The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-30 00:00:00

EV '''Nl7s.:(4 EDITION.

THE FAIR SEX AT WILLIS'S

ROOMS.

" Yeaterday a Meeting of the members and friends of
the National Education Society was held at Willis's Rooms.
Among the
.fair sex were to he aeon many of the Right
Rev. Prelates, and numerous members of both branches of
the Legislature.."— Times of yesterday.

Oh, have you not heard of the throng so gay,
Who (vide the Vimes of yesterday)
At Willis's Rooms made a grand display,
And fretted, and fumed, and palavered away,
Dear gossiping souls I on that tempting theme,
The National Education scheme ?

" Among the fair se.x" (so the Times gives out)
Were Lords and M.. P.'s,—a lady-like rout !
High-Church pluralist Priests by the score,
And of matronly Bishops, a dozn or more;
There was Sibthorpe, our whiskered Goddess of War,
Mother London, and Grandmother Cantuar,
Dame Goulburn, who's recently made such a stir,
And that rosy- cheeked lassie, Abinger,
The termagant Inglis, fierce and hot,
The bland old tabby, Archdeacon Pott,
Mahon, the vixen, and Praed, the Blue,
And Geordie Sinclair, who's such a Shrew,
As could scarce be tamed (too well we know)
By e'en such a spouse as Petruchio I
There too, looking wond'rous grim and fell,
Was that withered old crone, Charles Wetherell,
Who, instead of the petticoat, sported the breeches,
As is often the case with such brimstone b —s,
And cheered so oft with a sheepish baa,
That the Meeting mistook him fur " Grandmamma
Oh luckless Ministers I Nought can 7e do,
When opposed by such an old-woman crew ;
Rely on't, the hussies are more than your mate',
For they'll not only speak, but pinch and scratch 1!

LITERATURE.

FRA CIPOLLA.
Moxon, London, 1839.

The author of this volume of poems is Sir John Has;
er, who apologizes in his preface for the inferiority 01,
his oetic wares, observing that they " take the name 1
the grt.sat art in vain." They are not certainly of the
highest o:der of excellence, being deficient in depth'
rigour, and 9riginality; still, they display no ordinary
lent ; and if a q uick and refined sensibility, grace of °°
pression, and gent ral liveliness of fancy, are sufficient to
constitute the poet; in the absence of loftier and rarer
qualities, or of, what Vordsworth somewhere calls,"
'
vision and the faculty div:ne," then Sir John Hamner
as assuredly a poet, as he is la
Baronet. In the Sonnet
shows to particular advantage ; its compact and cony 14
densed character seems to suit .itis genius, and rico"(
ingly the major portion of his volume is composed 0`
sonnets. We subjoin one of his beset, entitled " A Viel
in Holland :"

" The tide comes up the black and gusty river,
Slowly against it makes a boat its way,
In the rough gale the bending sedges shiver,
The dripping piles fling back the shattered spray
There is a church, but none who come to pray;
For 'tis a week-day, and made fast the door,
But onward, by a willow-sheltered bay,
Hangs forth a sign, more tempting to the boor ;
Wild sing the breezes from the northern sea,
Flustering the top-sails on the coasts's low line ;
Wildly sings Hans within the lattice, he
Is flustered too, but 'tis with brantewein;
See on the sand a wandering group appear,
Mynheer Verkoop, the pedlar, and his gear."
Some of the descriptions in this little poem are 8s
..
vivid, and-distinct, and appropriate to the locality, e;
those which we admire in the landscape paintings of
Ostade or Ruysdael. Here is a sonnet, which -is as
for its graceful fancy, as the one we have
just quoted, is for its literalness and nice power of obser"
vation. The author calls it " Melancholy."
There sat a maiden 'neath a regal tower
Girt with a forest of great oaks and pines,
It seemed a lodge of some high conqueror
In the old days, and round it creeping vines
Grew wildly, that no more men drank of now;
And in the topmost arch there was a bell
That with the wind did vibrate, vague and low
-'t.-iread o'er the hills its modulated swell ;
paletly she sat, and at her side were things
Of stra:ige device to measure earth and stars,
And a son;l1 quiet Genius, with his wings
Upfolded, and his eyes still fixed on hers.
Men uttered not her queenly name, but she
Had graved it in the dust, " Melancolie !"
Rare skill and art are shown in the selection of images
which constitute this allegory. Not one but is in strict
and felicitous keeping with the subject. The allusions:
in particular, to the bell sounding with " a vague and
low" melody from the arch or the ruined tower ; and t:
the pale, silent maiden writing the word " Melancolie
in the dust, show that the author possesses much of he,
true imaginative faculty. We shall be glad to see Dir.
John Hanmer again in print. He has au elegant, let-
tered mind, well versed in the a rerthones utriusque
linguae ;" and will, we think, become ere long, honour-
ably distinguished as .a poet.

FLORESTON.
Rickerby, London, 1839.

Under the attractive✓form of a tale of fiction, many
serviceable truths are put forth, and insisted on with
point and emphasis, in this volume, which professes to
comprise the history of a rural revolution from vice
and misery to virtue and happiness, and is dedicated
appropriately to the landed proprietors of the United
Kingdom. Who the author may be we know not ; but
of one thing we are certain, namely, that he is well ac-
quainted with the habits and feelings of the agricultural
classes, and writes throughout in a spirit of calm, prac-
tical, good sense.

LIFE AND TIMES OF THE COUNTESS
OF HUNTINGDON:
Painter, London, 1839.
The sixth part of this memoir, which is publishing ill
two shilling monthly numbers, is now lying before us
it contains much that will interest the general reader;
by reason of the sketches it gives of many of the
public characters who flourished in the middle, An
towards the close of the Lst century ; and also from the
characteristic fragments with which it furnishes us, of
Whitfield's more familiar correspondence ; but as farm,
Lady Huntingdon is concerned, it possesses little or d
general interest ; for the Countess, however amiable aenn-
well-intentioned, was little better than a crazY
thusiast.

ppg OF
CHRONICLE OF THE LA TV
IRELAND. By CONSTANTINE J. thrir.a,
of Lincoln's Inn. London: Butterworth, 1839
This is a very valuable addition to the legal 11'5"orl
of this country. The numerous abstracts from Paten)
rolls, and other scarce official documents, sufficient,Or
attest the labour expended in its completion. Mr. SmYt;ll
however, acknowledges in the Preface that what too
have have been a work of great difficulty, was rendered On"-
parativelv easy by the researches of Mr. Lodge, and the
historical inquiries of Mr. Dulrigg, whose history
King's Inn, Dublin, of which he was for some time
Ji-
brarian, is well known to every Irish legal student.

RECONNOITERING VOYAGES,TRAVE'q „
AND ADVENTURES IN THE NEW CO
LONIES OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA, f,,c;
DURING THE YEARS 1836, 1837, and ,
By W. H. LEIGH, Esq. London: Smith, -bl9"
and Co. 1839. be
Feeling persuaded that no greater service could
rendered to persons about to emigrate to Australia
than
to extract from this volume the valuable information.
which it contains respecting the actual condition and,
feelings of the emigrants already located in that part ot
the world, we must express out regret that the
crowded state of our columns will not admit more than
a brief notice of it. The author, Mr. Leigh, went out t°
Australia in 1836, not as a settler, but as a surgeon to
the South Australian Company's ship South Atistralit;
and during his residence on Kangaroo Island, athtti
new settlement of Adelaide, and at Sydney, availed
ample opportunities, of which he praiseworthily avajet..
himself, of ascertaining the actual condition of the maar
tiers. He says that he did not meet with one
not
woman at the settlement of Kingscote that oiu
most bitterly rue the day they left England'" and
that their determination was to get back
possible. Many of them would have returned, but they
were forcibly detained by the agents of the Company,
who allowed no vessel to give
_ them a passage: The,
country around he found a " melancholy jungle,'
without a drop of fresh water, so that the
lifPeroinv
unfortunate settlers were obliged to purchase
this most necessary of thpeenn as speedily as
cal climate at about a
all kinds were enormously dear—nearly trebly as dear
iasiotnrospoi-f
thousands of hard-working artisans to leave their native
as in London ; so that a rate of wages which tempted
necessaries
no f;
country to realise a fortune in a few years was often in-
sufficient to keep body and soul together. On the
main land Mr. Leigh found things a little, and
but very little better. The discontent was kene-
ral, even among the most enterprising settlers.
All complained that they had
swindled by scoundrels, who, under the pretext of con-
veying them to a land " flowing with milk and honey:
first robbed, and then treated them with as much bar-
barity as ever the West India Planters did their slaves.
His description of the voyage outward is truly appalling
owing to the way the unfortunate emigrants were cram-
med together in unwholesome berths. And he states in
conclusion, that though several of the women were far
advanced in pregnancy, no surgeon would have been
taken had not the iron-hearted manager succeeded in,
getting one for nothing. Of the general character. of
the volume, it is enough to say that it is equally =wing
and instructive. It has no pretensions to verbal ale-
gance, but there is a rough vigour, and a freshness .;
about it, which well redeems the carelessness of the stYla•
It is well illustrated with engravings from sketenes by.
the author.