The Press.
London, England, 1854-10-21 00:00:00

Obituarg.

MR. SAMUEL PHILLIPS, the editor of the catalogues
of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, died on Satur-
day last at Brighton, aged thirty-nine. Mr. Phillips
was a writer of much ability—the author of papers
in Blackwood, in the John Bull,the Morning Herald,
and other newspapers. He was a member of the
University of Cambridge, although he did not take a
degree there, leaving Sydney Sussex College before
completing the period necessary for graduation. He
devoted himself afterwards entirely to literature, and
achieved a lucrative success. Persons who were
well acquainted with this author and his writings
were always struck with the completeness which he
displayed in whatever he undertook. He always
exhausted himself in whatever he wrote. He forgot
nothing. and never had occasion to regret that an)-
thing which proceeded from his pen was less perfect
than after-consideration could have made it. His
"Caleb Stukely," written for Blackwood's Magazine,
was reprinted some time back ; and Messrs. Rout-
ledge have lately published a collection of tales he
wrote at various times for the same periodical.
DR. ROBERT EVANS, LL.D., D.C.L., head master to
the Bristol Grammar School, fell a victim to cholera
on Saturday morning. He retired to rest on the pre-
vious nigh; seemingly in his usual health, and on
Saturday morning, at eight o'clock, awoke with cho-
leraic symptoms. Mr. A. Prichard, surgeon, and
Dr. Mudd were summoned with all despatch, but
collapse rapidly ensued, and at eleven o'clock the
lamented gentleman had ceased to live.
THE EARL or ABINGDON died on Monday evening,
at Wytham Abbey, about three miles from Oxford.
His lordship had for many years past suffered from a
disease of the bladder, and bad undergone surgical
operations at various times; but latterly appeared to
be in tolerable health. He was taken ill on Monday
morning, and his medical attendant was sent for, who
found him in so dangerous a state that it was deemed
expedient to call in Dr. Acland. It was soon evident,
from the stage the disease had attained, that his
lordship's recovery was hopeless ; and he died that
same evening. The deceased peer, who was in his
seventy-first year, was Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire
and High Steward of the borough of Abingdon. Ile
is succeeded by his son, Lord Norreys, M.P. for the
borough of Abingdon.

A YOUNG MAN named John Golliter, who had been
until recently a clerk in the offices ot' some Bristol
solicitors, was charged before the local police court
with having feloniously forged and uttered a docu
ment purporting to be an interim order for protec-
tion by Sir John Eardley Wilmot, Bart., Judge of
the County Court of Gloucestershire, sitting at
Bristol, with intent to defraud one William (Allard.
After hearing evidence, the magistrates committed
the prisoner to take his trial for forgery at the next
Gloucestershire assizes.

o,tribtnts 10

999

ONE of Lancaster's 68-pounder guns, oval bore,
burst on the 12th instant, while practising, with the
usual charge of powder and shells, at Shoeburyness.
Fortunately no person was hurt, but there were
several narrow escapes, one of the pieces having
passed between the legs of Sergeant Watson, and a
piece knocked over the timetable on which a clock
was placed for counting the number of seconds of
the flight of the shell, and where three persons were
standing a minute before the accident.
Ax EXTENSIVE ROBBERY, consisting of gold
watches, gold chains, rings, pins, &c., amounting
to the value of 1,5001., was committed on Sunday on
the premises of Mr. Baumgart, jeweller and watch-
maker, 223, Regent-street. Mr. 8., it appears,
neither slept on the premises, nor left any per-
son in care of his stock. His shop was sepa-
rated from the other part of the house and strongly
secured. About a fortnight since three men, appa-
rently gentlemen, hired apartments over the shop,
and took immediate possession. They are now
missing, and a large aperture was found in the
ceiling that communicated with their apartments,
from which a knotted rope was suspended, giving
access to the shop and stock below.
Two SISTERS, named Ellen and Isabella Robin-
son, were drowned on Saturday night last at New-
castle. They lived with their father and another
sister, the whole family being employed at ome
glass works in the town. A quarrel arose that
night between the girls, and the father, angry at the
disturbance, ordered the eldest daughter to leave the
house. This was at eleven o'clock. Another sister
shortly followed her, and neither was seen again
until their bodies were found in the river. It is con-
jectured that one committed suicide and the other
was drowned in attempting to rescue her sister.
MICHAEL. M'GRAGR, a labouring man, was acci.
dentally suffocated in a spout in a warehouse
belonging to Mr. Phillips, of Liverpool, on Saturday
last. The deceased was employed in pouring brut
through a spout. By some means he fell into the
spout, in which he was shortly afterwards found
dead from suffocation.
JosEnt BERNSTEIN, a German Jew, absconded
from his creditors in Australia, taking with him a
very large sum of money. He left Melbourne in the
Saldanha, having in his possess►on a large amount
of the property with which he absconded, and arrived
in Liverpool on Saturday morning. Upon Bern.
stein's flight from Melbourne, one of his creditors,
named Maunder, immediately started overland for
England, and arrived some days prior to the Sat.
danha. He obtained a warrant at the Bankruptcy
Court., armed with which Mr. Gaskell, the messenger
of the court, aided by two assistants, succeeded in
apprehending Bernstein at Prince's Duck, where
property to the amount of upwards of 2,(XX)I. was
found upon him. Mr. Maunder's claim amounts to
about 1,3001., and a second detainer for 3001. has
since been laid upon his person. Bernstein was ac-
companied from Australia by a young female whom
he left on board the vessel, promising to meet her at
a certain place.
A PRIVATE OF THE GRENADIER GUARDS, named
Cumming, on hearing that his company were ordered
for the East, expressed his disinclination to go abroad,
and went to a retired part of the Wellington barracks,
when with a hatchet he chopped off the first and
second fingers of his left hand. He was conveyed to
the hospital in Rochester-row, and will be tried by a
court-martial as soon as he has recovered.
FURTHER accounts still arrive of persons having
lost their lives by the fearful explosion in Gateshead
on the 6th inst. The authorities of Gateshead have
information that a family of six persons are buried
among the ruins. A young man of the name of
Hamilton, &joiner, is also unaccounted for. A body
of a man, evidently a sufferer by the conflagration,
was taken out of the river at Tynemouth on Sunday.
About 4,0001. have already been contributed for the
sufferers, and large sums are daily added to the list.

THE BRISTOL CIVIC BANQUET To LORD JOAN Rua-
stlJ. will take place on the 27th inst. at the ban.
quetting•hall of the Society of Merchant Venturer',
the master of which ancient and wealthy guild has
placed it at the disposal of the civic authorities for
the occasion.

THE UNFORTUNATE EMIGRANTS who took passage
in the Jane Green for Australia, and were exposed
to so much suffering from the bankruptcy of the
firm to which the veesel belonged, have all been for.
warded to their destination, or otherwise provided
for. This result was announced on Monday at the
Mansion house by Alderman Sir It. Carden, who at
the same time acknowledged the liberality with
which subscriptions have been poured in from the
public, and especially from several sbipowning firmer
fbr the assistance of the detained passengers.

yittraturt.

llfemoires d'un Bourgeois de Paris. Par le
Docteur Wren.. Tome 4me. Paris: De

Gonet.
Luca a true bourgeois, M. le Docteur Veron
deals out his literary wares in a very retail
and miscellaneous fashion. Four thick vo-
lumes of memoirs out of five have now
appeared, all of them filled with the same sort,
or rather sorts, of epiceries. Scraps of history,
of autobiography, of anecdote, gossip, and
criticism are all jumbled together with little
regard to succession of date or continuity of
subject, like the many-coloured sweatmeats in
a bonbonniere. There are also many letters
interwoven with the work, and a little scandal
by way of spice to the whole. True it is that
the letters are but commonplace. If never
published before, as the author boasts, the
sufficient reason was that they were not worth
publishing. Howbeit, the names of royal
personages and of diplomatic or literary cele-
brities are affixed to the epistles ; and, although
the pages of a printed book are not exactly
bills of exchange, we are willing to allow that
such signatures as those of Louis Philippe,
Mole, Montalivet, Guizot, Thiers, and George
Sand will give them a current value, pay-
able at sight, even though the matter to
which they are appended is almost as dry and
formal as that of the commercial documents

themselves.
Much the same must be said of M. Veron's
criticisms. They are flavoured with divers
personalities, whose piquancy doubtless can
be much better judged and appreciated by
Parisian readers than ourselves ; but other-
wise they exhibit no superiority over the most
ordinary level of newspaper "notices." Never-
theless, there are many well-known names
introduced and well-known works charac
terised ; so that the English reader, if he can-
not obtain much addition to his knowledge or
materials for his judgment, yet proceeds com-
placently through the accounts of celebrated
authors and artists, and of their celebrated
productions, written by one who possessed an
intimate acquaintance with most of them.
M. Veron has, in fact, been an adventurer
whose various enterprises brought him in
contact successively with professional, politi-
cal, literary, and artistic circles, giving him
the entrée into each, and furnishing his note-
book with copious memoranda touching per-
sons and incidents, but never entitling him to
a place among their ranks. He held no com-
mission in the great army of intellect, but
figured by turns as camp-follower, contractor,
and commissary-general, —as the business
manager who arranged the details of a literary
speculation, or the capitalist who supplied
its funds and absorbed its profits. Thus Dr.
Veron acquired no rank as a physician, but
made money by a pate pectoral.. He was no
artist, but made money by the Opera. He was
a very mediocre writer, but made money out
of the Constitutionnel. He obtained no politi-
cal status, but, having allowed M. Thiers the
free run of his journal, takes infinite credit to
himself for not visiting with signal vengeance
the ingratitude of that aspiring politician, who,
when he became Minister in ISM), refused him
even the appointment of sous-prefet.
In former volumes the author has indulged
in reminiscences of his youth, has gossipped
about the streets and cafés of Paris, and given
a copious narrative of his experiences and
employes while entrepreneur of the Opera-
house. We now find him attacking loftier
topics. One long chapter in his new tome is
entitled " Parties and the Parisian Bour-
geoisie," another " Louis Philippe," and a
third " The Fine Arts under the Monarchy of
July." The same retail mode of treatment
is, however, bestowed upon these as upon
less exalted subjects. He sees everything
from the outlook, and handles it with the
dexterity of a bourgeois. His chapters are
stuffed with trifling anecdotes, small reflec-
tions, and fragmentary philosophisings. M.
Veron is a great believer in the importance of
trivial events, in the danger from petty in-
trigues, and the potency of cant phrases. He
is convinced that the monarchy of July was

THE P

ESS.

overset by the single saying of " The King
reigns, and does not govern." Of his own
class, the bourgeosie, he gives a very unflatter-
ing picture. He represents them as dull,
selfish, and fickle; fond of changes and
casualties among the higher ministerial circles
from sheer love of excitement ; utterly insen-
sible to all disasters, personal or national, so
long as they do not interrupt trade or unpave
the streets ; and yet so stupid as not to per-
ceive that the political melodramas in which
they sympathise and assist find their natural
conclusion in a scene of emeute and barricades.
The monarchy of July rested upon bour-
geois support so long as it was believed to
interpose between the street shopkeepers and
the street fighters. As fear of the emeutiers
declined, so did the popularity of the " Roi
des Bourgeois." Louis Philippe, says M.
Veron, one February morning found his
National Guard—the essence and representa
tivo of trading Paris—cheering for Reform
instead of himself. He went home and abdi-
cated, convinced that his game was up. Yet
the bourgeosie had no rational cause of com-
plaint against the King—they were only tired
of being happy, "on etait las de vivre heu-
reux."
Heading a new chapter with the name of
Mlle. Rachel, our bourgeois finds himself upon
more congenial ground. "Ilse trouve enfin
"en pays de connaissance " M. Veron claims,
with what justice we know not, to have first
discovered Rachel. One summer evening, he
tells us, he strolled into the Theatre Francais,
in search of shade and solitude. There were
four spectators in, the stalls, himself making
a fifth. Presently, however, his reverie was
disturbed by the appearance of a new actress,
whose person and style he proceeds to describe
with many raptures. This was in 1838. The
author had then just quitted the management
of the Opera ; he had plenty of spare time on
hand, and was quite ready for any new object
of interest and distraction. Thenceforth Mlle.
Rachel became his prodigy. Forthwith he
rushes to his " ami Merle " and other journal
ist friends and implores them to follow and
applaud the debuts of the new star. " That
" child," he said to Merle, " when the twelve
"or fifteen hundred clever fellows who make
" the public opinion of Paris shall have seen
" and appreciated her, will be the glory and
" the fortune of the Comedie Franeaise." "On
" meeting my acquaintance," he adds, "before
" bidding them good day, I asked them have
"you seen her in Hermione, in Andromache fr"
When, in the course of weeks, the talent of
the actress obtained some measure of public
recognition, M. Veron partook the gale of
success. " When the theatre seemed tolerably
" full, I wiped my forehead and exclaimed,
" with a degree of satisfaction amounting to
" pride, Mademoiselle Rachel and I will be
" content with the public ! These people have
" common sense." But, amidst all his raptures
and rhapsodies, the author remains true to his
bourgeois propensities. Rachel's talents and
triumphs are estimated, not by the illustration
they afforded to dramatic poetry, or the im-
pulse given to dramatic art, but by their
influence upon the receipts of the theatre. A
detailed list is set forth of the nightly amounts
received upon every performance in which
Rachel appeared during the first twelvemonth
after her debut. The items commence with
the modest sum of 733 francs (about 301.) on
her first appearance, and, after falling as low as
121., gradually expand until the actress regu-
larly drew " houses " of five or six thousand
francs. Considering the incessant compari-
sons that are drawn between the state of the
drama in England and in France, this return
of theatrical revenue is somewhat surprising.
Playhouses were always said to be flourishing
in Paris, yet we find the great temple of the
classical drama, the Theatre Franeaise, open-
ing its doors to a 121. or 201. audience, while
it is quoted, as a proof of immense attraction
and success, that there were 2001. or 2401. in
the house. Drury Lane itself has seldom
fallen so low as the smaller receipts; and for
many years, under successive managements of
the " enterprising" order, 2001. would not
have cleared current expenses. Edmund
Kean made his debut in Shylock before an
audience about as numerous as witnessed the
first appearance of Rachel. His success was

SATURDAY,

established quite as rapidly as hers, and its
pecuniary results were more than double. A
Kean "house " was more frequently above
5001. than below it, and his benefit produced
once, if not oftener, 1,0001. Rachel's average
was about 5,500 francs, and her highest re•
ceipt, also a benefit, 14,000 francs. Either in
failure or in success, the London theatre seems
to have the best of it.
M. Veron, like all memoir-writers, is liberal
of anecdotes ; but he is not a good conteur,
and his stories are apt to be pointless. Some
of the best relate to Mlle. Rachel. Among
them is the following :
While still young, and a pupil at the Conservatoire,
Mlle. Rachel solicited private lessons in acting from an
artist justly esteemed, and of real talent, M. Prevost, a
societaire of the Comedie Francaise. Upon seeing the
poor weak girl, as she was then, he said to her, "Go and
sell bouquets, my child." The young Herwtiotte one even-
ing revenged with charming spirit, the contempt of her col-
league, who had proved so false a prophet. The house
had been crammed, every box being filled with rank and
fashion. Rachel had played Hermione. Applauded with
enthusiasm and recalled with frenzy, she was able when
the curtain fell to fill her Greek tunic with the flowers
thrown upon the stage. Running up to him whose only
lesson had been the recommendation to sell bouquets, she
knelt with graceful coquetry at his feet. " I have followed
your advice, M. Prevost," she said, "and sell flowers.
Will you buy any ?" The learned professor raised the
young artist, and expressed his joy that his prediction had
been belied.
Progressing to the period when he became
entangled in journalism, M. Veron gives a long
narrative of his connection with the Conetitu.
tionnel. It is a dull and melancholy history of
squabbles and intrigues, and full as usual of
money matters. The journalists fare at his
hands no better than the bourgeois. Person-
ally, a few of his own cronies—" mon ami
Romieu," " mon ami Merle," and one or two
more—are lauded for many excellences; but
in their profession he represents the litter ateurs
of his generation, from M. Thiers downwards,
as labouring only for the advancement of
their individual ambition, or the gratification
of some petty spite or vanity. Their " organs"
are worked, and parties, politics, and princi
pies discussed, for the sake of the most sordid
considerations. If M. Veron has drawn any
thing like a true picture of Parisian journal-
ism, we can well appreciate both the motive
and the justification of the present Empe-
ror's sternly-repressive edicts. Such a press
as he found flagrant in his capital must he
inexorably gagged if he hoped to give his sys-
tem a chance of durability.
With a fifth volume, in which we are pro-
mised a full detail of the events of the "Three
Days" of July, 1830, M. Veron will close his
series of reminiscences. Very bulky, very
pretentious, and very egotistical, the work
constitutes by no means a favourable specimen
of that numerous family of " Memoirs to
which, by its title, it belongs.

Egypt's Place in Universal History. By
Christian C. J. Bunsen, D.Ph. and D.C.L.
Translated from the German by Charles
H. Cottrell, Esq., M.A. Vol. 11. Lon-
don : Longmans.
OF late years the imposing termination of
ology has been too frequently applied to
various branches of knowledge net entitled to
separate scientific classification. Amongst a
certain class of intellects a characteristic
proneness to induction on insufficient proofs
has urged them to give a fallacious appearance
of method to their cursory opinions on heaps
of quasi facts industriously collected from all
quarters. Hence all the sciences, physical
and moral, have had their libraries augmented
by works claiming importance for some cele:
brated ologist offering to the world his " new
system, in which the old facts, rearranged and
rediscussed under formulce, are novel to the
learned eye only in their arbitrary nomencla-
ture. In such an age it is necessary to dis-
tinguish between spurious knowledge and
genuine science ; we must carefully discrimi-
nate between the flashy pretender and the
profound philosopher; and if the task ended
there the duty of experienced criticism would
be tolerably easy. But the duty of a literary
judge goes much farther. When an author's
attainments are ascertained there remains
still the important question whether his logic
can be accepted as philosophically ratiocina-
.