The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-30 00:00:00

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 30, 1858.

Abet hi deprecating all controversy, they are playing
into the hands of the enemy, and helping on their mita-
chievouti devices. l t is only the corrupters of the Faith
who have any reason to fear the result
.of controversy.
Truth courts discussion; and by
.discussion its superior
Wins are asserted. The enemies of the truth, most
cchatscteristically, would put an arrest upon all controver-
sial discussions—muzzle the mouth, and padlock the
press. In !lowish countries, to this slay, all controversy
on religious questions is strictly prohibited. Is this the
order of things which any reasonable man would wish to
see restored in our own ?
It is amazing that any men who read the Scriptures,
and profess to regard the examples of. inspired men as
equivalent to a divine sanction, can denounce contro-
versy as unchristian. The Bible is essentially a contro-
versial book. It contains God's great controversy with
wan. It is a history of the controversies that have been
.carried on from age to age by His faithful servants with
an apostate and revolted world. Noah had a controversy
with the antediluvians,—Moses entered into an acted
'controversy with the Egyptian magicians,—Samuel had
a controversy with the Israelites,--the Prophets were
•connnually, one after another, challenging to a direct con-
troversy the corrupters of the Faith in their several days.
.Our blessed Lord was incessantly engaged in controversy
with the Jews. The Apostles, and especially that greatest
.of all dialecticians, St. Paul, took up the same line of
:attack, and boldly challenged the impugners of truth to an
,apan disputation respecting the claims of Christianity;
mid by controversy it was they succeeded in overthrowing
both the strongholds of Judaism and the gigantic pile of
gorgeous superstition which heathen fancy had erected.
Our newspapers are replete with controversial
discussions. Our Parliament is the arena of in-
tense political controversy. It is by controversy
that our courts of justice eliminate crime and fix
guilt on the guilty head. Wh,y should a weapon
of such keenness be repudiated by that religion
which courts discussion, challenges investigation,
and condemns, as inconsistent with duty and
common sense, unconcern and indifference ? Let
controversy be truth in love—the vindication of
principles,not personal invective—fervour of spirit,
not passion—the humility of the Christian and
the candour of the man—and falsehood and error,
not everlasting truth, may fear and deprecate the
.issues.

We do most heartily commend this admirable
Tatume. It has about it an independence, and
am.gour, and an earnestness which are worthy of
allvaise. Besides being distinguished for those
qualities which we mentioned in our first notice,
it is written in a style clear, temperate, and
transparent, and cannot fail to create a sound
• and healthy sentiment on subjects which passion
..warps and prejudice clouds in the present day.

Tow :re an'c Governed ; or, the Crown, the Senate,
and tfic:Benelt. A Handbook of the Constitution,
Government; Laws, and Power of Great Britain.
By Alliany Fonblanque, Jun., Esq. London :
Routledge.
"Irtz excellent littie "Handy Book " of Lard S. t.
'LeAuirds has given birth to numerous imitations of its
me.hod and Om), all of them supplying wants which
had been felt, and all, from what we learn, enjoying. a
success proportioned to the popularity of the fields
they have respectively undertaken to illustrate. That
so many small books should have been produced
upon somewhat difficult subjects, involving a good
deal of reading, and having to bear the scrutiny of
those most practically interested in their contents,
without any serious errors haying been found in
them, speaks well for the agcuraey and industry of
the compilers of the present day. Those which have
hitherto been produced, however, have been, in all
but their arrangement, derived from larger works.
The volume before us would not exactly answer to
• this description, for there is a great deal in it. which
'we should in vain look for anywhere else. There
are a vast number of people who aro continually
'more or less puzzled by allusions in newspapers or
.conversation to certain common technicalities of
Parliament, law, or finance, which they hastily set
'Jswn as impossible to understand, while they are of
'such frequent occurrence that they think they ought
know them and therefore do not like to ask an
'explanation. Why an M.P. who desires to vacate his
seat accepts tho Chiltern Hundreds—why a bill is
moved to be read this day six months '—how great
and small tithes arose—what is the exact meaning of
Consols, Exchequer Bills, and Sinking Fund—are
questions which might be asked in many private
undies without receiving a precise answer. Nor, if
a mason 'wished for an authoritative explanation,
wouldit in all such cases be very easy to tell him
where to'loek for it. This sort of knowledge, if not
picked apiin Passing through life, is seldom acquired
at all, and•thus a person's ideas are apt to remain
uncomfortably vague on matters of the commonest
occurrence. From Mr. Fonblanque's pages, how
ever, he would gain all the information he re-
quires, " How we are Governed " is a contribution
to the knowledge of ' common things' —a phrase

which is too often used as if it comprehended nothing
but matters of physical science, while its larger ac-
ceptation, including the laws and customs under and
with which we live, is at least as well worthy of atten-
tion. Mr. Fonblanque's work is divided into nineteen
letters, seven of which are allotted to the Constitution
and Parliament, six to the Law, while the National
Debt, Municipal Government, the Church, the Army,
and the Navy have each one letter devoted to them.
It is written in a plain, easy, and familiar style, for
the supposed benefit of the author's youthful niece
and nephew, and contains, in fact, just such discourse
as might be expected to flow from an intelligent
practical uncle acting as showman in Westminster-
hall, the Houses of Parliament, Guildhall, the Bank,
or the camp at Aldershott. We could not give a fair
sample of the book by any extracts which would be
short enough for our space, but we warmly recommend
it, and we believe there are very many persons who
will find their ideas considerably cleared up by reading
through its not very laborious pages. Mr. Fonblanque
has supplied a want, not so much of a distressing as
of an irritating kind, which has been extensively fait,
and his readers will be cordially disposed to thank
him for the neat and portable information he has
afforded them.

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friendly pedal, to prevent your being utterly
dismembered and eviscerated. If Rossini's tune
were not in itself so very pretty, no one would,
we believe, take the trouble to snatch it in frag-
ments from this fiery chaos of wild and whirling
notes—no one would probably be found to play
at this strange game of melodic " snapdragon."

As it is, however, thanks to Rossini rather
than to M. Sell 4, this present novel arrangement
(or disarrangement) of " Cujus Animam " will
doubtless excite curiosity and prove attractive.
A considerable portion of the second theme of
" La Grazia " (which is in the "minuet and trio"
form) has also to be extricated from some very
embarrassing positions ; but in this instance the
" Melodia " must be dug out, rather than snatched,
in consequence of the more ponderous nature of
the opposing masses of sound, which consist
chiefly of full chords ; and this additional labour
is rendered still more unpalatable by the
unhappy fact that M. Sell6's tunes are not so
good as Rossini's. "La Grazia " may notwith-
standing find many admirers.

The Dark Hour. A Song. Written by H.
Story ; composed by Frank de Fonblanque.
London: Addison, Ilollier, and Lucas.
Wu know not whether the authors of this
effusion intended it as a wholesome set-off to the
popular ballad of "There's a good time coming,"
but it certainly is as complete an antidote to
mirth and hope as the most gloomy man-hater
could desire. The burthen of the lugubrious
ditty .is "There's a dark hour coming," and (as
we infer from the words) a miserable wretch
supposed to be writhing under the terrible con-
sciousness of approaching madness is the vocalist.
The incipient maniac is a baritone, and howls
forth his deary lament in the key of E minor.
As insanity is the theme of this pleasant bal-
lad, we presume that considerable latitude must
be conceded to the authors, and that it would
scarcely be considered fair in us to judge their
treatment of so refractory a subject by the ordi-
nary laws and precedents of art; otherwise,
we might protest strongly against the violations
of musical grammar and the established rules of
harmony which meet us on nearly every page.
We might denounce the unprepared dissonances
of 5-4 on the dominant with which the piece
commences, together with the consecutive oc-
taves, unmeaning unisons, and ridiculously in-
correct progressions and notation spread in reck-
less profusion over the entire score, as so many
barbarisms. But madness is an awful matter,
and we have not, neither do we wish to have, any
well-founded ideas as to how that dire malady
should be expressed, either in words or tones.
Nevertheless, we are inclined to believe that the
originators of " The Dark Hour " have shown a
very rare sympathy with the subject, and that
the composer at least has produced just the kind
of thing one might expect from a madman. We
place "The Dark Hour," indeed, quite beyond
the ordinary range of ballads, and sincerely
counsel all who love the " novel or strange," to
furnish themselves with a copy at once.

Six Songs. Composed by John Thomas. London :

Boosey and Son.
MR. Joitx THOMAS possesses a great deal of
natural ability as a composer, but he writes at
times very carelessly, and thus commits errors
which impartial criticism cannot allow to pass
without reproach. We need only call Mr.
Thomas's attention to a few points in the songs
under notice, to prove the justness of our stric-
tures. In the second half of the last line of page 6
the harmony would more properly be that of
the chord of D minor, followed on the last note of
the melody by that of the 6-5-3 on the subdomi-
nant of A minor, than the thin chord of the 6-3
on the subdominant of A minor, which occupies
the place where these other chords might have
been employed. In bars 3 and 5 of page 7
there occur absolutely objectionable progressions.
The imitation in the octave of the melodic phrases
of the voice part by no means justifies those very
harsh and unmeaning dissonances formed (count-
ing upwards) by the association of B flat, C and
E natural, with F sharp, or of C natural, E
natural, B flat, with F sharp. It would have
been better to sacrifice the imitations, brief and
unimportant too as they are, than thus to violate
the laws of harmony. esides, Mr. Thomas

1064

might still have preserved his imitations under a
more musicianly treatment.

During bars 11, 12, 13, and 14, page 20, the
harmonic progressions commencing with the
chord of the minor second on D natural, are not
only strikingly introduced and appropriate to the
sentiment of the song, but perfectly pure and
" clean:" why then does Mr. Thomas give us an
unclean chord immediately after, in bar 15 of the
same page ? Why is the B flat suspending the
A natural of the 6-3 chord on the subdominant
of G minor doubled in the lower octave, and held
on there even after the resolution of the upper
suspended tone ? Ilere, again, as it appears to
us, we have evidence of that unconscientious
haste and carelessness of which we have com-
plained, and several more instances of thought-
lessness might be cited from other portions of the
six songs—cases of clumsy arrangement, where
chords are taken in bad positions, &c.

We will, however, now turn to the more agree-
able side of the question, and gladly award to Mr.
Thomas the praise to which he is justly entitled.
No. 1 is by far the best of the six songs, and the
beauties it includes may be regarded as the most
perfect manifestation of those musical powers
which arc evidenced in a greater or lesser degree
throughout the other pieces belonging to the
same set. The subject of the song immediately
under notice is a very old, yet always new one—
love ; and the poetry, beginning Deep in my
" soul that tender secret dwells," is, we need
scarcely say, by Lord Byron. Air. Thomas's
music is thoroughly imbued with the tender, im-
passioned, now despairing, now wildly exulting
spirit of the verses. Its tones and accents rise
and fall with those of the poet, and sound not
only echoes sense, but adds materially to its force
and beauty.
The purely technical merits of this charming
little effusion are a well-defined and symmetri-
cally-rhythmed melodic outline, excellent treat-
ment of the voice, a due observance of the laws
of contrast, and neatness of form, with that dis-
criminating adaptation of all means to an end
which imparts completeness to the simplest efforts
of the muse, and invests them with a genuine
artistic character.

The other songs belonging to this set are en-
titled respectively "La Primola," "My Mary's
no more," " The Queen of Night," " Thou Art
the Star," and " The Suppliant's Prayer."