The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-12 00:00:00

_LONDON,

QUARTERLIES

THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. No. CL.XXX.
A more admirable number of this distinguished
periodical has not for a considerable time past made
its appearance, Diversified as the eleven articles
constituting the contents are, they are each of them
marked by -intelligence, three or four of them being
upon their, respeCtive subjects really masterly disserta-
tions. A delightful chapter, in which " Sir Roger
de Coverley" as edited, from the " Spectator," by W.
Henry Will, is passed under very genial criticism, is
followed by a brief paper publishing for the first time,
"The Garland," by- Horace Walpole—a curiosity of
literature for which the Quarterly is indebted to Mrs.
Bedford, of Upper Seymour-street, the wife of the
.grancleon of Walpole's confidential deputy in the Ex-
chequer.: Written in 1761 in the most adulatory.
style - towards - the King, this " Garland " con-
trasts strangely enough with the " Memoirs
of George III.," written in 1760, and penned in a
tone scarcely less than scurrilous towards the Sove-
reign. It reveals a deplorable insincerity in " lorry's"
nature„ and must tend more than anything yet
brought to light, to injure his reputation. A review
of the Diary of General. Patrick Gordon," is fol-
loWed again by a slaughtering attack upon some
" lt,:cent Epics,"—lnfling ,mince-meat of poor
Joseph Cottle's " Alfred," no less than of the
" Alfred " of John Fitchett, attorney-at-law, and
client of the muses—whose name was presumed by
himself to be numbered with thoie of Homer, Virgil,
and Milton. Then, again, William Richard Harris
suffers castigation for his " Napoleon "—a sort of
soluipedalisn rendering'of Alicon into metre. "The
Sacred Incidents " of some behemoth of a bard cal-
ling himself "Psychologist," are likewise considered
with careful attention—the critic unfolding in their
regard a priiject entertained by the author
such as if realized would have utterly eclipsed the
'Crystal Palace and its contents, the Great Exhibition
—yielding 1,000 per cent. and unfolding to the
ravished sepses. of the beholders a quarter of a mil-
lion of square feet of pictures (representing every in-
cident from the Creation to the Resurrection), these
pictures in their turn being illustrated by a poem and
creed (delivered by a first-rate elocutionist) of proper-
tiouate dimension I "Imagine," says the Quarts
Review,—
" Imagine Psychologist in his rostrum and the pictures
in front of him—the crowd with one eye on the painted
scene, and the other on the ' author and designer' en-
thusiastically acting W.—fancy his frenzied declamation,
and The band accompanying him in the musical inter-
ludes'—and suppose all this to be continued for three
consecutive days before the same spellbound and enrap-
tured audience, and it is impossible to deny that it would
have been, as the prospectus promised, the most novel
spectacle ever presented to an English public.' The
nearest approuch to it—for, we believe, the famous
tragedy in 25 acts, composed by Nat Lee in Bedlam,
never reached the stage—seems to have gratified the
dAys of Goldsmith, who paid five shillings to hear some
Psychologist of Lilliput read a printed ode, of which
Johnson said that bolder words and more timorous
meaning were never brought together.'"
The solemn passage in which the author of this
colossal epic of epics- claims to himself the copyright
of all bis ideas of these illustrations, is altogether too
rich in its way to be omitted. Listen :
" This work having been written with the intention of
its, bring produced before the public in the form of read-
ings or recitations, to be accompanied by a complete
series of dioramic representations—and upwards of two
hundred and fifty of such, to illustrate the first two
volumed., tieing now in progress by the author—he is
desirous of giving his own pictorial rendering to the
conceptions contained therein, in order that his meaning
stonld be folly eirib.ciied. He therefore makes the sub-
jects herein imagined to be copyright with the poetry, until
such retririction'is removed."

Well may the critic remark that the notions of
Psychologist as to monopoly and copyright " are
evidently on a par with the rest of his
ideas ",--seeing that .he has in the above
paragraph solemnly issued a decree that " no one is
to paint a picture from any chapter in Scripture be-
tween the creation and the Red Sea until he shall be
pleased in the plenitude of his power to dissolve the
injunction!" The Rev. Henry Stubbing is not alto-
gether oveilooked for the temerity with which he has
given to the press a work rather profanely entitled
" Jesus ;" another wight, Thomas Hawkins to wit,
being subjected in lik- manner to a literary flagellation
for the nine books which he blasphemously designates
".The Wars of Jehovah in Heaven, Earth, and Hell ;"
while-the critic, in addition to all this, ventures to
break a lance in the name of" Luther" with the Rev.
Robert Montgomery. The article is altogether one
of the most slashing, and sparkling. and satirical dia-
tribes on " Recent Epics " that could well be desired
by the most vehement antagonists of that bathos which
has been happily termed the Art of Sinking ! The
subsequent contribution is a masterly treatise on the
" Progress of Comparative Anatomy," opening with a
panegyric on the immortal founder of the science, one
of the giant minds of England, the great John Hun-
ter, and afterwards recounting the very wonderful
development of the science consequent on the re-
searches of Richard Owen—the celebrated professor
upon whose shoulders the mantle of Hunter is not
incorrectly said to have fallen, and who is nobly and
aptly styled the Cuvier of this country. One anec-
dote reentioned here of Owen is worth repeating.
When he meditated returning to the navy as a surgeon,
having been formerly on the books of the Admiralty
as a midshipman, the young anatomist called upon his
eccentric instructor Abernethy, to bid him farewell
What is all this?' said Abernethy—' Where are
you going?'
" Going to sea, sir.'
" Going to sea—going to the devil!'
" I hope not, sir.
"'Go to, sea! Yon had better, I tell you, go to the
devil at once'—reiterated glorious John—dwelling on
the temptations, the difficulties, the loss of time and
fame that must be the result of so rash a step, and in-
sisting on another inter view after the pause of a week.
Owen revisited his rough hut downright friend at the
expiration of that time, when Abernethy proposed an
appointment in the College of Surgeons. This was ac-
cepttd—our youthful anatomist found himself happily
associated in congenial labours with one of congenial
mind";; and so the navy lost a good officer, and science
gained one'of her brightest ornaments."
Some among the more memorable results of the re-
searches of Professor Owen are thereafter enume-
rated. Political articles in the Quarterly for the
present instalment of the year range in subjects from
the " Bohemian Embassy to England, Spain, &c.,"
in 1466, to " The Old and the New Ministers" of
1852. A timely chapter is also given about " The
Cannon, the Musket, and the Rifle," with incidental
allusions to other fire-arms. " California versus
Free-trade" is the title of another contribution ;
and, after an historical reference to the " First Ten
Years of the Reign of George III.," suggested by
the" history" .of Lord-- Mahon, by the "Grenville
Papers," and by tha-" Memoirs" of the Marquis of
Rockingham, the Quarterly indulges itself in a
somewhat sareastio_critieism on the last romantic vo-
lume about the " Restoration," from the pen of M.
de Lamartine.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.
GREAT NORTHERN.—TOWN'S LINE.—The public and
the shareholders in this company will be glad to learn
that this line. is now likely to be soon completed and
opened for traffic, the various works on the Retford and
Hougham eontracts, about thirty miles in length, being,
by direction of Sir William Cubitt, under the manage-
ment CfMr. •Billinton, C.E., of Wakefield.
Co*tswAu..—An extraordinary meeting of this cora-
paoy is to be held on the 21st inst. to consider and de-
teranne upon the step-% to be taken for constructing the
main line from Plymouth to Falmouth, the Board of
Trade haVing . authorised the abandonment of the
branches undeithe provisions of the Railways Aban-
donment Act, and the reduction of the capital autho- ,
rised by Parliament is 1846 from 1,600,0001. to
1,125,000/.1 It is stated that eminent contractors are
willing to µndertake the construction of the line within
the estimate. This line will join the South Devon Rail
way at Plymouth, and complete the line of railway com-
munication from London to Falmouth and via the West
Cornwall Bailway, pow in course of construction, to the
Land's End. -
Dupla& . AND KINSTOWN.—On Saturday last the an-
null meeting of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway
-Oompany.was held in Westland-row, Dublin; James
- Viagee,--131., in the chair.. The treasurer read a state-
meta of, the accounts for the past half-year, together
with the report and long statistical tables of the working
.-Of fhe Concern. The report having been adopted, a di-
viciond of 31. per cent. was declared for the half-year
ending the 29th of February last; this, with 41. per cent.
for the previOus half-Year, makes a dividend of 71. per
cent, on the capital of the company for the year just
ended. Thanks were voted to the directors and officers,
• when the Meeting adjourned.

VErrima.TlON or THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.—
Ori Saturday the first report from the Select Committee of
Vie House of Commons on the ventilation and lighting of
the House was printed. The Committee state that, "in
consideration of the urgency of the case they have, since the
eommenceinent of their sitting, sat four days every week,
and have made a per.sonal inspection of the works connected
of tile First. t
withthe Ventilation of the `entire building. They regret to
state;, that tlief are not at present in a condition to suggest
:anl tpecifie alterations, either in the ventilation or lighting,
Comiuittee—mr
Tilee4lated. Permanently to remedy the defects complained of.
t,,noweVer, recommend that during the recess Dr. Reid
°"0 Ild be allowed to effect the alterations described in his
Committee do noteth
rePort, under- h-
e supervision and subject to the approbation
Commissioner of Works and two members of the
received ur, to iilStephenson and Mr. Locke. The evidence
present moment being incomplete, the
arilarnetimk it desirable to report it to the House;
The-commt.t. re-assembles they will resume their
Norreys, Lord 11„ rigt°ll'
but when P
reene;
Mr. J. L. Ricardo, Sir
miscount: of Lord John M.anuers,
Deedes, Mr. li. Hope, Viscountripvenor, Mr. Cochrane, Mr.
Mr. Henry Drummond.
I DjN,aiber
no. übTras.m.G"
almerston, Mr. Bankes, and
, _ .. ..
Tbe'llampshzre fnclepenclent, Of Sat d
"No little consternation has been caused duruirngath, week by
the sudden disappeararnaFemoafnAir. co
' rnelius Stovin,e fwoeresome
ears rapt the geu_e_. L
~
.ager
. of traffic on the South-
y r0_..,,..._. .T_ he 144C/caters have
.Ave.,t;ul 144111%. 4), , 1, v- , 1 not trimvired, ba
, ,11 ,I. ~_ . ~: , it. Irv; stui •
olv„
are
iiii,zuh A
~ , . . ed tor Ataerie,S, that
out of some old affairs have difficulties arising__
no ,_____ e caused his de-
partare, and that there are known deficiencies affecting
i the eailyrityo9lllPsP3't ' . '