The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-25 00:00:00

LITEIzATU.RE.

. _
Espiis.,septr lc Cakeekti 't:tivis:..7lel'g sous to posaf rle
vue fccinO;niste:. • Par J. C. :
toeßossange-et 'ils. . . .
lle-Vol of nearly tWO.' hundred Pars, - ._ -
'deg 'beyond the, merely mechani-
cal merieof Its-author, one
Otthe IneMbers of the Canadian Parliament, has
been officially delegated to Paris as one of the Owns..
niissionepkfrerni catnael a to the:7l.rniverealEala-teis
tion. has iucticiotisly imagined__ thate__lsook
like:the-one now under considsratiorienightasppeae—
rather. appropriately at this. moment inantidipatiOn
of the-elaborate "catalogue raisonee" about to be
published; setting forththe productions comprised
to the
.c...'aeadian section of sthe. great palace of in-
alnstry in the' Elysian. Fields ! This sketch, or
(sal* of Canada, co.rueS before us, We would
observe, at:once in a Manner. somewhat anthorita-
tivo, •-•
beingisatieci from the press at the expense of •
the province of fv-hibliit is avowedly descriptive,'
for the purpose of gratuitous distribution. As
afi'ording a comprehensive bird's-eye view of Canada
throughout its whole vast dimensions, the work
cannot lint I•e regarded with a peculiar and almout
grateful satisfaction. For hitherto it hai been diffi-
cult to obtain any adequate insight into the condi-
! tion= Ofthat central 'part of the North American 1
Continent, except after having entered upon a
variety of extended and laborious researches. De-
scriptionn of Canada, there have been heretofore of
course in abundance. But those descriptions have,
for the most part, been either too minute in de•
tail, and therefore voluminous, or too curt and
succinct, and therefore' superfici il. For example,
as M. Tache has himself intimated_in his " Envoi"
—there have been, works relating to this subject,
bearing now upon' the history, now upon the eon"-
coerce, now upon the social and political conditiorsof
the Canadiaass-,-Publications, however, -too fre-
quently of a character So coniprehensive of their kind
as to be beyond the reading capacity of the genera-
lity in th is age of rai l way and electro-telegraphiccom-
ueication. Another series of works immediately
illustrative of the state of Canada and of the con-
dition of the Canadians has, according to the honest
exception made to them by our author, bewildered
by their coinplicated.masses of facts and figures
every one but those capable of laying claim' by right
to the merit of profound statisticians. Instead of
thus aiming so high .as altogether to overshoot the
desired mark, namely, the acquisition of some mo-
, derate share of popularity among contemporary
observers, the compiler of the little volume under
notice_ has heroin simply endeavoured to afford the
reader, in the pleasantest manner imaginable, a
rapidly-acquired notion of the chief points relating
to the province of Canada, examining the' subject
chiefly if not exelusiVely Under-certain economical
considerationS.: Accordingly as the readers of this
"Outline," therefere, may be Mere or less men of -
letters, or men of 'science, politicians, or political
economists, they nay individually experience a cer-
tain amount of disappointment in the course of its
ex 'The literary investigator may re- -
gret that the book does' not contain more parti-
culars in relation to Canadian literature—the tou-
j rist may lament that there is E 0 little comparatively
in reference to the picturesque—the natural phi-
losopher may wish that the volume comprised ad-
ditional particulars of a scientific character—the
political economist may Figs, for something more is
.the way of statistics. -Tache confesses as much
-in his preliminary review of his own labours ; but
all -thee readers together, if not each one amongst
thein individnally; can scarcely. fail, he hopes (cud
hopes, too, we cannot but think, not wholly with-
Out reason) to derive from the general survey
taken by our author same rational amount at least
,both of instruction and entertainment. This could
,scarcely fail to be the case with a book compiled
by a man of M. Tach6's intelligence, in allusion to
a country extending over 40,000-leagues super-
ticially, embracing 'within its` circumference
2,000,000 inhabitants, and productive annually of
wealth equivalent to 500,000,000 francs—a pro-
vince extending-in one direction to the western ex•
'treinities of Lake Elie and Lake Huron, in air-
other to the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in
;another to the northern limits of the United States
and of the State of New Bruuswick, and in another
to the southern •• boundaries of the vast track of
land.,known.as the Hudson's Bay Territory. The
Sketch f Canada furnished by M. Tactic-, portrays
the province now geographically, now hisiorically,
1.110/V geologically, cow meteorologically, now in le-
t forence to its natural productions, now in relation .
to its manufactures—delineating subsequently its
various means of communication by high-road and
water-course, by canal and railway, afterwards prs-
eeuting to view a compact but sufficient outline of
the Civil and PoliticallustitutiOtis Of the Canadians.
Nothing of importance has been overlooked. Every
salient Nint 144 been scrupulously particularised.
The !‘ opuscule".. penned by M. J. C. Tache,,cats.
stitute = indeed, the veritable epitonie of the prin-
cipal characteristics of that noble province of which
the author is at, onee the exponent and the repro-
sentativ e. His uisse,' in other words, is the
r historY in little of both Canada and the Cana.;

The War : from the _Landing at Gallipoli' to the
I 'eath of Lord Vaglan. By W. H. Ausiell,
the Times correspondent. Routledge and Co.
Unquestionably, and beyond all doubt, the
most picturesque and 'brilliant description of
'• The War," from the period of its commencement
down to a,,tinie almost immediately eanternPorary.,
Besides which—what is of still greater importance
than either brili'ancy or picturesquenes—the nar-
ration among all the various accounts of the great
contest between the Allies and Russia, which is,
perhaps, the most reliable and trustworthy. Not
but that several records of both the recent and the
. present campaign, given to the world elsewhere
than originally in the columns of the Times, are
entitled to no trivial amount of popular considera-
tion. For example, the serial accounts furnished
by their regular correspondents to others among
our morning con temporaries, to the. Post and Herald,
the Daily ews auct the Morning Chronicle, have
been distinguished variously by the merits of
prop:lV-fleas and.exactitude. Beyond which, espe-
cial meutionought, in lik2 manner, to be made of
the chapters delineative of the events transpiring
before Sebtatopol, chapters which have for some
considerable. time past adorned from month to
month the familiar and honoured pages of Blach-
wood's Magazine, Ebony's contributor being no
other, we conjecture, than Captain (now Brevet-
Major) Ilamley, of the Engineers, already favour-
ably known to the , readers of Maga as the spark-
, ling writer of the story entitled " Lady Lee's
Widowhood." The universally admitted supe-
I riority of the account of " The War," furnished
in periodical despatches to the Timis, by our con-
temporary's disi iugui shed " Special Correspon-
dent, W. H. Russell, deprives of the mere ap-
pearance ofiuvidiouaness the preference accorded
to his narrative of the campaigns of 1854 and 1855,
irr the Crimea, as its right, absolutely and
indisputably. The compact edition of these cele-
brated despatches from .the East, printed collec-
tively in a volume of. some five hundred pages
octavo, and issued to the world from the estab-
lishment Of Messrs. Routledge,.is announced upOn
the title-page as published ," By Permission." Its
sale in this new shape will, of course, as might b.
expected, be something almost fabulous from its
magnitude. Nevertheiess, whatever that sale 'TO:
be, it can scarcely -be more, in any eventOnsa_
commensurate with the excellence of the work
vigorous and thoroughly honest narrative of oc,c ur
relives of the very, first importanet ,__sccurrs ue
the sequel of which are still being sketched ilitue
midst of the smoke of the battle-tield by the same
English-
luminous and Uncompromising poi
men are too largely indebted to 1,
lr.
not to accord
capacity as the Times Correspondent reference to " The
in his
to this volume of his letters ri
and even, let us
and uneiagge-
War," a welcome the, most coarrirtla
say, the most unaffeetedlarsehi4
by the blaiu of ifl-
iaue from all those
ratedly enthusiastic. I" tainted Whose natures are not tll4
etude.