The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-02 00:00:00

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 2, 1858.

house. " The Light on the Hearth " concludes, as it
began, in an interesting style, but a somewhat stem
der substratum of story. The article on ballad-
poetry is a tasteful literary essay, and agreeably
diversifies the number.
Fraser this month is about an average number.
It commences with a ghost story by Whyte Melville—
rather pointless. Then wo have a capital account of
the murder of two women by a priest in Germany in
1803; then a lively memoir of Mr. Ford. The in •
stalment of the serial is much as usual. We have
never admired " Hanworth " from its commence-
ment, and the present number has wrought no
change in our opinions. "Hints for Vagabonds" is
a very amusing article. The following bit is perhaps
rather too funny, but still it is ingeniously quaint.
It is the description of a village band by the
Moselle :
After a little yon perceive that the conductor is in some-
thing the same position as the huntsman of a scratch pack
of hounds; the dogs, as individuals, are good dogs, but
there is a ittle ton much individuality among them. They
threw off gallantly, and dashed out of cover in a style that
could scarcely be surpassed by the Royal Italian or Mr.
Costa's pack ; and while the scent is strong over the open-
ing movement, they keep well together. But before long
there are unmistakeable signs of an impending check.
First Cornet all but throws up. Bass-viol shows a
disposition to run hare after a tune of his own. Sax-
horn scarcely acknowledges the scent; but Clarionet holds
to it steadily, and the conductor caps them on for another
burst. Fortunately, here they come on a fine stretch of
low movement, and work beautifully together. A little
lot of allegro intervenes, which they go at breast high, and
get over capitally. But at the other side they are at fault
ligain. That inveterate skirter Trombone is at his old
tricks. Little Piccolo, a giddy young thing, is running
heel wildly. Conductor is desperate ; he taps his desk
madly. All seems lost. But no ; old Clarionet has it
still ; good old dog, he never gave gave it up ; he flourishes
a bit—he breaks away. Hark to Clarionet ! Off they go
once more, and run into the finale with a crash. Then all
clear out, and dancing sets in severely all over the town.
Every house that has a floor and a fiddler becomes an
extempore Almack's.
Of the remaining articles there are none of any
striking excellence. "The Political Pulpit of the
Civil War " is very well ; " How I Killed a Cariboo "
much the same. "Du Berths "is a curious literary
essay, and "British Columbia and Vancouver" is a
careful and readable paper enough.
Although the Dublin University Magazine is
generally well written, it is from some cause or
anather less interesting than it twilit to be. In the
present number we can only find two articles which
in our opinion possess this latter qualification ; they
are " Recent Travels in Sardinia " and " Theological
Styles." The former we praise because it is a legi•
timate "review," and well done. The latter could
scarcely fail to be interesting, though shorter and
more sketchy than we like. We differ from the
author, however, on two points. We can see no
humour in Mr. Kingsley ; it is, in fact, just the thing
he wants. And we certainly think that Mr. New-
man's " Romanism " has not spoiled his style ; wit-
ness his last work on the office and work of univer-
sities, which contained some exquisite!), beautiful
passages. "Our Foreign Courier" is a nice summary
of foreign literature.

Bentley and the New Monthly contain their usual
tales by the authors of " Ashley " and " Moat
Grange," the usual literary articles of Monkshood
and Sir Nathaniel, and two or three papers on travel
and other foreign subjects. The stories aforesaid
are told with remarkable skill, and constitute quite a
unique feature in these two magazines.
The National Magazine, the Englishwoman's
Journal, Davenport Dunn, and the Gordian Knot
have all arrived too late to enable us to notice them
in our present issue.

MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S NEW PUBLICA•
TIONM.—We have received a list of new works issued
by this weltknown firm for tho forthcoming season;
which comprises many works of great promise on
various literary subjects.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED—SEr. 30.
BOOKS.
Gunnery in 1858; the Newest Improvement in Firearms.
By Wm. Greener, C.E.—Smith and Elder.
How we are Governed. By A. Fonblanque.—Routledge.
The Theory and Practice of Composition for Schools and
Private Students. By W. Hunter, LL.D.—Sangster.
Tales and Adventures. By J. G. F.—Saunders end Otley.
The Life of Charlotte Bronti. By E. C. Gaskell.—Smith
and Elder.
Paid Ferrol!. A Tale. By the Author of IX. Poems by
V." Fourth Edition.—Smith and Elder.
Old Gingerbread and the Schoolboys. By the Author of
"Uncle Jack," ite —Smith and Elder.
Rhymes for Little Ones,—Smith and Elder.
Homely Ballads. By Mary Sewell.—Scoith and Elder.
The Poetical Works of Robert Story.—Longmsns.
Clare, the Goldseeker ; the Elfin Revel ; and Other Poems.
By John George Watts.—Groombridge.
A New Classical Lexicon of Biography, Mythology, and
Geography. By Thomas S. Carr, M.A.—Simpkin and
Marshall.

The Elements of Social Science. fly a Student of Medicine.

—Truelove.
A Course of Exercises in German. By Fetich Lebahn, Ph.
Dr.—Simpkin and Marshall
The Court Journal Register, 1858.—Thomas.
The Secret of a Life. By M. M. Bell.—Routledge.
Agricultural Chemistry. By A. Sileson.—Routledge.
The (Roaming of Life. A Memoir of James Stirling. By
the Rev. A. Wallace.—Temperance League, Glasgow.
History of Friedrich 11. of Prussia. By Thomas Carlyle.
Vole I. and 11.—Chapman and Hall.
My Lady. A Tale of Modern Life.—Smith and Elder.
Curiosities of Literature. By Isaac Disraeli. Vol 11.
Routledge.
The Struggles of a Village Lad —Tweedie.

Thoughts on Church Matters.—Saunders and Otley.
The Atlantic Telegraph. By E. 0. Whitehouse.—Bradbury

and Evans.
A Reading Party in the Long Vacation —W. Blackwood

_
and hone.
Father Tom and the Pope.—W. Blackwood and Sons.
Tales from " Blackwood."—W. Blackwood and Sons.
The Political Eronomist.—Trnelove. •
7'he Lifeboat ; or, Journal of the National Lifeboat Ins fits
tion.—C. Knight.

PERIODICALS.
Roulledqe's Shakespeare. " Measure for Measure."
The Westminster Review.
The London Review.
The National Review.
Art Union.

Sabbath Evenings : The In/an! Son, St. John. By Dr.
Itimbault. Parts I. and IL—Hammond.
Home, Sweet Home. Transcribed for the Pianoforte. fly

G. A. Osborne.—Hammond.
Semirarnide. By G. A. Osborne.—Hammond.
Il Balen Del Sad Sorriso. By G. A. Osborne.—Hammond.
Dal Tuo Stellalo. fly G. A. Osborne.—Hammond.
Assur (Airs by Rossini). By G. A. Osborne.—Hammond.
Arsace ( Airs by Rossini). By G. A. Osborne.—Hammond.
La Grazia, Andantino, pour le Piano. Par W. C. Selle.—

Hammond.
Cujea Animan. By Roasini.—Hammond.
The Bloom upon the Cherry Tree.—D'Altnaine.
Itimbault's Opera Music Books for the Pianoforte, without

Voices. Nos. 49 and 50.—D'Almnine.
Henry's Royal Modern Tutor for the Pianoforte.—D'Almaine
The Early Dream. Words by Carpenter, Music by Glover.

—Williams.
'Tie the Hour for Music. Ditettino. Words by Carpenter,
Music by H. Farmer.—Williams.
Sing me a Song of Summer Days. Words by Mrs. Newton
Crossland, Music by Mactatren.—Williams.
Sunshine and Cloud. Words by Carpenter, Music by

_
Peal( Drops. Mazurka ►ur the Pianoforte. By Ricardo

- - .
L'Espalier de Roses ; Mazurka Brillante. Par Adrien
Talexe.—Wilhams.

z4e gram a.

THE OLYMPIC.—A comedietta by Mr. Wooler, ,
entitled A Twice-told Tale, was produced for the first
time at this theatre on Monday. The title is certainly
apposite, for from the day:: of Athelwold and Elfrida
down to modern times incident; similar to that oa
which the author has founded his plot have not been
wanting. Mr. Barnacle Breezeley is by no means
the only gentleman who has been commissioned to
woo a wife for another, nor was Mr. Percy Gauntlett
the exception when he confided a negotiation so deli-
cate in its nature to his fides achates. Such was the
position fortified by precedent of two of the prin-
cipal parties in this twice-told tale—the prize which
both seek and one wins being a lady who is not
only undeniably eligible as a match, but perfectly
willing to make one. Mr. Breezeley was not a faith-
ful ambassador. He told Mr. Gauntlett the lady
was ugly, and his friend declared off. He vowed to
the lady herself she was beautiful, and dropcing his
representative character he became one of the con
tracting parties to a matrimonial alliance. Retribu-
tion and his injured friend were, however, about to
visit him, and in this awkward dilemma Barnacle
was driven to the desperate expedient of
passing off Mrs. Breezeley as an unmarried
woman, and her friend Miss Mannerly as his
own wife. Gauntlett, however, has discovered t::s
deception which has been practised upon him, and
turns it to a good account by waking violent love to
the real Mrs. Breezeley. The husband is distracted
by jealousy, which he seeks to drown in copious
libations of brandy, while the fair wife by no means
relishes the false position in which she is placed.
The mental tortures of the modern Athelwold are
not, however. destined to last; and when Mr.
Percy Gauntlett avows his marriage with Miss
Mannerly, whose womanly graces have cap•
tivated his heart, and thus leaves his re-
pentant friend in undisputed possession of
his wife, the result was equally satisfactory to all
the parties. If this little comedy, like the usual run
of such pieces, be wanting in novelty of design, it is
treated with a freshness which atones for the defi-
ciency. The dialogue, which is smartly written
and well sustained throughout, renders it extremely

965

diverting, and when the curtain fell the applause of
the audience afforded unmistakable evidence of the
author's success. Mr. Lewis Ball, as Mr. Barnacle
Breezeley, acted the part with spit it, and yet free from
exaggeration. Mr. Walter Gordon, as Percy Gaunt-
lett, Miss Wyndham as his wife, and Miss Hughes
the female friend whose opportune presence
smoothed away all difficulties, also exerted themselves
with effect to give eclat to the piece., which was well
put on the stage.

THE lisystautET.—The event of the week was the
appearance of Miss Eliza Weeks, who has acquired a
fair provincial reputation in the character of Mote.
Golochard, in The King's Gardener. Possessed of
a pleasing manner and good a VOIC3, this young lady
will doubtless, when she has acquired greater expe-
rience, become a favourite with a London audience.
The week's programme included several attractive
pieces, amongst which was the popular farce, Lend
Me Five Shillings, which gives full scope for Mr.
Buckstone's inimitable acting in his original cha-
racter of Mr. Golightly. The house has been there-
fore well filled on each performance. A new comedy,
by Mr. Bayle Bernar.l, is in preparation, and will be
immediately produced.
THE STRAND.—Mr. Charles Selby, whose produc-
tive powers as a dramatic writer would app3ar to
have no fixed limit, has again achieved a success in
a new farce, My Aunt's Husband, which was pro-
duced on Monday. A certain Mrs. Moulsey Miffins,
whose weakness is a love of prying into the domestic
concerns of her friends, has come to the conclusion
that one of them, a fair widow, has so far forgotten
her first husband and the provisions of his will as to
have married a Captain Touchwood. She accord-
ingly communicates her suspicions to Mr. and
Mrs. Nettletop, on wham the property enjoyable by
the lady during her widowhood would devolve in the
event of her re-marriage. The author has masked
a keen satire on matrimonial life, when he makes
the bickerirlgs of Captain Touchwood and his lady
the basis on which Mrs. Moulsey Miffins grounds
her doubts. With such an object to feed their
rapacity, the Nettletops adopt every available means
to make the grand discovery, but they are defeated
by the counterplots of the gallant captain himself,
aided by Mr. Nettletop's own man, Sniggers, whose
admiration for Mrs. Touchwood's maid, Kitty
Crinoline, is superior to his devotion to his master's
interests. The state of dread and hope as to the con-
sequence of a revelation which could not long be de-
laced however, happily put an end to by the dis-
covery of a second will which left the lady whose fortune
was aimed at as the prize of her rapacious relatives
free to marry whom and when she pleased. The
piece was very cleverly acted throughout, and the
drolleries of Mr. Clarke as the eccentric footman, and
the smartness of Miss M. Ternan as the ready-witted
soubrette, kept the audience in roars of laughter.
Miss Swanborongh as the lady whose energies were
directed to toil the attacks of her grasping relatives,
and Mr. Swanhorough as her military spouse, also
materially contributed to the success which this last
of many novelties unmistakably achieved.
THE PRINCESS'S.—Mr. Charles Kean, after a brief
repose from the onerous duties of his successful
management, will reopen this evening with the farce
of Dying for Lore, to be followed by The Merchant of
Venice, one of the best of the Shaksperian " revivals ^
at this popular and fashionable house.

Amongst the theatrical events of the week, we note
the reopening of the SURREY for the winter season,
under the enterprizing management of Messrs.
Shepherd and Creswick. Mr. Dalby has contri-
buted to the scenic decorations a new drop-curtain
painted in imitation of white satin. The inaugura-
tion of the season was marked by the production of
no less than three new pieces—The Branded Race, a
tragic drama, by Mr. Wooler ; a melodrama, entitled
Harold Hawk, or the Convict's Vengeance, by Mr.
Selby ; and a capital farce by Mr. Bruton, under the
taking title of What's your Game ? The Lyceum
still trusts to Extremes, or Men of the Day ; with
the ballet of The Rendezvous, which we have already
noticed. And at Drury Lane the Pyne and
Harrison company continue the attractions of Eng-
lish opera.