The Press.
London, England, 1854-06-10 00:00:00

OLYMPIC.

GEORGE DANCE'S Hush Money—so great a favourite
in the days of Liston—was revived at this theatre on
Wednesday last with signal success ; for the part of
the hero, Touchwood, is as well suited to Mr. Rob-
son's peculiar talent as any character in which he
has yet appeared. The plot turns upon Touchwood
believing—erroneously of course—that he has been
accessory to the death of a young woman, and
that the fact lies within the knowledge of a water-
man, Tom Tiller (Mr. Emery). Touchwood overloads
Tom, who in reality knows nothing of the matter,
with presents and civility to procure his silence ; and
in the end the lost young woman reappears alive, to
the satisfaction of all parties. The situations of
this piece afford Mr. Robson scope for the exhibition
of that earnest intensity and serio-comic power he so
well knows how to portray; and, the construction
and dialogue being extremely good, that effective
acting which Mr. Wigan's company never fail to
supply is all that is required to make the farce
amusing. Mr. Emery was excellent as Tom Tiller,
and Mrs. Wigan showed that she is by no means
inferior to Mrs. Urger, her predecessor in the part
of Sally.

PRINCESS'S.—We are compelled to postpone our
notice of From Village to Court till next week.

Ina* art, Sittraturt,

AMONG the presents preparing for the Prince and
Princess of Prussia's " silver-wedding " day is an al-
bum to which the most celebrated member 3 of the
Dusseldorf School of Painting will contribute speci-
mens of their talent. It will contain thirty-five land-
scapes, six religious, fourteen historical, thirteen
Rhenan legendary, and nine subjects of popular life
in the Rhenan provinces.
COUNT SPARRE has now taken out a patent in
Sweden for his new method of manufacturing un-
forgeable bank paper, stamped bills, Jcc.

THE PRESS.

THE military relief-map in Stockholm, seventy-two
square feet in size, with moveables figures showing
the progress of the war in the East, has been so suc-
cessful that an additional one has been opened to the
public.
THE NEW TELEGRAPH between Grisslehamn and
Upsnla (Stockholm) has been executed with great
rapidity. It was not commenced till April, and the
distance is nearly seventy English miles. The frost
in the ground and the nature of the locality offered
great hindrances. On this line occurs the first under-
water telegraph heard of in Sweden—namely,
between Witddon, the peninsula, or rather island, on
which Grisslehamn is situated, and the mainland.
This is a distance of 3'20 ells.
A COMPANY OF SVANISH DANCERS made their &but
on Saturday last at the Paris Gymnase. The Em-
peror and Empress come on purpose from St. Cloud
to witness their performance. The principal per-
sonage was a Senora Perea Nene, who appeared in
London about ten years ago. The clibut was highly
successful. The astounding pirouettes familiar to
amateurs of the ballet were accompanied by novel
and expressive gesticulation, which the Empress, with
national pride, was observed to explain to the
Emperor at the back of the imperial box.
THE fourth session of the Imperial Academy of
Science at Vienna took place on the 30th ult. Baron
Bach opened it with a neat and impressive intro-
ductory speech ; whereupon Chevalier Baumgarten,
the Minister of Finance, held a highly interesting
discourse on "The Chances in Natural Philosophy."
Then Dr. Shroter, the secretary of the academy, read
a clever statement on the activity hitherto displayed
by the academy. He was followed by the vice presi-
dent (M. von Karajan), who spoke on "Henry
Teichner, an Austrian poet of the 14th century ;" and
Professor Brucke, who amused and interested the
audience with a discussion on domestic animals of
labour in general, including the carnivorous dogs of
the hyperborean regions. The attendance was
numerous and brilliant.
A FRENCH STEAMER iS being fitted out in the port of
Varna for purposes of scientific inquiry; for English
and French interests alike demand such a scientific
examination of the coasts of the Euxine. The tides,
currents, and winds which prevail there are to be
carefully observed and noted down on the charts,
with the rocks, shoals, and banks, and other impedi-
ments to the navigation.
IN Holstein orders have been given that all works
under six sheets are to he regarded as newspapers,
and treated accordingly. The press is forbidden to
discuss the present system of neutrality.

DR. ALTSCHUL lately delivered a lecture on "Faust"
at the Marylebone Literary and Scientific Institution,
and met with marked success. That a large au-
dience should assemble in London to hear a German,
in the English language, analyse and explain the
great dramatic poem of Germany is in itself a sign
of the times and of the affinities which exist between
the German and the English mind. The learned
lecturer, after remarking that " a complete com-
mentary on Faust' would itself fill many bulky
volumes, and even then the subject would not be
exhausted," said all he could attempt was "by some
sketches, more or less characteristic, of the three
principal personages, to illustrate the vivid imagina-
tion, the productive intellect, and mental power of
the drama." "Faust" he considers is a "poetical
autobiography, a journal of the writer's thoughts and
feelings, which he wrote and corrected, sometimes by
additions and sometimes by alterations, for forty
years." He pointed out the satire of the prologue,
which he thought worthy of Aristophanes ; and, after
reading several specimens, came at length to the
"real tragedy," 4which opens with the scene in
heaven. Of this Dr. Altschul says that it is " one
of the boldest conceptions in the language ; and,
though Milton or Kloptock might have equalled it,
yet they have left us nothing which can be at all
compared with it in daring." This is the only occa-
sion on which we have heard this scene criticised
without a reference to Job, from which it is obviously
adopted. We could have wished, too, that one so
well qualified for the task as the learned doctor
would have expressed an opinion on the relative
merits of the several translations of "Faust," and
especially of the scene in heaven, the most sublime
in the whole poem. This he nowhere does. Indeed,
the lecture is almost confined to an explanation of
the poet's meaning and of the excellences of the
poem, elucidated and illustrated by numerous selec-
tions from the latter. One epithet only struck us as
strange. Speaking of the church scene, the doctor
says, "the trumpet voice of the evil spirit drowns
the pious hymn and the solemn peal of the organ."
Surely the whisper of the fiend is the right word, and
to us seems more sublime. The idea is, not that a
"trumpet voice" overpowers the organ, but that its
rolling peal and the swelling hymn cannot drown
the whispered promptings of despair. After dwelling at
some length on the dialogue between Mephistopheles
and Martha, the lecturer concluded with a concise,
eloquent, and rapid summary of the closing scenes of
I the wondrous drama.

MMMIEN