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the curtain falls-are spoken with much quiet tenderness, and, whatever is lacking in experience, the good taste and refinement of her representation are so marked as to be beyond dispute. Miss E. Verner and Mr. Norton appear in small parts, which do not require detailed notice. FREDERICK WEDMORE.

She Stoops to Conquer is to succeed The Lady of Lyons at the Gaiety; and at the Holborn Amphitheatre the curious experiment of reviving the Maid's Tragedy is to be made.

No new piece has been produced this week, but at the Princess's Theatre they have revived a melodrama of Mr. Henry J. Byron's, brought out first at the Queen's Theatre in 1868. This is the Lancashire Lass- -a piece composed when the author's works were far less abundant than now; and this fact it is possible may be discovered on a survey of the piece, which has some faults, if also some merits, not now so commonly found in the

efforts of its writer. The dramatic situation with which the prologue ends is conceived happily, and with real power. It is worthy, indeed, to be followed by a drama of a higher order of merit. The Lancashire Lass has most of the elements of

general popularity: characters observed, perhaps, not too closely, but striking to the eye; a strong story; dialogue that may be followed with interest; and some comic incident, to boot. For a piece of the kind, it is well acted. Mr. Emery, Mr. Terriss, Mr. Belmore, Miss Lydia Foote, and Mrs. Alfred Mellon play the principal characters. Mrs. Mellon's performance is never lacking in vigour, never in individuality, though sometimes in variety. Miss Lydia Foote, as the ill-faring heroine, displays much stage experience and excellent intentions in acting. It may hardly be said, however, that she causes us to forget the loss of the part's original exponent—an actress by no means stronger than herself, but endowed with a simplicity of pathos all her own-Miss Nellie Moore. Mr. Terriss is a young actor of pleasing appearance. In his art there is room for improvement, and probably he will continue to improve. Mr. Howard, who also plays in the piece, has a part which is not a gracious one. Mr. Belmore's performance of the eccentric or imbecile "Spotty" calls forth the needful laughter, and Mr. Emery as "the party by the name of Johnson," gives us one of his vigorous sketches, though not one of his best. He has a drunken scenethe almost inevitable drunken-scene of English plays and this it would be well to make less of, for Mr. Emery's art will stand on its own merits, and he should allow it to do so. Mr. Lloyds is one of our foremost scene painters, and here his

work is of the realistic kind.

A MORNING performance of As You Like It was given at the Gaiety last Saturday. Mr. Kendal was Orlando; Mrs. Kendal, Rosalind; Mr. Vezin, Jacques; Mr. Taylor, Touchstone; and Miss Douglas, Celia. The performance of Mrs. Kendal, which was that most worthy of attention, was not new to a London public, if the Crystal Palace, where she had given it, is to be counted as London. Mr. Maclean was really a good Adam, and Miss West appeared as Audrey.

THE pantomime season is coming to an end. It has been unusually successful. The Babes in the Wood is in a very few days to be withdrawn from Covent Garden; and though Aladdin-with the Vokes's humorous performance-is not so soon to be withdrawn from Drury Lane, the programme of that theatre is to be strengthened by a revival of Rebecca-the Wizard of the North and Mr. Andrew Halliday.

Uncle Tom's Cabin was to be reproduced last Thursday at the Adelphi Theatre, where it must now stand wholly on such merits as it has as a story or play. Time was when sentiment upon the subject counted for much in its success.

Ar Saturday's morning performance for the benefit of the Cospatrick fund, at the Princess's Theatre, Mr. Ryder's Master Walter-in The Hunchback-came out strongly as a piece of elocution and sound acting, in contrast to many of the other parts. Miss Alleyne has studied Julia; but can hardly yet act it.

and the powers that be, in the present year, are less favourably inclined.

BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSEN's two new dramas, which were to have been brought out at Copenhagen at Christmas, but which, for some mysterious reason, never made their appearance, have just been brought out elsewhere. Et Handelshus THE Alexandra Theatre was last night to bring("A House of Business") was represented in the out The Lady of Lyons, with Miss Clayton, a New Theatre at Stockholm on January 19 with pupil of Mr. Henry Marston's, it is said, as considerable success, although the last act is dePauline, and with Mr. Walter Bentley, recently of scribed as hurried and ill-conceived. En Fallit the Court Theatre, as Claude Melnotte. Mr. ("A Bankruptcy") has been brought out with Bentley is a nephew of Miss Emily Faithfull and great success in Bergen. son of an Edinburgh divine.

MISS LITTON has taken the St. James's Theatre for the kind of entertainment which has been given by her at the Court; and she, and such members of her company as she may take with her, will move to the St. James's about Easter.

THE Edinburgh Theatre Royal was burnt to the ground last Saturday. It was a fine house, built only ten years ago on a site which had previously

witnessed two destructive fires.

THE revival of Les Filles de Marbre at the Théâtre Lyrique-Dramatique has given Parisians an opportunity of seeing an old-fashioned melodrama, but one that is not now excessively well played. It may be doubted, however, whether it was really better acted many years since than now, for with regard to melodramas the Parisians have become more difficult to please. Of old time there were two or three good actors, but no ensemble in melodrama. Nothing like the performance of Deux Orphelines could then have been seen in a Paris theatre. Castellano, the manager of the Lyrique-Dramatique, has before now acted well, but there is now visible in his play some evidence of want of practice or else of time not having brought with it maturity. Mdlle. Dewintre, who passed into the Théâtre Français and quickly out of it again, has been engaged to play Marco, a leading character in Les Filles de Marbre, but in her hands the character is but colourless and poor. One part only is well played in the piece, and that is the character of Marthe, by Mdlle. Andrée Kelly, who appeared for a short time, as playgoers may remember, in the French plays at the Princess's Theatre last season.

THE Théâtre des Arts has produced a five-act drama called Manette by M. Alexis Bouvier, who boasts himself as belonging to the realistic school. His novels have some sale, if but little admiration; but long life will probably be denied to his dramatic work, which has in it a certain element of brutality-a certain carefully-kept crudity, so to say, which is distasteful even to a public not conspicuously sensitive. Mdme. La

cressonière and Paul Clèves are included in the cast.

M. BLUM's drama, Rose Michel, which, with the acting of Mdme. Fargueil, is having so much success at the Ambigu, is now being translated into English, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, Greek, and

Russian.

Ar the Salle Taitbout they have produced a drama from the Corinne of Mdme. de Staël. The work is dramatised by M. A. Laya.

A NEW light sort of étude by Arsène Houssaye, and a new preface to the book itself by M. Alexandre Dumas, have made the Manon Lescaut of l'Abbé Prévost a good deal talked of lately. There is therefore an immediate interest-perhaps not one of long duration-in the revival of Théodore Barrière's play at the Vaudeville. It was first produced four and twenty years ago, and though acted then by Rose Chéri, by Bressant, Dupuis, and Geoffroy, it was successful not so much with the ordinary public as with a chosen band of amateurs. It would seem now, after the Dame aux Camélias, to have less reason than ever

to exist and be played, Jules Janin sang its praises eloquently enough in 1851; but Sarcey

MUSIC.

song,

"Name

POPULAR CONCERTS.-ST. JAMES'S HALL. Ir is unfortunate, though unavoidable, that the Saturday Popular Concerts at St. James's Hall should take place at the same hour as the Crystal Palace Concerts; because sometimes the attrac tions at both places are so great as to render the choice a matter of some difficulty. Such was the case on Saturday last: at Sydenham Herr Joachim was announced to make his first appearance this season, while at St. James's Hall Hans von Bülow was for the present to take his farewell. Knowing that on Monday a second opportunity of hearing the great violinist would be afforded, I decided in favour of St. James's Hall, and was rewarded by an exceedingly fine and interesting concert. The opening piece was Beethoven's great quartet in C (No. 9), the third of the set dedicated to Count Rasoumoffsky, and usually known by his name as the "Rasoumoffsky quartetts." It was excellently led by M. Sainton, who was in his best vein, and was admirably supported by Messrs. L. Ries, Zerbini, and Piatti. The wonderful pizzicato of the last-named gentleman in the slow movement was alone worth the journey to St. James's Hall to hear. After Miss Ellen Horne had sung Dussek's pretty though old-fashioned the glad day," Dr. Bülow performed as his solo Schumann's" Faschingsschwank aus Wien," which was on this occasion brought forward for the first time at these concerts. As its name implies, this work was written on the occasion of the Carnival in Vienna, and was, in fact, for the most part composed while that festival was in progress. The be chiefly confined to the first movement with its reminiscences of the Carnival seem, however, to varied dance-like rhythms; it is difficult to see any connexion between the title and the dreamy respectively the second and fourth portions of the Romance or the passionate Intermezzo which form work. The finale is a brilliant movement in light and airy as one of Mendelssohn's fairy piesonata form, while the "Scherzino" (No. 3) is as tures in the Midsummer Night's Dream. Excepting in the Romance and Intermezzo there is scarcely to be found in the work a trace of the melancholy which runs as an undercurrent through nearly all of Schumann's compositions. Dr. Bülow's performance, though perhaps open to criticism in some points (especially in his very forcible reading of the "Scherzino"), was, on the whole, magnificent. His playing of the last two movements, more particularly, was most mas terly. Another "first performance" followed in Grieg's very original sonata in F for piano and violin, a work which, though often to be seen in continental programmes, had not previously been brought to a hearing in London. Though containing many points of interest, and full of its composer's individuality, it is not, as a whole, equal either to his later sonata in G for the same instruments (recently played at these concerts, if I am not mistaken, by Mr. Charles Hallé and Madame Norman-Néruda), piano concerto introduced with such success by Mr. Dannreuther last year at the Crystal Palace. The best part of the present work is the middle movement (allegretto quasi andantino), which is particularly quaint and pleasing. The sonats

or to the

was played to perfection by Messrs. Bülow and Sainton. After Miss Horne had sung Macfarren's “Pack clouds away," with the excellent clarinet obbligato of Mr. Lazarus, the concert concluded with Spohr's quintett for piano and strings in D minor, a highly-finished and very melodious work, containing no features on which it is needful to dwell.

On Monday evening Herr Joachim reappeared

at these concerts. It is most difficult to write anything new about this great artist, simply because his playing is always the very ideal of perfection. In execution he may be equalled by others; as regards mere quality of tone, he is surpassed by Wilhelmj; but in intellectual conception of whatever he interprets, in that complete self-abnegation which enables him to throw himself so entirely into the spirit of whatever he plays that admiration of the performer is lost in enjoyment of the music, he is still unapproached. No player, moreover, surpasses, and few equal him in the extent of his répertoire. He is not merely great in one style; but from Bach and Tartini down to Schumann and Brahms the whole range of violin music seems equally familiar and equally sympathetic to him. The opening quartett on Monday night (Schubert's great work in D minor) showed at once that Joachim has come back to

us as great as ever. Of the quartett itself I spoke in these columns on the occasion of its last performance in St. James's Hall (see ACADEMY, February 28, 1874), and there is no occasion to repeat what was then said. It is worth while, in passing, to correct an error in the programme of the concert, because there is a curious confusion in the statements there made as to

will be selected from the works of Sterndale
Bennett, in which Mdlle. Krebs, Herr Joachim,
and Signor Piatti will take part.
EBENEZER PROUT.

THE interment last Saturday in Westminster Abbey of the remains of the late Sir Sterndale Bennett was a fitting tribute to the memory of one of the most genuine artists whom this country has produced. A requisition was addressed to the Dean of Westminster, signed not only by many leading members of the musical profession, but also by such amateurs as the Earl of Dudley, Lord Coleridge, and the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, and asking the desired permission not only as a mark of respect for the genius and worth of the deceased musician, "but on more public grounds as a just recognition of the Art of which he was so distinguished an ornament." Dean Stanley at once consented, and the gathering in the Abbey was one not soon to be forgotten by those who were present. Never, probably, within the memory of any one living has such an assemblage of eminent musicians been seen on any occasion as that which met to pay the last tribute to their distinguished brother in art. It would be an easier task to name those who were absent than those who were present. The procession consisted of more than twenty mourning coaches, beside the private carriages of Her Majesty, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Earl of Dudley, the Bishop of Gloucester, and others. The pall-bearers were selected from Sir Sterndale Bennett's fellow-students at the Academy, among whom were to be seen Messrs. T. Harper, W. H. Holmes, James Howell, G. A. Macfarren, T. M. Mudie, and Brinley Schubert's quartetts. The present work is called Richards. The University of Cambridge sent a Op. 161, a number which belongs not to deputation consisting of the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. it, but to the great quartett in G. The pre- Bateson, the master of St. John's College, and the sent work was published as an "Euvre post- Rev. Arthur Beard, Precentor of King's. Next hume," and without any opus-number at all. followed Earl Dudley, the President of the Royal Furthermore, the programme states that "four Academy of Music, and the Directors and Comothers have been published-one in F (posthu-mittee of that institution. Deputations from the mous), printed singly; one in E flat and one in E, Philharmonic Society, the Royal Society of Muforming together Op. 125, and one in G major, sicians and the German Athenaeum succeeded. Companion to the quartett in D minor." This is Lastly came the entire staff of professors of the altogether incorrect: there are eight others Royal Academy. The funeral service, with the published, including the fragment in C minor, not exception of the lesson, was read by the Dean, one of which is in F, the "posthumous" work the music being sung by a vocal force of referred to being the very one played on Monday; twenty-eight boys and twenty-four men, selected and (to say nothing of the quartetts in B flat, G from the choirs of the Abbey, St. Paul's, the Temple, the Chapel Royal and Lincoln's Inn Chapel. With great appropriateness, the anthem selected was the quartett "God is a Spirit," from the Woman of Samaria, which was exquisitely sung without accompaniment, the first part by solo voices (Master Beckham, and Messrs. Foster, Carter and Lawler), and the full chorus In addition to the entering toward the close. usual funeral service music by Croft and Purcell, Handel's chorus "His body is buried in peace was sung before the benediction. Mr. Turle, the organist of the Abbey, accompanied the vocal music and played the voluntaries with great taste. A more appropriate and impressive burial service for a musician could have been neither desired nor imagined. It will interest our readers to know that Sir Sterndale Bennett's grave is in the north aisle, near those of Croft and Purcell, and just

nor, and D) it is very singular that there should bno mention of the quartett in A minor, Op. 29, Seeing that this work has been played twelve times at the Monday Popular Concerts.

Herr Joachim's return to St. James's Hall usually ves us the opportunity of hearing some of those onderful old violin solos of Bach's which he is almost the only player to bring forward. Accordgly on Monday night he performed two moveents from the sonata in A minor, and being enthusiastically encored, gave in addition the charming Bourrée from the sonata in B minor. If Joachim has any speciality, it is his playing of these Bach sonatas, which, taken as a whole, are probably the most difficult pieces ever written for the instrument; and never has he shown more decisively than on this occasion his complete mastery both of their technical details and of their artistic contents.

The pianist of the evening was Mr. Franklin Taylor, one of the best of the younger generation of pianoforte players. He was first heard in Beethoven's sonata in E flat, Op. 31, No. 3, of which he gave an excellent rendering, though he took the second movement considerably slower than usual, whereby its effect was not increased. He also, with Messrs. Joachim, Ries, Straus and Piatti, performed Schumann's always popular quintett in E flat, an old favourite at these concets, being on this occasion given for the fourenth time. The vocalist was Miss Enriquez, a dy with a very rich contralto voice, and the Conductor, Mr. Zerbini.

Next Monday the first part of the programme

under the monument to William Wilberforce.

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LAST Saturday's Crystal Palace Concert opened with a Suite in C major by J. Seb. Bach, which on this occasion was most probably heard for the first time in England. This species of composition, consisting of a series of mostly short movements, the whole of which are in the same key, has now been almost entirely superseded by the symphony, The modern suites, by Raff, Lachner, Grimm, and others, have little more than a general resemblance to those of the last century. The Suite in C by Bach, which is written for strings, oboes, and bassoons, commences with an troduction and fugue, in which the old master's wonderful command of counterpoint is shown to great advantage. The movements which follow

in

Herr

are a courante, gavotte, forlane (an old Venetian dance), minuet, bourrée, and passepied. In all of these a strongly marked rhythmical character is observable, and the revival of the work appeared to give much pleasure to the audience. Joachim, of whom we have spoken above, made his first appearance this season in a portion of Spohr's Sixth Concerto for the violin, which he played in his own unapproachable style, and a pleasing Notturno of his own for solo violin, with accompaniment for a small orchestra. The vocalists were Miss Sophie Löwe and Mr. Henry Guy. A fine performance of Beethoven's symphony in B flat concluded the concert.

SIGNOR AGNESI, the baritone singer, has recently died in London of dropsy. He was a native of Belgium (his real name being Agniez), and was well known both on the stage and in the concertroom as an excellent artist. His forte was operatic music; in works of a more serious character he was less successful.

THE death is also announced from Vienna of the violinist Leopold Jansa, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. He was a native of Bohemia, and will be remembered by some of our readers as having been for many years resident in London,

A NEW "Bach Society " has just been founded at Leipzig under the direction of Herr A. Volkland, the object of which is the performance of the almost entirely unknown vocal compositions of the old Cantor.

Ir is reported from Vienna that at the concert to be given in that city on March 1, by Wagner and Liszt, the new work by the latter entitled Die Glocken des Strassburger Münsters, and three fragments from Wagner's Götterdämmerung will be performed.

Ir has been officially announced that the German musical festival which was to have been held at Munich this summer will be deferred until another year, in consequence of the difficulties experienced by the managers of making all the necessary arrangements at the time originally fixed for its celebration.

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JUST PUBLISHED,

THE HISTORY OF MUSIC (ART AND

SCIENCE).

From the EARLIEST RECORDS to the FALL of the ROMAN EMPIRE. With EXPLANATIONS of ANCIENT SYSTEMS of MUSIC,
ANCIENT MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, and of the TRUE BASIS for the SCIENCE of MUSIC,
ANCIENT or MODERN.

By W. CHAPPELL, F.S.A.,

Author of "A History of the Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time." Price 168.

In Two Volumes, royal 8vo, cloth boards, 42s.

THE BALLAD LITERATURE AND POPULAR MUSIC OF THE OLDEN TIME:

A COLLECTION OF THE OLD SONGS, BALLADS, AND DANCE TUNES WHICH CONSTITUTE THE NATIONAL MUSIC OF ENGLAND; ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY, WITH REMARKS AND ANECDOTES, AND preceded BY SKETCHES OF THE EARLY STATE OF MUSIC, AND OF THE AMUSEMENTS

ASSOCIATED WITH IT IN ENGLAND DURING THE VARIOUS REIGNS.

By W. CHAPPELL, F.S.A.

The present Work, indispensable to all who are interested in the Popular Literature of England, is the result of many years' careful research among MSS., BlackLetter Books, and the numerous ephemeral Publications of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and the early part of the Eighteenth Century. The various Ballad collections, such as the Pepys, the Roxburghe, the Bagford, the Douce, the Rawlinson, &c., have been laid under contribution; whilst the Garlands collected by Pepys, Ashmole, Wood, Luttrell, &c., have furnished considerable matter in illustration of the subject. The old Dramatists have been carefully gleaned for notices of Old Songs and Ballads, and every available source likely to enrich the Work has been examined and quoted. Thus, the book is not a mere collection of Old English Tunes, but an account, Popular and Literary, of hundreds of our Old Ballads; in many cases giving entire Ballads for the first time in an accessible shape. The Two Volumes contain upwards of Eight Hundred Pages, with Facsimiles from old MSS. and Printed Books.

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All the Favourite Songs selected from "Popular Music of the Olden Time," with Symphonies and Accompaniments for the Pianoforte by G. A. MACFARREN; the long Ballads compressed, and in some cases new words written, by JOHN OXENFORD.

Large Folio Edition, printed from Engraved Plates, cloth, 218. Small-Type Edition, complete, cloth, 10s. 6d.; or, half-bound in morocco, 15s. The above Work is also divided into Thirteen Parts, full music size, each Part containing Twelve Songs, 68.

N.B.-All the most favourite of the Old English Ditties are also published separately, from Engraved Plates, Large Folio Size, each 18.

THE THREE YEARS SYSTEM OF HIRE AND PURCHASE.

Pianofortes of every Description, and by all the Best Makers, may be had at CHAPPELL & CO.'S, 50, NEW BOND STREET.

PIANOFORTES for HIRE, BY ALL THE BEST MAKERS.

CHAPPELL & CO.'S ENGLISH IRON GRAND PIANOFORTE, Walnut Case, 135 Guineas.
CHAPPELL & CO.'S COTTAGE PIANOFORTES, from 15 Guineas upwards.

ORGANS.—AMERICAN ORGANS, ALEXANDRE ORGANS, and ALEXANDRE HARMONIUMS may be compared together for PURCHASE or HIRE, on the THREE YEARS SYSTEM.

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on the THREE YEARS SYSTEM.

ILLUSTRATED LISTS MAY BE HAD ON APPLICATION TO

CHAPPELL & CO., 50, NEW BOND STREET, LONDON, W.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1875. No. 146, New Series.

THE EDITOR cannot undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscript.

It is particularly requested that all business letters regarding the supply of the paper, §c., may be addressed to the PUBLISHER,

and not to the EDITOR.

LITERATURE.

KINGLAKE'S BATTLE OF INKERMAN.

The Invasion of the Crimea: its Origin, and an Account of its Progress down to the

Death of Lord Raglan. By A. W. King

lake. Vol. V. Battle of Inkerman. (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1875.)

WE have heard it objected to Mr. Kinglake's history of the Crimean War that it is too long; but the objection seems to us a perfectly unreasonable one. When it is remembered that a few months ago the newspapers were printing every day about the Tichborne trial what, if set up in large type, would have amounted to a good-sized volume, and that thousands of readers used to spell through every word of it, surely it is not too much to say that a comparatively minute fraction of public attention may fairly be demanded for an account of the only European war in which this country has been engaged since Waterloo, and that a volume of very moderate size, as regards quantity of printed matter, is not an excessive space to devote to a description of one of the most momentous battles in which English arms have ever been engaged. It would be a trite thing to say that, although the number of British troops engaged was small, the fighting was hard and the issue of the first importance. If we had lost the day at Inkerman, we should unquestionably have been driven out of the Crimea, and although the loss in men in such case might not perhaps have been greater than that which actually occurred, since but a small proportion of the victors survived, or at any rate remained effective throughout the following winter, there would have been an end of an invasion of the Crimea, if not of the war, and the loss of prestige could never have been made good. No.exception can therefore, we think, be fairly taken to the amount of space which Mr. Kinglake has devoted to his description of the battle: whether he has turned it to the best use is another matter. There are two ways, speaking broadly, in which such an event may be described: there is the critical method, which points out the mistakes made on both sides, and teaches how they should be avoided in the future; and there is the sort of writing known as word-painting, with the object of making a picture which shall enable the reader to realise the scene, withont distracting his attention by drawing inferences. This last is the mode affected by special war correspondents, who however sometimes interpolate criticism in their nar

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rative very freely; and it is the plan adopted by Mr. Kinglake, except that the criticism has been omitted. No one would learn from his account of Inkerman whether or not it the best possible was fought in way, although no doubt every reader will draw the moral for himself. But for anything said by Mr. Kinglake to the contrary, it might be inferred that the proper way to lead a force into action is to break up every the ground, sending one to the right and another to the left, taking care that no regiment shall be attached to its own brigade, and that the brigades of a division shall invariably be separated from each other, the division commander thus either having nothing to do, or else taking perforce the command of one brigade out of the hands of the brigadier. Equally might it be inferred that it is the duty of a commander-in-chief

battalion into detachments as it arrives on

to leave a battle to be fought out by one of his subordinates. Although therefore the result may be unintentional, the account of the battle appears certainly unfair to Lord Raglan's memory, for the impression which the reader would carry away from it is, that beyond giving the very natural order to bring up a couple of available siege guns, the commander-in-chief did little or nothing throughout the day but sit calmly on his horse, while General Pennefather fought the battle in front, setting an admirable example of coolness and courage, no doubt, at a time when it was highly needed, but otherwise hardly fulfilling the functions which are usually associated with the office.

Mr. Kinglake has attempted to give an exact description of what happened in every part of the field and at every part of the day; but we doubt whether the result is after all to convey a very complete impression of what the battle actually was like-not from want of detail, of that there is abundance; not only are we told what every body did, but almost what everybody saidabout three pages, for example, are devoted to describing how General Pennefather swore-but because the task is from the nature of the case impossible. In the first place, we believe that not even the coolest observer can reproduce exactly what hap pens in moments of excitement, still less the exact course of events when the stress extends as at Inkerman over several hours; still less, again, when the effort to restore the picture is made after an interval of several years. Next, because it is impossible in such cases to tell all the truth: the historian may describe the feats of the heroes, but he cannot describe what was done by those whose conduct was not heroic. Mr. Kinglake certainly has essayed that part of the task in the case of the French, while omitting all reference to it in the case of the English, and the result is necessarily a perfectly distorted picture.

As an instance how the attempt to be minute leads to inaccuracy, we may cite the account of what happened to the Grand Dukes. These young Princes were kept at Mentschikoff's side,

on ground where they could not be harmed by horse, foot, or field artillery, and [Mentschikoff] was still in this way doing all that seemed needed for exposing them to the ridicule of Europe, when happily

for them a ball, discharged at long range from a siege-gun, enabled him to report, and this, too, with literal truth, that the two lads had been under fire. The demeanour of the two youthful princes when the missile swept past them was all that a proud father could wish (p. 417).

It would be interesting to know in what The way this demeanour was exhibited. standard of etiquette in the matter of round shot used to be that it was not proper to bob your head when it whistled past. Does Mr. Kinglake mean to say that there is any trustworthy evidence available as to whether the Princes did or did not bob their heads on the particular occasion of this solitary shot coming by them, and in the absence of such evidence what is to be predicated in the matter one way or the other? What sort of a bearing in his son, in such case, would be needed to satisfy a proud father, remembering that the danger is over

as soon as the sound of the shot is heard? Nothing more absurd has in truth been written about the baptism of fire undergone by the Prince Imperial at Saarbruck, or later, about that undergone by King Alfonso. With a profession of accuracy, Mr. Kinglake is here obviously inaccurate, since he is describing that which, from the nature of the case, does not admit of description. One might as well pass judgment on a man's character from his manner of taking a pinch of snuff.

As regards these two guns, indeed, the employment of which Mr. Kinglake appears to regard as a stroke of genius, although no doubt their fire proved very serviceable, we believe he altogether overestimates their efficacy. According to Mr. Kinglake (pp. 373-7), these two guns "shut up," to use the expressive colloquialism, the enemy's fire of a hundred cannon. As he truly remarks, "it may well appear strange at first sight that the accession of only two heavy guns should suddenly enable his [the Russian's] adversary to work a cardinal change." It would indeed, and will appear still more strange if we bring the light of common sense to bear on the subject. The fire of eighteen-pounders, we may observe, is what British troops had abundant experience of during the Sepoy war, when the enemy brought these guns time after time into the field-until, in fact, all their stock of them was captured-and the sort of effect to be produced by them is pretty well known. They shot straighter than the old nine-pounder, although nothing like the new field gun in accuracy, and made more noise, which Mr. Kinglake may think a recommendation; but they took much longer to load and fire, and in that respect were decidedly inferior to the field gun. For, after all, a man can be but killed, and a nine-pounder shot will kill one just as effectually as a bigger-if it hits him. Mr. Kinglake indeed talks of the eighteenpounder shot as tearing through the masses of men, but this is a mere figure of speech; on the average there was nothing like one man hit for each shot fired. When it is considered that there were only about 3,000 Russians killed altogether from the fire of hours, to say nothing of that of the infantry, over seventy field-guns lasting over several which did by far the greater part of the execution, it is not to be supposed that 375

guns,

men were killed by the 375 eighteen-pound shot which were altogether fired from these two guns. But, in fact, it must be quite impossible in any battle to distinguish the particular effect of particular and still more must this have been the case at Inkerman, where the view was obscured by fog as well as smoke, and guns and men were crowded together on a narrow front. The readers of the late General Mercer's very interesting account of Waterloo may remember his description of the terrible loss inflicted on his battery, on its coming into action, from the enemy's artillery, and that he expressly mentions that he could not distinguish the guns or the part of the field from which the deadly fire came. It is just the same on every similar occasion. When infantry are advancing against artillery at close quarters the case is of course different; but if a strict debtor and creditor account could be made out when guns are playing at long bowls against guns, then obviously battles would soon be decided by all the combatants being swept away; it is because gunners cannot see to take aim on such occasions, or are too excited to do so properly, that anybody at all escapes from the field of battle; still less can they watch the effect of their shots. And the obscurity and consequent wild firing at Inkerman is sufficiently indicated by the comparatively small loss sustained by our artillery. Mr. Kinglake, indeed, seems to consider the loss heavy, because more than one-tenth of the detachment serving the two heavy guns were hit in the first quarter of an hour; but probably most artillerymen who have to go into action under a heavy fire will think their batteries to come off cheap if they can get through the first critical few minutes, before the enemy's fire is checked, with so small a loss; certainly a battalion of infantry 500 strong would be in great luck to lose only fifty men after being hotly engaged for a quarter of an hour. But in truth the wonderful thing about battles is not that so many people are killed, but that so many escape. Inkerman was a bloody and stubborn fight, but the loss being about 2,350 out of 7,660 men engaged, it follows that 5,310 men escaped unhurt. For hours the battle raged, a hundred guns were aimed against our troops, and a good deal of the musketry fighting was done literally at pistol-shot, and yet at the end of the business more than twothirds of the number are safe and sound; only tired and hungry. Compare the number of shots fired off, of both small-arms and cannon, with the number of hits, and we may form a notion of the difference between the sort of firing that takes place in the excitement and confusion of actual warfare, and that

which is carried on in all the composure of peaceful target practice.

Space does not permit of joining issue with Mr. Kinglake on the grave question he has raised regarding the conduct of the French troops at Inkerman, save to remark on the conspicuous unfairness of the way in which the misbehaviour of one French officer who rides to the rear is accepted as typical of the general condition of the French troops. Were there, it may be asked, no scared faces on our side? If not, then Inkerman was very unlike any other battle

less hardy and sovereign spirit. One may see from his "Apology " for his book that among his co-religionists there were many who considered his "feigning" to be of the world worldly. But all lets and hindrances,

"the blows of circumstance," the narrowness of sect, the indifference or contempt of the powers that were-all these "invidious bars" he broke through, and in some sort found for himself freedom and power. So did "the foolish things of the world” “ confound the wise."

that has ever been fought, whether by the British or any other nation. But in a matter of this sort, a reference to the list of killed and wounded is a very fair index of the sort of work done by troops. Now the French, although they came into action much later than ourselves, lost over 1,700 men during the day, the greater part on the heights of Inkerman, a loss which represents, for the time they were engaged, pretty hard fighting. Mr. Kinglake, indeed, characteristically throws a doubt over the accuracy of the return, saying (p. 448) that the To many persons it is a distinct pleasure French "stated" their loss to be so much, and a valuable help to peruse a man's writbut without adding any evidence to justify ings in the very shape in which he sent the sneer. What possible object Mr. King- them forth; to know his very orthography lake proposed to himself by such a treatment seems to bring the author nearer. And of of this part of his part of the subject it is course there are cases where the orthodifficult to imagine. He could hardly sup-graphy may cast light upon the thought. pose that the survivors of the English com. But it is not only for such reasons that a batants are possessed with so small a spirit facsimile reprint of the Pilgrim's Progress of vanity as to be gratified by this ex- deserves notice. As we know so little of altation of their prowess at the expense of the growth of Bunyan's genius, a facsimile their French comrades. At any rate, it is to has special interest from the possibility that be hoped that our gallant neighbours will not it may aid to elucidate that remarkable proaccept the statements advanced in this book blem. The assistance may be inconsideras in any degree representing the opinions or able; but certainly in the instance of Bunyan feelings of their late allies. no assistance however feeble and meagre is to be rejected.

But whatever may be the reader's opinion as to Mr. Kinglake's mode of dealing with the facts, the general result of the battle is one which Englishmen may reasonably regard with complacency. At the Alma the Russians had chosen their own ground for awaiting our attack, and in less than three hours were driven from it discomfited. At Inkerman they were the assailants, and had again the choice of time and opportunity; yet our troops, taken by surprise, and led up against the enemy fasting and in disorder, nevertheless drove back vastly superior forces of the enemy with signal discomfiture. fiture. It is, we may venture to believe, not mere national vanity which makes Englishmen believe that, if the position of the contending armies had been reversed, the result of the battle in each case would have been different. G. CHESNEY.

The Pilgrim's Progress as Originally Published by John Bunyan, being a Facsimile Reproduction of the First Edition. (London: Elliot Stock, 1875.)

THE Pilgrim's Progress is one of the strangest phenomena of literature, perhaps, indeed, the strangest. That a man of Bunyan's position, with all its crushing disadvantages, should have produced a work that was at once welcomed and loved by the class out of which its author sprang, and eventually won the admiration of the best judgments of the nation, is an achievement without a

parallel. The case of Burns is quite different. As compared with the Bedford tinker, the Ayrshire ploughman was born in favourable circumstances, and in his very youth acquired no mean culture. Bunyan's high success makes one half doubt the exist ence of "mute inglorious Miltons." His genius was absolutely irrepressible. He was

66

man and master of his fate." At no time

of his life did he breathe a truly genial atmosphere. Even in the society into which he was happily raised there were many influences that might have proved fatal to a

Only one copy of the first edition of the First Part of the Pilgrim's Progress is extant, so far as is known; and this is a comparatively recent find. It is in the library of H. S. Holford, Esq., of Weston-Birt House, Tetbury, Gloucestershire. It is a significant sign of the popularity of the work that the second edition was issued in the same year as the first, viz. 1678, the date of the Third Part of Hudibras, four years after the death of Milton, three years before the publication of Absalom and Achitophel. It seems fairly certain that it had been written some years before. One may well accept the common belief that "the den was Bedford Gaol; and it was in June, 1672, that Bunyan was released therefrom. Moreover, we may gather from the Apology above mentioned that there was an appreci able interval between the production and the publication. He was busy, he says, "Writing of the Way And Race of Saints in this our Gospel Day," when he

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I did it mine own self to gratifie." When "mine ends" were thus put to gether, he consulted others about them, and it is evident the very life of the precious MS. was not altogether secure

"Some said Let them live; some, Let them die; Some said, John, print it; others said Not so; Some said It might do good; others said No." Thus his book, "in wors condition than a peccant soul," had "to stand before a Jury ere it" could be born to the world, and undergo yet in darkness the judgment of Rhadamanth and his colleagues pass the ferry backward into light." In these deliberations probably

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