The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-01 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING-, DECEMBER, A;

LITERAT U.RE.

THE MAGAZINES.

Blackwood.—Another instalment (the twenty-
seventh) brings " My Novel" to the very eve of its
conclusion. Nearly two years and a half will hay
flitted by during the period of its serial publication
in " Maga"—eighteen or twenty months beautified
by the charms of this incomparable fiction, and,
through its agency, endeared by a thousand exqui-
site remembrances. We shrink from our arrival
at the close of the narrative as from a really cruel
deprivation. Eager as we are to learn the upshot
of the history recounted by Pisistratus Caxton,
we are loath to be separated from that monthly
commune with " The Anachronism" to which habit
has rendered us so delightfully accustomed. Im-
mediately upon the termination of " The Caxtons"
we hankered after some speedy sequel to the
Family Picture. Fortunately, many months had
not elapsed when the earlier chapters of " My
Novel" introduced us to a knowledge of the
Varieties of English Life as witnessed in the mot-
ley characters here grouped with a master hand
together—characters ranging from the peer, Harley
L'Estrange, to the peasant, Mark Fairfield ; from
the ruined genius, John Burley, to the powerful
statesman, Audley Egerton : comprising amongst
them, moreover, good Parson Dale and honest
Squire Hazeldean ;!the young officer in the guards,
Frank ; and the young civilian in one of the high
offices of Government, Randal ; besides acquaint-
ing us, moreover, with a Welsh homoeopathist, like
Doctor Morgan, and with an Italian refugee, like
Doctor Riccabocca—the rather proving, in reality,
Alphonso, Duke of Serrano, and Prince of Mon-
teleone. Added to the foregoing heroes, we
have been accustomed in the same " storied"
pages to meet with, again and yet again,
—the usurer Baron Livy, the poet Leonard Fair-
field, the manufacturer Dick Avenel, the ruined
soldier, Captain Digby, the tinker, the overseer,
the spendthrift, the adventurer, the valet—every
conceivable variety of class shadowed forth through
the medium of appropriate representatives. Among
the females introduced, whether as heroines or as
subordinate individuals, there have been the
Squire's Harry and the Parson's Carry, the gentle
Helen and the brilliant Violante, the vulgar Mrs.
Fairfield, and the elegant Madame de Nigra, the
haughty Lady Lansmere, and the simple-minded
Jeraima—and over all like a beautiful phantom of
the past, the memory of the gifted and lovely Nora,
the sister of Avenel, the beloved of L'Estrange,
the wife of Egerton and the mother of Leonard.
It is when we remember all these varied
creations in whose chequered fortunes we have long
come to be so profoundly interested, that we are
loath to be abandoned by them all at once, and
to find their names no longer adorning the familiar
pages of Blackwood. Fortunately, however,
there must come at least; one more instalment of
the narrative, in order to bring the intricate plot
to a conclusion. When completed, "My Novel,"
may without exaggerated praise be distinguished/
as " The Novel," constituting as it does not only,
the masterpiece in many respectg of Sir Edward,
Bulwer Lytton, but one of the most remarkable
productions in the whole range of our imaginative
literature. It is admirably said in the course of the
next contribution, when the writer in alluding to an-
other eminent writer of fiction, one of Bulwer's most
gifted contemporaries, now, alas! no more, that
"Cooper is agreater author,"the contributor adding
" he was a grand fellow in the prairie or the forest."
The remark occurs in the course of a review on
" Rambles in North and South America," by Ed-
ward Sullivan. A pleasant and readable magazine
tale is the one entitled " Major Moss," being, in
fact, a campaigning reminiscence. A criticism is
next given of the Rev. Frederick Meyrick's account
of the " Practical Working of the Church in
Spain." To the subsequent article, the one descrip-
tive of " Paris on the eve of the Empire," we would
most earnestly and especially call the attention of
the English multitude. Our recommendation
comes before the public, it may be remarked, some-
what appropriately, on the evening of this first day
of December, when the Legislative Body and the
Senate are to proceed to St. Cloud, to announce the
number of votes to Louis Napoleon, and greet him offi-
cially for the first time as His Imperial and Royal Ma-
jesty Napoleon 111., Emperor of the French, King of
Algeria, and Protector of the Sanctuaries. Besides
a political article, headed " The Manchester Move-
ment"—a paper too remarkable at the present
juncture, if only from the circumstance of its
appearance in the chief of the organs of Protection,
to be cursorily mentioned in our present glance at
the Magazine—there are some verses by a Day-
dreamer, a notice of " Aiton's Travels in the
East," and -a contribution oddly designated, "A
Puff off Pernambuco," the scribe of the last men-
tioned being one Harry Gringo.

Fraser.—A generous estimate is formed by
the writer of the first article, about the
career and character of " Lord John Russell."
Of that celebrated statesman it is aptly observed
(we presume by Mr. Francis), that "if he has
sometimes too cautiously picked his steps, he has
ever sought to walk in the light of the Constitu-
tion." The critic concludes his very able, and to
a considerable extent impartial, notice of the
ex-Premier, by remarking, that " without blind-
ing one's self to the great demerits of the Whig
leader, there is much in his career to prove that he
is actuated by a noble sense of duty ;" nor, he
thinks, can. we safely disregard, at a time when
events have led to a glaring and almost universal
inconsistency in public men, his pretensions, his
experience, his sagacity, or his disinterestedness.
Mr. Thackeray's new novel " Esmond, " is
rather commended by one of Fraser's reviewers.
A very curious paper is the one entitled " Ice-
land in the Year One. Thousand," and not less
so another, a little farther on, relating to " Nie-
buhr's Ancient History." Captaini Digby Grand
this month finishes his " Autobiography. There
is also for December, among the serials of the
Magazine, a very powerful and picturesque chapter
of " Hypatia " introducing 'us where ? into
Pandemonium ! We like the little story about
the " Magic Chessmen" (signifying nobody can
tell what), but not much the big one about " The
Empire in France." Our sentiments of distaste
for the latter contribution may possibly be trace-
able to our disrelish for scurrilities. As the politi-
cal article for the month, Regina, gives us a
valuable paper upon the question of " How is
India Governed.'

The Dublin University Magazine.—This num-
ber contains a great deal of interesting mat-
ter. "How I Married to escape being Hanged"
is an amusing incident, supposed to have occurred
in the Peninsula. " A Sketching Tour in the
Forests of Ceylon" is concluded, and affords most
desirable information regarding that country. The
biography of Tyrone Power is completed in the
third part, and details his melancholy fate. The
story of " Clough Fionn, or the Home of Destiny,"
also terminates. The most pleasing of the contents
is, perhaps the first article, entitled " The Bright
Spirit of Christmas," which is written in an ani-
mated strain, in conformity with the subject. It
is remarked :—" Christen: s is coming, the unfailing
visitor—the guest who never disappoints and
they slander him who compare him to an ancient,
for he is only old in the computation of years. He
has the ruddy life-bloom and elastic step of youth,
his lips have drunk at the fountain of immortality,
and the cause of his being and his name will be
remembered throughout eternity."

Ainsworth's Magazine.--The Lancashire Witches
has reached the eighth chapter of the third volume,
and relates "How King James hunted the hart
and wild boar in Hoghton Park." The chief article
is a Memoir of Alexandre Dumas, which will,
doubtless, be attractive to the admirers of
French literature. " Incidents in the Life of an
M.D." contains nothing either very original
or interesting. " Florence Hamilton " ap-
proaches its conclusion, and the present
number leaves its heroes and heroines in-
volved in serious and complicated adventures.
There is also the commencement .of a tale
entitled " Isabel - Milford," and the continua-
tion of " Velthinas." The only poetic con-
tribution is a " Rhenish Legend" by G. W. Thorn-
bury. A new romance by the author of " The
Confederates of Parma," is to commence next
month.

TREATY OF COMMERCE WITH FRANCE.—A corres-
pondent of the Newcastle Chronicle, writing from Paris,
says :—You will learn with pleasure, I know, that a
treaty of Commerce between France and England will
be signed in a few days. The duties on coals and pig
iron will be considerably reduced in France, and the
French wines, brandies, and silks, will be admitted in
England at a lower rate. This treaty would have been
-signed before this, but the English diplomatists wished
to prevail on the French administration to treat also for
cotton goods, cutlery, earthenware, and other similar
goods ; so far M. Bonaparte resists this demand. I must
say, nevertheless, that -by a project of law, at present
before the Council of State, the prohibition actually ex-
isting on earthenware and pottery goods, is replaced by
a certain rate of duty. We may therefore expect in a
very short time to see the commercial relations between
the two countries increase in a considerable ratio.
THE MinnLE CLASS IN CALIFORNIA.—Autong the
passengers by the West India steamer La Plata, was a
gentleman from • California. He states that the only
persons who are doing well there are the wealthy capi-
talist and the hard-working labourer. All engaged in
trade or traffic, with moderate means, are badly off,
owing to the number employed in it, and to the constant
glut of goods. Out of a ship-load of English emigrants,
about 300 in number, who went from this country to
California, about three year* ago, not above three of
them are d01.,* well. ,