The Press.
London, England, 1855-08-25 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

ford organist and conductor of the festival. As an
occasional piece it invites no criticism. Men-
delssohn's ninety•eighth Psalm, " Sing ye to the
Lord," for eight voices, was the second novelty.
The two first verses are sung without accompani
ment, and the last with orchestra and harp obligati.
The execution was very indifferent. Wednesday'd
performance of Elijah, with limited means (the band
was under sixty) for such a large space, was, on
the whole, gratifying. There are effects in sacred
music which come out with thrilling sensa-
tions within cathedral walls. Mario's singing of
the air "If with all your hearts," albeit encored
by the Bishop of Hereford, was a mistake. On
Thursday there was a singular mixture in Men-
delssohn's hymn of Praise, Spohr's Christian's
Prayer, and Mozart's Twelfth Mass. There was also
an overture called "Il Polycart," composed by the
Rev. Sir F. A. Gore Ouseley, Bart, the successor to
the Oxford Chair of Music of the late Sir Henry
Bishop. This overture was incomprehensible—not
the music, fcr that was simple and scholastic, but
from the odd title. In addition to the four morning
performances there were three evening concerts at
the Shire-hail on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thurs.
day. The principal singers were Grisi (who never
did shine in a concert-room) ; Mme. Clara Novello,
who has been singing grandly at this festival; Mme.
Weiss, who has a magnificent soprano, and is
gaining ground with the public ; Miss Moss,
a pupil of Miss Dolby, who was the contralto of
the meeting. The tenors were Mario and Sims
Reeves, both singing their very best; and Mr.
Montem Smith, a brother of the conductor, a rising
young tenor. The basses were Mr. H. Barnby,
and Mr. W. H. Weiss. The last mentioned basso is
advancing steadily. Master Arthur Napoleon,
the precocious boy pianist, Mr. R. Blagrove, con-
certina, and Mr. Henry Blagrove, the violinist, were
the soloists. Mr. Arnott, of Gloucester, presided at
the organ, and Mr. Done, of Worcester, at the piano—
a very absurd arrangement at these gatherings, at
which the ancient mode of having a leader beating
time against a conductor, or vice versd, has not yet
been dispensed with, and the organist of one cathe-
dral is transferred to the instrument of another
cathedral, with the organ of which he can be
but imperfectly acquainted. With the opening of
the new railroad to Hereford, the line from
Worcester through the picturesque Malvern
Hills being the only one unfinished, it is hoped
that the pecuniary results of the meeting will
not impose on the stewards the necessity of paying
any deficiency. The collections will be above the
average, and the excellent charities of the three
dioceses will therefore not be losers ; and with 147
benefices under 1001. each in income, it would in-
deed be lamentable if the Festivals of the Three
Choirs were to decrease in attraction. At the same
time, improvement in execution must be borne in
mind by the managers.

HAYMARKET THEATRE.—On Thursday night the
Busy Body, which continues to have a successful
run, was followed by a " squib," by the Brothers
Brough, called Olympus in a Muddle ; or, Wrong
People in Wrong Places—an attempt to extract
some amusement out of the political topic of the day.
Jupiter having quarrelled with the Goddess of Wis-
dom, makes a new set of administrative arrange-
ments, appointing the various gods and goddesses to
the posts for which they are most unfit. Mars is
made a maid-servant of all work ; Venus, commander
of the forces ; Mercury, an accountant; Hercules, a
laundress—and so on, till the result is a "muddle,"
which requires all the administrative talent of
Minerva to restore to order. This idea is attempted
to be worked out by doggrel verses and burlesque
singing; but the whole thing is laboured and sadly
deficient in point. Compton raised some laughter by
his grotesque performance of Jupiter, and was
encored in a comic song, but the piece went off very
flatly; and when the curtain fell the applause was
feeble, and mingled with loud disapprobation.

CREMORNE GARDENS.—The Ashburnham Military
Spectacle has been repeated here three times during
the week with very great success, both as regards its
varied and striking effects and the patronage awarded
to it. Mr. Simpson has, in consequence, determined
to give it every night.—The last show of the South
London Floricultural Society takes place here on
Thursday, and will be continued until ten o'clock, to
allow the public a greater opportunity of admiring
the gorgeous flowers of the autumnal season.

A CARD.—The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, artist
in hair (late Chancellor of her Majesty's Exchequer).
Hairs carefully split with any degree of minuteness
that may be required. N.B. Hair-splitter to his
Holiness Pius IX., the Roman Pontiff; also to Alex-
ander 11., Emperor of all the Russias.—Punch.

A SINGULAR DISCOVERY has been made at Aix-la-
Chapelle. In a bale of cotton shipped from the
United States to Warsaw, by way of Antwerp, there
were found several six-barrel revolvers and a quantity
of powder.

Sktrith

LORD STANLEY ON EDUCATION.

THE members of the various mechanics institutions
connected with the Institutional Association of Lan-
cashire and Cheshire had a reunion at KnOwsley
on Saturday, when, by special order of the Earl of
herby, both the beautiful grounds of the estate and
the reception-rooms of the mansion itself were thrown
open, and placed at their service. During the after-
noon streams of respectably-dressed and well-behaved
people entered the grounds from various points, the
great bulk being from Manchester, which contributed
upwards of 1,000, while Bolton sent 300, Warrington
300, Bury 150, Liverpool 500, the total number of
about 5000, persons being completed by draughts
from other towns in the two counties.
Soon after five o'clock the appearance of Lord
Stanley on the colonnade, in the south front of the
hall, was the signal for a vehement burst of applause
from the group of excursionists on the lawn below.
Mr. Ross proposed :
That the most respecthil and grateful thanks of this meeting,
represented by seventy mechanics' and other adult educational
institutions of Lancashire and Cheshire, be presented to the
Hight Hon. the Earl of Derby for hisnoble and generous conduct
in admitting so large an assemblage tohis mansion and grounds
and this meeting desires to assure Lord Stanley, M.P., that the
friends of educational reform entertain the most lively gratitude
towards his lordship for his enlightened advocacy of every
measure conducive to the moral and intellectual welfare of the
people.

Lord STANLEY then came forward, and briefly ad-
dressed the assembly. He said :

Ladies and gentlemen, —Good neighbours all,—Don't
imagine that I am about to ask you to waste any consider-.
able part of the remaining portion of this day, unfortu-
nately too short, in listening to a speech from me. Public
speaking is only valuable, or even endurable, when it leads
to some practical result in the form of action. (Hear,
hear.) Business is a good thing, as in Lancashire we all
know ; amusement and recreation are good also, as both in
our own case and that of our neighbours we are, iu this
country, sometimes too apt to forget; but when you try to
mix pleasure and business together, you run a great risk
of spoiling both. (Hear, hear.) There are no many
things better than a fine summer's day in the country, and
as we have got one (rather a chance in this climate) we
won't spoil it, after this cordial greeting paid ou both sides,
by ceremony, or constraint, or formality of any kind. Ido
assure you there is no one on that lawn, man, woman, or
child, be they who they may, that enjoys this scene better
than I do. (Cheers.) I never look round this old place
—I never walk out in that park, with which I hope you
will shortly make acquaintance, without thinking that they
want only one thing to make them perfect in my eyes, and
that is, a few more happy faces to enliven and enjoy the
scene. (Cheers.) That wish is fully gratified now, and I
hope this may be only the first of many similar excursions,
for which, I undertake to say, all facilities shall be given.
(Great cheering.) As for this association of which you
are members, and concerning which I have been requested
to speak a word, I will only say I wish it well. It has not
lasted long in its present form, but it is in good hands—it
has made a good start—and it carries with it the best
wishes of all parties and classes among those who are
friends of education and of the people. ( Applause.) As to
the principle of adult education, a man must be twenty
years behind the age who consents to argue that. The
thing has got beyond the reach of controversy; it is past
that stage at which it can need the aid of platform-speaking,
or newspaper-writing, or agitation of any kind; it now
only wants doing—talking about it is waste of words only—
carrying out, once for all, in the speediest and silentest
practicable manner. Every year brings more clearly into
light a few leading truths which had, until of late, been too
much overlooked. Every year we see more plainly that in
education, as in other matters, self-help is the best help—
' (cheers, and cries of " Bravo !")—that a little which men
do for themselves is better than a great deal that they get
I the State to do for them. We see too this, and not long
ago it was a matter which philanthropists and the public
were too much in the habit of overlooking, we see that we
cannot, by any interference on the part of Government or
the public, deprive the parent of the privilege or absolve
hint from that duty and responsibility which lies primarily
on him—that of duly instructing his children. And from
these admitted truths it follows that, in order to do any
real good, it is the parent who must be interested in
the work of education. (Cheers.) That you can only
accomplish by giving him also an interest in literature
and literary pursuits on his own account; and that is
what, in associations of this kind, you undertake and en-
deavour to effect, and the work upon which we one and
all are engaged. Now, the principle of adult education
being thus indisputable, how do you here carry it put?
In this association, I suppose you don't want telling,
there are seventy institutions, and more than 16,000
members, while your libraries and reading-rooms contain
in the aggregate about 230,000 volumes. Of this associa-
tion, as I understand it, the two leading features are these
—one is, mutual assistance among a large number of
unconnected institutions, the securing of a bond of union
between them, of a common centre to which all their
members may look, so that local difficulties may be more
easily got over, local quarrels or differences as to manage-
ment decided in au amicable way, and the special expe-
rience of each institution made available for the common
benefit of all. That is one object of which the advantage
is readily recognised, and to a considerable extent has been
attained. (Hear, hear.) The other leading feature is
the establishment of itinerating libraries, or collections of
books circulating gratuitously from village to village, in
rural districts which are not populous enough to maintain
libraries for themselves. That is still almost a novelty in
England. It is now for the first time being tried in other
counties; but here the system hat been, though but on a

AUG. 25, 1855.

limited scale, in operation for three years. It has met
with signal and remarkable success ; and I am bound to
affirm, and glad to have an opportunity of doing so, that,
as a means of diffusing knowledge, it deserves more general
notice than it has yet received. But if I get on to these
subjects 1 shall be led too far—(cries of " No, no," and
" Go on ")—and I conclude at once by offering you. in my
father's name—he is in Scotland, but he has charged me
to express his regret that he could not be present to wit.
ness this sight—(cheers)-1 beg in Lord Derby's name
and in my own to thank you for the compliment of this
visit—(cheers)—to thank you also, though no more than
expected, for the courtesy and good humour shown both
to one another and to those placed to keep order among
so great a multitude, and to offer to each and all of you a
very hearty welcome. (Applause.) The house has been
thrown open. There are persons stationed about the park
and gardens who will show what is best worth seeing.
You have got your hours of daylight, and I wish you a
pleasant afternoon.
His lordship retired amid vehement applause—
three cheers being given for Lord Derby, three for
the Countess of Derby, and three for Lord Stanley.
The excursionists afterwards visited the famous
boat-house and the other attractions of Knowsley,
and returned at the appointed hour by the train to
their respective localities, highly delighted with the
day's pleasurable enjoyment, and with the courtesy
they had experienced at the hands of the noble house
of Stanley.

LANCE SOCIETY.