The Express.
London, England, 1868-06-01 00:00:00

ItONsINI AND I'ERDI.

Ir the maladroit letter of the Italian Minister
of Public Instruction, in sending to ROSsINI the
order of " the Crown of Italy," could be con-
sidered a fair representation of Italian sentiment
and opinion, and not merely of Signor BROci.io's
&Miners, it would deserve to be recorded as ono
more instance of theproverbialezperienceof prophets
in their own country. For Rossini, although an
Italian born and bred, and Italian to the core of his
gemlike' and character, is a prophet that has lived
fur sonny years out of his country, surrounded by
the admiration of strangers, and removed beyond
and above the neglect of his fellow-countrymen
by absence and by age, by. his charming and
cynical indiffereiv,e to fame, his lung retreat, and,
perhape we might add, by the silence of his Muse.
Since Italy became a kingdom and a nation
Mossier ;URA been (wanted among her chief glories;
but as a eamiposer Cossini can scarcely be said to
exist for the present generatizni of Italians. His
operas are seldom performed in the ordinary
c.mrse, and are lis.`eneal to with something of the
reverence for the cellebeated praluctions of a past
time, rather than the eager pleasure witk which
the works of a contempeary composer are hailed.
131 fact the Rossinian epoch of Italian opera is i
past and gone in Italy. It was an epoch► of care-
less frivolity and voluptuous indifference.
It finds no echo in the heart of a
revolutionary age and a resurgent nation.
Of such an age and such a people the
trite representative composer is VERDI. The
qualities or the defects of his musical genius
and inspiration are those which belong to
a tumultuous period of revolutionary
wars and movements, and to the throes
of a national regeneration. That is the source
and secret of the violent libndli, and the startling
choral effects in unison in which Venni delights,
and which, as the critics say, " carry away the
" house." It is the music of a moment of storm
and stress in the life of a nation. Not that it has
no other and more lasting merits, for how otherwise
could the operas of VERDI be the moat popular,
the most widely appreciated and enjoyed in the
whole repertory of all the opera houses of Europe ?
lie has high dramatic power, passion, and emotion;
he is always vocal (though he kills voices), and he
has a vein of melody which many a composer, with
all the learning and science of the schools, must
envy. In his latest operas he seems to have
either worked out his original vein, or to be
falling a prey to the dangerous ambition of changing
his style, and perhaps of Germanizing it, and pick-
ing up the mantle of MEYERSZER, if not of dividing
the mantle of WAONER. Perhaps this is only a
passing phase. MEYERBERR'S first manner was

TB* EXPIES4 MONDAY ir"

Italia, and hi, last vr.sipther /illsncl4ban O
min. Roeais even +II he
IDA for the 'Griot 'Opera -ti ' Miniaggitt
wrote dramatic recitatiles and 'lolanda
of vocal declamation, did nal there-
fore aba,adon his Italian grace. Signor Visor,
it is trr.o, is a good patriot, and a mount politician
as we'd as a brilliant composer, and he is now a
mos',; Conservative politioan, that is, of course, in
the;ltilian acceptation of the term. As a com-
poser his greatest worlcs belong to his revolutionary
Says, but his admirers will hope that his later Con-
servatism may appear in his music also, and pre-
serve him from laboured and eccentric innovations
with which bia native genius has no natural
affinity.

01

'G, JU

DAY.)

Our oontemporaries this morning have but few
gabfests in Manson; The li•ri+, Monsehig the Usiver-
sity 'Feats. 11 ads the whole argument to be that a change
demanded as breed public grounds on behalf of the whole
nation, sad not ouiy net sWslsd kat soluiHr Melted by,
the m ast eminent of the very eam whose privileges It
weal t supersede, will assuredly /be accomplished with
little delay, and prove to be for the benefit of all.. Mr.
Fell's railway train, if permanently oreemeaful. will
reader the great tunnels and other works on the Alpine
reads, the Times says, at obsolete and varerfiuous as the
ecru -duets of the old Romans appeared when people
become familiar with the fist rudiments of hydraulic
saisnes. Another article is the Times is devoted to the
religious riots in Lancashire. If such emergencies, it
says, should occur mere frequently, ee must retrace our
stem, end recognise the revival of eieorder by arming our
*mutable, and re-organising our police; but the contra-
/4ot, after all our assumptions, would be very mortifying
to the national pride.
In the unanimous acceptance of General Grant as the
candidate of the whole Republican party in America, the
Daily Nem sees • proof of its restored harmony and •
guar►ntee of its success. He will probably be elected by
a vote in which all the states will slur: for the first time
since Mr. Linooles first election, and will be the first Re-
' publican President who will preside over an undivided
Union. The unusual beauty of this year's May, the ga-
thering at the levee on Saturday, and some exaggerated
expressions by Archdeacon Wordsworth and Archdeacon
Ady on the subject of the Irish church, are among the
other topics treated of by our contemporary.
The Herald taxes Mr. Gladstone with impeding the pro-
' greas of useful legislation.

In the matter of the new law courts the Herald con-
demns the Strand site, and urges that we had better begin
again, putting up with any for which may arise from the
re-sale of the ground which we have just bought so dearly,
rather than go on with an undertaking which will probably
cost twine as much as we had calculated upon, and be a
failure after all.
In the East Worcestershire election the Post sees in-
'traction which both parties may turn to good account ;
its moral covers the whole field of the controversy upon
which they are entering. The contest has been a sort of
exercise-ground for the liberals, and it has given the Con-
servatives an opportunity of proving their policy and of
testing their tactics. Mr. Lyttleton's friends have every
reason to he satisfied.
The Star wee in the enema which are constantly being
enacted in connection with compound householders a pain-
ful illustration of all that Mr. Gladstone said last year on
the subject. If compounding had its evils, as it an-
doubttdly had, it would not have been difficult to remove
them by the reform of the rating law, bat no each reform
was thought of or cared about.
Referring to the unexpected practical support which
Mr. Mill's advocacy of woman saffiage has met with in
Salford, the Star derives satisfaction from the thought
that when the champions of exclusion have to reject
voters whose names are legally upon the electoral lists, for
• presumed disqualification of sex, and to do this through
lengthened legal proceedings, a full and open discussion of
the right asserted must ensue.