The Press.
London, England, 1856-08-23 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

THE QUEEN OF OUDE AT SOUTHAMPTON.
En Majesty the Queen-Mother of Oude, accompa-
nied by the heirs apparent and presumptive to the
throne of Oude, and attended by a numerous suite,
arrived at Southampton in the Indus on Thursday
morning. The suite consists of some seventy per-
sons, including eight eunuchs, several great officers
of state, secretaries, and other attendants. The bag-
gage was put ashore, and at three p.m., her Majesty
and the Princes decided upon landing; the Queen was
to be conveyed on shore in a palanquin. Just before
three o'clock two splendid carriages drawn by four
horses drew up alongside the ship, and unusual ex-
citement was observed at the gangway of the Indus.
The Mayor of Southampton, accompanied by the
Prince of Surat and suite, soon after arrived. The
landing-stage from the ship to the dock was then
covered with carpet. Surrounding the gangway were
eunuchs, and the chief officers of state belonging to
the Court of Oule, dressed in magnifisient robes, and
holding the insignia of their offices. A snow-white
screen was held up before the gangway. It was now
whispered that preparations were making for the
Queen leaving the ship, and voices were heard be-
hind the screen. Presently two figures, dressed like
Egyptian mummies, appeared, and walked across to
the stage, their little naked feet in gaudy slippers
turned up at the toes. They were assisted into the
Queen's carriage, not a vestige of any part of them
being seen hut their feet and legs. These were the
chosen maids of honour to the Queen. Soon after
they were seated the screen was thrown down, and
the palanquin was brought out. It consisted of a
chair inclosed in a slender frame, which was covered
with a splendid blue and silver robe. In it was the
Queen, whom few persons in the world, beyond
her immediate attendants and family, have ever
seen. A splendid scarlet umbrella was held over the
palanquin. Macebearers attended her, eunuchs and
officers of state preceded and followed her. The
pressure of the crowd to get a glimpse of her was
intense, and the gigantic eunuchs were in agony.
The difficulty of' getting her Majesty into the car-
riage without being seen was immense. At length a
screen was placed against the body of the carriage,
and her Majesty was just in the act of stepping in
when, horror of horrors ! two men were detected on
the coachman's box, looking deliberately into the
carriage, and about to stare her Majesty in the face.
A shout of indignation drove them from their ex-
alted post, to the infinite relief of the courtiers. A
mass of drapery was spread over the door of the car-
riage, and her Majesty was safely and secretly housed.
The Mayor, in company with Major Bird, and at-
tended by the chief of the eunuchs, then went to the
door of the carriage, and was formally introduced to
her Majesty through the apertures of a Venetian
blind with which the door of the carriage was fur-
nished. Captain Brandon acted as interpreter to the
13egum. The Prince of Surat and suite then, ac-
cording to the custom of their country, each pre-
sented a sum of money to the Queen, which was
passed through the blind of the carriage by the chief
of the eunuchs. The Mayor was then conducted
into the vessel, and introduced to the Prince and
his uncle.

Soon afterwards the heir-apparent to the throne of
Oude, escorted by his worship and followed by his
uncle, left the ship and entered the carriage prepared
for them. Two finer-looking princes one would not
wish to see. The heir-apparent is a youth about
five feet six inches in height, with a thin lithe
figure, and looking not certainly more than eighteen
years of age. His face was of a pale brown colour,
and his eye bright and intelligent. His uncle, the
heir-presumptive, is a handsome stout-built man,
regal in appearance. They were both gorgeously
dressed, their head-dresses being in the shape of a
helmet, and glittering with the lustre of precious
stones. Their appearance seemed to strike the
crowd who witnessed their landing with astonish-
ment, and an involuntary burst of admiration, in the
shape of a hurrah, took place. The young prince
evidently did not know what to mice of the ap-
plause, and paused and looked about him with great
dignity. His uncle lifted the back of his hand to
his forehead and smiled. As soon as the princes
were seated, the mayor of the town and Major Bird,
the agent, entered the same carriage, and drove off
to the Royal York Hotel. The whole of the suite
soon followed in omnibuses, flys, and cabs, and ap
peered highly amused. As soon as the princes
reached the hotel, an immense crowd gathered round
it, and called for the princes. The latter were led
on to the balcony by Major Bird, who addressed the
crowd, stating that the object of the visit of the
princes to this country was to claim from Englishmen
an investigation into their grievances, and demand
that justice should be done them.

The jury upon the late colliery explosion in Gla•
morganshire have returned a verdict of "man-
slaughter" again-t Morgan Thomas, the manager ;
Rowland, the overman ; and Jones, Thomas, and
Rowland, the firemen of the pit.

SATURDAY,

Clititary.

BERTRAM ARTHUR, 17TH EARL OF SHREWSBURY,
died at Lisbon, of consumption, on the 10th inst., in
his twenty-fourth year. His lordship was the only
son of the late Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Thomas
Talbot, nephew of Charles, 15th Earl, by Ju:ia, third
daughter of the late Sir Henry Joseph Tichborne,
Bart. (since married to Mr. Washington Halbert, of
Bilton Grange, near Rugby), and was born Decem•
her 11, 1832. He was premier earl in the English
and Irish peerages, Vice-Admiral of Cheshire, a
Deputy Lieutenant for Staffordshire, and High
Steward of Allbrighton in the same county ; he also
held the honorary distinctions of a Knight Com-
mander of Malta, and a Knight Grand Cross of the
Order of Pope Pius IX., and was about to be nomi-
nated a Knight of the Order of St. Patrick. Lord
Shrewsbury also claimed the office of Hereditary
Lord High Steward of Ireland, and his claim was
under the consideration of the Houss of Lords,
having been referred to a Committee of Privileges,
when his death supervened. He had been for some
months in delicate health, and by his will the pro-
perty of Alton Towers and the other estates have
been devised to Lord Edmund Bernard Howard,
second son of the present Duke of Norfolk, now in
his third year, with remainder to his Grace's other
younger sons, and to his brother, Lord Edward
Howard, M.P., who is married to the late earl's
cousin, Miss Augusta Talbot. The death of Lord
Shrewsbury makes the Earl of Derby the premier
Earl of England, and the Earl of Cork the premier
Earl of Ireland.

AN EMINENT LITERARY CORRESPONDENT of tho
Times this week heads his letter with " Where's the
Police!" and, after humbly submitting that he does
not complain of being garotted, for he has long
ago made up his mind, if he be so foolish as to walk
through the streets of a night, to be garotted or
robbed, proceeds to detail the misery in which he
lives "in a broad, well-lighted street." His house
has been robbed three times in as many years :

The first time the thief was caught by my brother, who
came in from an evening party at an inconvenient moment
for the burglar. The man confessed that he was going to
a " job " in Weatbourne•terrace, but, seeing one of my
drawing•rsom windows open, he had mounted the area
railings, " swarmed" up the pillar of the doorway, and so
entered the house. He had three months, and the police
say, "Ah l that was So-and•so he's still at it." The
second time the robbers descended the area, burst open
one of the kitchen windows, then prised a door from its
hinges, and coming upstairs bad nearly the whole house
at their command, for the greater part of my family were
out of town. They carried off enough to have filled a cab,
of plate, wearing apparel, guns, clocks—in fact, the con-
tents of an entire catalogue of a miscellaneous Covent-
garden sale.
The detectives came; showed me how the affair had
been managed—which I already knew; told me how
successful they had been somewhere else in bagging the
thief—which I did not know ; came again to tell me
nothing further had been found out, drank my health, and
we parted Two years are supposed to elapse between the
second and third part. The windows, in the interim, have
been guarded, the doors strengthened, and spring bells
put to the sills and shutters. My plate has been re-
placed by German silver, which, kept clean, divides fish
and raises fruit from the plate equally well ; anything
particularly valuable is at my banker's, and the family
mind is generally easier, more especially as ray biother
and myself both sleep with loaded revolvers at our beds'
heads. But for the last six or seven months I have
noticed ruffianly fellows lurking about the street when I
have come from my club ; and once, whirling round the
corner in a Handsome, and pulling up sharp at my door,
I found a " roue." examining the keyhole. I have men-
tioned this from time to time to the policemen on the
beat—when I have met them—and they have promised a
closer attention. But still the blackguards have haunted
the neighbourhood.

"Last Sunday morning," he continues, "at alquarter
past five o'clock, with broad daylight over London,
and early excursionists on the move, I awoke sud-
denly, hearing the alarum of the street door go off
and the door close directly afterwards. In half a
minute my brother and I were downstairs." His
house had been robbed again. They had got in on
the old style, over the cistern, and through the
kitchen window :

The inspectors and detectives, as usual, came next day,
and a similar interview took piece—al course without result.
All I could glean was, that, what with the ticket-of•lesve
men and the disembodied militia, this was nothing to what
might be expected as soon as the long nights began!
The writer concludes with a strong appeal against
this frightful insecurity of life and property, and
solemnly declares his future intention to " shoot
dead the first scoundrel ha catches robbing the
house."

The office of Inspector General of Infantry, to
which the Duke of Cambridge had been nominated
before Lord Hardinge's resignation of the Command-
in-Chief, will, we have reason to believe, be filled by
Lieutenant-General Sir Colin Campbell, G.C.B.—
Globe.

AUGUST 23, 1856.

yittraturt.

Pictures of Travel. Translated from the
German of Henry Heine, by Charles G.

Leland. London: Triibner.
IT is a pity that translation does not rank
higher in literary efforts. Heine is a writer
who would richly repay the trouble of any
competent author who would undertake to
present an English version of his works ; but
as yet the German poet has not been fortunate
in our tongue. On his general characteristics
as a thinker and writer we need not now
enter, as we discussed them in reviewing Mr.
Wallis's translations (ante, p. 352). We ob•
serve, however, that a strong posthumous
interest exists about Heine, and that, with all
his faults of bitterness and mocking levity,
numbers like to peruse his moody, yet
musical, effusions.
The faults of Heine, and his eccentricities,
commend him to the regard of so "queer" a
public as the Americans. In our settled and
sober country writers like Heine can only ob-
tain a timid recognition. Their works are
treated like poison bottles by chemists, used
cautiously, and kept apart by themselves.
Scoffers never have been popular with Eng-
lish society. The Deists of the days of
Toland and Collins were sober, grave, and
argumentative, rather than sneering or jocose ;
and the English mind would not much ap-
prove of genius when allied with so much
morbidness as was in Heine's nature.

For a certain portion of the American
world, however. Heine is the author calculated
to please. A quasi-philosophical school has
grown up at the other side of the Atlantic,
and strange books are written and read by it,
and we observe that it is beginning to influ-
ence some classes of English society, who
may be described as " Americanised." As
conservators of the proprieties of English
literature, critics will henceforward have to
repel the incursions of American style.
The translator of the present volume intro-
duces his subject it a preface, where we meet
with passages like the following :

Whether Heine's genius and influence has been inva-
riably and immediately exerted for good or for evil, is, and
ever should be, for the impartial student of literature and
of history, a matter of supreme indifference. The greatest
and most important developments are those whose real
aims and value are first appreciated by posterity. If pro-
gress be the peculiar law of humanity, it is not less cer-
tain that agitation is the mainspring of progress, and that,
as a general rule, all agitations, however disagreeable they
may have appeared to contemporaries, have advanced the
world. Those who extol the advantages of civilisation,
and yet decry Alexander and Cesar, the Crusades, the
French Revolution and Napoleon, resemble the lady who
loved veal but would fain have the butcher punished for
cruelty.

The first thought in that passage is calculated
to startle. The sentiment would be " as-
" tonishing, if true." The illustration of the
veal-loving lady hitched into the same sen-
tence with Alexander and Caesar is of that
grotesque sort which passes for " original "
with the rabid admirers of Mr. Carlyle.
The continuation, also, is in the Carlylian
style:—
In an extended common-sense view, those who thus lose
all thought of the effect in the cause, are no better than
thoughtless thieves, who would fain defraud the Spirit of
Progress of the high yet legal price which he sets upon
his wares. Such goods as happiness, and improved social
culture, can only be bought for blood and suffering. Such
is the law, but we must, in justice to the merchant, admit,
that as his business has improved and his run of custom
increased, he has shown a commendable alacrity in lower-
mg his prices.
Further on we are informed that—
Heine most emphatically belongs to that class of writers
who are a scandal to the weaker brethren, a terror to the
strong, and a puzzle to the conservatively wise of their own
day and generation, but who are received by the intelligent
contemporary with a smile, and •by the after-corner with
thanks. He belongs to that great band, whose laughter
has been in its inner soul more moving than the most
fervid flow of serious eloquence—to the band which num-
bered Lucian and Rabelais, and Swift, among its members
—men who lashed into motion the sleepy world of the day,
with all its " baroque-ish " virtues and vices.
The translator does not understand the
spirit of his author. Heine was a poet at
heart. There was wailing pathos and lyrical
sweetness, and vivid fancy, in his writings :
he was bitter, not heartless ; and had nothin

THE PRESS.

of the riotous spirits of Rabelais or Swift,
and little of the sustained airiness of Lucian.
The volume contains both poetry and prose,
and a vast mass of matter is compressed into
its pages ; and, as Heine is now attracting
much curiosity, we shall give some extracts.
The translator succeeds best in prose. His
verses want finish and melody, but they often
contain the thoughts of the original author.
Here is a fine thought put into a picture in a
manner highly characteristic of Heine:—
Calm is the night, and the city is sleeping,—
Once in this house dwelt a lady fair ;
Long, long ago, she left it, weeping,
But still the old house is standing there.
Yonder a man at the heavens is staring,
Wringing his hands as in sorrowful case :
He turns to the moonlight, his countenance baring—
Oh, heaven ! he shows me my own sad face !
Shadowy form, with my own agreeing ;
Why mockest thou thus, in the moonlight cold,
The sorrows which here once vexed my being,
Many a night in the days of old ?
But the translator's verse hobbles most la-
mentably, and betrays want of ear and prac-
tice. The following poem is rendered with
partial success. Its comic gusto can certainly
be appreciated :
They gave me advice and council in store,
P•aised me and honoured me, more and more ;
Said that I only should " wait awhile."
Offered their patronage too, with a smile.
But with all their honour and approbation,
I should, long ago, have died of starvation;
Had there not come an excellent man,
Who bravely to help me along began.
Good fellow !—he got me the food I ate,
His kindness and care I shall never forget ;
Yet I cannot embrace him—though other folks can,
For I myself am this excellent man !
The following is also executed with tolerable
success :
This world and this life are too broken for me,
And therefore a German professor I'll be ;
He can well put all the fragments together,
Into a system, convenient and terse ;
While with his night•cap, and dressing•robe tatters,
He'll stop up the chinks of the wide Universe.
The sentiment of the original is preserved in
the following, but the third stanza as rendered
by the translator is feeble :
And those are still the heavenly eyes,
Which mine would gently greet;
And those are still the coral lips,
Which once made life so sweet.
'Tis the same voice of melody,
I once so gladly heard ;
I, only, am no more the same,
But changed in thought and word.
Now by those white and rounded arms,
I'm passionately pressed ;
And 1;e upon her heart and feel,
Gloomy and ill at rest.
But such doggrel as the following is unpar-
donable :

Scarce had we met, when, in glance and in tone,
I saw that your favorable notice I'd got :
And if we had only been standing alone,
I really believe we'd have kissed on the spot.
There is too much of the same slipshod style
in the versification of this translator.

In politics Heine was a continental
"Liberal" of that incongruous school which
admired Napoleon, and looked with hope to
George Canning. Heine's appreciation of the
peculiar intellectual gifts of Napoleon is
thoroughly critical, and there is deep truth
in the following passage :

Napoleon's spirit saw through that which we learn by
weary analytical reflection, and long deduction of conse-
quences, and comprehended it in one and the same
moment. Thence came his talent to understand his age,
to cajole its spirit into never abusing him, and being ever
profitable to him.
But as this spirit cf the age is not only revolutionary,
but is formed by the antagonism of both sides, the revolu-
tionary and the counterrevolutionary, so did Napoleon act,
not according to either alone, but according to the spirit of
both principles, both efforts, which found in him their
union, and he accordingly always acted naturally, simply,
and greatly; never convulsively and harshly—ever com-
posed and calm. Therefore he never intrigued in details,
and his striking effects were ever brought about by his
ability to comprehend and to bend the masses to his will.
Little analytical souls incline to entangled, wearisome in-
trigues, while, on the contrary, synthetic intuitive spirits
understand in a wondrously genial manner, so to avail
themselves of the means which are afforded them by the
present, as quickly to turn them to their own advantage.
The former often founder, because no mortal wisdom can
foresee all the events of life, and life's relations are never
long permanent ; the latter, on the contrary, the intuitive
men, succeed most easily in their designs, as they only
require an accurate computation of that which is at hand,
and act so quickly, that their calculations are not miscar•

807

ried by any ordinary agitation, or by any sudden unfore-
seen changes.
It is a fortunate coincidence that Napoleon lived just in
an age which had a remarkable inclination for history, tor
research, and for publication. Owing to this cause, thanks
to the memoirs of contemporaries, but few particulars of
Napoleon's life have been withheld from us, and the num-
ber of histories which represent him as more or leu allied
to the rest of the world, increase every day.
That was written in 1826, and all the revela-
tions of Napoleon since then, especially his
private correspondence with King J useph, prove
what Heine, after Kant, calls his " intuitive
synthesis." Without " synthesis " there cannot
be wholeness of aim, or largeness of view; and
without intuition there cannot be promptitude
of perception. Napoleon possessed these in the
highest degree, and he also had amazing
energy. Goethe had synthetic and intuitive
faculties, but he lacked the physical hardi-
hood and iron nerve required for a Napoleon.
The speculations of Heine on the politics of
thirty years since, have sometimes been con-
firmed, but often refuted, by events. The
following passage is interesting, and has pcint,
in spite of its obvious errors, even at the pre-
sent time :

It really seems as though more spiritual than material
interests were now being fought out, and as though
universal history were no longer a robber•legend, but a
ghost story. The grand lever which ambitious and avari-
cious princes were once wont to employ so industriously—
that is to say, nationality, with all its vanity and hatred, is
now musty and used up ; day by day the ridiculous preju-
dices of races are disappearing; all harsh peculiarities are
disappearing in the universality of European civilisation,
there are nu longer nations but parties, and it is wonderful
to behold how these, despite the most varied colours,
recognise each other, and make themselves mutually in-
telligible, notwithstanding the difference of language. As
there is a material policy of States, so there is also a spiri-
tual party policy ; and as the States' policy would quickly
bring to a general, zealous European war the smallest
strife which should sprisig up between the smallest powers,
where interest is the governing principle, so, on the other
hand, the smallest strife could not take place in which,
owing to the party policy already alluded to, the general
spiritual tendencies and meanings would not be at once
understood, and by which the most distant and hetero-
geneous parties would find themselves compelled to take
side pro or contra.
On account of this party policy, which I call a spiritual
policy, because its interests are more spiritual and its
ultinus rationes not metallic, they now form, as if by the
medium of the States' policy, two great masses opposed to
each other, fighting with glance and word. The watchwords
and representatives of these two great parties change day
by day—there is no lack of confusion—the greatest mis-
understandings often arise, and these are often rather in-
creased than explained by the authors, who form the
diplomatists of the spiritual party; but though heads may
err, hearts still feel what they need, and time presses on
with her great question.

There is, doubtless, an important truth in the
distinction between " a material state policy "
and "a spiritual state policy." Some countries
are successful by pursuit of the first, and
others by the last. In commercial empires
there is always a dangerous tendency to a
merely " material policy."
The " English Fragments " (more pro.
perly " Fragments on England ") translated in
this volume are often acute, but on the whole
they are not equal to their anther's reputation.
Heine could not appreciate Wellington, but at
that time (1828) the Great Duke did not
receive proper recognition from his own
countrymen. He writes, also, of " the noble
Canning," and " the wretched Castlereagh,"
and some of his canting democracy excites
disgust. But the following passage on Lon-
don echoes the feelings of many fanciful
natures :

I have seen the greatest wonder which the world cart
show to the astonished spirit, I have seen it and am still
astonished—and still there remains fixed in my memory the
stone forest of houses, and amid them the rushing
stream of faces of living men with all their motley passions,
all their terrible impulses of love, of hunger, and of hatred
mean London.
Send a philosopher to London, but, for your life, no poet
Send a philosopher there, and stand him at a corner of
Cheapside, where he will learn more than from all the
books of the last Leipsio fair; and a S the billows of human
life roar around him, so will a sea of new thoughts rise
before him, and the Eternal Spirit which moves upon the
face of the waters will breathe upon him ; the most hidden
secrets of social harmony will be suddenly revealed to him,
he will hear the pulse of the world beat audibly, and see it
visibly—for, if London is the right hand of the world—its
active mighty right hand—then we may regard the route
which leads from the Exchange to Downing-street as the
world's pyloric artery.
. . _ . .

..
But never send a poet to London! This downright
earnestness of all things, this colossal uniformity, this
machine-like movement, this troubled spirit in pleasure
itself, this exaggerated London, smothers the imagination
and rends the heart. And should you ever send a German
poet thitherww dreamer, who stares at everythiog, ev. a