Visit to the Shrine of the Alhambra, 600 gs. Then followed Millais' splendid picture Jephthah, for which Mr. Agnew began by bidding 2,000l., and it finally fell to him for 3,800 gs.; the picture is under glass. Frith, Sterne's Maria, 900 gs.; Leighton, Venetian Lady of the XVIth Century, 950 gs.; Barker's well-known picture of the Relief of Lucknow, 970 gs. Then came the finest picture Frith ever painted, which was received with acclamations, Before Dinner at Boswell's Lodgings, with portraits of Johnson, Goldsmith, &c. Mr. Agnew began by a bid of 2,000 gs., which was followed by another for 3,000, and a third for 4,000. It fell to Mr. Agnew at 4,350 gs., the highest price ever gained by a painter in his lifetime. O'Neil, The Last Moments of Raffaelle, 1,050 gs.; Faed, A Wee Bit Fractious, 1,900 gs., and a charming picture, Only Herself, 1,650 gs.; Ward's Last Sleep of Argyle, 800 gs., and Last Scene in the Life of Montrose, 800 gs., both well known by the engravings; Millais, Chilly October, 3,100 gs. Old Crome, five landscapes-one upright, representing a Road Scene, was reserved by Mr. Mendel for 1,250 gs., as there was some doubt of its authenticity, but it was sold for 1,500 gs. Three of the finest pictures were reserved to the last. Turner, View on the Maas, 2,500 gs. Sir Edwin Landseer, The Deer Family, painted for Mr. Wells, of Redleaf, sold in 1852 for 650 gs., was bought by Lord Dudley, 2,900 gs. The grandest picture consluded the sale-Turner's Grand Canal at Venice, from the Monroe collection, where it sold for 2,400 gs. Mr. Agnew began with a bid of 4,000 gs., and it fell to him for 7,000 gs. The ninety-seven pictures of this day's sale fetched 65,5931. 58. 6d., making a total of 97,9977. 38. 6d. The whole of the Mendel sale realised 150,1477. NOTES AND NEWS. THE Hildesheim Column, to which we alluded in a previous note (ACADEMY, April 10) as having been recently reproduced for the South Kensington Museum, is said to have been the work of St. Bernward, who was bishop of Hildesheim at the beginning of the eleventh century. This Bishop Bernward added to his saintly eharacter a great love for art. He was also a skilled worker in metal, and several beautiful specimens of his workmanship in the rarer metals, executed either by himself or by pupils under his direction, may be seen in a glass case in the South Court. They comprise candlesticks of rich design in silver, gold caskets elaborately carved, and exquisitely designed ornaments and reliquaries. But his great achievement was the Hildesheim column, constructed, itis evident, somewhat after the model of the Trajan column at Rome, with a spiral band of bas-reliefs winding up it, only in this instance the reliefs are scenes from the life of Christ; it is in fact a so-called "Christ's Pillar." The shaft of this column rests without other base upon four kneeling figures, supposed, like those that support the font before described, to represent the four rivers of Paradise; the bas-reliefs also begin with an allegorical figure of the river Jordan, and then follow in winding succession the Temptation of Christ, the Calling of Simon and Andrew, the Calling of James and John, the Marriage at Cana, Christ healing a Leper, the Woman of Samaria, the Healing of the Centurion's Son, the Sick Man who was let down through the roof, the Sick Womar. healed, Sight restored to the Blind, the Raising of the Widow's Son, the Woman taken in Adultery, the Transfiguration, Christ casting out Devils, Dives and Lazarus, the Barren Fig Tree, Christ at the House of Zaccheus, Christ walking on the Sea, the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, the Raising of Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, and Christ's Entry into Jerusalem. This magnificent work of early casting was erected on the Feast of St. Michael in 1022, and was placed in the square in front of the Cathedral of Hildesheim. It had originally a splendid capital surmounted by a crucifix, but this latter was broken to pieces by fanatics in 1544, the column thrown down, and the capital afterwards melted down in a bell-foundry. The column itself, after many narrow escapes, was finally set up again in 1810, near the spot where St. Bernward had first placed it. The present cast was taken by F. Küsthardt, of Hildesheim, in 1874. THE South Kensington Museum has just received a valuable gift. Mr. Wynn Ellis has presented it with the well-known marble statue Eve at the Fountain, by E. H. Baily, R.A., one of the most celebrated works of modern English sculpture. Death, is highly appreciated in Manchester, where MR. HOLMAN HUNT's picture, The Shadow of it has been on exhibition for some weeks past. It has been visited by more than 45,000 persons. THE private view of the picture-gallery at the Crystal Palace took place on April 27, and the prize-medals to the exhibiting artists were awarded on the same day. The judges were-Mr. Wells, R.A., Mr. Duncan, and Mr. Desanges. Ir is stated that the Sultan has bought several paintings from the two great French artists, MM. Gérome and Boulanger. Le Temps states that the Académie des BeauxArts proposes to replace the typical head of Minerva, at present used on its medals and engravings, by the type of the Pallas Velletri, after Flandrin. THE design of M. Coquart, the architect of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, has been adopted for the Coulmiers monument, which is to be erected in Paris. Only two candidates presented themselves for the architectural Prix Duc, a biennial prize of 4,000 fr. It was awarded to M. Dutert. M. SPITZER has given to the manufactory of the Gobelins, towards assisting its museum, burned by the Commune, the fine tapestry of the end of the fifteenth century, exhibited in the galleries of the History of Costume, representing the deliverance of Dôle and Salins, 1477, by the intercession of St. Anatole. The tapestry bears the arms of Mary of Burgundy, and is therefore of Flemish manufacture. The Museum of the Gobelins has likewise received the gift of an altar-frontal, representing the Entombment, also Flemish, of the beginning of the sixteenth century. DURING the last year the Museum of Antiquities at Coire has, writes the Journal de Genève, been enriched with a number of Etruscan antiquities, with three marble inscriptions, found in the canton of Ticino, many bronze ornaments, and a small vase brought from the tombs at Arbeto discovered in the spring of 1874, of great value, as it is attributed by the learned to the most remote Etruscan epoch. THE Council for deciding among the competitors for the Sèvres prize have chosen four among the eighty-five designs sent in. M. Lameire, a dles; hydria, blue ground decorated with pastes in relief, representing a battle of cavalry, and round the neck the Labours of Hercules. M. Mayeux, a vase of nearly the same form, with palmette decoration. M. Roger, a crater, with figure hanhandles, and the lid surmounted by the figure of and M. Chenet, an ovoid vase with genii for Minerva. These vases will be modelled in plaster at the manufactory of Sèvres, and will be returned to their owners for final decoration, after which the definitive award of the Council will be given, and the vase selected, immediately executed at Sèvres, and placed in the great gallery of the Louvre. THE Echo des Vallées, a journal of the HautesPyrénées, announces that M. Achille Jubinal, the eminent archaeologist, has definitively purchased the old château of Mauvezin, near Escale-Dieu, the old manor of Gaston Phoebus, Count of Foix, who probably kept there his enormous hunting establishment and his pack of fourteen hundred dogs. M. Jubinal intends rendering the place in structive and interesting to the Pyrenean tourist, by making it a museum of the antiquities of the surrounding country, of which he has already. formed a considerable collection at his house at Bagnères. THE printing of the Report of the French jury upon the Universal Exhibition at Vienna is now completed, and the four first volumes will be distributed on the 27th. Another volume is in the press, containing reports upon the products of Algeria and the colonies, with a special report upon the objects exhibited at Vienna by the Commission of Historic Monuments in France. ROTTMANN'S celebrated fresco paintings of garten at Munich have hitherto only been known Italian scenery under the arcades of the Hofto visitors to that town; but the well-known firm of Bruckmann, of Munich, have recently rendered them accessible to all by publishing a reproduction of them in chromo-lithography, a process admirably adapted for the rendering of such works. These frescoes some years ago were falling into decay, but we understand that King Ludwig of Bavaria has had them carefully restored, and that an iron grating has been erected to let down before the arcades at night, so as to protect them from the wanton injury from which they formerly suffered. THE popular German master Joseph von Führich celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday last February. Many honours were paid him on the occasion. The Pope sent his blessing, his fellowartists a congratulatory address, and the town of Vienna its honorary citizenship; but, more than all, a Führich exhibition was inaugurated, consisting of 181 of his works, many of which had never before been exhibited. Fourteen of these are the cartoons for the frescoes in the Altlerchenfelder Church, in Vienna, twenty-nine are oil-paintings, and the remainder consist of drawings, sketches, and watercolours belonging to the artist himself. The exhibition is held in the Künstlerhaus at Vienna. THE Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst opens this month with a critical notice of the eighteenth century Spanish artist, Francesco Goya. The writer, Hermann Lücke, states that "Goya is an artist who is very little known in Germany." Nor are we better acquainted with him in England. Several critiques upon him and a catalogue raisonné In France, however, he is greatly appreciated. Charles Yriarte wrote an exhaustive history of of his etchings had appeared even before M. his life, published as a handsome quarto volume in 1867, and so brought him before the notice of all lovers of art. It is somewhat difficult to define Goya's exact place as an artist; coming immediately after the great masters of Spain, he yet cannot be called their successor, for his style is totally different. He has more affinity, perhaps, with Hogarth than any other master. His satire is coarse, though not so bitter as that of our great English moralist, but it is unrelieved by the history of culture his etchings are certainly any gleams of humour. As contributions to almost as valuable as Hogarth's works, and it is strange that while the one artist is so popular the Goya died in France in 1828, at the age of eightyother should remain comparatively unknown. two. A portrait and a bold etching by Unger, from one of his paintings, illustrate the critique. The other articles of the number are: a continuation of Robert Vischer's "Studies in Siena;" Iwan Lermolieff's "Galleries of Rome," translated from the Russian; "Activity in Building" in Berlin, by Adolf Rosenberg; and the conclusion of Rudolf Rettenbacher's articles on the "Architectural Drawings in the Uffizi." THE greatest landscape painter that Denmark has produced, Peter Christian Skovgaard, died on April 13. He was born near Ringsted, in Zealand, on April 4, 1817; brought up among the most beautiful scenery of Denmark, with Esrom Lake and the splendid beech-woods on one side, and the Cattegat on the other, he very early began to copy a wholesome belief in the reality of other what he saw in nature. His mother, herself not people's creations, the Effingham family-father, unskilled in art, encouraged him to the full, and mother, son and daughter-are the product of when he was fourteen he was sent up to Copen-personal observation. They are an extravagant, hagen to be a student at the Academy. He became but at the same time a recognisable caricature of intimate with Lundbye, and was to some extent people one has actually met: people of means, under the patronage of Eckersberg; his talent was very likely, but who have become convinced that slow in development, and he was not precocious in in our day it is the fashion to affect to care for discovering the true bent of his genius. Unlike ideas, thoughts, romance, culture-possessions not most Scandinavian artists, he served no apprentice- tangible and material, in fine and so adopt the ship in Italy, and did not see Florence and Rome affectation of their neighbours, adding to it a till 1854. In 1864 he was elected member of the little of their own. Had Mr. Gilbert concentrated Academy of Arts, at the same time as Vermehren himself upon a satire on people who think intelliand Exner. It was the tardy acknowledgment of gence "the thing," he would have had a fine field, the new school by the old fogies. His style is and would probably have been successful. But intensely realistic, somewhat cold, somewhat hard, he has gone on to lay particular stress not on the but full of breadth, harmony, and truth of detail. fact of fashionable affectation in his Effingham family, but on the union with that of very keen THE German papers announce that in consequence of the special application made by Professor regard for all material interests, so that his innocent heroine, who talks bad blank verse, and Curtius to the Imperial German Government for dresses in dainty grey-green gowns and hats, the appointment of suitable persons to conduct a after Sir Joshua, is yet capable of carrying her scientific Survey of the plain of Athens, leave of absence has been granted by Count Moltke to romantic sorrows into a court of law, having been duly advised as to an award of substantial Herr Kaupert, Inspector of the Imperial Staff of damages. Surveyors at Berlin, and that this officer is at present engaged in the work. After the completion of the triangulation of the plain, Herr Kaupert and his staff will proceed to make an exact survey of the city of Athens, which may serve as the basis of future topographical measurements. plorations of the German Association are being energetically proceeded with; and recently the workmen have laid bare the foundations of ten houses in the district near the Eleusinian gate, which continues to yield the most successful results. THE STAGE. MR. GILBERT'S NEW PIECE. The ex Tom Cobb, at the St. James's, is in three acts, and has nothing serious in it; that is its only claim to be considered a comedy. It is humorous, but so are a few farces; it is funny, but so are the Bab Ballads. As a whole, its first act is its best, though there are bright bits in its second and third; but you feel in the second and third what you hardly have a chance of feeling in the first at all events, not until the curtain falls upon what is certainly not a dramatic situation that the thing is too long drawn out; the bit of good metal beaten very thin; the motive exhausted long before the end. The story will with difficulty run through three acts, and coming away at the close of them all, there is not much to remember, except that a good deal of point has been given to the farcical side of the business by Mr. Clifford Cooper, Mr. E. W. Royce, Mr. Bruce, Miss Challis, Mr. De Vere, Mrs. Chippendale, Miss Litton, and Mr. W. J. Hill. There is a love-sick young surgeon, who gives his name to the piece. His first love is one Matilda O'Fipp, daughter of Colonel O'Fipp. The O'Fipps are of a race with which the stage and fiction have long been familiar. The Colonel is of the twenty-seventh Regiment, but objects to add in what service. He has the make-belief social position of many gallant impecunious heroes in Dickens and Thackeray and smaller writers to boot. His daughter fondly believes in his prestige, though practically accustomed to promise herself in marriage to any one who will take her father's bills. Tom Cobb has taken her father's bills, and so when the curtain rises she is engaged to be married to him. But Tom Cobb, like Hazlitt, would appear to be physically incapable of constancy, and later on we find his affections transferred to another young woman. The discovery, it is true, does not greatly wound us, for we could never take any particular interest in his earlier loves. Besides, the second young woman and her family are more amusing than the first, and newer. While Mr. Gilbert's Colonel and Matilda O'Fipp were the result of But we will not grumble with Mr. Gilbert for having brought his favourite stage "property" of cynicism, with which many a piece has made us perfectly familiar, into use in his new piece at the Saint James's. People familiar with Mr. Gilbert's comedies know that it is not in human nature to do anything with a good motive-even the admirable heroine of Charity is benevolent by way of an atonement, and the Broad Church clergyman who becomes a colonial bishop has probably had a past not wholly creditable, could we but know it. The moral of the last piece-Tom Cobb at the Saint James's-is that self-interest is at the bottom of romance; and the moral of the last piece but one-The Trial by Jury-appears to be that nobody is proof against the influence of a pretty young woman. We may take the moral or not, as we are minded, but we will be grateful for the fun, and will laugh when the sham worshippers of a poet who is himself not very genuine cluster round him with books ready to catch the fragments of his mind, and when his hostess asks him to give her "a great thought" much as she might ask a lady to give her a song. The humours of these people entertain one a good deal, but Mr. Gilbert has not used his material lavishly. It is not the kind of work which you would go willingly a long way to see. No piece played outside the Palais Royal or the Variétés has ever had so little substance in the long space of three acts. Mr. Gilbert is probably a man who cares something for his reputation, and proposes to maintain it. But if that be so, he must next time give us more matter with less art." 66 FREDERICK WEDMORE. THE theatrical week has not been really a brilliant one, though four new performances have been presented to the public since we last wrote. Opéra Comique's representation of La Comtesse de These have been Mr. Gilbert's Tom Cobb, the Sommerive, the Gaiety's revival of Much Ado of the Hidden Hand. About Nothing, and Mr. Horace Wigan's revival La Comtesse de Sommerive, at the Opéra Comique, has been disappointing, and the applause with which it was received the night that we were there is difficult to account for. Théodore Barrière, who had a principal part in the authorship, has done good work, in his time, and even in the Comtesse de Sommerive he has no doubt shown his usual aptitude in the management and sequence of scenes. But he has dealt with an unpleasant story, and has not concealed or modified its unpleasantness. We shall not tell it in any detail, for notwithstanding the applause with which it was received, it is not likely to be repeated very often in London. The acting was not of a kind to bring its merits into strong relief. Mdlle. Baittig has not, we think, been seen to less advantage than as the guilty mother. She was better, though not charming, as the injured but much-enduring wife in M. Denayrouse's attempt at philosophical comedy. And as Alix-a character intended to have much of pathos in it-Malle. Laurence Gérard, who came to us a star, failed, we think, to display any qualifications for that position. The performance of these ladies appeared to us to be wanting in passion and tenderness. Neither has great command of facial play: neither has & voice that is specially sympathetic. There was nothing in this whole performance approaching in delicacy and justice of expression the acting of Mdlle. Andrée Kelly, in Mademoiselle Dupare, of which we spoke, very briefly, a week or two ago. The men were not very ably represented. M. Monti is better suited to the eccentric comedy of Les Trente Millions de Gladiator than to the repre sentation of pathos. Nor did the others notably distinguish themselves. It might be wise on the part of the management of the Opéra Comique to secure without further delay the services of the distinguished comedians whose advent has been spoken of. The Athenaeum has hinted at the possibility of the whole Gymnase Company coming over for a while. That company is not as good as it used to be, but it contains mary trained actors, and a few gifted ones. The head of these-Mdlle. Blanche Pierson-has been men tioned as likely to appear in London, whether or not her comrades do. Her appearance will give the public and the profession an opportunity they have not enjoyed since the appearance here of Desclée; for Mdlle. Pierson's acting is of the kind appealing alone to somewhat sensitive observers: not at all to the many who mistake an obvious artifice for a sufficient art, and a sensation-death for an effort of genius. FEW Shaksperian parts are better suited to the talent of Miss Cavendish than that of Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing-the play presented at the Gaiety on Monday last. It is in the earlier scenes that Miss Cavendish is most competent, though she nowhere notably fails. Tenderness— the absence of which tells badly on her per formance of characters that require it has little place here. Brilliancy first, and then earnestness and vigour, are the main requisites for the stage presentment of Beatrice; and these Miss Cavendish possesses in full measure, and displays with an art that is the fruit of experience and individual thought. The general cast, which is a good one for a performance which previous arrangements will prevent from being long protracted, includes Miss Furtado, Mr. Hermann Vezin, Mr. Ryderall seen to advantage here-and Messrs. Markby, Walsham, Boyne, J. G. Taylor and Righton. We saw a few months ago at a morning performance at the Haymarket, how good was the Verges of Mr. Righton. The Shaksperian comedy is fol Taylor, and Mrs. Leigh appear, but which finds lowed by A Nice Girl, in which Mr. Soutar, Mr. its chief attraction for Gaiety audiences in the fact that it affords an opportunity for the exhibition of the brisk and sprightly talent of Miss Farren. IN a few humorous observations made on Saturday night at the re-opening of the Holborn Theatre under its new name of the Mirror, Mr. Horace Wigan protested his ignorance of the past fortunes of that playhouse. The Holborn Theatre was successful once; commercially at all events with Flying Scud, but since then its prosperous days have been few, and a visit to it was like a premature entombment. All this Mr. Horace Wigan will no doubt essay to change. He begins his career with one of Mr. Tom Taylor's most suc cessful adaptations, The Hidden Hand, in which ten years ago Miss Kate Terry played Lady Penarvon. Miss Rose Leclerq has succeeded to the part, and has studied it carefully, and represents it not without force and picturesqueness. Miss Louisa Moore is one of the younger ladies of the drama, and as graceful a one as need be. Miss Ellen Douglas is a forcible Enid. Mrs. Fairfax is the murderous old lady. Mr. Howard takes Mr. Henry Neville's old part of Lord Penarvon. Mr. Dewar is Sir Caradoc. The piece is, as all the world knows, a very strong one of its kind; absolutely requiring good acting, yet not dependent by any means on the acting of any one performer. It is mounted at the Mirror in substantial fashion, and will probably for many weeks-perhaps months-continue to be played. Mr. C. L. Kenney has furnished Mr. Wigan with a lever de rideau-Maids of Honour-and Mr. Maltby with an afterpiece, Make Yourself at Home. Mr. David Fisher makes his reappearance in this last, and is sufficiently funny. MISS HELEN FAUCIT gave her aid to the performance at Drury Lane on Friday week, in aid of the fund whose first object is to build at Stratford-upon-Avon a theatre for the acting of Shakspere. She played with the wonted art of her later years, Rosalind in As You Like It. She was fairly supported. Miss Faucit has before now given her services to causes of more practical usefulness. It is excellent that any town should have a theatre devoted to the acting of Shakspere; but that the country town where Shakspere was born and died should have it before the capital where he worked is not perhaps an entirely reasonable arrangement. How many nights in the year is the theatre intended to be open? Paul Pry has been played during the week at the Strand Theatre, Mr. Byron's Old Sailors having been withdrawn. MR. J. S. CLARKE, the American humorous actor, has appeared, as announced, at the Charing Cross Theatre. THE Hunchback is to be played at the Gaiety Theatre this (Saturday) morning. WE forgot to call attention in our last issue to an anniversary of some interest-the fifth annual return of the first opening day of the Vaudeville Theatre, where, under the management of Messrs. James and Thorne, most of us have spent many merry evenings and very few dull ones. We have already called the attention of our readers to Mr. John Hollingshead's vigorous letters on the subject of the anomalies existing in the different arrangements in use for the supervision of the drama in London and the country. They appeared first in the Daily Telegraph, and are now re-published, and issued in pamphlet form by Chatto and Windus. To the letters to the Telegraph Mr. Hollingshead has added the lively letter he addressed to the Times on the subject of the compulsory closing of the London theatres on Ash Wednesday; and the whole forms a forcible contribution to the discussion of a subject which will never be settled to everybody's liking. The pamphlet is one of the most readable, and withal goodnatured, attacks on existing institutions which we can call to mind. Some day it may be of practical effect. THE Châtelet, as those know who know Paris well, is an immense theatre for spectacle and drame, and is situated where the revolutionary element may meet the bourgeoisie. The Latin quarter has got the Odéon and the Cluny all to itself, and Belleville has its own places of amusement unknown to most of the world; but the Châtelet is in central Paris, and is within easy reach of Communist workman, Republican student, and Orleanist shopkeeper. The meeting of these, only the other night, for the first representation of Cromwell, bade fair to be dangerous. There was a riot caused by words spoken in the piece. Cromwell is a posthumous work of poor Victor Séjour. He left it not quite finished, but some one had finally arranged it, and its production was looked forward to with interest, and on the given night the leading critics went down to the theatre. Taillade had the imprudence to speak some words which had previously been forbidden by the censor, and this was the cause of a tumult which renders it useless to enter into detailed discussion of the piece, since the result of the tumult has been a prompt order for Cromwell's withdrawal from the stage. M. Vitu doubts if in any case "we French, whether sceptics or Catholics, could have been interested in that sombre puritanical figure, dont les défauts, comme les qualités, blessent sur tous les points notre idéal et nos croyances." Besides M. Taillade, who became the evil genius of the piece, Messrs. Laurent and Abel, Mdme. Jane Essler, and others, took part in the performance. Ir is five years since Emile Augier's Gabrielle has been played at the Comédie Française. This week it was to be reproduced, with new performers: Malle. Madeleine Brohan, Mdlle. Sarah Bernhardt, M. Coquelin, and M. Thiron. Mdlle. Madeleine Brohan's appearances on the stage have of late become very rare. Fanny Lear, a comedy in five acts, by Meilhac and Halévy, was revived, two or three days since, at the Paris Vaudeville, for the representations of Mdme. Pasca, who is released, for a while, from her engagement at St. Petersburg. Un Drame sous Philippe II. is already pronounced to be a commercial success at the Odéon, where elaborate stage trappings secure for a piece a triumph sometimes denied elsewhere to plays depending chiefly on literary merit for their at tractiveness. brought out on the Paris stage at the Ambigu L'Affaire Coverley is the Tichborne story Comique. M. Charles Bigot reports to us its success. It appears to contain at least two scenes which show much aptitude for dramatic work on the part of its author, M. Barbusse, a contributor to the Siècle. MUSIC. RECENT CONCERTS. It was very IT is gratifying to be able to say that the fourth concert of the British Orchestral Society, which took place on Wednesday week, showed on the whole a decided improvement in point of execution on most of those which have been previously given. greatest extent in the opening number of the This was observable, perhaps, to the programme-Mendelssohn's overture to Melusina. There is hardly one of the composer's orchestral works which tests so severely the mettle of both band and conductor as this charming and imaginative piece; and its performance on this occasion was marked by a refinement and finish which the previous concerts of the society had certainly not fed us to expect. Of the other chief orchestral work of the evening, Beethoven's symphony in C minor, nearly, but not quite, as good an account can be given. It would be unjust to say that it was badly played, but it was here and there a little the time in the slow movement. coarse, and there was a slight tendency to drag satisfactory to find two large works by English composers in the programme. The society is doing good service by affording that opportunity to native talent which is so often sought in vain. The two pieces referred to were an Intermezzo and Scherzo by Mr. Henry Gadsby, composed expressly for the society, and a "Concertino di Bravura" for the violin by Mr. Henry Holmes. Mr. Gadsby is no stranger at these concerts, having written an overture for them last year, which, as well as other of his works, has also obtained a hearing at the Crystal Palace. The Intermezzo and Scherzo are well worthy of him and deserve to be heard again. Of the two the former impressed us the more at a first hearing; its themes are very graceful, and the instrumentation is really charming. Of the Scherzo it is more difficult to speak decidedly, because the performance was in parts wanting in distinctness. Whether the fault lay with the orchestra or with the orchestration it is impossible to say without examining the score. That it contains interesting points and clever treatment was evident; more than this cannot be said without a second hearing. Mr. Holmes's Concertino, in which the composer played the solo part, is simply a show-piece well written for the violin, but of little musical value. Of its two movements the first produces the impression of dulness, and the second of triviality. Mr. Holmes is so well known as one of our most finished violinists, that it is needless to add that he performed the work to perfection. The vocalists on this evening were Miss Julia Elton and Mr. Edward Lloyd, and the concert concluded with the overture to Les Deux Journées. At Mr. Manns's benefit concert at the Crystal Palace last Saturday, that gentleman on taking his place at the conductor's desk was received with a warmth that must have shown him unmistake This ably how thoroughly his efforts in the cause of music were appreciated by his audience. As usual on these occasions a programme of even more than average interest was provided. The concert commenced with the overture to Fidelio, played to perfection by the band; after which Mdme. Blanche Cole and Messrs. E. Lloyd and Santley sang the delightful trio, "In better worlds," from the same opera. Though this charming piece is but seldom heard apart from the stage, it certainly loses less than many operatic excerpts by its transplantation to the concert-room. The third item in the programme was Raff's masfine work has already been reviewed in these terly Concerto for the piano in C minor. columns (ACADEMY, January 17, 1874), and it is therefore needless to say much about it here. A second hearing strengthens the favourable impression previously formed of it. The first movement is, from a technical point of view, its cleverest portion; but the second and third possess more charm. As on the occasion of its only previous performance in London, the solo part was in the hands of Dr. Bülow, who was in his finest play, and who contributed not a little to the success of the work. The orchestral accompaniments were rendered with that finish which is to be heard nowhere but at the Crystal Palace, and the reception of the concerto was extremely hearty. The remaining instrumental features of the concert were the well-known "Scotch" symphony and a selection from Lohengrin. As the entire opera is so shortly promised at Covent Garden, this selection was especially suitable as a foretaste. It comprised three numbers - the Prelude, the Bridal Procession music from the second act, and the Introduction to the third act-all familiar to those who attended the concerts of the Wagner Society, but of which only the first had been viously heard at Sydenham. Though, like all Wagner's music, losing much from the want of stage accessories, and from separation from their context, these three pieces are of sufficient independent musical interest to be welcome at a miscellaneous concert. No finer performance could be wished than that under Mr. Manns's direction; and the brilliant introduction to the third act pleased so much as to obtain an encore. In addition to three songs by the vocalists named above, which call for no special remark, the programme also included, besides the pieces already mentioned, a "Concert-piece" for violoncello and orchestra, which served to introduce for the first time to an English audience an artist who enjoys a great reputation on the Continent. This was Herr Jules de Swert, solo violoncellist to the Emperor of Germany. The "Concert-piece," which was the composition of the performer, was hardly a happy choice, being to the last degree lugubrious and dull; we, therefore, prefer to defer a final opinion on Herr de Swert till we hear him in more interesting music, merely saying for the present that he has a very rich and pure tone, excellent intonation, and apparently unlimited execution-in a word, that he is evidently a master of his instrument. He is not, however, free from the failing common to many pre vocalists, though less frequent with instrumental performers, of an excessive use of the vibrato. As was observable last year, the band of the Philharmonic Society improves as the season advances-doubtless from playing more often together. The third concert, given at St. James's Hall last Monday evening, was decidedly superior to the preceding one in finish of performance. The first piece in the programme-the overture to Melusina-was more than creditably played, and the same may be said of other numbers which followed. The special novelty of the evening was Anton Rubinstein's violin concerto, played by Herr Wilhelmj. The whole work was originally announced; but only two movements-the first and second-were given, and the order of these was reversed. This was not only an inartistic procedure on the part of the performer, but an injustice to the composer, against which a strong protest must be entered. If Herr Rubinstein has conceived his work as a whole (and there is no reason to suppose otherwise), the logical sequence of ideas is destroyed by such a process. What would be thought of a reading of Macbeth in which the first act was preceded by the second? The thing is absurd on the face of it; and in the case of a musical work it is hardly less So. So far as can be judged from so distorted a rendering, the concerto is a very clever rather than a very great work. The andante is charming, but the allegro is as a whole less interesting. The solo part is enormously difficult, and not always effective. Rubinstein, himself one of the greatest living pianists, has too often forgotten that the genius of the violin and that of the piano are essentially different, and many of the showpassages for the soloist are in reality admirably adapted to the piano, but very ill suited to the violin. Herr Wilhelmj's performance was characterised by all that marvellous richness and beauty of tone, and by that unfailing certainty and purity of intonation even in passages of the utmost difficulty, which have been before mentioned as specialities of his playing. In the second part of the concert he also gave two short solos with great effect. The remaining instrumental pieces of the evening were the great Leonora overture, Schumann's symphony in B flat, and the march from Athalie, all of which are too well known to need remark. The vocalist was Mdlle. Elena Corani, who was heard to great advantage in Mozart's charming song "Come scoglio from Cosi fan tutte; but was less happy in her choice for a second piece of Elizabeth's prayer from the third act of Tannhäuser. Admirable as is this piece from the truthfulness of its expression, and effective as it must doubtless be on the stage, its sombre character, and the monotonous colour of the instrumentation, which is entirely for wind instruments, render it hardly adapted for the concert-room. For the fourth concert, on the 10th inst., Beethoven's Choral Symphony is announced, and a pianist new to this country, Signor Ludovico Breitner, will make his first appearance in Liszt's concerto in E flat. The annual concert of that excellent pianist, Miss Agnes Zimmermann, took place on Thursday evening. The programme included Beethoven's sonata in A, Op. 69, for piano and violoncello, Schumann's "Etudes Symphoniques," Miss Zimmermann's sonata (No. 2, in A minor) for piano and violin, and Schubert's trio in B flat, the concert giver being assisted by Messrs. Straus and Daubert, and Mdme. Lemmens-Sherrington. As the concert took place after our going to press, we are unable to report upon it; but Miss Zimmermann is such an accomplished and thoroughly sterling artist that we risk nothing in predicting a complete success. Of her own sonata we hope to have another opportunity of speaking. EBENEZER PROUT. THE musical and miscellaneous library of the late Sir Sterndale Bennett was sold by auction on Monday last by Messrs. Puttick and Simpson. The collection was a tolerably extensive one, comprising 155 lots of books and 320 of music. While very rich in some departments, it was singularly incomplete in others. The composers best represented were Bach, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn, nearly the whole of the published works of all three being found in the library. On the other hand, the collection contained comparatively few of Handel's or Haydn's works, still less (only four or five lots each) of Weber and Schumann, only one work by Schubert, and absolutely no specimens of the more modern composers, Brahms, Raff, Wagner, &c. The Mendelssohn collection, as might be expected, was peculiarly rich, and included the autograph scores of the Hebrides overture and the quartett in D, which realised 521. and 367. respectively. A set of thirteen autograph letters from Mendelssohn to Mr. C. Coventry sold for 631., and an album containing a probably unique collection of autographs and drawings, and including specimens of the writing of Beethoven, Cramer, Ferdinand David, Goethe, Sir John Herschel, Hummel, Martin Luther, Mendelssohn, Moscheles, Mozart, Sir Walter Scott, Spohr, and Weber, and drawings by the Callcotts, the Landseers, Sir John Philip, W. Mulready, Mendelssohn, and others, was knocked down, after a brisk competition, at 731. M. AND MDME. ALFRED JAELL are at present in Paris, where they have been playing with great success. MR. GILBERT'S NEW PIECE, by FREDERICK WEDMORE 464 RECENT CONCERTS, by EBENEZER PROCT 464 465 .466 TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. HALF- QUARYEARLY. TERLY. VERDI'S "Requiem" was given three times last week in Paris at the Opéra Comique. The performances at the Albert Hall, announced recently in these columns, are fixed for Saturday afternoon the 15th, and Wednesday evening the 19th inst. For the sake of those who may desire to make the previous acquaintance of the work, it may be well to mention that the vocal score in a very elegant large octavo edition is published by the firm of Including Postage to any part Ricordi at Milan, and can be obtained at their branch establishment in London, at Charles Street, Middlesex Hospital. Two new histories of the Opera have just been published at Paris. The one is entitled Les Treize Salles de l'Opéra, and is by M. Albert de Lasalle. The other, simply bearing the name L'Opéra, is by M. Georges d'Heylli. RUBINSTEIN's new opera, Die Maccabüer, was produced on the 17th ult. with great success at the Royal Opera House, Berlin. The composer left for Paris two days later to direct there the first performance of his sacred opera Der Thurm zu Babel. CONCERTMEISTER HUBERT RIES, a younger brother of Beethoven's favourite pupil, Ferdinand Ries, has lately celebrated the completion of fifty years of service at the Royal Opera at Berlin. Herr Ries was a pupil of Spohr and Moritz Hauptmann. On the occasion of his jubilee he received from the Emperor of Germany the Order of the Crown of the fourth class. HANDEL'S Joshua has lately been performed in St. Petersburg. It is but seldom that any of this composer's works are to be heard in Russia. THE deaths of two distinguished operatic artists are announced from Paris-Mdme. Caroline Vandenheuvel (née Duprez, the daughter of the renowned tenor singer), and M. Couderc, until recently one of the chief favourites at the Opéra Comique. HERR RUBINSTEIN has been elected corresponding member of the Académie des Beaux Arts, in place of M. Daussoignes-Méhul, deceased. MR. DANNREUTHER, last Friday, at his residence, 12, Orme Square, concluded a course of lectures on Beethoven, the object of which was to describe, in a manner intelligible to persons not specially learned in music, the character of the numerous technical innovations to be found in Beethoven's works, and to account for these innovations as the necessary outcome of the master's ethical and poetical nature. If obtained of a Newsvendor or at a Railway Station of the United Kingdom. Including Postage to any part of America THE YEARLY. 0 17 4 0 19 6 £ s. d. £ 8. d. £ &. d. 088044 09904 II Now ready, (One Shilling), No. 185. HE CORNHILL MAGAZINE for MAY. Miss Angel. (With an Illustration.) The Marriage of Moira Fergus. Chaps. VI.-Habet! VII- Success of the Transit Expeditions. Three Feathers. (With an Illustration.) Chaps. XXXIIISome Old Friends. XXXIV.-A Dark Conspiracy. XXXV. -Under the White Stars. London: SMITH, ELDER & Co., 15 Waterloo Place. THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW for MAY. CONTENTS: JAMES'S MAGAZINE and UNITED EMPIRE REVIEW for May. Edited by S. R. TOWNSHEND MAYER. Contains: A Spanish Ballad, by Walter Thornbury; American Protection and Canadian Reciprocity, by R. G. Haliburton; Moody and Sankey, by Dr. Crespi; Original Letters of E. B. Browning to R. H. Horne; A Complete Story in Seven Chap ters, by Mrs. A. Crosse; The Poetry of W. A. Gibbs, by Charks Kent; Naval Powers and their Policy, by John C. Paget: The Eastward Position, by Dr. Hayman; The Dread Reckoning, Chaps. I.-IV., by Evelyn Jerrold; Shadows, by S. H. Bradbury; and Olla Podrida-Tom Hood's Name-Column r. Line-Shak spere Illustrations-The World's attack on Temple Bar-Unconscious Plagiarism, by the Editor. Office, 21 Paternoster Row, E.C.; Agent, ARTHUR H. MOXON; and all Booksellers and Railway Stalls. SATURDAY, MAY 8, 1875. No. 157, 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. INTERNATIONAL AND COLONIAL COPYRIGHT. Report of the Hon. Secretary of the Association to Protect the Rights of Authors. The Canadian Copyright Bill of 1875. By the formation of the society of which Mr. Tom Taylor is the Chairman, and Mr. Moy Thomas the Hon. Secretary, public attention is once more called to the vexed question of copyright and stage-right. So many abortive attempts have been made to dispose of the grievances which, in a greater or less degree, authors have from time immemorial experienced at the hands of the Legislature, that it would not be wise to feel sanguine of the early success of the new movement. Nevertheless at the present moment circumstances appear to favour the cause of copyright reform. The Government, by introducing a Bill on the subject -although it only deals with a small fragment of the question-have given authors an opportunity of raising more important issues. They have lost no time in stating their case, and in asking the Government to deal with it. At their request, Mr. Edward Jenkins has given notice of his intention to ask Mr. Disraeli whether he will consent to the appointment of a Select Committee to enquire into the subject; and it is reasonable to expect that the right hon. gentleman, in giving his answer, will be moved by the feeling that he is an author as well as a Minister. Meanwhile the Government of Canada is now engaged in placing on the Statute Book of the Dominion a law which will probably secure to English authors who are able to comply with its provisions a substantial amount of protection; and it is, perhaps, not too much to hope that the new Act, when it comes into operation, will tend to influence the Congress at Washington to give a similar measure of protection within the limits of the United States. The case for the authors has been both ably and concisely stated by Mr. Moy Thomas, and his report may justly be regarded as an authoritative exposition of the opinions of men who have the best claim to be heard on the subject. One piece of injustice to which he draws attention is the loss of rights resulting from the first production of a work out of the United Kingdom. Whether the work be a play or a book, if the English author, from either choice or necessity, makes arrangements for a first publication abroad, he is held to have forfeited his title to a copyright in his own country. Both Mr. Dickens and Mr. Boucicault have suffered from this anomaly of the law; and we need hardly state that the Association proposes to secure to the author a copyright without reference to the original place of publication. Another question, also coming under the head of domestic copyright, which calls for interference on the part of the Legislature, is the dramatisation of novels. As the law now stands there is no remedy for acts of piracy of a most intolerable character. An adapter may, for his own profit, use both the characters and the plot of a novel-he may even plagiarise the language of the story, and so make up for his inability to construct a dialogue-without either asking the unfortunate author's permission or being subject to any sort of legal responsibility. Every now and then a sudden eruption of irritating controversy reminds us that the complaints so justly made by Sir Walter Scott and Mr. Dickens are not mere curiosities in literature, but that dramatic plagiarisms of works of fiction take place now as they were wont to take place thirty or fifty years ago. The Authors' Association proposes that an Act should be passed giving to the authors of works capable of being adapted to the stage or publicly recited for profit," the sole power of dramatising such works. It has been objected that juries would find it difficult to institute a comparison between an unauthorised dramatic version of a story and the original work; but if there be any force in such an objection, it would apply equally to other things still more complicated. It would manifestly be easier for an average jury to master the facts of a dramatic plagiarism than to puzzle its way through the intricacies of an obscure patent case. 66 The Association proposes to deal, on the basis of reciprocity, more equitably with foreign authors and dramatists than is now the case. By the Act of 1852 (15 Vict. c. 12) only five years' protection is secured to translated works, and a foreign dramatist is required to deposit within three months after registration of the original work a literal translation of his play. An English author is not compelled to publish his play in order to obtain protection for it. Moreover, the translation itself is practically useless, because the object of the foreign dramatist is to secure, not a literal rendering of his work, but such an adaptation of it as will suit the English market. The Association is anxious to place the foreign dramatist as nearly as possible on the same footing as his English brethren; but if there must be any limitation of his rights, then it is suggested that "he should bring out on the stage in the British dominions an adaptation or translation of his work, and should register the title of the same as an adaptation or translation of such work within three years-the time allowed for a complete translation of a book." The Association abstains from entering into details of the copyright question in relation to the United States, the reason assigned being that "this is a matter not connected with any defect in our own law," but we do not understand that the action of the Association is limited to the remedying of defects in our own law, and certainly no subject of the kind is entitled to more consideration than the question of a copyright More treaty between the two countries. over, as the committee propose to COoperate with American authors," who," they say, "are equally with ourselves sufferers under the present system," it is, we think, desirable that they should explain the principles upon which they intend to act in this matter. The Copyright Act of 5 and 6 Vict. c. 45 is most liberal in its treatment of foreign authors. While no British author, whether resident or non-resident, is able to obtain a copyright in the United States, our law refuses to take cognisance of the nationality of an author provided that when his book is published he is domiciled in the British dominions. In the judgment given by the House of Lords in the case of Routledge v. Low, the principle was definitively laid down that if a literary or musical work be first issued in the United Kingdom, and if the author is resident on British soil at the time of publication, he may, irrespective of his nationality, acquire all the privileges of our Copyright Act. Washington Irving, Mr. Longfellow, Mrs. Stowe, and other American authors have, we believe, availed themselves of the liberal state of the English law in this respect. But few will deny that a concession of this nature, even if it were reciprocated by the United States, falls far short of what justice demands. Even if English authors, by personal residence in the Republic, could obtain a copyright in that country as well as their own, it is manifest that only a very limited number of them would ever profit by so slender a measure of reciprocity. We are aware that the injustice of the existing system has been mitigated by the honourable conduct of a few great American houses in paying for advance sheets of works published in this country. But these payments are still the exception instead of the rule, and it is well known that they are merely a recognition of the value of the advance sheets as such to the American publisher. It must also be remembered that if there be an element of spontaneous liberality in the transaction, the English writer after all is in the position of receiving as an act of grace what he ought to be able to demand as right. But there have been many appropriations which belong to a very different category. For example, the American Government has purchased for the use of its army many thousands of copies of a well-known and expensive English work on surgery. The author has not received a farthing from the United States, whereas if he had had a fair interest in the American edition he would have been pecuniarily a gainer to the amount of many thousands of dollars. Similar examples might be cited, but it would be a waste of space to multiply illustrations of a condition of things the existence of which is only too notorious. a The Association announces its intention to act in concert with American authors; and assuredly the class thus referred to has a strong interest in promoting an international copyright. At the present time the American reading world is inundated with cheap reprints of English books, and the effect of the large circulation enjoyed by these works, which cost American publishers |