The Press.
London, England, 1855-01-20 00:00:00

PERIODICAL LITERATURE.

IN the Westminster Review of this quarter we have
no less than four political articles upon the leading
questions of the day—" The Anglo-French Alliance,"
" Prussia and Her Policy," " Poland and her Pros-
pects," "Austria in the Principalities "—sufficient,
in one number, to satisfy the most ardent Liberal.
We can do no more than glance slightly at the
opinions expressed and the results hoped for of the
Anglo-French alliance. The writer believes that we
have at length enteredupon a new period of relation-
ship ; that the sympathy exists between the people
more than the Crowns ; and that, although we
do not yet understand one another's minds or
share one another's tastes, and much remains to
be done, commercially and otherwise, to consolidate
the alliance, yet we have taken a step in the right
direction, from which no power nor arbitrary force
can drive either nation back. In alluding to Louis
Napoleon, the writer cites the proclamation issued at
the time of the Boulogne expedition, in which the
Emperor of the French declares that an alliance be-
tween France and England is indispensable. We
quote the words
Habitants du departement du Pas-de-Calais! ne craignez
point que les liens que vows attachent I vos voisins d'outre-
mer soient rompus. Lea depouilles mortelles de l'Empe-
reur et l'aigle Imperiale nereviennent de Paul qu'avec des
sentiments d'amour et de reconciliation.

This is a singular fact, forgotten by most people
except the Emperor himself, and the present state of
affairs speaks well for his consistency. The review
of Prussian policy is in the tone of hostility to
Frederick William just now so much in vogue.
"Poland and Her Prospects" is a history of the
country from the beginning of the sixth century to
the present day. The restoration of the kingdom is
of cc arse proposed as one great means of resisting
the supremacy of Russia. Of the allied policy with
regard to " Austria in the Principalities" no high
opinion is expressed. The writer asserts that the
Austrians are treating the inhabitants with more se-
verity than the Russians before them, and, as a
natural consequence, the Wallachians and Molda.
vians would much rather have their late masters back
again :
Thus has our miserable policy sacrificed four millions of
our most natural and sincere adherents on the very frontier
of Russia, and at the seat of war,—sacrificed them for the
sake of an Austrian alliance, which, far from bringing ns
aid, has, on the contrary, by its attitude and its known in-
tentions, given every facility to the enemy, and has been
worth to it, in fact, the aid of several corps d'armie. The
Slavonic race, especially of Servia, seeing this—they who
abhor Austrian invasion and supremacy far more than even
Russian—necessarily conclude that, far from aiding any
people subject or semi-subject to the Turks to obtain in-
dependence or fling off the Russian yoke, we have on the
contrary came to strengthen and extend the subjugation
of the Christians in Turkey to the Christian despots of the
north. The name of France, England, or of their alliance,
has become a by-word of deception, and is as much detested
in Bulgaria and Roumelia as it is in Greece, and as it is
beginning to be in the principalities. Whilst throwing
away these friends and these chances, whilst alienating and
destroying every native aid and native element for the re-
generation of Turkey in Europe, whilst at the same time
we are allowing the Turks to be nullified, to disgrace them-
selves by cowardice in the Crimea and by supineness on
the Danube, as well as by incapacity at Constantinople,
we keep demanding guarantees for the future defence and
independence of these regions. Guarantees! where are
they to be found? Is it in making over the principalities
to Austria, and adding four millions more of discontented
and oppressed subjects to the already disloyal, mutinous,
impoverished, and anarchised millions previously beneath
its sway ? Austria, from its very instinct, adopts the Rus-
sian party and agents in Wallachia, as the only instruments
of its own rule. And what can this point to but a future
compromise between Austria and Russia, between whom
the principalities must thus be shared, to the exclusive
profit finally of Russia, which is at least a stable and pro-
gressive empire, whilst that of Austria can never be other
than what it is—a temporary piece of patchwork? Seeking
guarantees in Austria is building on the quicksand or sow-
ing the whirlwind.

TO humble Russia would be dearly purchased by
aggrandising Austria, and the writer recommends the
establishment of a compact federative State of the

SATURDAY,

Principalities. Of the other papers we can merely
mention a very excellent article upon " The Ballads
of the People," in which our agricultural, street, and
sea songs are severally noticed. A review of the
state of iniversity reform, as applied to Cambridge,
and the usual series of notices of British and foreign
contemporary literature, now much enlarged and
classified, complete the number. The excellent ar-
rangement now adopted enhances the value of this
department of the Westminster Review.

The slave interests of the United States have found
in the Southern Quarterly Review for October
(London : Triibner) an able and intelligent exponent
of their principles and views. The articles generally
are written with considerable ability. The writers
are evidently earnest and sincere ; they proceed on
the assumption that slavery was intended by Provi-
dence—that it is an agency for the advancement of
mankind; and they do not scruple to carry out their
principles to any extent which fair argument may
demand. The first paper is suggested by Nott and
Gliddon's " Types of Mankind " recently noticed in
our columns. Without pretending to decide the
question whether the whole family of mankind pro.
ceeded from a single pair or not, the reviewer
evidently leans to the conclusion that various races of
men were created, and adapted by moral and physical
constitution to the regions they were destined to
inhabit and the parts they were designed to fulfil.
The strongest argument in favour of this view is
that stated by Noll and Gliddon, that the surface
of our globe is divided into several zoological dis-
tricts, each of which, furnished with its peculiar flora,
is marked out as a centre of creation with its own
appropriate forms of animal life ; and that the human
family conforms to this law, groups of races being
found from the remotest antiquity settled in localities
appropriate to their constitution. Admitting the
soundness of this principle, it follows of course that
the African race was created physically and mentally
inferior to the Caucasian type, and that his servitude
is a providential institution. We have no space for
the argument, but may point to a remarkable passage
in Dr. Dalton's " Guiana," quoted elsewhere, showing

. .
that under favourable circumstances the African, even
when the pure blood is preserved, rapidly loses his
peculiar characteristics, and rises to a higher
standard of humanity. Our acutest thinkers and
most learned investigators have pronounced savage
man to be a degenerate animal. This is the only
rational view which can be taken of savage races :
through adverse circumstances they have sunk in
the scale of being, and assume physical features
appropriate to their moral degradation. A paper on
"East Florida" exhibits the resources of that country
and the great profit to be derived from slave-labour.
An essay on " Marriage and Divorce " maintains
the sanctity of the marriage tie, and demands a
change in the laws of the States on divorce, Sb the
existing practice is adverse to religion and morality.
The critique on American society, contrasting the
pursuits and principles of the northern and southern
states, supposes, and with great appearance of fair-
ness, that it is in the latter where refined social de-
velopment is most naturally to be looked for. In the
article entitled "Political Elements," there is a broad
attack on what has usually been regarded as the very
corner-stone of the American Constitution—the de-
claration of the natural equality of man :

At the formation of our Constitution the principles of
Rousseau were but slightly felt in our country. To Mr.
Jefferson and Tom Paine we are indebted for the first in-
fusion. It first appears in the declaration of independence,
when it declares, what was then, and ever has been, false—
that all men were created equal. The laws of every State
then gave the lie to it. The property then held in every
State gave the lie to it. Mr. Jefferson's own estate gave
the lie to it. Every election then held in Virginia gave the
lie to it.
The reviewer conceives that it is through adhe-
rence to this mischievous and impracticable theory
that the nations of the Continent have uniformly
failed in their efforts to improve their political
state :
Hence the hopeless struggle which wild enthusiasts are
now maintaining, and will long maintain, against the royal
governments of Europe, which, bad as they are, promise
more peace and protection to the people than the red
republicanism of Rousseau's disciples. Hence all the late
failures on the Continent in their attempts to better
their condition. Their excitement and their theorie
begin to invade our shores, attended with equally ba
results.

The next paper, "On the Policy of the South,"
broadly advocates slavery as an institution favour-
able to progress and prosperity. The North, it is
said, has outstripped the South in material increase
solely because it has opened its ports to the surplus
labour of other countries; but the South has de-
prived itself of this advantage by consenting to relin-
quish the slave trade :
This influx of population is denied to the South by their
concession to the general tiovernment of the power to
close their ports to that population which nature declares
shall alone constitute her labouring class. The presence
of four millions of slaves is sufficient to dater tree

JANUARY 20, 1855.

labourers from offering their services to Southern culti-
Witors; and, if they come, it Would probably be only to
starve. Hence the South can increase only by the neces-
sary operations of nature ; and in this respect we believe
we may compare favourably with the North. The pro-
gress which we have made, therefore, is native and inde-
pendent of foreign resources. It is positive, and has the
elements of stabi ity.
The writer goes on to intimate that the very
opposite policy would have been nearer to true
wisdom :

We have closed oar porta to those who never could
affect our political state, and have thrown them open to
others who threaten to destroy us. Had we continued the
importation of slaves, our progress would, perhaps, have
equalled that of the North. With all her advantages, it is
not long since she outstripped us in our carver.

Passing by the only purely literary critique in the
number, that on " Petrarch's Laura," and an essay
on the "Political Philosophy of South Carolina," we
come to the concluding review on some New York
periodicals, which are severely condemned for their
attscks on slavery, and for their attempts to weaken
the Union by sowing dissension between the South
and the North. Here, as throughout the review, we
see how broad a gulf this slavery question has
created between the States of the Union on one side
and on the other. The discord must, from the
nature of the case, increase in violence as the slave
population of the South continues to increase in
numbers. By the census of 1830 the slave popula-
tion of the States was 2,009,031 ; by the census of
1840 it had only increased to 2,487,355 ; but in 1850
it had risen to 3,204,007, a much more rapid rate of
increase than had ever previously been known.
Wbea we recollect that in 1790 there were only four
States where slavery was practically operative, viz.,
idarylnaid, Virginia, and the two Carolinas, and that
the whole number of slaves throughout the Union
was short of 700,000, we cannot but be struck with
'the immense expansion of the slave interest in
modem times. It is evident that this interest now
threatens the very existence of the Union. In some
States the slave approaches the free population
in numbers, and in one or two States is the prepon-
derating element. In Alabama, as will be seen by
the subjoined figures, the slave population about
keeps pace with the free, but in South Carolina,
while the free population remains nearly stationary,
•the slave increases :

1850

Free. Slave. Free. Slave. Free. Slave.
•Alabama ..191,978 117,549 337,224 253,532 426,779 342,692
S. Carolina 265,784 315,491 267,360 82",03e 283,528 364,964
'The case of South Carolina, with its preponderating
_slave population, is too isolated to justify reasoning on
the danger to society from this cause ; but the undeni-
able fact of the increase of slaves in the southern
States must tend to perpetuate slavery as a settled
:and recognised institution of the States, or to
'explode the Union. The abolitionists must see with
concern this monstrous and growing obstacle to the
realisation of their hopes. The progress made by
several of the new slave States, as of Mississippi,
Louisiana, Tennesse, Kentucky, and Alabama, is
'even greater than that of the free States generally;
and for good or for ill, it is evident that in many
'of those mighty tracts of territory which have but
lately been incorporated into the American Union,
slavery has taken firm root, and must grow with their
,growth and strengthen with their strength.

The Irish Quarterly is strong in articles upon
44 National Education," " Convict Systems," and " Re
formatory Schools," and contains a good paper upon
*" The Removal of the Irish Poor." For reference upon
'several of the social questions of the times, the pre-
sent number will be found very useful, and we are
;promised in the succeeding issues a full history of
lthe factory schools.

PUBLICATIONS BECEIVEI)
BOOKS.

Philip Lancaster. Maria Morris. Saunders and Otley.
The Neighbours of Russia. R. J. Morell.
Edinburgh: Nelson and Sons.
The Roving Englishman in Turkey. Routledge.
Memoirs of James Montgomery. J. Holland and J. Everett.

Longman and Co.
Lays and Lyrics. C. R. Brown. Hall and Virtue
Wedding Gloves. Blackwood.
Fables of Birds and Beasts. Mien Corner. Dean and Son.
Mother Goose. Ditto. Ditto.

P,
British Cavalry Songs.
Conversation.
War Waits.
Town Dwellings.
Battle of the Alma. J. W. Fletcher. Theobald.
B.gns of the Times. C. iiirchenhall. Hardwicke.
Tke Christian at Rome. Fowles.
Poultry Almanac. Orr and Co.
Observations on the War. Simpkin and hlarshall.

Hall.
Parker and Son.
Bogue•
Weale.

THERE are no less than one hundred and twenty
ragged schools in London. Between forty and fifty
of these schools employ boys as shoeblacks in the
streets, under one or other various religious and
benevolent societies.

THE PitESS.

pusit.

JULLIEN'S CONCERTS.—Tuesday evening in this
week was devoted to a selection from Beethoven's
works, and the " Beethoven Festival," as M. Jullien
terms these special selections, was undoubtedly the
best performance which we have as yet had at these
concerts. The selection included the overture to
Leonora (op. 37), the pianoforte concerto in C minor,
the violin concerto in 1), the symphony in C minor,
and an exquisite aria, "In questa tomba oscura."
The whole of these works are so well known to our
musical readers that any description of them would
be superfluous, but we may be allowed to make a few
remarks upon their execution on the present occasion.
The opening overture to Leonora and the con•
eluding symphony in C minor are such stock
pieces that we need only bear witness to the
excellence of the performance by the orchestra,
whose efficiency and brilliant execution was most en-
thusiastically applauded by the audience. The piano-
forte concerto in C minor was performed by Mme.
Pleyel with unrivalled power, combined with the
most refined feeling and expression. It was, in-
deed, a most superb performance ; for to the most
perfect mechanical skill this gifted lady adds a tho-
rough intelligence of the spirit of the work that she
interprets, and her performance, as it merited, created
a perfect furore, as the phrase is, among the prome-
naders. Every movement was played amid almost
breathless silence, followed by shouts of applause, in
which enthusiasm and bad Italian were amusingly
mingled. Why will English audiences persist in ap-
plying the epithet " bravo " to a lady ? The violin con-
certo in D, a complex but exquisite work, was per-
formed by Herr Ernst with the most spirited and
brilliant expression, but it appeared to be rather
above the taste of the majority—" 'twas caviare to
the general"—and signs of impatience were mani-
fest before the completion of the first movement;
the andante, however, restored good humour, but the
great length of the finale again tried the public pa-
tience, and, in spite of the applause which was ren-
dered to the illustrious performer, it was pretty
evident that most of the audience were glad that it
was over, and entirely of M. Fuseli's opinion, "that
to be long and at the same time interesting is given
to few," and that the concerto in D was not included
in that minority. So much, however, has been done
by M. Jullien in improving the taste of our unmusical
public, that we do not despair of seeing works like
this concerto received at some future time with just
tribute to their merits. Meanwhile, we will accept
their mere toleration by a mixed audience as " aus-
picium melioris revi." In the beautiful melancholy
aria, " In questa tombs oscura," Miss Dolby achieved
a most happy success : it is an air well suited to her
powers, and as a consequence she was most enthu-
siastically encored. The house, of course, was
crowded to excess, and if anything was wanting to
prove the growing musical taste of the public, it
could easily have been found in the quiet attention
to, and the intense enjoyment of, the magnificent
compositions of this great master (Beethoven) per-
formed as they were upon this occasion in so un
rivalled a manner. Truly, we owe a great deal to
M. Jullien, whose benefit, we may observe, took
place last evening, upon which occasion the
andante and finale from Mendelssohn's concerto in
G minor was performed by Mme. Pleyel, and some
charming arias from Auber's operas sung by Mme.
Anna Thillon. The house, as the phrase is, was a
"bumper," and M. Jullien was most enthusiastically
applauded. On Tuesday next "The Mozart Fes-
tival" takes place, upon which occasion Herr Ernst,
with Mme. Pleyel, will perform one of Mozart's
sonatas. The famous " Addio" is also to he sung by
Miss Dolby. The concerts terminate on Wednesday
the 31st; and the Bat Masque, which is to be upon
an unrivalled scale of splendour, takes place on
the following Friday.
ST. MARTIN'S-HALL.—On Wednesday evening an
oratorio, entitled The Nativity, by Mrs. Bartholomew

was brought out under the direction of Mr. Hullah.
An oratorio composed by a lady is quite a novelty in
musical annals, and a great amount of interest was
excited upon this occasion. The hall was crowded
to excess, and the strictest attention paid to the per-
formance. Mrs. Bartholomew is well known in the
musical world for her many excellent vocal and in-
strumental compositions, but a work of such magni•
tude as an oratorio, and a subject of such sublimity
as The Nativity, requires talent of the highest order,
genius in fact, to produce such a masterpiece of
music as an oratorio should be. It is hardly possible
to criticise a great work like an oratorio upon one
hearing, and, indeed, we have no space to enter into
a detailed analysis of The Nativity, but will only re-
mark that the beauties of the composition lie in the
solos and concerted vocal pieces, of which " Oh, Zion lift
thy raptured eye," was very beautifully sung by Mrs.
Endersohu ; " Behold thy servant," by Miss Hud-
dart ; and a quartet of angels, " Trouble and anguish
shall make him afraid." These were all exquisitely
snug, and encored with enthusiasm ; but the choruses
appeared too simple, lamentably weak, and without

67

any richness of combination. The execution of the
work was highly creditable to Mr. Hullah, and the
libretto, which is written by Mr. Bartholomew, shows
great taste and judgment. I.; is a connected series
of passages from Scripture announcing the advent
and birth of our Lord, accompanied by a few lyrical
passages from the works of Heber, Campbell, &c.
Mrs. Bartholomew was loudly called for at the con-
clusion of the oratorio, and very warmly applauded
upon her appearance. The Nativity was followed by
Beethoven's Mount of Olives, the principal vocal
parts being sustained by Mrs. Endersohn, Mr. Weiss,
and Mr. Allen.

SACRED HARMONIC SOCIETY.—HEUIdert3 Judas
Maccabeus was performed last evening before s
crowded audience in Exeter-hall. The principal
parts were sustained by Mine. Rudersdortf, Mrs.
Lockey, Miss Messeut, Mr. Sims Reeves, Mr. Williams
and Mr. Weiss.