The Press. — London, England, 1856-11-15 00:00:00

NOVEMBIR 15, 1856. into full play. We can pardon much in a character which possesses so many elements of goodness, but we doubt whether too much indulgence is not claimed for the irremediable error Edith is on the point of committing when saved by the interposition of her hus band. The principal merit of the book con sists in its portraiture of Swedish social life. The personages, without greatly attracting the reader, are all lifelike, and though the action is certainly too lengthened, it does not in any part want for vivacity. Throughout the narra tive we feel that we are in companionship with a highly intelligent and cultivated mind, though we strangely miss the romantic genius conspicuous in every page of the " Rose of Tisleton." The tale is published in a single volume, and forms a welcome addition to Mr. Bentley's " Library of Fiction ;" but we almost fear that Edith presents a dangerous example to the young ladyhood of England. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.—Nor. 13. tonics. The Five Gateways of Knowledge Macmillan and Co. Lectures in Aid of Self Improrement Longmans The Student's Handbook of Medieral Hixtory Griffin & Co. 3fedieval Ph;lorophy Griffin and Co. German Reading Book D. Nutt Economy of Nature Chapman and Hall Nanon; or, Iromen's War T. Hodgson Russian Popular Tales Chapman and Hall Russia at the time of the Coronation al Alexander IT. Br...dbury and Evans Bir Robert Peel as a Type of Statesmanship Longmans PAMPHLETS. The Golden Legend. Simpkin and Mars Insulted. Bowie and Glen—Eveningß with the People. Ernest Jones—Abridgment of the Morning Service. Groom. bridge. E4e Drama. LYCEUM THEATRE.—The adaptation of Le Docteur Noir, brought out at this theatre on Thursday, is one of those highly-seasoned melodramas which are pretty certain to command a lengthened popularity. 'With little merit as a literary production, weak or bombastic in dialogue, and full of very obvious claptrap, Fabian still abounds in romantic and im probable situations which give ample opportunities for the display of Mr. Dillon's peculiar powers, and, moreover, afford an excuse for the exhibition of a succession of effective tableaux which contribute ma terially to the favorable reception of the piece. In the representation of the ditfei ent phases of emotion which constitute the" business" of his character, Mr. Dillon is eminently successful : the quick suspicion, the ferocious hate, the passionate and romantic love, the tempestuous grief of the mulatto, are given with an intensity which, if it seem exaggerated to the cold reserve of our northern nature, is singularly truthful and effective in an exhibition of southern feeling. In the delineation of Fabian's insanity the actor ap peared to us to be less successful than in the more violent scenes of passion. The symptoms of mental aberration were, most of them, se:ected from the stock of stage traditions, and the inevitable bundle of straw, which every madman on the stage, from King Lear downwards, invariably carries in his girdle, was only one among a mass of convention alities. The restless motion of the fingers, the gaping mouth, the slouching gait, the wide-opened eyes, are all very nld properties ; hut the burst of childish delight with which, while moaning and shivering in the château, he announces his discovery of a cheerful fire, was well conceived ; and the last fearful struggle between reason dawning in fitful gleams and the darkness and delusions of an over wrought brain was a fine example of truthful ad herence to nature. Mrs. Dillon as Pauline was an efficient support to her husband, and played an arduous part with great sweetness and grace. ADELTHI.—A new comic drama, The Border Mar riage, founded on the French piece Un Mariage a tArquebtue, is nnw being performed with success at this theatre. The piece, though slight in construc tion, is full of vivacity. The dialogue is good. Mr. Leigh Murray, Mr. Wright, and Miss Wyndham sup port the principal characters, and, by their excellent acting, give addit'onal point to the piquant situations of this. lively little brochure. TIM CRYSTAL PALACE WINTER CONCERTS commenc e to-day. Mme. Rudersdorff will sing. The anthort ties have announced that, the subject of a great musical celebration of the centenary of Handel's death, in 1859, having already occupied considerable attention, in order to demonstrate the capabilities of the Cr ”tat Palace for this purpose, arrangements have been concluded between the Sacred Harmonic Slciety and the directory of the Crystal Palace Company for undertaking, in May next, in the COO' THE PRESS. tral transept a preliminary Grand Handel Festival or Congress, with a carefully selected orchestra of the unprecedented extent of 2,300 performers. THE DIFFF.RENCE3 OF OPINION prevailing between the Earl of Albemarle and the committee for con ducting the Norfolk and Norwich Musical Festival have been happily arranged, and the nonle lord has consented to accept the office of chairman of the committee, offered to him some time since. The guarantee fund is reported to be progressing satis factorily; and Lord Sondes and Lord Suffield have consented to act on the committee. At a meeting of the City Committee of the Town Council on Thurs day it was decided to erect a new orchestra in St. Andrew's-hall, althour,h the consideration of the details was postponed for the present. It is proposed that the orchestra should acc"mmodate 500 persons, as it is intended to use it for the first time at the festival. MISS CATHERINE HAYES'S 18GL two nights at Jullien's Concerts are Monday and Tuesday next week. Miss P. HORTON'S ILLUSTRATIONS.—MII. German Reed on Thursday evening resumed her highly attractive entertainment at the Gallery of Illustration, Regent-street. The room was crowded, and, if the first night of a season can be taken as a criterion, a season of unexampled success is certain. The per formance presented few novel features, but it is not necessary to say more than that Mrs. Reed's powers were as conspicuous as ever, and that she really merited all the applause she received. THE CHRONOLOUY OF tr.NNYSON'S POE MS. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—The point to which I beg to call your atten- tion is, indeed, of very small importance; hut as I took some pains to inform myself upon it, you shall judge for yourself, after you have seen the evidence, whether a remark which occurs in the last number (November 8) of your valuable paper was not some what precipitate. If you find that lam in the right, perhaps you will have the kindness to say so. In your review of the second volume of Professor Wilson's Essays you condemn as "wholly irrelevant and mistaken " my assertion that none of Mr. Tenny• son's grander and more finished compositions had been published when the Professor's critique was written; and in disproof of my statement you affirm that, "in 1832, Locksley Hall," The Gardener's Daughter, The May Queen, yEnone,' and The Two Voices,' had all been given to the world." I undertake to prove that not one of these poems had seen the light in May, 1832, the date of Professor Wilson's series. I have now before me an edition of Tennyson's poems (two volumes, Moron, 1842). The first division of vol. i. is there stated to contain "poems published in 183 l." This, in the original impression, was the work reviewed by Professor Wilson, and it certainly contains none of the above mentioned pieces. The second division of the first volume contains "iEnone" and "The May Queen ;" and a note on the last page informs us that "the second division of this volume was publisbed in the winter of 1832—in other words, " --Enone " and •' The May Queen " were published sevoral months after Professor Wilson's review. It is equally certain that the others to which yon refer as disproving my assertion, " Locksley Hall," "The Gardener's Daugh ter," and "The Two Voices," are of a still later date; for these poems stand in the second volume of this same edition (1842), which arrangement proves that, whatever the date of their first publication may have been, it was at any rate subsequent to the winter of 1832, otherwise they must have been com• prised either in the first series of 183 or in the second series of 1832. Founding upon these data, I humbly submit that I have proved my statement to be neither mistaken nor irrelevant. It is not mistaken, because I am correct in my chronology of Mr. Teanyson's poetry ; it is not irrelevant, because if the poems to which you refer had been published when Wilson's article was written, he would have been quite indefensible in passing them over without notice; indeed, without according to them the highest commendation.—l have the honour to be, sir, your very obedient servant, J. F. FERRIER. St. Andrews, Nov. 12, 1R56. [We regret that we received the above commu nication too late to avail ourselves of the information it contains in our review. In the two volumes of Mr. Tennyson's poems, published in 18:12, if we mistake not, all the poems we mentioned are con tained. That they did not appear till after Professor Wilson's critique, we have now no doubt was the fact, and we are unfeignedly glad to hear i►. We have great pleasure therefore in retracting our ob serration on Professor Ferrier's apology, but would take the liberty of suggesting that in a subsequent edition he should make the state of the case appear a little more clearly.—En.] 1099 LORD ROBERT CECIL UPON' EDUCATION. LORD ROBERT CECIL last week delivered an address at Stamford upon the subject of " National Educa tion." The noble lord first set out with disputing the accuracy of the term education. It was not educa- tion which was really meant, but instruction ; and this distinction was necessary, for it involved more than a mere verbal correction.— It leads us to expect at the hands of our schoolmasters results which they cannot possibly produce, and to wLich they can only very partially contribute; and then we decry, and perhaps abandon, our system because it does not answer our unreasonable expectations. We call our school instruction education, and then we expect from it that moral training and moral renovation which only the real education can supply. But real education cannot be done on the school bench, under terror of the school cane, by help of school books and black board. If done at all, it must be done elsewhere than at school. It must be the result of the influences which breathe around the daily life in a well•ordered home ; of a mother's affectionate care and tender vigilance ; of holy lessons instilled and fostered under the genial warmth of that soft religions sympathy which speaks, not in catechisms, but from heart to heart ; of that which teaches more than words can teach—the daily example of a parent's virtuous life. So far es these exist the child will have a real education. If this were general, we should indeed effect what we seek in vain from our school instruction—the extirpation of profligacy an 1 crime. But how should we look for such results from tha exercise of the schoolmaster's craft? Morality, contentment, temperance, piety, were not lessons that could be learnt by heart. If, therefore, in the strenuous efforts we are making to promote the spread of knowledge among the people, we imagine we have discovered a panacea for making them good citizens and good Christians, we shall find ourselves grievously mistaken : I believe that if we are to raise the social condition of those classes with whose degradation our country is so constantly taunted, the secret is in the elevation of their homes. If, instead of the squalid misery by which an English latouring man is so often repelled from his hone and almost driven to the pothouse, we could substitute cheerfulness and comfort, more would be done to make tim temperate and contented than by thebest school instruc tion that could be given. The noble lord then sketched the history of educa tion in this country. It scarcely dates, he said, be yond the present century. The Sunday school=, indeed, reach back as far as 17n2. But there was no organised system of daily popular education till the National Society and the British and Foreign School Society were formed at the beginning of the century, the distinction between the two societies being that in one the teaching was purely Church teaching, in the other it was simply biblical in struction. These two great societies for forty years have been growing rapidly in strength : So rapidly did they work, so promptly did the liberality of the people and the zeal of the religious bodies respord to their call, that the number of scholars in England aid Wales increased between the years 1818 and 1813 front 874,000 to 1.276,001), or nearly double. In IMB3 the sub ject began to attract the attention of the Government. It was felt that the State had a direct interest in fostering these benevolent efforts: though, happily, it was felt, too, that the State's function was to assist, not to manage education. Accordingly, a series of parliamentary grants were commenced, and in conjunction with the two socie ties the Privy Council has made a number of judicious regulations, has maintained colleges for the training of schoolmasters, and has instituted a machinery of inspec tion by which an enormous stimulus has been given to education in this country. The numerical proof of its success may be found in the census. Between the years 1833 and 18.51 the schools have increased from 30,000 to 40,000, and the scholars from 1.200,00 to upwards of 2,000.000. Whereas in 1833 there was, on the whole of the population, one person out of every at school, in OM there was one out of every 81 ; and I may add in cidentally that so strongly had public feeling been enlisted ►n the cause of education that Sunday schools had in creased in a still greater proportion. After briefly adverting, en passant, to the impor tance of the self-instruction furnished by nu chamcs' institutes, rural libraries, and other kindred institu tions, his lordship returned to the educational con troversy and to the attacks that are made upcn the Privy Council system. Its assailants he divided into two classes—those who think it has done too little, and those who think it has done too much:— Those who think it has done too much are the advocates of the pure voluntary system. The other assailants of the existing system who press their schemes on Parlia ment —namely, the advocates of a school rate—have nothing in common with the supporters of volun taryism. On the contrary, their proposal arises from the conviction that State a!tl is not carried far enough. They are not satisfied with the present system. They see, they cannot but see, that education has it.- creased with strange and unexampled rapidity under the shelter of the Privy Council system. The force which propelled it exists still; the limits of its progress have not been reached If the rate of its increase be maintained it will probably before the next census comes have provided for all who are now destitute of the means of education . But this is not enough for the theorists of whom I speak. They will be satisfied with no success that is not imam•