The Press.
London, England, 1856-03-29 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Intelligence from America to the 15th inst. has
men received by the Baltic. No political news of any
importance.
There were no tidings of the Pacific.

Her Majesty's ship Styx arrived at Falmouth
yesterday from Singapore, the Cape, and Madeira.
She has on board the crew of the Russian frigate
Diana, wrecked at Simoda.

The Crimean Army Commission did not hold their
first meeting on Tuesday. The room at Chelsea
Hospital is prepared, and it is believed that the
first sitting will take place early next week.

Lord Dalhousie is suffering from cancer in the
throat. A private letter from Lord's Canning's
medical attendant, Dr. Leckie, dated Madras, Feb.
15, states, " Lord Dalhousie is improving in health,
though still feeble in body." This letter is quoted
in the Scotsman as having been received in Edin-
burgh.

Cabinet Councils were held last Saturday and Mon-
day afternoons, and were attended by Viscount Pal-
merston, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Granville, the
Marquis of Lansdowne, Sir George Grey, the Chan
cellor of the Exchequer, the Right Hon. It. Vernon
Smith, Lord Stanley of Alderley, and (on Saturday
only) the Duke of Argyll. The Council sat three
hours and two hours respectively.
A Cabinet Council will be held this afternoon.

Some important changes in the East India-house
are in contemplation in the Examiner's Office, con-
sequent upon the retirement of Mr. Peacock and Mr.
Hill, the chief and deputy examiners, whose duties
will devolve upon Mr. J. S. Mill and Mr. F. W.
Prideaux, while the assistant examiners will be Mr.
Hawkins, at present Secretary to the Indian Law
Commission ; Mr. Bourdillon, Mr. W. Thornton, and
Mr. J. W. Kaye, the projectorof the Calcutta Review,
who is spoken of as likely to undertake the Public
Wnrk,; Dh partment.
ue luaus to the Indian Government from the
King of Oude appears iy a parliamentary return
issued last Saturday to amount to—At six per cent.,
2,08,50,000 rupees; at five per cent., 2,12,40,000 ; at
four per cent., 53,00,000, making a total of
4,73,90,000 rupees. There has been repaid by
cession of territory to the Nabob Vizier, under treaty
of May 1, 1846, 1,00,00,000 rupees; in notes of the
Four per Cent. Public Loan of 1854-55, 36,00,000
rupees; in cash, 1,57,82,765„5„4, making the total
repaid 2,93,82,765„5„4, leaving an amount outstand-
ing in Lucknow rupees of 1,80,07,234„J0„8. These
loans extend over a period from 1811 to 1855.

Lord Worsley has accepted the invitation of the
electors of Grimsby to stand for the borough at the
next election.

M. Kossuth delivered a lecture this week upon the
Austrian Concordat, wkich be observed presaged
certain troubles and oppressions for Hungary, and
possibly even for England.

The consecration of St. Saviour's Church, Padding.
ton, by the Bishop of Oxford is fixed for Saturday,
the 12th of April. The Rev. J. M. Hopkins will be
the first incumbent.

Mr. COLE has addressed a report to Lord Stanley
of Alderley, upon the management of the British
portion of the Paris Exposition. The document is
of great length, and reports in a highly satisfactory
manner of the position taken by the English exhi-
bitors. Towards the conclusion of his report, Mr.
Cole examines the question of the utility of juries in
deciding upon the merits of exhibitors, and recom-
mends that, as it is impossible in a universal exhi-
bition to render their working satisfactory, they
should henceforth be abolished :

The work of a juror (observes Mr. Cole) is excessively
laborious and irksome. To begin work as early as eight
in the morning, to wait for companion jurors who are not
punctual, to pace literally over miles of exhibiting ground,
to examine stalls and cases, and meet with no exhibitor or
agent present to show or explain them, or to find the glass-
case locked and no key producible, to haunt committee-
rooms, and get no quornm for business, and to do this day
after day, is what most of the British jurors did scrupu-
lously for many weeks, and one at least throughout the
whole period of the Exhibition without missing a single
day or a single meeting. But to expect that judgments can
be satisfactorily formed with justice by 400 persona of all
nations, subject to all be difficulties enumerated, virtually
irresponsible, liable to numerous accidents beyond control,
and impeded somewhat • the difficulties of - - in

. by —. language,
a universal exhibition. is to expect what human nature
cannot perform. The work becomes impossible.
In conclusion, he remarks :

This, at least, appears to be certain, that the judgment
of imp so-called international jury practically becomes a
national judgment of the country wheru the exhibition is
bold, eud that U would be laugh cello* in principle to

SATURDAY,

recognise this fact, and to leave the judgment and appoint.
ment of jurors entirely in the bands of the country which
holds the exhibition.

, FROM THE LONDON GAZETTE.
Tuemday, March 25.

BANKRUPTS.—THOMAS SMITH and ELIJAH HEAPIELD ,
Stainsby-terrace, Stainsby.road, Poplar GEORGE WILLIAM
KNIGHT, St. Andrew's-road, Limehouse, builder WILLIAM
ASHTON, Sloane-street, Chelsea, chemist, druggist, and surgeon-
dentist—TrromAs JoHN COMBS, Lake-lane, Portsea, baker and
grocer— BENJAMIN COOPER, Spring-gardens, Frome Selwood,
Somerset, clothier—Bee: MIN WOOD, Sheffield, boiler maker—
WILLIAM SHIPMAN. Deansgate, Manchester, baker and flour
deaIer—SAMUEL GREENWOOD, Deptford road and Castle-street,
Bishop Wearmouth, Durham, engine builder, grocer, and beer-
seller—Jona BEST, South Shields, spirit and porter merchant,
SCOTCH SEQUESTRATIONS.—Cnstuxs GOODFELLOW,
Dunfermline, grocer and spirit merchant—J. WILsoN and Co.,
Leith, merchants and shipbrokers—JOHN Mum, Glasgow, com.
mission merchant.

Friday, March 21.

BANKRUPTCY ANNULLED.—HENRY Panto, Old-market,
Bristol, baker.

BANKRUPTS. Hh:NRY ERMANNI FILLINOER, late of
Regent-square, flour merchant—Maximmus LASKER and GCs.
YAWL Birriss, New Basinghall-street, merchants—Jonx Buck(
Toss R, Manchester, manufacturer of malleable cast iron—kl A !I Le
BAILEY, Wood-street, elleapSide,lllerChalll—JONATHAN THOMAS
OWEN, Swansea, mathematical instrument seller—Roses-1.
LINCOLN, Mortimer-arms, Tottenham-court-road, licensed vie-
tuallei —THOMAS EVANS, Wood-street. Cheapside, City, umbrella
and parasol ukanufacturer—JAMES COOPER. Ryde and Wootton-
bridge, Isle of Wight, grocer---WILLIAM BARKER MOSS, Stain-
ford, butcher—Melissa Bowen, Haven-banks, Exeter, ship.
budder—HENßY COLLINS, Ashford Kent, carpenter and builder
—JOSEPH HIPKISS, Tipton. ironmaster.

SCOTCH SEQUESTRATIONS.—Ronzur Laws, Glasgow,
and 13allycastle, Antrim.commission and iron merchaut—roux
Citou., Glasgow, blackstuitb— Rosz • THU.. Glasgow,
bookseller, stationer, &c.—Joni HENRY ARCHER, North
lianover•street, Edinburgh, insurance broker and dealer in
shares.

Sir HYDE PARKER died on the 21st inst., at Govern-
ment house, Devonport, shortly after his arrival from
Lisbon in H.M.S. St. George. Sir Hyde, who was
born in 1785, was brother of the late Sir William
Parker, whom he succeeded in 1830, and grandson of
the Admiral Sir Hyde Parker who defeated the Dutch
at the Doggerbank in 1781. The baronetcy, we be-
lieve, is inherited by Colonel Richard Parker, who
commands the Ist Life Guards, cousin to the late
baronet, and eldest surviving son of the late Admiral
Sir Hyde Parker, who distinguished himself during
the American war.

Captain G. Goldsmith, who has been appointed
captain superintendent at Chatham dockyard, on the
promotion of Rear-Admiral Wyvill, has arrived and
assumed the command over the establishment.

Orders have been issued for every dispatch screw
gun-vessel, as well as the screw gun-boats, to be
ready by the 16th of April, so that it may be taken
for granted that on the 16th or 17th of the next
month the Queen will review the fleet.
The gun-boat squadron, it is said, will be formed
into a coast blockade, should their services not be
required with the fleet. The last coast blockade was
abolished by Sir James Graham in 1831.
Rear-Admiral Robert L. Baynes, C. 8., hoisted his
flag, blue at the mizen, as second in command of
the Baltic fleet, on board the steam-frigate Retribu,'
tion, '2B, Captain Thomas Fisher, at Spithead.

An extensive military hospital has been com-
menced at Sheerness, in the south east quarter of
the Ordnance land, within the present line of fortifi-
cation, and entirely detached from any other build;
ings of the new barrack department.
Two screw men-of-war, Gibraltar, :21, Captain H.
Dunlop, and the Desperate, 8, Commander White,
were despatched from Spithead on Tuesday night to
the westward, well stocked with provisions, water
&c., to look after the missing steamer Pacific.
A QUEEN IN THE ISLAND OF CELEBES.—She has
with her a suite as numerous as would have sufficed
for half a dozen queens in Europe, And more than
thirty girls and women, the latter attended in their
turn by their husbands. These ladies all represented
women of the bed chamber, maids of honour, &c.;
but many of them were so ragged and so extremely
dirty, that I did not like them to come near me, as I
thought if they did I should make some disagree-
able acquisitions. The illustrious company had with
them such a quantity of luggage, that it seemed as
if they were about to emigrate, instead of making
merely a visit of a few days. The whole large boat
was full of boxes, bags, and baskets, great and little
as well as of mats, cushions, and pots and pans ; so
that we could hardly find room to sit down, but
were packed like herrings. It was a most unpleasant
journey. The girls were employed the whole way
in making up ski, which is here done up into the
form of a cigar. The whole courtly company
went
on chewing and spitting, without ceasing, into little
brass pans, which they carry with them for this
delicate purpose, and politely hand to one another,
and the Queen at the same time bad the vermin
taken out of her head, while her ladies amused
themselves by performing this office for one an-
other.—lda Piciffer's Second Journey Round tho
World,

7:- '

MARCH 29, 1856.

yittraturt.

.x 7

The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare.
The Text carefully Revised, with Notes,
by Samuel Weller Singer, F.S.A. The Life
of the Poet, and Critical Essays on the
Plays, by William Watkiss Lloyd, M.R.S.L.
To be Completed in Ten Vols. Vols. I. 11.
111. London : Bell and Daldy.
The Stratford Slutkspere. Edited by Charles
Knight. Ten Vols. London : Hodgson.
THESE editions of Shakespeare are both pro-
duced under competent superintendence, and
both are of the kind known as " pocket "
editions; they are correctly printed, and they
are published at a moderate price. The
demand must be great which can thus take
up two separate editions of a work, not very
distinct from each other, at the same time.
The edition of Mr. Singer is from the Whit-
tingham Press, still justly celebrated for the
beauty of its typography. The paper and
print are luxurious ; for their size, the volumes
are the most convenient to read that could be
desired. The notes are in general sufficient
to elucidate without encumbering the text,
and contain notices of the latest emendations
which have been suggested, including those
in " Mr. Collier's folio." The " Critical Essays
"by William Watkiss Lloyd, M.R.5.L.," are
carefully written, but we should have preferred
more illustrative matter of a practical, and
less of a didactic and speculative kind.
The merit of Mr. Singer as an editor is of a
twofold kind. He has shown great discre-
tion in selecting notes to clear the text from
the bulk of those already in existence, and he
has distinguished himself by some very in-
genious emendations. We were at first dis•
posed to underrate his capacity for the ori-
ginal and most important duties of an editor,
but a closer examination of his volumes has
convinced us that he is well entitled to take
rank with those editors of Shakespeare who
have done valuable service by purifying the
text from the corruptions of the early editions.
In preparing this edition he has, he tells us,
gone through the early copies and diligently
revised the text. He is therefore, as regards
this issue, the latest of those editors who
s'nce the first folio of 1623 have occupied
t iemseives with attempts to perfect the text;
yet looking at it, as it stands in Mr. Singer's
page, and acknowledging how much has been
done to clear it, we must yet think that it re-
mains in a very unsatisfactory state. We
have no hesitation in asserting that there is
still, within the legitimate bounds of editorial
skill, great room for improvement.
The first folio must be considered the base
of Shakespeare's text, but assuredly it is not
ti be approached in a scrupulous spirit It is
so disfigured by gross errors that where the
sense appears imperfect there is no kind of
presumption that the print is right. In works
which have undergone the revision of their
author, we may, when we feel perplexed, more
reasonably doubt the clearness of his capacity,
or of our own, than the correctness of the
type ; but in the case of Shakespeare's text
there is no kind of presumption for such cor-
rectness On the contrary, there is a strong
presumption that the text is incorrect, and
hence no one can be qualified as an editor of
Shakespeare who does not come to the exami
nation of his text in an heretical spirit, or at
least in such suspense of mind as in all cases
of doubt to admit the probability that the
print is incorrect.
Mr. Collier, before the discovery of his folio
with its MS. corrections, was accustomed to
answer all proposed emendations by saying,
" I see no necessity for the change ; the
" original is as Shakespeare wrote it." Herein
he assumed the whole question. We desire
to_ know what it was which Shakespeare wrote,
being tolerably certain that he never wrote
nonsense, and that he was not obscure by
design.' We cannot tell from what manu-
-B?ripts Heminge and Condell took their text.
There is one passage in their preface which
inclines us to suppose that they had some at
least of the MSS. of Shakespeare in their hands.
They say of their author :