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

LITERATURE.

A History of Modern Italy, front the First French
Revolution to the year 1850. By Richard Weber
Wrightson. Richard Bentley.
In these pages will be found a compendious
sketch of the occurrences which have contributed
to decide the destiny of the Peninsula, and which
have paved the way for its present condition. The
spirit in which they are narrated may be gathered
from the preface, in which the author tells us the
purpose he has hadi in view is to present such a re-
trospect of the past as may be useful in estimating
the hopes and probabilities of the future, and to
deprecate any interference by foreign sympathisers
on questions which can only be brought to a satis-
factory solution by the intelligence and fortitude of
the people whom they concern. The work is there-
fore not a Mazzinian history, nor, on the other hand,
is it a reactionary one while the Italian demo-
crat meets with little favour, a strong faith in
constitutional government, as the panacea required
with a desire for its application, is perceptible
throughout. The author's style is vigorous and
flowing, and whether we agree with him or not, on
-certaiu points, we must accord him the merit of
being thoroughly conversant with his subject, and,
in a literary point of view at least, well able to deal
with it. With one passage we fancy some of our
readers will be a little struck. "An idea," we are
told, " has long been current among Italians that
the prospect of the_ country would be brightened
by a relegation of the Turks frAti Europe. On
this account, England, being considered therprinci-
pal stay of Turkey as it is, is often regarded with
no small jealousy and dislike."

Autobiography of James Silk Buckingham. Vols.
I. and 11. Longman, Brown, Green, and
Longmans.
This book, the amiable and accomplished author
tells us in the preface, will surprise many and en-
tertain, it is hoped, not a few. On the first head
we are unable to express an opinion, but on the
second we may say there can be little doubt of the
author's hope being realised. The contents of
these volumes, in fact, form very pleasant reading,
and are not without considerable value in the way
of information and instruction. In the autobio-
graphy, we are informed, Mr. Buckingham intends
to include his voyages, travels, adventures, specu-
lations, successes, and failures, interspersed with
characteristic sketches of public men with whom he
had intercourse during a period of more than fifty
years, and to set down everything with fidelity and
frankness. The reasons which have induced him to
write his biography deserve to be recorded; they are
(1) a conviction that few public men have been more
misrepresented than himself ; (2) that few travel-
lers have seen more, and few personally have ex-
perienced greater vicissitudes ; (3) a desire to en-
courage others about to begin life by showing
the beneficial results of industry, temperance,
and perseverance in surmounting the greatest dif-
ficulties ; and (4) a wish to leave behind him for
the consideration of posterity his deliberate views
as a social reformer. The cogency of reasons like
these few will be inclined to dispute. Vols. I. and
11. contain the history of the author's early life,
together with his experiences and adventures up to
the period of his second visit to India. Among
other things we are introduced to the late Mahomed
Ali and sundry other notables, the reader's at-
tention by the way being kept up from first to last.
A portrait of Mr. Buckingham accompanies the
work.

The Fibrous Plants of India. By J. Forbes
Royle, M.D., F.R.S. Smith, Elder, and Co.
A work iby so eminent an authority as Dr.
Royle on a subject of so much importance at the
present day as the adaptation of the fibrous plants
of India for cordage, clothing, and paper can re-
quire no • comments of ours to insure its perusal.
All, therefore, we shall do is to state that the samo
powers of observation, discrimination, and careful
research which give their character to the other
works of the learned botanist are obvious in the"
present volume, and that the result of his investi-
gations is a conviction that an abundant supply of
cheap and effective materials for paper making and
-our textile manufactures may be had from the
vegetable kingdom without confining ourselves to
flax and cotton ; while, with regard to cordage,
neither our royal nor our mercantile marine seed
restrict themselves to European sources of supply.
Not the least valuable part of the work, we may
add, is the accurate account of the cultivation
. and
preparation of flax, hemp, and their substltuwteili
In this the disheartened colonist and planter
have access to much useful information.

The Irish Quarterly Review (Simpkin, Marshal],
and Co.), for March, contains papers on education,
poetry, and general literature. An article on the
ancient MSS. of Trinity College (Dublin) Library
will prove interesting to the Biblical student.

C. W

on which they
The Crimea, with a Visa to Odessa. By
Koch ; with illustrations.
an
:tuleexdgageg.
unexaggerated
Those who wish for information. with respect to
the climate, soil, &c., of the Crimea,
air y:, the oc-
cupation feel they can. .depend, should buy this Cheap w
little book, which is written in
vein, and affords proof of observation
matt. The author's visit was paid prior and
judg-
cupation of the Crimea by the
is a led armies. The
work, we may add,
travois. continuation of his eastern

Photographic Pleasures Popularly Portrayed with
Pen and Pencil. By Cuthbert Bede, B.A.
T. M‘Lean.

Under the above alliterative title, and in the
most amusing manner, the art of Photography is
presented to us in various lights. First we have
it as " a light subject," then in a legendary, high-
art, artistic, portrait-painting, love, amateur,
aristocratic, negative, positive, and detective light;,
and, by way of conclusion, "in all manner of lights"
besides The veritable biographer of Verdant Green

is quite an enthusiastic photographer, and all the
wit and drollery of the work is directed, and most
successfully, to elucidate the history, present con-
dition, value, and prospects of the art, for the ad-
miration and instruction of the gentle public. The
chapter on " high art" will hardly meet with the
approbation of some connoisseurs, but the whimsi-
cal pencillings cannot fail to excite general merri-
ment. " Photographic Pleasures," " The Fixing
Process," " The Photographist in a Fix," and " To
secure a pleasing Portrait is everything" are ex-
ceedingly good.

Illahomedanisra, in, its Relation to Prophecy. By
Ambrose Lisle Phillips, Esq. Dolman.

An interesting inquiry into the prophecies con-
cerning Antichrist, with reference to their possible
bearing on the events of the present day. Tem-
perately written and learnedly ; of course tinctured.
by the religious views of the author, a distinguished
convert, if we are not mistaken, to the Roman
Catholic faith. Those who wish to see how Roman
Catholics interpret prophecy cannot do better than
purchase this work.

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.

This evening mails will be made up and despatched,
via Marseilles, to the Piro3us (Greece), Turkey the Cri-
mea, and the fleet and transport service in the Black
Sea. Letters intended for persons in the hospitals at
Smyrna or Scutari should be specially addressed " Hos-
pital, Scutari," or " Hospital, Smyrna," as the case
may be. The postage on letters must be prepaid.
The worst cases of the sick and wounded who arrived
from the seat of war in the Malacca were visited in the
Garrison Hospital at Portsmouth on Saturday by Lady
Maitland, Lady and Major-General Sir Frederick Smith,
who again dispensed some nourishing confections and
distributed some articles of clothing, such as knitted
socks, mite, shirts, and even sheets. A proportion of
these cleanly and comfortable necessaries were contri-
buted by Major-General and Lady Catharine Buckley.
The patients are doing well. There are now not more
than 52 sick and wounded on the establishment. The

rest are other cases from home regiments. Drs. Lawson
and Burgess are indefatigable in their attention. Dr.
Odell, the .principal staff surgeon of the garrison, is also
most assiduous in his cara of whole of the garrison
hospitals, but there is much to amend, improve, and re-
form.

The brig Leander, 200 tons' register, Jack, master,
arrived at Portsmouth on Saturday evening from. Lon-

don, t) load with stores for the Crimea.
The Victory, steam-transport, Captain Rose, left
Portsmouth on Saturday morninc, for Constantinople,
laden with Goverrw ooat stores and the staff of Major-

General Vivian.
The Sanspareil, 10, Commander Gordon, which ar-
rived at Plymouth on Saturday, has on board four Rus-
sian mortars captured at Balaklava. Daring her absence
she lost by cholera off Sebastopol above 25 of her crew,
and in action had 11 killed and 61 wounded. Mr. Mad-
den, a midshipman, was the only officer killed. On
departure the Sanspareil rounded the stern of the A2,.a.
,iemon, 90, whose crew, led by Admiral Sir E. Lyons,
Cheered her most heartily—a compliment fully apprc-
elated by the homeward-bound. Tile Agamemnon and
Sanspareil were companion ships on the coat of Cir-
cassia, at Redoubt-Kali, Sebastopol, etc. After dis-
charging her powder in Plymouth Sound on Saturday,
the Sanspareil got up steam, and proceeded, with top-
gallant yards across, up harbeur to Hamoaze. She will
be placed in dock at Koyharn to-day. More than four
and a-half knots as hour in a calm could never i e got
out of her engines, which, with her boilers and ma-
chinery, will require a thorough overhaul and refit.
The gun-boats Weser and Recruit Nix and Sala-
mander) have been relieved of 40 tons of stores each.

They have made several experimental trips at Plymouth.
The Recruit averages 121 knots. Their armament, four

63-pounders, will, it is :supposed, try the tiei:lcs when in
a'...tiou. These vesseis are appointtd to leave to-morrow
for the Mack Sea.

It is intended to 'winch the new ship Conquers,loo,
building at Devonper, on the 4th of May next.
The hired screw transport Germania, Capt. Nenaber,
No. 207, left Plymouth Sound at noon on Saturday fir
the Crimea. Tire 43 drivers of the A division of the
L Ind Transport Cerps, under Lieutenant Redilell, who
at Plymouth, had been stationed at Maker
Height., where they received religious instruction from
the Rev. W. Laugmaid, garrison chaplain, with whom
they left a contrieution tiwards the fund for the widows
and orphans of soldiers who died in the E tst.
The barque Duke of Norfolk, the brig Elizabeth, Cap-
tain Cooper, and the brig e-Eneas, Captain Smith, all
three from Queenstown, are unloading pork and beef at
the Royal William Victualling-yard, Plymouth. The
brig Dauntiss, of Brigham, Captain James Reed, is load-
ing bread, beef, pork, and rum for Balaklava.
The merchant ship Cre,,sy, Captain Miller, belonging
to Mr. Dunbar, of London, which Failed from Manilla
on the 10th of September, with a cargo of sugar, hemp,
cigars, cocoanut oil, deer and buffalo horns, &c., put
into the Cape of Good Hope on the 25th of December,
sailed therefrom on the 25th of January, and on Friday
last entered the port of Plymouth, where she landed
Sir Robert Stamford and other passengers.
Time emigrant ship Samarang, from Southampton,
which received damage in going down Channel, will be
placed to-day (Monday) in dock at the Key/Am yard,
Plymouth, for repairs. Her detention there will not
probably exceed a day or two.
It is said that the owners of the vessels recently taken
up at Liverpool as transports by the British and French
Governments, and ordered into dock for alterations,
have since been informed that the vessels will not be re-

-
"I have now to request you to inform his lordship that
the society will proceed to make the necessary recommen-
dations, as promptly as a due regard to the caution re-
quired in ascertaining the qualifications of candidates will
permit.

"I have the honour to be, Sir,
" Your obedient servant,
" ERNEST HAWKINS.

" B. Hawes, Esq."
In reference to our notice of some experiments made
on the 22d ult., at Shoeburyness, with a new cannon
shot, the invention of Mr. Worssam, engineer, that
gentleman requests us to explain that the charge used
for the Government round shot of 91b., against which
the new shot was tried, was 31b. of powder, while
Mr. Worssam's, weighing 161 b. (nearly double the
weight, but for the same bore), was tried with 21
anal 2Pb. only. Mr. Worssam's shot, with the for-
mer of these charges, ranged 273, and with the latter
744 feet beyond that of the service. It is, therefore, a
natural inference that if Mr. Worsam's shot were fired
from a gun the weight of metal of which would allow of
the full charge of powder, it would obtain a range of, at
least, from 1,200 to 1,500 feet beyond the shot in pre-
sent use.
The following gentlemen have been appointed acting
assistant•surgeons on the hospital staff Henry J.
Rose, Mr. W. J. Moffat, M.D., Mr. Wm. Skeen, Mr.
A. Grant, Mr. W. K. Brock, Mr. Wm. Henry Harris,
Mr. George Hayward, Mr. H. R. Dew, and Mr. Peter
Allen, M.D.
Lieutenant-General Thomas, C. 8., has returned from
leave of absence, and resumed the command of the troops
serving in the Belfast district.
The 96th Regiment, which has just returned to Eng-
and from the Elst Indies, after a lengthened tour of

foreign service, is under orders for Ireland, and will
shgrtly be passed over from Liverpool to Templemore,
where it will be stationed for the present. This regi-
ment proceeded to New South Wales, the first divi-
sion on the 24th of July, 1839, and the head-quarter
division on the 25th of March, 1840 ; and, after a
tour of dui/ in that colony, embarked for the East

.n lies.

The monthly return of deserters from the army, the
navy, and the militia, made up at the Horse Guards and
Admiralty on Saturday last, show a large increase in
the number of defaulters, the total being 646. Of these,
230 are from the regular troops, and comprise 37 fr.nu
cavalry regiments, 32 from the Royal Artillery, 4 from
the Royal Sappers and Miner=, 13 from the- Household
troops, 13 from the Rifle Brigade, 6 from the 60th R.z.ya,l
Rifle Regiment, 11 from the Royal. Marines, and the
remainder from infantry of the line. The list of deser-
ter., stragglers, and men discharged with disgrace from
the navy is also large, there being 74 deserters, 15
stragglers, and one person discharged with disgrace
[rum her Majesty's ship Colossus—there are 24 deserters,
an I from the Euryalus 13. From the various regiments
k.f militia there are 275 deserters, 216 of whom belonged
ti the Ist Surrey Regiment.