The Press.
London, England, 1858-08-07 00:00:00

THE PRES 5, AUGUST 7, 1858.

bachelor, who would keep young to the last, there is no
place so sunny as the hearth of an old school-friend. But
house of cards is blown down—talk of it no more—'tis
lonivainful subject. You met Lionel Haughton here the
last time you celled—how did you like him ?
Fraser opens with another of Mr. Froude's
excerpts from ancient documents and MSS. The
following is an account of the present one:—
In the Library at Balliol College, Oxford, there is a
manuscript which, for want of a better name, I may call a
Commonplace Book of an English gentleman who lived in
the beginning of the sixteenth century. Its contents
display, beyond any other single volume which I have met
with, the mental furniture of an average-educated man of
the time. There are stories in prose anti verse, collections
of proverbs, a dissertation on Horticulture, a dissertation
on Farriery, a treatise of Confession, a Book of Education,
a Bcok of Courtesy, a Book of " the Whole Duty " of Man ;
mercantile entries, discourses of arithmetic, recipes, pre-
scriptions, marvels of science or pseudo-science, conun-
drums, tables of the assize of food; the laws respecting the
sale of meat, bread, beer, wine, and other necessaries ;
while above and beyond all are s collection in various hand-
writings of ballads, songs, hymns, and didactic poems of a
religious kind, some few of which have been met with
elsewhere ; but of the greater number of them no other
copy, I believe, exists.
The owner and compiler was a certain Richard Hilles.
From the entries of the births and deaths of his children
Ain a fly-leaf, gather that in 1518 he lived at a place
called }Mien& near King's Langley, in Hertfordshire. The
year following he had removed to London, where be was
apparently in business ; and among his remarks on the
management of vines and fruit trees in his " Discourse on
Gardens," he mentions incidentally that he had been in
Greece and on the coast of Asia Minor. A brief " Annual
Register " is carried down as far as 1535, in which year he
perhaps died. One of his latest entries is the execution of
Bishop Fisher and of Sir Thomas More. Some other
facts about him might perhaps be collected ; but his per-
sonal history could add little to the interest of his book,
which is its own sufficient recommendation. It will be
evident, from the description which 1 have given, that as
an antiquarian curiosity this manuscript is one of the moat
remarkable of its kind which survives.
The extracts here given embrace several curious
copies of versas and interesting entries relating to
public events. Among the former is a capital drink-
ing-song, of which we give the concluding stanzas :
Sirs, by all these causes ye should think,
Quee sunt rationabiles,
That good wine should be best of all drink,
Inter potus potabiles.
Fill the cup well ! Beliamye,
Potum jam mihi iogere,
I have said till my lips be dry,
Vellem nuno vinnm bibere.
Wine drinkers all with great honour,
Semper laudate Dominum,
The which sendeth the good liqaoar,
Propter salutem hominum.
Plenty to all thst love good wine,
Donet Deus largius,
And bring them soon when they go hence,
Übi non sitient amplius.
The second paper is entitled " Telegraph-cable
Laying in the Mediterranean, with an Excursion in
Algeria," and is uncommonly entertaining, pictu-
resque, and even useful. " Hints feu Vagabonds,"
from which we gave an extract last week, is unques-
tionably the production of " a bowl-fide traveller,"
and is brimful of humour, and radiant with what Mr.
Clough well calls "the glory of shooting jackets."
" Hanworth " certainly improves. We feel towards
it something like Lucy Bertram towards Julio Man-
nering when first introduced to her—" I shan't like
her; and yet, on second thoughts, I rather think I
shall." " Catarina in Venice" comes to rather a
commonplace conclusion. But we must take the
opportunity of protesting against the very uncommon-
place language of the writer on the subject of
Catarina's morality. We are sure that our regular
readers will bear us out in saying that this Journal
bas never erred on the side of prudery ; but the
fullest recognition of the other virtues which may
still exist in a woman who has lost that one which,
by the way people too frequently speaks of it, seems
in her to include every other, is quite compatible
with our condemnation of passages like the follow.
ing :
As it happened, I do not think she knew exactly what
guilt was; her style of life she considered in all respects
proper and becoming ; and it would have required the
attestation of a very hearty and vehement passion, or
habitual contact with a white and virginal life, to teach her
what that purity was which she did not know that she had
lost.

This estimate of Catarina's character will, I know, be
deemed untrue by those who believe that when a woman
falls she must perish.
We are not one of those who believe that "when a
woman falls she must perish." We have the strongest
objection to apply the phrase " a virtuous woman "
to a woman who possesses but one virtue. But for
all that we do deem this estimate of Catarina's cha-
racter untrue. Books would teach her what guilt
was .even if womanly instinct did not detect it in the
lidon e demeanour of men towards her. But the
8 tit) passage is beaten hollow by the Quixotic
sbsurdity of the following. Lettice, be it known, is a

pretty young English widow of one and twenty;
frequently described as a good, honest, unaffected
English girl, without a spark of hightiown sentiment,
or the slightest sympathy with the school of Mme.
Dudevant Catarina, after a career in the Hay.
market, has become the mistress of an English
nobleman, of whose murder she is now unjustly
suspected—favete linguis

And Lettice had taken the bruised form into her spotless
arms, and told her with passionate tears that she believed
her sinless as one of God's angels.

The paper on the Indian mutinies contains some
sound sense, though we cumot forbear censuring the
garbled quotation from Sir Charles Napier, who
more than once spoke in the most emphatic and
unmistakeable terms of the probability of a mutiny.
The Dublin for August gives us the best instal-
ment of " Gerald Fitzgerald " that we have yet seen.
'The story is now brought down to the period of the
French Revolution, and we may expect it to become
more exciting every number. " Indian Commerce "
is a good, substantial article based on the late work
of Mr. Irving, which was recently reviewed in these
columns. The writer, however, is wrong in accepting
without inquiry Mr. Irving's statement regarding the
Massacre of Amboyna, for the true account of which
we may refer our readers to TirE PRESS of April 17th.
" Cheap Security " (a recommendation of the estab-
lishment of rifle corps) would be a good article if not
written by Mr. Tupper. " Artist Life in Rome " is a
very interesting tale ; and the paper upon the Oxford
Essays is on the whole a just piece of criticism. It
is chiefly remarkable, however, for what we do not
remember to have seen elsewhere—i.e., au analytical
examination of the Oxford class•list, with a view to
ascertain the number of distinguished men who have
proceeded from the first, second, third, and fourth
classes respectively. The list is suggestive of
one or two cautional observations. In the
first place, the compiler seems to have been
somewhat generous in his admission of claims to
notability, as we see many names given which cer-
tainly require an explanatory note to record their
achievements. In the second place, it is question-
able how far the introduction of names of purely
academic note was lawful. Such names, for instance,
as Garbett, Johnson, Marriott, Rawlinson, Manse], and
Conington, are those of men who, whatever their
ability to shine in other spheres, have in fact merely
rushed their class list acquisitions a little further.
Thirdly, we must remember that even at the present
day academic distinctions are in many instances
accepted as a passport to preferment, without any
further public evidence of ability having been shown.
Twenty or thirty years ago this was still more true.
So that of many eminent men here quoted we may
fairly suppose that a certain proportion are possessed
of no higher order of ability than any average class-
man. They got on because they took honours.
They did not take honours because they possessed
any peculiar talent for getting on.
Bentley this month has a memoir of Thomas
Stukely—rather well done ; the beginning of a tale
entitled " Twice Avenged," either by the author of
" Ashley " or an exceedingly good imitator ; " Coming
out of Exile," by the veritable " Great Unknown,"
possessing that writer's usual faults and merits ; a
sketch of Madame de Pompadour—one of the best
papers in the number ; and a readable page or two
on Voltaire by Monkshood. Mr. Thornbury's ballad
(why does he call himself Walter ?) is in his usual
Rupert•like style; and an average instalment of Mr.
Dudley Costello's story make up a number that on
the whole is rather above the average.
We congratulate Titan this month on coming out
with an excellent bit of " Behind the scenes in
Paris." We trust all the plums of the story have
not got together into this lump ; but it is very good.
The remaining papers are of the usual stamp.
Tait and Colburn both give a promising table of
contents, but they arrived too late to enable us to
do more than glance at one or two articles which do
not belie expectation.
The principal novelty in Davenport Dunn is
Davis's disclosure of his real character to his
daughter, and his proposal to Annesley Beecher to
marry her.

755

and valet were supported by Mile. Didiee and Ron-
colii with liveliness and humour, and all the acces-
sories of orchestra, chorus, scenery, and docora-
tions, were everything that they ought to be.
As to the piece, the subject is a bad imitation
of Don Giovanni. The hero is a libertine of noble
family, who, having seduced and caused the death of
a lady, sees (like Don Juan) the statue of his victim,
and, by way of a jest, puts a ring upon its finger,
pledging himself to make her compensation by mar-
riage. Afterwards be marries another lady by force ;
and his career of crime is arrested by the appearance
of the statue, who sinks with him through a trap-
door amid blue flames—and the curtain falls. This
opera, in short, whether we regard itF. subject or its
music, is far from a work of distinguished merit;
but still we have seen worse things better received.

DESPATCHES FROM THE ST. GEORGE'S

CHESS CLUB.—No. 11.
THE American champion seems nowise inclined to
disappoint his backers. Mr. Lowenthal has, I fear,
all but lost his match. Mr. Morphy has already
scored six games to two against him, and is in a fair
way to win the seventh, owing to something very like
a blunder in his opponent's last move. The truth is.
Mr. Lowenthal has not nerve for a match. He has
twice refused to draw a game which he subsequently
lost, and has more than once contrived to fritter
away a winning position in a very simple game. Had
he the steady endurance of Harrwitz there would be
yet time for a rally ; as it is, our hopes are small.
So confident is his opponent., that immediately on
losing his second game he betted even against
Lowenthal's winning another! As he had him-
self four to gain, this was virtually betting fifteen to
one. C'etait un pen fort !

THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH EXPEDITION.
THE following despatch has been received by the
Directors of the Ad antic Telegraph Company :
TO THE DIRECTORS OF THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH

COMPANY.

VALENTIA, Aug. 5.
The Agamemnon has arrived at Valenti*, and we are
about to laud the end of the cable.
The Niagara is in Trinity-bay, Newfoundland. There
are good signals between the ships.
We reached the rendezvous on the night of the 28th,
and the splice with the Niagara cable was made on board
the Agamemnon the following morning.
By noon on the 30th 265 nautical miles were laid between
the two ships ; on the 31st, 540 ; on the Ist of August, 884 ;
ou the 2nd, 1,256 ; on the 4th, 1,854 ; on anchoring at six
in the morning, in Doulas Bay, 2,022.
The rate of the Niagara during the whole time has been
nearly the same as ours, the length of cable paid out from
the two ships being generally within ten miles of each other.
With the exception of yesterday, the weather has been
very unfavourable.
VILENTIA, Thursday.
Her Majesty's ship Agamemnon arrived off
Doulas Head early this morning with the end of the
telegraph cable ; the communication between Ireland
and Newfoundland complete. Mr. Bright is now
making arrangements for landing the end, and thus
bringing to a successful termination his anxious and
difficult task. From the time the Agamemnon left
Queenstown, on the 18th of July, until she joined
the rest of the squadron at the rendezvous in mid
ocean on the 29th, she experienced a continued
succession of heavy winds. The splice was success-
fully made on the afternoon of the 29th, and the
ships started towards their several stations. On the
evening of the same day a breach of continuity
occurred in the cable which lasted one hour and a
half.
- -

The ship was stopped and the machinery repaired,
though not till hopes of holding on the cable had
been abandoned. During Friday it blew a head gale
of wind, against which the ship, under her full steam,
could hardly make way, even with yards and top-
masts struck. On Saturday, the 31st, the wind
shifted round to the south-west, and during that day,
Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, it continued to blow
hard, with frequent violent squalls, the sea running
tremendously high the whole time, and no one
expected the cable to hold on from one minute to
the other. On Wednesday the weather moderated,
but the swell was still high. About four a.m. the
change from the lower to the upper cable was suc-
cessfully made, and during the afternoon shallow
water was gained. The second change from the
upper to the orlop deck coil was made about nine
o'clock in the evening ; after which all went well
until the ship anchored at six a.m, in Doulas Bay.
The Niagara is either landing her end in Trinity
Bay, or is about doing so shortly, though some little
delay must necessarily arise before the instrunlente
are made for signalling through America.