The Press.
London, England, 1854-07-22 00:00:00

PERIODICAL LITERATURE.

THE Quarterly Review has of late years opened a
new vein of interest, which it has diligently worked
to its own credit and the advantage of its readers.
In a series of sketches, written with much skill and
piquancy, it has delineated various institutions,
establishments, and manufactories, of public or semi-
public character, describing their mechanism, tracing
the course of their working processes, and making
intelligible to the dwellers in the outer world a mul-
titude of mysterious operations hitherto known only
to the initiated. The post-office, the printing-office,
the railway system, are among the more memorable
• subjects of which these papers treated in times past.
Two additions to the series are presented in the
• number of the Quarterly just issued, devoted re-
spectively to the House of Commons and the Elec-
tric Telegraph. To the former is assigned the post
of honour in the present number. It describes the
house with little reference to its architectural and
none at all to its political condition. It takes neither
Mr. Hayter's nor Sir C. Barry's point of vif w, but
' treats of the place in what is after all its true aspect,l
as a " manufactory of statute law." The article wil
be interesting, and we fancy instructive, even to
many hon. members ; it will enable the visitor in the
. Speaker's gallery to see his way through the per-
plexing technicalities in which every night's " des-
patch of business" is wrapped up; and furnish the
world out of doors with some means of understanding
how acts of Parliament are made. The paper is
penned in a lively strain, and uses a wit's privilege
:in dealing with important subjects and eminent per-
,:manages. The sketch of a committee of supply is a
woad example of the writer's pleasantry :
"".Tiot first vote proposed was, that the sum of 135,8631.
be granted to her Majesty to defray the expenses of the
royal palaces.
"Mr. Wise sn'sbed to know why the front of Buckingham
Palace had been imitated. It looked very ugly ; and paint-
ing stone was quits' ridiculous.
" Sir William mai:9eworth said that the process had been
rendered necessary, N 3cause the stone-work had suffered
from weather.
" Mr. Hume said that was no answer. Bad materials
'must have been furnished ; and there must have been some-
'body on duty to see that the materials were good. Whose
business was it?
" Lord Seymour said that st, me was a very hard thing—
i(a laugh )—to get good. •
" Mr. 'Williams said that was ba cause application was not
'made in the right quarter. Priva, •e individuals could get
'gold articles ; but Government had the monopoly of being
all served.
"An honourable member said that 1 is house was built of
very good stone.
" Mr. Wilson said that he was very ink I to hear it, he was
'sure ; but honourable members would bet that this was no
'reason why her Majesty should not have t. te necessary re-
pairs executed.
" The vote was agreed to.
" Mr. Bouverie.—Order, order ! The next v. ate was that
66,5851. should be granted for keeping in repair , the lodges,
fences, roads, and paths in the royal parks and pleasure-
grounds.
" An honourable member took this opportunity rat n 'callinSg
attention to the disgraceful fact, that he saw a boy
James's Park on Thursday last pitching little pebbles into
the mouth of the great mortar, A policemen was start ing
at Storey's•gate, but did not interfere. Now, at a time L • "e
this, when we were spending millions on our ordnance, 1 e
thought that this was, to say the least of it, very incon
sistent.
Sir William Molesworth said that unluckily the mortar
could hardly be called a public statue, and therefore the
new act for the protection of the statues did not allow him
to interfere ; but the police should be spoken to.
" Another honourable member wished to know whether
the public had a right to the chestnuts that fell from the
trees in Bushy-park. He mentioned this, because in riding
through the park he bad frequently seen numbers of pic-nic
parties collecting them in large numbers, and carrying
them away in pocket-handkerchiefs. He did not intend to
move any amendment, but wished the Government to be
aware of the fact.
" The Chancellor of the Exchequer said that Govern-
ment had to thank the honourable member for bringing the
subject forward. Difficulty had arisen in legislating on the
sub,ect, on account of the articles in question being entirely
useless to everybody ; but the ranger had taken the matter
into consideration, and he hoped that ere long a satisfactory
regulation would be affixed on the park gates.
" The vote was agreed to."
In the paper on the Electric Telegraph the intri-
cate details of apparatus and manipulation are

Tim April number of our transatlantic contempo-
rary, the New York Quarterly, contains ten arti-
cles, all of them, except perhaps one, meritorious,
and some deserving of higher praise. The first,
on the " National Post-office," is evidently by an
American : it begins, " The Post-office is one "of
" the permanent institutions of the country " ; and
that "permanent institution," in the course of a few
lines, becomes, by the force of metaphor, successively
" a machine with wheels and axle—a universal
" errand-boy—a bank of discount, exchange, and
" deposit—the wings of a bird of knowledge—the
" postal chain is a link, a bearer of despatches, the
" ship of Jason, Briareus," 11/c. Such is the
pleasing variety of its aspects in a land of liberty ; but
in England it appears in a monotonous form. Here
" it is the instrument of a despot, used to betray and
" murder the innocent." This is in reference to Sir
James Graham and the brothers Bandiera, of whose
tragic death an erroneous description is given.
Those hapless youths were deserters from the
Austrian service, and were captured when in arms
against the Neapolitan Government. Had the in-
surrection spread, Novara would have been antici-
pated by some two or three years. With regard to
the power of opening letters, it is sanctioned by act
of Parliament, and is as old as the institution of the
Post-office. In Lord Clarendon's history there is a
passage stating that when the virtuous Lord Falk-
land was Secretary of State he would never exercise
the power himself, although he fully recognised its
existence and admitted its legality. When the writer
abandons metaphor and political allusion he proves
he can tell a plain tale very well ; and, from a com-
parison between the number of letters " mailed " in
England and the United States, and the expenses of
the two systems, he comes to the conclusion
that the English establishment is much the better
managed of the two. The "Politics of Russia"
is the second article, and seems to us to exhibit
considerable ignorance of the state of Europe. The
third, the longest in the Review, discusses the
Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the
State of the University of Oxford. The writer natu
rally finds many things which in his opinion require
alteration, but the article is not bigoted in its tone,
and that so much space should be devoted to the
subject shows the interest which Americans take in
the "permanent institutions" of the old country.
" Popular Amusements " is the title of another arts.
cle, chiefly treating of theatricals. Shakspeare and
the great dramatists of England here naturally oc-
cupy the greatest space. "The Great Want of New
York City" is the title of an article in which the
inefficiency of the municipal government of the com-
mercial capital of America is laid bare. We com-
mend the following extract to the attention of Messrs.
Cobden and Bright:—
" The truth must he confessed, that now for many years
the municipal government of New York has been perverted
to an increasing extent for purposes of private advantage,
while its functions have been growing less and less effective
for their legitimate results of public peace and security.
Many offices have been rendered enormously and absurdly
lucrative, by extortionate constructions of fee-bills, while
it has seemed impossible to procure proper legislation to
check the evil. The doings of the Common Council have
t ',eel' dictated by private interests and influence ; and it is
'nerallv believed that bribery, direct or indirect, has been
gt ulo3 ed to an alarming extent. The number of persons
CM
iected with the city government, whosefinancial condi-
coni
don , 'las. become greatly changed immediately upon their
mg office, can not be accounted for but on the sup-
obt
positim that public station has been made unduly subser-
nrivate emolument.
vient to
evils of official corruption could be endured, after
" Theit
a sort, mi. •ch more patiently, if they were not attended
'ally increasing impotency in the administration
with contint
rrient. In a prosperous community like ours,
of the goven
where the whole number of officeholders is comparatively
small, and the capacity of the population for the production
and acquisition of wealth absolutely boundless, the
'on and extortion that is possible bears so
extent of peculst.
a „ronnrtio, Ito the aggregate accruing wealth of the
small
people, t'hatrihey w ill bear it submissively for a long time,
provided the actual administration of the government is
he public protection and safety. We
made effective for
could afford to en more than the four or five millions

691

otdollars now annually expended, and the unknown addi-
tional millions exacted in the form of fees, assessments,
bribes, and so forth, if we could have an efficient govern-
ment for the money. But the aggravation becomes into-
lerable when the people find that they are fleeced without
rule or measure, and get little or nothing iu return."
The cause of the frequency and severity of fires in
New York is explained by the avocations of the Fire
Brigade, who thus test the strength of their helmets,
the temper of their axes, and accustom themselves
to be cool and steady under fire :
" During the past year several extremely violent fights
have occurred between companies; pistols and other den-
gerous weapons have been brought into requisition, the al.-
paratus upset, and nearly destroyed; the worst of which
were between engine companies Nos. 6, 18, and 44, and
hose companies Nos. 10 and 17 ; yet no punishment has
been awarded (except that No. IS was suspended for three
months), although the facts were duly reported to the
Common Council, who, instead of investigating the circum-
stances, allowed the matter to lie for several months, and
then adopted a resolution directing the chief engineer to
return the apparatus which he had taken from them."
Mr. Grote's "Greece " is reviewed, if without parade
of learning, with much good taste, and in a most
agreeable manner. The description of an Italian
improvisatore is so vivid that we regret our space is
too limited to extract it. The New York Quarterly
is a review of a superior order, free from prejudice
and intolerance, with few national peculiarities, and
worthy of the country which in fiction has produced
a Cooper, in poetry a Longfellow, and in history a
Bancroft and a Prescot.

BOOKS RECEIVED.
BOOKS.
Minstrelsy of War. A. B. Richards. Blackwood.
The Young Poet's Assistant. Saunders and Utley.
The Nations of Russia and Turkey. Ivan Golovin.
Triibner and Co.
Itoutledge.
Wilson .

Fun. A. Crowqnill.
Handbook for Advertisers.
Attila. G. P. R. James.
The Dark Lady of Doona. W. H. I•tazwell.
The Head of the Family. Chapman and Hall.
How to Learn Latin. A. J. King. Jarrold and Sous.
PAMPHLETS.
Four Sermons Preached at Rome. Rev. F. Garden.
Rivingtonr.
Dangers to England. Victor Schoelcher. Triibner and Co.
An Account u/ the Decimal Coinage. J. Pitmen. Pitman.

Hodgson.
Ditto.

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.
A CONCERT given by the management on Friday last
led to a scene of a most disgraceful nature. The
first act of the programme consisted of the Stabat
Mater of Rossini, in which Mme. Grisi and Signor
Mario were announced to sing. Mme. Grisi, who
was said to be ill, never arrived at all ; and Signor
Mario, who was said to have mistaken the time,
made his appearance just one hour and a half after
the concert had commenced. When Signor Mario did
so far condescend as to sing he gave the tenor song
in a whisper, and very carelessly. This led to his
being hissed, whereupon he flounced off the stage,
and left the theatre. As one piece of impudence
often leads to another, Signor Tamberlik took into
his head that he need not trouble himself, and on the
public expressing vociferously a different opinion hg
threw down his music and also left the stage. A
general row followed, and, the management being
unable to fulfil their engagements, the money was
ultimately returned. It will scarcely be credited
that on the following night Signor Mario, after such
conduct, was received in the Favorita as if nothin g
had happened. It is a great misfortune for Englan d
that the public should show so little respect for itself.
Had such a scene taken place any where on the Conti-
nent, or in America, the offenders would never have
been allowed to appear again without making ample
apology for their unpardonable insolence—nor, in-
deed, even with us would a native artist be allowed
to take such a liberty; hut foreigners are all licensed,
and we submit to their caprices as if we were their
slaves. For this state of things the leaders of
society are in a great measure responsible. English
talent, no matter how good, is essentially unfashiona-
ble : foreigners must be engaged to give a ton to the
private as well as the public entertainment, and the
characters, conduct, and capacity of the artists
themselves seem never even to be worthy of a mc-
ment's thought.

---
THE programme of the forthcoming Triennial
Musical Festival, which is to be held at Worcester in
the first week in September, has now been decided
upon. The engagements include Madame Clam
Novello, Madame Castellon, Miss Dolby, Madam•
Viardot, Mrs. Weiss, Mr. Sims Reeves, Mr. Lockey
Signor Gardoni, Herr Vormes, and Mr. Weiss in the
vocal department. The band and chorus are to ex.
ceed 300 performers. The oratorios to be performed
entire are The Messiah, Elijah, The Creation, and
Last Judgment, and among the secular pieces are
Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream, the Lorely
fragments, and Weber's Oberon.

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