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788 THI IiEADEB. LyQ- &&6 > Atjgtjst 15,...
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TWO BOOKS OF VERSE. Songs of Early Summe...
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MISCELLANIES. Tub War Office has adopted...
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" THE LIGHTHOUSE" AT THE OLYMPIC. Mb. Wi...
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Asoxex's has been rejoicing in ' a grand...
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Mr. Charles Matuuws has commenced a shor...
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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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Progress Of An Australian Golookx.. Vict...
arid tip the scrub-cpvered deserts in the north-west . They frequently sacrifice their first-born female infants , and are addicted to the eating of human flesh . The kidney fat of an enemy has for their warriors a special flavour ; Mr . Ifiestgaxth saw one spectral creature from whom the kidney had been partially abstracted ; the bodies of maidens and youths who die from natural causes are often eaten when a child dies the mother has been known to divide its flesh among the surviving members of the family . Few of these savages have attached themselves to the European settlers ; they have been scared from their old haunts , and they will probably die but like the
Mohicans of America . Nearly thirty thousand Chinamen , however , have arrived in the colony to replace the indigenous barbarians ; at first they declared that all their countrymen were coming ; but an import duty of 10 / . per head checked this yellow immigration , of Tartars as well as true Chinese , the former being the most vicious and unruly . ^ They have a newspaper and a grand Joss House brightly painted and glittering with brazen bells , but they have only four or five women . Mr . Westgarth mentions one Chinese who married an Irish girl , and has a beautiful little daughter combining the attractions of Canton and Kilkenny . It is lculated that of the four hundred thousand colonists third
ca one ^ are engaged upon the gold fields , one third are at the seaport towns , and one third form the interior town , agricultural , and pastoral populations . Those who have fair chances of competing with them as emigrants are operatives and domestic servants ; but let not young men of good education and vague objects be tempted by the prosperity of Victoria . Good book-keepers , experienced shopmen , qualified accountants , proficient tradesmen , may go and flourish ; but college youths may break stones or drive cabs ; licentiates may follow flocks and read the Georgics among the Violet Lakes . He may , alsoj if strong in the back , procure an unprofitable career in the gold diggings , and , hazard six months for the chahce of a lucky day . Nineteen adiacent parties have for inany weeks dug and washed ' reluctant
pennyworths' out of the soil , and have divided enough to keep them alive ; but a twentieth has hit upon a splandid nugget , and that inspires all the rest with hope and vigour . Yet the general yield of gold is on the increase ; the digging is carried on with more science and regularity ; a memorial from a late Colonial meeting was signed by fifteen hundred miners , who described themselves as raising collectively two thousand ounces of gold per week . ' Before us , " says Mr . Westgarth , "is a flat of about the area of a square mile . Throughout its superficial drifts , which vary in thickness from a few feet to two or three hundred , there are at least ten , possibly one hundred i millions sterling of nearly pure gold , held together in a merely mechanical mixture . " The reader who desires further explanations of this bewildering promise is referred to Mr . WestgarthVvaluable book .
788 Thi Iieadeb. Lyq- &&6 > Atjgtjst 15,...
788 THI IiEADEB . LyQ- && 6 > Atjgtjst 15 , 1857 .
Two Books Of Verse. Songs Of Early Summe...
TWO BOOKS OF VERSE . Songs of Early Summer , by the Rev . Archer Gurney ( Longm an and Co . ) are the productions of a gentleman of strong prejudicesjand we ak powers o expression , who , nevertheless , has a vein of sweetness when he comes out of his little stifling circles of opinion into the great open air of Nature . We confess our utter inability to understand what is meant by a large volume of prose and verse called—Gaieties and Gravities for Holy Days and Holidays . By Charles Hancock . ( Saunders and Otley . )—Are the verses intended to be ' nonsense verses ?'—or have they , as the author says of some of them in his Preface , " been sent forth as feelers of the public pulse f "—or were they composed during a brain fever ? Many of the poems are dated , and some appear to have been written as far back as 1825 . Several are prefaced by little ' aside' observations of the author—such »• , " Slightly objectionable" — " Very pathetic , " & c . In his table of contents , Mr . Hancock states , against the name of each poem , the number of lines it runs to , ' and casts up the . sum-total at the bottom—an ingenious mode of saving the reader the trouble of ascertaining the amount of work he has got through in the course of perusal . One of the poems , we are told , was written at Dessin ' s hotel , Calais ; another at a pic-nic in Cornwall ! Occasionally , the pages are partly printed in black , and partly in red , ink ; and the whole book ( at least wherever we have dipped into it , for to read it consecutively is impossible ) presents the most bewildering jumble of word * ever seen in type—a chaos which defies all description . We give two specimens—the first from an Invocation to Polyhymnia : — For , aU ! with glassy irelesa eye , Whilst arrowless 1 lowly He , I ' ll sob , with life « emitt » ng breath-Say : me : not : nayf and hope in death I The second is from a poem called * Aquwmerrasquw : ' — A jail , with amplitigenea , for inborn frailty ' s found ; And divers rum . indigenes "We grub from underground ! A hospital's for wen or wound ! Markets for farine food ! Pig-butter , sells ten-pence per pound ! And cow ' s , eleven , and good ! And so we sing , long live our Queen , All loyal men are wo ! And , when earth's other sights are seen , May All , o ur aeoings see ! We close the book with feelings of compassion and pain .
Miscellanies. Tub War Office Has Adopted...
MISCELLANIES . Tub War Office has adopted for the use of the gentlemen cadets of the Royal Military Academy , Woolwich , M . Auguste Aigre de Chttrento ' a New and Complete Course , Theoretical and Practical , of Strictty Graduated Grammatijoaj , and Idiomatic Studies of tho French Language ; ( Longman and Co . ) —It Is an excellent manual , upon a new , simple , and comprehensive plan . With this we may mention Mr . Eugene Oswald ' s German Reading Book-, with Notes ( Routledgo )—an agreeable and useful collection . Mr . Walter Cooper
Dandy has published a . pleasant volume , The Beautiful Islets of Britaine ( Longman and Co . ) , which we commend to all who take their way to the Isle of Wight , Seilly , Lundy , Anglesea , Man , and the other * shining little islands that nestle upon the British shores . ' Travellers by flood and field who make acquaintance with nature , will welcome Miss Mary Jane Estt court ' s graceful volume , Music : the Voice of Harmony in Creation . ( Long , maii and Co . )—It . is a classified selection of descriptive poems . Among new editions we have an eighth volume of Lord Campbell ' s Lives of the Chancellors ( Murray . ) , Vol . I . of Recreations of Christopher North ( Blackwood ) , Lever ' s Tom Burke , Vol . II . ( Chapman and Hall ) , and The History of a Flirt ( Parlour Library ) . Mr . Bohn ' s new publications comprise Vol . I . of a new and promising Historical Library , being the first of Mr . Jesse ' s three interesting volumes , Memoirs of the Court of England during the Reign of the Stuarts , and Robert Carruther's Life of Alexander Pope ( Illustrated Library ) .
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" The Lighthouse" At The Olympic. Mb. Wi...
" THE LIGHTHOUSE" AT THE OLYMPIC . Mb . Wii-kie Collins , on Monday evening , achieved a great success , and Mr . Robson made a happy inauguration of his management , by the production o The Lighthouse , formerly acted by Mr . Dickens and his amateur company . A play written for private performance is necessarily constructed on a smaller scale than one which is intended for the professional stage ; but the audience are not conscious of this in the case of Mr . Coixins ' s drama , or are only conscious of it by perceiving a finer intensity of emotion , a more powerful compression of incidents , a greater hurry in the tumult of the passion , than are observable in ordinary plays . We confidently point to the first act of The Lighthouse as to the most thrilling and moving scene that has been presented to a London audience formanyyears . From the first moment that the curtain draws up , when we see old Jacob Dale and young Gurnoch slowly starving in the sea-beleaguered lighthouse , amidst the wailing and howling of the storm , down to the wrecking of the vessel on the rocks , the attention and excited interest of the spectators are kept at the fullest stretch ; The speech in which old Aaron Gurnoch describes the crime in which he has participated is little more than a long soliloquy , broken by short exclamations of horror from the son , by the wild clamour of the tempest , and by the ominous sounding of the gong above , speaking to the vessels which may be wandering in the white seafog ; but that one narrative is a drama in itself , and teems with suggested action . The starving man is lashed by his own agonized conscience into supernatural energy , till the storm without the walls is answered by the storm within . This trying scene was acted by Mr . Robson with his accustomed power ; and excellently indicated were the staggerings of that appalled mind from the wildness of horror to the . pathos of remorse , from-the first violence of despair to its last dull apathy . A little more repose and harmony of the various points is perhaps needed , but will doubtless come with repetition ; and more , we think , might be made of the situations in the second act . Mr . Robson , however , must be congratulated on another addition to his successes . Mr . Aimoison ' s Jacob Dale was absolutely perfect as a piece of quiet pathos , and gives us a high opinion of the actor ' s powers ; but we cannot say much of Mr . Walter Gordon in the part of young Martin Gurnock . Mr . G . CookB performed a comic character with excellent joviality and spirit ; and Miss Wxndham and Miss Swanborough were charmingly graceful and tender as Phoebe Dale and the Lady Grace . The drama , which abounds in passages of beautiful writing , was stamped by the audience as a decided success ; and Mr . Collins , appearing in his box , received the congratulations of the house . A cry was also raised for some literary celebrities who " were noticed in the boxes ; but of course they did not * show . ' Previous to The Lighthouse , Mr . Robson delivered an inaugural address on the new management , written by Mr , Robert Biioogh , in which the retirement of Mr . and Mrs . Wigan is thus alluded to : — From drawing-room to shop ! The flight ' s absurd . Let me be serious—in a parting word . An exiled King hail'd back to France's throne Said to his people (' tis a tale well known ) , " Why do you shout ?—the monarch you restore Brings France no change—only one Frenchman more . " In our small realm , decreed to rulera new , The form of government approved by you We would not change : improvements here and there—When wanted— -to attempt we will not spare : Our base the same—no grief shall you express , Save for an actor and an actress less . This was well felt , and was fittingly acknowledged by the audience , who must have had in their minds many gratoftil recollections of the departed manager . Masanielb concluded the occasion in right merry sort . . The evening ' s entertainments commenced with a comedietta from t » o French , entitled The Subterfuge , in which Mrs . Stirling performs with mucn spirit and dramatic tact .
Asoxex's Has Been Rejoicing In ' A Grand...
Asoxex ' s has been rejoicing in ' a grand Equestrian Oriental Spectacle , ' called M Eyter t th * Chief of the Ghaut Mountains , full of Indian splendours and atrocities ( the latter painfully itpropos just now ) , off » ageants and combats , and love and despotism , the whole enlivened by the eccentricities of two English Biulorii , who shiver their timbers' with right good will , and perform no end of absurdities and heroisms . The whole thing is gorgeously put on the stage , and tlio horses come out in force ; so that thoAsTLEY ' s frequenters signify a gracious ftp-!) roval . The boxes smile and murmur their applause ; the pit re-echoes it more oudly ; and ' alt the gods are ravished with delight /
Mr. Charles Matuuws Has Commenced A Shor...
Mr . Charles Matuuws has commenced a short engagement at tho Havmarkibt , previous to going to America . He is playing with all his old young vivacity . Madame Ristori closed her London season last Saturday night .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 15, 1857, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15081857/page/20/
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