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 such 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
prisikipal 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 conn
the argument having reference apparently to the
" Irish Salmon," and to nothing else, but one which
embraces within its range the whole of the ieportant
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 Ccelus, may have been in this sense
correct, that in such circles, nudaque sub ertheris 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 passed
from mouth to mouth at a period earlier than Herodotus,
and for a century later, of a certain northern people,
who dwelt happily, and were worshippers of Apollo. For
the island in which I:leen:m.ls placel his happy dwellers
beyound the north wind is described as beyond Celtica,'
which, with deference to Mr. Herbert, wo think it no
byeaeh of faith to translate Gaul. That is nearly the
situation we want. The same people bad' 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 offeritga with Greek letters ;'—and they use
Greeh letters are Caesar's words of the Druids. But they
even understood the astronomical cycle introduced at
Athena by Meton: strange as this may at first sound,
when applied to the supposed barbarism of our ancestors,
perhaps the meta de siderum motu may be held to indi-
cate that it is not really inapplicable. There are other
points of correspondence. The island, for,lexample, 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 wiad ,• 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— "We cannot
doubt that there were Sillburys and Aveburys whioh
have the same kind of analogy to Argos and Dodru!
as the British Channel does to the Mediterranoenasnti.
The contribution is scholarl throug o
bout, and
Quarterlyttes a brfor
i an t
October.introductiyon to the number of the

The New Quarterly Resiew. No. IV. Hookham.
we took occasion very recently
uienstitoenrsms well deserved, the merits of
When referring to the masterly paper upon the
tEoasctolrorini'dieandQ,
this cheap and, in many respects, intelligent pub-
lication. Every new contribution to English
literature of any importance whatsoever is examined,
sometimes cursorily, and sometimes—when the
of the work seems to demand it—analytic ll valueNay,
not Frenchnl the latest additions to English, it—analytically.
I. A
rican, , and German literature l'ku to'
emaree.
subjected to this rapid and, in most instances,iew le'
appre-
ciative .crutiny. Always correct in judgment, we
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
Charter,,Bu_ooguk
pretensions to a position of importance is the one re-
ewal o f the
thi
third
Indian
upon
lating to the respective rights of " The Trader-Sove-
reign and the Hindu Slave," a chapter involving the
and which we have mentioned in our leading columns
whole problem of the renewal
with words of merited commendation. Besides
this
article, there is another of considerable excellence p
" Modern Taste in Art," and a
Societies," which can scarcely be turned to
advantage. Sometimes, in its literary to without
criticisms, the
New Quarterly appears to us to be too severe upon,
dull merit," and sometimes, a
~
arrogant and consequential gain, too lenient to
mediocrity. In
essen-
tial particulars, however, the all
being a careful and intelligent work fulfils its object,
being
digest
of current Mere-
ture.

The Church of England Quarterly Review. Painter.
Frederick Williams
va has, by hie recent volume upon
our iron roads, directed the attention of our reviewer to
what he calls the ti Ferrum, or, theh Highways of
the World," while Charles xrl
tory of the Romans, revived the interest has,
of another btihsebriis;
the remote age of " Julius Ctesar." oth contribu-
tions—the one on modern improvements and the other
on the rulers of antiquity—are perspicuously written
and eminently suggestive. Better than either, how-
ever, in some respects are two other historical criti-
eismq, the one on Miss Pardoe's memoir of " Marie
de Medicis," and the other on " The Political and
Private Life of Louis Philippe," by Alexandre
Dumas?; by the indefatigable Dumas—by Dumas the
inexhaustible, the Protean, the voluble, the gay, the
wild, the tender, imaginative, gloomy, and effervei-
c ,nt—by Dames wto surely =A write,by the steam-
engine and print by the electric telegraph. Abundant
anecdotes are of course given in this criticism in rem
ference to 1848 and the Revolution.

MYSTRAIOI3B S. UICIDE OF L YOUNG LLDT.--FOr
upwards of a
.fortmght past a painful degree of excitement
has prevailed in the family of Mr. Briggs, a highly respect-
able licensed victualler, at Queenbithe, in consequence of quo
extraordinary disappearance of his eldest daughter, Mimi
Harriot Jane Briggs, aged a young lady of some personal
attractions ; and it was only yesterday that her lifeless body
was discovered by a Waterman, named Davis, who found it
#paliDg ill the River, at EUt4aiie stairs, Bermouclion