The exportation of iron to Russia during the years 1851-2-3-4 is as follows (the quantity is insignificant, and a great deal is such that could not be used for war purposes) in tons weight:— Icsl~ 2,837 1,106 639 C 7 7G - - 2,220 13:4 1,145 H 4 5,0e0 4 Now, the above is the " great question" which the Privy Council have grappled with, and I dare say they consider they have done the State some service by the prohibition of iron to the north of Europe. Would it not be well for them to consider what they are about before taking such a step. At the present price of iron in South Staffordshire, Wales, and Scotland, the Belgians can command the market; and if prices are to be advanced, which appears most likely in the former districts, we shall be still less likely to compete with Belgium. In the name of common sense let such restrictions be removed at once. We wish nothing to interfere with the vigorous prosecution of the war, but at the satire time we desire to see the interests of ourown country protected to the greatest possible extent.—Yours, &t., A SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE MAN. West Bromwich, August 30, 1855. FRIENDS IN NEED. To THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—The army before Sebastopol being at present mainly composed of brave recruits—half-manufac tured articles, scarcely adapted to a war of Titans — Sir De Lacy Evans, on two memorable Occasions (July 18—August 15), has urged the jaunty Pre mier to garrison the Cape, Ceylon, Hong Kong, Mau ritius, and the like, with sepoys, by which arrange ment man, seasoned battalions of British infantty now wasting in those colonies would be available fOr the safferanCe of shot sea shell "in the imminent I A • te . g •- E 12. 0 0-0 0 . 2 gi a . c.) E r. 1,027 280 190 9 169 eot 786 855 918 227 12 141 363 44 1,499 119 234 41 59 1,247 518 9 1 1 • • -II