The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-15 00:00:00

FEL SUN, LO NDO ?i7, FRIDAY EV E iNG, JULY 15, 1864

trails. There was also something cut of the corn-
mon order of farewells in the nature of the spot in
which this leave-taking took place. "We shall
recall," said Mr. KEAN, " with peculiar gratifica-
tion the fact of having given utterance to the lan-
guage of SHAKSPERE sixteen thousand miles from
home in a populous city, built upon a spot which
thirty years ago was a lonely wilderness." Nothing
could attest with greater force as to the spread of
culture and the march of mind than the fact of the
plays of SHAKSPERE being appreciated in that new
world where the Anglo-Saxon race has taken root.
It seems as if the prediction of MACAULAY had
already been realised when ho said that the litera-
ture of England would be read with delight by the
" unborn millions who will cover with cities and
gardens the Caffrarian and Australian deserts." It
is satisfactory in every poiat of view to contemplate
this scene in Australia. It is pleasant to think that
though earth's extension intervenes between us and
the inhabitants of that continent, the same tastes
may pervade our lives, and the works of our
immortal bard may there, as here, be recog-
nised and appreciated. " Whether we shall
meet again I know not, therefore an everlaste
ing farewell take," were most appropriate
words in which to conclude, and Mr KEAN showed
his usual discernment and discrimination in select-
ing them. It is a very commendable practice for
our great actors to pay visits to our distant colonies,
and thus form a connecting link, as it were, with
home and abroad. Mr and Mrs KEAN have always
been favourites in this country, and their many
friends and numerous admirers will rejoice that
they have met with so cordial a welcome and so
flattering a testimonial to their abilities in Aus-
tralia, If Mr KEAN intends in reality to retire now,
and rest on his laurels, he could not have mad? a
more fitting conclusion ; and if he still proposes to
continue for a time his histrionic labours this visit
to a distant sphere, where the triumphs of the
English tongue are witnessed, will be an episode in
his career which will long live in his memory e,nd
hold a conspicuous place in the chronicles of his
career hereafter. It must be considered that this is
an appropriate year for Mr KEAN to have been in
Australia, and that it is a further proof and a more
extended exemplification of the universality of the
genius of cur great writer, that while the people of
this country were endeavouring to do honour to the
birthday of that " dear son of memory and great
heir of fame," the inhabitants of a distant spot also
csncurred in offering their tribute of applause and
approval. He lives not for one age, but for all time ;
and it is the chief merit of his unrivalled produc-
tions that they are now as applicable to the events
of life and the characters of men as when they were
first penned. It is a great boon to our colonists
that they should hear the works of the great writer
interpreted by so groat a master of his art as Mr
CHARLES KEAN.

A strong feeling is prevalent at this moment
that, with all our apparent sympathy for the
Southern Confederacy, we permit the Northern
army to be recruited from among our own people,
on our own soil, with impunity. We open our
eyes and look with suspicion on British built iron
clads, which, says rumour, arc for Jnre. DAVIS'S
Government; but our vision is dimmed, and our
hearing not over sensitive, when British born
subjects are inveigled, by a species of false pre.
tense, to enter the ranks of ABE LINCOLN'S army.
Has England become lost to all sense cf honour ?
Will she forget that from her honour has sprung
her greatness? She should not then permit the
breath of suspicion to tarnish the mirror which
reflects it. lizaidcs, if eho were guided by no
other policy than mere selfishness, she would
keep the bone and sinew of her country
at home. There are "'breakers ahead," and with
all our desire for peace, we know not from day io
day how coon we may have to prepare for war.
\Ve are of those to whom " coming events cast

their shadows before," and no long time will elapse
probably, before the British army will ba called upon
again to uphold the honour of their country. And

it is well here to consider how far the defects in the
organisation of our army might prejudice its in-
crease so far as recruiting would be concerned. We
think the position of the private soldier has less in
it now to induce enlistment than when England
was less wealthy and less great as a nation. The
two things to be looked to as a means of drawing
the working-classes into the army by voluntary
enlistment, are promotion and pension. The oppor-
!unities for promotion from the ranks we know to be
very limited, and as the British army is constituted
it would be very unwise, of course, to adopt the
French system. Men naturally, then, look to what
they would be likely to receive, either as present
pay or as pension, when, from wounds or length of
service, they may be thrown back again upon the
world. NV ill it be sufficient to keep them from
begging their bread, should failing strength pre•
vent them from working ? We unhesitatingly say,
No. How can it when the pension for length of
of service is only eightpence per day ? England
has not acted wisely or well towards the
private soldier. The case of the poor old
man, BoFF, for whom an appeal was lately
made in the public papers, is a disgrace to Eng-
land, and not likely to be forgotten whenever a call
for the army is required. We are not alone in this
opinion; we are borne out in our views by the
author of a pamphlet called " The Court-Martial,"
which, in the form of a satirical drama, deals very
ably with the subject, although we do not admire
its entire principles. JOHN BULL is a prisoner, and
brought to trial " for conduct unbecoming the chae
ratter of a gentleman (ha being the personification
of the mind and will of the British people and their
sole representative)." Among the witnesses is JOHN
HORSNIAN, a pensioner, who is examined as to the
long service pension. When asked—" Had you
served longer than twenty-one years, would you
have received a higher pension ?" He replies,—
" Any man who liked to serve longer, and waa able,
got a halfpenny a day for every year; but
few men were able. Twenty-one years'
soldiering is living three years for two.
Marchings, camps, bivouacs, and Indian climate
bring on rheumatic pains; the joints get stiff; the
pack gets heavier ; younger men pass you in the
double; and there is a gradual failing (yet unseen
to others) in the physical powers, that really few
men are fit for active soldiering. Besides, has the
soldier, after twenty-one years' absence, no home
that his heart yearns for ?" Anothor pensioner,
THOMAS ATKINS, is asked," What are your service,
corps, and pension ?" " I served twenty-one years
in the Rifles, and have eightpence a day." JOHN
HAWK, a recruiting sergeant, is asked, " As a re-
cruiting sergeant, do you consider that the present
low rate of pension affects the recruiting ?'' " Yes,
most injuriously. Formerly a comfortably-to-do

pensioner was the best of advertisements, whereas
❑ow the young fellows point at the pensioners, and
gibingly say, And be turned off like him when we
are old.'" The writer of the pamphlet, whoever he
may be, is evidently a man who has had opportn-

nities of knowing the feelings of the private soldier.
The arguments do not come from the pen of a
novice. Would it not be well, then, for our Govern-
ment to consider how far the present system of pay
and pensions will affect the future? Whether, with
a prapeet of protection in old age, those men who

are being beguiled by Yankee boast to join the
Federal ranks would not remain at home and be
ready to shoulder a musket and wield a sword in
defence of "Old England," should their services be
required? The subject is, at the very least, worth
agitating.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

LIMITER'S TELEGRAMS.]

DENMARK.

I. •

The Bar Sinister. A Tale. By Charles Allston
Collins. 2 vols. Smith, Elder, and Co.
A delightful humorist, and one, moreover, whose
verymanner has about it an exhilarating animation—
Mr. Charles Allston Collins, whenever he comes to
us book in hand, is invariably welcome for his own
sake : and not alone for the sako of those others, the
mere thought of whom, nevertheless, with ourselves
at least, enhances the attraction of his own name, sur-
rounding it, so to speak, upon each of his title-pages
with a very halo of pleasant associations. Associa-
tions with some among our most treasured memo-
ries, both in the world of art and in the world of
literature! And, what makes them dearer to us yet
—memories of what is essentially English Art and
intensely and expressly English Literature. It is
cot, however, simply—it :Is not, however, by this
time even mainly—because of these varied and
charming associationszonnected with his very name,
that Mr. Charles Collins is always sure now-a-days
of a cordial welcome, when he proffers a new work to
cur consideration, It is as that arch-wag of keenest
observation, " The Eye Witness''—it is as that
eccentric gentleman who once upon a time made a
certain memorable "Cruse Upon Wheels," that he
can now always claim our regard and command our
attention whenever he lists ! And not simply, as it
might have been at the outset—as tho younger son of
a groat national painter, as the younger brother of
a distinguished novelist, or last, and far from least,
as the son-inslaw of incomparably the greatest
Humourist in the whole range of our Eng-
lish Literature. For himself alone, for his own
sake that is, apart from all these delightful associa-
tions he could not fail to be welcome, as he
is welcome—and that, moreover, himself as Artist,
as Novelist, as Humourist. Here in this very book
new submitted by him to our consideration, indeed,
is ample testimony of his possessing, in his own
right, certain rare good gifts in each of those capa-
cities. " The Bar Sinister" is a tale, happily,
without any sinister termination. In spite of the
evil omen hinted by its title, it ends completely
to the reader's satisfaction. Speaking dramati-
cally—the Time, in it, is about half a year in
duration—the Scene is French for the most part
—while the Characters, at least the chief among
them, are English. The hero and heroine of the
tale may be acid, at any rate, to stand forth to view,
in the picture here presented to us, may be said
lo stand forth conspicuously to our view upon a
French background ! Toe hero a major in the
English army, the heroine a young lady, who in
tier whole manner, no less than in her whole
appearance, is entirely and essentially English !
The latter, it is, who has frightfully revealed
here, upon her otherwise stainless escutcheon
—The Bar Sinister ! Madeleine is her name, the
name of this Mademoiselle d'Elmar, who is first in•
ti educed to us (as the reader' of the tale), as indeed
she is first of all then introduced to Mejor Trelane
(as the hero of it)—one rainy, sombre day, upon one
of the broad gravel walks of that stately, old, de-
serted gardeu surrounding the ancient Palace of
Versailles, The plot of the story is admirably well
contrived. The interest of it concentrates (all through
it) upon the loves.and lives and fortunes of Henry
frelane and Madeleine d'Elmar. How those loves
and lives and fortunes of the two are effected
favourably or unfavourably, by the other characters
of the story, be it the tale-teller's own especial pro
yince and privilege to relate—not ours. Sufficient for
oar purpose will be, if mention is hero duly made of
the principal among these other motley personages.
Happiest and best amongst them all, as delineations
of eccentric specimens of humanity, are, indubitably
to our thinking, Mr. Charles Collins's limning of
good old De. Lehoelf, the Versailles Physician, and
of his whimsical factotum Monsieur Morlot—their
relationship to one another, as master and man,
beiug somewhat akin to that noticeable between
two otherwise very different characters, indeed,
queer old Jackeyme and the immorted Riccabocca!
Madame d'Elmar, en invalid widow, the
aunt of Madeleine, and their faithful attendant,
as bonne or ladies'-maid, Victorine—make up the
I little household in which the heroine is, of course,
the central figure. Opposed to their interests,
and to the interests also of Major Trelane, are—
Madame d'Elmar'e brother, Captain d'Elazar that
is, and his fortune-hunting associate, Lieutenant
Teonchet, The haunting, shadowy, spectral
Escaped Convict is here again, in this new story—
as inevitably as in Victor Hugo'3 " Les Miseiables"
or in Charles Dickens's " Great Expectations."
Here, however, in this minor tale by the younger
novelist, the for cat from the bane is more, as we
may say, merely hinted at, than actually seen.
He it is, however, who is at the heart of the
plot! He it is who gives rise to the
title of the tale—as the brander upon Made-
tine's escutcheon of The Bar Sinister ! With-
out attempting to supply anyone with the
questionable advantage of a mere broke:, bit of the
clue gnidiog the reader through all the intricate
windings of the labyrinth of the plot, we here
prefer rather,by a few illustrative extracts, to afford
our reader, with a view to his becoming thereby
afterwards the reader of" The Bar Sinister," speci-
mens of Mr. Castles Collins's " quality" as the
writer of this tale, but more particularly with speci-
mens of his quality in his capacity as a humorist.
Here, then, as our very first quotation to this end,
take the following delicious morsel of fun, descrip-
tive of—