The Press.
London, England, 1854-07-01 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

that all our public letter-writers would take a
hint in this point from Mr. Shirley Brooks.
We can cordially recommend to notice, as
instructive anti entertaining, this vivid descrip
tion of Southern Russia. From a pile of un
readable compilations on the same subject we
turn to this volume with the aspiration, " 0 si
sic amnia ! "

Narrative of a Journey through Syria and Palestine
in DM and 1852. By C. W. N. Van de Velde.
London : Blackwood and Sons.

TRUTH compels us to say that Lieut. Van de Velde's
qualifications as a traveller are not of a high order.
The object of his journey was to make an accurate
survey of the less-frequented districts of Palestine;
and this duty we doubt not he performed satisfac-
torily; but the descriptions which ho gives of natural
objects are neither concise nor striking ; the ground
over which ne travels is for the most part exhausted ;
and two-thirds, at least, of his book are made up of
religious rhapsodies and quotations from scripture,
which, however indicative of the writer's piety, fail to
interest readers in general. In fact, the style of this
work reminds one of a missionary journal, or of
letters addressed from abroad to the Record news-
paper—a publication which the author frequently
quotes. M. Van de Velde, whether from the results
of his observation or from religious sentiment, loses
no opportunity of casting blame on the Turkish Go-
vernment. He found fertile districts abandoned by
their inhabitants, and left waste and desolate, through
the oppression of local tax-gatherers ; travelling
dangerous, owing to the prevalence of highway rob-
bery ; a military conscription vigorously enforced ;
and a general laxity of administration discreditable
to civilised community. Almost the only modern
institution of which he speaks in terms of praise is
the missionary organisation—whose success up to
the present time has not been great—for the conver-
sion of the Jews. Of the societies established for
this purpose a full, and we doubt not accurate, ac-
count is given. M. Van de Velde sets no value on
traditions, and is indignant at the impostures prac-
tised, both in Jerusalem and elsewhere, on credulous
pilgrims. He also throws considerable doubt on the
genuineness of M. da Saulcy's discoveries. His
remarks on these two subjects form the best part of
his volumes.

Jernittgham. A Story. London : Chapman and

Hall.
"JERNINGHAM " is composed of the very wildest
ingredients of fiction. It combines all kinds of inci-
dents except the probable, and all kinds of charac-
ters except the natural. There are English gipsies
and their queen, with her "Madonna-like head and
night•black eyes,"—and French conspirators, put in
action by Paul Didier,—midnight meetings in leaf-
less forests, and reunions in royal chateaux, with
" thousand lamps shedding lustre on gilded saloons."
Daft Jem and Will Dirk, the cadger, mix in the maze
with the Prince de Conde and Madame de Feuchercs,
with her " serpent eyes." A Lord Merivale, of the
blaze voluptuous type, is connected with a young
adventurer who writes witty farces and brilliant
novels. Love and murder, parcels of hank notes
and rifle shots, giants, Cornish dwarfs, a bearded
beauty of Buenos Ayres, an intoxicated Jewess, and
a somnambule, all contribute in some inexplicable
way to the development of a story continued for up-
wards of thirty years, in which the hero (of course)
at last succeeds to the estates of his ancestors, and
the gipsy queen of "the highest Gitana blood that
" Spain could boast" settles sedately down, after
thirty years of camp and kettle life and rough usage,
into the model lady patroness of a district, where
" she lives only to do good ; the rich respect her,
" the poor bless her; her existence is benevolence."
The whole book is of a phantasmagoria character,
with such merits and faults as belong to a collection
of the most startling accidents cf life, often strongly
portrayed, but jumbled confusedly together. It
resembles somewhat those exhibitions of dissolving
views in which, according to an announcement before
us, a view of Bethlehem melts into a smuggler's
cave by moonlight; the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem
into the battle of the Nile; the tomb of Absolom
into an eruption of Mount Vesuvius; the Crystal
Palace into a storm at sea ; and a fine water-mill,
with the machinery in action, into a splendid
portrait of Queen Victoria surrounded by her
Court.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
Booze.

The Wile's Manual. Rev. W. Calvert. Longman and Co.
Germany from 1760 to 1814. Mrs. Austin. Ditto.
/ilamim, its Rise and Progress. F. A. Neale. Madden.
Travels on the Shores ef the Baltic. S. S. Hill.
Hall, Virtue, and Co.
Hoymakers' Histories. Prather. Bell.
Lettsennian Lectures on Insanity. Dr. Winslow. Churchill.
Report of the Dick Bequest, 1864. Black•eood and Sons.

SATURDAY,

My Friends and Acquaintance. P. G. Patmore.
Saunders and Ot.ley.
Crew Rise. J. C. Jeatfreson. Hurst and Blackett.
Annotated Editior. of English Poets. "Cowper." Vol. M.
Parker and Son.
been and Son.

Healthy Honors. W. Bardwell.
PAMPHLETS.
Union of the Church and Wale Vindicated. W. Clarke.
Oldham.
Ditto.

The Latter Days.
Bus is and Europe. Count Valerian Krasunski.
Chapman and Hall.
A Defence of Religion. H. W. Crossley. Chapman.
Memoir of the Late Lieutenant Bello& lioys.

- .
E N OILIIVIN G.
Portrait of the Late Lieutenant Bettye.

Boys.

Ett puma.

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.

IF any playgoer of twenty years' standing were to
return to England after a long absence nothing
would strike him so much as the altered tone of our
London theatres. Amongst other changes of im-
portance, he would find the legitimate drama banished
from its ancient haunts to a different quarter of the
town, and its place in the affections of the multitude
all but supplanted by a class of plays which, in
former days, were never to be seen except at the
Adelpbi or some minor suburban theatre. Whether
this be the result of progress we will leave Sir James
Graham, or any other gentleman who has taken his
stand thereon, to determine. In our own judgment,
this state of things is, in a great measure, the result
of Mr. Kean's successful managerial policy, which
has imported a selection of exciting French melo-
dramas, and accustomed the refined and intelligent
audiences of London to sights and sounds which
in days gone by would have shocked the fas-
tidious senses of dramatic legitimists. Let it
not be thought that we object to this practice. We
can enjoy a good melodrama, and are willing to ad-
mit that the species of entertainment may frequently
be introduced with good effect, as a relief to the
higher order of plays. But Mr. Kean is carrying
the matter too far. It is time for him to cry hold.
The success of Pauline and The Corsican Brothers
has established quite a reign of terror in Oxford-
street: murders, duels, ghosts, vampires, even the
arch-fiend in person, have successively graced the
now bloodstained boards of the Princess's, and con,
verted the theatre into a charnel-house and a ve•
ritable chamber of horrors. The alleged success of
Faust was so discreditable to the taste of our London
public, that it was a relief to us to find Mr. Kean an-
nouncing for his benefit last Monday a new melt>.
drama, entitled The Courier of Lyons. This piece
was originally produced in French at the Gaits
in Paris, some four or five years ago. It made its
first appearance in English at the Surrey, under Mr.
Creswick's management, and is now, for the second
time, adapted to our stage by Mr. Reade. The
plot turns upon a question of identity. There
exists a strong resemblance between a good man and
a villain—so strong, indeed, that the good man is ar-
rested instead of the villain, and is only saved
when on the verge of the scaffold by a happy com-
bination of circumstances. In the plot there is
nothing very new. The chief interest is absorbed by
Mr. Kean, who impersonates both the good man and
the villain, and effects his changes from one cha-
racter to the other with startling rapidity. It would
be unjust not to add that, apart from successful
stage trick and costume, Mr. Kean acts exceedingly
well. He delivers the dialogue naturally and with
good point, and we have seldom seen him to so much
advantage. The great defect of the piece consists in
the impossibility of satisfying the audience that the
two principal characters are distinct persons, and
their attention is much more occupied in watching
the cleverness with which Mr. Kean disappears as
one man and reappears immediately as another
than in following to the devolution of the plot.
The other drum : pers : were, on the whole, effi-
ciently represented. Mr. Fisher made an excellent
dandy •highwayman and housebreaker of the time
of the Directory. Mr. Addison's Choppard, a ras-
cally horsedealer, though too much exagge-
rated, was a very good bit of character; and Mr. J.
Firing was duly dignified as the minister of police.
Amongst the ladies Miss Heath was chiefly distin-
guished. Her performance of the villain's female
victim was full of power and feeling. Nor must we
forget Miss Kate Terry, who acted a boy, a witness
of the murder, with an intelligence beyond her years,
and spoke with a natural manner and correct em

phasic which but few of her elders in the pro.
fession seem to possess. Julie (Miss Leclercq)
has nothing to do but to look pretty and interesting,
and to be styled by all the characters who have oc-
casion to pronounce her name, from the manager
downwards, as Jetc:y.
The Halt of the Ballet, a divertissement, which has
concluded the evening's entertainments during the
present week, is a poor affair. Its only feature of
interest was the first appearance in London of Miss

JULY 1, 1854.

Louisa Leclercq, a sister of the young lady above
mentioned. Miss L. Leclercq is a dancer of no
mean pretensions. Her powers of bounding and her
agility (to translate literally a foreign term) of limb
took the audience quite by surprise, and established
her reputation. If she will but turn her attention to-
wards attaining a more graceful carriage, especially as
regards holding the arms, she will speedily be with-
out a rival amongst English dancers. The music of
the ballet is miserably poor, and was badly exe •
cuted. It reflects great credit upon the prima
ballerina that she should be able to dance at all to
such a wretched jangle.

OLYMPIC.
A MOST excellent piece, Heads or Tails, a skilful
adaptation, by Mr. Palgrave Simpson, of M. Scribe's
Mon Etoile, was produced at this theatre on Thurs-
day night with the most complete success. The plot,
turning upon the commonest possible incidents, is
constructed with such unrivalled ingenuity and know-
ledge of stage effect as to make us almost feel envious
of the talent which, upon such a slight foundation,
can raise so solid a superstructure. Our commen-
dation, however, must not stop here. The piece,
charming as it is, would be nothing without the act-
ing, and in all our dramatic experience we have
scarcely ever seen a little play so thoroughly well
rendered. The hero, a careless and light-hearted being,
wbo trusts everything to chance, was admirably im-
personated by Mr.Wigan, who made the slight serious
element in the character stand out in strong relief
against its general eccentricities with a happy result,
which no other artist on our stage could effect. He
was ably assisted by Messrs. Emery and Robson.
Perhaps the most finished performance of the whole
was Mrs. Wigan's Winifred, a garrulous and con-
sequential servant girl. In a certain class of parts,
where natural expression and quiet flow of sensibi
lity have to be represented, this lady stands without
a rival on our stage, and the oftener we see her act
the more we are surprised that such commanding
talent as she possesses should have been allowed to
remain so long dormant. We must add that Miss
Marston looked and played a very pretty and
charming lady, not only to the life, but with an
intelligence and archness of manner which, to our
shame be it said, we scarcely gave her credit for
possessing.