The Press. — London, England, 1857-03-14 00:00:00

4 a 258 printer, the severe affliction of the publisher, and the norther. Our office is a very cold one, and it was almost impossible to work in it on Friday last. Here is a stun pie of the newspaper invectives against the Mexican priests : The worst passions and the silliest fears of the deluded horde of Mexican peons, who populate to such a danger ous extent the county of Bexar, have Seen appealed to by a ..piad of black•robed villains, who exercise over the minds of their miserable followers a despotism more absolute than that of any Turkish nobleman over those who people his seraglio. Into the hands of these priests, fellow-citizens, the ballot box has been placed in San Antonia. Serpent•like have they entered into the jacala of their countrymen, and there hissed into the ears of the inmates the mandates from which a Mexican has no appeal, and the consequence has been, that on election day a horde of political lepers have crawled to the ballot-box, and there nullified the votes of thousands of your countrymen, who had weighed well the principles in controversy. Great God ! shall these things always exist? Shall a race of men, Sac. Sc. Enough. The passage is worth notice as a proof that " the ballot-box " is no security against furious passions. There are several advertisements of the following kind : TAKEN UP And committed to the gaol of Itexar County, Texas, on the 13th day of March, 1854, a Negroman, calling himself Martin or Tom. He says he is a blacksmith, and belongs to John Beal, Attakapas, on Red River. Said Negro is about forty•eight years of age, five feet eight or nine inches high, and head a little bald. His back is marked with the whip, and marks of cupping on both temples and back of the neck. He speaks Creole French and broken English. The owner of said Negro is hereby notified to come forward, prove property, pay charges, and take him away, or he will be dealt with as the law directs. W. B. KNOX, Sheriff B. C. By L. SARGENT, Deputy. TWENTY FIEF. DOLLARS REWARD PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.-MARCH 12. `~ coons. pusit. MUSICAL DOINGS. Will be given for the apprehension of my boy Henry, who ran away from Port Lavaca about the W.th inst. Henry is a blacksmith by trade, ahout thirty or thirty-five years of age, heavy set, and very black ; is very smart, and, when interrogated, will tell a vt•ry plausible story. He is acquainted along the road from this place to Lockhart, and ho may attempt to go up that way, and then, by the way of San Antonio, to Mexico. The above reward will be given, if lodged in gaol, or for such information as will lead to his recovery. DAVI I) Per JOHN Inwm. Lavaca, Nov. 28th, 1833. Altogether this volume gives a most pleasing sensation of freshness and variety to a reader. It is certainly a most readable work, and we think book-clubs would do well in placing it on their lists under the head of " Travellers." Poems. Lewis Gidley. J. H. and J. Parke Works of the R:-. Thomos 3PCrie, D.D. Part VIII. Sermons. Blackwoods Three Years in California. J. D. Borthwiek. Blackwoods Memoirs. The Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart., M.P. Murray Oliver Cromicell's Letters and Speeches, with Elucidations. Thomas C olyle. 3 vols. Vol. J. Chapman and Hall Speeches of Social and Political Subjects. With Historical Introductions. Henry Lord Brougham, F.B.S. Griffin and Co. Liturgical Purity our Rightful Inheritance. John C. Fisher, - . M.A. Hamilton and Co Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Sect! of England. John Lord Campbell, LL.D., F. R.S.E. Vol. IV. Murray Friends of Bohemia: or, Phases of London Life. E. M. Whitty. 2 vols. Smith and Elder Stilt Waters. By the Author of " Dorothy." 2 vole. J. W. Parker and Son On Some Disputed Questions of Ancient Geography. W. M. Leake, F.R.S. Murray The Chain Rearer. A Novel. J. F. Cooper. T. Hodgaou Edgar Huntley; or, the 'Sleep walker. C. B. Brown. T. Hodgson The Scalp Hunters. Captain Mayne Reid. T. Hodgson Abrah Neil; or, the Times of Old. G. P. R. James. T. Hodgson The Poetical Works of Ale.ramkr Wilson. E. Farrington Charles trAfalky, the Irish Dragoon. By Charles Lever. Vol. 11. Chapman and Hull. From Bombay to Bwhire and Bussora. By Wm. Ashton Shepherd. Bentley. The Itific Bangers. A Novel. By Captain Mayne Reid T. Hodgson. The Spanish Conquest in America. By Arthur Helps. Vol. 111. J. W. Parker and Son. The Water Cure. By James Wilson, M.D. Trubner. The Epistles of (Millar Nato. By John Jump. Bell and Daldy. Reply to the Charges against the King of Onde. Bellamy, Calcutta. Born at home and abroad the absence of any rising either creative or executive, is remarkable. There are the mystic movements of the men of the Ikh. THE PRESS. future, but the present produces nothing, and the amateurs are forced to fall back on the past. Is there not some wrong committed by this idol-worship of the ancients? Musical genius is rarely sponta neous; it is of slow growth. Beethovens, Bachs, Haydns, Handels, and Mendelssohns, are not impro vised. Are we not toa exacting in this railroad epoch ? LOught we not to be more tolerant, and might we not gain something by being a little experimen tal ? As it is, nothing modern finds believers. We have no national opera-house; we have no oratorio composers whose works present the slightest chances of durability. Costa's Eli seems to be the only crea tion since Mendelssohn which finds an approving public ; and yet the school is widely different from the accepted German models. Coupled with this success there is another fact worthy of note, and that is, the acceptance of Possini's Stubat Mater by the Sacred Harmonic Society. This is a healthy sign; it looks as if the domain of art is to be enlarged, when the Exeter hall amateurs applaud the work of the most popular operatic composer of any age. Whether the grand Handelian demonstration fixed for the 15th, 17th, and 19th of June at the Crystal Palace will check the progress of this universality in tut, has yet to be proved; but idol-worship in music has been most prejudicial, and pedantry has been as injurious to improvement as ignorance. Mr. Ella has convened a series of " Musical Union" evenings, and introduced at the opening one a German pianist, Herr Derffell. The new-comer belongs to the strong-wristed school. He is like one of those orators who emphasise the articles definite and indefinite, and the conjunctions copula tive and disjunctive, but his abilities quite justified his appearance before his critical auditory. Mr. Ella treats his subscribers with honourable zeal. His position enables him to regard art alone ; he is a professor, and not a player; he is a musician, and not a composer. He is of no clique or coterie ; and combining with his natural sympathies fur that which is good and elevated, administrative ability of no mean order, the "Musical Union" has thrived and flourished. Miss Arabella Goddard has been earning distinc tion by her performances of the later sonatas of Beethoven. It reflects the highest amount of credit on this young pianiste that she has not shrunk from the enormous difficulties of these sonatas, which will soon be as familiar as the Ninth Symphony and the Second Mass. ROYAL LITERARY FUND. THE usual annual meeting of this excellent society was held on Wednesday last, at the society's rooms, Great Russell-street. There was a very full attend ance of members. The Earl Stanhope presided, and among those present were the Bishop of Oxford, Mr. B. B. Cabbell, M.P., Mr. M. Milnes, M.P., Sir John Forbes, Mr. Charles Dickens, Mr. Bell, Mr. Forster, &c. ttc. The usual formal business was disposed of, and the financial report read, which gave a good account of the progress of the society, and showed that its income exceeded its expenditure by a small balance, which was added to the funded stock of the associa tion. On the motion that the report be received and adopted, ..N1 r. C. W. DILKE, sen., moved a resolution which, under a number of heads, condemned the entire management of the fund—first, because, ac cording to its last report, it expended 574/. I Bs. 3d. in relieving fifty-three cases ; while the Artists' General Benevolent Fund, in relieving sixty-eight cases, only expended 851.; and, secondly, because the Literary Fund expended 2001. per annum on the maintenance of a house, and allowed 2001. per annum to its secretary, and because the accounts of the Literary Fund were not in a satisfactory state, as evidenced by their stating that the house fund, amounting to 6,5401., was still in existence as a separate amount of the society's credit, whereas the books of the society showed that that fund never had been in existence at all ; and, lastly, because the Literary Fund on an average, not giving away more than 1,5001. per annum, yet appealed to the public for new subscriptions and donations while possessed of funded property to the amount of 30,0001. and of landed estates yielding 2001. per annum. Mr. MARK LEMON seconded the resolution. Mr. ROBERT BELL, denied that the case of the Artists' Benevohnt Fund was at all analogous, and maintained that Mr. Dilke's resolution contained a suppressio vent, inasmuch as it did not exhibit the number of cases investigated at the cost of the Literary Fund, neither did it state that the majority of the cases relieved by the Literary Fund were new cases, while tho Artists' Benevolent Fund was an annuity fund, and relieved comparatively few new cases. The office of secretary bad been created in 1836, on the motion of Mr. Dilke himself, and his salary had been gradually raised to 2001. per annum, in consequence of the really valuable services ren dered by that officer. I'l►e error with regard to the house fund had originated iti the fund crediting itself with the 2001. per annum granted in 1803 by SATURDAY, the Prince of Wales towards a permanent fund for maintaining a house, and not counting the annual rent which had since been paid from that income. In fact, the house fund had been involved in the general funded accounts, and the permanent fund. was then debtor to the house fund the 6,000/. men tioned by Mr. Bake. Mr. Bell then went into the question of general expenditure, and showed, from the accounts, that the society had been greatly the gainer since their present secretary had been perma nently engaged : The total income from Pill to 183 (before Mr. Blewitt was appointed) was 28,7111., and the total income from 1839 to 1856 was 39,0631. There was, consequently, an increase in the total income of 10,3521. The total ex penditure for management. in the first period was 10,0431., and in the second period 13,0231, showing that in the latter period there was an increased expenditure of 2,9001. But the total increase of income during the last eighteen years exceeded the increased expenditure by 7,3751., show ing an annual average increase of income of 5731., not withstanding an increased expenditure. With respect to the case of Mrs. Haydn, Mr. Belt showed that Mr. Haydn had in four years been. assisted by the Literary• Fund to the extent of 2001., while Mrs. Haydn, since her husband's death, had. received 501. gratuity : The charge against the fund of not assisting Mrs. Haydn and her family was altogether unfounded, for one of the children hail been provided for by the Earl of Shaftesbury, and the other had obtained a situation through the influence of a member of the committee of the fund, who was now guaranteeing his fidelity to the amount of 2001.—and 631. had been paid by members or the fund to purchase votes to get the third child in - ° the St. Ann's Society, where he had found an asylum. T less facts were, be contended, a triumphant answer to those who wished to make it appear that the managers i f the Literary Fund were insensible to the claims of lierary men, or had not done all in their power to assist the par ticular case of Mrs. Haydn and her family. Mr. CHARLES DICKENS supported Mr. Di reso lution. Mr. FORSTER, in a very intemperate tune, took the same view. The Bishop of OXFORD reminded the meeting that the engagement given by the council at the meeting at Willis's-rooms, some eighteen months since, had been redeemed by the regulation that in future assistance was not to be confined to men of genius who had written books, but that periodical writers and others were now eligible objects fir its benevo lence. He regarded the resolution of Mr. Dilke as a vote of censure upon the committee, and called upon the meeting not to entertain it. The resolution was then put, and rejected by a majority of 58; the numbers being 6t) to 11. The council, general committee, and officers were then re elected by ballot. Mr. Disraeli, M.P., was also elected one of the vice-presidents ; and the meeting separated. AT THE MEETING OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, on Monday, a highly interesting paper (from the journal of Captain Hyde Parker, R.N.) upon the great African river Zambesi was read by Captain Washington, R.N. The Zambesi falls into the sea at Quilimane : The entrance is about two miles broad, and distinguish able by a bluff of high, straight trees. The bar at the mouth is formed by two series of sandbanks, breaking completely across at low water. Within the points the river widens, and then contracts The rise and fall of water at this mouth at spring tides is about twenty feet, and vessels could easily get in at that time. With ell the conveniences offered for traffic, however, there is none carried on along the river, the Portuguese nct being u ciently enterprising to avail theinselves.of the numerous facilities to be found there. In the rainy season the Zam besi frequently overflows its banks, making the country for a considerable distance one great lake. The waters subside, however, in about sight or ten days. An extensive village was to be found a short distance up the river. end a great deal of land might be found in a good state of cultivation. A considerable quantity of wild cotton also grows along the coast, but none whatever is cultivated. The land generally is most fertile, producing almost every thing with but little trouble. The influence of the tides is felt twenty or thirty miles up the river. The most beautiful cattle are to be found along the coast—elephants, hippopotami, lions, antelopes, and ether animals, are abundant. The natives are an intelligent race, awl under a better government this fine country might become ex tremely valuable. Captain Parker had only been able to proceed about seventy miles up the country, but from what he saw of it he considered there were no obstacles to civilisation, or to the navigation of the river Zambesi at certain seasons of the year. The CHAIRMAN iSir 11. Murchison) said the dis covery of the mouth of th►s important river was certainly calculated to be most valuable in a com mercial point of view, and he invited the fullest discussion upon the subject. Dr. LiviNusrox then addressed some remarks to the meeting explanatory of his discoveries in refer ence to the mouth of the river Zambesi, which he illustrated by means of a chart, and descriptive of Cie country through which it runs : It seemed to him, from all the information he could ob tain, that a considerable portion of the Zambesi is nevi-