The Press. — London, England, 1855-12-01 00:00:00

1150 A Popular History of Birds. Adam White. Love! Reeve. Five Years in Damascus. Rev. J. L. Porter, A.M. F.R.S.S. Murray. The House of Elmore ; A Family History. Hurst and Blackett. The Politics of Aristotle; with English Notes. Richard Congreve, M.A. J. W. Parker and Son. German Beading Book. Dr. M. M. Fisehel. Nett. The Maid of Messene, and other Poems. E. H. Pember. Longman& A History of Rouge. Henry G. Liddell, D.A. Murray. Introduction to the Literature of Europe. Henry Hallam, LL D. F.R.A.S. Four Vols. Vol. I. Ditto. The Poetical Works of Lord Byrom. A New Edition in Six Vole. Vol. M. Ditto. PAMPHLETS. Pictures of Travel. The Civil Service. Triiiiner. Pigott A Practical Man. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Lincoln. Skeflington. W. and F. Cash. Richardson. Tweedie. War and Peace. Bank Reform. Passages from the History of a Wasted Life. PERIODICALS. -Brambktys House. The Parlour Blackwood's Magazine. I.e Follett. Dublin University Magazine. Home Companion. Bentley's Miscellany. Hodgson. BlackwOoda. Simpkin and Marshall. Orr and Co. Ditto. Bentley LONGFELLOW'S POEMS. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—Discussion may not always imply dissent, nor need dissent be necessarily absolute and irre concileable. Without enrolling myself among the enthusiastic admirers of the American poet of the day, I confess I was startled to see him classed in the school of affectation. Were his fame to rest on the " Song of Hiawatha " and some of his transla tions he and the author of //Men and Women " might be left to stand side by side in the place allotted them ; but the mind which conceived the cha racter of Evangeline, and tells us that, Patience, and abnegation of self, and devotion to others, This was the lesson a life of trial and sorrow bad taught her— the mind which has made accessible to us all the stern truths told by Don Coplas de Manrique—though it may, with the weakness all great minds are prone to, stray once in a while in the regions of affectation, should not I think be confounded with the denizens of that unwholesome air. Will you recur to my first sentence while I add that the comparison between Tennyson and Longfellow does not appear to me to be more tenable than one between a gorgeous butter fly and a silkwotm ? Longfellow has nothing com parable in fairy lightness and beauty with that stanza in " Maud,"— The red rose cries " She is near, she is near," And the white rose weeps " She is late ; The larkspur listens" I hear, I hear," And the lily whispers " I wait." Nor has Tennyson, so far as I remember, ever taught us such a life lesson as, — The mighty pyramids of stone, That, wedge-like, cleave the desert air, When nearer seen and better known, Are but gigantic flights of stair. • The heights by great men won and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, But they while their companions slept Were toiling upward in the night. Sir, yours obediently, P. [Our observations were confined to the " Song of 4 g Hiawatha," which certainly does not appear to us worthy of Mr. Longfellow's genius, or of his former productions.] elution nitiligtutt. ADDRESSES TO CONSTITUENTS. SotrrawAnc—A public dinner of the electors, to celebrate the result and conclude the operations of the late election, took place on Wednesday evening. Sir Charles Napier made a few remarks upon his intended policy with regard to Sir James Graham. " He was not going to attack Sir J. Graham, but if any friend of Sir J. Graham should rise to say that he (Sir C. Napier) had done what was wrong, he was glad to have the opportunity of defending his con duct. On the question of the war Sir Charles observed : He did not know what might happen when Parliament met, bat, if there were any persons who proclaimed " peace at any price," be hoped the words would choke these per- sons before they were able to utter them. (Loud cheers.) When this country was at war with the world before, they disdained to ask for peace at any price, and he hoped they were not going to lower the country now. (Hear , hear.) He hoped. that Lord Palmerston, if he found that there was a disposition among his cliques to make a dishonour. able peace, would dissolve Parliament, for he was sure the ebuntry would support him in a 'vigorous prosecution of the war till a satisfactory and honourable peace was ob. tained. (Cheers.) WEsr NorcroLx.—Mr. Bentinck addressed a meet ing at Tcrrington, King's Lynn, last week, and in allusion to the war mainly insisted on the point THE;iPR:ESS. that a strict blockade of the Russian ports, and the destruction of the trade, were the only certain moans to bring her Government to terms The fact is beyond dispute, that at the end of more than a year of war we find ourselves keeping up what we call a complete blockade of the Etuasian porta, while we are in possession of returns clearly showing that the export trade of Russia is on the increase. _ _ _ ------ He considered that our Government should have adopted more decided measures : The great source of the export trade of Russia has been through Prussia ; and I would much rather have seen our Government take a summary course and say to the Prus sian Government, " This is one of those cues where neu trality is out of the question; you are either with us or you are against us, but we cannot under these circumstances, for the sake of playing what schoolboys call a fast and loose game, allow you to involve us in the sacrifice of thousands of men and millions of money by your being the means of supplying our enemy with munitions of war. One of two things— if you side with them we know how to deal with you ; if you side with um we will instruct you how to deal with them." The hon. gentleman concluded amid considerable applause. OLDHAM.—MR. Fox, in an address to his con stituents, on Saturday last, expressed himself strongly in favour of a vigorous prosecution of the war, though not averse to receiving proposals of peace : It may be asked, am I hostile to peace ? I can only say that I desire peace as much as anybody ; that the moment Russia offers reasonable concessions, and is prepared with satisfactory securities, that moment should peace be made to her. After Mr. Fox's speech, several questions were put by the electors, to which he replied, advocating the admission of Jews into Parliament, and promising to oppose an Alien Bill ; but, in reply to the question " whether he would vote for a collision with Austria and Prussia by a declaration for the restoration of Poland," Mr. Fox hesitated to give a premature reply : He apprehended that the restoration of Poland would involve some arrangement and agreement amongst the different States of Europe ; and he had a hope that the opposition of Austria and Prussia to that restoration would not he so very decided as was imagined. The time for the consideration of the question, however, would be when the Poles, in and out of Poland, had shown themselves in earnest, and with such prospects of their regeneration, u to justify ulterior proceedings. Drana.—The Right Hon. M. T. Baines, hiving accepted the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancas ter, has issued an address to his constituents request. ing their support for his necessary re-election. Upon the point of the war the right hon. gentleman expresses himself in favour of a vigorous proseou tion, as the only road to an honourable peace : With regard to that great question which at present otespies the public mind, I think it my duty to say that, while lament as much as any man the necessity for war, I am convinced that the present war was absolutely forced upon us by the unprincipled and aggressive policy of Russia. I am also convinced that, situated as we are, it must be prosecuted with division and energy, until we can obtain—and for the purpose of obtaining—that honourable and secure peace which the Country is on every account entitled to expect. STrarANG.—Sir James Anderson, the Liberal' m+era• ber for Stirling, met and addressed his constituents last week, at Dunfermline. Sir James having given a full account of his votes and conduct in Parliament during the late session, expressed as his opinion on the war,— That we were now bound by all means in our power to carry on the struggle till we had secured a safe and tumour• able peace. _ _ _ MEATH...—The writ for holding this election wati received at Dublin last week. 'The election is exi pected to take place during the ensuing week. Annkou.—The election for 'this city is expected take place during the first week of December. Th candidates are spoken of as in the field. ebituirg. i Comas Mor.E expired at his family seat of Champalatrena, on Friday last, N e rpr. 23, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. The cause of his death was a sudden attack of epOplexy, and he 'lO remained up to the last in thelr‘jpyment of re prk able health and spirits. The deceased no§r. an . was the son of President Mole, who fell a vio to the first French revolution, at the early age of thirty. four; but sufficient property appears to havo been saved from the wreck of his family fortunes to enable the young Mole to pursue his studies at the Central School of Public Works, afterwards known as the Polytmchnio School. In the year 1806 he attracted the attention of Napoleon by his •' Essays upon Politics and Morality," which were of a highly absolutist cast, and be was appointed by him Auditor of the Council of State. He was faithful to the last to the Bonapartist dynasty, but continued in *Moe SATURDAY, under the Bourbons, by whom he was nominated a pear of France. He opposed the measures of Prince Follette, and, after the Revolution of 1830, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. Shortly after this he was elevated to the post of Prime Minister, of which he was at length dispossessed by the exer tions of Guizot and Thiers. Count Mole then retired into private life, sind though elected a member of the Legislative Assembly he took very little part in their proceedings. The family of Count Mole was of that rank known as the . " nobility of the robe," but his ancestors were gentlemen in the reign of Henri Quatre. Talent was hereditary in the family, and apparently, also, the legal love of order, constitution alism, and estinakthr. The deceased was, indeed, almost the last link remaining among French statel• men between the old and the new regime —combin ing the high-bred tone and monarchical principles of the one with much of that philosophic liberalism which is characteristic of the other. But, while he accepted each successive change in the governing system of France as a political neoessit3, he cannot be accused of ever having swerved from his own original opinions. It is an interesting fact that at the close of his long and varied career he should have renewed his relations with the ancient dynasty, and should have departed from life, as he began it, a supporter of the old monarchy of France. In his theological opinions Count Mole inclined to the Ultramontane party, and, from his high character, great abilities, and illustrious position, must have been esteemed one of the stoutest pillars of the Church. His loss is well nigh irreparable both to his party and to France. Corrtspolatntt. WHO 13 MR. BUTT ? TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS." Sir,—Among Conservative politicians in this neigh bourhood some astonishment has been excited by certain articles in the Standard, London newspaper, coupling the name of a Mr. Butt with those of Lord Stanley and Sir E. B. Lytton, and recommending the trio to join Lord Palmerston's Administration. Can you tell me what this means, and who the important Mr. Batt is? If the whole be intended as a joke, it is so recondite a one that the best guesser of riddles in this neighbourhood cannot make it out.—Sir, your most obedient servant, CLERICUS. PS. The Guardian alludes to the subject, without, however, throwing any light upon it. Axminster, Nov. 29. [lt is not for us to pretend to comprehend the meaning of our grave and occasionally eccentric contemporary, the Standard. But we will endeavour to answer the question concerning Mr. Butt. We presume the person alluded is Mr. Isaac Batt, who at the last election was elected for Yonghal, by a narrow majority, on Conservativo principles. A petition was presented against his return, but was subsequently withdrawn. Since that time Mr. Butt has taken but a subordinate part in any debate, but has distinguished himself by constantly supporting with his votes the Government he was elected to oppose. Lord Stanley is a statesman, and Sir E. L. Bulwer an orator; and we have seen very lately in the case of, at all events, one of those eminent personages, that there do exist grave objections, on the ,score of principle, to the adoption of that course Iscommended by the Standard. Mr. Butt is neither laiatesman nor an orator, and perhaps holds views ~peculiar to himself on political principle. There can, therefore, be no sort of reason, so far as we •Inow, why Mr. Butt should not, if be pleases, devote his services for the remainder of the present Parlia ment to Lord Palmerston o,ny one else that he may prefer.—Ed. PaEss]. „ A PROPOSAL TO ERECT A MONUMENT TO FEAROUS l'Obillttitia been entertained at Nottingham. A ifseli i ' *ii ' .tits' tteld'arider the auspices of Mr. Alder - MAW' igll,44titfieedlittions proposed by Mr. Ernest Jones ere d, kid a committee appointed. - - • _ _ IptEE it IA stated, which had entered into 'lgoe contracts with Government for articles of neces sity for carrying on the war, have received notice to cease from an,yfurther prosecution of their contracts for three mot#l4a t or until further notice. THE MOUNTGARRET PEERAGE question bas been decided by her Ms,jestor ordaining that the daughters of the late Hon. Henry Butler shall enjoy the same title and precedence as it' the deceased had survived his late brother, Edmund Earl of Kilkenny and Vis (want Mou,ntgarret. po^ I