The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-04 00:00:00

LITERATURE
BLEAK HOUSE. No. Tl.

By Charles

Dickens.
According to our opinion, the happiest instalment
of
Bleak -House yet published is the current one for
August—although centairs individual incident
e
eomparable in pathos to the exquisite simplicity of the
scene with little Charley. But debarred from'further
communion with Charley, we are still privileged to
encounter Mrs. Badger, who talks of her first and
,second "as if they were parts of a charade "—and
Skin:Tole obj -cting in the quietest strains
egineble to the person in possession sweeping his
aturhiture off in such a highly " indelicate manner"—
nd 3lr. Boythorne inveighing with the lungs of a
was
ageinst the most profligate coachman, who
nas twenty-six minutes behind time, and ought
.til:refore to be incontinently put to death. Lawrence
43, jthornt-J's country residence, near Chesney 'Weld, is
eeilcie
aaly painted—every leef, and marrow, and
B.°°seherry in the garden being visible almost
" clearly as reality to " the very shadows of the
cherry trees and apple trees heavy with fruit!" The
trttlYstery about Estiter Sunataersoa is rendered in a
cis ndegree less enigmatical than before. From in-
s occurring between the heroine and Mr.
Jarndyce in his temporary " growlery," and subse-
clutlY wish Lady Dedlock in the little church in the
,13,4", and afterwards in one of the lodges et Chesney
" °ld during a thunderstorm, beautifully described, it
lady
seem more plainly than ever that the proud
''s43' of fashion knows more of Esther's origin than
might by the generality be conjectured. Thinking
of this, the mind of the more observant reader reverts
with a sort of shudder to the body of the poor squalid
°Plana- eating law writer " Nemo," buried away
among the rats in the " consecrated grcund " of one
of the London graveyards. The last chapter in the
number (ch. xix.) entitled " Moving on," is perhaps
the most cleverly written of any yet comprised
10 the narrative—a chapter that Dickens
alone could have indited. It opens with the descrip-
tion of our inns of law during the broiling weather
-of the long vacation. Here is a little sketch as true
to the life as a calotype :
" There is only one Judge in town. Even he only
comes twice a we' kto sit in charahers. If the country
folks of those assize towns on his circuit could only see
him now! No lull-bottomed wig, no red petticoats, no
fur, no javelin-men, no vi bite weeds. _Merely a close-
shaved gentleman in white trousers and a white hat,
with sea-bronze on the judicial countenance, and a strip
of bark peeled-by
-the solar rays from the judicial nose,
who calls in at the shell-fish shop es he comes along, and
drinks iced ginger-beer I"
Then what can be more accurate than the following
account of the dog-days in the vicinity of Chancery-
lane ?
" It is the hottest long vacation known for many
years. All the 3 oung clerks are madly in love, and,
according to their various degrees, pine for bliss with
the beloved object, at Margate, R 41:negate, or Gravesend.
' • All the middle-aged clerks think their families too large.
All the unowned dogs who stray into the inns of court,
and pant about staircases and other dry places, seeking
Water, give short howls of aggravation. All the blind
tuen'a dogs in the streets 'draw their masters against
Pumps, or trip them over buckets. A shop with a sun-
blind, and a watered pavement, and a bowl of goal and
silver fish in the window, is a sanctuary. Temple-bar
gets so hot, that it is, to the adjacent Strand and Fleet-
.. Street,xiri
ng
‘vhat a heater is in an urn, and keeps them sim-
all night."
Mr. Chadband, the gentleman in the " Ministry"
Who from calling himself a " vessel" (figuratively
speaking), is erroneously supposed by acme to be en-
. •gaged in navigation—" a large yellow man with a fat
smile, and a general appearance of having a good deal
trein-oil in his system"—the Rev. Mr. Chadband,'
who regards Providence as a creditor who sometimes
'consents to a composition—is a companion picture to
. the Rev. Mr. Stiggins, famous in the days cf Pick-
Wick- His " retiring into private life until he invests a
little capital of supper in the oil trade"—is (in more
senses than one) a rich ideas Poor Jo re-appears,
being the unfortunate wigbt who is ordered to " move
cu' (according to the intimation conveyed in the
'mere heading of the chapter) by one of the more &Hi-
- Aliens policemen. His account of the fate of the so-
• vereign given to him by Lady Dedlock is sufficiently
characteristic. A couple of half-crowns have been
shaken out of his rags by the policeman, whereupon,
'says Jo —e
" hey're root's left, Mr. Sangsby,' says Jo, out of
aov'ring as wos give me by a lady in a wale as sed she
,wos a servant and as come to my crossin one night end
• asked to be showd this 'ere owe and the ouse wet him
'as von giv the writin to died at, and the berrin ground
''root h 9 'a berrid in. She ses to me she ses "are you the
te
boy at the Inkwhich?" she ses. I ses " yes" I ses. She
4- s a
"can you show me all themplaces?"eato"me she ses
'and yes I can" I ses. And she EC3 to me '-do it,"
find it and she giv we a sov'ring and hooked it.
with *Ltilr° & had ranch of the sov'ring neither,' says Jo,
tears, fur I bad to pay five bob, down in
Change,
ac'cle's afore they'd square it fur to gtv me
the lan then
e eP
While I leansyoung man he thieved another five
and anda another boy he thieved ninepeuce
on it.'" ord stood drains round with a lot more
Poor
fellow I There is a melancholy truth in all this,
insonauch that. when Jo exclaims, "0 my eye ! where
policeman,
move to ?"in answer to the mandate of the
we are almost tempted to agree with the
costive
of Mr' Snegsby's objection, " Well ! really
_nstable, you know,—really that does seem a clues-
, leleo °. Where, you know ?" What falls from the lips
hot.poor Jo about the lady that gave him the save-
'RlO is likely to develope the plot of the story, falling
it does in the bearing not only of Mr. and Mrs.
loongsbv, but also of the disconsolate—and inquisitive
Mr- Guppy. The drollest passages in the number
' a.ro Guster's mistakes in the announcement, and sub-
sequently her intimation of the cabman's message--
aPectrally—as that of " one thousiag seven hunderd
and eighty-two." The most unaccountable circum..
Stance in the narrative is that of Hortense walking
shoeless through the wet grass.

CLAIRVOYANCE AND PRACTICALMES-
MERISM. By James Esdaile, M.D. Bippolyte
Bailliere.
As a remarkable illustration of that " feline tena-
city to life" facetiously attributed to mesmerism and
mesmerists, by the author, in the very opening sen-
tence of his preface, his own volume may be accepted
in testimony. It is, without question, one of the most
curious and, in some respects, one of the most extra-
ordinary works ever written upon clairvoyance. Every
page is crowded with startling reflections, and every
chapter with astounding incidents, facts (so called)
being therein as " plentiful as blackberries." Dr.
Esdaile, formerly Presidency surgeon at Calcutta, has
already appeared as a writer upon this enthralling sub-
ject—his " Mesmerism in India" having first directed
to his ability the attention of the rest of his profession.
His present work is for several reasons much more
worthy of consideration than its predecessor. The
-page is capital—the words of
motto upon the title
Cardinal de Retz—" On se tromps plus souvent par
sea roCances, que par se confiances. And certainly
the writer acts throughout boldly enough upon the
deductions from that thought—he is credulous upon
all matters tending to back up his argument, and na-
turally enough we will allow in several instances,
from the astonishing nature of acme among the
number of his revelations. His volume is somewhat
gracefully dedicated to the present Governor-General
of India, the Most Noble the Marquis of Dalhousie.
Altogether the book is of such a nature that we can
have but little doubt as to its favourable reception,
not only in the mother country, but in her depen-
dency of Hindostan.

MEMOIRS OF 2'HOMAS; IZOLCROFT.

Longrnans and Company.
A timely reprint of these very singular memoirs of
a man of strong natural powers, written by himself,
contributes a recent addition to the cheap and in.
teresting serial of the Traveller's Library. Already
that extraordinary series of publications has evi-
denced its claim upon the gratitude of the reading
public by a succession of brilliant, and many of them
masterly compositions. Among these are comprised
some of the finest of those superb essays of Macaulay,
`which first achieved for him fame in literature. Then,
moreover, there are " Laing's Travels in Norway,"
and Wills's collation of " Sir Roger de Coverley,"
and Ringlake's splendid " Eikhen," and " Hue's
Travels in Tartary," and " Holcroft's Memoirs."
The last-mentioned reprint now lying before us for
consideration cannot fail now-a-days, any more than
it did on its original appearance, to fascinate the
rdcu-
riosityeer of even the most careless and indifferent
by recounting the vicissitudes passed through
by a man of letters rising from obscurity to a re-
putation.

THE GENE ItaL rutin YV.-iys ACT-5 and
6 W. / V., c. 50, and the Statutes and Cases re
lating thereto, brought down to the Present Time,
1852, with 'lntroduction, Notes, and Index. By
Alfred A. Fry, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. Charles
-Knight, publisher (by authority) to the Poor- law
Board. 185'2.
This is a very useful manual for all surVeyors,
assessors, and others concerned in the administration
of the important department to which the work is
directed, viz., the General Highway s of the Kingdom.
11: he object of the yarned author has been to bring up
'0 the present time (he refers to an Act passed the
28th of May last, and a Bill thrown out only a few
N/eeks ago), the !statutes and judicial authorities re-
ferring to the governing Act, they and 6 W. Iv., 0.50.
In illustrating this one Act, the jibs shows in that,
that in addition to a considenble number of decided
eales, Mr. Fry hts been comp-41,d to refer to more
than twenty-five additional statutes, which directly or
indirectly bear on the important leading Act. This
ork is one of a most useful series, published by Mr.
Charles Koightacting in this respect a 3 publisher
4 mrhority to the P00r..1,w
13uzr !of floult,ll--,; ,i,..
.Board and the General
:lake the several itnpurtatit-, stvw, oa til'''''' "thit'etS
f a practical and popular
telligible and nese •
ssible to the lArge o'lfisses interested
elißra'cLier thoroughly in.