The Press.
London, England, 1855-12-22 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

habitants, with four or five hotels, half a dozen
handsome churches, and four daily newspapers.
Regarding the surprising progress made by this new
State, Mr. Oliphant thinly., he would be a rash in-
dividual who would dare to take the bet of one of its
inhabitants :

We just set up Minnesota against the rest of the world
and all the other planets, and coolly offer to back her with
any odds you may choose to offer.
Descending the Mississippi to Duboque, another
fa'.t-rising town, the author crossed the country to
Chicago on Lake Michigan, and thence by an express
train acros't the whole breadth of State Michigan to
Detroit. Mr. Oliphant is an experienced traveller
and skilful penman; all his sketches have great
breadth and distinctness, and he makes us as well
acquainted with the peculiarities of the country he
visited as rapid description can accomplish. To all
who would understand the process by which in
Yankeedom new States are so rapidly formed, towns
built, and districts settled, we confidently recommend
a perusal of " Minnesota."

Lord Broughton• has published a new and hand-
some edition of the travels which, as Mr. Hobbouse,
he issued nearly forty-tive years ago. He has added
to the tent numerous notes embodying the views of
Colonel Leake, Dr. Holland, Colonel Mure, and
other travellers, on controverted points relating to the
topography and antiquities of Greece, and he has in
some cases completed the history of transactions
which when he wrote were yet in progress, and has
commented on the changes which time has made in
the position both of Greece and Turkey. In copious
appendices he has added papers elucidatory of
matters treated of in the text, but with great good
taste he has generally confined his additions to the
scope and aim of the original work. The plates,
though very beautiful, are open to the objection that
drawings taken in 1855 are not quite appropriate to
travels written in 1810. A few allusions to the
politics of the day appear in the notes, as, for
instance, at vol. ii., 21. where, speaking of the war
now in progress, Lord Broughton declares that
" England must ever after speak with the voice of a
" master on the shores of the Bosphorus." We do
not think sound policy requires any such pretension,
as certainly, if it be persisted in—and Lord Brough-
ton may on this point possibly represent the views of
a section of his party—it would involve us in an almost
interminable contest. What is required for a solid
solution of the question is—not that England shall
speak as a master on the shores of the Bosphorus,
but that the territory now under the domination of
the Porte shall always remain under an independent
and sovereign government, and be preserved from
the aggression of its neighbours. This is the whole
Eastern question. The architecture and sculpture
of the Greeks are treated with great care in these
volumes. Mr. Cockerell contributes an able paper
on the massiveness of the materials used in ancient
architecture ; and, in direct opposition to the theory
of Mr. Buskin, which would make all architecture
consist in ornamentation, says :—" The world is still
" deceived by ornament ; and at the present
" time especially there is a disposition to accept
" ornamentation as a substitute for architecture, and

" for the sake of a trivial gratification of the eye to
" forego the advantage of the graver elements and
" more enduring qualities of the art." The travels
themselves have long been recognised as eloquent,
scholarly, classic, and, on the whole, extremely accu-
rate, as well as animated. They relate to a memo-
rable period in the history of Greece, as the people
were at the time meditating the revolution which
they afterwards accomplished, though the author
seems when he wrote to have had little idea of the
struggle which was impending. By the care with
which the work is now produced it would seem that
Lord Broughton relies on it to carry down his name
with honour to succeeding ages. But the reader will
marvel what can have become of the intellect, the
accomplishments, and even the energy which shine
in these volumes. Fur a short time Mr. Hobhouse
took a distinguished part in politics, and between
thirty and forty years back gave evidence of gladia
tonal ability in the contests of the House of
Commons. We must suppose Oat an ample fortune
and a nature intellectually indulgent won bim from
the exertion of public life. Still, it will always be
account d singular that the author of these travels,
with every opportunity for literary fame, and every
talent to win it, should have been content with his
solitary laurel. We believe the truth to be, that he
has much of the timidity which arises from sen-
sitiveness, and that he has shrunk from criticism,
and perhaps been daunted, as many eminent meu
have been before him, from further effort by his own
fame. These volumes bear additional testimony to
the constancy of the author's friendship for Lord
Byron, and show the exertions he made to vindicate
his character, and to get Thorwaldsen's statue
erected in Westminster Abbey. Yet we think a
bolder nature would have prosecuted its object with

• Trowels is Albania and other Pt-Princes y Turkey iss lev9 and
Islo. By Lord Broughton. Two Vols. A New Edition. Lon-

don "fumy,

1221

greater ardour, and perhaps with better auto iss.
The tact that the journey these volumes record was
undertaken in company with Lord Byron, and con-
tain many interesting anecdotes and traits of charac-
ter concerning him, gives the work additional value,
and increases its claims to preservation.
Other works of travel and adventure on our table
we must reserve till another week.

Passages in the History of a Wasted Life. By a
Middle-aged Man. London: Tweedie.
Tius is in many respects a most remarkable little
book. The author is one who is said to have moved
in high literary socie►y ; and a more complete picture
of utter degradation than he has given us it is im-
possible to conceive. 'l'here is, however, a strange
fascination about his story, and we confess to having
read it through withont putting the book down.
The bulk of it is taken up with the life of that curious
race who live in publichousea and write songs in the
back parlours to pay their score. The cheap lodging-
houses— the gin shop—the pawnbrokers—the Holy-
well-street publishers—and every imaginable haunt
to which inveterate inebriety could bring a man of
ability, are described with graphic power, and their
habitués sketched with a free and practised touch.
Either as a warning or an amusement "The History
of a Wasted Life " will be found excellent.

Du Style et de la Composition LiWroire. Par M.
Antonin Roche. Paris: Jules Delalain. London :
Longmans.

THE imprint on the titlepage of this volume seems
to indicate the commencement of a new era in the
world of letters. The book of M. Roche is pub-
lished simultaneously in Parts and London—one of
the very first of our publishing hoaxes taking charge
of it here. We trust that the precedent will be exten•
sively followed, and that French works, of value will
in ititure have a recognised house of issue in this
country. The sale of them in a short time would
probably be considerable. M. Ruche's essay belongi
to the better order of educational works. It skil-
fully treats the niceties of French composition, and
gives copious examples to explain or confirm the
principles laid down. It will be useful to persons
who desire to write French with perspicuity and
elegance. The chapter on synonymies might ba
made much more valuable by a distinct explanation
of the shades of meaning attached by the best French
writers to words which at first sight seem to have a
nearly similar signification.

Nonpariel House. By Henry Curling. Three Vols.

London ; Hall, Virtue, and Co.
" Nonpariel House " is a story of the civil want
following pretty closely the disaNters and execution of
Charles 1., the Protectorate of Cromwell, and
Restoration, The historical part of the work wants
strength of colouring, but the sketches of manners
and social scenes are done with care, and the effect is
agreeable. The fiction is pretty, and the fortunes of
the hero, Julian, are romantic, various, and charac •
teristic. With little pretension to originality, the
tale reads smoothly, and accords with all our
conventional notions of the time and the personages,
even to the " Ods fish" of the Merry Monarch.

R ichel Gray. A Tale. By Julia Kavanagh.

London : Hurst and Blackett.
IN a tale in one volume, Miss Kavanagh has
adhered, she tells us—and we believe her—es closely
as possible to actual facts. In portions of her story
there is considerable pathos. The resignation of
the heroine to the ill-usage of her parent, end the
fortitude with which she devotes hei self to him after-
wards, are touchingly portrayed. The trials of the
poor shopkeeper are in a more prosaic vein, though
his love of his one child, and his affliction at her lOW,
make the otherwise tedious episode of "the teapot"
tolerable. Our impression is, that Miss Kavanagh
has this time pitched her key too low, and that in
her anxiety to be real she has introduced sordid
facts, which detract from what might otherwise have
been a pretty and affecting story.

Faces in the Fire. By George Frederick Pardon.

London : James Blackwood.
A REISSUE of a very pretty little Christmas hook.
Mr. Pardon possesses just the talent for these kind
of stories—a lively imagination, which still Dever
leads him into extravagance, and a considerable corn.
mand of poetical language, which !never degenerates
into rant. We have read his " Faces in the Fire"
with great pleasure., and, if we are anything of phy.
siognomists, they are likely to be public favorites.

The Metropolitan Buildings Act ; and Notes of Cases
Explanatory of its Law and Practice. By
Frederick W. Laxton, of the Middle Temple,
Barrister-at-Law.
A USEFUL little manual, which
.14 in ix.
hen is pi all pariah authorities,

1222

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.—Dsc. 20.
BOOKS. _ _
___
_...

The Library of Biblical Lireralure-- . Vol. 111. Freeman.
A New History of England, Civil, Political, and Ecclesiag-
Geol. G. S. l'aulton. Freeman.
The History of England from the Accession of James 11.
RiThemas B. Macaulay. Vols. 11. and 111. Longmans.
Irish Melodies. Thomas Moore. Longmens.
History of Latin Christianity. Vole. IV. V. and VI.
Murray.

The Confidential Correspondence of Napoleon Bonaparte wills
his Brother Joseph. Vols. T. and 11. Murray.
Puss in Boots. Alto Speckter. Murray.
Consumption. Its Causes, Prevention, and Cure. Thomas
Bartlett, M.D. Hippolyte Bailliere.
Rachel Gray : d Tale founded on Fact. Julia Kavanagh.
Hurst and Blackest.
The Drawing Room Sybil. Hamilton and Co.
New Zealand. Edward B. Fitton. Stanford.
Dorothy : A Tale. J. W. Parker and Son.

`PAMPHLETS.
The Fountain af a National Party in Germany. Frederick
Roman. Ridgway.
Position and Prospects of the London Reformatory Instills,
tions. Miller.
Johnson's Companion to Moorc's Almanack for 1856.
Stamford: H. Johnson.
Cathechism to Practical Agriculture. lilackwoods.
What is Wine ? H arrild.
Currency Principles and Currency Taxation. Walker.
Our Colonies. J. W. Parker and Sons.
The Political History of the as predicted in the Pro-
phecy of Daniel.

MUSIC.

The Lavrel: A lifililary Dance. Dalrnaine.
The Chriamas Polka. Advertising Hall, Strand.

NlUsit.

EXETER HALL.

THE Elijah, on Monday evening, displayed to a still
greater degree than in The Creation the excellence
and perfection of Jenny Lind's singing. Men-
delssohn's music, in his sole oratorio is of a more
sublime nature and of a more lofty beauty than any
other composer,s. In parts The Elijah is peculiarly
dramatic, and the scenes between the widow and the
prophet, in "Thus said the Lord of hosts," and in
the lamentation of the angel over the sons of Israel ;
while in the " Holy, holy," and "Lift thine eyes," the
grandeur and simplicity of the music is unsurpass
able. In all these airs, some of them comprising the
finest music ever written for a soprano, the exquisite
voice and perfect execution of Jenny Lind, singing
every note and expressing every word with accurate
finish, was beyond all praise. Jenny Lind has no
rival in sacred music. Her reception on Monday
night was enthusiastic, and she never sung with
greater power. In the quartet and chorus " Holy,
holy," her magnificent voice soared above the
orchestra and chorus with such a wealth of purity
and power as drew down thunders of applause from
the whole house. On Thursday next she sings in
The Messiah.
The Sacred Harmonic Society, under the direc-
tion of Mr. Costa, performed The Messiah
last evening. Mme. Clara Novello, Miss Dolby, and
Mr. Luckey, were the principal singers. The excel-
lence of the performance was, as usual under this
society, of the highest order. The hall was densely
crowded, and the reception accorded to the singers
most cordial. The solos wrre all given with exqui-
site finish and precision, while the choruses and
concerted pieces were marked with more than ordi-
nary care.