The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-25 00:00:00

LITERA_TURE.

The Crimea ; its Ancient and Modern History •
the Khans, the Sultans, and the Czars ; with
Notices of its Scenery and Popntation. By the
Rev. Thos. Milner, M. 1., F.R.S. _Long-maw,
_ _

1855. 12m0., pp. 368.
The title of this work is almost an index to its
contents, and we need not do much more than ex-
press our satisfaction with the correspondence be-
tween the promise and the performance. It is as
complete a work on the Crimea as the general
reader can desire, and just what all of us now re-
quire to form a proper judgment on the state and
progress of affairs in that now universally interest-
ing spot ; and, indeed, to enable us to read the
newspapers with intelligence. Though embracing
a description of the geography and phySical fea-
tures of every part of the peninsula, of its moun-
tains and woods, its valleys and rivers, its steppes
and seas, its natural history and meteorology, as
well as of its history through two thousand four
hundred years, it is anything but a dry summary of
particulars. The points of interest or importance
in each department are well selected, are woven
into aconnected anicontinuous whole, are enlivened
with abundance of incident, and thus much more
than a useful and readable book is presented to us
—one, in short, which most readers, at any time,
but now especially, will, read through. When
they have done so they will certainly feel that
they can form a better opinion than before
on Crimean matters. Its history will, doubtless,
be quite a novelty to many; and they will be
not a little surprised to find what an active
trade was carried on with the Crimea by ancient
Athens—how Rome did not overlook it—how the
Genoese and Turks successively asserted their sway
—and how its Khans at one time could pillage, and
at another actually burn Moscow. Bakshi-Serai
has been the abode of vigorous conquerors and
mighty men. They will not, however, be surprised
to learn that fraud and brazen perfidy, in marked
contrast with Turkish honour, had a powerful share
in giving Russia the mastery of the Crimea. In-
deed, so far as Russia is concerned, this little
volume is ono of the many proofs that no peace
with her is worth twenty years' purchase which
does net rest on her expulsion from her stolen ter-
ritory, and the reduction of her power to innocu-
ous proportions. It is as great folly to treat the
conquerors of the Crimea as a people who would
respect a treaty, as to rely on the promises of a dis-
_armed brigand. It is not a little singular that an
English female traveller, Lady Craven, in 1786,
first pointed out the unrivalled value of Sebastopol
as a naval station ; and that an English newspaper
( was the means of the erect.onlof those forts at the
mouth of the harbour, which have as yet proved
1 too strong to be forced by our fhets.

My Travels. By Captain Charnier, R.N., Author
of " The Life of a Sailor." 3 vols. Hurst and
Blackett.
The second name of this book is the more charac-
teristic one—it is entitled, "My Travels ; or, An
Unsentimental Journey through France, Switzer-
land, and Italy." It is usual for travellers if they
do not record their adventures in couleur de rose,
at least to invest them with some air of romance or
excitement. They usually avoid what is common-
place and trivial to describe the beauties of nature
or wonders of art iu the spots visited. The pre-
sent writer has had no such idea. He has set out
on a route for himself ; and though a good many
travellers have given us narratives of the same
journey as he took, he is perhaps the first who has
announced his determination of being eminently
practical in l,is account of it. Whether this will
be considered an improsiement is questionable. If
he restrained. himself to the really practical part ;
if he had given us scientific information for
the learned, commercial intelligence fur men
of business, or directions for the inexperienced
traveller, we should not complain ; but his un-
sentimentality merely consists in contemptuous
expressions without any definite purpose ; he
amuses himself with ridiculing and sneering at
very• unnecessary topics. it is very improbable
that any English readers are in danger of joining
in Neapolitan superstitions ; it is therefore scarcely
requisite to devote four chapters of the first volume
to a semi-satirical history of the miracles of St.
Gennaar. There is displayed all through the work
a tinge of levity which occasionally touches the
vulgar. It must not be imagined, however, that
no entertainment can be derived from its pages.
When the author lays aside his flippancy of style,
and writes seriously on what is worth writing on
his descriptions are interesting. The most so is
perhaps the description of Pompeii, that wonder-
ful city of the dead, which has not warned the
living to fear Vesuvius. The author gives us some
curious particulars, which are not perhaps generally
known. Among the many discoveries made in
Pompeii, including the most trivial articles of com-
mon use, even pins and needles, there are a few re-
markable exceptions ; neither spectacles, ear-trum-
pets, nor " those terrible keys used in the extraction
of teeth" have been found. " Surely," says the
traveller, " the Romans were not exempt from the
three warnings of age 1" It is also singular that,
amongall the skulls and skeletons found in Pompeii,
there has never been one in which a tooth was
wanting 1 Toothache may, therefore, be reckoned
among modern inventions. All through Pompeii
there is no trace of a chimney. There are kitchens
in abundance. The formation of the ovens is the
same as at present, and on the loaf the baker's
name; but the smoke must have escaped differently.
" The whole contents of a surgeon's shop" have
been found, and dice, loaded as they sometimes
are nowadays, may also be reckoned among the
possessions of the past. The extreme narrowness of
the streets is one of the most remarkable things ;
there is no street in Pompeii where two carriages
could have passed through, though the wear of the
pavement proves that wheels did pass. What
struck the traveller most was that after so long a
lapse of time so little has been improved. A great
part of the second volume is devoted to a tramsla
Con of a portraiture of modern Italy and its people,
which he asserta was given to him by an Italian
with whom he entered into conversation, though
his name and position were unknown. He draws
a gloomy picture of the condition of the Italians
under Austrian supremacy. The people are s •
degraded that "in Naples every man of the low.et
orders seems professionally a mendicant." Sicily,
one of the most beautiful and fertile islands in the
world, has only one-fourth cultivated. There are
no carriage roads, A company of Frenchmen
offered to make them • the Viceroy sanctioned the
speculation • it was referred to Naples for ratifica-
tion ; the King refused it. The same occurred in
a proposal to light Palermo with gas. " His
Majesty," says our author, " thoug!it it better to
keep his subjects in the dark." Gentle
men who complain of pocket-picking
Loudon had better visit Naples to bi
cured of their discontent. The Minister of Finance
was in the habit of sauntering in the Toledo. In
seventeen days he lost seventeen pocket handker-
chiefs. He applied to the Minister of Police, who
the next day sent him seventy-two, which had been
taken from the thieves, but not one belonged to
the Minister. To give an idea of the postal ar-
rangements, we may mention that a letter would
get to America before one posted at the same mo-
ment at Naples would gat to Palermo. The reader
may derive entertainment from many portions of
these volumes ; and, though objections may
__be
raised to some points, they are not devoid of gene-
ral interest.

A Lost Love. By Ashford Owen. Smith am'

Elder.

A spirit of profound melancholy pervades this
story. There is an under current of ',sorrow that
is seen in the most favourable events. The reader
feels from the first that there is to be no real hap-
piness for the heroes and heroines. They appear
placed in such combinations of circumstances, and
are endowed with such peculiar temperaments,
that only some fortuitous occurrences could have
rendered them satisfied. As the reality was, how-
ever, by far the most unfortunate was Georgina.
She was certainly the sacrifice, and undeservedly so,
for she was generous and kind-hearted, and ever
considerate towards others. It is seldom that any
one is altogether so unfortunate as was Georgy
Sandon, perhaps ; yet all the events of her life are
natural as they are here represented, and the ex-
perience of every-day life demonstrates the truth
of the adage that some must smile while others
weep. Constance Everett was a very graceful
creature, but she was not sufficiently superior
to be the wife of James Erskine. He was
greatly to be pitied, for he had a painful part to
perform, and he really was not to blame so much
as he might have appeared to be to a superficial
observer. Had not the sudden meeting with Con-
stance revealed to him that she was really attached
to him in spite of her wayward demeanour and
perversity of conduct, it is most likely that Georgy
would have never regretted her engagement. The
perplexity and confusion into which he was thrown
show the danger of contracting important obliga-
tions on the principle of expediency, and the pro
mise of doing for the best. Poor Georgy had cause
to lament the day when, out of mere kindness to
her, Mr. Erskine had proposed to her. She had,
at all events, the higher kind of happiness which
springs from upright conduct, and to which the
others could lay no claim and prefer no right. It
is naturally described how she preserved silence on
the past after she had left the scene of her short-
lived tlDjoytilettt. It NVOIII,I haVo 1)(1011 eSPeerllY
unlikely fora naturese 1 ILeap. Ltila true to h:z.v-<
sought solace or found relief in dwelling on its
sacred sufferings to strangers. " Bury your
love, and look at it )24.7 inigeewbury it, and