The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-27 00:00:00

SUN,

,JTI AT
HOLMFIRTII CATASTROPTIF.—FUDLIC MEET.
I_,. T MANciursTEß.—Yesterday, in compliance with a
'r3' numerously signed requisition, a public meeting of the
Hobert
of Manchester was held in the Town Hall&
...Oben Barnes, Eeq., the mayor, presiding.
for raising a subscription the meeting The object of
was to consider the steps necessary to be taken
fecers by the recent -
in behalf of the Surviving s.O .
WAS addressed by the citealawiv.
jity at Holmfirth. The meeting
derstield ; the Lord Bishol) 07i. Bateman, vicar of Hurl-
worth, Esq., Sir John otter, Manchester, James
Charles-
Thomas Bazley, Esq., the Rev.' rthe Rev. Canon Stowell,
'Richard Fletcher, the Rev. Dr. Rat, w• M' Grath, the Rev.
stt3oePa receivetl W
subscriptions, theBUi
Wray. RaeSOhlriOLlS expressive ,f el', and the Rev. Canon
pp inting a committee
oiAneeting separated
Ireree'caanrriead. -unnanituously. Before
donation of 200/.,
;bout 1,330/. was subscribed,!n.clu_di,ng
:A and sixteen of DWL each, with others of smaller
-urea. 1001.,
memorandum is fronclonithmeittCeeoin-
:—" The
ewith what th.eoyf
The following
litilli,tte". of Mexican Bondholders
pe, after
btlillean Bondholders have,
"Te to be the wish of theiirlicoc.ininstrintrumenittys, opened
:7)5004 for an advance on the Mexican assignment to It72%tiao-f.
tanateds earl
beat
the '°oo dolls. of the Americanlnduenmitneiatys,
_ arrival of the packet from the .
satisfactory result.
week ta, be able to communicate 3 .. - -
The failure was announced yesterday ot A. 1e.8.78.
a,:.11, Shoobridge, and Co., shawl-printers. Their liabilities
Clint to about 40,0001. or 50,0001., and as t.hteidsiffifecaurletdieathoef
asetel.have not been of recent growth, 1
I. Will prove small. " May no
fort ATRIOTIC TOAST AND SENTIMENT.
b %'ner ever be before us iu civilization, or behind us in
attit.,,_ Punch.
Coo WWII to
The "T E-LEcrons.---According to a .
Sit (3,111°118e of Commons (yesterday printed), obtained by
te. ttert lleathcote, the number of county electors regis.
i4`;',', for Property situated within the limits of each borough
The was 76,627, and iu Wales 4,948, making 81,775.
jeslt total county constituency in England is given at 396,967,
' in Wales 31,856, making 428,823.
retakra OF LADY CARDERY.—Accounts have been
lade:ved -from Ireland announcing the death of the above
edi.eilheekem,melancholy event took place at the family seat,
Carbery, on Monday, 23d inst. Her
ef tir."il3, who was in her 86th year, was the third daughter
Catherine
Saunders second Lord of Arran, by the Hon.
1 N. "eriee Anneslev,,daughter of William, Viscount Glenaw-
lei 'll.attlieds,thofarried, in January, 1783, John, sixth Lord Car-
e-our"' uy her Ladyship's death considerable estates in. the
seree Cork and Limerick, in which she held a life in-
tt, devolve upon the present Lord Carbcry.
bur RR SPITAL SERMON.—The Bishop of Manchester
kaveonsented to preach the sermon this year before the Lord
Corporation, on behalf of the Royal hospitals o
itt- eitY of London. The ceremony will take place on Easter
vadat
, 3'. at Christ Church, Newgate-street.
1er),,,,,,
Ge,.. -.AGE STAMPS FOR TUE RomArcs.--The Roman
atae;rnment have sanctioned the introduction of postage
ettosint for the pre-payment of postage on letters. The
It it.'"P is about the size of the English postage stamp ; and on
1110.,,,tePresentation of the tiara and keys, the badge of Papal
VL3r
..."' power.
S the FOR THE QUEEN'S ENGLISII.—It seems to
ce,
ap desire of our leading statesmen that the presshshc.
on.
tiew:,,oecasions use Parliamentary laegtl3ge' For t e
l.,ts
Will d‘,,,reputation of English literature we hope journa 1.
" ne such thing.—Punch.
~_ Alr A , ,
glee toy
in -"" VRTHOP/EDIC HOSPITAL.---T e
h annual
. a. ilefig of this charity was held yesterday in the board-room,
Ulm theq M.P., in the chair. By the report it appeared
receipts for the year amounted to 2,4181., and after
Rutting the
tou expenses. there remainerj. a balanceylarl9woa/s.
.4,33. cumber of patients admitted during the
1244041gng A Mal aiLICe the opening of the charity of

THE

THE ME TA HO RPTIOS CS OF APULEIUS.
A Romance of the Second Century. Translated
by Sir George dead. Longman and Co.
Already the student of letters had reason to be
grateful to Sir George dead for his translation from
the Italian of Cardinal Pacca's "Autobiography."
His present contribution to our imported literature
will, if possible, be still more peculiarly acceptable.
The " diViognislied foreigner" to whom Sir George
acts in the present instance in the capacity of drago-
man, is this time, however, no denizen of the nine-
teenth century, much less one among the eminent
ecclesiastics of Christendom. As the title-page,
or
rather as the mere title of the work indicates, it is the
volume of the " Golden Ass," penned by Apulc.iiiS of
Medaura us far back es that second century
when, standing as it were almost equi-distant
bAween the modern epecti and the days of
antiquity, the Pagan scholar watched—hime
self not altogether unmoved—the contentions
then raging among the opposing ranks of the. be•
lievers in classic mythology and the believers in
Christian Revelation. A Numidian by birth, and a
Roman by adoption, Apuleius acquainted himself at
an early age with the various phases of life during
his generation, by travels extending over a great part
of Asia, over Italy, and over Greece. His marriage
at Oea, a town situated near Tripoli, and passed
through by him when on his way to Alexandria,
of all, the most interesting among the chequered in-
cidents in his career—the most interesting, at least,
of those vicissitudes which have been.happily preserved
to our remembrance. It was in consequence of his
union with the rich widow Pudeutille, that he was
compelled by her relations to stand his trial on the
charge of witchcraft, a trial which actually took
place at Sabrata, in the presence of Claudius Maximus
the proconsul. How the accused vanquished -his
calumniators upon that occasion, what adroitness he
displayed in his defence, and what signal approval .he
wrested from his auditors, are facts already familiar
to those acquainted with his " Apology.' A con-
siderable portion, however, even of our educated
classes, may not be so well acquainted with the va-
rious and marvellous occurrences recounted in his
more celebrated " Metamorphoses"—being deterred
from the perusal of a volume in all other respects
fascinating, by the crudeness and the disagreeable
imperfections of its Latinity. Many are doubtless
aware of the leading events iu the life of Apulciue,
who are, for the reason mentioned, altogether
ig-
norant of the real charms of his literary master!.
piece. In rendering, the " Golden Ass " into
our vernacular, Sir George Head has effected for
old Apuleius what was originally effected in a similar
manner for old Rabelais by Urquhart. His transla-
tion reads throughout clearly and unmistakably as a
translation—many of the sentences having a construc-
tion as purely Latinized as any in the prose writings
of Milton—but it is scarcely a jot the less admirable
on that account, evidencing, as that very circumstance
does, its careful and scrupulous accuracy. As a ver-
sion from one tongue into another, the volume before
us is remarkable fur its faithfulness : and the story,
or " romance," as it is not unhappily termed by the
translator, suffers nothing from its transformation
from the incorrect original into a fluent and at times
eloquent example of our own language. Than the
" Golden Ass," or, as Sir George prefers to call it
simply, "The Metamorphoses, there is no more preci-
ous curiosity preserved to us from the waxen tablets
and scrolls of papyrus, upon which were first indited
the intellectual treasures of antiquity. Allowing
for a little anachronism, it is precisely the work
which, having been unheard of by moderns until
then, it would have been appropriate to have dis-
covered in the subterranean city of Pompeii, or of
Herculaneum, to have found a copy of it lying,
for example, upon one of the tables in the house of
Sallust. It admits us into secrets elsewhere impene-
trable. It unfolds before us the whole routine of the
daily life of the pagan multitude, during the second
century of Christianity. Through its pages we are
enabled to follow the Roman of that age, within those
domestic limits presided over by the tares and
penales, as well as into the sanctuaries of that mystic
worship in which he proffered his homage to
one or other among the principal divinities of the
Pantheon. We stand by him on the hearth,:we walk
with him through the forum, we follow him into
the fields, we accompany him even in the behest pre-
cincts of the most sacred temples of his religion.
Everywhere the doors are flung open by the hand
of the Romancist as we track his steps in the mean-
dering course of his narrative. And what a narrative
it is! abounding from first to last with the marvel-
•lous, replete with poetry, both of thought and of ex-
pression, and coloured with the most gorgeous dyes
of fiction, dyes unsurpassed in brilliancy even by the
variegated splendour of the "Arabian Nights En-
tertainments." Occasionally, indeed, there is per-
ceptible in the " Golden Ass" a kindred richness of
imagination to that revealed in that oriental encyclo-
pedia of fiction—as, in truth, is actually remarked
by the present translator of Apuleius, when in the
fifth episode we find mention made of the talking
water, calling to mind the babbling fountains and
warbling leaves mentioned, if we remember rightly,
in the tale of one of the One-Eyed Calendare. It is
also observed with some show of reason by Sir George
Head, that in the narrative of the soporific vapour re-
enclosed by Cupid in the box of Proserpine, Chamisso
may have obtained his first notion of the devil rolling up
and carrying away the shadow of poor Peter Schle.
mil. Further on in the story, in fact, towards the
close of it, it is observed in a footnote, that Le Sage,
in his " Gil Bias," has been greatly indebted to the
" Metamorphoses," as may he recognised in a glance
at the record of the cave of robbers, of the captive
damsel, and of Dame Leonarda, While we are al-
luding to these singular and interesting coincidences,
we may briefly refer to that description, at page 358,
of the piper " sounding a warlike Doric melody upon
an instrument, which, mingling a heavy buzzing
sound with the sharp blast of a trumpet," is here
supposed to have indicated " the origin of the bag-
pipe." Those who may still be unacquainted with
the fascination of this wondrous fiction of Apuleiue,
will find, on an examination of the present volume,
that Sir George Head has afforded them reason to
be thankful for one of the most bewitching books
that pagan wizard ever penned for the delectation
of Christian as well as infidel reader. Following
in it the fortunes of Lucius, it is impossible not to
become very speedily interested in his welfare and
his misfortunes, even prior to his memorable transfor-
mation into An Ass, namely from his departure,from
Corinth to his interview with the two traysllerA,
to his arrival at Hvpata, to his admission into 11Iilo's
house, to his acquaintance with his mother's friend
Berrbteno to his flirtations with the servant maid
Fotis, and so on through the incident, at first terrible,
Ibut at last ludicrous, of his arrest and trial for the
murder of three citizens, up to the fatal moment
when he watched the witch Pamphile change herself
into an owl, and thereupon endeavoured himself to
emulate:her transformation. By Fotis's mistake in the
selection of the magic ointment, however, Lucius
becomes metamorphosed into a donkey, and thenceforth
come all those sufferings and vicissitudes which only
terminate with his restoration to his original shape by
eating some roses during the procession of Isis, shortly
after which he is initiated into the mystic rites of
that goddess and of the divinity Osiris. Those who
have never themselves glanced through the pages of
this celebrated volume can have no adequate concep-
tion of the abounding fancy of which it is the expo-
nent. The ingenuity of the plots, the alternation of
the sources of excitement, the diversity of the charac-
ters introduced, the surprises that are constantly
startling the reader into attention and kindling a new
curiosity as to the denouement —are all of them qua-
lities by which the work is peculiarly and plentitully
distinguished. From the commencement of the nar-
rative to its conclusion, you burry on with an eager
and
mineisnotr.iesewelitntho
perpetually increasing anxiety, solicitous through-
out for the happiness of the unlucky wight Lucius,
who seems
ee.sever doomed to calamity and disappoint-
with the gardener
sufferings with the robbers, his escape, his
religious impostors, with the baker,
confectioner—cacti wofith the soldier, with the cook U13(1
donkey, enlists our warmest
stages in his career as a
until the moment
Isia, he is relieved from the rough
when, through
sympathies in his behalf
torments consequent on
the beneficence of,
his metamorphoses. As leanntienaudditional attrac.
of LuocfiAusr,isitos
m onead to a story in itself
various
attractive,. episodes
must not omit to enumerate the v
which the main history, thatwwithe
the Student,":
inter-
spersed—such episodes as the ',Tale
the Commercial Traveller," that of it Diophane;
the Chaldean,' that of " Telephron
that of "The Robhert,"e
,t,ofveiathkeerdwsittehpnithaotsheaorf,,,f
theo
" Rural Tyrant," of the
the " Woman Condemned to be thrown to Wild
Beasts," of the " Singular Punishment of a Crimi-,
nal," of the " Death of Charity and Tlepolemus"--
and, best of all, that exquisite story of " Cupid and
Psyche," which is the most beautiful legend preserved
to us anywhere of that lovely old mythology. Perhaps
the most unsiitisbctory portion of the whole of the
worlvunder review, is that descriptive of Lucius'
initiation into the Pagan mysteries--the
those secret rites being little more than a jumble of
morphoses of Apuleius" to
ambiguous insinuations. accou.nst of/.
By presenting the " Meta
vi in the
guise of an elegant and literal translation, Sir George
Head has conferred a benefit
laden, a benefit for
-
be eager to proffer his acknowledgments.

ANALYSIS AND CRITICAL INTERPRE-
TATION OF THE HEBREW TEXT OF
THE BOOK OF GENESIS. By the Rev.
William Paul, A. 41.
While engaged in the study of the Hebrew la&
gusge some years ago, it occurred to the writer of
this volume that a very useful work might be com-
posed to assist the learner, having the Hebrew•-text of
Genesis for its basis. Under this impression he com-

menced the present analysis, of which a favourable
opinion hes been expressid by c:,,mpetent judges. It
con;Bins a Hebrew Grammar sad Paradigms of
Verbs. Tho introduction, which is in three parts,
treats of the genuineness of the Pentateuch, and an
investigation of the structure of the Hebrew lsn-
guage. Of the analytical portion the author observes
in the preface :
"lii-thiq part of it every word is analysed, num-
bered, and indexed. In the first chapter all the accents
are marked, their names and powers given, and the rea-
sons assigned, when the words are accented contrary to
the general rule. In the first three chapters, all the
words are written in the English as well as in the
Hehrowsharauters, and sylk bled, in ord9r to lessen the
difficulty of reading
the Hebrew text. Throughout the
whole of this part of it the principles of the structure of
the Ittngertge, laid clown in the third part of the intro-
duction, are illustrated; and likewise the principles of the
vowel points contained in a grammar which precedes it.
The great difficulty that the student meets with in the
acquisition of the Hebrew !angling° arises from the fact
that.ull the words are new to him. This difficulty can
only be mastered by attention and perseverance. There
is no royal road by which it can be .avoided. In the
study of more modern languages, particularly those
which are cognate, and which have common roots, a
stock of vocabies way be obtained with comparatively
little difficulty. in Hebrew, however, every word may
bo said to be new to the learner; its similarity to words
in other languages being seldom obvious to him at the
commeecerneur of the study. He will likewise find
words, previously known, connected with fragments of
pronouns, or other words, which modify or alter their
meanings, and which greatly disguise theirforms, and
often prevent him from again recognising them. Deri-
vatives are few in Hebrew, compared with those in the
Tudo-European languages; and compound words, that
is, those which are made up of two or more distinct
.werls,•are almost unknown, so that the knowledge of
one word helps the learner but to a very few others."
Having thus shown the difficulties of the student,
the author proceeds to remove them as far as possible,
by showing the principles of the composition of words
and the general structure of the Hebrew language.
The work must prove of the greatest assistance to the
learner, who will derive most valuable information
from the various divisions of the volume.

ACROSS THE ATLANTIC. By the Author of
" Sketches of Cantabs." Earle.
The reader is informed in the preface of this book
that it is a " light work." It concerns America, and
will'probably turnish very useful information to those
desirous of extendiog their 'acquaintance in the new
world. The style is free and easy ;it describes the
social systems, the mode of carrying on transactions,
and the domestic habits of the Americans.

A DISCOURSE ON CHURCH GOVERN-
MENT. By the Most Reverend John Potter,
Archbishop of Canterbury. Revised and Cor-
rected by the Rev. John L. Crosthwaite. W. Tegg
and Co.
This is the eighth edition of the work in question ;
it was originally published in 1707. The fact of its
remaining in existence for upwards of a century,
speaks of itself for its value and merit. The inten-
tion of the author was to establish the knowledge of
the principle upon which the Church of England,
ever since the Reformation, has maintained her
rights, and the just prerogative of the civil magistrate.
The following are the subjects treated of :—The na-
ture and constitution of the Christian Church ; the
foundation and government of the Church whilst
Christ lived on earth ; the government of the Church
in the time of the Apostles ; from their time till the
time of Constantine the Great; and lastly, the powers
which belong to the Church. In its present form the
book appears with increased attractions, as it has been
illustrated with additional notes and authorities.
The students of theology must be interested in such a
publication, and will doubtless derive great assistance
from its learned treatises.

HISTORY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CEN
TURY. Vols. VII. and VIII. By F. C. Schlossel

Translated by D. Davidson. Chapman and Hall.
We here meet with an extensive plan of history.
The period extends from 1799 till 1815. The sub-
jects included are the countries of Europe during that
eventful time. All the plans of Napoleon are related,
his campaigns dwelt upon, and the unprecedented
effeets they prciduced upon all the kingdoms of the
continent carefully particularised. The work
being originally by a German, it is not much to be
wondered at that there is great partiality shown for
hisiatherland. Oa the other side, the admirers of
Napoleon will doubtless be disappointed that the great
Emperor is so often slightingly spoken of. However,
to obtain a correct opinion of history both sides should
be perused, without permitting the mind to be biassed
by any peculiar or national prejudices, which must
inevitably present themselves in details so near our
own days. In attentively studying the work before
us much valuable information will be gained by those
who have hitherto only read over the summary of the
chief events, instead of gradually watching their de-
velopment and tracing them to their finality, noting
down their influence and estimating their advantages.
As a most useful and interesting chronicle of impor-
tant epochs, these volumes will be duly appreciated.