Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-01-09 00:00:00

MUSICAL, DRAMATIC, LITERARY, AND

ARTISTIC NEWS AND GOSSIP.

It is rumoured in musical circles that Mdme. Clara
Novello is to receive 400 guineas for her services as
chief soprano singer 'at the forthcoming, Glasgow
Musical Festival.
The committee for the next Festival of the Three
Choirs appear to be " taking time by the forelock."
The arrangements for the meeting at Worcester this year
are already announced in the local journal. The festival
is to commence on Tuesday, the 11th of September, Mr.
Done being, as usual, the conductor; and there will be
the ordinary nhmber of sacred performances in the
Cathedral, and secular evening concerts at the College
Hall. The names of the stewards are published; they
are 34 in number, consisting of the most distinguished
noblemen and gentlemen of the district, with the Earl of
Shrewsbury at their heath '
The friends and admirers of Mr. Albert Smith will
be glad to hear that the dangerous illness which caused
them so much alarm has been so rapidly cured, that his
re-appearance at the Egyptian-hall may be confidently
expected next ,week. On Monday last the distinguished
entertainer made his first appearance in public, at the
Princess's Theatre. So remarkable a recovery in so
short a space of time has excited great attention in
medical circles. _ .

There are many of oar (Era) readers who will, pro-
bably, remember the success which attended Captain
Horton Rhys, in several fashionable amateur perform
antes, .of which, the proceeds were devoted in aid
of the funds of benevolent institutions. 'This gen-
tleman, adopting for a stage appellation the name
of " Morton Price," started early last year on an
American campaign under peculiarly novel circum-
stances. He went to win a wager, and this wager he may
now be said fairly and honourably- to have won. The
captain backed himself to obtain by his talents as.actor,
author, singer, and composer, the sum of £5OO in the
space of twelve months, over and above the travelling,
advertising, and other incidental expenses. The wager
was" for £l,ooo' (£5OO a side), and at the date of the last
aclvices he had only £72 to
.obtain for the accomplish-
ment of his undertaking, with four months to do it in,
and with the option of accepting an engagement in New
York of 50 dollars (£10) a night for four weeks.
Sixty thousand, says the Critic, was the enormous
number subscribed for of the Cornhill Magazine.
Seventy thousand were sold. " Comment is superfluous!"
Mr. Dickens's "Tale of Two Cities" was published
complete in the United States, in no less than twenty-
nine different editions, one month before its completion
in England. Dr. Cumming's " Great Tribulation" has
not, however, been nearly as successful in the States as
in England. According to the latest accounts, its total
sale had not exceeded a thousand.
The new year opens brightly for every branch of in-
tellectual effort, in somewhat singular contrast to the
lowering of the landscape in the more agitated provinces
of faith and politics. Our (Athenawn) advertisement
columns carry proof of the fertility of letters and of the
enterprise in music, science, and art.
The new instalment of Mr. Carlyle's "History of
Frederick the Great," at which he is working assiduously,
will not, we understand, be published by Messrs. Chap-
man and Hall until the commencement of the next pub-
lishing season, at soonest.
It it understood that the question of an increase of
pensions, as proposed by Mr. David Roberts, has been
settled by the Academy—in substance, if not in form.
The future aged Academicians will be entitled to claim
£l5O a year of retiring pension; aged Associates, £lOO ;
widows of Academicians will receive £lOO, and of Asso-
ciates, .E 75 a year.
Artists will be glad to hear that the Society of British
Artists have agreed to a revision of their laws relating
to the hanging of pictures at the exhibition. The effect
of the alteration is to limit the amount of-line space
allotted to each member, so as to leave at the disposal of
the " hanging committee" a very liberal space for non-
members. This is a valuable concession to outsiders,
and a remedy for an evil which has been long com-
plained of.

STATUE OF GENERAL NAPIER IN

ST. PAUL'S.

On Saturday, at one o'clock, the colossal marble
statue of the Late Gen. Sir Chas. Napier was uncovered
at St. Paul's Cathedral. The statue is placed 'close to
the north entrance of the cathedrel. The general is
represented in a standing position, with a burst cannon
for the 'support of the statue. The dress is the ordinary
undress of an officer, but the figure has a military cloak
depending from the shoulders. On the hero's breast is
the handsome star which the deceased received for his
exploits in India. His left hand rests upon his sword,
and his right hand holds a scroll of paper. The figure.
is beautifully executed in the purest Carrara marble.
T
he pedestal is of Sicilian marble, and the inscription is
as follows :

CHARLES JAMES NAPIER;
A PRESCIENT GENERAI. ;
A BENEFICENT GOVERNOR;
A JUST MAN.

The sculptor, Mr. Geo. G. Adams, deserves the highest
praise for the, artistic manner in which he has completed
his work, and for the life-like expression with which he
Has endowed the boldly-chiselled features of this fine
statue.

A large concourse of ladies and gentlemen were pre-
sent on the occasion, including Colonel Kennedy, the
aide-de-camp of the late general, and a number of his
old Indian friends and colleagues. The statue has been
raised. by the committee with the surplus fund remain-
ing from the public subscription from all classes—even
private soldiers. The chairman of the committee,
through whose instrumentality the monument has been
erected, is the Earl of Ellenborough, the secretaries .being
Lord Clyde and Colonel Kennedy.

JOHN HUNTER'S MS. ON GEOLOGY.—The Lancet
publishes a letter from Professor Owen, containing an
announcement that he possesses a copy, and is about to
publish, a collection of those manuscript works of the
illustrious John Hunter, the originals of which were de-
strOyed by Sir Everard Home.
TURNING THE TABLES.—The Prussian Gazette says :
An important trial has just terminated in Silesia, after
having gone through the three stages of jurisdiction.
M. de Maubeuge, the possessor of a large property,
arrested and imprisoned for half an hour a labourer with
whose work and manners he was not satisfied. He in-
flicted . this punishment in his quality as chief of the
local police. The other lodged a complaint, but the
regency of Neisse would not allow a judicial investiga-
tion, as M. de Maubeuge had acted as the organ of the
authorities; and the ordinary tribunal was declared in-
Competent to take cognisance of the affair. The King's
procureur, however, maintained the charge of illegal
imprisonment, and M. de Maubeuge was condemned to
three months' imprisonment in first, second, and third
in§tances.
THE PARLIAMENTARY MINISTER AND HIS WORK
—The 'year of the Parliamentary Minister is divided into
two parts ; one part ranges over the session of Parlia-
ment, the other over the recess. During the first he is
continually in a hurry. He leaves office early to
attend 44 his place in 'arliamennteic: ohlaso,,ntgfer:
away
.from it 11 a cabinet c
involving ques-
tions affecting supremacy of party and permanence o
affairs orstate,
place. The administrative business of his department is a
matter of secondary importance
occupied with general
in his eyes. During the
other half of the year, it might claim, with certain inter-
ruptions, his undivided attention. But the minister
must have his holiday.. We do not grudge it to him.
It is essential to the preservation of the mens sans
in corpore sane. He oscillates, theret'ore, between. ,
Whitehall and his estate in Yorkshire or Hants. He
is in a greater "hurry, perhaps, during the recess
than during the session. When he comes up to town,
he finds an accumulation of work awaiting him; office-
bolt piled upon office-bog; Pelion on Ossa:. There is then a
ludicrous struggle among the minor functionaries to
catch the minister flying, and each to obtain the legi-
timate official sanction (attention is often out of the ques-
tion) to the particular departmental work which has been
cut out for him. This is no easy work. A draft-despatch
may be approved with or without alterations ; but
before it can be copied for his signature, he is at Barnet
or Kingston, on his journey homewards. Even
without these accidental circumstances to impede the
prompt despatch of business, any detailed supervision
by the parliamentary chief is incompatible with official
promptitude. Business will accumulate on his table in
spite of all his efforts to keep it down. The more con-
scientious and painstaking he may be, the more like is
he to fi.pd himself with heaps of business gathered upon
his hands. The fact is, that the administrative bukness
of any great department of the public service is more
than any one can efficiently superintend, if he has par-
liamentary duties to attend to' and general affairs of
state policy in which he must bear his part.—Block-
wood's Magazine for January.