The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-03 00:00:00

THE MAGAZINES.

TAIT' S MAGAZINE.
Tait shows to great advantage this month. The first
article, ►which is of course political, and put forth at a
most seasonable juncture, is entitled " What sort of
Government are we to have r and tells certain stern
home-truths, which will act as a sort of choke-pear to
some of the more squeamish, vacillating class of Re-
formers. After indulging in some sly, caustic ridicule
about " crises," wisich we are assured " have occurred
as frequently within the last eight years as eclipses in a
Belfast almenack—that is, about one to each calendar
month," our Radical friend proceeds to discuss the mo-
mentous question, what sort of Government the country
is likely to have? Lord John Russell he considers as
" disposed of, having incapacitated himself for being a
*ember of any Ministry, by taking up his position on
finality." Of Lord Melbourne he entertains a more fa-
vourable opinion, observing that " the Reformers might
at this time better spare a better man." He is, how•
ever, by no means unduly enamoured of his Lordship
as a politician, for he states expressly, that no man
pretending to the name of Liberal, even in the
most Whig-ridden communities, can longer hold up his
face to give the Melbourne and Russel! Cabinet an un-
qualified support." The remainder of the article is in
this uncompromising strain ; and though we dissent
from some few portions of it, yet we cannot refrain from
bring our testimony to the skill and vigour with
which it is written. " The Maids of Honour"is smartly
written, but the subject is a painful one, and had better
been let alone. The " Ale-house Tap" is a tolerable
parody on Byron's noble lyric, " The Isles of Greece."
We are glad to see the continuation of " Blanche Dela-
mere." It is something better than a mere Magazine
tale ; and the character of the heroine is forcibly and
consistently supported. " Visits to remarkable Places"
is a graceful series of descriptive sketches from the pen
of William Howitt. The account of the visit to the
Scenery of Wordsworth's poem of the White Doe of
Rylstone abounds in entertaining matter. De Quin
cey's essay on " Greek Literature" is clever, but
crotchetty. We demur to the spirit that pervades it,
which is one of exceeding captiousness. " Pedestrian
Tour in the United States of America" contains a gra-
phic descriptive account of, what the writer calls, the
" fur-famed Broadway" of New York.

THE RAIL WAY MAGAZINE.
Wyld, Charing Cross.
This very useful periodical contains, as usual, a large
fund of information respecting railways, and steam ope-
rations of all sorts. Whatever is going on in the various
parts of the kingdom, and indeed in the world, with re-
forence to this rapidly spreading mode of intercommuni-
cation, is here concentrated, as it were, into a focus,
and exhibited to the public at a cheap rate, and in an
intelligible form. In the Number now before us, there
are several original papers of considerable interest in a
practical view, among which we mention " Observations
on raising additiqaal Capital and Loans by the Editor;"
" Atmospheric Resistance to Railway Trains, by Mr.
J. T. Racket ;" and " Archimedian Stcam-vessel and
her Performances, by George Rennie, Esq."

-
THE FOREIGN MONTHLY REVIEW.
This is one of the most promising of our newly-
started monthly periodicals, and one which is absolutely
requisite to the necessary dissemination among us of an
extended knowledge of the rudiments of Continental
Literature. As it has yet but reached a second num-
ber, it would be premature to decide upon its merits
farther than that it more than realizes the hopes we
conceived of its success from a glance at the first num-
ber, which appeared in May. The Reviewers are
moderate in their opinions, and sparing in dogmatic cri-
ticism ; wisely preferring to exhibit their authors where
not imperatively called upon to appear themselves.
The Review of Count Toreno's ponderous history of the
civil war in Spain, with which the number commences,
is at once the most anti-gallican and the most moderate
that has yet appeared. Thi arises from its dealing
only with facts, instead of following the beaten
track of ranting about opinion and circulating scan-
(Watts anecdotes. In the Review of M. Bignon's His-
tory of France under Napoleon, we have the goes-
lion of Russia's oriental policy ably handled, along
with the means by which only it can be success-
fully counterVAiled by England. The Reviewer
warns us against trusting to the co-operation of France
azainst the aggressions of the Czar, assuring us that
France would find in the occupation of part of Egypt
what would reconcile her to the possession of Constan-
tinople by the Cossacks. It is remarkable that we
should meet with a similar avowal in a leading article
in the National of Wednesday- last, and yet such in
reality is the fact. In the open hostility of Russia the
Reviewer sees no cause of serious alarm. " The
British Navy would," he thinks, " in a few weeks,
sweep the military and commercial marine of Russia
off the seas. Two British squadrons at the Dardanelles
and the Sound would" starve the empire ; our mere re-
fusal to take Russian tallow—and it would be no diffi-
cult matter to find a substitute in South America—
would compel the Emperor to accept our terms, at the
risk of his Crown and life. The rent paid for the pas-
turage of the cattle which supply this tallow, forms the
chief source of the revenues enjoyed by the fierce and
haughty Aristocracy of Northern Russia ; and involved
as most •f them are in debt, the interruptienlof the
isillow-trade would drive them to ruin, to madness, and
to rebellion. The safety of Turkey rests in Russia
herself, and the secret can be preserved no longer." But
though there is little danger to be apprehended from
Russian hostility, there is a great deal to be feared from
Russian intrigue—a subject which the Reviewer, com-
menting on M. Bignon's admirable history, treats with
much ability. " Literary Contemporaries at 'Weimar,"
is a delightful gossiping article, in which we are intro-
duced, for the hundredth time, to the most intellectual
Court circle in the world, and of which Gothe forms
the chief luminary. The " Lyric Poets of Germany,"
and the Review of Dr. Hermann Ulrici's criticisms
on the genius of our own immortal Shakspere, are both
articles which will be profitably consulted. The Lite-
rary Notices for the month include the principal works
publisbed in the Freineh, Spanish, Italian, German, and
Russian languages.

THE CHRISTIAN REFORMER.
Sherwood and Co.
The present number is of great bulk, swelled princi-
pally by Attorney-General's speech in the appeal
before the House of Lords in the Lady Hewley case, a
pleading of great moment from the weighty principles
involved. This long-pending cause, in which the Inde-
pendents are labouring for the spiritual good of the
Presbyterians, by trying to relieve them of tem-
poral incumbrances, is again adjourned. The Chris-
tian Reformer says :—" From certain interlocutory
remarks, we gather that Lord Lyndhurst does not avow
a change of opinion, that Lord Brougham is wide awake,
. that his Lordship of London never forgets his Church,
that Lord Wynford is not ashamed of his reputation
fer piety, and that Lord Kenyon, though he may not
aspire to the legal fame of his father, the Lord Chief
Justice, inherits all his ecclesiastical affinities." "An
Essay on Conversation" is written in the tone and style of
a purer age. In the review of the article " Quakers," in
the last edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," attri-
buted to " Friend William Howitt" the reader will find a
concise and clear view of the present apparently critical
state of this singular people, The correspondence be-
tween the Rev. John Carter and Robert Bruce, Esq.,
of Menchay, near Bristol, upon a " mortuary fee," here
very properly called a " clerical exaction," is a valuable
practical comment on the boasted revival of the Church
of England. A letter from the Rev. Wm. Field, of
Warwick, the friend of Priestley, the confidant and bio-
- graphcr of Parr, the reformer of half a century, who has
it appears, been charged with blasphemy by the Vicar
of Kenilworth, shows up the intolerance and bigotry of
the termagant parson in the manner in which such
ecclesiastical virtues ought to be exhibited to the
public view, in order that the people may know the
real character of their so-called " spiritual pastors and
masters." There is, in addition to these and other
papers, which our space will not allow us to notice, an
excellent article on the recent political movement, in
whota ample justice is done to our noble-minded
Queen. We extract one smart passage, in which more
is meant than expres-ed :—"'The Queen was evidently
in the right. The Tory leaders demanded the appoint-
ment of the Female Household, which was as unusual
as it was insolent. Had her Majesty y iclded she
would have been a prisoner, and might have received
her meals from Orange cooks, dressed in the Hano-
verian fashion. The two great actors in this serious
comedy are not agreed in their explanations ; we sus-
pect that Sir Robert Peel found his troops unmanage-
able, and that the difficulty of the Household
was brought forward as a shelter for Tory retreat.
The odium of breaking up the new administration was
to be thrown upon the Queen. Little did the political
traffiekers know of her stout heart and patriotic spirit.
No sooner was the Court cleared of them, than Vic-
toria sent for her former Ministers, the servants of her
choice, and called upon them to support her, as she
had long supported them. Loyalty and manly
feeling left them no alternative ; they returned
to power, relying upon the nation, who are beginning to
be aroused, and to feel the necessity of rallying round
the Throne; and keeping out a faction, who, for ends
of their own, not all explained, would trample upon
both Queen and people. The twenty-four hours of
Tory supremacy has shown all classes of Reformers
their common danger, and led the present Cabinet to
perceive, that not only their strength, but their ex-
istence depends upon conciliating the great Liberal
parties by popular measures."

From 1 this
Ice learn that
(leaven—nothi
blishment which t
been out of
THE CHURCHMAN.
Oracle
of Church-of-England orthodoxy,
nno,thing but the direct interposition of
esAhcohrt of a miracle, can save an Esta-
deast that„the only support of a
miraclescenturies have for several
If
Christian Church," begin: ti.
ofle writer of this Jeremiad,
" were that which the arm
antnaanrna.fforc.led it—if the.
sole povier that could assist
a People
a pure ITli-
were the Laanimity of
pi in its protection

and defence, we should be a no loss to pronounce our
own day and this very period as the most perilous and
most fearful in our English ecclesiastical history." What
does this amount to but a declaration that the Church
of England is no longer the Church of the people of
England—that having clothed herself in all the el:or-
rnities of the Church of Rome, she now looks to s' are
the fate of her predecessors, unless she be preserved
by a miracle ? The Church is indeed in danger, but
she is most in danger from herself. She is in danger
of surfeiting with wealth, with honours, and with worldly
distinctions. Her worst enemies are her lordly priests, who
clothed in purple and fine linen, and borne about in fine
coaches attended by troops of liveried menials, assume
high places in the Legislature, and figure in the Court
Gazette as drawing-room decorations at the Palace,
instead of apostolically trudging about on foot visiting
the sick, dispensing alms to the needy, and preaching
the Gospel to the poor. The footsteps of the Re-
deemer were not directed by a groom and a pair of
horses. He had no town-house in Jerusalem and
diocesan palace at Nazareth, between which he con-
trived to pass his time in indolent repose, leaving to
his proctors the care of the sick, and to his curates
the promulgation of the Gospel. He had neither a
scat in the Sanhedrim, an office in the Court of Herod,
nor did he ever attend a Levee of the Roman Go-
vernor Pontius Pilate. Without having where to lay
his head he wandered about in want and obscurity,
doing the work of his Heavenly Father, and his last
legacy to his Apostles was an injunction to walk in
his footsteps, and that he would be for ever with
them. But a new priesthood have sprung up who in
their lives laugh to scorn the simple precepts of Christ,
and yet affect alarm and amazement at the growing
unpopularity of a Church which acknowledges to see in
them the successors of the Apostles ? Never was impious
presumption more daringly manifested ! " The Ministe-
rial Crisis," furnishes the text for a dull sermon of con-
dolence on the unhappy success attending Bedchamber
plots, which is only varied by a catalogue—with the
respective ages and qualities prefixed—of all the women
about Buckingham Palace. Were the renowned George
Robins " honoured with their disposal in lots," he would
not describe them more minutely. 'The Number is em-
bellished with a well engraved view of the interior of St.
Paul's Cathedral.

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF AGRI.
CULTURE. No. XLV. JUNE, 1839.
Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh.
The present is an interesting and useful number of
this Journal, and we recommend to particular atten-
tion the articles on " The Natural History, and the
Different Modes of Fishing and Curing the Herring,"
" The Improvement in the State of Scotland since the
end of the Seventeenth Century," and the " Agriculture
of Hindoostan." The first, certainly, has not much to
do with agriculture, for we do not observe that the
writer even adverts to the herring or the offal as an arti-
cle of manure, nevertheless, it is not altogether mis-
placed. The herring furnishes abundant and cheap
food for the farm labourer, and in this number of the
Journal, the history of the habits of this most useful
of all, the productions of the ocean, gives a delightful
relish to the dissertations on potatoes, turnips,
arrow-root, and sago. We refer the reader to
the article itself, merely mentioning what appears
to be a well-established fact, that the herring is not
migratory, that it does not, as some have supposed,
come in large shoals of many leagues extent from the
the artic circle, dividing into lesser shoals on coming
towards the north point of Scotland, one body pro-
ceeding to the west of Scotland and to Ireland, and
another to the east, southward ; but that it is found
particularly in the locks and bays of the north, at all
periods of the year, and that though after spawning,
they do net continue close in shore, they proceed to
sea in the neighbourhood of the coasts, where they
continue, and where they feed until the spawning
season approaches, when they return again to the shore.
The second article, though the author would be as
poetical as Virgil in the Georgics, and quotes Latin most
unmercifully to the clod-hoppers of England, we recom-
mend most sincerely to our agricultural friends
of the south. That article, we say to English
farmers " Read, study, and obey. Noc-
turna versate manu, versate diurna.' You will
find it of more use than the Corn-laws, or even the
great Chandos panacea, the abolition of the Malt-tax."
The writer having been nearly thirty years actively and en-
thusiastically engaged in practical agriculture having
many times visited every part of the island in quest of
agricultural information ; and having long been a Member
of the Highland Society, endeavours to point out some
of the errors at present existing in England, and some
of the good which has been effected by the labours of
that Society, as well as what may in like manner be
done by the new-born one in England. Read the fol-
lowing, ye Corn-law worshippers, and in reading it,
remember that it comes from a practical farmer :
" Now what every calm and thinking man must own
to be the greatest fault at the present day in the Eng-
lish agriculturist, is looking to andtrusting to Government,
rather than each man to hia own brains. (He ought to
have quoted from that heathen, Juvenal, " Monstro
quod apse tibi possis dare.") We would assure our
brethren of the plough, that it is not in the power of
any Government, be it Conservative or be it Radical, to
bolster up the state of agriculture. A wise and a good
Government will not enact laws prejudicial to any part
of the community, nor will it seek to break down the
safe-guards which our forefathers built up ; but they may
be assured it is not forcing wheat to be sold at a
sovereign the bushel, or meat at .ss. per lb., that will
ever make the agriculture of the country prosper, or
the farmer rich. Look at Manchester. Is it by the
manufacturer selling his prints at a sovereign per yard
that enormous fortunes have been amassed ? No ; it
is the greatest quantity at the cheapest rate that will
ever make a prosperous trade. If wheat is low in price,
the farmer must bestir himself. Instead of sitting
whole evenings (as many an English farmer does) soak-
ing over a drop of cider or a little home-brewed, while
he grumbles and spells the columns of an old news-
paper, and abuses Parliament for the great
cry and little wool' in the way of helping ' agri-
cultural distress, ' let him toss aside the speeches of
our would-be patriots, and let him to his fields and see
if all be right there. Let him remember if he can but
grow one or two quarters more per acre, he will be in a
better position even with the low price than he was be-
fore. The attempt made last year in London to retard
the formation of the New National Society of England
was much to be lamented, and while this and that about
the Corn-laws were made a handle to frustrate the
plans of those true lovers of the country, who wished to
organize the association, it showed to us north of the
Tweed that our brethren in the south did not know the
value of the good old proverb ne sutor ultra crepidam,'
alike true as to criticism and the art of making money.
Let statesmen, Membersof Parliament, and diploma-
tists turn their minds to politics—let us stick to the
plough : " hoc age" is the grand thing in every
profession, and he alone will prosper in his vocation
who follows it."
This is precisely the same advice by which a
landed proprietor in the first agricultural counts'
in Scotland, the Marquis of Tweeddale, astonished
a meeting in London of Corn-law worshippers,
who called upon him to conic and " curse their enemies,
and he blessed them altogether."
This practical farmer next points out the grand, the
ruinous defects of the English system, as regards horse
labour, turnip husbandry, fallowing, draining, and the
wasteful expenditure of money in the purchase of oil-
cake, in place of raising turnips for feeding cattle. In
almost every respect the English farmers, particularly
those in the south, where the Church is richest and the
people poorest and most ignorant, are a century behind
their countrymen of the north ; and perhaps there is
no such instance of perverse ignorance in farming,
es in their pertinacious refusal to adopt the two-
horse system. In a note the writer says, with per-
fect truth, " Still in the cart, or clumsy waggon, three
or four horses are seen creeping along, with half the load
two good Clydesdale nags would take in a couple oflight
carts, driven by one man." And he might have added
in half the time, thereby increasing the farmer's ex-
pense sixteen fold. " Want of education," says the
writer, " is the next great barrier to the advance of agri-
culture in England—to lift the population over the beer-
shop and brute-like existence into which the lower ranks
are at present sunk, and to break down the lumbering,
obsolete practices of the higher orders." There is an-
other useful article on draining in " The Agriculturist's
Note Book," in which the present Speaker of the House
of Commons is treated with very little ceremony ; and
if he is not better acquainted with dry records than with
dry soil, according to the opinion of this writer, his
authority in his new position will not be of the first order.