The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER tl2, 1863.

—if, as the Poles say, it can only be averted by restor-
ing Poland to the independent position which she
occupied some considerable time before the first
dismemberment—the danger is at least as great on
one side as it is on the other. In the meantime, how-
ever, Poland, with national independence, and not
material prosperity under a foreign Government for
her object, has nothing to hope as long as she
remains quiet, while as long as she remains in arms
there is at least a chance that she may have the
opportunity of profiting by the ambition, jealousy,
or fear of some foreign power or powers.
As to the actual prospects of the insurrection it
certainly is not decreasing. Poles just arrived here
from Warsaw—men who have the very best sources
of information open to them--assure me that the
detachments iu the kingdom are not less numerous
a they
eigethiteibi ehtetgearnthtahne
et
e indeed,w er ,
whenand thatth t
e insurrection
Poles had nothing but their courage to depend
upon, whereas now they have many thousands of
experienced soldiers among them, broken in to all
the hardships of a campaigning life, and well ac-
quainted with the weak and strong points of the
enemy. A hundred well-armed men who have
been fighting the Russians off and on since January
must be worth a thousand of those who first com-
menced the struggle without preparation, without
skill, and often without even the most ordinary
implements of war. The most sanguine of the
insurgents say not only that they will be able to
last through the winter, but they can even make
the winter tell against their foe, if they confine
their operations entirely to cutting off his supplies.
It is said once more that the peasants in several
districts and throughout Podlachia are beginning
to help the insurgents, and that they do outpost
duty at night while the fighting men sleep. We
know that they cannot like the Russians, and now
that the insurrection has lasted so long they may
consider, here and there, that there is really some-
thing in it, and that the Russians, since they are
unable to suppress it, cannot, after all, be so very
powerful. It is an axiom in Poland, accepted
equally by democrats and aristocrats, that the
peasant can be influenced only by force; and as
regards the Polish peasant, so long accustomed to
foreign and despotic rule, this is probably the truth.
Now, the Polish insurrection has in several districts
been for many months a permanent force, and to
some thousands of peasants such a chief as Lelewel,
who since the beginning of the insurrection has
fallen upon the Russians, on an average, about once
a week, and has seldom failed to beat them, is as
much the representative of power as the Emperor
of Russia himself.

The Russians in Warsaw declare that the insur-
rection is virtually at an end, and that the Emperor
has now only to declare a constitution for Poland and
for all Russia in order to silence the Western
Powers, tranquilise Poland, and at the same time
satisfy his own Russian subjects. It is said posi-
tively it is with reference to this project that the
Grand Duke has gone to St. Petersburg, where it is
believed that the Marquis Wielopoloki will be sum-
moned to meet him. The proclamation, however,
of a Constitution for all the Russian empire, includ-
ing Poland, would not tranquilise the Poles. The
Poles wish to separate themselves from Russia, and
the proposed measure—which if introduced before
the national hatred between the two countries had
been roused might have been attended with success
—would have the effect of binding them to Russia
more closely than ever. Moreover, the Poles share
the opinion expressed last session by Lord Russell
in the House of Lords as to the value of Russian
promises. A parchment Constitution, which may be
solemnly granted to them at Warsaw one year, and
the year afterwsris rolled up, put into a cart, and
driven off to Moscow, is, according to their settled
conviction, not worth having. They may be right
or wrong, but the present plan is to go on fighting
until they are either assisted from abroad or until
the insurrection is crushed out by brute force.

The Polish and German papers have been pub-
lishing contradictory accounts as to Saczanowski's
recent exploits in the neighbourhood of Czensto-
chau. It appears certain, however, that he has
sustained a very serious defeat, and that the insur-
rection has received a great blow in the west of
the kingdom.

It is thought certain that, whatever motive may
have taken the Grand Duke to St. Petersburg, he
will not—at least not under present circumstances
—return to Warsaw. The position was as unten-
able for him as for Count Lambert, General Soak-
hozlnett, and Prince Gortsehakolf, and he will not
again attempt to hold it.

WORCESTER MUSICAL FESTIVAL.

~- ___~_

WORCESTER, Se. 11.
Mozart's "Requiem," thanks to the example set by our
admirable Sacred Harmonic Society, seems to have taken
permanent root at the country festivals —the better for art,
which cannot but derive benefit from the frequent contem-
plation of so incomparable a model. There was much to
praise in the performance of the "Requiem" at 'Worcester
Cathedral. The four solo singers—Madlle. Tietjens, Mdm.
Sainton-Dolby, Mr. 'Wilbye Cooper, and Mr. Weiss--ap-
preached their task with becoming reverence ; and their
singing throughout was marked no less by devotional feel-
ing than correctness. An unimprovable text could hardly
have been more religiously respected. The three quartets—
" Tuba mirum," "Recordare, Jesu pie," and " Benedictus
—were singularly well given, the "Recordare" more espe-
cially, a movement alike the admiration of musicians and
amateurs, and which, towards the end, when the ear and
the mind have been rapt in a sense of continuous beauty,
contains a new and unexpected passage,—
" Inter oyes locum praosta,
Et ab haadis me sequestra,
Statuens in parte dextra."
more eloquent than all the rest. Never was uplifted prayer
clothed in a strain of such persuasive loveliness. The mem-
bers of the chorus in most instances did their duty well. The
florid counterpoint in the magnificent fugue of the " Kyrie
eleisen"—built upon a subject closely resembling that of
"And with his stripes," in "The Messiah"—might have
been steadier, and more precision on the part of the conduc.
for would have been advantageous to the resudiption of the
"Requiem ecternam dona nobis," after the soprano solo,
" Lux toterna" (Madlle. Tietjens) ; but there was little else
with which to find fault. The sublime "Dies irme" left no-
thing to wish; and as much may be said of the " Rex tre-
mendas majestatis"—tremendous in its majestic embodi-
ment of the theme. The " Confutatis maledietis" was
equally happy. The last verse of this,—
" Oro suppler et acclinis,
Cor contritum quasi cinis;
Gerc curam met finis"—
.

as exquisitely pathetic in its supplication as that in the
•. Recordare" is consoling, was thrillingly inept etteive. With
what poetic truth the distinction between the two is ima-
gined and conveyed need hardly be insisted on, when it is
remembered that in the " Confutatis" the supplicant is ad-
dressing the Supreme Judge, while in the "Recortlare" his
appeal is to the gentle Saviour. To the honour of the Wor-
cesterians be it recorded that their chorus-singers appeared
to enter into the feeling of this distinction with just as firm
conviction as the eminent quartet of solo-singers who came
all the way from London to sing the " Recordare." The
" Lachrymose dies ilia," with the striking passage of slowly
ascending intervals on the lino " Qua resurget ex favilla"—
which a celebrated critic in his analysis of the work has de-
scribed as a " play upon words, less frequent in Mozart than
in Handel"—(it were fortunate if every musical composer
could play upon words like Mozart in the " Requiem" and
Handel in his "Israel l")—was not quite so immaculate,
though still an excellent performance. The elaborato and
masterly Offertorium Domino Jesu Christo," and
" nestles et precea Tibi") was given with remarkable clear-
ness ; its ingenious contrivances were effectively revealed,
and its most characteristic points—for example, the " Rex
gloriss" and " De ore leonis," in the " Domino Jesu
Christe," and the mystic progression of harmony to which
the prayer for resurrection after death (" Pao nobis, De-
ntine, de morto transiro ad vitam") is set, one of the most
extraordinary passages in this extraordinary composition—
expressed with startling vividness. The "Sanctus" usher-
ing in the " Benedie'tus" (quartet), was quite as satisfac-
tory, the short fugnetta, " Hosanna in excelsis," which
comes twice, being each time delivered with commendable
pathos united of
highestdeep
another
beauty example
of
hotter than the Pubdued tone in wh;clt, tha appealing.
precision. Thteo"aAbsgtruauest
" Dona nohis pecem" was utter,l. The last
order—was equally fine, and nothing could. have been
1:h raee
chores—merely a repetition of the first, as with The horse
and his rider " in Handers " Israel "—has been mentioned.

The effw,t, of the " Requiem " in a cathedral is something
wholly apart—peculiar and indescribable. What a work I
No wonder Mozart was so painfully anxious to bo spared
long enough to enable him to finish it (without the inter-
vention of his pupil Sussmayer)—for assuredly it is his
" Transfiguration." Beethoven's " Christ on the Olive
Mount," great as it is in many respects, sounded occasion-
ally a trifle melodramatic after the " Requiem." Something
[opfutrhsuisedmbayysbaeullaid to the account of the tame and unwar-
ranl:acibil3etc:nugolishtoilerisio.n to which—under the name of Engedi," the refuge-place and stronghold of David, when
yy
(" Samuel," Book I.)
—it is too frequently
Y 13cothclveu would uudor lao pro

text have tolerated such a liberty—a liberty, by the way,
easy to render superfluous by putting the words allotted to
the Saviour in the third person, and thus imparting to
the whole of the form of a narrative—like the description of
the Passion in Handel's "Messiah." Nor was the perform•
ante generally quite so good as that of Mozart's piece, in
spite of the unquestionable vigour with which the "Halle-
lujah " was sung at the conclusion. Beethoven's inde-
pendent originality was, perhaps, never more emphatically
vindicated than in this dignified and imposing chorus, which
might have been written as it stands had Handel never
tlto
and t h
se
u last
perb declamatory
a "Hallelujah"—nay, even had Handel never
composed at all. The solo-singers in "The Mount of Olives"
were Mademoiselle Tietjens, Mr. Wilbye Cooper, and Mr.
ei
e Santley.al
y Theo give
effectto wereee beyondtor y reproachrecitati;v:vhanilde
Mr. Cooper, although apparently indisposed, strove
ener-
gair at thebeginning—one of the Chevaux de bataille of Mr.
Sims Reeves, for whom Mr. Cooper in this passage of the
oratorio obligingly acted as substitute. Mr. Reeves, how-
ever, was doubtless husbanding his means for the scene of
the Watchman in the "Lobgesang" of Mendelssohn (the
last piece in a tryingly long, but unexceptionally interesting
selection). This remarkable passage—the more remarkable
inasmuch as it was an afterthoUght of the composer, who,
never easily satisfied with his own works (instance the ad-
dition and alteration in " Elijah," after its first performance
at Birmingham), refused to have the "Lobgesang'' pub-
lished or re-performed until ho had made it as complete as
labour and reflection could devise, and who, in re-consider-
ing his work, was inspired with one of those thoughts which
most splendidly reflect his genius, has never been delivered
by any other singer as by Mr. Shire Reeves, the first to enter
thoroughly into the spirit of it, and still the only one who
has the secretof giving it appropriate significance. " Watch-
man, will the night soon pass ?" is so closely identified with
this gentleman, and so entirely suits his means and style,
that one might almost have believed that it (and indeed the
plaintive air "He counteth all your sorrows," which he
sings equally well) had been expressly intended fur him by
the comp:ser ; but as the "Lobgesang" was written in
1810, and Mr. Sims Reeves did not make his debut in Lon-
don as primp tenore assoluto till 1817, when the late Mons.
J ullien opened Drury-lane for opera, a month after Men-
delssohn's death—it is scarcely necessary to urge that this
could not have been the case. The pity is that Mendelssohn
should not have lived to hear so genial an interpretation of
one of his most felicitous and poetical imaginings. The
other solo singers in the " Lobgesang" were Madame Lem-
mens Sherrington and Miss Banks, who gave the melodi-
ous duet (with chorus), u I waited for the Lord," with per-
fect taste and expression, In the duet with Mr. Reeves—
"My song shall be always Thy mercy"—Madm. Sherring-
ton was equally successful, while in the solo that announces
the stupendous and exciting chorus, " The night is depart-
ing," the clear soprano of this accomplished songstress (to
employ a much-abused and highly-flown common-place,
excusable only in hurried teports—and when a compliment,
as in this instance, being richly earned, must in fairness be
paid) "rang round the aisles, penetrating to every corner
of the sacred edifice, and filling it with silvery sound." (I)
The choruses in the "Lobgesang" were for the most
part given with spirit, if not invariably with precision
(instance " Praise the Lord with lute and harp," and " Ye
nations"). The best, perhaps, was the noble Lutheran
chorale, the second verse of which is accompanied in the
elaborate style of J. S. Bach, and with a richer orchestral
colouring than the resources disposed of by the Thuringian
Colossus could by any possibility have enabled him to pre-
sent. Here both " spirit" and " precision" were observed.
The three symphonic movements with which this work
begins were for the most part admirably played, end created
a marked impression. The cases are so rare in which exclu-
sively orchestral music can be heard in a cathedral that
when they happen an individual interest is raised to be
compared with nothing else. The allegretto in G minor of
the Lobgesang (the second movement) has a vein of peculiar
melancholy which from susceptible people, under such ex-
ceptional conditions, might easily draw tears ; the adagio
religioso is like music from above ; whille the majestic in-
troduction—the first announcement of the chorale which
impresses its character upon the entire work--and the ear-
nest, strong, and splendidly worked allegro, to which it
leads, is calculated to inspire the hearer with the sentiment
of vigorous resolution and exalted faith.
The second and third miscellaneous concerts, in the Col-
lege-hall, bore so strong a family resemblance to the first,
that it would be tedious and unprofitable to describe the pro-
grammes piece by piece. The grand feature of Wednesday
evening's concert was Mendelssolur's " NValpurgis Nacht,"
which, on the whole, was a somewhat slovenly perform-
ance'
although the solo vocal parts were es effectively
sung by Mr. Wilbye Cooper, Nies Palmer, and Mr. Weiss
as could reasonably bo desired. No voice is better suited, by
weight and volume, to the solemn declamatory passages of
the chief Druid than that of Mr. Weiss. Anion 2; the choice
" bits" in the rest of this concert were Dassek's canzonet,
"Name the glad day," one of the most successful revivals
at tho Monday Popular Concerts—set down very properly
for Miss Banks; the tenor air of the garden scene hem M.
Gounod's " Faust," eminently well fitted to Mr. Sims
Reeves, who gave it con amore ; Mereadanto's recitative
and air, " Grazie clementi Dei," very fiuolY sung by Ma-
dame Sainton-Dolby, our " Queen-contralto ;" Mr.
lace's "Bell-ringer," another favourite at the Monday
Popular Concerts, intrusted, as a matter of course, to Mr.
usual encored, the eavatina freev4
Santley, and as us
d—
. by made.,
crezia Borgia," sung—how, need not be sei
laoieelleTietiene ; 6Weet bird," from IlendcXis L'Ailegro
ed Peneeroao," charmingly warbled byt i‘ o‘
:11..0 flute by.
bar
Sher-
rington, and ekillully accompanied
on 10balladr.
Pratten ; Professor Bennett's graceful _Sing,
maiden, sine (Mr. Sintsßeeves—encore( ); INlr._e "
nedict's
pretty duet," I Montanan" (Madame Sherringtonu and Mr.
Santiey) ; and "The Last Rose of Summer, for which
Mademoiselle Tietjensobtained ono of the heartiest and best
merited encores of the festival. There was also the overture
played with extraordinary vieour, the
"Dervish " Euryanthe," P-'a ,
chorus" from the "Ruins of Athens," and the
grand Coronation
March from the " Prophete." At this
concert, too, Miss Done,
the young pianiste,
daughter of
the cathedral organist, made her debut,
and though she
selected a very dillicult and not always effective piece_
Mendelssohn's
Andante and Rondo in B major and minor
(with orchestra)—achieved a legitimate success. Miss Done
has unquestionable ability, and plays as though she were in
love with her task. The applause at the end was hearty and
general. The last concert, yesterday evening, Was, if
pc,
s.
sible, more crowded than that of Wednesday--..uncomfort-
ably crowded, indeed, for those who wished to listen to the
music at their ease. The classical features of theprogramme
were Beethoven's symphony in F (No. 8), Which we have
heard better played ; and the overture and introduction to
the first act of
e Guillaume Tell." The overture was voci-
ferously applauded and the last movement repeated. From
the rest we must single out Meyerbeere elegant song,
"Here on the mountain reclining," (Mr. 'Wilbye Cooper
Lazarus); a violin solo
—clarionet, Mr. (Rigoletto), splen-
didly played by M. Sainton and applauded to the echo ;
the brilliant aria Di questa speranza," from Sig-
nor Schira's 't Nicole de Lapi" Maderaoislele t Tiet-
jens)for conralto Miss
; a scene (Palmer), with
k Gluc's " Orfeo ;"
chorus, from "Ah votes dirai'je
maman " (ytadame Sherrington—flute, Mr. Pratten) ;
Signor piatirs ballad, ic The _
Savoyard" (Mr. Sims
Reeves, encored) ; " Oh ruddier than the cherry," famously
dashed off by Mr. Santley; two
new
and
pretty ballads, by
Mr.Macfarren—t 'The Mor.ntaineer's Wife," and "Maggie's
Secret," (aidine. Sainton) ; and Signor Arditi's popular
valse, .a Il Bade," for Which Mdlle. Tietjens has so strong
and, considering its real effectiveness, not unnatural par-
tiality. The concert terminated with the National Anthem
(harmonized by Dr. Elvey), in which some of the principal
singers, with great good taste, consented and remained to
take part. On the whole,
,the evening concerts have been
much the least interesting features of this music•meeting.
Without plan, character,
or novelty to recommend them,
they were for the most part simply tiresome.
To-day the imperishable “Messiah," in which all the chief
singers took part, brought the musical proceedings of the
Festival to an end. As usual, the Cathedral was crammed
to the doors, numbers, unable to obtain admission to the
nave, taking refuge in the choir, behind the orchostra,where
they at least could hear, if they could not see. Such
choruses as " Hallelujah " and "Worthy is the Lamb,"
with its prodigious and magnificent " Amen," can be heard
in one place under just as favourable circumstances as in
the other—in setae respects perhaps more favourable, inas-
much as the enormous volume of sound, proceeding from
an invisible host of singers and players, has an effect bor-
dering upon the mysterious, their solemn grandeur im-
pressing the hearer with an indefinable sentiment of awe.
This was the ease to-day, when many in the choir, because
unable to get elsewhere, would not willingly have changed
places with those in the nave. Of the execution of Handel's
sacred masterpiece it is unnecessary to say one word. It is
the most familiar of all oratorios to the vocal and instru-
mental performers as well as to the audience, and for this
reason it is invariably better given and invariably better
appreciated than any other work of the kind. Such, in all
probability, will bo the case 100 years hence, when some
future Mr. Bewley will project a grand festival in honour
of the bicentenary anniversary of Handel's death,—at the
Crystal Palace, should that enchanting edifice endure so
long— and some future Mr. Done, or Smith, or Arnett, will
direct the performance of the "Messiah" at Worcester,
Hereford, or Glocester. What other sacred composition,
ext ant or yet unborn, is likely to enjoy an equal chance of
endurance? 110 other .—because no subject can approach
the dignity of the ca •
USW h " and because Handel nee set
the " hieeeiele,"

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BIRD MURDER,

Mr. F. 0: Morris, in a letter to a t =temporary, says :
The son of Sirach tells us that "all things are double,
one against another, and God hath made nothing imperfect;"
and I hope to be able to prove that, as the logical formula
we learnt at Oxford shows that the universal includes the
particular, so the adage is true of birds and the place they
hold between benefit conferred and injury done.
Now, birds may be classed unscientifically into large and
small, but both alike unfortunately are to be included under
the general category of "bird murder," on which subject
your columns have contained so many forcible and interest-
ing letters. By large birds I mean owls, jays, kestrels,
nightjars, and even woodpeckers, and by small such as
sparrows, yellowhammers, finches, titmice, "et id genus
omne." Both of these classes are victims of persecution
from mistaken motives, the persons who pursue them to
death being, indeed, different—peers and peasants, farmers
and gamekeepers, and their objects different--bread and the
battue ; but the crime is ultimately, as I shall have to show,
to be laid at the door of only one of these parties to it--
namely, the former.
The cause assigned for the destruction of small birds is
the damage they do to the corn, and of large the damage
they do to game. I will take the former first, and, as I
stated in the former communication you did me the favour
of inserting that I would forward to you, when I could find
time for doing so, some interesting facts bearing on the
question, I shall now endeavour to fufil the pledge.
It has just been stated in the papers that the Norfolk
farmers have this year completed their harvest in three
weeks. Say that the ordinary time is a month, and assum.
ing for the moment that for these few weeks—viz., while
the grain is in a ripe state—the produce of the cornfields is
exposed to the depredations of a host of small birds to the
extent that is commonly and most ignorantly supposed, on
which point I shall have a good deal to say before I have
done, there remain 11 months out of the 12 during which it
is simply impossible they can be feeding on ripe grain, in-
asmuch as there is no ripe grain for them to feed on. How,
then, are they employed for the most part during these other
.1 months? I will show how they aro occupied during a
part of that time; and let it be remembered that though the
facts I am about first to state have reference to the feeding
of young birds by the old, yet that these same young birds,
if indeed allowed to live, Will require daily and hourly food,
and will find it for themselves during the remainder of the
year.

The following observations were made by Mr. Weir for
Mr. Macgillivray, whose "History of British Birds" is one
of the most elaborate and carefully accurate books that were
ever written on anysubject, but the character of its lamented
author is too well known to need any panegyric from me.
Mr. Macgillivray truly remarks, in preluding the observa-
tions I am about to quote, that "no such patient watchings
have ever been instituted by any ornithologist." They seem
to rue conclusive on this part of the subject, but you have
only to look oat of your window just after a shower on a
rainy day, and watch a pair of wagtails on the lawn with
their newly-fledged brood, and see the Ncessant manner in
which they run and flit about, catchinennerringly an in-
sect every few seconds, or lean over the rails between your
garden and the adjoining newly-mown grass field, and hear
the repeated snap of the swallow's bill as he quarters his
ground backward and forward catching a fly every time, to
tell you that the number or insects annually destroyed by
our native small birds must be vast beyond calculation. I
will begin with the thrush. Mr. Weir writes:—
"At the distance of 9 feet from a thrnsh's nest, which
was built in an old wall, I erected a hut with some branches
of spruce and Scotch fir, and took possession of it on the
morning of Thursday, the Bth of June, 1837, at a quarter-
past 1 o'clock, for the purpose of making observations on
the habits of these birds. At half-past 2 they commenced
feeding their brood. From that time until 4 they fed them
14 times. From 4to half-past 5 o'clock they fed them 22
times. As one of the young birds was dressing its feathers
it lost its balance and fell on the ground. No sooner did
the old ones perceive it than they set up the most doleful
lamentations. I replaced it in the nest. Having seen me
return to my retreat they would not feed their young until
I came out. I accordingly went home for my boy, who,
after I had gone in again, carefully concealed the entrance.
His departure attracted their notice, for, having followed
him to a considerable distance, they returned, and, without
suspicion, commenced their labour. From half-past 5
until 7 o'clock they fed them 24 times. From 7to 8 they
fed them 16 tinies,and from Bto 9 eleven times. From 10 to 11
they fed theta 10 times, and from Ito 2 11 times. From 2
to 3 they fed them eight times, and from 3 to 4 six times,
From 4 to 5 they fed them five times, from 5 to 6 six times,,
and from 6to 7,12 times. From 7to 8 they fed them 13
times, and from Bto half-past 917 times. They now ceased
from their labours for the day, after having fed their breed
206 times."
Take next the blackbird :

"On Saturday morning, June 10, 1837, at half-past 2
o'clock, I went into a house made of the branches of trees
to Watch the blackbirds while they were feeding their brood,
It was within nine feet of their nest, which was built in the
hole of an old wall. At a quarter-past 3 o'clock in the
morning they began to feed' theit young, which were four
in number. From that time until 4 o'clock the male only
fed them once, and sang almost incessantly, while the female
fed them six times. From 4 to 5 o'clock the male fed them
six and the female three times; irons 5 to 6 the male fed
them four, and the female five times; from 6 to 7 the male
led them three, and the female five times; and from 7 to 8 the
male fed them threatimes. For the lust four hours he sang
most delightfully, except when he was feeding his tender off-
spring. As he had induced one of them to fly oat after him,
I was under the necessity of fixing it into its nest, and this
caused some interruption to their feeding. From Bto 9
o'clock the male fed them six, and the female seven times;
and from 9 to 10 o'clock the male fed them four, and the
female three times. From 10 to 11 o'clock the;male fed them
three and the female two times; from 11 to 12 the male fed
them two, and the female three times; from 12 to 1 o'clock
the male fed thorn two, and the female four times; and from
1 to 2 the male fed them twice and the female thrice.
From 2 to 3 o'clock the female fed them twice ; and from 3
to 4 the male fed them three, and the female four times.
From 4 to 5 o'clock the male fed them three, and the female
four times; from 5 to 6 o'clock the female fed them only
twice; and from 6to 7 she fed them three times. In the
evening the male was so much engaged in singing that he
left the charge of his family almost entirely to his tender-
hearted spouse. From 7to 8 o'clock the male fed them only
once, and the female six times, and from 8 to 20 minutes to
9 o'clock, when they ceased from their mutual labours, the
male fed them once, and the female seven times. When I
left my retreat to repair to my more comfortable abode, the
male was pouring fourth his most charming melody. Thus,
in the course of a single day, the male fed the young 44,
and the female 69 times.

Again, the blue titmouse :
On Tuesday morning, the 4th of July, 1837, at a quarter
past 2 o'clock, I went out to observe the titmoutse feeding
their brood. At half-past 3 o'clock in the morning the birds
began to feed their young, which were six in number. From
that time until 4 o'clock they fed them 12 times, and from
4to 5 o'clock 25 times. From sto 6 o'clock they fed them
40 times, which was astonishing, as during the whole of
this hour they flew to a plantation at the distance of more
than 150 yards from their nest. From 6to 7 o'clock they
fed them 29 times. During a part of this hour they flew
in every minute. From 7 to 8 o'clock they fed them
20 times. During this hour it rained vary heavily.
From 8 to 9 o'clock they fed them 36 times, and from
9to 10 o'clock 46 times. During a part of this last
hour they fed them 12 times in five minutes. From 10 to
11 o'clock they fed them 37 times, and from 11 to 12 o'clock
39 times, and from 12 to 1 o'clock 24 times. From 1 to 2
o'clock they fed them 23 times, and from 2 to 3 o'clock 34
times, and from 3 to 4 o'clock 18 times. From 4to 5 o'clock
they fed them 29 times, and from 5 to 6 o'clock 25 times,
and from 6 to 7 o'clock 20 times,
and from 7 to half•past 8
o'clock 25 times. They now stopped, after having been al-
Most incessantly engaged for nearly 17 hours in their laboura
of love, and after having fed their young 475 times. They
appeared to feed them solely with caterpillars. Sometimes
they brought in a single large one, and at other times two
or three small ones. It is therefore impossible to say how
many have been carried in by them during the day."
So, again, Air. Knapp, in his justly popular Journal of a
Naturalist, has the following interesting notice respecting
this species :
" I was lately exceedingly pleased in witnessing the ma,
ternal care and intelligence of this bird, for the poor thing
had its young ones in the hole of a wall, and the nest had
been nearly all drawn out of the crevice by the paw of a cat,
and part of its brood devoured. In revisiting its family the
bird discovered a portion of it remaining, though
wrapped
up and hidden in the tangled moss and feathers of their bed,
and it then drew the whole of the nest back into the place
from whence it had been taken, unrolled and resettled the
remaining little ones, fed them with theh usual attentions, and
e ey eparentsren eeo ft even thisseunppl
y
finally succeeded in rearing them. T
reduced family laboured with groat
its wants, one or the other of them perseverance
a grub, or ca-
terpillar, or some insect, at intervals of less than a minute
through the day; and probably in the earlier part of the
morning more frequently, but if we allow thatthey brought
food to the hole every minute for
.15 hours, and provided
for their own wants also, it will adunt of perhaps 1,000 grubs
a day for the requirements of one, and that a diminished
brood, and gives us some comprehension of the infinite num-
ber requisite for the summer nutriment of our soft•billed
birds, and the great distance gone over by such as have
young ones, in their numerous trips from hedge to tree in
the hours specified, when they have full broods to support."

PRESENTATION TO A BRITISH CAPTAIN.--A gra-
tifying presentation was made yesterday at the
Sailors' Home, in Liverpool, from, the President of the
United States to Captain Robert Clarke, of the Glasgow
ship General Neil. A t the request of the Board of Trade,
to whom it had been transmitted, Mr. George Kendall,
chairman of the Liverpool Local Marine Board, made the
presentation, which was a handsome gold watch, with
chronometer movement, bearing a suitable inscription. It
appeared that on the 15th of March, 1862, when on a voyage
from Bombay to Liverpool, Captain Clarke, in the Indian
Ocemit fell in with the ship Scargo, Captain Hews, of
Boston,
,in a sinking condition, she having been completely
disabled tyeo days before by a cyclone. On nearing the
Sea/go copu„.;n Clarke himself went on board of her, and
perceiving the plight they were in he took off the captain
and (new and One wesen6Z and But them on board of hi,
own ship,

SPIRIT OF Tlit ruBLIc JOURNALS.

Mn. —the relish question is still without an
answer. It can hardly be doubted any longer that
the hopes recently entertained of a liberal policy on
the part of the Emperor of Russia were little better
founded than the innumerable canards which fill the
Continental papers on the Polish insurrection. Our
correspondent, indeed, mentions the rumoar buttively asserted by the Russians at Warsaw, he
places no confidence in it. Such a course was ob-
viously open to the Emperor of Russia, and we can
only regret that he is not so wise as his Prussian
friends represented him. He might not, indeed,
have been able to induce the Poles at once to accept
his promises. They would probably, as our corre-
pondent points out, have rejected such an arrange-
ment the more impatiently because its direct ten-
dency would have been to destroy the national
independence, for which alone they aro fighting.
But the Emperor would, at least for the time,
have disarmed the Western Powers, and extin-
guished any hopes in the minds of the Poles of
intervention for the present. As the insurrection
feeds itself on the hope of foreign interference,
this might have been the most effectual mode of
starving it out, and a reasonable moderation after-
wards would have ensured the Czar's victory. But
as we now seem thrown back again on the old
scene of incessant bloodshed in Poland and endless
diplomatic correspondence in Europe, we are natu-
rally led to reflect on the condition and pro-
spects of each side of the drama. As to the
insurrection itself, whatever may be the daily
exaggerations which reach us from Polish sources,
there is no doubt that it continues, end that
the Russians have not yet been able to check
it with any considerable success. The insurgents
are gradually acquiring skill, and though numbers
of them have perished, those who remain are more
dangerous to the Russians than the untrained
masses who met them at first. When the next
winter comes, if it be not as mild as the last—a
very unlikely supposition—it will be a very diffe-
rent story. The snow is more freezing to the Polish
patriots than the six points of the Western powers.
Their bands only exist by help of the protection
which the forests give them. If they were obliged
to leave the woods and maintain themselves in the
open country they would soon be annihilated by
Russian troops; and it is well known that the
Russians reckon on the winter to drive the rebels
from their fastnesses, and thus bring them within
reach of their forces. Winter, however, is still
some way off, and if the Emperor of the French
chose to do more than remonstrate he has time to
give the Poles some material assistance before they
are frozen into submission. Their leaders do not
measure the value of the lives they spend by the
success gained; they shed the blood for the sake of
the bloodshed, for when Poland bleeds they are
sure that Europe is wounded. It is a sad spectacle
to see a nation thus throwing away its best men in
the effort of mere despair. There is an utter hope-
lessness in the prospeci; of every side. The only ob-
ject for which the Poles expect the Western Powers
to intervene is one which, it is certain, is absolutely
unattainable, and even if it could be attained it is
very doubtful whether matters would be improved.
Every other voice, however, protests against such
an operation. England, France, and Austria remons-
trate and threaten the surgeon, whose knife is
already operating, if he persist. We are not going
to weaken the protest : but we must say that such
an interference entails the gravest responsibility.
Civilised nations are certainly bound to protest pub-
licly against the horrible cruelties which the Rus-
sians contemplate and are already executing. But
if the Western Powers do not under any circum-
stances intend to go farther than protesting, if they
are resolved not to interfere by force of arms, they
are bound to let the Poles know their determination
at once. We have done this. We have declared
that we will use every influence short of war to in-
duce the Emperor of Russia to treat Poland with
justice, humanity, and generosity; but our Minis-
ters have stated at the same time, in the plainest
language, that they will not, under any circum-
stances, plunge this country into u war for an
object uncertain, unattainable, and dangerous. We
trust that the other Powers will take an equally
direct course.

IliaaeD.LWe have good reason to believe that
the Government has committed iteeli to an overt
act in the affair of the steam rams built at Birken-
head. We are informed that Earl Russell, on Wed-
nesday, dispatched, by written missive, a positive
order to Messrs. Laird to prevent these vessels leav-
ing their yards without an ample explanation of
their destination, and a sustainable reference to be
owner or owners for whom they aro constructed.
The Foreign-office has thus distinctly pledged
itself to the Federal policy which has been
imposed upon it. Without regard to the explicit
and simple provisions of the existing laws of the
country, without regard to the general sense of
fairness and equity, which animates the EngHEIL
nation in its rendering and translation of the Foreign
Enlistment Act, Lord Palmerston, or rather Earl
Russell, leading his more aged Premier, has deter-
mined to exercise a power that could only be dele-
gated by the assembled Legislature of the land. It
is asserted that this step of prohibition has been
resolved upon and carried out solely because, at the
present juncture," time is thought to be precious to
the Confederates." Apprehensive that these steam
rams may at once be used to reinforce the Confede-
rate navy, the Cabinet has acted directly as a par-
tisan, end has agreed to follow the fashion of the
American bench, and proceed upon "presumption"
and " suspicion." It is now affirmed, moreover, that
the French Ambassador has been appealed to as to
the possibility or non-possibility of a French subject
having ordered vessels of this stamp of an English
shipbuilder. There is declared to have come a proper
official reply from his excellency that no French sub-
ject has any legal right to possess or purchase ves-
sels of war, either for himself or onbehalf of others.
Earl Russell, it is said, argues to himself that these
vessels could only be vessels for the warlike purposes
of a State or an individual. His lordship holds that
Messrs. Laird are bound to declare—and sustain
on unimpeachable testimony such declaration—.
the Government for whom the steam rams have
been built. The Secretary for Foreign Affairs is
also of opinion that, if it is pleaded that these
vessels are for an individual owner, native or
foreign, that individual could only be a privateer
or a pirate. And it is on these grounds that the
Government has made up its mind. At any rate,
the English Government is now firmly resolved to
try the question in a court of law, and, if amerced
for damages, to make an appeal for support to the
House of Commons. There can be no doubt that
the member for Birkenhead,who is a man of action,
of high spirit, and undaunted temper, will take up
the challenge. His business, in his eyes, is not to
be at the mercy of the Foreign Office. So marked
an obedience to the pressure from the Federal Go-
vernment will have to be thoroughly explained and
accounted for, and the bureaux of the Foreign
Office will have to yield up and publish some very
peculiar correspondence before the whole secret of
this extraordinary step is to be thoroughly under-
stood by the public. For the last six weeks Earl
Russell is declared to " have had his eye" upon
these vessels; his hand has been itching to seize
them ; he thinks he can hold them, and that the
nation will support him in what! he has done. But
whether sustained or not by his fellow-countrymen,
we must repeat, those who support Earl Russell in
this policy affirm that his lordship's satisfaction
will be complete from the assurance that ho will
have delayed the uses of these formidable craft. To
us this measure seems rash, impolitic, and unworthy
of an English Minister. The voice of the country
throughout this horrible civil war has over said to
its representatives, "Be fair, be ,just, be honour-
able." Treat both sides alike. Amend the law
wherever necessary. But above all things do not
wrest it to serve your own prejudices !

SOMETHING ' " VERY LIKE A WHALE" CAP-
TURE]) E y LADIES NEAR BIDEFORD.-A few days
ago a young whale about three feet long was taken near
the far-famed pebble-ridge, Northam Burrows. The cap-
ture" was effected by o‘x-tio Young
the little " ladies who, while on a
monster in a pool
bathing expedition, espic
of water in the sand left by t,!le receding tide. A few weeks
since one similar in siwia was secured by a fisherman, near
Brauntan, about two or three from the same place.—
Western Morning News.
THE DULL SEASON having ncov fairly set in,
and the columns of the daily papers are as usual,
says the Queen, busily occupied with the disc:lB6°ll°f more
or less trivial questions cropping up for discuss: on accord-
Th e
ing to custom, at this period of the long vacatio.n.
is its
Times has been more than commonly unsayourY
"8
choice of subjects; but, among the rest, it treats its reads'
once more to the old hotel grievance its a new form. The
question whether the landlady of the Haled Hotel was civil
or uncivil to a party of excursionists seems to rival in im-
portance the proceedings of the Frankfort Congress, and the
balance of testimony is about as conflie.ting as that which in-
fluences the opinions of men as to the authorship of ;Tonic's,
or any other disputed point. How the matter is to be de-
cided we can scarcely presume to decide. Three gentlemen
of known position declare plainly, citing words and circum-
stances, that they were ill-treated, vituperated, and insulted,
and forthwith a number of other gentlemen (some subscrib-
ing their names, and others writing anonymously) declare
that they have never experienced anything but kindness
and courtesy from the landlady. But, inasmuch as no
amount of negatives can upset the position of a proved posi-
tive, the only conclusion we can arrive at seems this : that
the landlady is generally a good-tempered woman, but that
the three travellers happened to encounter her in a sour
moment. Women are variable, and so is the weather ; but
we scarcely think that the temper of the hostess of the
Haled Hotel is a topic of sufficient importance to occupy
much space in, the cclualha of the 1"1.111f8‘