The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-11 00:00:00

LITERATVRE.

DR. LINGARD'S CHEAP EDITION.
The History of England. By John Lingard, D.D.
10 vols., 1854-55. Dolman.
Exactly thirty years after the date of its original
appearance in 1819, this celebrated masterpiece of
research, eloquence, and
.impartiality was issued
once more from the press in an edition so remark-
able of its kind as to impart to the work that form
an dconsisteney by which it must henceforth be
distinguished as one amongst the great classics o
our national literature. This crowning edition was
the sixth : it appeared, as we have intimated, in
1849 ; and was sedulously supervised by a literary
friend of the historian, as it passed through the
hands of the compositor—the friend, in question,
being, as it would now appear, the Rev. Edward
Price, already himself favourably known to the
world of letters as the annalist of the " Gordon
Riots" and as some time editor-of Dolman's Maga-
zine. What constituted the paramount attraction
of the reprint of 1849, however, was the circum-
stance of its having been very carefully revised,
and very considerably enlarged, besides being ren-
dered throughout more symmetrical as a continu-
ous narrative, by a variety of very curious transpo-
sitions and singularly judicious rearrangements.
This elaborate revision, this important extension,
and this almost unexampled remodelling of a
work already endowed with a popularity so pro-
minent, and a reputation so elevated, being accom-
plished, from first to last, by the pen of the vene-
rable historian himself, then in the fullness of his
intellectual powers, and in the maturity of a judg-
ment always clear-sighted, but more searching in
its gaze with the advance of years and the accumu-
lation of experience. It is from that perfected issue
of " The History of England," by John Lingard,
that the pre sent "People's Edition " of the work
has been faithfully reprinted. Literally the cheap
edition before us is the seventh, but virtually it is
nothing more than the sixth, republished in a
shape more accessible to the general multitude.
The character of the republication may be best ex-
pressed by our observing that it is, in all essential
respects, a reissue, identical in appearance with
that of Sir Archibald Alison's People's Edition of
" The History of Europe "—originally in weekly
numbers, or monthly parts, the numbers sixpence,
the parts varying from two shillings to two and six-
pence, the whole ultimately binding up into ten
small or crown octavo volumes, uniform in size
and type with those already mentioned as having
been recently issued from the press by the Messrs.
Blackwood. And, in this popular form, " The His-
tory of England," by Dr. Lingard, may now be
stored up on the bookshelves of the commu-
nity at large, by the side of Hume, and Rapin, and
Henry, and Smollett, and Stanhope, and Hallam,
and Macaalay, and Martineau, and Mackintosh.
Welcoming, as we do very cordially, this posthu-
mous accession of Doctor Lingard to the ranks of
those eminent authors whose writings have obtained
the glory of being numbered in the popular ag-
gregate of our cheap literature, we cannot but re-
call to mind the sentiment at once pathetic and dig-
nified, with which the illustrious annalist on the
20th of December, 1849, while bidding farewell to
that great work which was the fruit of so many ex-
tended researches, the attestation of his patriotism,
and the tribute of his nationality, echoed from his
lowly bat thenceforth classic retreat at Hornby
the memorable words of the veteran in Virgil—
" Hic ccestus artemque repono." Two years after-
wards the hand that had penned the valedictory
preface, and had revised the History, the hand
that thirty years previously had written its elo-
quent and impressive commencement, was cold in
death—the 'geed old sage had breathed his last,
and to us, his contemporaries, had lapsed from liv-
ing, breathing humanity into one of the great names
in the record of historical literature. Thereafter he
could be viewed bythe critic with that calm serenity
of judgment with which the dead ought ever to be
regarded by their survivors—a contemporary no
longer of Hallam and Macaulay, of Thiers and La-
martine, but a companion, rather, in the sacred
shades, of Froissart and Holinsbed, of Sismondi
and Tacitus. And so will Lingard be remembered
from this time forth in the vague hereafter. And
so will his noble annals of this our common coun-
try, "this dear, dear England"—" this precious
gem set in the silver sea"—be read and consulted.
Annals they are, be it remembered, the limits of
which extend over a no less protracted lapse of
years than make up the total of some seventeen
centuries and a half—namely, from A.C. 55 to
A.D. 1688, or, otherwise expressed, 1743 years
altogether, beginning with the earliest invasion by
the Romans and ending only with the accession of
William and Mary, the event in which the Whig
Revolution may be said to have been consum-
mated. Before closing our remarks upon this ro-
palar reprint of " The History of England" by Dr.
Lingard, it should be observed in justice to its en-
terprising publisher, Mr. Dolman, that the attrac-
tiveness of a cheap edition has in the present in-
stance been considerably enhanced by the dis-
tribution through these ten goodly volumes of
instructive letterpress, of a variety of appropriate
and picturesque embellishments. These illustrations
adorning the text of Lingard, illustrations en-
graved from designs by William Harvey, by Henry
Doyle, and by Howard Dndley, as well as by other
artists of distinction, will be found to impart an ad-
ditional interest to a reprint in itself more than
sufficient to .excite the cupidity of every book-loving
purchaser of moderately-priced and standard pub-
lications. Altogether, if the noble ten-volumed
imperial octavo edition of 1849 was emphatically
the author's edition, being the one, as we have ob-
served, which received his latest revision—this ex-
' cellent ten-volumed crown octavoedition of 1854-5
may be regarded as no less emphatically the people's
edition—and as such may be earnestly commended,
as we do here commend it, to the acceptance and
admiration of the great mass of lettered English-
men.

CAPTURE OP SEBASTOPOL —The public will enjoy a
treat of no ordinary character on Thurada" and niday
evenings next, at the Surrey Zoological Gardens. In
anticipation of the glorious event. Mr. Denson had con-
structed portions of the picture of the storming of Sebas-
topol to fall to pieces, and other parts to sink from view,
and Mr. Southby has kept in reserve effects which will
far exceed all that haci hitherto been attempted.
LIVERPOOL CATTLE TRADE, MONDAY.—The same dull
demand continues for sheep, buyers bestowing very little
attention upon this article, and though we had an ave-
rage supply, a large number was left unsold. The beef
trade also ruled dull this morning, and a small number
was turned out undisposed of. Beef, Gd. to GO. ; mut-
ton, 6 1. to Gild.

THE HON. F. HINCKS.—The Hon. F. Hiucks, who
is all:ointed to the governorship of Barbadoes, is an Irish
gentleman, who has been settled for some years in Ca-
nada, where he conducted a Liberal newspaper with
some success. He was elected a member of the Provin-
cial Parliament, and became distinguished for his finan-
cial abilities. He acquired no little fame by his corres-
pondence with and against Sir C. Trevelyan on colonial
finances. The late Colonial Secretary for Canada, the
Ron. Mr. Daly, was also an Irish settler in Canada,
and was promoted by Earl Grey to be governor in the
West Indies, and afterwards to be governor of Prince
Edward's Island.
EXTENSIVE CONFLAGRATION AT LAMBETH.—A fire
broke out at one o'clock this morning in the extensive
premises of Messrs. Baker and Co., builders, Palace-
road, Lambeth. Policeman 33 L being at the moment
on the spot, gave the alarm and sent for the engines, but
there being a scarcity of water the fire made a rapid pro-
gress, and at two o'clock it seemed as if the whole neigh-
bourhood would fall a prey to the flames. At three the
firemen succeeded in checking the progress of the fire,
although there was still great danger of its spreading.
A. workman received a fearful wound in the left leg, from
a box of tools thrown out of a window. He was con-
veyed to Westminster Hospital. The premises of Messrs.
Baker are destroyed. The Brigade engines, to the num-
abne rd ooff ti\einesosrrst.viillovdeg,
ow,2tdhistthilol
esrey,efltehnet IgVreesatt oafs
sEi
sntgalnaoned,
and to their aid may be attributed the safety of the
houses in Paris•street.
THE FRENCH TREATY wren PERSIA.—The following
is the introduction of this document :—ln the name of
God, the Clement and Merciful,—His High Majesty the
Emperor Napoleon, whose elevation is as that of the
planet Saturn, whom the sun serves as a standard, who is
the brilliant star of the firmament of crowned heads, the
sun in the heaven of Royalty, the ornament of the dia-
dem, the
d assp
tl ehnedpoluarn
planet
ssattaunrdna, r dwshaonmd
the illustrious and liberal Monarch ; and his Ma'est
elevate
wthosee oafrtmh
iee kairees ,i
a thenu sublimes
t.Shoev
stars,erei Sovereign, thl
standard, whose splendour and
magnificence are like
that
ey ;loaf
ille
na:sr utsb,
e the
sublimehe i r oof tnhde
acbr
recalls that of Djemsch. sunph et
olar esea el
Monarchensigns,
ar
id, whose magnificence equals
mt
ph re or
on
re
oo
ff t
ah
lel
Persia, &e. soovvluntoanEd

ANOTHER DESTRUCTIVE EXPLOSION OF STEAM COAL
—CARDIFF, Sunday.—At about six o'clock on Friday
morning the inhabitants of Bute district in the town of
Cardiff were alarmed by
loud explosion which sha.-
tered the panes of glass in some of the windows of the
houses, and shook the furniture in most of them. It
turned out to have been occasioned by an explosion of
•team coal on board of a Dutch vessel called the Jacob
Hunger, which having taken in a full cargo of coal was
lying in the port preparatory to her sailing. The force
of the explosion tore np and shattered the decks, throw.
ing fragments of the woodwork to considerable distances,
and actually hurling the anchor overboard into the
water. The captain, Pashan, was very much burnt
about the bead, face, &c., and the first mate was also
scorched considerably. Accidents of this kind have very
frequently occurred in the ports of Cardiff and Newport,
generally owing to the masters of vessels fastening
down their hatches too speedily on the delivery of the
coals on board. It is to be regretted that some means
of ventilation cannot be devised, or that some arbitrary
port rule is not established to compel the batches of
steam coal-laden vessels to be kept partly ore until t"
tiPe 4.o4pir!