The Express.
London, England, 1853-07-05 00:00:00

NAVAL.

PORTSMOUTH, JULY 4.—THE DOWELING PRO-
l'ELLEK.—Another trial of the Beaming propeller was
made at this port to-day on board her Majesty's steamer
Conflict. The continuation blades hail been cut off, in
order to test the qualities of the retent without their pre-
sence, and the results more were favourable than had
yet been obtained. The Conflict was to-day, as on the pre-
vious trials, under the command of Captain Henderson,
C.B. of the Blenheim, and the inventor, Sir T. Michell,
of the Bomerang, was on board, accompanied by Mr. Web-
ster, foreman ut the establishment of Mesas. James Taylor
sod Co., of Birkenhead, makers of the screw
tried. Mr. Murray, chief engineer of this dock-
yard, was also on board. Si: runs were made
at the measured mile in Stokes Bay, when the
avenge speed of the whole was found to be at the rate of
9.378 knots per hour. The pressure of steam wu 10Ihs.,
and the revolutions of the engines were 65! per minute ;
leas by 7 revolutions per minute, the run the Conflict
made with her common screw to attain a speed of 9.068
knots per hour. This decrease in the number of revolutions
made by the engines, is said to represent a saving of one•
eighth in the fuel consumed, whilst it also saves some wear
and tear in the vessel herself.

The Commander-in-Chief went out to Spithead this after-
noon to inspect the Duke of Wellington, 131. The Arro-
gant, 46, screw frigate, went out of harbour today to try
her boilers. The Comus, 12, sloop, Commander Fellowev
arrived at Spithead last night from Sheerness. The Ajax,
Imperieuse, and Odin, shifted their births today.

DEVONI'ORT, JCIA 3. The Algier new ECM',
steamer was ordered to be got ready for launching by the
20th of this month, hut in consequence of orders from the
Admiralty late in the week, the artisans have been taken
from her for the purpose of getting ready for sea with ail
possible speed the St. Jean d'Acre and the Nile. The Al
giers will not, therefore, be launched so • soon as was in-
tended. The St. Jean d'Acre and the Nile are both in au
advanced stage, and will be got ready for active service in a
week or so. The dockyard was yesterday visited by the
Comte de Paris and suite, who were conducted over the
establishment by Commodore Seymour.

DRAMA.

THE GERMAN PLAYS.

The second season of the German Plays com-
menced last evening with Egmont. The unbroken atten-
tion of a full audience to a rather dull play, which lasted
tuur hours, must have proved to the most sceptical that the
taste for German literature in the country is a great fact.
There is too much declamation and too little action in
Egmont to render it per se very attractive to a British
audience, and we must therefore attribute the favour with
which the performance was received to an appreciation on

the part of the spectators of the richness of ‘;he diction of
the poet, and of the skill with which the characters are
pourtrayed.
When we have said that Goethe has falsified history in
his treatment of Egmont, by representing him as engaged
in an illicit amour; that the moral of the drama is not over
nice; that there is no plot to the piece, but that it is a mere
representation of a scene from the history of the Nether-
lands; and that it is too long to suit English ideas of the
proper length of a draina,we have exhausted our catalogue of
faults. Egmont will ever remain one of the meat ad-
mirable of the productions of the great poet of Germany.
We have stigmatised it as dull, but it is only dull on the
stage. In the closet there are few plays which read better.
Egmont is the most perfect representation of chivalry and
patriotism that has ever been delineated. Chirchen is one
of the most masterly creations in the whole range of the
modern drama. She has lost her innocence through her
love for Egmont, but her utter unconsciousness that sin
can by any possibility stain the clearness of a love so deep,
so overflowing as that which Wain' the mastery over her
whole being, preserves the dignity of her character. She
is a peasant, and she has sinned, and here there would ap•
pear to be no elements of interest. But as Schiller has
remarked of the character, she is ennobled by love and by
nothing else. In the idolatry of her passion she not only
glorifies the object of her love but herself also. Her ill-
fated passion seems to be the sesult of a stern necessity, as
inevitable as the decree of the ancient fates. Her suicide
appears at the moment the only fitting termination to a life
which bad been lifted as far above the ordinary cur-
rents of human thought and feeling. We no more think
of judging it at the moment by ordinary rules, than of
gravely debating whether Othello was a fit subject for Chris-
tian burial. There are strong ethical objections to the
manner of her life and death, but the power of the poet is
sufficient for the time to banish all such considerations from
the mind.

Herr Devrient looked and acted Egmont to perfection.
His exquisite intonation and pronunciation are some-
thing marvellous. German is sometimes thought
to be rather a harsh language ; it is only ne-
emery to hear Herr Devrient to be disabused of
the prejudice. Herr Dsuoir's dressing for Alba was perfect
—he looked u if he had jut stepped out of the frame of
one of Vandyke's pictures; but there was a coarseness and
monotony in his delivery, which although perhaps histori-
cally true, were not agree►ble. We should, however, be
sorry to judge of the performer's capabilities by his treat-
ment of • part which gives so Mge scope to professional
talent. Of Frau Stolte we can only say that she
performed her part of Clara as well as it
could be performed, although from what we have
said above the reader may easily infer that the
part is too truly ideal not to lore much in the represn-
tation. The senses are but clumsy workers for the imagi-
nation. Hen Birnstill did so much with a very insignifi-
cant part, Vinson, that there is little doubt of his distin-
guishing himself in characters which will afford a scope for
his talents. It only remains to be added that Fraulein
Fuhr, • lady of considerable personal attractions, delivered
with good emphasis a rather lengthy and not very interest-
Mg address.

OLYMPIC.
The Merchant of Venice has furnished the subject
for a new burlesque, which was produced here last night
with great success. It is from the pen of Mr. Talfourd,
and is in every way worthy of the celebrity which he has
gained by his previous productions of this class. The puns
and witticisms are numerous, and many of them of more
than average smartness, while much fun is evolved by
various odd anachronisms, and queer jumbles of the com-
monplace with the heroic. I■ the casket scene. for in-
stance, a teapot, tea. caddy, &c., are thrown at with sticks
by Portia's suitors, after the mode practised at country
fairs. Mr. F. Robson, by his personation cf Shylock, has
increased the favourable impression which he made by his
previous burlesque perf alliances. Ilia style is perfectly
original. It is not the mere grotesque buffoonery, of
which burlesque acting usually consists—there is an under
curtent of real dramatic rower. Compared to the gene•
rality of burlesque actors, Mr. Itolison is as superior as
George Cruikshank is to ordinary caricaturists,—indeed,
some comparison, we think, might, not inaptly, be insti-