The Sun. — London, England, 1839-11-01 00:00:00

vENING PMITION. MA(;AZENE N BLA CK WO OD'S M-4 GA 2 INE. i With the single exception of the article oh '" the 1 Present Polition of the Church n Scotland" - Iwhich, though it may he very profound, is assuredly a very prosy Traetate—there is not a dull or tedious Paper in this number. Prose and verse are equally good. And first of the prose. We have a de- I lightful cr i t i c i sm on O ss i an from the pen of Chris topher N orth, who, we are glad to see, refuses to I Pre up the old blind bard, though he will not go Ithe whole hog in his favour. Neither will we givr him up. Ossian was one of the loves of our un hewhiskered boyhood ; and even now, when we think of his " Songs of Selma," and the solemn pathos of his " Berrathon," he still holds our ' fancy in thrall. But he is not genuine, we are told. No matter for that ; he is readable, which is more than many poets can say for themselves. Christopher North—by far the most eloquent, dis criminating, and when he pleases, most keen sighted critic of the day—gives Ossian just as much praise as is his due ; and thus happily explains the ) Secret of the influence, which he or Macpherson ---no matter which it is—exercises over the feel ings of young readers : " Young hearts, we verily believe, are now a days the same as young hearts some fifty years ago, and often weep for Ossian. Not that he is blind, for they know that the blind may be pe r f ec tly h appy --b ut b ecause he is alone in this world. Throughout all his poetry they have a dim consciousness of thinking on himself—even when the song kindles into a brightest flame, they feel that the singer is sorrowful—the sadness, the humiliation of the present, hang over the gladness, the glory, of the past—his life is almost death-like—a shadow on earth holding converse with shadows in the sky—moving from grave to grave so like one of themselves, as not to dis turb the phantoms sitting there in the moonlight." The late Mr. Hazlitt, like the present Mr. North, had a qualified belief in the authenticity of Ossian's poems. For our own part, we should no more think of doubtir.g the old bard's existence, than we should think of doubting the existence of Christopher North, who, so far from being a mere phantom, like Horan; the son of Misnar—of whom we read in Sir Charles Morell's Indian Tales—is, we all tirnow, a real, bona fide personage, baptized `• Christopher" at the font, and inheriting the name of " North" from a long line of illustrious ancestors. In a late number of Maga, this " old man elo quent" hinted that he might possibly give us an other " Noctes." We care not how soon he re sumes the Chair of that Temperance Society. The " I•ioctes" were always exceedingly popular, and we are surprised they have not been col lected and republished. " Hermotimus" is a wild ballad penned in a metre whose novelty is 1 by no means its least recommendation. " Goethe's Life and Works," is passable. We cannot say More for it. The " Queer Stick," is a sprightly Poem, which enforces a valuable domestic moral,-- , viz• never hope to reform your wife through the agency of a cudgel I This is sound doctrine, though Parson Trulliber would have demurred to its orthodoxy ; and so would Judge Buller, wha held that a goo d licking had a very dulcifying effect on a wife s temper. " Ten Thousand a Year," im proves on acquaintance. The writer, however, spins too much, silk-worm fashion. From his minute and accurate sketch of a well known Chan cery barrister, the late Mr. Bell, we suspect that he is a lawyer. " Cursory Cogitations concerning Cats"—w hat a fine specimen of "apt alliteration's artful aid !"—contains several very hutnourous touches. The author, in mentioning the various persecutions to which the feline race are subjected, while he dwells with becoming tenderness on their being frequently shod with walnut-shells, makes no 411usion to the fact that they often du duty in the L:multerer's shops as rabbits, and impart its finest flavour to an Epping or a German sausage. Neither w hile speaking of their little weaknesses, such as uatrurbing folks at night by their amorous cater- N l a ulin p as, &c., does he state the disparaging fact that, like old Saturn, she-cats are occasionally, when provisions run low, in the habit of devouring their own offspring. Yet this is an undoubted t ruth. W e have been amused with the archness of the following sally :—" We, lords of creation, seldom love cats. Most women do—and no won der --both are graceful, and both domestic; not to toentiran that they both scratch." We quote a ea ktal description of a whole neighbourhood alarmed b j . the uproar occasioned by half a dozen toms, w ho are doing battle with each other on th e t i l es , fear the good graces of a coquettish tabby. We m atl sPeak feelingly on thi s p o i nt , f or a t t h e very a ome nt we write this (tw e lv e o ' c lock at night) r , bo ut twenty—there must at least be twenty—im passioned tom ca t s are h o lding a " Noctes, right under our window, compared with whose stunning Clamor the springing of a dozen watchmen's rattles ,Were but as the soft sighs of a zephyr.—But n ere is the description : " And now from many an attic window protudeth pillow a nig,hteapped head, disturbed from its peaceful Ivy the fury of the strife : and rise to many a tongue curses ' not loud but deep' upon cats in general, ik ad the unconscious combatants in particular. In vain ; *--fast and far, along the'echoing roofs,speed to the scene t he partisans of either chief, to mingle in the gathering 74e lee- Not otherwise, when, in that classic region where seven distinct dials proclaim the progress of time, Sa me daring youth of Mu ns t er , w i t h h ear t- cutt i ng wor d s , , It th aroused the indig na ti on o f C onnaug h t ' s h ar d y son , 'rorn every quarter of the surr oun di ng t err i tory pour rorth the children of potatoe-bearing 'erne, rejoicing in the anticipation of battle, regardless of the cause, in 4 1 of either disputant ; till, plunged into the thickest of the fray, and undiscerning friend from foe in the ex ce4 of their excitement, they deal forth their blows in discriminately on all around them, to the great glory of the Emerald Isle, and the exceeding terror of the new llolice. Positively the scene is growing exciting—The combat deepens! ' on ye brave, who rush to glory or'— q 1 1! yonder old gentleman in the attic, provoked be. Jll forbearance, is growing desperate ; he is about to trchase a n i g h t ' s quiet at an a wf u l sacr ifi ce o f cro k ery ! kw. e see him nervously grasping hi s w a t e r-jug in his uctter hand, evidently balancing in hi s m i n d th e w r a th rt)ills landlady ag a inst hi s own p ersona l com f orts ; —h e , 4 10, yet lingers ;—nnw he raises, a s if reso l ve d, th e dreadful missile—and now again imagination conjures ! I P the morning's frowns and chidings, and he wavers in his bold dt,sign. To the rescue ! ho I . I reiolorce tient of no l ess th an th ree s t ur d y t oms rus hi ng to t h e . 4 3' catches his eye—he hesit a t es no l onger —h e le., urns the d ea th-f raug h t eng i ne —h e w hi r l s it forward— eh ! a bad shot, but effectual :—crash goes the jug No the tiles into ten thousand fragments ! bursts forth sae loud, short, simultaneous screech, followed by a * Ned as of much spitting—five-and -twenty tails stream • lit 'd whirl aloft for a moment, like meteors, and " ' Have they melted in earth, or vanished in air ? 1, We se e n o t, we k now not ,—b ut not hi ng i s t h ere. ' " go the heads—down go th e w i n d ows : — one m i nu t e Uit t 0 ' put out the light, and then,'—why, then, we'll for re th e eat that manages to wa k e us f or t h e next n i ne ° ors• that's all." "Tenants of Holywell Lodge," is a lively story, With just enouah of mystery to keep up the interes , t , throughout " The Crowning of Charlemagne, 4 a spirit e d p i ece o f poet i c d ec l amat i on . Ditto, -` Napoleon's Telegraph on Montmartre." " Mur met' considered as one of the Fine Arts," is an ex ' t ,'avang anza , i rres i st ibl e i n its drollery. The very oreath and boldness of its humour disarms oppo 'ition, though your " good sort of people" may Perhaps object to it, that a mu r d er i s no j o k e — an d we grant th e re is some truth in thi s , especia ll y w h en e operation comes to be performed on the ob lector himself. The author of this grave ironical th ' a Yl after observing—with a fine enthu s ia sm f or e scien ce o f assas sination—that " murders have th eir little differences and shades of merit, as well " statues, pictures, &c.," thus lauds his own fine ten se of humanity :_.- j,,' As to murder, I never committed one in my life. ,: s a well known thing amongst all my friends. I can j et 4 Paper to certify as much, signed by lots of people. " e 7( l , if you come to that, I doubt whether many P n P,',e eouldproduce as strong a certificate. Mine d w ; u : l be as big as a table-cloth. There is, in he e " one member of the Club, who pretends to say that s , e4 eght me once making too free with his throat on -"11)-nigh t ' after every body else had retired. But ac 71.4 he shuffles in his story , according to his hi m s el f 4- f civil a ti on . When not far gone, he contents la k i with saying that he caught me ogling his throat ; nay , I was melancholy for some weeks after , and that of sounded in a way expressing, to the nice ear eitulconnoiseur, the sense o/ o pportunities lost—but the th. i he know that he's a disappointed man himself, and of% u rn e Speaks querulously at times about . the fatal neglect all t h a n s coming abroad without his tools. Besides, 11147 is an affair between two amateurs, and everybody such allowances for little asperities and sorenesses in cor re case. ' But,' say you, 'if no murderer, my i sPondent have encouraged, or even have be dpok_ may th e kind ,, 7 zurder.' No, upon my honour—nothing of B ENTLEY'S MISCELLANY. A Q we have already noticed , ‘Jack Sheppard" in IN:published form of three volumes, we need Z\Z u no mention o f t h e c h apters i nserted i n t hi s -. .uer, further than just to hint that there is tOo ut considering that they' are AH before the public in another shape. I! umal ton's Story," is from the 'pe'ti of Mr. leig. There is some livniy 'sketching in the tale, which so far as it !ti's yet proceeded, excites iinuch interest. We quote the author's description of the titers hnd drilling of some of our itrfautry tegittotth in the year preceding the get taollitionary outbreak in France. Military liied kkili read it with pleasure i— "How clighrent in all its external feeitires was the London of 1788 from the London of 1839! How widely different the corotitliition and management of the orces vthich thvh Itnd in times more recent composed its garrison. Of the foot guards, which then, as now, consisted of three regiments, with two battalions to each, I need say no more than that they were clothed, .iccoutred, and armed, pretty much as they had been since the days of the Duke of Cumberland. We wore long-tailed coats, which, slanting off like those of livery servants in front, exposed to view a considerable por tion of our lapelled and capacious-pocketed white waist coats. Our breeches of white cloth were made to fit so tight, that how we contrived to get them on and off without tearing has been to me a source of frequent wonderment ; while our long.white gaiters, composed of glazed linen, reached just above the bend of the knee, and were tied round the upper part of the calf of the leg with bands of black leather. As to our hats, they resembled in form the head-dresses which are still worn in Chelsea Hospital ; and to distinguish us, I presume, from regiMents of the line, they were bound round the edges with silver lace. Our arms, again, were the musket and bayonet, not very different from those still in use ; our accoutrements were of a class peculiar to times gone by. Instead of gathering up the load of ammunition so as to throw the strain as far as may be on the part of the body which is best able to endure it, the guardians of the soldiers' com forts then seemed to regard such considerations as un worthy of their no ti ce . Our belts were long and loose ; the pouch came down to the skirts of our coats, and the bayonet, suspended at the left side, swung like a sword as the man moved. Neither must I forget to describe both the hairy knapsacks into which our kits were stowed, and the strange machine which was given to us as a convenient place of stowage for our field ammunition. The pouch contained in those days a wooden frame, which was bored, both above and below, for thirty car tridges, and you were expected, in the heat of battle, so soon as the upper tier was exhausted, to turn the block round, and so reach the tier below. I need, scarcely add, that the very first time we got under fire the inconvenience of this arrangement made itself felt , and that the woods, as they were called, being taken out, the men carried their cartridges thenceforth loose in their pouches. " If such was the style in which the King's Govern. ment equipped and clothed the King's foot-guards, what shall I say of the sort of exercise to which we were trained ? In handing the musket there were not fewer than fifty-two movements, the whole of which went on so soon as a single word of command was spoken. Poise arms!' was that word ; on the utterance of whieh it fuglernan began to caper, and the entire line, watch ing his movements, tossed and brandished their arms into all manner of grotesque figures. When we stood with arms shouldered, we were made to keep the butt of the firelock on the hip, and to stick out the elbow of the left arm, so that there should be between it and the side an interval of three inches. When we fixed bayo nets it was by a motion similar to that which the swords man makes when he draws ; and then our shoulder— it took, if I recollect right, three hitches to get the implement into its place. And, finally, our manceuvres ; they were complicated, unwieldy, performed always at slow time, and seemed to throw us into every imaginable shape, which could avail nothing in the hour of peril. One really cannot look back upon the military arrange. ments that prevailed at that time without a smile." The' Toledo Rapier" is full of that light, neatly tnrned dialogue which forms the chief attraction of Mr. Peake's (the author's) dramas. " Moral Eco nomy of Large Towns," is by Dr. Taylor. It is a sound, serviceable essay on crime and punishment ; advocates, of course, the side of humanity ; and is here and there enlivened—some might say defaced —by a pun or a joke whifili are worth their weight in lead. Speaking of the early habits of the ex emplary colony of Botany Bay, we are told, " pro fane swearing went to such an extent, that New Holland, like old Holland, was a country of damns. Picking pockets reached the perfection I which might be expected in a country where na ture has supplied kangaroos with pouches, for the express purpose of training young practitioners in the art of conveyancing ; instead of a continent, Australia became an incontinent"—(We regret to be obliged to destroy the effect of this pun, but truth is paramount to ail other considerations— Australia is not a continent)—" the name of the Southern Island was like to be extended to the groupe, and the whole named Van Demon's Land ; and the very ocean seemed about to change name and nature, and to become Belligerent instead of Pacific." Dr. Taylor is a sen sible, well-informed writer, but he should beware of drollery. His humour is really no joke. Some of his puns in the above passage arc positively quite excruciating. The " Patron King," by Mrs. Trollope, is an amusing little ro mance, with a useful moral tacked on to the tail, of it. In its slight and graceful structure, and still more in the ingenuity of its incidents, it reminds us of one of Voltaire's tales—say, " L'lngenu," or " Scarmentado." The illustration by Her vieu is excellent. " Wolf-hunting in the Landes" is the production of the Hon. Erskine Murray. Some of the incidents are handled with spirit ; and the accident of the little Frenchman is told with much comic humour. " A Legend of Money hatch-lane" is an evident imitation of the Ingoldsby Legends. " 1 hate e'en Garrick thus at second hand." So says Churchill. So say we. Mr. Dalton should draw from his own resources. He is not devoid of fancy, and does himself injustice, when he servilely follows in the wake of another. " Remarkable Suicides" is a stringing together of divers curious matters-of-fact, which those who take an interest in the pheenomena of human nature will read with attention. The account of the strange suicide of Colonel Mordaunt, to which the author alludes in a few lines, may be found in one of Goldsmith's Essays we think his " Citizen of the World." It is there told in detail, and in a fitting spirit of reprobation. " Colin Clink" maintains its interest unimpaired. Lawyer Skinwell's death, in particular, shows great truth and force of colouring. " Prospectus of the New Joint-stock London Suicide Company" is a clever quiz. On the whole, the present Miscellany exni bits a great variety of talent—which we are glad to see, for we have no notion of a Magazine being kept up solely by the abilities of one man. NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. The " Widow Barnaby" exhibits . to the utmost advantage this month. She is no longer at Brigh ton, " creating a sensation" there by her sleek, black tresses, her awful West country laugh, aii her amazing circumference, which sweeps the whole breadth of the pavement ; but has returned to Lon-:' don, accompanied by her fac-simile, Patty, who needs only time to enable her to expand into a Barnaby. The incidents in the present chapters are few in number, but we do not feel their paucity, for the family conversations between the O'Do nagoughs—alias Barnabys—are excellent substi tutes. Indeed, Mrs. Trollope's characters gene rally talk far more effectively than they act. " Hav ing One's own Way" is an arch, graceful essay, written—as we are sure it will be read—with faci lity, and thereby falsifying Sheridan's pungent re mark, that " your easy writing is d—d hard read ing." The " Life and Times of Peter P.' • iggins flags in places. But even Homer sometimes nods; how, then, can a Priggins be always expected to be wide awake ? " Insanity " is an intelligent paper, in which may be found many valuable sug gestions. The following anecdote, related by the late Dr. Baillie, is curious :—" I am just come," said the Doctor, " from Windsor ; and I ceuld not avoid being struck on observing the singular combination of persons which constituted the Queen's Council, before which I appeared to-day, to give my evidence respecting the state of mind of the King. There was not one individual who was not hereditarily predisposed to the disease ; or who had not a brother, or a son, or a daughter, or a wife, actually labouring under the malady of the person age, upon whose case they were consulting." Alas, for aristocratic life, if such be the evils en tailed on it ! Imagine an entir e Council of Minis ters hereditarily predisposed to madness! The writer observes that pride is one of the most fre quent causes of insanity, but adds that it is so in one class of society only, namely, the highest ; that which is most exposed to the adulation of flat tery, consequently feels most severely the wounds which neglect or adversity inflict." The story en titled " Matrimony" is from the pen of the Coun tess of Blessington. It is lightly and pleasantly sketched off. " A Precious Family" is too low,. Some of its passages, however, are divertirt'ig 'enough. The " Falls of the Cauvary" are want ing in interest to the generality of readers. " Going out of Town" reads like one of Mrs. Gore's fash- ionable he close of a London season is thus described : Long before the arrival of this decisive moment, the 2°'ieonity of crossing from St . James's to Albemarle stieet, has given tVilin whdt Is 6otiie I sooui after eiar•cts) eh odd !lay withoet its dinner-card " casts its shadow before." 'The coniing in of' oystets, too, is a bad simptom, nlaking d sap fail Of horrors. Picnics to Riehtni3nd next begin to multiply, as if preluding to a deeper plunge into the horrors of rurality. ThC talk grows stronger of steam-boats and travelling chariots : Newman's postboys cock their white hats more neatly ; straw lies unswept from doors where the return-waggon has been packed ; and " last scene of all in this eveetful history," the v ery li n k ( or rat h er l antern ) b oys, i n be sieging you as you jump into the chariot from an as sembly, as they hang on the carriage, for " a little sixpence," t e ll y ou , b y W ay o f p l ea , t h at " t h ey are going into the country." When such things occur, then is the breaking up of the season at hand ; and it is high time to prepare for another, though alas ! not for a better world. Not among the least of the evils incident to this fatal contingency, is the ne cessity of making up our minds to where we shall go. We look hack upon the shadows of departed joys, and that's bad enough ; but what is it to an anticipation of the miseries to come—the looking steadily in the face a choice of evils. Whatever may be a man's sta tion in life, the determination is a matter of no small import, though the points of consideration differ in each. The lawyer consults the length of his vacation ; the merchant the state of trade ; Members of Parlia ment calculate the probability of a general election ; and all, more or less, cast an anxious eye on the finan ces. Now is the time for affected enthusiasm and the hypocrisy of taste:; for when we can no longer s a crifice to pleasure, we strive to make the most of circum stances, and sacrifice to vanity. For the higher walks of life, etiquette divides the long and dreary period between the adjourning and meeting of Parliament into distinct epochs, whi c h m u s t b e all observed, whether it suits the disposition or no. The younger scions of noble houses betake themselves, as we hare hinted, to Scotland ; a place is hired where genie is plenty, where whiskey is of the first quality, and innocent of excise. Infernal hard wdrk it is, that same grouse-shooting, with the roughing it in cabins, and sleeping on heather ! to say nothing of every now and then sticking in a bog, or being obstinately short-sighted, and never touching a feather. Nevertheless linquenda domus ct placens uxur, you must pair off from the house, leave an ianocent but amusing flirtation with another man's wife, which is very different from leaving your own ; and what is worse still, you must make believe to like it, and pretend that you never enjoyed anything half so much in your life ! T 1-I,y .. ,- TN .- ,_ I,oX,pcw,_,..p.ipA Y, NOVPAIBER 1, 18,V, FRAZER'S MAGAZINE. The character of " Rabelais," as am - an and as an author, forms the subject of the first article in the present Number. On perusing this article, we see that a well-stored mind has been at work upon it. The introductory portion, however, is of rather too irrelevant a nature, being only linked to the subject-matter of the essay by a❑ extract from Chateaubriand, which, as usual, combines truth with exaggeration, and ingenuity with common place. Why, too, does the writer quote four Greek lines from one of the Orphic hymns, for the purpose of telling us that they are " the grandest which have ever been addressed to the cradle and the grave of all things ?" After an attentive pe rusal of the lines in question, we can detect no thing of grandeur or sublimity in them. They are merely a bald, literal apostrophe to Ocean as being uncorrupted—immortal—the generating principle of both Gods and men—the circumfluent of the earth—and the origin of all seas and rivers ! Now where is the poetic grandeur here ? In Hesiod and Homer, we have brief allusions to the ocean a thousand times more sublime in point of imagina tion. But in one respect the passage is curious, for it is at variance with the old mythological doc trine which held that " Chronos," not " Oceanus," was the first great generating principle. The au thor's cursory remarks on Dante are admirable, and are penned in an earnest, profound, and —we might also say—impassioned spirit. Neither do we demur to the general justice of his comments on Rabelais. But why slur over his gross, revolting indecencies in such gentle terms as, " buffoonery he was obliged to use, from the circumstances of the age. Indelicacy belonged to it ; language was then stark-naked ?" We do not obj e ct t o Rabe lais's " buffoonery," for even in his apparently absurdest flights, there is always a method in his madness ; neither do we quarrel with his occa sional indecencies ; but what we complain of is, that he absolutely revels in filth—lies joyously wallowing in it like a sow in the mire. He even racks invention for disgusting images. Assuredly there was no occasion for all this parade of inde cency. The humour of Rabelais—that quality in which he has surpassed all the writers that ever existed—is dwelt on in a worthy spirit. Were it only for his glorious creation of the lean liar Pan urge, he would deserve all the glory that attaches, and will ever attach, to his name. " In Rabelais," says the writer, " there is nothing affected, nothing maudlin, nothing morbid ; a healthy, hearty, manly feeling pervades all." This is well said ; but not so the observation that the Frenchman pos sessed " pathos." He had not an atom of it. He knew not what it was. Rabelais pathetic ! We should as soon expect to see tears roll down the brazen face of Achilles in Hyde Park, as to meet with a touching sentiment in Maitre Alcofribas ! The writer speaks justly and eloquently of this great man's various learning, and consummate knowledge of human nature ; and, in fact has shown so much ripe and ready scholarship in his article, that we hope he will be induced to continue it. He will find abundant food for critical remark in Rabelais' characters, and especially in his immortal romance of the " Voyage to the Holy Bottle." " Cathe rine, a Story," contains some clever points ; but it is wanting in general interest. The " Legend of Beckett" is a spirited prose version of the well known tradition of the Saracen girl following Beckett to London, having no other clue to guide her, than that the truant's name was Gilbert. The " Opium Trade with China" is a well-timed ar ticle, reasoned in a just and enlightened manner. From a " Newspaper Editor's Reminiscences," we quote an amusin g sketch of old Jerry Bent ham, the Constitution-monger : Having mentioned the name of Bentham, in con nexion with that of 'Falleyrand, I must be permitted to refer more particularly to my acquaintance with that singular man. I bad locg felt a wish to know him inti mately, but had despaired of success, for his habits had become very retired, when in the year 182 , 1, one of my friends, w brought me1;o had been an Cl a n invitation i tftilocmh e i v me company. t of o nioenredr.Brougham, roAu philosopher, gthtahmat time Benth am saw very Lord Nugent, Mr. Buckingham, Dr. Bowring, Colonel Thompson, Mr. Waiter Coulson, and two or three inure, formed the whole circle of his acquaintance. It was very unusual for him to receive more than one person to dinner on the same day : and he would have found it. difficult to receive more than two, for his li brary was his dining-room, and the table was not cal culated to accommodate more than four or five per sons, of whom himse:f and his two secretaries made three. This table was placed on a platform, consider ably elevated above the flooring ; so that one saw little more of the female who attended at dinner than her head and shoulders. When Bentham had one guest, he placed him opposite to himself, his secretaries facing each other. Port and sherry, in decanters, were on the table ; and by the side of the guest was placed a bottle of good French,avine, the growth of vineyards belonging to his family.- Before sitting down to dinner one of his secretaries, now a barrister of considerable talent, played an air upon an organ which was placed in the library. As soon as the dinner was over, and the secretaries had each taken a glass or two of sherry or port, they withdrew, and left the philosopher and his guest tete-a-tete. Bentham himself drank very little wine ; and having, or affecting to have, nearly lost his taste, he seldom ate of any other dish than a sweet pudding, which was served with the first course. I had been told of his eccentricity, and was therefore fully prepared for what I should meet with. Amongst other things I was told that if his guest did not retire at about eleven o'clock (the dinner was rarely served before nine), Bentham would not hesitate to give him warning, by drawing on his nightcap without ceremony. This, however, was never done to me, for I was in the habit of going to bed early ; and instead of b e i ng sig nalised out ofßenthatn's house, the old gentleman always urged me to stay later than I did. Oa my first visit, I found him walking in his garden, with all the activity of a young man : indeed his pace was so rapid, that poor Lord Nugent used to complain of the ante-dinner walk. Bentham, who seldom rose from his bed until nearly twelve o'clock in the day—his coffee and gingerbread, of which he was immoderately fond, being served to him there—found the exercise of his garden of great value to his health. When he performed the circle of the garden, be called it circumgyrating : when he kept to a straight line he called it elongating : and in this way of e longating and circumgyrating, he would frequently walk a distance equal to four or five miles. A portion of this garden had been cleared for the erection of an ap paratus for gymnastic exercises, which he was very fond of witnessing in his young friends, for whom he bad erected it, although his age did not permit him to take part in them himself. His dress was sufficiently anti• quated to have been antedeluvian. He;wore his worsted stockings over his knees ; and under an enormous straw , hat, his white locks flowed uncontrolled by riband or comb. His dinners were modest as to quantity, but ex- 1-21 if dressed cellent as to the selection ; an d s o 4'744/r 4- 1 that even the immortal Ude could not have fault. In his conversation after dinner, when his secre• tarics had retired, he was full of anecdote and good titit haiing been Spoiled by flattery into a belief that eic4 Whidi lie hdd was tif gea neral interest, he had an untotitmaie fault recittesfint his guest to read aloud some of his pamplets, or iddid sheets of a volume then going through the press ; and he appeared Mottifled if, every now and then, the reading was not interrupted by the dipression of the ad miration of the reader. TAIT'S MAGAZINE. We have read many descriptions—serious and comic, some ill prose, and some in verse—of the . Eglinton Tournament, but none by many degrees so interesting, as the sprightly, off-hand prose sketch with which Tait gaily leads off this month. It is unusually long for a Magraine article, but it is so cleverly handled, in so cordial and exciting a spirit, and with such a thorough knowledge of effect, though good taste is nowhere sacrificed to effect, that we feel not its length, but are sorry when we come to an end. Had the writer regarded this splendid " Passage-at- Arms" with the cold and scornful eye of a Utilitarian, we should have perused his description —if by any herculean effort of patience we could possibly have got half through it—with the most perfect indifference, nodding our head lower and lower at every succeeding page ; but he is neither a Utilitarian nor a Political Eco nomist, but a gentleman of accomplished mind and cheerful temperament, ready and willing to be amused, endowed with a sa li ent f ancy , an d a power of giving adequate expression to its lively prompt ings. We subjoin a specimen of his style of nar ration. He is describing his journey outside a heavily-laden stage-coach, from Edinburgh to Eg linton " At length we found ourselves in motion, and we began.to beguile the way with chat and cigars. Our facetious friend, who had lately lost two valuable silk umbrellas, by their having been stolen from him one after the other, had been just boasting to us of a bran new cotton one which he had bought, on the principle that no one would think anything so common worth the purloining. This umbrella he had laid down on the up permost box of a string of those that hung behind the back seat, and were thus most marvellously built down wards till they nearly touched the road. As we were journeying on, one of the officers began to snuff up his nose, and to wonder where the smell of burning and of smoke was proceeding from. We all became imme diately sensible of it. The alarm spread amongs us, when, suddenly, the other officer, who sat with his face to the rear, roared out to our friend—' Good heavens, Sir, your umbrella is on fire !'—and there, to be sure, it was, blazing up like a volcano, not only to the manifest peril of the box on which it lay, and on which the fire had already caught hold, bnt of all the boxes of the string, yea, even to the risk of the coach itself. The confusion and the bustle amongst us of the rearward of the coach, to get the fire extinguished, was indescribable. One gentleman, who we believe to have been a bailie of a town, or in some way connected with the police, began to vociferate loudly for the fire-engines ; whilst another, whom, we have reason to think, was a reporter, took out his pen, paper, and ink-horn, and began, with the phi losophy of a stoic, to note down the circumstances at tending the progress of the conflagration, altogether forgetful that, if it went on, he and his record must perish together. The fowls, who looked down upon us, fluttered and screamed, and more than one of us shouted ; but the intervening pile of luggage on the roof, which left us as Britannos toto orbe divisos,' together with the noise of the coach, shut out both the scene and the cries from those who were sitting in front, unconscious of our danger. At last, after various ineffectual attempts to extinguish the flames, our friend be-thought himself of rubbing the blazing umbrella against the wet wheel ; and he thus most fortunately succeeded in subduing the conflagra tion, but not until the deal box on which the umbrella had lain had been nearly burned through, nor until each section of the parapluie itself displayed a huge square window between the whalebone spars, that gave it the most ludicrous effect. After thanking our stars that we had not been consumed, and thinking how much sur prise the coachman, and those with him, would have manifested on arriving at the next stage, if they had found that the tail of the coach, and all upon it, had been burned off, we began to inquire into the cause, and found that the accident must have been owing to a stray piece of ignited German tinder having found its way into the folds of the umbrella. The adventure, then, fur nshed us with much merriment at the expense of our friend's parapluie ; and when an occasional shower com pelled him to hoist the strange uncouth-looking insttu. went, it furnished no less entertainment to the popula tion of the different villages we passed through, where every one had turned out to look at the various coaches and carriages that were, even thus long before the day fixed, passing through, laden with guests bound to the Tournament." The account of the Knights' procession to the Lists, and their Tilting at the barrier ; of the Ladies' Gallery, and the thousands of eager spectators who thronged the grassy slopes that swelled up from the scene of encounter ; of the crash and jostling of vehicles when the sports were over ; and the hurry ing back under umbrellas, and without them, of the myriad pedestrians to the neighbouring town of Irvine ; these several details, though hurriedly and boldly dashed off, are in strict accordance with the soberest judgment. From one or two cursory hints let drop towards the close, we gather that this article is the production o f Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, well known by his agreeable little volume, entitled the " Great Morayshire Floods." The " Organist" is a posthumous anecdote, by the late John Galt. It is short, and that is the utmost we can say in its praise. We cordially approve the spirit that has dictated the notice:of " Reynold's Modern Litera ture of France." It is sound and judicious, stand ing on the high vantage ground of morality, without degenerating into cant. In common, we should hope, with the majority of our readers, we have a sovereign contempt for the imaginative litera ture of " Young France." That it frequently ex hibits capabilites of a high order, we admit, but its moral tone is unhealthy to a degree. The system of ethics it inculcates, is tainted, fly-blown. There is no drawing wholesome nutriment from it. As for its energy, which has been so much in sisted on, it is the energy of spasm—of convul sion—not of sound health. Victor Hugo's popular " Notre Dame" is a case in point. It is one hys terical outburst from the first to the last chapter. Pall de Kock, it seems, is now the great oracle of the Parisian coteries. He is a smart, showy no- ; velist, quick to conceive, and as ready to execute but, after all, he is little more than an imitator of Pigault Le Brun, who again was an imitator of our Stnollett. " Pedestrian Tour of a Scottish Emi grant" gives several truthful sketches of the scenery in the middle States of North America. The writer observes minutely, and describes fearlessly. " O'Donnell's Daughter" is a tale from the pen of the veteran Mrs. Opie, and exhibits more dramatic skill of dialogue, and in the arrangement of inci dent, than this lady has usually evinced in her fictions. It has also the recommendation of being less elaborately lachrymose than the Inajority of her writings, which seem to have been penned with no other view than to set our tears flowing like a parish pump. AIEI Ral'ULI In " Recollections of Ancient Literature," which is eloquently, though perhaps rather too floridly, written, we find a sketch of Cicero as a statesman, in which capacity the author greatly underrrates him. That firmness and promptitude of action were prominent characteri st i cs , we by no means hi s most readily admit ; still it must not be forgotten that it was his energy which crushed the Catilinarian con spiracy, which his foresight had caused to explode prematurely. " A Scene in Malaga" is a light, descriptive article, in which the circumstances at tending a mysterious midnight robbery in the streets of that town are detailed with much graphic skill. " October Sonnets" are from the practised pen of Major Calder Campbell. They are more to be commended for grace of expression, than freshness or liveliness of thought or feeling. " The Maid of Honor," towards the close, shows genuine sensibi lity ; but the earlier portion of the narrative is too wire-drawn. " Lord Killikelly" is the continuation of a story which was commenced in the last Num ber. Some of the dialogue is clever enough ; but we see with regret that it is to be again ,‘ conti nued." We dislike reading Magaiine tales in de tached fragments. From " Sketches of Palestine," by Mr. Addison, we quote an animated description of that vast salt lake, better known by the name of the Dead Sea, of whose hushed, stern solitudes Walter S cott , if we reme mber rightly, has g i ven us some masterly details in his oriental romanc e of the " Talisman :" " After riding for about half an hou r , we arr i ved et a long roc k y sp i t o f l an d, that jutted out about two hundred yards into the lake ; and, dismounting, I walked to the end of the little promontory, over loose fragments of stone, determining to put to the test the various re ports of the remarkable buoyancy of the water. Throw ing off my clothes, I plunged into the lake, but it was even here so shallow that I had to run out an immense distance, over a rough stony bottom, before I could get the water as high as my waist. I then thrs7 rn) . self into a ewimming position, and was buoyed up in the mo: - ! manner, 'fur ' 1- I " 11 10 IWy s:.‘!! gn my floated with the greatest ease, fi tritg;itat exertion. Although there were only aho'Cit, foci f fleet of water; I found it almost impossible to bring my reef dgaia to the bottom, and to regain an erect posture. Tire liddy lias ,derfaitay all the buoyancy of a cork. The c'es smart hi the most dreadful wanner when I dippe'dth Mead ititcl it ; I stag almost blinded, and my lips and nose tingled rfie'rerVy; I swam out a considerable distance ; the water, hoife*e't; iff ct cased very little in depth, but from my experiments on its buoyancy, I find, that a person is completely car ried off his legs, and floats (at least such was the case with me) when the chest is entirely int-netted, The water is amazingly bitter and pungent, and Makes the tongue and the mouth smart. A bathe in the Dead Rea is anything but agreeable. I found it impossible to wipe myself dry ; my whole body was in a clammy, sticky condition, and my hair was disgustingly tangled and greasy. The water, however, is beautifully tran3parent, and free from floating stiliStanttes. I saw none of the bitumen which, it is said, rises add floats on the sur face. The appellation of mare murluuns and ci cornet, " the Dead Sea," was no doubt given to this lake, be cause neither fish nor any other living thing whatever subsisted in its bitterly salt and poisonous waters. Some travellers, however, have contended that there are fish in the lake, because they have picked up the shells of shell-fish along the shore. These shells, if really the shells offish, are undoubtedly the shells of fresh-water shell-fish, washed down into the Dead Sea by the Jor dan. There are several species or shell-fish in the Lake of Tiberias ; and the winter floods of the Jordan, which spread in every direction over this part of the valley, might easily have washed the shells down to the places where they have been found. 'The Arabs of Rilihah, my Arab guide, and the Albanian soldier, all averred that. there were no fish in the lake. I cannot find that any person has ever seen any, and the common notion in the country is, that there is not a living thing of any ; sort in the waters. Indeed it is manifest that so mag nificent a lake as this, about seventy miles in length, by twenty in breadth, could never have remained here so long, without the neighbouring inhabitants having been able to find out the fish, if any existed." UNITED SERVICE JOURNAL. This Number commences with a long article on Egypt and Mehemet Ali, by a gentleman who had made a protracted residence in the country, and who had made the condition and prospects of the inha bitants and Government a subject of close investi gation. The description of the Viceroy, or rather Sovereign of Egyptsand Syria, is minute and strik inn, and though drawn by one who has no great partiality for the Pacha, and who describes him as shrewd and intelligent, though not a man of com manding talent or creative genius, it conveys to the reader a high idea of his abilities and energy. Nothing, he says, escapes him ; seated in his di van, he listens with apparent indifference to the idle chat of those around him, but not one word escapes his ears—not one useful suggestion is lost—and sooner or later he adopts it for his own. The state of the country—the increase of manufactures and trade—the influence he possesses at Constantinople —and the vast acquisitions which he has made in a few years, independent of fifty other considera tions, are sufficient proofs that he is one of the first men of the age. He found the country rude, bar barous, and a prey to factious or mutinous soldiery —he has brought it within the pale of European civilization—raised a powerful army and navy— destroyed the army of his Sovereign—beguiled from him his fleet—and, but for the great powers of Europe, would be master of the whole Turkish do minions in a few months. No man in modern times, save Bonaparte, has made such rapid strides to power and dominion. "The Editor's Portfolio" contains an attack, as might have been expected, on the appointment cf Admiral Fleming, but though he speaks of a " galaxy of glorious names which live on the martial records of their country," and who should have been preferred to the Scotchman, lie does not point out one bright luminary in this milky way. The Number altogether, however, is very superior to some of its predecessors, and will be read with interest by the class to whom it is chiefly addressed. THE ASIATIC JOURNAL. The opium trade—a subject painfully interest ing at the present moment—is the subject of a long and well-written article in this Number. It gives a short history of this pernicious drug, and states that, on the opening of the China trade, the smuggling increased to an enormous extent, and has nearly trebled in nine years, the estimated value imported last year being above four millions sterling. The writer of the article has evidently availed himself of the information contained in the letter of Mr. King, of the American firm of Oli phant and Co., who treats the free-traders and Captain Elliot, the Superintendent, with little ceremony or mercy. The charge against Captain Elliot Mr. King sums up in these words : " If there were one principle of more importance than any other—a principle never to be contravened, never to be lost sight of, in the progress of this ques tion—it was, the separation of the British flag—the British name, from all responsibility for the illicit com merce. What, then, must be our decision on a course of measures which, instead of accomplishing this grand end, has, within the period of two years, completely identified the two ; exhibiting the British factory at Canton as the refuge of the opium importer ; her Ma jesty's sloop at Hong kong as the armed defender of the drug after confiscation ; and the British Superin aeudent himself as its open assumer, its real controller, its forced transferrer, its public deliverer, to the extent of 20,283 chests ; and all ' in the name and for the service of her Majesty's Gavernment!' " But it would appear that Captain Elliot is not the only person seriously implicated in this busi ness. Some of the first merchants in London had en gaged in the trade, and among these a mercantile house, says Mr. King, perhaps the first in the world —a family numerously represented in the highest walks of British society, in the House of Commons, in the Administration, in the Peerage of England. The writer evidently leans to the East India Company, to the prejudice of the free traders, and therefore holds out but small hopes of indemnity to the smugglers, the very idea of indemnifying those who have lost their property by the just operation of the laws they violated appearing to him preposterous. The arti cle gives the opinions of various authorities as to the injurious effects of indulging in the use of opium. Among the rest the East India Company, Mr. King, and Koo-King-shan, a literary graduate of som e university in the celestial empire. The latter sums up its mischievous effects in ten para graphs under the following titles—it exhausts the anim a l spirits—it impedes business—it wastes the flesh—it dissipates property—it renders the person ill favoured—it promotes licentiousness—it dis closes secrets—it violates the laws—it attacks the vitals—and it destroys life. In the article on the Women of klindostan, No. 5, there is a good deal of amusing information relative to the treatment of the female sex in the East, which the writer consi ders infinitely preferable to the treatment they re ceive in Europe and parts of Asia, where so many of them are confined in h arems an d nunner i es. Th e " Asiatic Intelligence"—including the three Presi dencies, Ceylon, China, and Australia—is more than usually copious, and from the important events which have lately occurred, full of interest. EPISCOPAL MAGAZINE. This periodical preserves its character for rabid hatred of all sects and religions, except the religion of the Church of England, which Church it says, " is coeval with the lives of the Apostles, and is approaching the completion of two thousand years, during which long period, with more or less bril liancy, it has been a witness for the truth." Now we imagined that the Church of England took its rise about the period of the Reformation, and that it sprung out of that Church, which has been described as the mother of iniquity, and the whore of Babylon. It appears, however, that we are under error. The Anglican Church dates from the commencement of the Christian era. It is the most ancient of all Churches, and the vile, persecuting ; soul-and-body-destroying Popish Catholic Church, is only a miserable excrescence from this standard of truth. Of the nine articles in this Number, five are directed against Popery, and some of them of so violent, disloyal a character, as to outstrip even the rabid speech of the Member for Canterbury. One would suppose from the violent hatred dis played towards Catholics, that these High Church men would not be satisfied with the repeal of the Catholic Emancipation Act, but would have re stored to the Book of Prayer, the charitable invo cation drawn up by the Convocation, soon after the Gunpowder Plot. The following is a clause of what the Convocation called, " a form of prayer and thanksgiving:"__ " Infatuate their counsels, and root out the Baby lonish and antichrithan SECT, which say of Jerusalem. Down with it, down with it, even to the ground. And to that end strengthen the hands of our gracious King, I 1 the Nobles and Magistrates of th e l an d, w i th j ustice and judgment. to tact (di' those workers of iniquity (whose is rebellion, whose faith is faction ; whose prac murdering ~ - .ouls and bodies), and t o root t h em - "-nits of this kingdom, that they tot of the confines anti ' triumph in the ruin of rrypy neftr prevail against us anu ...„ m and serious Thy 6urch,•aaf CO give us grace, by t, _.6 from repentance 1N Weft these and the like judgme , . s us. This, Lord, se' earnestly crave at Thy mercifu, hands, together with the eontinuance of Thy powerful protection over our dread Sovereign, the whole Church, land these realms, and the speedy confusion of our ins placable enemies," &c. After quoting this exterminating prayer, the writer naturally follows it up with this episode, on the Court of our Most Gracious Queen : " Our present most gracious and youthful Sovereign is surrounded, in her bed-chamber, her council board, and during her times of relaxation and pleasure, by these workers of iniquity—whose religion is rebellion—whose faith is faction, and whose practice is murdering souls and bodies.' What then can this nation expect from the Queen's backsliding from the faith of her ancestor, whom God so wonderfully preserved from the Popish plot, but the outpouring of the vials of His wrath upon her people, and the murdering of their souls and bodies by that Babylonisb and antichristian sect' who abound bath in the court and in the camp, and the re hellion and faction of the people." THE CHRISTIAN REFORMER. Sherwood and Co , and Smalfield and Son. The Christian Reformer of this month contains the entire closing speech of the Attorney-General before the House of Lords, in the celebrated Lady Hewley suit, printed from Mr. Gurney's notes. This speech, which lawyers allow to be one of the finest specimens of forensic argument, sums up the whole of this important case. The Lord Chancel lor's questions for thg consideration of the Judges are added, upon the answers to which the Judgment will evidently turn. This number gives an account of the book recently put out by the soi-disant son of Louis XVI., now living at Lambeth, purporting to be a Divine Revelation against what is called thelta - lian religion. An article is devoted to the question put by the Eclectic Review to Congregational Dissenters, in reference to the creeds in most of the trust deeds of their chapels, " Are we Protestants ?" We find some very sensible remarks in a paper on the " Tendency of Puseyism." The Review depart ment contains an analysis of the volume of Sermons by Mr. Turner, the aged Presbyterian Minister of Newcastle, for subscribing to which the Bishops of Durham and Norwich were so furiously attacked by the narrow-minded bigots of the Church mili tant in their respective dioceses, and by the hire lings of the illiberal press. From the articles of " Intelligence" we extract the following amusing anecdote of Mr. Drummond the banker, and Mil lenarian, and Sir Robert Peel : " Mr. Drummond, the banker, is well known for his conversion-expenditure at Geneva and elsewhere. One of the late Nos. of Le Protestant (a Genevese Maga zine, now discontinued), under the head of New Fanaticism of Mr. Drummond,' says that his latest change is to the profession of the expectation of the speedy coming of the Messiah. Accordingly, he has a chamber always ready in his house, and a vacant place at his table, for the reception of the Divine Messenger. On one occasion, says Le Protestant, on the authority of a letter from England, on the writer of which the Editor places entire confidence, the wealthy banker went, with some of his adepts, to the house of Sir Ro bert Peel, to apprize him of their Divine inspiration. Sir Robert replied, Gentlemen, I propose to take two of you in order to be shut up in separate apartments, and Ito give each the same text to explain. If it be explained by both in exactly the same manner, I will believe the inspiration: The trial was not agreed to." SPORTING MAGAZINE. SPORTING REVIEW. We class these two periodicals together, because they treat on the same subjects, and with little or no difference in point of ability. The digest of the sporting proceedings of the month is equally copious in both; and of their engravings, suffice it to say that the Sporting- Review contains an ably-executed Plate, entitled " The Earth Stopper ;" and the Sporting Magazine one not less meritorious, en titled "Hunting—the Find," in which there are some good effects of perspective. THE CHURCHMAN. It appears to us, and we are glad of it, that this Magazine is a little more tolerant in its tone than it has been of late. Controversialists should remem ber that reason and argument are the only weapons that will ever prevail in religious contests, and that these are never so effective as;when wielded under the influence of a spirit of meekness and charity. There are several articles in this number directed against the. Church of Rome, with a view to point out her errors, and the superiority of her daughter the Church of England. The former is a much easier task than the latter, and is, therefore_ in some points at least, much more successfully performed. " A Vindication of the Church Establishment" is writ ten by some clergyman, who is as ignorant of human nature as he is blind to the signs of the times. " The Distinctive Character of the Roman Heresy" is a complete misnomer. There is no generic distinc tion between the Roman, the Anglican, the Presbyte rian, or any other established heresy, These may comprehend different doctrines, hut they are all ani mated by the same spirit. That spirit, the very reverse of the spirit of the Gospel, has existed ever since religion was wrested from the superin tendence of the Deity, and taken under the protec tion of the State, and will continue to exist until the unhallowed connection be severed. LONDON AND EDINBURGH PHILOS°. PHICAL MAGAZINE. R. Taylor , Red Lion-court. In this Magazine we find, as usual, a copious, supply of scientific information, both in the form of original papers, communicated by men of the greatest eminence in their several departments, and in that of interesting selections from the transac tions of the various Societies whose object is the advancement of science, Dr. Faraday, Professors Forbes and D. Morgan, Mr. Ivory, &c. &c., are contributors to the present I<T,umber. Dr. Faraday's " Researches in Electricity " contain a most interesting account of the very curious experiments which he has performed lately with the gymnotus electricus, or electrical eel, and important deductions drawn from them in regard to the relations of the nervous and electric forces. A communication from Dr. Forbes, of King's College, Aberdeen, informs us that Mr. Robert Davidson, of Aberdeen, has succeeded in making electro magnetism the moving power for turning a lathe, and also for drawing a carriage, holuing two persons, across a rough floor. The process is stated to be exceedingly simple, but unfortunately no details are given. ECLECTIC REVIEW. The most generally entertaining article in this staid old periodical, is the critical essay on " Frois sart's Chronicles," which, as the Reviewer truly ob serves, are distinguished by minuteness and sipe ciality in the facts related, and by the most graphic liveliness in the modes of narrating them. The ex tracts which be subjoins from the old panegyrical historian of chivalry ate amongst the most diverting in his " Chronicles." THE SPOR7',SMAN. The article " Wild Fowl and Snipe Shooting in France" holds out strong encouragement for the amigration of sportsmen to the little town of St. Valery, the spot being reckoned the depot for ducks, widgeon, and teal for the Paris market. The bay literally swarms with wild fowl of every description, and many of the inhabitants obtain a good livelihood for half the year by killing them for sale. The Turf Calendar is ample, and so ►s the poetry. The doggrel verses " Anent Sunday Angling" must have been written by a coal mono polist. THE MONTHLY LAW MAGAZINE. Non-professional readers will find an excellent article in this number on " The schools of Ger man Jurists," and another still more curious, " On the Influence of Civilisation on the Development of Insanity," both of which will well repay the trouble of an attentive perusal. These, however, are the only articles in the L aw Magazine for November from which any person but a red hot Tory, or an Old Bailey practitioner need expect to derive any . pleasure or profit. It is to be regretted that an y b ut le ' taken in a strictly professi ona l sense, s place in. the columns of s o respecta bl e aing:uolirdsgua find l : i i ecta of s the intelligence of the Bar and the Bench, THE ORIENTAL HERALD. Our curiosity I as l'ieen more excited than grati fied by an intereF,Cmrg article in this number, en titled " The Arr aintans in Turkey." The writer, who appears to I Lave had personal oppartunities of studying the chat •acte r, customs, and manners, of this extraordinary veople, represents them as a ~':~'' EVENING EDITION". ___,......_ . - — 77 shrewd, cunning, money-getting race ; but withal P possessing more intelligence and political sagac!iiii than anv other people subject to 06 dominion of the Turks. We shall be glad to see him dip a little deeper into this subject. " Cal cutta as it is" ought to be accompanied with some plan, outline, or map of the city, as otherwise it must be in a great measure unintelligible to four readers on: if five. 7:_h:t " Opium Trade," is a good arti cle, in which a Very correct view is taken of this important question. 3ut as a whole, the Oriental Herald is by no means so spirited as it promised to be some months ago, and we are rather surprised at the excessive tameness of several of the articles which encumber its pages. THE CATHOLIC MAGAZINE. This is by far the best Number of the Catholic Magazine that has fallen under our notice. The article on " Religious Persecution in Poland" con— tains a curious account of the Russian mode of converting whole parishes at once to the Grt ek form of religious worship. We especially recom— mend it to the study of the Protestant Association, as offering the most convenient model of a plan yet exhibited for converting by wholesale the stiff necked Papists of Ireland. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. (Old Seriec.) A great proportion of the November Number of this work is filled up with accounts of the numer ous agricultural meetings which have taken place during the last month, and which have been given at greater length in most of the newspapers. It contains two good plates—a long woolled Ram of the Oxfordshire breed, that obtained a prize of thirty sovereigns at the July Oxford exhibition ; and " A Scene in Windsor Forest," which is an exact copy (description as well as plate) . of " Fal low-deer, Windsor Forest," in the " Sportsman" of last September. It has a useful list of the prices of grain in Britain for the last forty-seven years, pointing out the nature of the seasons and the abundance or deficiency of the crops. MONTHLY MAGAZINE. The character of Mis Hemans' po:try is ably discussed in this Number. but we object to the critic's incidental remarks ulna' genius. "It is," he says, " essentially of an unworldly character." By no means essentially so, e'se Fielding, Scott, Byron, Moore, and hundreds of others, ancient as well as modern, whom we cauld mention, would have been mere scribblers to the end of their days. Again, we are told that genius " must either dis obey the laws proper for the multitude, or announce higher rules of conduct." This is sheer twaddle— nay, worse than twaddle—cant. Genius has no occasion to do anything of the sort. It holds its charter on a noblercondition than that it should make a fool of itself. But again hear our critic. "Those elewenis of character which produce the intense individuality that marks evziry person of genius with some trait of egotism, are only to be nurtured M seclusion." Wrong again, most sapient Aris tarchus ! Egotism is by no means one of the most distinctive marks of genius—witness Shakspeare, Cervantes, Rabelais, &c. ; and as for the " divine faculty" being " nurtured by seclusion," the face is directly contrary. Solitude ;fosters pedantry, Imt in nine out of ten cases it is the destruction of genius. " Lord Brougham and Education" is a temperately-reasoned article ; and " France and England" the best, because the most intelligible poem we have yet read from the pen of Mr. Heraud. THEATRE ROYAL HAYMARKET. A new five act play, from the pen of Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer, entitled the Sea Captain; or the Birthright, was produced at this theatre last eveniota. The scene is laid in the north of Devon, daring the , reign of Queen Elizabeth, and the time occupied by the action is one day ; a nearer approach to the unities than is usual with English dramatists. The following is an outline of the story :—The daughter and heiress of the Earl of Arundel has, without the knowledge of her father married a page of low-born lineage ; the Earl on the discovery , of this union, hires Gaussen, a pirate, to murder the hus band in the arms of his wife. A few days after she gives birth to a son, who is taken from her and com mitted to the charge of Onslow, a priest, and she marries in second wedlock, the Earl of Percy, a widower, having lineage by his former wife. She gives birth to a second son, who is brought up as heir to the estates of Arundel ; she employs Sir I\,laurice Beevor a distant relation, a poor cousin, but heir to the title and estates in the event of her dying childless, 'to convey her first-born to some foreign land, and gives hit,' gold to provide for the future lot of the child ; but he 3,istead gives him to the pirate, who throws him overbo,ard. He is picked up by a vessel of the fleet of Sir Waits. r Raleigh, and under the name of Norman acquires fame and riches, and succeeds in rescuing Violet, a re lation of Lady Arundel from the Algerines. He returns to England in search of Violet, and at this stage of the story, the action of the play commences. The scene opens and discovers Gaussen (0. Smith) anxiously awaiting the arrival of Sir Maurice Beevor, (Strickland) to inform him that the boy, Arthur, still lives in the person of Norman, (Macready) whose ship then rides in the bay. Sir Maurice hastens to the Castle to inform Lady Arundel (Mrs. Warner) of this, and Norman also hies thither to meet Violet (Miss H. Faucit), who is beloved by the young heir of Arundel, Percy, Lord Ashdale (Mr. J. Webster). Lady Arundel having been informed of what had occurred by Sir Maurice, and seeing that Norman loves Violet, fa vours his suit, and urges him to fly with Violet on shipboard that very night, lest Percy should interrupt their flight. Sir Maurice gives Percy information of this, and urges him on to the murder of Norman. In the meanwhile, Onslow, (Phelps) Norman's foster father, has arrived with the documents revealing the secret of his birth which he had sworn not to divulge until the death of the old Earl. Sir Maurice urges Gaussen to way-lay Onslow, and get from him the pa pers ; he attacks and stabs him, but Norman arrives in time to receive from his dying hand the pa pers, and hear the story of his father's murder. Norman hastens to Lady Arundel to claim her as his mother. At first she disowns him, but at length she acknowledges her guilt, beseeches him not to expose her, and he gives up the papers into her hands, and rushes to the chapel, the trysting place with Violet, intending with her to quit England for ever. Mean while Percy having obtained possession of Norman's cloak and hat hastens to the chapel to get possession of Violet before him, and Violet is on the poLnt of falling into the trap, when Percy is attacked by Gausaen, who has been bribed by Sir Maurice to murder both Lady Arundel's sons, and thus make him an Eatl. F.oraY gives the alarm, and is rescued by Norman, who kiOs Gaussen on the spot where, 25 years before, the pirate had murdered Norman's father. Lady Arundel, alarmed at the hint thrown out by Sir Maurice, hastens to the spot to save the brothers from falling by each other's hands. She arrives just at the moment that Norman has rescued Percy,mutual ex planationstakeplaee, Norman burns the evidences of his own rights, but of his mother's shame. Percy gives up Violet to him. Sir Maurice's villainy is exposed, and all cads happily, Macready has added another laurel to his wreath by his beautiful impersonation of Norman. His scene with his mother, where he makes himself known to her, was magnificent. Site denies his claim and calls her menials to thrust him forth—he goes to the hearth, and invokes his ancestors to hail their scn—his action, his look,. 1 his utterance, was sublimity itself. He was called for at the 1 conclusion, as were Mrs. Warner, Miss H. Faucit, and S s how e redt ric k lands on a t n h d e e a Mrs.tl s and Ivar bouquetsWarner, t i oo n , n a u s m t e h r e a b! e were mother, was impassioned and dignified ; and what little Miss H. Faucit had to do as Violet was done with taste and sweet ness. Strickland's Sir Maurice was as perfect in its way as Macready's Norman. This gentleman is one of the most sterling actors of the day. Phelps, in the part.f ecti 13 g' Si r Edward v emnpßl out fo r r f ro m 'r‘.ehpoae t v ri jo a % n s a eee:bel box. The e ve o r n ing, v f e o n r . , little part a n o c ii O w n e s I o a w r e , a h , a as pp e y xc t e o ed s in ay gly aid b beautiful i ci f v u e l raancdt hisaf - unanimous applause o f one o f t h e mos t k g 1, n la o em wl ip e d ( ls l a g t; t d ive t a h s e crowded houses we have ever witnessed. Lord and Lady Cowley are passing the autumn at their villa at Twickenham. A THUNDER -STORM ON THE SUMMIT OF BEN LOMOND,—About two hours before sunset, the sky, overcast. n- c h was sh formerly Shortly r tl after, a unclouded, became sceneensued of tbe suddenly most ten ific kind : but few such scenes could ever have been witnessed in Europe. We found ourselves above the region of the clouds : they floated in the atmosphere beneath, and hovered over the surface of the moun tains ; anon succeeded a vivid flash of lightning, which was instantly followed by a peal of thunder, louder and more protracted, perhaps, than ever was before or since heard on British ground. Again and again, in forked and brilliant sheets, did thi electric fluid flash and again and again did the thunder peal, till its re verberations among the mountains seemed to us as if they had been the prelude to the disorganization of Nature herself. Our courage, lam free to confess, forsook us ; we stood a ghast at the appalling scene ; we then felt, for the first time, the utter insignificance of man : we felt, morover, as if we had een alone in the world. Happily, the elemental strife b , after raging with such violence for about half an hour, began to sub side, and we hastened to descend the mountain, seeking to calm our yet troubled spirits in the nearest house.— Walks and Wanderings in the World (y^ Literature, by the Author of " The Great Metropolis." 7. ". 2 4 tr. I 's ' \,O 1 4A36 1 , ' • ~~