The Press.
London, England, 1854-02-04 00:00:00

.....

THE PRESS

Fraser has this month eleven articles, besides two
continuations, viz., the third chapter of a new tale by
the clever author of " Digby Grand." and the second
part of " The Decline and Fall of the Corporation of
London." The latter treats of " a river in dial-
" culties," and certainly the Thames seems to have
been hardly dealt with by its masters the aldermen.
The third article adds another to the many tributes
that have been paid to the genius of Matthew Arnold.
In " Parliamentary Reform from Within " various
plans for enabling members to discharge their
laborious duties more easily and quickly are dis-
cussed ; but perhaps the most interesting article of
all is one on Russia and the smaller northern
maritime powers. It is written by one who has seen
what he describes, and, though it commences with an
allusion not intended to be complimentary to ourselves,
justice compels u to admit that we perused it with
interest and pleasure. The writer's estimate of the
Russian naval power is very low, the sails and cord-
age, which are excellent, excepted ; every other con-
stituent of a fleet is of the worst kind ; the timber is
rotten, and the men—but the author shall speak for
himself :
" Their very dress and discipline would unfit a Jack Tar
from performing his duty of able seaman. Stiff-padded,
tight laced military coats, with jack-boots, swords, cart-
ridge-boxes, and shako to match, are not favourable to men
engaged in hauling aft the mainsheet., in hauling down the
studding-sails, in putting the helm a lee, or letting go the
anchor. A chopping, a heavy, or a high sea, a seer chains-
Mute, a seer dare, or grease seer, to use the nautical terms of
our neighbours, a sou'-western tornado, or a surf, are not
known in the Baltic, which produces only fresh-water, or
at best brackish, sailors."
After stating that a general system of embezzlement
prevails amongst the officers, the manner in which
those ill-gotten gains are expended :
" Days and nights ate successively consumed in playing
cards, or in shaking the dice-box, during which time immense
quantities of Barclay's and Guinness's stout, at Is. Bd. the
bottle, and of Jacquesson's champagne, at 10s. the bottle,
are imbibed by those engaged in these unseamanlike occu-
pations. These practices relax discipline, destroy the
moral character, and soon unfit an officer for active service.
Every officer in a Russian ship has his own furniture, and
it may thence be supposed what a motley collecton of arti-
cles is aboard. Some of the officers are given to music ;
others to painting; others, again, to turning; others to
scents, essences, cookery, and good cheer ; and it is no
uncommon thing to find pianofortes, bass-viols, bassoons,
cornopeans, ean-de•Cologne, eau Rose, eau flotot, kid
gloves, scented snuffs, tobaoco, and cigars, together with
casseroles, batteries de cuisine, &c., stowed away in the
lieutenants', middies', or ,captains' cabins, alongside of
easels, pictures, Dalian music, rings, watches, jewels,
diamond-studs, aiiiil llrrtficsl seafrboxes, mingled here and
there with George • Sand's, Paul de Rock's, and Eugene
Sue's novels, and engravings of St. Nicholas, St. Andrew,
or St. Alexander Newsky."
Os the whole the present number of the Dublin
University Magazine is a very good one, and con-
tains that variety of matter which readers of maga-
zines desire. There is a very curious and readable
article on "The Food of the Irish," in which fun
and philosophy, droll stories and dreary statistics,
are mingled together with a mixture of the serious
and burlesque. The writer amuses but does not
satisfy us; nevertheless his productions are well
suited for a popular periodical. We are disappointed
with the article on "Thomas Moore." It is com-
posed of extracts that have gone the round of all the
newspapers ; and surely in an Irish magazine of the
rank of the University we ought to expect a more
philosophical discussion of the poet's character, when
the whole literary world has beln talking of the pain •
fnl exposure of "poor Moore." The articles on the
" Garrick Club Gallery" are not interesting, and
read like reprints of Baker's " Biographia Drama-
tics." But, taken altogether, the present is an im-
provement on recent numbers of this well-sustained

Bentley's Monthly Review, as usual, contains ava
riety of literary matter of fair average quality, pre-
sented to the reader' in somewhat greater volume
and at a cheaper price than in the generality of
its compeers.

The remaining specimens of our periodical literature we are
compelled, by the pressure of other subjects, to postpone
till next week.]

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Boons.
The New Testament in Greek, with English Notes. Edited
by the Rev. J. F. Mackmiehael, B.A. Whittaker & Co.
The Ballad of Babe Christabel, with other Poems. By
Gerald Massey. 1). Bogue.
The Annotated Edition of the English Ports," Surrey end
Others." Edited by Robert Bell. J. W. Parker.: Son.
The Constitution of the United States compared with our
Own. By H. S. Tremenheere. J. Murray
The Works of Oliver Goldsmith. Vol. H. Edited hy
Peter Cunningham, F.S.A. J. Murray.

NEW PERIODICALS.
Part 1.

AV. S. Orr.

115

PAMPHLETS.
The Law of Partnership an Obstacle to Social Progress.
By Woodfonle Ffooks, Esq. W. G. penning.
Christ flee only Sacrificing Priest wader the Gospel. A
Sermon preached in the Church of St. Agustine,
Bristol, by the Bev. T. C. I'rice, BI.A. Hatchard
and St n.
The Handbook tit the Eastern Question. By L. F. Simpson,
111.8.5. L. Hope and Co.
E.rtra-National Taxation. A Letter to the Chancellor of

the Exchequer, by John Pace.
Parliamentary Reform considned under the Views sug-
gested by Evidence given before Election Committees.
Piper, Stephenson, and Co.
The Journal of Industrial Progress. Edited by W. K.
Sullivan. Dublin : W. Kelly.
Palmerston in Thrce Epochs. By Washington Wilka.
AV. Freeman.
Decimal Coinage. A Short and Easy Method of
Changing the Present Currency into the Decimal
System. T. Ridgway.
A Letter to the Electors of Cambridge on Change in the
Reform Bill. By the Hon. W. E. Campbell.
J. Ridgway.
How to do without the Customs and Excise. Smith,
Elder, and Co.
An Examimetion of the Late Church Rates. By W.
Williams. J. Ridgway.
Expose of the Royal Academy of Arts. By Thos. Skuife.
Piper, Stephenson, and CO.
Remarks addressed to the Rer. Dr. Vaughan in Reply to his
Recent Letter to Viscount Palmerston. By Anti-Monitor.
J. Ridgway.
Facts from Gireedore. Compiled from Notes by Lord
George Hill, M.R.S.A. Dixon, Hardy, ant Sons.
National Education in Scotland. Reprinted from Black-
wood's Magazine. W. Blackwood and Sons?
Who's to Blume The Prince, the Press, or the Ministry.
By l'lain•Speech. Freeman

E4e prama.

DRURY-LANE THEATRE.
GREAT is the faith of Mr. Gustavus Brooke's ad-
mirers, and not much less is their patience. Ruturn-
ing—as the playbill-writer of the theatre assures us—
L com a round 01 provincial triumphs to his old friends
in Drury Lane ou Monday night, they first welcomed
him as never conqueror was welcomed, and after-
wards endured three acts and a half of dull, inflated
rubbish, in full assurance that Mr. Brooke would
recompense them at last. Nor were they distil).
pointed. When the author allowed him to give
scope to the play of his muscles and the deep
resonance of his voice the opportunities were
turned to splendid account. Brutus, for that was
the drama•. of the .night, is probably the stupidest
play which ever succeeded in becoming a stock piece
on the English boards. But it is saved by a climax.
The earlier acts and the subsidiary characters are
inane to the last degree. Evil or good, in their loves
or their hates, it is impossible for the most good-
natured audience to feel the slightest sympathy for
them : and all this while the great personage,the Brutus,
is kept down by his false position of assumed idiocy.
At last, however, he takes his revenge. There is an
imprecation scene against Sextus. There is a funeral
oration scene over Lucretia's body in the forum—in
writing which of course Mr. Howard Payne bad for-
gotten all about the Antony oration in Julius Cesar,
also in the forum. To cap all, there is the judgment
scene, where Brutus condemns his rebel son to
death, and which, when played as Mr. Brooke plays
it, never fails to bring the curtain down amid a tor-
nado of applause. Thus the play has been, and
continues to be, successful, in the theatrical sense of
the word. Critics and readers may have given it up
long ago as incurably bad ; but a drama which
mounts so rapidly in the later scenes, and explodes
so splendidly in the end, is entitled to stand well and
long as an acting play. At Drury Lane it well main-
tains its character ; and actor and manager—G. V.
Brooke and Mr. Smith—seem likely to reap the
benefit. The attendance continues to be as crowded
as ever, and the playbills may honestly assert that
Mr. Brooke has commenced his re-engagement in
P another " blaze of triumph."

OLYMPIC THEATRE.
The Bengal Tiger, a farce in one act, by Mr.
Charles Dance (performed at Windsor before her
Majesty last Thursday week), was produced at this
theatre the night following. The piece itself is one
of the best of its class, the plot is cleverly con-
structed, the situations good, and the dialogue well
and pointedly written. The most remarkable inci-
dent attending this revival is Mrs. Wigan's imper•
sonation of a fortune-hunting old maid : her concet.
tion of the character is excellent, and she sustai►.a
her part throughout with an ability and attention to
details which are distinctive of the true artist, and
which, in these days at least, are rarely seen on the
otage. The part of the ill-tempered crusty old
East Indian, who has passed, to use his own word
"fifty-flve years of his life upon a gridiron," was
played by Mr. Wigan, who rendered the most die-
,:ult portion of his task, namely, that which requires
display feeling, -
should