Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 20th September 1856, Edition 1 of 2, Page 908, Untitled Article

Page 908
Page 20
20 of 24

On this page

  • Departments (1)
    • ( ftf ||-p. <T| -l*"f"Ctf Kb'ijv Jl\t\\r<tX +
  • Text (6)
  • 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.

      Untitled Article

      THE CAMP AtfD THE CUTTER . The Camp and the Cutter . By EdwmGait . - - Hodgson . Mb . Gam made aa excursion to the Crimea , visiting by tie way the cities on the Mediterranean coast , some of the Grecian islands , and Constantinople , and upon his return glancing at Smyrna , Athens , Venice , and the caves of Adelsberg . He passes ' over the' ground lightly , confidently , and with an obvious resolution to astonish the reader . When serious , his gossip is pleasant ; but when disposed to be . jocular , his levities are painfully dull . He offends , however , not by jocularity alone . Foolish flippancy is worse than a bad joke . Take these notes on Paris : if not impertinences , what are they ?— - Arrived at the hotel Wagram at Paris , precisely at ten , T—took a carriage without delay , —drove out to note all places of interest . The building of the Exposition of Industry-not to be compared with cither of our Glass Palaces ; Exposition of Fine Arts very interesting—a European picture gallery , in fact ; the Madeleine exquisite ; Notre-Dame without attractions ; Champs Elyse * es a splendid drive ; Place de la Concorde dusty , dangerous ; Boulevards very handsome ; Rue de Eivoli impresses one with its simple grandeur .

      Jiaunted caverns or dens of demons , would utterly fail to realize the beauty and grandeur of this exquisite , yet stupendous , worlc of the great Architect . It is not a grotto , nor a cavern—it can be compared only , in extent , to colossal cathedrals— £ ucces 3 ion of domes , naves , transepts , galleries , and buttresses , of fret-work ornament ¦ t racery work , and tastefully executed columns , formed thus wonderfully by the constant droppings of water through the calcareous rocks above , hardening into stone as it falls , far surpassing , 5 n the exquisite character of its varied mouldings , the laboured efforts of tbe most talented artist ; and yet , on the other hand , a directly opposite simile may lie used , namely , that , by a stretch of the imagination , oae would be led to believe that he was wandering among the ruins of an entombed city , where works of the sculptor ' s art continually presented themselves in various stages of preservation . * In colour , the stalactites are of a light soft yellow , or white , and partly transparent , and they hang about in continuous clusters , and points , and drapery-work , excent when broken by low damp tunnels , or disrupted blocks of rocks intervening : ' the eye at length becomes sated , and the mind confused , by the never-ending wonders . There is truth and effect in this , but if Mr .-Gait's travelling companions were as much inclined to be witty , and as little able to succeed as himself it must have been a . dull time on board the Cutter . '

      Smartness of this sort is indiscreet , especiall y in a first page . We soon £ nd other examples : " Genoa is famous for something , but I almost forget what ; " an Irish officer has been promoted " for no fault of his-own . ;" " Malta is celebrated for the three S ' s , namely , Sirocco , Sun , and Perspiration P' "It \ ras in Navarino's Bay that Codrington saw the Turk-eysX&y " are not the worst specimens of that Which the insensible Mr . Gait , proprietor of the Sparrow-Hawk , mistakes for humour . All readers will not easily believe that a gentleman who is witty after such a fashion , possesses a fhcultyfor elegant and picturesque description . Here is a glimpse of the Grecian Archipelago : — There around us lay the lovely isles of Greece , dark shadowed in the foreground , or mellowed and misty in the far horizon . Cape Colonna stood out in wild , colossal grandeur above us , rocks and cliffs and broken islands lay scattered about , and perched on the extreme summit of the Cape was seated the exquisite ruin of Minerva ' s

      Temple at Sunium ; its columns of pure white Parian marble hanging in the air like tracery work against the deep blue heavens . Twenty-two centuries had passed away since this temple had been erected at the entrance of Athens' Gulf to the Goddess of Wisdom , the tutelar genius of Athens : on this spot had Plato delivered his famed addresses to his pupils ; here ' was the scene of Falconer's poem of the " Shipwreck , " and Byron has testified to the extraordinary beauty of the views . The sea-shore was broken and torn into numerous caverns and pinnacles and overhanging cliffs . The crisp Borean breeze brought perfume from the shore . The wild birds , emerging from their caverns , flitted along the face of the ocean . The deep tranquillity was perfectly bewitching ; not a ship could be seen , no sign of human life to mar that glorious prospect ; Nature alone seemed alive , serenely and placidly carrying on her never-end- ' ing rotation of daily labour , fiaught with bounty and beneficence to the whole human race . While thus gazing around us , -we espied the faint outlines of a ship at anchor beneath the towering heights of the Cape . Imagination could easily have believed her to lea Greek piratical vessel , watching her prey from that solitary spot .

      In this , there is a touch Of graceful fancy . Some of the sketches in the Crimea are still more suggestive . But we choose a fragment to show that Mr . Gait can be lively without being absurd . He went to a ball given by the French : — The boards oftlie hut had been partially covered with long strips of figured calico . Curtains were hung over the doorways , and wooden hoops , taken from casks , were suspended from the rafters , in imitation of chandeliers , to which wax candles were affixed . The building itself was perhaps fifty feet in length , and divided in the centre by a partition ; one portion being devot « d to the purposes of the dance , and the other to those of a refreshment room . In one corner of this apartment , behind the refreshment table , stood Madame Gallien , " la . Reire de Canonville , " as her admirers designated her . She was a tall person , of good figure , and dressed with the most becoming taste : a warm , dark-coloured , liigh dress , fitting closely to the form , a very pretty little collar , with lace-work open sleeves . She wore a small white cap on the crown of the head , a silk embroidered apron , and sne served her patrons in white kid

      gloves from behind her table . Her style was essentially Parisian . She possessed some pretensions to beauty , and moved about with a grace and elegance perfectly bewitching . The greatest deference was paid to her by the French officers ; and shortly after we entered , one of the colonels ( his breast covered with honours ) led her into the talk de danse . The Hussar band , consisting of half a dozen brass instruments , were lent for the occasion ; and as they struck up a quadrille , I had time to get my boots sponged , and then to look around me . Eight ladies were engaged in the quadrille . I learnt that they were the "wives of French sergeants and soldiers , and they were accompanied there by their husbands . They behaved with the greatest propriety , and after the dance generally retired to drink eau sucree , or now and then to sip champagne . There were present about fifty French officers and a dozen English , alL wearing their large boots besmeared with mud and dirt . A . small anteroom was devoted tocaida ; two knots of Frenchmen were engerlj- bending over a couple of tables and staking their money at icartd . A cuisine -was also attached to the establishment , which -we inspected , and the savoury smells therefrom prompted us to order a

      supper . The most original part of his book is devoted to an account of a trip to the mountains and valleys of Vcnootka , not far from Balaklava , but wild and sublime . A plain , thirty miles in circumference , is here hemmed in by colossal ridges , under the shelter of which live the native Tartars , in hamlets embosomed amid delicious groves . After this excursion , Mr . Gait sailed , with various Russian trophies , for Scutari . Here his evil propensity breaks out anew in an aggravated form : — I heard some frightful singing and yelling over my head 5 I looked into the air , naturally thinking that some large birds were passing over . The noisy , monotonous chant still continued ; and at length I espied , high up in the balcony of a minaret , a whlte-turbaned eld Muezzin Turk , two hundred feet above us , shouting and gesticulating to all four points of the compass , and calling all true believers to attend the " ^ f ? " , Thi 8 performance takes place five times every day . Supposing an old gold-laced sexton , in London , useended five times a day to the top of St . Paul ' s , vainly trying to make himself heard either at Notting-hill or Putney , would it not bo tno height of absurdity ? ,

      n " £ . £ mnat ., wao condescends so far does little justice to himself . Let Mr . jV" 5 assured that it were better to persist in picture-sketching , witli an mdiflerent result , than to attempt to strike firo out of a stolid fancy . Me ib agreeable m the caverns of Adelsberg : — All the itnitationa of grottoa , all the atago effects in England combined , to produce

      Untitled Article

      THE CATILINE CONSPIRACY . Hf . Tidlii Ciceroni * Orattones . "With a Commentary by George Long ; . Vol . III . ¦ ¦ ¦ '¦ ¦ ¦ ' . ¦'¦ : . . ¦• . ' - . ¦ ¦¦ ¦¦ . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦• " ¦ ¦ - ¦' ¦ ¦¦ ¦" '¦ - ¦ ¦ . ' .-. ¦ ¦ ' ' - ¦ ¦ . ¦ " ' ¦ ¦ Whittaker . This volume , included in the Bibliotheca . Classica , edited by Mr . Geor « e Long and the Rev . A . J . Macleane , contains , among others , the Orations against Catiline . The text used is Orelli ' s , as revised by Baiter and Halm , though otiier versions are compared in Mr . Long ' s critical commentaries . The type , paper , and . form of this edition are admirable , and the several introductions and notes appear likely to be of considerable advantage to the student . Whenever the story of Catiline is repeated , it is impossible not to be reminded of the identity of character existing among all men who have sought

      to obtain sovereignty by illegal methods . Close , indeed , is the parallel of ancient Rome with modern Paris . It is especially notable that Catiline inherited a great name and the rank of patrician without much fortune . Hewas strong in body , but addicted to dissipation . He could bear toil , and did not fear danger . He had great abilities , passions , and courage , and no scruples . From his youth he aimed at power , and was early implicated in more than one seditious plot . Adherents . he always had—but they were among the mean and needy . " They were all poor ; all were in debt . Their present condition was bad : the prospect was still worse . There was no way outof the difficulty except by a successful revolution , which wotild give them -wealth and ., honours , and power . " To these men Catiline gave a promise that he would enricQ them at the expense of the state .

      The Roman St . Arnauds followed the Roman conspirator , who , to completethe parallel , swore in the Senate that it was impossible he should be plotting against the state , declared hims « lf an object of calumny , and redoubled his exertions to obtain supporters . The ^ capital , says Sallust , was full of abandoned or foolish men—some who lived in fear of punishment for scandalous crimes , others who had wasted their patrimonies in profligate extravagance , others who had been inspired with insane doctrines and more insane hopes—and thus was matured the plot against government and liberty It was to be put in execution by night , after a fresh perjury lad been committed to lull the suspicions of the Senate . If we take up Machiavelli's description of a man designing to usurp the chief power of a state , may we not ' look before and after , ' and see Catiline in Paris , and Napoleon in Rome ? "With all their dependents around them" ( we quote Mr . Long ' s paraplirase ) , " who pecapy every post , the usurpers maintain their power , and their instruments have their ambition and their greediness satisfied ; while all the rest are constrained to support that yoke which force , and nothing else , makes them endure . " -

      In the Orations themselves , how many a keen and flashing invective , cutting at all plotters in the dark , might have been as fittingly uttered in Paris before the evil days of December , 1851 !

      Untitled Article

      THEATRICAL NOTES . The grand show-piece at the Theatre Royal , Kremlin—we bog pardon , the Theatre Imperial—lias occupied so much of our space this week , that our criticisms on the poor and petty doings in the theatres liere at home must indeed be Theatrical Notes , and nothing more . To bo brief , then—brief as the very soul of wit—we have in the first place to chronicle that on Monday Mr . E . T . Smith reopened Drury Lank with the Lady of Lyons , Oxenpoiii / s farce of Twice Killed , &c . The chief attraction was a new actress ( Mrs . Emma VYAiAEit ) , who haB already earned some golden opinions in the golden lands of California and Australia , and who on Monday played the part , of Pauline , and on Tuesday that of Julia in the Huncltlack , to the satisfaction , not only of the audience

      , but of the critics . —On the same night , the Lyceum opened under the now management , when Mr . Dillon was so obliging as to tend the hearts of his audience by hia pathetic performance of Delphegor ; when Miss Wooi-oar ( wo cliooso to forget her married name ; once more sparkled before the London public , mindful , aa we take it , of that eloquent appeal we addressed tolier , about a year ago , not to " leave the loathed stage f and wlien Mr . William Bkouqu made his first nppearanco as an actor in a burlesque written by himself , called Perdita , or the Royal Milkmaid , founded on Mr . CuARtKS Ivean ' s Winter ' s Tale . Mr . Brough performs Polixenes . At present , he is Hardly enabled to do justice to whatever acting powers he may possess , owing to a very natural nervousness ; and wo therefore prefer to postpone our criticism on him till he has become more familiar with his now sphere .

      Untitled Article

      908 THE LEADER . / [ No . 339 , Saturday

      ( Ftf ||-P. ≪T| -L*"F"Ctf Kb'ijv Jl\T\\R≪Tx +

      Cjie Irteu

      Untitled Article

      PORTRAIT OF MAZZINI . Messrs . Maull , and Polybla . wk have published , uniform with the portraits of Professor Owen , Mr . Roebuck , &c , but not in connexion with the series , a photographic portrait of Giuseppe Mazzini . It is an admirable example of the art—as a ' likeness , ' perfect . Appended is a biographical sketch , brief , but far superior to those which accompany the ' living celebrities . ' The Friends of Italy will be glad to possess this memorial of one of her most distinguished Friends .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 20, 1856, page 908, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2159/page/20/