The Press.
London, England, 1855-11-10 00:00:00

PERIODICAL LITERATURE.

THE author of " The Newcomes" has this month
furnished much food for the reviewers. We have two
articles on Mr. Thackeray now before us, but written
from very different points of view, and with very dif-
ferent powers. That in the North British is light
and clever, though with perhaps rather too much
straining at effect. But, at all events, it recognises
Mr. Thackeray's position as the leading ethical
teacher of the day, and the very great services he has
performed to society by abolishing that imaginary
line between absolute virtue and absolute vice which
has been so much insisted on. The writer's remarks
on Mr. Thackeray's female characters are admirable,
and likewise those on his style, about which there is
one very happy touch
The chief fault of his ordinary and own style is also the
fault of Fielding's ; namely, a habit of winking the eye, as
it were, at the reader, as he goes on.
-

The latter part which relates to Fielding is even
better than the first; and the differences, and the
reasons of them, between Tom Jones and Arthur
Pendennis are capitally portrayed. The essay on
"Cabinets and Statesmen' turns on the question of
how far Cabinet union is any longer desirable or ne-
ces.iary. The reviewer thinks that there is no neces-
sity for Ministers now to be all agreed on all points;
and certainly such has not been the practice in
former times. A return to it would, at all events,
insure the possibility of our having more able men
in the Ministry than we can have under the present
system. Yet we doubt how far the power of the
Crown would be found adequate in these days to
support such a mode of government. It is a very
interesting question, and well worth the consideration
of politicians.
Tait contains several papers that will be found
amusing by the general reader. "Literary Diver-
sions," comprising this month a review of Dr.
Doran on " Habits and Habit-makers," is a clever
summary of a kind of compilation for which we con-
fess that we have no very profound regard. We shall
have a work upon London dust-holes next, chal-
lenging admiration for its antiquarian lore, and may-
hap its wit. The essay on Thackeray (the other
one to which we have alluded) is just an emanation
of that purblind morality which was universal twenty
years ago, but is now we hope on the wane. But
though we most distinctly decline to take any part
in the contest which has been so long waging on
this subject, we must beg leave to correct the author
of this article on his use of the Anglicised term
"simious." He has chosen to speak of Mr. Thacke-
ray as the prince of the simious school. Does the
gentleman know what the word "simious " means?
This admirable epithet was first introduced by Sydney
Smith, and applied, we are sorry to say, to no less
exalted a person than Lord Palmerston. " That
" simious parasite," says he, " who is always grin-
" ning at his (Canning's) heels." Now, it is per
fectly clear that the word was used here in the sense
of buffoonish—a capering, grinning animal, whose
imitative powers are but a small part of his pecu-
liarities. Subsequently the term has been used by
critics to distinguish that school of comic writers
who earn a livelihood by making jokes at so much a
piece, by contorting their intellects as a monkey con-
torts his carcase for the nuts and gingerbread; but
apishness and imitativeness are not coextensive
terms, as the writer of this article appears to imagine.
The best article, perhaps, in the present number of
Bentley is "Ins and Outs of Paris," but the number
is not a first-rate one. " Aspen Court " is being con-
tinued, but we are half afraid our London readers
will find no novelty in it now. The story of " The
Roadside Inn," though well told, is deficient in the
• merit of novelty.

SATURDAY,

1. Metropolitan Local Management Bill. By
Toulmin Smith, Barrister-at-Law. London :
H. Sweet.

2. Practical Proceedings for the Removal of
Nuisances, sc., under the Nuisances Removal
Act, 1855, and by other Course of Law. By
Toulmin Smith. London: H. Sweet.

- - - -
I. This is a highly useful and not altogether un-
entertaining work. It is a complete manual of
parochial procedure, contains all the latest informa-
tion on the subject of boards and vestries—their
duties and their power—with an ample explanation
of everything that relates to rates, taxes, and the
means of enforcing them. No householder, with
this little work oefore him, need be at any loss in
regard to any one of these knotty points. The
author's remarks on sewerage and the duties of the
commissioners are very curious and interesting.
2. An equally valuable contribution to our
stock of parish information. Nuisances, it appears,
are divided by the act into four heads :-1. Nuisances
immediately connected with human dwellings and
occupations. 2. Corrupt or unwholesome food. 3.
Ditches, drains, watercourses, and sewers. 4.
All nuisances at common law. This latter meaning
anything that is in any way hurtful or inconvenient
beyond the amount of good produced by it, as
" a perpetual ringing of bells, or keeping a pack of
"noisy dogs." The various remedies for all these
are stated with clearness and precision, and we need
hardly say that in the present state of the metropolis
any one who throws any additional light on this sub-
ject is entitled to public gratitude.

A Glossary of Military Terms. By J. S. B.

London : Longmans.
Inverse Elementary Tactics of Cavalry. By A. B. C.

London : Bosworth.
Two elementary works excellent as far as they go,
and intended for the use and study of junior officers.
" The Glossary of Military Terms" may neverthe•
less be safely included among the purchases of that
inquisitive person the General Reader, for it renders
the full meaning of those military terms so con-
stantly met with in correspondents' letters from the
camp. It is an exceedingly useful little manual,
for, in addition, it contains a careful table of the
ranges, weight, and size of iron and brass ordnance,
as well as comparative lists of the rank and pay of
naval and military officers.
"The Manual of Cavalry Tactics" is more a pro-
fessional work, and appears to have been written by
a thorough master of the subject, in a clear, concise,
and accurate style.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
BOOKS.

Brewer's Historical and Geographical Atlas. Longmans.
Cross Purposes. A Novel. Catherine Sinclair. Three
Vols. Bentley.
The Daughter of Night; or, A Poor Girl's Fortuna. S. W.
Follow. Ward and Locke.
Conversational French Phrases. H abersak. Theobald.
Brief Memoir of the late William 11. Bartlett. William
Beattie, M.D. Rickerby.
Historical Sketches of Statesmen. Henry Lord Brougham,
_ . _

The Life of Henry Fielding. Frederick Laurence.
Hall and Virtue.
The Alpha : A Revelation, but No Mystery. Edward N.
Denys. H. G. Clarke.
The Life of Jeans D'Albert, Queen of Navarre. Two Vole.
Hurst and Blackett.
Eastern Experiences. Longinans.
Memories. A Poem. George Thomas Thomason.
Bell and Daldy.
The Ear in Health and Disease. Wm. Harvey, F.R.C.S.
Renshaw..
Platonic Phikbus. C. Badham, P.D. J. W. Parker.
On the Claims of the Roman Church. Sandiaon Robins,
M.A. Longmans.

FICRIODICALLS.

Tail's Magazine. Partridge and Oakey.
Evangelical Christendom. Ditto.
The Illustrated Magazine. Warde and Lock.
Harry Cuverdale. Virtue and Co.
4rt•Journal. Ditto.
The Amateur; or, Our Magazine. Hope and Co.
Bentley's Miscellany. Bentley.
The West of Scotland Magazine. Hall and Virtue.
The War Almanac for ISM. H. G. Clarke.

PAMPHLETS.
Testimonials and Statistics in Reference to the Working of the
Pubtic•house Act.
Tracts for the Present Crisis. XXXIV. and XXXV.

SILVIO PELLICO'S CORRESPONDENCE will shortly be
published at Turin. All those who are in possession
of letters of that eminent writer, and wish them to
appear in the collection, are desired to send them to
M. G. Stefani, at Turin.
AN EXPOSITION, according to the Vienna journals,
is in contemplation in that city for 1859. It is even
said that the plan of the building has already received
the approbation of the_Emperor Francis Joseph.

NovEmntn 10, 1855.

Sp puma.

DRURY-LANE THEATRE.
kr is related of George Colman, or some other
dining-out celebrity, that he once unintentionally
sent a large party of simple admirers into fits of
laughter by the plain, unadorned declaration that
"he never took apple-sauco with goose." Everybody
had been carefully prepared to expect a copious issue
of conversational pearls and rubies from his mouth,
and this first utterance—a piece of the most " harm-
less, necessary" prose—was converted, by mere im•
puted merit, into a gem of the first water. He was a
wit—ergo, all he said must, of necessity, be wiry.
The jester was sure to be always sporting his cap
and bells. What be said most probably appeared at
first sight not more remarkable for novelty of con-
ception than for neatness of expression, yet it was
all but certain to his audience that underneath the
plain outside lay hid some delicate allusion, some
deep double meaning, which further reflection would
infallibly bring to light—the goose was no common
bird ; the apple-sauce symbolical, no doubt—mean-
while they applauded, though they did not exactly
see why or what. Much in the same way as Colman's
bearers dealt with him, do theatrical audiences, in
general, deal with the novelties presented to them
under the auspices of an actor of established reputa-
tion. " D'ye think the gentleman would say he were
nine feet high if he warn't nine feet high, spooney ?"
says Mr. Robson's credulous bumpkin of the giant
in the " Country Fair." " Am I to suppose that Mr. X.,
the great light comedian, would laugh, swagger,
shrug, and look knowing, if what he has to say—which,
I confess, seems arrant rubbish to me ; but, then, I'm
no judge—were not really what he seems to take it
for ?" argues many an honest spectator of a modern
farce; and so the rising hiss is stifled, he roars at
a platitude, bolts a choke-pear of improbability, blinks
at a dead lull in the dialogue, and the "New and
Original," in two acts, is floated completely into port,
and settles quietly down in the haven of public
approbation.
We are led to these remarks by the surprising and
otherwise inexplicable success of the new pay at
Drury Lane. Such a tissue of absurd improbabilities
and pretentious vulgarisms, unrelieved by a single
good point of dialogue, has not been presented to
the public for some time past; for the Game of
Romps at the Princess's was obviously meant to be
nothing, and fulfilled the author's intentions very
completely indeed. Yet, in spite of all the glaring
faults of the Impudent Puppy, its success was never
doubtful for a single instant.
Mr. Charles Mathews wastes his cleverness on
Nestor Nimble, a gentleman afflicted by a mono-
mania of the erotic species, which impels him to
follow every lady he sees ; from a dairy-maid to a
duchess' nothing feminine comes amiss to him. At
length, however, " one fine day," he pesters a femi-
nine Tartar, one Lady Olivia Paragon, and is fairly
caught. The lady, wife of an M.P., finding that
neither threats nor entreaties will produce the least
effect on his " seguacious" pertinacity, invites him
'to dinner at her house in Grosvenor-square. Fancy
a highly-bred lady of rank, instead of appealing to
one of the park-keepers, asking a gentish-looking fel-
low in a white wrapper to dinner, where, far from
enjoying the comfortable Weds tite which he had
anticipated, he finds himself the butt of a party of
fourteen, including his charmer's husband ! All
-sorts of victims of his "slight peculiarity" appear
on the scene to vex and annoy him, as a matter of
course, but, after an interval of rather laughable
tortures, he manages to turn the tables against his
tormentors, by employing against each those common
weapons, picked-up notes and overheard conversa-
tions, and converts the whole set from enemies into
supporters. Lady Olivia is played by Miss Talbot,
who is condemned to sail about with the "calm
dignity" which marks that most thankless of all
characters, the modern lady of fashion theatrical.
Who does not know the stage•countess,ber immense
diameter, and the loftiness of her derision? What
well-ordered mind does not tremble at the very
sound of her approach—has not shuddered at that
high-toned hiccup, representing a laugh, smothered
at last in mercy to its snob victim in a cloud of
white cambric ? What sensitive soul has not groaned
over that pointless satire out of which the author, in
his efforts to be delicate, has expelled all the flavour,
and succeeded only in being utterly insipid? We
have a sincere reverence for our aristocracy, and should
be glad, therefore, to see the haut ton banished for
ever from the modern stage ; or, if admitted at all,
reduced to a dead silence. They might produce all
the required effects merely by costume and gesture,
turning on the heel by way of repartee, and smiling
and bowing their benevolences and benedictions. It
would not be difficult, we imagine, to devise a system
of graceful pantomime for the purpose ; of course, a
preliminary step would be the careful avoidance of