The Press.
London, England, 1854-04-01 00:00:00

PREPARATIONS FOR WAR.

Orders have been issued to the different depart-
ments of the staff attached to the expeditionary
force to proceed overland to Constantinople on the
4th proximo. Lord Raglan will remain in London
till the return of Sir John Burgoyne from the East,
who was sent to inspect the different localities in
Turkey where troops could be posted with the
greatest advantage. Sir John's return is daily ex-
pected, and it is reckoned that Lord Raglan will
be enabled to start off to take command by the
7th of April. Major. General Sir De Lacy Evans is
to command the division under orders for special
service.
It is decided that both brigades of cavalry destined
for service in Turkey will proceed to the East vik
France. They will be conveyed by steam-boat and
railway to Paris, and thence by railway so far as
Chalons, then down the Rhone by steam-boat to
Lyons and Avignon, from Avignon to Marseilles by
railway. The transit through France is expected to
occupy nine days.

SATURDAY,

The British troops will have a grand reception at
Paris, en route.
The old quarters of the Imperial Guard, on the
Quaff d'Orsay, the finest in Paris, are to be placed at
the disposal of the English cavalry on its passage
through Paris.
Gallipoli appears to be the point on the Turkish
coast which has been selected for the landing both
of the French and British contingents. It is very
conveniently situated for that purpose. It can be
easily defended against any land attack, and troops
stationed there could with great facility be marched
to Adrianople, or embarked on the Sea of Marmora
and landed at any part of the Black Sea coast where
their presence might be required. The regiments
belonging to the expeditionary army still in England
will now, of course, proceed direct to Gallipoli with-
out stopping at Malta. The troops in that island
are reported to be in excellent health and spirits,
and the conduct of every corps, and especially that of
the Guards, is most exemplary.
It is rumoured that, in addition to the late aug-
mentation of the army, there is to be a further
increase of 30,000 men.
Accounts have reached the military authorities in
Dublin that twenty-two regiments are to be increased
800 men each, and six regiments 200 each ; the
total further augmentation for the army will be 7,800.
An Admiralty notice has been issued inviting
tenders for the conveyance to Constantinople of 113
guns, weighing 342 tons, besides 59 tons of anchors
and chain cables.
Captain Hackett., R.A., is to take charge of the
photographic establishment which accompanies the
expedition to the East. A similar provision is said
to be in contemplation for the fleets.

APRIL 1, 1854.

Ifittraturt.

The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology.
No I. Cambridge : Deighton and Macmillan.
Oxford : Parker.
WE are very glad to see a classical periodical
printed at the Cambridge University press.
At a moment when the study of ancient
classical literature seems threatened with
destruction by the ignorant presumption and
petty envy of modern liberalism, it is refresh
ing and cheering to see a practical protest
against such savage Vandalism issued by that
University at which science has been vulgarly,
though erroneously, believed to receive too
exclusive a regard.
The Museum Criticum, published at Cam-
bridge under the editorship of the present
Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, and with
the important aid of the Bishop of London,
was so successful, that it is greatly to be
regretted that the series of that excellent
work was ever interrupted. It was succeeded,
at a considerable interval, by the Philological
Museum, of which the presiding genii were
the present Bishop of St. David's and Arch-
deacon Hare.
The Classical Museum was the next periodical
of an exclusively classical character. This
was mainly the offspring of the scholars
gathered around, rather than educated at, the
London University. This periodical continued
till it amounted to six volumes, whereas each
of its more modest predecessors had reached
only two. Of these three publications the
Museum Criticum is the moat useful and
popular. The scholarship of those who princi-
pally contributed to it was admirable, and, of
course, formed a material element in its
success. But mere scholarship alone is not,
and could not be, sufficient to secure the
success of such a work.
In the first place, it is requisite for the
success of such a publication that its principal
writers should be distinguished by a cool, dis-
passionate judgment, equally free from narrow
bigotry and conceited presumption ; a genuine
spirit of charity, which will hinder them from
ever giving unnecessary pain to authors, even
where they cannot speak in praise of them ; a
tolerant, liberal spirit, which rejoices to en
courage, and takes no pleasure in disparage-
ment. Not less important is it that the
writers should be masters of an easy and
elegant English style, capable of commu-
nicating an interest and a vivacity even to
uninviting and dry subjects, by gaiety of heart
and good humour. They should especially
eschew hurting the feelings of authors by
saying smart things ; which, as they are the
most tempting to the shallow and intellec-
tually vain, so are they the most hateful
though the most easy of all exhibitions for
small critics to make.
Now, in all the qualities which we have
enumerated as requisite in a body of classical
critics, the conductors of the Museum Criti•
cum were eminently gifted. They were
learned men ; but they also wrote popularly,
agreeably, and feelingly. We cannot call to
mind a single instance of a scholar who was
run down in the Museum Criticum. They ge-
nerally wrote what was useful and pleasant.
There is also in the work a thoroughly English
spirit and taste ; and we are free to acknow-
ledge that we think this a merit : it is un-
doubtedly a material and most important
requisite for the success of an English
classical work.
The Philological Museum was conducted
by men of great abilities, but they wrote on
uninviting subjects; they were scholars of
great learning, but their learning was oppressed
by a heavy, dry, uninteresting style. Their
papers, however admirable in themselves—
and many of them were admirable—as, for
instance, J. Wordsworth's review of Schole-
field's " .2Eschylus "—were yet seldom read
with pleasure. The writers, in fact, did not
in general come down to the level of ordinary
scholars either in their subjects or their man-
ner of treating them. How different is the
fresh,
of the Philological Museum from the
, pure, vigorous, homebred English of