The Press.
London, England, 1857-04-25 00:00:00

Cljt .I;)rvgixi+

LONDON, SATURDAY. APRIL 25, 1857.

POSTSCRIPT.

(By Submarine Telegraphic Despatch.)
PARIS, Fiiday Night.
Prince Dunilo, of Montenegro, has just left
for Vienna.

The journal Le Pays asserts that the
British forces will commence their operation a
against China by the capture of the valuable
island of Formosa.

The Upper House at Berlin has rejected para-
graph 1 of a bill imposing an additional duty on
salt, by a majority of 95 to 21. The Government
therefore abandoned the bill, the first paragraph
containing the entire measure.

The Government of Athens has determined to
oppose the French proposition for the establishment
of credit institutions in Greece.

Dr. Kern was received on Thursday by the Federal
Council of Berne.

LEITRIM ELECTION.
CLOSE OF Pots. FIRST DAY.

1,110

Montgomery
Brady
Tennison • •

The Globe of last evening states:—" We have
reason to believe that, on the meeting of Par-
liament, on Thursday next, the motion that Mr.
Evelyn Denison be the new Speaker, will be moved
by Lord Harry Vane, and seconded by Mr. Thornely."

616
407

HEALTH OF THE DUCHESS OF
GLOUCESTER.

The following bulletin of the health of her Royal
Highness the Duchess of Gloucester was issued
yesterday morning .
Gloncester•house, April 24, 9 a.m.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester has
passed a quiet night, and has not been so much oppressed
in her breathing.

FRANCIS HAWKINS, M.D.
ROBERT FEROUSON, M.D.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge has
consented to take part in the inauguration of the
public park presented to the borough of Birmingham
by Lord Calthorpe.

GREAT FIRE IN LIVERPOOL.
A fire was discovered yesterday morning in a
warehouse in Sparling•street, belonging to Messrs.
Malcolmson and Son. The building is seven storeys
high, and the fire broke out on the fifth floor, used
as a cotton store. Upwards of 2,500 bales of that
material, worth 131. per bale, mifst have been
destroyed. The property is fully insured. Con-
siderable apprehension WM felt for the lower part of
the building, which is stocked with wine and rum.

THE NIGHTINGALE FUND is about to close. A
meeting or the committee will he held at the office,
5, Parliament-street, on Friday next, to prepare the
report, call in outstanding subscriptions, and to
transfer the entire bum to the trustees appointed 'EI
Idiss Nightingale.

THE PRESS.

ptiaitb.

THE Evening 3lail states that, after all, the resig-
nation of Mr. Horsman is an accomplished fact, and
that the responsible office of Irish Chief Secretary is
at the disposal of Lurd Palmerston. Except Mr.
Bernal Osborne, no other name has been mentioned
as Mr. Horsrnan's successor. According to the Mail,
the appointment of the member for Dover has been
all but protested against by Lord Cariisle. The
Freeman's Journal of Thursday denounces the choice
as highly objectionable in consequence of the hon.
gentleman's speech in reference to the Irish Court
when the question of its abolition was last under the
consideration of Parliament.

THE REv. WILLIAM LEE, D.D., Fellow of Trinity
College, and author of "Lectures on the Inspiration
of Holy Scripture," has been elected to the Profes-
sorship of Ecclesiastical History, vacant by the
promotion of Dr. Fitzgerald to the see of Cork.
The professorship was recently founded by the Lord
Primate, the Chancellor of the University, who sub-
scribed 1,0001, towards its endowment.
Saunders's News-Letter contains an account of a
riot at Parsonstown on the day previous, owing to a
Mr. Atkinson, of Boscrea, having by his extensive
purchase!, of potatoes sent up their price. No lives
were lost.

THE ANNUAL CATTLE SHOW OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN
SOCIETY is now open. The exhibition of stock and
farming implements is not inferior to that of any
previous year. Lord Carlisle and the Viceregal suite
arrived at three o'clock Wednesday afternoon, and
stayed in the yard for fully two hours. His Excel-
lency was again present at the evening meeting, and
the Earl of Clancarty having proposed a vote of
thanks, Lord Catlisle, in the course of his reply,
alluding to the usual effects of an electoral contest,
said he trusted that all classes would unite to advance
agriculture:—

Parties and Governments may be subject to vicissitudes
and change ; but you, my lords and gentlemen, have the
green soil of Ireland lying fresh beneath you--firm and
fresh beneath you. There it ib—do justice to it, cultivate
it, enrich it, adorn it—for you will find it ever ready to
reward and to repay the skill and industry which shall best
develop its abounding resources.

THE MOUNTGARRETT PEERAGE CASE was cbcided
on Thursday, six of the eleven judges sitting in
error deciding against the application for a new trial.
The previous verdict in favour of the present Lord
Mountgarrett retaining possession of the Kilkenny
property therefore stands good.
THE LORD LIEUTENANT IN COUNCIL has commuted
the sentence of death passed on Norris and Power,
who were to have been hanged on Monday next for
the Spike Island murder.

AN EMIGRATION MANIA has seized the people of
Galway. Accounts state that the progress of emigra-
tion there has not slackened, notwithstanding that
the recent accounts from America are discouraging.
The daily trains to Dublin are crowded with
emigrP.nts of the better class bound for the United
States, and as the season advances it is feared that
the drain of population will be further increased.

wEsni INSTE It BONDS.
THE Westminster Bondholders held a meeting at
the Victoria Hotel on Tuesday, to hear the state-
ment of the Commissioners. The document was
read by Mr. Wright, and in it the bondholders were
called upon to support a bill proposed by the mort-
gagees, with a view to make the property available.
By this bill, though no power is sought for any new
work, the Commissioners desire to borrow 99,000/.
by preference mortgage, in order to complete con-
tracts already made for the purchase of certain
properties, and also to be enabled to sell lands free
from incumbrances. The other object of the bill
is to open a street communication between Victoria-
street and St. James's.

It was arranged, on the application of Mr. D.
Cunningham, that this statement of the Commis-
sioners should be printed and circulated amongst the
bondholders at a charge of Is. per copy, Mr. Wright
having stated that the Commissioners could not pay
fur the priming of the document, being entirely out
of money.

A BONDHOLDER asked if the power of the Com-
missioners were confirmed, where was the money to
come from

Mr. WRIGHT replied that in that case he had no
doubt Sir Benjamin Hall would waive his objection.
If they could get the powers sought for, they could
easily obtain a workable capital.
Mr. BEAUMONT complained that the bondholders
had been shamefully treated. If the bondholders
were to be protected, let them propose a bill that
would give them some control. The Commissioners
had borrowed enough money, and the bondholders
were not going to let them borrow more without
some security. The acts of the Commissioners had
been in systematic opposition to the Acts of Par-
liament.

After some further discussion, the meeting ad-
journed to Wednesday, 29th instant.

SATURDAY,

Nalral an 'tiiitarrr ntelligtatt.

REAR-ADMIRAL SIR MICHAEL SEYMOUR, K.C.8.,
has been nominated to the vacant good service
pension, for his ►oss of an eye by the explosion of
an infernal machine in the Baltic.

MAJOR-GENERAL MATHIAS EVERARD, C. 8., K.H.
has just died. He entered the service in 1804, and
served in South America (leading the forlorn hope
at Monte Video), in the Peninsula, at Corunna, in
the Walcheren expedition, and at Bhurtpore. The
death of General Everard reduces the list of general
officers to 234, the number fixed by the royal warrant
of 1854: but as a promotion will take place in con.
sequence of previous deaths, a step will not occur on
each vacancy until the list shall have been reduced
by two more.
THE Royal Sovereign, 131, screw three-decker,
will be launched from Portsmouth Dockyard this day.
This magnificent leviathan will be christened by one of
the daughters of the Port Admiral, Sir George Sey.
mour, K.C.B. Upwards of 10,000 persons are
expected to be present at the launch.
THE LARGE NEW TIDAL BASIN in course of construc-
tion at Chatham Dockyard is progressing rapidly,
and, as soon as completed, will afford accommodation
for line•of-battle ships, which have hitherto seldom
been sent to that establishment fur repairs, owing to
the want of sufficient dock accommodation.

THE Camperdown, 104, and the three•decker
Princess Charlotte are to be fitted for immediate com-
mission on the China station as hospital ships.
THE Agamemnon, 91, is being rapidly expedited
for the service of laying down the Atlantic telegraph
cable. Tho Terrible is destined to assist the
Agamemnon in laying down the telegraph wires. It
is in consequence of her being fitted with the most
powerful engines in our navy that she has been
selected for this undertaking.

THE HON. NEIL Dow, the originator and strenuous
advocate of the Maine Liquor Law, arrived i❑ Liver.
pool on Monday last by the Royal Mail steamship
Europa, having been invited by the United Kingdom
Temperance Alliance to visit this country•, for the
purpose of making known the principles of the law,
and of detailing its operations and the present state
of the principles of temperance in the United States.
" OF THE CONING COHETt" says the eminent Ger-
man astronomer, Von Littrow, who writes to the
Vienna Gazette—

Only this is certain, that it is possible, although it is
anything but certain, that we may see the comet between
the present sear of 1837 and that of 1860. The greatest
astronomical authority of this century, Gauss of Gottingen,
has always been of this opinion. Hitherto, therefore, so
far as the matter has publicly transpired, the whole sub-
ject would be reduced to a little useless talk and expecta-
tions prematurely excited. But recently a certain indi-
vidual, having nothing better to do, thought proper to
invest it with renewed interest by giving out, absurdly
enGugh, that the comet would reappear on a certain day,
the 13th of June this year, and at the same time he con-
nected the event with some piquant predictions about the
destruction of the world, and the like. Unfortunately
our nineteenth century, notwithstanding its much-
vaunted enlightenment, still contains a great deal of soil
only too favourable for the growth of such seed. The false
prophet has found credulous listeners, and, what is yet
worse, called forth unbidden comforters. Now, upon this
last•mentioned question let us remark in a few words that,
from facts which fortunately render the vacillating argu-
ments of the physicist Babinet quite supettluous, it 15
irrefutably certain that the matter of which comets consist
forms an extremely loose texture; that comets are in reality
not coherent meioses, but mere agglomerations of small
corpuscules, separated from one another by large inter-
stices. Highly improbable as it is, because it could only
take place by a concurrence of circumstance hardly con-
ceivable, that a collision of the earth and the nucleus of a
comet should ensue, such an event, far from entailing de-
struction on this world, could only he compared at the most
with the fall of a meteor, and in its effects would barely equal
those produced by our thunderstorms and hurricanes.
A mere passing of the earth through the luminous appen-
dages of one of these bodies, which it is true might more
easily happen, would be unattended by any injurious con-
sequences, since the matter of which comets consist is not
coherent substance, nor is it even an atmosphere such as
we could nut inhale. Incredible as it may appear, we
hear it from too trustworthy a source not to believe it,
that in Austria, ton, the country folks, in expectation of
what is to happen, have ceased to till their fields, and are
wasting their time in idleness. Such a delusion might
provoke a smile, if it were not too lamentable. Whatever
the use of comets may be in the universe, assuredly it is
not that of liberating us men from the care of the future.
Besides, a man must be very young who has not already
outlived without injury many similar destructions of the
world.

THE IMPERIAL PRINCE (says a recent Paris letter),
besides going most at ternoons in state, escorted by
Guides, to the Bois de Boulogne, is now taken out
at eight or nine every morning on the reserved
terrace. of the Tuileries gardens overlooking the
Seme. Sometimes he may be seen in his Lilliputian
goat garriage, the goats led by two little footmen, a
nurse walking on each side and a tall lacquey
behiud,

~-

APRIL 25, 1857.

Nittraturt.

Oxford Essays. Contributed by Members of
the University. 1857. London : J. W.
Parker and Son.

THE excellence of the plan adopted by the
founders of this publication becomes more
and more apparent with each successive
volume. Not a single essay in the number
now before us but is evidently a labour of
love, and written with that carefulness of style
and fulness of matter which those who bind
themselves to illustrate only the tepics of the
day are seldom enabled to exhibit For depth
of thought and closeneßs of argument the two
foremost on the list are Mr. Gladstone's essay
upon Homer, and Mr. Wilson's, of St. John's
College, upon "Schemes of Christian Com-
prehension," followed at no long interval by
Mr. Baden Powell on " The Evidences of
Natural Theology." For elegance of style Mr.
Duff's paper upon Sicily carries off the palm.
Mr. Church and Mr. Sellar have each illus-
trated a favourite author with an impartial and
discerning hand; and the part of historic
investigation is worthily sustained by Messrs.
Freeman and Bridges in their respective
articles upon " Ancient Greece and Mediaeval
Italy," and " The Jews of Europe in the
Middle Ages." We are far from meaning that
the essays are separately faultless : in the
course of our observations we shall have to
point out several blemishes of more or less
consequence. But nevertheless we do mean
that, on the whole, in the Oxford Essays for
1857 is to be found a body of sound learning,
conscientious opinion, and sagacious criticism,
which we should vainly hope to parallel else-
where in our periodical literature.
If any fault can be found with Mr. Glad-
stone's luminous dissertation, it is that of
being too completely workmanlike. It is as
difficult to abbreviate as a proposition in Eu-
clid. It contains not a superfluous word, nor
a single ornament. It is sheer bone and
muscle ; close, symmetrical argument, without
one divergence or irregularity. It has been
called indeed, and with some propriety, a
skeleton ; but then it is a complete skeleton,
and does not merit the epithet •` fragmentary"
bestowed on it in the same quarter.
Of the value of Homer to the student of
man's history Mr. Gladstone says :

In much that this Homeric world exhibits we see the
taint of sin at work, but far as yet from its perfect work and
its ripeness ; it stands between Paradise and the vices of
later heathenism, far from both, from the latter as well as
from the former; and if, among all earthly knowledge, the
knowledge of man be that which we should chiefly court,
and if to be genuine it should be founded upon experience,
bow is it possible to overvalue this representation of the
human race in a complete, distinct, and separate form,
with its own religion, ethics, policy, history, arts, manners,
fresh and true to the standard of its nature, like the form
of an infant from the hand of the Creator, yet mature, full,
and finished, in its own sense, after its own laws, like
some masterpiece of the sculptor's art?
The poems sof Homer never can be put in competition
with the sacred writings of the Old Testament, as regards
the one invaluable code of truth and hope that was con-
tained in them. But, while the Jewish records exhibit to
us the link between man and the other world in the ear-
liest time 4, the poems of Homer show us the being of
whom God was pleased to be thus mindful, in the free
unsuspecting play of his actual nature. The patriarchal
and Jewish dispensations created, and sustained through
Divine interposition, a state of things essentially special
and exceptional ; but here we see our kind set to work
out for itself, under the lights which common life and
experience supplied, the deep problem of its destiny. Nor
is there, perhaps, any more solemn and melancholy lesson
than that which is to be learned from its continual down-
ward course. If these words amount to a begging of the
question, at least it is most important for us to know
whether its coarse was continually downwards ; whether,
as man enlarged his powers and his resources, he went
farther from his happiness and his perfection. Now this
inquiry cannot, for Europe and Christendom at least, be
satisfactorily conducted, except in commencing from the
basis which the Homeric poems supply.

A great deal of the essay may be said to follow
from the propositions here laid down. It
follows that the study of "the inner Homeric
world " should be brought up to a level with
that of his poetry and his language, and that
we should bring all our learning and judgment
to bear upon the question of what the poet's
own " historic aims " actually were. The chief
excellences of Homer's poetry are characterised
by Mr. Gladstone in the following terms :

Among them might perhaps be placed the faculty of high
oratory ; the use of epithets and distinctiTe phrases ; the