The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-02 00:00:00

" I desire to be my own posterity." This, it is ob-
served, is the right feeling. " Every hero should
contain his posterity within himself."

Bentley's Miscellany.—An article, "Peace. or
War," opens this number. It is followed by the
editor's tale of " The Spendthrift," which chronicle
some strange events, ending with a duel. A de-
scription of the Campo Santo di Poveri at Naples
reveals a fearful picture of the management of a
Neapolitan cemetery ; and we do not wonder that
the spectator shares Irving's feeling when he said,
"God grant I may not die at Naples," and ex-
claims, " May English burial economics never
reach the point of constructing wholesale coffinless
vaults." The tale of " Wanted Immediately" is
not very brilliant or interesting. The " Narrative
of a Day's Shooting at the Cape" may afford some
novelty to the lovers of field sports. An interesting
paper by Monkshood gives us some account of the
" Private Journal and Literary Remains of John
Byrom," which have recently appeared under the
editorship of Dr. Parkinson. The journal, it ap-
pears, possesses one peculiarity, being evidently
intended to be entirely private. The extreme rarity
of such cases is remarked upon, and it is asserted
that "about the utterly private object of this
journal of Byrom's there can be no mistake what•
ever." Whether it is quite fair to make such a
record public is, p3rhaps, a question. "In un-
unearthing these remains, Dr. Parkinson revives
what was once a recognised power in the literary
world, the name and fame of John Byrom, a ripe
scholar, an out-and-out book buyer, as well as book
lover, an influential writer, a finished table-talker,
a privileged wit, and which he would himself have
laid stress upon, as his especial distinction, the
author of the first scientific work of shorthand." The
name he adopted was John Shadow. It was un-
wittingly an ominous name—Shadow I will
call myself to my contemporaries, seems
to have said John Byrom. Shadow thou
shalt be to posterity, said Time. Foreseeing a cen-
tury of oblivion and change. Byrom took, as it
were, for his device—

" Stet umbrae nomen."

Time, cynically fond of correcting proofs, put his
delete against that reading, and substituted
" Nominis umbra." Byrom's contemporaries would
have hardly believed in the extent, in the intensity
of this oblivion and this change, though Father
Time had sworn it in their hearing, by his scythe
and hour-glass.—Call we ourselves shadows or sub-
stances, we are, the best of us, such stuff as dreams
are made of, shadows that walk at noonday ; and
rare, indeed, is the shadow that lengthens and
deepens as the sun goes down." An article on
" An Asiatic Campaign" concludes the number.

Colburn's United Service.—A. review of the cele-
brated work on naval gunnery by Sir Howard
Douglas succeeds the usual narrative of the siege
of Sebastopol. Sir Howard's Essay, it appears,
has been translated by order of every European.
Government, but the author has received no re-
ward from ours. A descriptive account of Petro-
paulowska and Kamschatka is followed by " Critical
Observations relative to the Operations on the
Danube," a review of Quartermaster Connolly's
" History of the Royal Sappers and Miners," an
impartial narrative of " The Gavazzi Tragedy in
Canada," by Lieut-Colonel Sir J. E. Alexander,
and other interesting or useful matter, including
"On the Alert," a marvellous story of the camp,
and " The Editor's Portfolio." The Committee
of Inquiry and Mr. Lindsay's remarks on the ma-
nagement of our naval transport, do not appear to
meet with the editor's approval.