The Press.
London, England, 1853-08-06 00:00:00

Wallachia and Moldavia. By M. Bratiano. Man.
chester: Ireland and Co.
Tins pamphlet contains the views of M. Bratiano on
the Eastern question, as expounded by him in two
letters addressed to Lord Dudley Stuart. Antici-
pating great danger to the Danubian principalities,
M. Bratiano describes the policy of Russia to consist
in laying siege to Turkey, by " creeping nearer to it
every day. in order to dismantle it little by little, and
to seize the strongholds that serve it as ramparts."
The readers of the Preu will find nothing novel in
the opinions put forward by M. Bratiano; but it is
only fair to add, that the correspondence with Lord
Dudley Stuart took place four months since.

The Family Treasury. No. 9. London : Houlston

and Stoneman.
Tins newly-started magazine belongs to the domestic
order. In the present number tales " fit for use in
families," receipts, charades, suggestions, informa-
tion, facts, and fun for ditto, are accompanied by
woodcuts illustrating some wonderful works in
" crochet," or depicting the Brobdignag beauties of the
Cochin China poultry. The miscellany aspires to no
literary rank, but its contents are sufficiently abun-
dant, varied, and cheap.

BOOKS RECEIVED SINCE OUR LAST PUBLICATION.
Lives of the Poets Laureates. W. S. Austin, 8.A., and J. Ralph,
M.A. R. Bentley.
Ponsomby. J. Whittaker.
History of Louie IVY!. A. de Beauchesne. Vizetelly and Co.
Shalessperian Criticisms. J. 0. Halliwell, F.R.S. J. it. Smith.
The Herb of the Field. J. and C. Mozley.
Educational Expositor. August Longman, Brown, and Co.
Diorites. Part VII. J. Bennett.
The Family Treasury. August. Arthur Hall, Virtue, and Co.

int pay.
GERMAN PLAYS.

MOLIERE, it is recorded, once declared, on the strength
of his managerial experience, that the hardest body
in the world to manage was a company of players.
This declaration acquires new force if it is applied to
a company of German players in particular.
In every civilised country in Christendom there is
some metropolis at which histrionic questions of pre-
cedence obtain something like a definitive settlement.
There are seldom two stars of precisely the same
magnitude in precisely the same town, while in any
one town there is the same public to decide which of
any two given luminaries is the biggest. If we ask
for the chief of French tragedy, Paris instantly points
to Mlle. Rachel; if we inquire for the best English
legitimate low comedian, Keeley, probably, has a
majority of London votes in his favour ; and so on
through all the various departments of acting.
The provincial towns bow to the decision of
t`le metropolis ; and we have only to learn bow an
actor is valued in the capital of his own country
to obtain a guide which, though not infallible, will,
in nine cases out of ten, prove correct.
But that tract of land which is named " Germany"
comprises many countries. Each of these countries
has its chief town, and each of these chief towns
seems to have its chief actor. This would occasion
no difficulty if a whole company of German actors
came from any one town, but as it is we are forced,
when we are to have the luxury of a German play,
to lay various districts under contribution for a due
supply of histrionic talent. A company of all the
talents" is obtained, but when this machine, each
wheel of which is so precious, has to be set in motion,
incalculable obstacles arise. Who is the rightful
chief of the association ? The Othello of Berlin
thinks he is as distinguished as a man as the Hamlet
of Dresden, and the lago of Cassel surveys them both
with a strong feeling of equality. Each comes armed
with the votes of his own public, and each, probably,
has a distinguished literary friend in his own town,
who records his praises in sober prose, or sings them
in inspired verse. We strongly suspect that certain
unaccountable phenomena which have appeared in
playbills of the present season have been owing to
the want of a really preponderating power. Certain
pieces could never have been put up, under a ,judi
cious monarch, who had an eye to the general
welfare ; and we could constantly detect the rule of a
sort of oligarchical republic, in which the supremacy
was ever wandering from one individual to another.
On the whole we are surp ised that the German
performances have turned out so well as they have.
The mistakes that were made at the beginning of the
short season seem to have roused the members to
something like a feeling for the general good; and as
July advanced, and the chances of an audience be-
came less and less, the energies of the company went
on increasing. Who wanted to see The Taming of the
Shrew in an English dress? Who wanted to see El
Deaden contra el deaden done from Spanish into
German, and consequently the type of nothing?
Who wanted to see Preciosa played without efficient
musical appurtenances ? Even Egmont had been
pretty well used up last year, and was certainly not
the best chosen piece to inaugurate th 6 season of
1853. Wilhelm Tell, on the other hand, was just the
sort of drama required, and gave signs of an im-