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No. 418, March 27,1858,] ^gJI E • I/- & ...
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LORD ELLESMERE'S ESSAYS. r-^mrs on Histo...
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THE GEOLOGY OF CENTRAL FRANCE. The Geolo...
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PUBLICATIONS AND REPUBLICATIONS. Mb. Jam...
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OPENING OF ST. JAMES'S HALL. This metrop...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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No. 418, March 27,1858,] ^Gji E • I/- & ...
No . 418 , March 27 , 1858 , ] ^ gJI E I / - & A P E . 307
Lord Ellesmere's Essays. R-^Mrs On Histo...
LORD ELLESMERE'S ESSAYS . r- ^ mrs on History , Biography , Geography , Engineeriny , $ c . Contributed to the ' Quarterly Keview . ' By the late Earl of Ellesmere . Murray . The late Lord Ellesmere was a polished , elegant , amiable writer , a refined scboHr an acute and tasteful critic , and all these qualities have been imm-cssed ' upon the Quarterly Essays now first published in a separate form . Amon" the papers two are on Japanese history and manners , based upon orifrinal Dutch narratives , two on art , four on military history and criticism . One is on Borneo and Celebes , another on Hudson ' s Bay . That on aqueducts and canals ,, and that on the Skerryvore Lighthouse , will not be found the least interesting . The volume is one that honours its writer , as a thoroug hly genial and cultivated English gentleman ; it forms fresh , varied , and suggestive reading . ^
The Geology Of Central France. The Geolo...
THE GEOLOGY OF CENTRAL FRANCE . The Geology and Extinct Volcanoes of Central France . By G . Poulett Scrope , M . P ., & c . Second Edition . Eularged and Improved . With Illustrative Maps , Views , and Panoramic Sketches . Murray . This work is too well known to call for special treatment , although it reaps pears in an improved form with important additions : but there are pointof considerable interest in the history of Mr . Poulett Scrape ' s researches . Soon after the peace of Vienna he resided during three consecutive winters in Italy , observing the volcanic phenomena of Vesuvius , Etna , and the Lipari lakes , examining the structure of the territory west of the Apennines , between Santa Fiora , in Tuscany , and the Bay of Naples , and satisfying himself that volcanic action had taken place in the pre-historical period . The doctrines of Werner were then in the ascendant , and it was held that the
Fketz Trap rocks , basalt , clinkstone , and trachyte , were precipitations from some archaic ocean . This Mr . Scrope denied , and Professor Sedgwick and Dr . Clarke partially concurred in bis views . In order to carry out the inquiry , lie established himself , in June , 1821 , at Clermont , the capital of the Puy de Dome , in Central France , and examined the neighbouring districts , revisiting Italy in the following year , and witnessing the celebrated eruption of V esuvius , the greatest that has occurred within the century . Upon returning to Eng land in 1823 , he published a volume on the phenomena of volcanoes , which , " unfortunately , included some speculations on theoretic cosmogony which the public mind was not at the time prepared to entertain . " Moreo ' ver , the book was-badly produced , and met with a generally
discouraging reception . Still , the main object in view was fulfilled , says Mr . Scrope . " The Weinerian . notion of the Aquean precipitation of Trap has never since that date held up its head . " In 1826 , an edition of the Memoir now before us was published , and speedily exhausted , but it was not until last summer that Mr . Serope was enabled to renew his geological scrutiny of-Central France , so as to justify himself in reprinting the work . After expatiating , modestly enough , upon the identity of his original views with those of leading geologists in Great Britain and upon the Continent , he remarks : —" I have been led to suppose that a new edition of my Memoir , wiih such emendations and additions as time and further observations , whether of myself or others , might suggest , would be acceptable at the present time . " It is not only acceptable , but is a work which must fascinate every student of geology .
Publications And Republications. Mb. Jam...
PUBLICATIONS AND REPUBLICATIONS . Mb . Jamks Augustus St . John ' s new work , The Education of the People , dedicated to Sir John Pakington , has been published this week by Messrs . Chapman and Hall . We reserve until next week a discussion of its contents . ¥ The Transactions of the National Association for the Prot ? iolio ? i of social Science , 1857—Inaugural Addresses and Select Papers , have at length appeared . They form a large and handsome volume , published by J . W , Parker and Son . The Abbri Hue has comp leted his great work on Christianity in China , Tartury , and Thibet . The third volume , issued this week by Messrs . Longman and Co ., carries on the narrative from the establishment of the Mnntchu Tartar dynasty , to the commencement of the eighteenth century . The Reverend Robert Vaughan has dedicated to the memory of his son , the Reverend Robert Alfred Vuugban , a literary monument—two volumes of Essays and Remains , published by J . W . Parker and Son . At present , we simplannounce their appearance .
y Anastatia is the title of a new anonymous poem , in one volume , published this week by Messrs . Longman and Co . From Messrs . Longman and Co ., we have received the fifth volume of their cheap edition of Lord Macaulay ' s History of England . Mr- Tiniba has produced another volume of light and popular . texture , School Days of Eminent Men , published by Messrs . Kent and Co ., successors to Mr . Bogue . From Mr . L . Booth we have received Naples and King Ferdinand : an Historical and Political Sketch of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies . With Bioaraphical Notices of the Neapolitan Jiourbons . By Elizabeth Dawbarn . The appendix contains two terrible lists : —" Dead in Prison or in Irons , during the Reign of Ferdinand II ., " and " Dead in Exile . " Wo shall return to the volume . An excellent popular volume is Tho Microscope ; its Jievolationsand Applications in Science and Art , by John Ferguson , published at Edinburgh , by Messrs . Constable and Co . It is nob so much ft compilation aa a
compression of useful and attractive matter . Tho author of a favourite story , ' Julian and his Playfellows , ' Iiaa written ~ i \^^ y * w * r «^^ r /^ ^^ has an appropriate moral , nnd is addressed to the sympathies and capacities of tho young . Labour and Teinwph ia n somewhat affected title of a volumo on tho life nnd times of Hugh Miller , by Xhomna N . Brown , published nt London and Edinburgh by Mesers . Griffith and Co . It is not a biography , hut contains « aeries of rambling essays , not of n very satisfactory character . A fifth odilion of Lord Lindsay ' s Letters jYom Egypt , Edom , and the Holy
Publications And Republications. Mb. Jam...
Land , appears in Mr . Bohn ' s Illustrated Library , with an additional preface * notes , and numerous engravings . In ' Bohn ' s Scientific Library' we have the second volume of the seventfc edition of The Wonder of Geology , or , a Familiar Exposition of Geological Phenomena , by S . A . JMantell , LL . D ., revised and arranged by Jf . Rupert Jones , F . G . S . We had reserved Mr . Grant's Memoirs of Mont rose- for more detailed notice ; but it is as well not to discuss the volume , which appeal's to be 9 , deliberate compilation from the careful and valuable work of Mr . Marie
Napier . Messrs . Blackwood and Co . propose to republish the best tales from the old numbers of Hlac / cwood ' s Magazine , in sixpenny numbers , in large and clear type , for railway and fireside reading . The first n-umber contains , How we got vp the Gleitmutchkin Railway , and How we got out of it , by Professor Aytoun ; - Vanderdecken '' s Message Home , or the Tenacity of Natural Affection ; and the Floating Beacon . The last originally appeared in 1821 . l * here will now be some rare volumes of stories upon the railway stalls . The Law of Sinai and Its Appointed Times , is the title of a- religious work , by Moses Anjel , Head Master of the Jews' Free School , London . The volume is published by Messrs . Tegg and Co .
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Opening Of St. James's Hall. This Metrop...
OPENING OF ST . JAMES'S HALL . This metropolis is now enabled to boast of possessing- the best and the worst Music Halls in Europe . If it be impossible to match the inconvenience , ugliness , and discomfort of that Pandemonium of fanatics , Exeter Hall , it is , we confidently assert , equally impossible to match the beauty , comfort , and convenience of the new Hall , ranging from Regent-street to Piccadilly , which has been springing up , as it were invisibly , at the bidding of tliat Prospero of architects , Oweht Jones . We say it has sprung up , as it were invisibly , for very few even of those who have time to look about them were aware of the local habitation or the name of the new Hall , until the all-seeing Times revealed it to the world a week or two ago . Indeed , the initiated few who were permitted to watch the progress of its creation would have hesitated on Wednesday last to pronounce that the network of scaffolding and the ordered confusion of materials , amidst which a chosen brigade of workmen was moving incessant with a bee-like hum , was St . James ' s Hall .
What will not the inspiring confidence of true genius , aided by the unconquerable energy of British capital , skill , and labour in harmonious co-operation , effect ? Time and the hour are defied when the man and the will are ot the true metal . The presence of Owen Jokks as he sat all Tuesday and all Wednesday night , wakeful , vigilant , dtvoted , was to his chosen baud of artificers , like the presence of a great commander to his tried battalions—an encouragement , an example , an earnest of success . At six o ' clock on Thursday evening the workmen Mere in possession ; at eight o ' clock the Prince Consort , who had come to do honour to the occasion , was admitted into a perfect palace of enchantment and delight , and a brilliant assemblage was already exchanging congratulations on the absolute success of an achievement of art and enterprise sufficient alone to vindicate the genius and the enterprise of a much abused nation and a much maligned century . It was a proud evening for the great artist who , although celebrated throughout Europe by monumental classics of illustration and research , such aa his great work on the Alhambra , and the ' Grammar of Ornament , ' and known to all the civilized world as the great colourist of the Crystal Palaces of Hyde Purk and Sydenham , although enjoying the highest rank in his profession , and the admiration and esteem of all his brethren , yet has never , perhaps , enjoyed until now a sufficient opportunity of recording durably the sure result of profound knowledge vivified by a bold and original
genius . It is worthy of remark that neither the critics nor the public willingly accord to any man more than one talent , and so OwiiN Joniss , having identified himself with a marvellous reproduction of the Alhambka , is for ever exposed to hear every successive creation of his hands described as ' Alhambresque . ' Nothing can be more ignorant or absurd than this inevitable commonplace as regards the St . James ' s Hall . Iii conception and design it is absolutely and entirely original : the style is neither florid Gothic , zior f ancy Mauresque ; it is the unindebted invention of nn artist of the nineteenth century , who , with the whole grammar of ancient , mediaeval , and modern art at his fingers' ends , has the courage and the ability to press into tho ( service of beauty and utility all tlio latest acquisitions of science , and all the newest processes of mechanics which distinguish an eminently inventive and mechanical epoch . It may be that the architect has certain predispositions , but the rare and peculiar merit of his work ia , to our thinking , not so much tho masterly adaptation of all forms
of beauty in nature and in art , as that due and equal combination of tho useful and the beautiful , which is the characteristic of our age . We were saying tho other day that hitherto the two simple and apparently important conditions of hearing and breathing had been left to chance by architects . Tho lawa of ventilation nnd acoustics remained to be discovered . An eminent Italian architect hus written volumes on the subject , and constructed theatres , admirable in every other respect . Now , iu St . Jamem ' s Hall , Air . Owen Jon us has completely satisfied these two primary and hitherto unattainable conditions of success . Never und nowhere has tho seionue of sound been so completely mastered ; never and nowhere ; lias an audience sat and listened in » uch ease and comfort as in St . James ' s Hall , liheumalism itself need fear no aira from licavcn , nor blasts from hotter places , in a temperature whicli scums to set the most restless thermometer at rest : and while the fairer portion of tho audience ,
who come to to seen as well aa to sec , arc permitted to revel in all tho boundless expanse of hoop and skirt , and tho gonernl public , who come to see as n » uch as to hear , gaze from spacious and airy galleries on natural angels , glowing like a flush of flowers in a garden , tlio critic , who comes to drink in dainty draughts of melody nnd to seize tho subtlest moil ulations of stringed and vocal harmony , bathes his soul in the full , clear , liquid stream of sound , penetroting-ttfl-througl ^ rt-v-uso-of-CHyflUl , ^ licration . It was remarked on Thursday evening that not an ctppoggia' ffl rd ? even in tho softest passages , was lost to tho remotest hearer , and that grandly impressive as wore tho choral effects and the majestic tumult of the fulloreliostn \ l Jbrtiseuno , perhaps the exquisite tenderness and dulioucy of thu more subdued nnd tranquil music was ovou inoro fully enjoyed , and nioro completely established the success of tho Hall . Mr . Bknicwiot ,. it must bq conitiasou , had a . formidable rival in Mr . Owen Jones on this occasion . The attention of tho
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 27, 1858, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27031858/page/19/
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