The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-11 00:00:00

LITERATURE,

Ihe Nodes Ambrosiance. By Professor Wilson.
Vol. 111. of tno New and Popular Edition. Wm.

Black wood and Sons.

Another instalment of the glorious l'coctes brings
the work down to the thirty-second symposium
Ambrosianyi, that 32d being the one published
in 1832 in the November number of Blackwood's
Hagazine. Every fresh dip into the torrent of
the Great Professor's Elcquenee here poured
forth by him, "at his very best," in these
wonderful Nights of Ambrose, only enhancing
our wonder no less than oar admiration at
the abounding vivacity, vigour, and vitality of
the masculine genius therein displayed. It is not
simply that, in the Nodes, John -Wilson, under
the alternating characters of the supposed interlo-
cutors, discourses according to the whim of the
moment, "from grave to gay, from lively to severe"
—it is rather that he roves at will as Christopher
North, as Timothy Tickler, and still more mar-
vellously as The shepherd, from the wildest extra-
vagances of fun and frolic to the profoundest intro-
speetions of philosophy, from an indulgence in
the most pitiless and excruciating satire to a
manifestation, again and again, of the tenderest
sensibility. And what diversities of theme, he here
plays a perpetual game of intellectual shuttlecock
with, among those Ambrosian interlocutors, but
more particularly among that same wondrous
triumvirate of talkers, North, Tickler, and the
Shepherd. Literally, " from pitch and toss to
manslaughter" is nothing to it ! Turning over the
382 pages of the third volume of this new four-
volumed popular edition of the Great Work, what
do we instantly 'light upon as among his themes,
every one of them chance•chosen ? Why, almost
cheek-by-jowl, a relishing discussion of " Welsh
Rabbits" and wild cries of " Murder ! murder !" be-
because of a swarm of bees i❑ and under Tickler's
bonnet ! Here, in rapid sequence, culled from the
Quarterly, a " Boozing Buffoon," a " Brainless
Bigwig," and a " Jackass Braying !" Now " Will
and Intellect"—now "Ales and Oysters !" It is, in
effect, a marvellous repertory of erudition and comi-
cality, fitfully or genial sardonic an astould-
bag jamble-up-together of horseplay and meta-
physics, conviviality and scholarship, the like of
which there is not anywhere discoverable, we
believe, in the whole range of ancient or modern
literature. As the illustrative frontispiece to
Vol. 111., we have an engraving by Lockyer from
Sir John Watson Gordon's life-like portrait of
James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd : the original
of which portraiture is among the glories of that
IViaga Gallery of Portraits adorning the walls of
the great publishing house at 45, George street,
Edinburgh.

Sketches of the English Constitution. Edited
by J. S. Laurie. Thomas Murby.

Sketches of Political _Economy, Edited by J. S.
Laurie. Thomas Murby.

Two cspital little handbooks have here, in these
tiny vo:umes, been excellently well put together
under the supervision of one of her Majesty's In-
spectors of Schools, one no less skilled both as an
Inspector and a Compiler than Mr. Laurie, the able
Editor of the Graduated, and also, of the Standard
Series of Reading Books. The Graduated Series of
Reading Books as published volume after volume
by the Messrs. Longman and Company, we have
repeatedly had occasion in these columns to com-
mend, as a work admirably adapted to fulfil its
express design, that, namely, of insinuating know-
ledge. Quite in as cordial terms can wo speak
now of the companion guides and handbooks here
provided for the respective use of Teacher and
Learner by Mr. Laurie—these rapid, but sufficient
sketches of " Political Economy" and the "English
Constitution." \Ve regard them—perhaps from the
simple fact of their being so wholly unpretending
in their character—as important additions to the
store of thoroughly good school books now provided
in such extraordinary abundance for the Boys of
England, books admirably well calculated to
facilitate the intellectual development of those boys
into intelligent Englishmen.

A Basket of Fragments. By a Quondam Author.
Richard Bentley.

Although these ninety small pages of Fragments
are apparently the last sweepings from a tolerably
well-siftedjumble of notions, jotted down from time
to time in the anonymous _writer's common-place
book, they are not by any means what one would
call common-place. Mere intellectual crumbs though
they are, they are still wholesome food for thought.
Take a few of them, culled haphazard—" God's
religion is love—man's is censoriousness." Or again,
"The great man is known as much by what he does
not do as by what ho does." Or, "Is it not neces-
sary that ministers should frequently hear sermons
as well as make them ?" Or—wonderfully apposite
at this moment—" It seems as if nations were still
in their caildhood; they quarrel and fight about
trifles." The little book is so far doubly worth
publishing—that it is deserving of being read, and
while read (this, by the way, not being by any
means the case in regard to every book) is deserv-
ing of being thought over. Most of the reflections
in it are aecidedly original, some of them very
felicitous.

The Elements of Mechanical Physics. By J. C.

Buckrnaster. Chapman and Hall.

The author of this wonderfully lucid little
treatise, recently a student in the Government
School of Mines, is now a Certificated Teacher of
Science by the Department of Science and Art.
He is, besides this, Examiner in Chemistry and
Physics at the Royal College of Preceptors. Mr.
Bucxmaster has already, moreover, been lecturer
in his time both in Chemistry and in Physics to the
Evening Classes at the Royal Polytechnic Insti-
tution. He is therefore thoroughly competent to
undertake a compilation precisely of this character.
He carries his credentials appended to his name
upon his very title-page. But the work itself in
its 183 pages of systematised explanation is his
complete justification in having compiled it. He
begins with the beginning and works his
way, and therefore his student-reader's way,
through all the mazes of Mechanical. Phy-
sics. Starting with an epigrammatic defi-
nition of Statics and Dynamics, he afterwards
defines almost as tersely Form, Gravitation,
Weight, Mass, Density, and Volume; and so,
having cleared the path before him descants inbrief
but sufficient chapters upon the Centre of Gravity,
upon Levers, Wheels andiAxles, Momentum, and so
forth : until after the Elements of Mechanical
Physics have thoroughly been explained, Mr.
Buckmaster throws in, by way of supplement, a
companion treatise on the Elements of Hydro-
statics. The letterpress is rather thinly sprinkled
with woodcut diagrams that might (it is the only
objection we have to make to the work) have been
multiplied;with considerable advantage alike to the
author and his readers,

INCREASE IN THE EXPORT TRADE OF LIVERPOOL.
—From an official entry which will appear this day
in the Liverpool customs bill of entry, it appears that the
exports of British and Irish goods from Liverpool in the
month of February last amounted in value to £5,271,736,
being an increase of £466,106 over the same month of 1E63.
The goods were exported in 305 against 322 ships engaged
in February of the previous year. The exports to the
United States show a falling off of nearly £200,000.

The flock of alpacas presented by the Government
of the Equador to the Emperor of the French, are
now at the Zoological Gardens, in the Bois de Boulogne,
and having recovered their appetite enjoy excellent health.
The director has been informed by a telegram from Mar-
seilles of the arrival of a second flock from the Equador,
brought by the corvette Cornelie, of the imperial navy.
Twelve of the 17 embarked at the Equador have arrived
safe, after a passage of seven months. M. Drouyn de Lhuys,
president of the Zoological Society, has received a promise
from the Peruvian Government that the Governor of the
province of PUIID, which produces the finest alpacas, shall
select 50 of the choicest and present them to the Emperor
of the French.

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HER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, March 10.

The Queen and his Majesty the King of the
Belgians, accompanied by their Royal Highnesses
Princess Helena, and Princess Louise, attended by
Lady Churchill, the Hon. Mrs. Bruce, Lord C. F.
Fitzroy, Col. H. Ponsonby, Count de Moerkerke
and Dr. Koepl, left Windsor Castle this morning at
ten o'clock for London.

Their Royal Highnesses Princess Beatrice and
Prince Leopold, attended by Lady C. Barrington,
the Hon. Harriett Phipps, Colonel the Hon. C. B.
Phipps, and Colonel Sir 'l'. M. Biddulph, left the
Castle at nine o'clock for London.

His Royal Highness Prince Alfred, attended by
Major Cowell, arrived at Buckingham Palace on
Wednesday night from Edinburgh.
His Royal Highness Prince Arthur, attended by
Major Elplainstone, arrived yesterday morning
from Greenwich Park.

The Queen accompanied by Princess Beatrice,
left Buckingham Palace for Marlborough House
at five o'clock to visit the Prince and Princess of
Wales, Her Majesty afterwards drove to the Pad•
dington Station of the Great Western Railway to
proceed to Windsor Castle.

The King of the Belgians remains at Bucking-
ham Palace.

Dresses Worn at the Christening of the

Royal Infant.

The Queen wore a black silk dress, covered with
deep black crape, and edged with jet gimp; a cap
of white crape lisse, i❑ the style of the cap of Mary
Queen of Scots, with diamonds round it, and a long
white crape lisse veil attached to it.

Her Majesty wore the ribbon, star, and badge of
the Garter, a diamond necklace, and large cross
containing the Prince Consort's miniature, and a
brooch composed of a large sapphire set in twelve
large diamonds.
Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales wore
a white satin dress with ruches of tulle and two
flounces of rich Brussels lace decked with flowers,
water lilies, ferns, and grasses ; a tiara of diamonds,
necklacs,b-ouch and earrings of pearls and diamonds
A corsage of the City diamonds round the top of the
dress ; the Portuguese order of Isabella, and the
Victoria and Albert badge.
The Princess Helena wore a white satin dress,
trimmed with a deep flounce of old lace, white roses,
lilies of the valley, and green leaves ; a diamond
and opal necklace with the Portuguese and Victoria
and Albert Orders. The headdress was of flowers
and diamonds to correspond with those on the
dress.

The Princess Louise wore the same as Princess
Helena, but with diamonds and turquoises.
Princess Beatrice wore a white satin dress, and a
velvet band on her head with lilies of the valley.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge
wore a voilot velvet dress trimmed with ermine
head-dress of violet velvet feathers and diamonds ;
stomacher, necklace, and earrings in diamoncld.
Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess of
INkckleuburg-Strelitz wore a dress of white gros
o'Afrique trimmed with point lace; headdress com-
posed of white feathers with tiara of diamonds and
sapphire; necklace, stomacher, and earrings of dia-
monds and sapphire.

Her Royal Highness the Princess Mary wore a
white satin dress, with tunic of Brussels lace,
trimmed with water lilies. Headdress, a diadem of
diamonds and water lilies. Stomacher, necklace,
and earrings of emeralds and diamonds.

His Majesty the King of the Belgians wore the
uniform of a Field Marshal.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales wore a
General's uniform, with the collar of the Garter,
His Royal Highness Prince Alfred wore a Naval

uniform.

Their Royal Highnesses Prince Arthur and Prince
Leopold were attired in Highland costume.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge
wore the uniform of a Field Marshal.
The Ministers of State and the Officers of the
Royal Household all wore their full dress uniforms,
and the principal members of the order of knight..
hood wore the collars of their respective orders.