The Press. — London, England, 1856-09-06 00:00:00

volume. His character, genius, and well known linguistic acquirements all point him out as one of the very fittest persons to clothe in an English dress poetry so sacred, so sublime, and so difficult of translation as that which he has here taught us to value. PERIODICAL LITERATURE. Blackwood continues " The Scot Abroad," with an account of " The Man of Diplomacy," an article em bracing Lockhart, Cromwell's ambassador to Paris, Lord Stair, Sir Robert Keith, and Sir Alexander Mitchell. A good story is told of the latter when conversing with Frederick the Great : Discussing the disaster of Port. Mahon, Mitchell re marked in a manner not congenial with the usual conver sation of Sans Souci, that Britain ►oust place her trust in God. The King was not aware that Britain had such an ally. "He is the only ally," said Mitchell, " who requires no subsidies from us." "The Athelings" still continue to stimulate our curiosity and sympathy. The two girl-portraits of Agnes and Marian are very beautiful; but we don't quite like the description of Mrs. Edgerly's party. Her neglect of the two young guests is hardly natural. "A Chapter on Peninsula Dogs" is curious and sprightly. "The Poetry of Christian Art" is a thought ful and earnest protest against the rigid Romanist theory a. 4 lately put forward by Mr. Pio. The writer claims due weight for the classical and natural as well as for the spiritual element of Christian art. The article on Mr. Macaulay is a humorous and vigorous exposure of that writer's prejudices against Scotland, and his general style of makiug historical facts speak his own language. We can strongly recommend to all our readers this month's number of Fraser. There are five re views,—viz., a sharp flagellation of Mr. Gallen; a nicely written eulogy of Mr. Stanley's "Sinai and Palestine ;" a rather too severe notice of "Both well;" a descriptive notice of M. De Tocqueville's recent work; and a most able and valuable examina tion of Mr. Vaughan's "Hours with the Mystics." Premising that on the whole he agrees with the principle of the writer, the reviewer proceeds to cri ticise him in detail with great force and knowledge of his subject. Ot the other articles," Maud Viviau," an interesting Magazine tale, and the " Prospects of the Indian Civil Service " are the two best. In the latter N7e are glad to see that stress is laid on the ne cessity of keeping up a high tone among the members of the service, and a well deserved tribute paid to the excellent education they used to receive at Haileybui y. The Dublin University Magazine for this month is a most attractive atm diversified number. The opening article, on the United States navy, combines a most agreeable style with much solid information. We do not think, however, that Ella writer has treated the question of privateering with perfect candour. "The Irish in Spain," is a readable and interesting paper, though rather too much of it is, in our opinion, devoted to the O'Donnells. There were several Irishmen of distinction at the Court of Spain in the time of Alberoni, of whom some notice would have been acceptable. In the story of " The Darragh" the interest is well sustained. In the present number Kildown gets possession of the old General's property by what will doubtless turn out to be a forged will, and Walter becomes a merchant's clerk. " Sinai and Palestine "is an excellent and impartial review of Mr. Stanley's book. We observe that the reviewer raises the same objection to por tions of his work as we ourselves did on its first appearance. "The Italian Question" is a sensible and judicious essay. Of Lord Palmerston the writer well says, " He is in the singular position of owing the greatest part of the consideration he has obtained to nothing higher or nobler than his indiscretion." We have not seen so good a number of Bentley for some time. "A Month in the Crimea after the Fall of Sevastopol," though dealing with so hacknied a topic, is lively and pleasant reading. The story of the "Joint-stock Banker" proceeds with vigour, though how far such incidents as the Hampstead heath suicide are legitimate subjects of fiction so immediately after their occurrence, may fairly be doubted. This is a very ready-made and slipshod method of writing fiction. A well written memoir of Madame Vestris, a discerning notice of "Bothwell," and some tolerably good prosings by Monkshood about the Quarterly reviewers, are the best remain ing articles. The New Monthly has a first article, on the Ame rican Senate, which looks like a plagiarism on the Quarterly article on the House of Commons. The best features of the number are the more purely literary contributions. The paper on Southey's Letters, and " Memoirs cf James Montgomery," are well written. '1 he story of " St. Ouest" is also suffi ciently interesting. Tait has a long article on " The Payment of Mem bers u 1 Parliament." If the writer is in earnest, he must have forgotten or never known what the real THE PRESS. character of the House of Commons is. If the gentlemen of England find it too much trouble to govern the con itry, somebody else will very soon take it off their hands. But the idea of salaries is absurd. " The Magistracy of France" is, we fear, only too true. "The Profit and Loss of Insurance Comranies," is a useful article. There are several noticeable papers in this number. The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine opens with an article on Herrick. The subject is a very good one, but we should have been better pleased with the performance if the author had given us more criti cism of Herrick's poetry, and striven less fter a merely conjectural biography. The remaining articles, which we have merely had time to gl nce through, all seem of an attractive character, and a thought less affected in tone than usual. The Monthly Review contains some good articles. " It's Never too Late to Mend " is handled with seve rity, but not beyond its deserts; and in matter of fact and matter of fiction the whole weekly press, and our selves in particular, are called to account for their style of criticism by a writer who does not, however, set a very good example himself by his purely conjectural sketch of literary reviewers. The article is clever, but peculiar, and displays an unconscious intolerance of opposite opinions, which is perhaps, however, rather the effect of manner than of anything else. A favor able notice of " Bothwell " is a well-written and judi cious article. The Train pursues the even tenor of its way, neither rising nor sinking. The September number contains some pleasant writing. The principal fault we have to find is with the illustrations, which are dreadfully wooden. Sharpe's London Magazine sustains its title to be one of the most popular of the lower class of period icals. " Alice B—," is an amusing little story. The lines on Macaulay are not below par, and there are several other papers which are sure to be enter taining to the class of readers for which they are written. The Churchman's Magazine contains a variety of practical and suggestive articles. We should espe cially notice the article upon "Deans and Chapters," " Squires and Cottagers," and "More Bishops." The obituary notices are good. The Merchant's Magazine contains a number of articles, written, as far es we can judge, with talent, and interesting to commercial men. PUBLICATIONS RE:;EIVED. BOOKS. The Annotated Edition of the English Poets. Robert.l3ell. J. W. Parker and Son Rhetorical and Literary Dissertations and Addresses. Lord H. Brougham, F.H.B. Griffin and Co. The Old Bridge, and Other Poems. Macaulay English Traits. Routledge PAMPHLETS. Engineers and Officials. Stanford—American Slavery. Longnians—Cardinal Masarin. Hodgson—Report of the Meeting of the Literary Association of the Friends of Poland. Detkens—The Culture of the Field. A Letter to the Right Hon. B. Disraeli, M.P. Reeve—Mahomelism. Mozley. PERTODICALS. Great World of London. H. Mayhew. Bogue--Tie rAbrary of Biblical Literature. Freeman—Le Follet. Simpkin and Marshall-7'he Eclectic Review. Ward and Co.—The United Church Journal. Seeley and Co.—The Art Journal. Virtue, Hall, and Co —Church of England Monthly Review. Simpkin and Marshall—The Wert of England Magazine. Hall and Virtue. usir. BRADFORD MUSICAL FESTIVAL. WITHOUT any pretensions to a protracted popularity, the new works produced under the patronage of the managing committee may be pronounced to have been successful, so far as the unbounded applause of the Bradfordonians can be safely calculated upon. Worse attempts have been made at psalm-setting in the metropolis than that essayed by the clever York shire chorus master, Mr. Wm. Jackson, in the 103rd Psalm, in eight parts, conducted by himself. The local reception must content his ambition—it would be a deception to assure him a similar ovation out of his county. Miss Milner, Mr. Montem Smith, and Mr. Weiss were his chief singers, and did the music full justice. Mr. Hatton also directed the execution of his MS. cantata, " Robin Hood." Miss Milner was the Maid Marian, Mr. Reeves the bold outlaw, with an air adapted for the tenderest of tenors, a veritable sucking-dove, and Mr. Weiss was the bishop who was made to pay the piper in the forest dance. There were three encores, and a recall fur the com poser; but will the cantata be ever heard again in its entirety ? This may be reasonably doubted, for the paucity of ideas and the feebleness of treatment sadly disappointed many amateurs, who had been on the winch for a long day for something startling and original from the musician who set so exquisitely the SATURDAY, songs of Herrick, and whose works, both in his own and in a foreign name, haveexcited such marked inte rest. Mr. Hatton aimed in " Robin Hood " at a rollicking gaiety, which lie certes attained, but it is of the "flee and easy" school, coarse and c ommon _ place. Of a much higher order, and less crude and uncouth than Mr. Macfarren's ordinarily grim style, was the cantata " May-day," in which a charming choral serenade was the most striking piece. Miss Sherrington was the May Queen, and the work had the advantage of Costa's direction. The selections from Mr. Henry Leslie's clever oratorio, Immanuel, was another graceful and well deserved compliment paid to the English composers of the day. One remarkable result of this festival has been tl a proud position in which it has placed English execu tive talent. Of the orchestra, chiefly London players, and of the chorus, Yorkshire singers, THE PRZ3B has duly recorded the triumph. But the solo vocalists exact especial mention. Mme. Clara Novello taken by some of the provincial critics for a foreign artiste) and Mr. Sims Reeves of course sang their very best, but other singers took a step in advance, such as Mr. and Mrs. Weiss, whilst Miss Milner, Miss Sherrington, and Miss Fanny Huddart have placed themselves on very high ground by their singing at this meeting ; and Mr. Montem Smith and Mr. Winn, who undertook the secondary tenor and bass parts, merit unqualified eulogium. Costs had also the advantage of the Exeter-ball organist, Mr. J. L. Brownstnith, a judicious accompanyist on that difficult instrument. The foreign artistes at the festival as a body did not shine. True, there was the unequalled genius of Viardot, singing in all schools, sacred and secular, with consummate skill, and creating the profoundest sensation by her grand declamation and irresistible pathos. True, in the earlier concerts, there was the incomparable Alb mi with her sympathetic organ and perfect style. Again, there was Formes with his ponderous and mea.ured notes, and Belletti with his rattling method, but Herr Reichardt, Signor Bent. ventano, and Mile. Piccolomini were godly out cf place. The Tra via ta heroine made her audience by the Don Pasquale duo with Belletti, but it was as an actress. The Halifax Guardian, which, like all the Yorkshire papers, consecrates whole columns to cri ticism of the festival doings, thus describes one of the concerts : For the vocal music of this concert four foreign singei a had been engaged, and if the Festival Committee are ni t satisfied with the exhibition they enjoyed of good mils c thrown away upon inferior artists, simply because they cvn clap " Herr," or " Signor," or " Mademoiselle " belt their names, they are perfect gluttons in estravagam..l Signor Belletti ( who sang Mozart's " Non piu andrai ") was the best or the four, but he is not fit to sing on the same day with Mr. Weiss. Signor Beneventano, a basto profundo with no notion of light and sbaue, made a coil. plete buffo song of one of Verdi's sentimental ballads. Herr Reichardt, a German tenor, who came to us descrils d by a London critic as having a voice "exceedingly sweet and sympathetic, and with great delicacy and retinemei.t in his style of singing," may go back to London with the Yorkshire verdict that he has lost his voice and eke his ears, as he was straining at notes all night which were about half a note below pitch. Last, and least, comes Mlle. Piccolomini, of whom, because she is a lady and Ls in her some promise of future excellence, and is moreover an actress and therefore thoroughly out of her element in St. George's-hall, it behoves the critic to speak the truth with more kindness. She is young, impassioned, full of animation, petite, of pleasing manners and conversational grimaces•, out of her singing it will be sufficient to say that no English singer with such imperfect intonation and such an unfinished voice would have been allowed to quit the orchestra without a signal evidence of popular indig• nation. By her inimitable acting, which we hope will be unimitated in the concert-room, she however succeeded in hiding the deficiencies of her voice, and in Donizetti's duct from Don Pasquale, " Pronta io son," she elicited by this means an encore. Unfortunately for the honour of true foreign artists Mme. Alboni was affected with a severe hoarseness, and was scarcely able to do more than one third of the music allotted her. Mme. Viardut Garcia, also/ had but one song in the programme, the old-fashioned yet in its way delightful bravura by Graun, " Mi paventi," in the continual vocal divisions of which she exhibited the finished voice of a great singer. The dearth of musical ability in the foreign singers was, however, a boon to Mme. Weiss. As compared w,th a Sunderland in sacred music, and with a Novello in operatic, Mme. Weiss must be con. tent to be accounted of second rate, but when contrasted with such a singer as Mlle. Piccolomini, her singing of Weber's hackneyed scene, " Softly sighs," seemed almost of the very highest order. It is generally understood that the guarantee fund will have to make good the deficiencies in the receipts to cover the outlay. This result is not to the credit of Yorkshire generally, nor to Bradford particularly. The managing committee deserved better of the musical public. Even if the tariff had been injudi ciously drawn up, the sliding scale was still sufficient to have met the means of all those who from love of tutpic, or from nationality, really desired to support such a grand undertaking. The charges for the prices of admission, it is to be feared, were made the pretext for the concealment of meanness iu many instance, and for covering the excuses of those numerous cavillers whose chief delight is in finding