Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 19th April 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 373, ®ntn$tan Stmuxui],

Page 373
Page 19
19 of 26

On this page

  • Departments (2)
    • Cju Iris.
    • ®ntn$tan Stmuxui],
  • Text (9)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Cju Iris.

      Cju Iris .

      Untitled Article

      VIVIAN IN HIS EASY CHAIR . No theatres this week , and I enjoy the otium cum ! Not that I am deceived by this calm : I know it is only the lull before the storm , and that Easter week , with its tumultuous mirth , casts its shadow before . Meanwhile I stretch myself , indolently reposing in the easiest of chairs ( Harriet , ' twas thy thoughtful tenderness !) and opening one of the most formidable of the folios that strain my shelves , plunge into questions of Fate , Foreknowledge , Freewill absolute .

      From this study I am roused by the entrance of a dirty and discrepant youth who brings me playbills—as if I wanted to know anything about theatres till next week ! as if , with the gas turned off , the house emptied , the " properties " laid by , and unrouged actors , a theatre could be interesting to any human soul , much less a man deep in the three Hypostases of Being , as shown in the genesis of the primordial Something from the primordial Nothing !

      However , I told him—with that suavity which distinguishes la politesse du cceur—that he " might leave them . " He did so . From that moment study was impossible . I wished the Three Hypostases at —( never mind the geography)—and eaught up the first playbill irresistibly allured by the captivating word Fidelio , which the Royal Italian Opera promises for next Thursday , to say nothing of the Huguenots on Tuesday for the rentree of the incomparable Mario ! At her Majesty ' s the note of preparation is not to be slighted : JJElisir d'Amove , with Caroline Duprez as Adina , Lablache the Magnificent as Dulcamara—what a couple!—•

      " Io son ricco e tu sei bella , Io ho ducati e vezzi hai tu ;" on Thursday Masaniello , with Monti ( who brought tears into my eyes on my seeing her for the second time in the same week—which is no trifling praise to give a pantomimist !) and on Saturday we are to have the new prima donna , Mile . Alaymo , who will appear in Lucrezia Borgia . Hem ! I hope that is music enough for one week . Then the theatres ! the Easter pieces ! The Lyceum is to withdraw its gorgeous Prince Charming , though still attractive ,

      in favour of a new fairy extravaganza , The Queen of the Frogs : if it equal its two predecessors the treasury and the public will be mutually satisfied . The Princess ' s also produces its spectacle , The Alhambra : what a sounding title ! may the piece be as beautiful as its name ! Drury Lane still finds Azael attractive enough to stand in lieu of an Kaster piece ; and it appeals to the literary and dramatic world by the production of Schiller ' s Robbers . The Olympic , following in a track formerly proved so agreeable , offers us a pictorial dramatic representation of Sir Roger de Coverley . Thus I

      have run through the bills—but what is this ? Anderson the Wizard about to give his Royal Kntertainment at the St . James ' s Theatre , precisely as he gave it before the Queen ( she is such a connoisseur in legerdemain ! she sees so much of it with her Ministers !) This is an announcement to make me " wish I were a hoy again "—or , at any rate , that 1 were the father of a family , that I might take ' my noisy children to sen this wondrous man . Decidedly one ought to be the father of a family ! 1 shall make arrangements to become such . Vl VI AN .

      Untitled Article

      LONDON HACltKD HARMONIC SOCIETY . The announcement of Mendelssohn ' s Elijah on Monday night drew a largo audience . The pimcipul performers were Miss Kirch , Mihs Stewart , Miss L . Baxter , Mihh Dolby , Mr . Loekty , and Mr . II . I » hillipn . The performance vvuh uneven . Some parts wen ; very unsteady ; others we have never yet heard so eflectively rendered ; many of the members of the orchestra were exceedingly careless and lazy , and dragged inimleroiinly jian-NugeH which they must have fdt to he out of tune . Mr . JolleyhuH yet to study bin organ part . Scarcely once did we hear tho full power of the organ , and

      ncveral limes \\ v . bad it where no organ part was written . For iiiHtance , in the chorus , " Yet doth the Lord , " Mr . Jollcy cho « e to play all through the first part , thus destroying tho effect of the second portion , where Mendelsohn has written a most careful organ part . Then , where wan the pedal noto in the chorus , " Help , Lord , " or in the concluding chorua

      of the first part , " Thanks be to God ? " Such omissions and interpolations are unpardonable in so great a work . Among the successes of the evening were the quartette " For he shall give his angels , " the trio , "Lift thine , eyes , " most exquisitely rendered by Miss Birch , Miss L . Baxter , and Miss Dolby ; and the lovely quartette , " Cast thy burden upon the Lord , ' sung by Miss Birch , Miss L . Baxter , Mr . Lockey , and Mr . Banks . We believe this was never better sung . The phrasing throughout was most delicate , and the diminuendo given to perfection . It was greeted with immense applause , and a most demonstrative encore . The " Holy , holy , " was also magnificently rendered .

      Miss L . Baxter is a great acquisition in the concerted music . The purity of her intonations , and her declamatory power , were also exhibited in the " Have ye not heard . " Miss Dolby ' s " O rest in the Lord" was , as usual , peifection . Mr . Surman conducted the oratorio , which would have been thoroughly effective but for the causes we have pointed out . We trust he will demand from the orchestra more implicit attention to his baton in future . The successes of this society must not be marred by carelessness , any more than by latent jealousies .

      Untitled Article

      THE QUEEN'S PAHASOL . Our cultivated age is beginning to require that the Useful be also Beautiful , or it will not be used . Most of us can remember the clumsy affairs called " parasols , " which were carried by ladies in our boyhood : how the lovely beings could have managed to coquette effectively with instruments so awkward , surpasses our imagination as much as it does our memory ; but that they did so , only shows how possible to the dear creatures is the pursuit of admiration under difficulties . Meanwhile ,

      however , it must he confessed that lady-power has an accession in the beautiful parasols of our own day . Instead of the uncouth brown or green silk , —the one looking cold or prudish , the other making the complexion " sicklied o ' er with the pale cast of thought , " even where there is no thought—we have the sweetest tints of the rainbow , any one , or all combined ; and Beauty now carries with it a halo of delicacy and brightness , like a piece of atmosphere between shade and light , born with the well-dressed goddess from some Bower of Bliss .

      But , as in many a matter of taste , we are indebted to classic ant quity for what we now so much admire . Toryism is sound principle in Art . On some of the pictures discovered at Herculaneum are to be seen parasols similar to ours . Here is a description of one : — "A sort of pike of a blue colour supports at its extremity four branches of the same colour , upon which is fixed the hemispherical tent or covering , the interior of which is of a deeper blue than the supporters . The border is red , and ornamented with festoons of azure . The rest of the covering is adorned with quadrangular figures of blue and white , and decorated with yellow arabesques , the whole terminating with a blue flower . "

      Upon the highest authority—that is , fair authority—we are enabled to state that the existing ne plus ultra is to be found in " the Queen ' Parasol , " which has this week exhibited itself at our office , " and irade a sunshine in that gloomy place . " It is admirable : brilliant , but not gaudy ; light , but not fragile ; commodious , but not clumsy . It is firm , without obliging the parasol to become an umbrella ; light , without obliging it to become a wreck . The handle has ; in ingenious slide , by which it

      can be elongated ay much or as little as you please ; and yet it is as firm as the British standard , which has for " a thousand years , " &c . The edge is formed into a curtain , gracefully convoluted and fringed . And the body of tho silk vies in brilliancy and delicacy with—what shall we say ?—with the humming-bird , the rosechafer , the dying dolphin , the arch of Iris , the wing of Cupid ? Parasol - makiug lias this season become a branch of horticulture , and the brightest flowers of Chiswiek will ho those made by hands : the , most triumphant Azalea yielding the palm to " tho Queen ' s . "

      Untitled Article

      In the last days of the year which has just elapsed a publication bearing the title Rome and the Roman States in 1850 was distributed gratuitously and circulated in all parts of Central Italy . It was dated from Genoa , but was really issued from a clandestine printing establishment at Rome ; and it is due to the patriots who wrote and published it , that this should be known , that friends and enemies may have another proof of the holy perseverance of the Roman people . For these reasons , and from its intrinsic interest , this publication of the Democratic party in Central Italy is well entitled to notice here .

      From the document in question , we now proceed , therefore , to extract a few facts , which may serve to illustrate the so-called blessings " of Papal Government . Of all possible governments , that of a priestly hierarchy is the oue which , by its cruel tyranny on the one hand , and on the other by its disorderly incapacity , most completely combines at once the evils of despotism and of anarchy .

      1 . CBIMINAL PROCEDURE . By article 556 of the Gregorian code of criminal procedure , state criminals are judged by the tribunal of prelates of the sacred college , not by any established rules , but in accordance with the powers awarded to it in each case ; by article 560 , witnesses are not confronted with the accused ; by article 561 , the accused , having been subjected to examination by the whole tribunal , are not allowed to be present during the consideration and

      argument of their case ; by article 564 , there is no appeal against the sentence , although it be decided by a simple majority of votes , except ( art . 5 G 5 ) in the cases of condemnation to death , not pronounced unanimously , and even then part of the judges in appeal are the game who have already decided upon the very facts of the case ; by article 558 , the choice of counsel is not free , but is subject to the approval of the president Everything takes place with closed doors , and no publicity is allowed to be given to the proceedings of any trial . Practice has added even further iniquities : there are no regularly and permanently appointed judges ; in each case the man most approved of for the purposes of the powers that be is appointed to act as judge ; the accused are not confronted one with another , and the order of calling them before the council is arbitrary , so that whoever chooses to purchase impunity with a lie may do so without the possibility of refutation . But even these laws appeared too benign to the Government of Pius IX . and Cardinal Antonelli ; and , amongst other changes in procedure , they have now taken away from the accused even the right of proposing hi 9 own counsel . 2 . A GLANCE AT THE 13 CONOMY OF THE ROMAN STATES . A favourite calumny of the Pontilicial government , habitually proclaimed in their edicts , from all their pulpits , in their hireling press , and in the confessionals , is that the cause of their financial difficulties is to be found in the ruinous losses occasioned by the late struggle . A brief calculation wilL serve to re-establish the truth . The Provisional Government issued paper money to the amount of ( scudi ) 1 , 200 , 000 The . Republic do . do 2 , 041 , 538 Total , 4 , 141 , 638 On the . 3 rd of August , 1849 , the Pontifical Government reduced by 35 per cent , the nominal value of I ho paper money , lowering by one-third the amount due to employe ' s and othern . Thus the abovementioned sum is reduced 2 , 091 , 999 . 70 To which add notes of the Roman Dank .. 1 , 100 , 000 Those of the Province of Bologna 200 , 000 The alloyed currency circulated by the Itepublic 1 , 000 , 000 And we have a total of 4 , 91 ) 1 , 999 . 70 Subtract the amount ( independent of the 00 , 000 Hcudi of the civil list sent to Gaetu by tlie Provisional Government ) left in the Exchequer by the Republican Government 44 f > , 238 And the whole expenditure of the seven mouths reduces itself to ... 4 , 610 , 701 . 70 W <* havo here in round numbers , a sum Icnb tlum £ 1 , 000 , 000 UH the coat to th « Ilouiun States of the revolutionary Government defending itself , and preparing for defence , duiiug seven months , ugainst the combined forces of Prance , Austria , Naples , unit Spain . Our English economists will be untoninhed lit lite siaullness of the sum ; it speaks volume * for the vuluntury efforts of the people , for without Hitch « ffo > rtn any suoli «""» must havo been wholly insufficient for the crisis , for the honesty , frugality , and dwinterestednost * , of the civil and military employed . Now putting out of question for the moment the uveruge expenditure and deficit , for a similar period of seven uionttiH , of ti »« - Pontifical Government itHelf , which deficit ulouo nmy be safely reckoned ut £ 100 , 000 ; putting out of uu « tion the amount of ordinary revenue fairly » p-

      Untitled Article

      April 19 , 1851 . ] ! & !> * ty-t ^ SX * 373

      Untitled Article

      God <> n oimi Sidk in Wickkdnknb !—God is ( in our side , in tin- univernal cry . Much of two conflicting natioiiH consecrates its fiugs ; and whichever conquers ( tings a To Dt'uin . Attila conceived hiumelf to have a " divine claim to the dominion of the eurth" : the ISpaniardu subdued tho Indiana under plea of converting them to Christiuuity ; bunging thirteen refractory ones in honour of Jchuh (/ hrist and bin apostlus : and we Kn ^ lish justify our colonial aggressioiiH by saying " that tho Creator intends tUc Anglo-Saxon ruco to people tho world ! — Spencer ' s Social Statics .

      ®Ntn$Tan Stmuxui],

      ® ntn $ tan Stmuxui ] ,

      Untitled Article

      This page is accorded to an authentic Exposition of the Opinions and Acts of the Democracy of Europe : as such we do not " impose any restraint on the utterance of opinion , and , therefore , limit our own responsibility to the authenticity of the statement .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 19, 1851, page 373, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1879/page/19/