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

SUN,

LONDON,

QUARTERLTES
THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. No. CLXXX.
-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 Wills, 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 Aire.
Bedford, .of Upper Seymour-street, the wife of the
grandson 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 1766, and penned in a
tone scarcely less than scurrilous towards the Sove-
reign. It reveals a deplorable insincerity in " Horry'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
" Recent Epics,"—making 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 he numbered with those of Homer, Virgil,
and Milton. Then, again, William Richard Harris
suffers castigation for his " Napoleon "—a sort of
sesquipedalian 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 project 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 senses of the beholders a quarter of a mil-
lion of square feet of pictures (representing every in-
eident 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 propor-
tionate dimension I " Imagine," says the Quarterly
Review,—
" Imagine Psychologist in his rostrum and the pictures
in front of him—the crowd with ono eye on the painted
scene, and the other on the author and designer' en-
thusiastically acting it—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 spell•bound 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 Leo in Bedlam,
never reached die stage—seems to have gratified the
drys 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 his 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 being 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
volumes, being now in progress by the author—ho is
desirous of giving his own pictorial rendering to the
conceptions contained therein, in order that his meaning
should be fully embodied. He therefore makes the sub-
jects herein imagined to ie copyright with the poetry, until
such restriction 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 abeve
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 Stebbing is not alto-
gether overlooked 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 like 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 inthe name of " Luther" with the Rev.
Robert Mtintgninery. The article is altogether one
of the most slashing, and sparkling, and satirical dia-
tribes 'ore" 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 Coniparative 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 fallent and who is nobly and
aptly styled the Cuvier of this country. One anec-
dote mentioned 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
eceentric instructor Abernethy, to bid him farewell :
" What is all this?' said Abernethy---' Where are
you going?' ; • 5
" Going to sea, sir.'
to the devil!'
I Go Going
hope
to not,St eoti siY-ong
r.'gu°ihad 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 interview after the pauso of a week.
Owen revisited his rough but downright friend at the
expiration of that time, when Abernethy proposed an
ns.
associated in congenial labours with ono of congenial
cappointment
nb
u tt
hh feu Cl
oal ni eagteo ofm i s St
ufroguenor i mis‘ ehli es wh
aapi a
pi
c-
mind; and so the navy lost a good officer, and science
gained ono 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 the " Memoirs" of the Marquis of
Rockingham, the Quarterly indulges itself in a
somewhat sarcastic criticism on the last romantic vo-
'nine about the " Restoration," from the pen of N.
de Lamartine.

RAILWAY . INTELLIGENCE.
GREAT NORTIIERN.—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 tho Retford and
Houghem contracts, about thirty miles in length, being,
by.direction of Sir William Cubitt, under the manage-
ment of Mr. Billinton, C.E., of Wakefield.
PontswALL,L-An extraordinary meeting of this com-
pany is to be held on the 21stinst. to consider and de-
termine' upon.the steps to be taken for constructing the
main litre from Plymouth to Falmouth, the Board of
Trade hoing authorised the abandonment of tho
branches under the provisions of the Railways Aban-
donment Act, and the reduction of the capital autho-
rised by Parliarnent in 1846 from 1,600,0001. to
1,125,000/. It is, stated that eminent contractors are
willing to undertake 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 froin London to Falmouth and via the West
Cornwall Railway, now in course of construction, to the
Land's End.
DIJBLit.e-Alth Kfisfirowtt.—On Saturday last the an-
nual. meeting of, the Dublin and Kingstown Railway
Comptcyyip,t 'held' in Westland-row, Dublin; James
ilitagest,,Esq„ in the chair. The treasurer read a state-
meet-cif -the accounts for the past half-year, together
nwith-the -reportund long statistical tables of the working
of the concern. The report having been adopted, a di-
vidend of 31. per cent. was declared for the half-year
ending the 29t t of February last; this, with 4/. per cent.
fur 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 adjotirned.

i -
'I,7I3:4TILATION or THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.—
On Saturday the first report from the Select Committee of
the louse 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
tornmenEement of their sitting, sat four days every week,
and have filade-a personal inspection of the works connected
with the Ventilation of the entire building. They regret to
state tliat- they are not at present in a condition to suggest
any speCific alterations, either in the ventilation or lighting,
Caleinated-permanently to remedy the defects complained of.
They, however, recommend that during the recess Dr. Reid
should:_ be allowed to effect the alterations described in his
n,:o
ni%
i.Fuier
es First
..sitsespi ohneenrsoonf laVuoar IA:
is
ra. ni,doct
Locke.
_,l,)srt: under the supervision and subject to the approbation
evidence
fentheee
received MTenihebeer:
up to the
Committee do present moment being incomplete, the
but when Parliament
think it desirable to report it to the House ;
labours." The ornent re-assembles they will resume their
Mr. T. Greene, Viscount consists of Lord John Manners,
Denham Norrey 3,
Lord
Ebrington, Mr. J. L. Ricardo, Sir
Deedes, 11,r. U. 110 p% .rislt. Grosvenor, Mr. Cochrane, Mr.
Mr. Hairy Drummond:
count Palmerston, Mr. Bankes, and
'
The Hampshire independent,
"No little consternation has been of
Saturday, states—
the sudden disappearance of Dar caused during the week by
the ,general * Cornelius Stovin, for some
3„,*ears pall' .1 - The manager of traffic on the South-
,. estern'..at.evay. particulars have
that Mr. Stovin has -
we are informed of
some sailed for America, not transpired, but
that
difficulties arising out old affairs have caused his de-
thto there Ate no knowa. a . .
paOurek and ,,_ oficteuctea affecting
the riiIWAY C0i331)4137t