The Press.
London, England, 1854-10-28 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Ballad of Babe Christabel, and Other Poems. By
Gerald Massey. London : Bogue.
A FOURTH EDITION of Gerald Massey's poems im-
plies the success of the poet's appeal to the sym-
pathies of society. His poetical merits are un-
questionable, but as yet he has "only inscribed his
" name; " though his brilliant imagination, his
exquisite feeling, and vigorous spirit, have sufficient
quality within them to carry him safely from the
ranks to the higher seat of fame and honour.

The Falcon Family; or, Young Ireland. Loudon :

Chapman and Hall.
THIS entertaining sketch of the Young Ireland party,
and still better picture of an energetic family who,
without a certain income or fixed residence, manages
to live better than nine-tenths of her Majesty's sub-
jects, is likely to form oue of the most interesting
numbers of the " Select Library of Fiction."

The Cast4ne. New Edition. In One Volume.

- -
London : Routledge.
A CHEAP EDITION of " The Caxtons," carefully
printed and serviceably bound, will be welcomed by
all readers.

ROUTLEDGE'S EDITION OF SIR BULWER
LYTTON'S WORKS.
A STATEMENT having been printed iu Messrs. Low's
Publishers' Circular of the 16th instant, to the effect
that " the agreement between Sir Bulwer Lytton and
Mr. Routledge has been rescinded," Mr. Routledge
has issued an unqualified denial of this assertion,
which he does not hesitate to term " libellous," and
says :
So far from there being the slightest truth► in this attack
upon our house, we most positively and unequivocally
assert that not only does our agreement with Sir Bulwer
Lytton remain intact, but that we have fulfilled every en-
gagement we enteral into with him. We have communi-
cated with Sir Bulwer Lytton, who is at present absent
from town, but immediately that we are in receipt of his
answer we shall make it public. We may also be allowed
to add that, so far from the issue of Sir Bulwer Lytton's
works not answering, us Messrs. S. Low and Son have in-
sinuated, the circulation has been quite equal to our
expectations.

-
The answer of Sir Bulwer Lytton, since received,
entirely confirms Mr. Routledge's statement
Knehworth, October 21, 1854.
Dear Sir,—l was as much surprised as yourself by the
paragraph in the Publishers' Circular. Certainly there has
never been, on either side, a suggestion to rescind our en•
gagement, nor the least hesitation on your part as to the
fulfilment of the contract you have hitherto carried out
with equal liberality and honour. You say truly that the
circulation of the popular edition of my works is equal to
the expectations formed when we discussed the subject;
and it affords me sincere pleasure to learn that you see no
cause to apprehend that the ultimate results will leave you
a loser by your spirited reliance on the increase of the
reading public, and the steady and progressive demand for
cheap literature, which is so distinguishing an attribute of
our age.—Yours truly, E. Buxwxa LYTTON.
G. Routledge, Esq., 2, Farringdon•street, City.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
Boons.
The .4ngel in the House. C. K. Dighton. Parker and Son.
The Golden Legend. H. Longfellow. Routlodge.
Captain Canot. Ditto.
Arran. C. M. Charles. Ditto.
1$ Sports in the Far West. F. Gerattecker. Ditto.
Heartsease. Second Edition. Parker and Son.
Sacred Poems. Mrs. Bruce.
The Bengalow and the Tent. E. Sullivan.
PAMPHLETS

Cheu. A Poem.
Objects in Art Manufacture. No. 1., Piper.
Cholera : a Word for the Future.
How to Nurse Sick Children.

Harrison.
Ditto.

Ditto.
Longman and Co.

Mr. WYLD has just published a third edition of
his Chart of the Arctic Regions, including the latest
discoveries by M'Clure, Inglefield, and Belcher.
This chart will be found eminently useful to all who
take an interest in Arctic discovenes. At the samo
time we must not fail to notice the " Plan of the
Battle of Alma," which marks with accuracy the
different positions of the allied and Russian forces
before and during the battle. The immense ad
vantage of the Russian position is singularly ap-
parent.
A Mrsicia, INSTRUMENT MAKER of the Boulevards
exhibits in his windows a monster fiddle, which is
to he his contribution to the Exposition of 1855. Its
proportions would send Jullien into ecstasy ; the
strings are young ropes, and the instrument itself
measures about eight feet and a half, so that it
would be impossible to reach the upper part with
the fingers without the aid of a ladder ; but to ac-
complish this in a more artistic manner, a sliding
apparatus is affixed, which acts much in the same
way as the tube of a trombone. The tone is fully an
octave deeper than that of the double-bass, and with
masters of dramatic situations it would doubt!,
produce astonishing effects.


1027

ttt drama.

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
The Heart of Gold and The Courier of Lyons have
been alternately acted at this theatre during the early
part of the week, but on Thursday evening 2'he Cor-
sican Brothers was substituted for Mr. Douglas Jer-
rold's drama, which, we presume, has for the pre-
sent been shelved. Much has been said upon
the manner in which this play was put upon the
stage, and of a certain (suppositious) malice prepense
ou the part of the manager to insure the failure of
the piece by the intentional neglect of those indis-
pensable accessories to the success of a new play—
good actors and good scenery—but we confess that
we cannot exactly see the benefit that would accrue
to any manager by entailing on himself the great ex-
pense and trouble of bringing out a new play that it
might have a failure. It is rather too late in the
day, when the play has tailed, for the author to turn
round upon the manager and complain of his thea-
trical arrangements. The scenery employed in the
present instance was appropriate and good, and the
cottage scene in the last act was particularly ap-
plauded. Upon the actors we have already given our
opinion, but we doubt much, if Mrs. and Mr. Kean
had even taken the parts of Maude and John Dymond,
that the failure of the play would have been one whit
the less certain. The plot is too obscure, the incon-
sistencies of character too absurd, and the action too
tedious to obtain the public approbation after a "first
night." Its literary merits are undoubtedly high,—
it reads better than it acts, but can never, by any
theatrical management, be so well lifted for the stage
as for the study.

OLYMPIC.
A NEw drama, in two acts, entitled The Trustee,
has been produced this week. M. Deslandes, a
manufacturer of Soissons, has been entrusted with
the care of 200,000 francs by an old friend, Col. Rim-
bault, who is about to join the army in the campaign
of Waterloo, at which battle the Colonel is killed.
During the invasion of France by the allies, M. Des-
landes suffers much mental anxiety for fear he
should be robbed of the treasure in his keeping,
but, beyond an attack by some marauding Cossacks,
who in vain attempt to extort the secret from the
old man, nothing material occurs. At this epoch
the play opens. The Bourbons have returned, and
with them the Baron de Matigirollts and his son
Armand, who is engaged to Angeline Deslandes.
The marriage is arranged, and the day fixed for the
signature of the contract, when the nephew and heir
of the late Colonel Rimbauld, M. Pierre Caussade,
appears, and claims his uncle's money. M. Deslandes
immediately goes to his iron box to take out the
notes, when, to his horror, he finds the box empty !
He feels at once that no one would believe that. he
had been robbed, and that there is but one way to save
his honour, which is by paying the money out of his own
resources. These unhappily are much straightened,
and the only large sum of money which he can
command is his daughter's dowry. The sacrifice is
made, and the matter explained to the Baron, who,
indignant at the loss of the dowry, compels his son
to withdraw his pretensions to the hand of the now
poor Angeline, and is about to leave tt.e château,
when the same circumstances which led to the tem-
porary loss of the money now lead to its recovery.
M. Deslandes is a somnambulist, and in a fit of
somnambulism he himself has hid the money in his
garden ; and, of course, when once awake, has lost
all recollection of the fact. He now, very conveniently
for the plot of the play, sinks into a temporary tit of
somnambulism, goes out to his garden, and digs up
the missing pocket-book in the presence of his
daughter, M. Caussade, the baron, and Armand. Of
course everything is Low explained, the dowry is still
to be given, the baron consents to the lovers' mar-
riage, and the curtain falls. The success of the piece
was entirely due to Mr. Wigan's elaborate study and
admirable performance of the character of M. Des-
landes. His representation of the peevish, fretful
temper of an old man, whose mind is harassed with
a great dread, and whose nervous system is quite
unhinged with the troubles and commercial losses of
that distracted period—with his despair at the loss
of the money, and his passionate misery at the sacri-
fice which his sense of honour compels him to
make—was given with rare fidelity to nature. The
other characters were fairly supported, but Miss
Maskell is too tame as Angeline. Mr. Wigan was
loudly called for at the fall of the curtain, and
warmly applauded on his appearance.
MARYLEBON E.
MR. J. A. HIP.RAUD is remarkable for writing extra-
ordinary tragedies and unrepresentable plays, and
his present production, Videna, which was brought
out at this theatre on Monday evening, combines, as
a tragedy, both qualities of his general rule. In the
preface to one of his works Mr. Hemud remarks
that " Managers are averse to ancient historical sub-
jects," and hereupon, with remarkable perversity, be
writes a tragedy upon a subject that is not only pre-
historical but positively fabulous. The story relates