The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-05 00:00:00

German, Flemish, and Slavonic) enumerated in his
renowed thesis in the University of Paris. Pre-
cisely as the same review accepts the assertion of
Aulus Gellius about the five-and-twenty languages
spoken by that royal myth Mithridates (the pun
may be forgiven under the provocation of the circum-
stance here particularised), what though the said
quarter of a hundred tongues are not a jot more
obviously real than those of the "four-and-twenty
blackbirds baked in a pie," and capable of singing
so very dulcetly when placed before another king
than the King of Pontus. Everything reported
about Scaliger, and Crichton, and Mithridates, the
Edinburgh reviewer swallows as, at once, entirely
credible ; but, again and again, without any more
reason than in the instances above specified, he
writes dubiously and reasons sceptically about the
vast and otherwise universally admitted capacities
of the late Cardinal Mezzofanti. Nay, what-does
this very critic himself tell us at one part of his
ingenious and elaborate argument ? What but
this—

"The authorities already alleged place it beyond all
doubt that he spoke almost all the leading languages
both of the East and West with all but the freedom, the
precision, and the propriety of an educated native of each
of the countries. It is not alone that the general fact is
attestei by many of these authorities ; each traveller has
borne testimony to his perfection in the language of his
own country. Baroness Inmenstein took him for a
German. Prince Volkonski would be very glad if his
son spoke Russian as well ;' Stewart Rose's Smyrniote
declared that he might pass for a Greek or Turk
throughout the dominions of the Grand Seignior.' Baron
Von Zach was taken by surprise, and stupefied by his
excellent Magyar. Molbech found him speaking Danish
with almost entire correctness ; and Fleck ' heard him
speak modern Greek to a young man who came into the
library, Hebrew with a rabbi or acrittore of the Vatican ;
Russian with a magnate who passed through, Latin and
German with himself, Danish with a young Danish
archmologiet, English with the English, Italian with
many !' We have ourselves repeatedly received explicit
and equally precise assurances, not only from French,
Spaniards, Portuguese, and Poles, but from orientals of
every variety of race and of tongue. We must refer to
M. Manavit for a very interesting account of ,his minute
acquaintance with the various provincial dialects of
France and Spain, and particularly with the Basque
language, which, as we have seen, he proposed to study
with Guido Gorres. Of his familiarity with English
(although Fleck says 'his English was only middling')
the accounts given by the English themselves seem al-
most more marvellous. He astounded Byron even to
his English. Captain Smyth said 'he spoke it more cor-
rectly than himself.' Lady Morgan could net detect
any trace of accent, ' although (at that time) he had
never left Bologna.' With Dr. Baines he 'spoke it as
fluently as we do, and with the same accuracy, not only
of grammar, bat of And, even as far back as
1817, Stewart Rose attests that, during long-repeated
conversations in English he never once misapplied the
sign of a tense, that fearful stumbling to Scotch and
Irish We may add, upon our part, the fullest con-
firmation of these statements ; and perhaps we shall best
illustrate them by stating that we have known more
than one instance in which Irish visitors meeting him
for the first time have taken him for an English eccle-
siastic, mistaking the slight foreign peculiarity which he
retained, for what is called in Ireland, the_English
accent.'

Notwithstanding, indeed, some most uncalled-for
evidences of unbelief, here and there, as before
vaguely implied, or expressly particularised, the
paper to which we have thus directed attention
as the most fascinating contribution to the pre-
sent number of the Edinburgh, constitutes, after
all, a very splendid and wonderfully merited eulo-
gium upon the almost inconceivable powers of the
greatest linguist who ever breathed, the illustrious
Guiseppo Gaspardo Mezzofanti. Honour to the
wanes of one who, through a long, and holy, and
venerable life, enjoyed a " gift of tongues" veri-
tably Apostolical. In addition to the philological
treatise here mentioned, the Whig Quarterly has
other papers of a merit by no means inconsiderable.
Those relating to " Parliamentary Opposition,"
and to "The War in the Crimea," will just now
possess an unlooked-for increase of attraction—
read by the light of passing occurrences—at home
the change of Government, and abroad the calami-
ties before Sebastopol. A description given in
another contribution referring to the "Siege of
Rhodes in 1480" has clearly, in the very title of
it, an illustrative reference to the siege now, in
1855, carried on not far front the no Roads—be-
tween the heights of Inkerman and the port of
Balaklava. A. genial notice of Lord Carlisle's
" Diary in Greek Waters," and an agreeable but
superficial review of " Modern French Literature,"
II ake up—with a biographical chapter on the life
and death of " Charles the Fifth," a sedate paper
on "Private-Bill Legislation," and a readable ar-
gument suggested by " Marsden's History of the
Puritais,"—the remaining attractions of our au-
thoritative blue-and-buff contemporary,