The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-10 00:00:00

LITERATURE,

Bradshaw's Railway Manual. Vol. XVI.

W. J. Adams.

As a sixteenth issue of a long established and
steadily improving and gradually expanding Book
of Reference, this edition for 1864, of Bradshaw's
Railway Manual, is very remarkable. The work
itself in its integrity has grown at length to the
goodly bulk of 436 very closely, but at
the same time very clearly, printed pages
—to which have been added 131 pages more,
in the shape of a highly elaborated appendix.
The precise nature of the manual as a Book of
Reference must not, however, be misapprehended by
those who are not already acquainted with the
work itself. It is no sort of guide to mere Railway
Travellers. Its purpose is the most aptly defined
by its second title, namely, where it is spoken of as
the Shareholders' Guide and Official Directory. It
contains within it, this compact but compre
liensive Manual, the succinct history and the
exact financial position of every railway
company, not only in this country, but in
the wide world—British, Foreign, and Colonial. It
gives, in an admirably, well arranged, and instantly
accessible form, an astonishing mass of perfectly
reliable, because, in each instance, carefully authen-
ticated statistics. It brings every date to which it
refers, down to the close of the year immediately
preceding the date of publication. Thus, the
Manual for 1864, now under consideration, has its
data brought down to the very end of 1863, to the
31st of last December inclusively. As indicative
of the facilities afforded by the book in the way of

ready reference to every matter upon which it
treats, it will be sufficient to remark that it gives,
for example, an alphabetical arrangement of the
whole administrative and executive staffs in the
Three Kingdoms. The work is thoroughly
well got up, and is corrected, so.far as we have been
yet enabled to scrutinise it, with careful, almost,
as one might say, with microscopic minuteness.
Several steel engraved railway maps, such, for in-
stance, as the maps of the British Islands, of the con-
tinent of Europe, of the peninsula of Hindostan, and
of a portion of North America, enhance the value of
the Manual as an easily comprehensible work of
reference. It is to be regretted, however, that
these folding maps are not (as all folding maps
ought in reason to be) backed with linen, so as to
secure them from the otherwise all but inevitable
casualty of getting gradually torn and defaced.

The Musical Monthly. No. 2. Arthur Hall,
Smart, and Allen.
Begun with the New Year, this charming and
varied " Organ of the Muses" has reached that test
of a new periodical, the second number. And the
instalment for January, now before us, justifies, we
cannot but think, the promise visible in the initial
instalment published with the magazines for
February. As to the diversity of the contributions
that eharacterise " The Musical Monthly," they
may be readily enough illustrate I by a mere passing
reference to the contents, or by a reference at
least to the pick of the papers comprised
within number two. An Editorial upon
" William Makepeace Thackeray," is followed by
another Editorial on " The Tercentenary Com-
mittee," meaning, of course, the tercentenary of the
birth of Shakspere. The latter critical, but dis-
passionate in tone, the former earnestly eulogistic.
Another paper, more of an essay than an editorial,
descants upon " Artificial Popularity." Then fol-
low the miscellaneous contributions among
them, wide enough in contrast to each
other, here " London Sights and Sounds,"
there "Paris Sights and bounds." Quite as
matters of course in such a publication, we have
papers on "Music,' we have " Musical Notes and
Notices," we have an account of " Operas and
Operettas." There are, besides these, literary notes
and notices, criticisms OR the portraits of Thackeray,
a foretaste of " The Forthcoming Season," a batch
of poetic trifles, and a couple of musical contri-
butions: the latter consisting of " A Hunting Song,"
very cheery and very exhilerating, and of a " Frost
Fairy Mazurka," illustrated. One thing we cannot
but regret in regard to The Musical Monthly,
namely, that it has not received an honest
English sub title, or no sub-title at all, in-
stead of being dubbed, as it is, with an air of
Frenchified affectation—" The Musical Monthly—
and—Repertoire of Literature, the Drama, and the
Arts." Why not call it rather than that, simply
Magazine," or, solely, "The Musical Monthly P"

THE SIGHT OF SIGHTS IN ALL LONDON—viz.,
Itlttenßow at the height of the Season in the Pick of
the Afternoon•—ghat are the famed Elysian fields of Paris
to Hyde Park at this high tide of splendour ? What the
cavalcade of the Bois de Boulogne, or the promenade of
Longehamps, to the long stream of equipages noiselessly
Tolling along the bank of the Serpentine ? Everybody in
London (worth naming) is being carried on wheels, or be-
strides pigskin girthed o'er hundred-guinea horseflesh, or
struts in bright boots, or trips in soft sandalled prunella, or
white satin with high heels. There is Royal Blood in a mail
phaeton. Royal Blood smokes a large cigar, and handles
its ribbons scientifically. There is a Duke in the dumps,
and behind him is the Right Reverend Father, in a silk
apron and a shovel hat, who made that fierce verbal assault
upon his grace in the House of Lords last night. There is
the crack advocate of the day, the successful defender of the
young lady who was accused of poisoning her mamma with
nur. vomica in her negus ; and there is the young lady her-
eel f, encompassed with a nimbus of petticoat, lolling back in
a miniature brougham with a gentleman old enough to be
her grandfather, in a high stock, and a wig died deep indigo.
Is that Anonyma driving twin ponies in a low phaeton, a
parasol attached to her whip, and a groom with folded arms
behind her. Bah I there are so many Anonymas nowadays.
If it isn't the Nameless one herself, it is Synonyma. Do you
see that stout gentleman with the coal black beard and the
tarnished fez cap ? That is the Syrian ambassador. The
liver-coloured man in the dingy white turban, the draggle-
tailed blue burnous, the cotton stockings, and the alpaca
umbrella, is the IViaronite envoy, The nobleman who is
driving that four-in-hand, and is got up to such a perfec-
tion of imitation of the manners and costume of a stage
coachman, has a rental of a hundred and thirty thousand a
year. He passes his time mostly among ostlers, engine
drivers, and firemen. He swears, smokes a cutty pipe, and
of his two intimate friends, one is a rough rider and the
other a rat catcher. Mr. Benazi, the great Hebrew Finan-
cier, you must know—yonder cadaverous, dolorous-looking
figure in shabby clothes, huddled up in that corner of the
snuff-coloured chariot, drawn by the spare-ribbed horses
that look as though they had never had enough to eat. He
is Baron Benazi in the Grand Duchy of Sachs-Pfeifigen,

where he lent the Grand Duke money to get the crown
jewels out of pawn. That loan was the making of Ben.
There is nothing remarkable about him save his nose, which
stands out, a hooked promontory, like the prow of a Roman
galle3 , from among the shadows cast by the squabs of the
snuff-coloured chariot. That nose is a power in the state.

That nose represents millions. When Baron Benazi's nose
shows signs of flexibility, monarchs may breathe again, for
loans can be negotiated. But when the Benazian proboscis
looks stern and rigid, and its owner rubs it with an irritable

finger, it is a sadly ominous sign of something being rotten
in the state of Sachs-Pfeifigen, and of other empires and
monarchies which I will not stay to name. What else ?
Everything. Whom else? Everybody.—Hr. Sala's new
story " Quite Alone," in Dwkens's" All the Year Round."
GO-A-HEAD-ITITENESS IN YANKEELAND, as
humorously defined by Mr. Sala in his last letter,
in the Daily Telegraph.—The only way to get on in
America is, having once paid your money, to insist on see-
ing the show. If you don't, the people will think you are
mean-spirited, and trample on you. See it. See the show.
Have the animals stirred up with a long pole. Pinch the
spotted girl, to see if it is real flesh, or only tights she has
on. Pick the kangaroo's pouch. Make the pelican bleed
again for your gratification. You have paid your money.
Don't be imposed upon. Take all. Halloa with strident
voice. Curse and swear in a land where execrations are
rife. Brag louder than the greatest braggadocios in the
world. If need be, lie—lie with a face of brass and lungs of
leather. " Crack up" your own country, to the detriment
of all others. Vow that we won the battle of Fontenot'.
Swear that Peter Morrison was the greatest philanthropist
of the age. Declare that Mr. Roebuck is 90 feet high. If
a man spits on your boot, spit on his waistcoat, and then
"guess that you didn't aim low enough." If you find his
letters lying about, read them ; if he tells you anything in
confidence, publish it in a newspaper ; keep on moving ; go
a head; go into business; smash; recuperate ; drink with
everybody; talk dollars from sunrise to midnight. Do
this, and the Americans will admire you, and you may
admire them. Tbey will say you are a "smart man,"
and at last you will be spoken of as a " remarkable"
man. But if you pay your money and don't walk up to the
booth ; if you are nervous and abashed ; if rudeness pains
and bestial manners disgust you ; if you strive to substitute
temperate argument for frothy declamation, and rational
proof for impudent assertion; and if you tell the truth, and
are modest and a gentleman—you can never hope for suc-
cess in this young, adventurous, and astonishing country.
You had better " clear out" before you are " run out."
You had better go home by the next Cunard steamer, for
you are clearly not fitted for the institutions and t.ho people
of the United States.