MISCELLANEA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 590, 7 November 1863, Page 10 (Supplement)

MISCELLANEA.

Chess —Thelate lamented Mr Alexander M'Donnell was considered the best player to whom Great Britain ever gave birth ; and this judgment was. formed on actual deeds, which so invariably rank before mere words. Unlike many of those Bobadils who set up for men of name, and rest their, reputation either on what they t-U you they havo done, or could do if they chose, Mr M-Dounell convinced you of his skill in one maimer alone—he checkmated you ; and if you felt uusaiisficd, quietly repeated tie ouer_tioii iv the next game ; and so on, to your .fullest sense of satisfaction. Never dia he shrink trom a chess challenge ,- never di 'he degrade our immortal science by fighting shy of actual encounter. Mr M'D-uiiell would play any man at any time; there was no dodge, no humbus: about reputation, no nonsense about him. He would play you on your own terms. If you gave yourself out, as. .''a- great .man,'.', he would, have taken the rook without a word, and would then have given yoii the Rook in retin_, after plucking your daw-feathers -till the skin had imbibed the nettle-rash. In Mr M'DonneU's death, ch-ss sustained a heavy blow. His premature dtath might ba traced to the severity. of the mental si niggle, constantly in operation, during his Jong match of the hundred games played with De la Rourdonnais in the Westminster Chess Club. These games were played day by day, and he not unfrcquently walked his room the g. eater part of the intermediate night, in a dreadful .'state'of excitement. Mr M'Donnelt could play better without seeing the board than any other Englishman of his day, since he could conduct a game in that manner with a Knight' of _ first-rate strength. Mr M'_oune:l playtd ■ quicker than when ho^aw the pieces, and express d | some feeJina "of annoyance if the bystanders spoke in whispers; but ha mo objecion to conversadp n being carried on around him in a natural tone of voice. Englaud has not hitherto been the land of M.m-cheir amusements. The turf and tbe cba-e, the rod and the gun, have numbered among their votaries the mass ot those whose means allowed them anything beyond the vicissitudes of labor and rest. The sportsman of Queen Victoria's epoch, has his evening as well as his morning to employ; conviviality is chastened, and inu^ic or conversation claims the hours formerly resigned to the bottle. A similar change has been wrought among those whose mornings are passed in the more sedentary pursuits of commerce or s udy. ■ Tradesmen and artisans have partaken of ihe movement,- and through every.rank, of society, save the very lowest, there is evinced a ■ preference for intellectual recn-ation over animal refection. Reading-rooms nnd mechanics institutes multiply, and their supporters have wisely, desired, to vary tlie attractions which the*, present. To these ■ aud similar causes we in great measure a'trihiite the growing popularity of chess. At the beginnin, of the century, the most laborious search for works designed to teach chess would scarce have discovered ■ flftv, and most of these rare and in foreign languages.' The list might now be enlarged tenfold. Chess has truly a literature of its own To Damiano, Phillidor, Lolli, ' Greco, '-'oriz'ano, and the anonymous Modenese, are added PetrofF, Jaenisch, i Szen, Alexandre, Bourdonnais, ' Calvi, Laza, &c. on the continent,- with our own countrymen, Sarratt, Lewis, Walker, Staunton, and a crowd of less voluminous, but ingenious contributors, from the clerical sphynx, the Rev. H. Bolton, to the ' unmusical, though chess-honored name of Bone and Muff. There are manuals of every price and calibre, and both the openings and terminations of games are I analysed wi^h themost industrious accuracy. Of this, among the most striking examples, are Major J aeniseh's volume on the variations of a single opening (the King's Bishop's gambit), aud M. Alexandre's quarto, the " Encyclopedic d^s Echecs." The ■ latter contains analyses of all the legitimate openings with the riifterent forms which they may be made to assume, by probable variations in the attack or defence. It is a great literary curiosity, but we fi_r not likely to be often employed except by writers on ches?, or by the patient victims of a game by correspondence. Its bulk is alarming, and its notation, though not difficult, is Jess simple and obvious than that in the ordinary treatises. Equa;ly remarkable in another way, is a recent publication by.the Rngfish chess champion, Mr Staunton, which compresses in a small i2mo., we will not say all that can, but all that need be learned from books asio the laws of the game, the best principles for conducting it. the chief openings and their happiest variations, with examples of each from ac uai play by the masters, and a numerous selection cf interesting chess problems. Nor is this all; the ''Chess-Players' Handbook.-also., supplies' an explanation of all the difierert moaes of chess notation,- and a very full analysis of those various positions towards the tenni nation of the g-.me, whe-e the drawing or winning turns on the nicest points of pl&v.—Quartei'ly Heview.

Marshal Ney ox his Trial.—M. Bcn-yer according to his own account, after failing in his'argument from the Convention of Paris, offered the technical objection that Sarre Louis, the birth-place of Ney, having recently been ceded to Prussia, he was no longer a subject of France. Here, however, the counscLwere interrupted by Ney:—"No," he exclaimed, "I was born a Frenchman; I will die a Frenchman. Up to this time my defence was free but I now see that it is to be fettered.' " Gentlemen' counsel for the prisoner," said the Chancellor, " continue your defence within the limits which I have prescribed." ." My lord," said Ney, " I forbid my counsel to say another word. Your Excellency may give to the house what orders you think fit; but as to my counsel, they may go on if they are free, but if they are to be restrained by your limits I forbid them to speak. You see," he said, turning to M. Berryer who was anxious to continue, " that it is a decided thing. I had rather have no defence than one chalked out by my accusers."—Senior's Biographical Essays." a._—..rJW-a-— ___-_u_u WJW 4j» M j w ,j W y UJ jj^ „ |L J!JBE m v