The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-23 00:00:00

THE QUARTERLIES.

The Quarterly Review. No. CLXXXII. Murray.
Reference, as in regard to the foregoing periodical,
has already been made by us, in our leading columns
to the political paper contained in the current number
of the Quarterly. We have spoken in terms suoh as
we cannot but conceive to be of deserved reprehension
when alluding to the view taken by our Tory con-
temporary of the " Parliamentary Prospects"—a
view calculated, we conceive, to imbitter the feelings
of faction, and to throw impediments in the way of
the more patriotic and enlightened members of the
Derby Government. The object of the reviewer
would seem to be that of infuriating rather than of
conciliating the opposition. The old brand of insult
—flaming as furiously as ever with sectarian bigotry
—is flung once more with, as it were, a shout of in-
solent defiance, into the inflammable arena of Ireland.
Never was such insensate folly—folly so preposter-
ously calculated to rouse the worst passions of the
community, and to make the vast majority of the
people of the United Kingdom look with suspicion, if
not with actual hatred, at the existing Government.
As we have already intimated, however, we cannot
for an instant conjecture that the opinions here ex-
pressed by the Quarterly are those entertained by the
principal members of the Derby Administration, If
they are, the Cabinet is doomed to a very speedy
dissolution. Enough of this, however, and more than
enough. Lawyers will turn with interest to the
paper on " Lord Langdale ;" and ecclesiastics, and
lovers of virtue, and admirers of oratory, will peruse
with emotion the chapter dedicated to the analysis of
the intellect of "Dr. Chalmers." The contribution
upon the subject of " Gold Discoveries" comprises a
mass: of valuable information about the diggings of
California, and those also of Australia. Political eco-
nomists may be judiciously recommended to coon
the argument having reference apparently to the
" Irish Salmon," and to nothing else, but one which
embraces within its range the whole of the important
question of the protection and the cultivation of the
British Fisheries. Many besides Sir Charles Napier
will find matter of interest in the article on " Scinde,"
while Sir Henry Ward will assuredly be not the only
one disposed to peruse with attention the remarkable
chapter upon the "lonian Islands." A very singular
and philosophical paper upon " British Bards and
Stonehenge" will be examined, we doubt not, with
pleasurable surprise by many an antiquarian. The
following conjectures as to the Greek origin of the
mythology, and the worship, and the very language
of the Druids, are, to say the least of them, remark-
ably ingenious :

;Perhaps even the boldest speculations of men of
genius are seldom utterly wrong. The strange conjec-
ture of Inigo Jones, about a temple open to the sky in
honour of Jupiter Celsius, may have been in this sense
correct, that in such circles, nudaque sub athoris axe,
were worshipped, and perhaps represented, the element-
ary powers of nature. It requires scarcely a step to con-
sider such a temple as sacred to Apollo, the god of day.
Nor does it appear, after all, that there is any absurdity
in supposing some such megalithic structures in Britain
to have originated the floating legends which pissed
from mouth to mouth at a period earlier than Herodotus,
and for a century later, of a certain northern people,
who dwelt happily, and wore worshippers of Apollo. For
the island in which Hecalatos place) his happy dwellers
beyound the north wind is described as ' beyond Celtica,'
which, with deference to Mr. Herbert, wo think it no
breach of taith to translate Gaul. 'That is nearly the
situation wo want. The same people had a magnificent
grove.' So far the Druids correspond. They had also
a round temple: this might serve as a description either
Avebury or Stonehenge. Again, they had a certain
peculiar dialect; '—let any modern Greek pronounce
whether the Welsh language would not to his ear suffi-
ciently bear out this description. At the same time,
they had ofTerit gs with Greek letters ;'—and they use
Greek letters are Cas3ar's words of the Druids. But they
even understood the astronomical cycle introduced at
A►`hens by Meton: strange as this may at first sound,
when applied to the supposed barbarism of our ancestors,
perhaps the multa de siderum wotu may be held to indi-
cate that it is not really inapplicable. There are other
points of correspondence. The island, for,gexample, is
compared in point of size to Sicily—a comparison, which,
if intended of Britain, would be sufficiently accurate for
Greek legend, though not nearly so appropriate as what
is also said of climate. For it was the singular felicity
of the Hyperboreans that they lived sufficiently far north
to be beyond the cradle of the north wind ; their island
was mild; so our physical geographers still remark that
our climate is, from oceanic causes, far more temperate
than that of the continent in the same latitude. So many
points of correspondence ought to have been considered
with more respect. The sacrifice of asses may have been
either a local peculiarity or a Greek misconception.

- -
Further on, the reviewer says— " AVe cannot
doubt that there were Sillburys and Aveburys which
have the same kind of analogy to Argos and Dodrus
as the British Channel does to the Mediterranean."
The contribution is scholarly throughout, and consti-
tutes a brilliant introduction to the number of the
Quarterly for October.

The New Quarterly Review. No. IV. Hookham.
When referring to the masterly paper upon the
we took occasion very recently
tEoasctolmnmdieandQsti,uientoen;ms well deserved, the merits of
and, in many respects, intelligent pub-
ilhciastin ch.eap
Every, new contribution to English
to
literature of any importance whatsoever is examined,
sometimes cursorily, and sometimes—when the value
of the work seems to demand it—analytically. Nay,
not only the latest additions to English, but to Ame-
rican, French, and German literature likewise,
subjected to this rapid and, in most instances, are
ces
appre-
ciative scrutiny. Always correct in ude nt, we
j
could scarcely expect the New Quarterly to be—but
at any rate it seems to us upon almost every occasion
—even painstakingly conscientious. About half-a-
dozen articles of larger consequence than the rest, in-
troduce the more hastily written notices of a miscella-
neous character. Among those contributions having
pretensions to a position of importance is the one re.
ter
lating to the respective rights of "
reign and the Hindu Slave," The Trader - Sove
the
g.
p involvin
a cha
whole problem of the renewal of the Indian Charter,
and which we have mentioned in our leading columns
without" Book
with
hiasisctahen
ocitnha can
rAsorccfttio,:m:
enmalsnyei
ddn
edbaraeattbihtoli.denxe
edußepleltoseonindce
es thi an
article, there
appears to us to be too severe upon
Societies,"
too lenient to
advantage. Sometimes, in its literary criticisms,
New merit,"
againu'lfils its
~ dull merit," and sometimes,
arrogant and consequential mediocrity.
cal paartcilcutZ,and
intelligentthe work
digestn all essen-
beY4 object,
of current liters..
turf,

The Ctureli of England Quarterly Review. Painter, '
Frederick Williams has, by his recent volume upon
our iron roads, directed the attention of our reviewer to
what he cal:s the " Vice Ferrum, or the Highways of
the World," while Charles Nurivale has, by his his-
tory of the Romans, revived the interest of another iv
the remote age of " Julius C2csar." Both contribu.
tions—the one on modern improvements and the otht
on the rulers of antiquity—are perspicuously written
_ow.
and eminently suggestive. Better than either,
~..,
ever, in some respects are two other historical
mr
chai..itfie
ciams, the one on Miss Pardoe's memoir
The Political and
of
de Medicis," and the other on "The
by Dumas the
Alexandre
Private Life of Louis Philippe,"
_umas 23'
Dumas(; by the indf-fatigablethDe
gloomy, and efferves-
voluble, the gay, the
tender,
inexhaustible, atuhsetible, the Protean,
imaginative,
elvnatp t write,by the steam-
engine nt—by
e given in this criticism in re.
engine and print
anecdotes are of courseparminetsbwithsuerle telegraph. Abundant
ference to 1848 and the Revolution.

MYSTERIOUS SUICIDE Or Ai OUNG LADY.•-•FOr
upwards of a fortnight Fast a painfulk degree of excitement
ailtyQouf
eMenrh.
illthne, in consequence of the
ggs, a highly respect-
extraordinary disappearance of his eldest daughter, Mill
habalseplriecenaisleedd
llarriot Jane 13riggs, aged li, a young lady of some persona I
vi ni
c ttahael liesrm,
attractions ; and it was only yesterday that her lifeless body
was discovered River, a waterman, named Davis who found it
loopg in the a Eaet-lane otairs, Bermeultiey.