The Sun.
London, England, 1837-10-03 00:00:00

THE METROPOLI7'AN.

The great Captain has made his appearance in the
field this month, with a corps of contributors, veterans,
and others of no Mean powers, and, whether we regard
their amusing or instructive operations, we must say
that their position is excellent, and the Number alto-
gether capital. There arc no less than eighteen papers,
all possessing, in various forms, intich merit. So much,

. .
indeed, and so -general throughout the entire Metro-
;Or tint, that to direct especial attention to one-paper
inure then to another, would be an act of sorreihing
very like unfairness to all the other writers. On this
account, and for another also which our love of truth-
] telling us to conceal, namely, a want of space,
and especially a still greater want of time, we shall :'et
enter -into any lengthened review of the present :'.:u:n-
bcr. We repeat that we have not time, and plead
guilty to the crime of having been too delighted with
our friend the Metropolitan. In this emergency—
brought about by the graces and good company of our
metropolitan friends—what better can we do than to
speak our honest opinion of their merits, less as
critics than as readers, who really like both the sub-
jects and the mariner in which their authors have
treated them. The Metropolitan for this month, we
repeat, then, is a capital one. Tire following is an
extract from a paper entitled " The Modern Meewnas;
or, How to Live by Patronage :" •
" The most distinguished Meetenas of modern times was,
perhaps, Joscelyn Joyce. Poor Joscelyn! he is gone to
his audit; and well may it fare with him.; for, notwith-
standing the murmurs of some of his disappointed prote-
ges, he was in many points a capital fellow. He was as
fat as
.Falstaff, and bore a strong resemblance to him in
many other particulars. He sailed through life, gaily as a
Lord, and more independently ; his time passed in gibing,
jesting, (lining, quaffing, laughing, yet Joscelyn had neither
inheritance, profession, or revenue cf any kind that any one
knew of. In this particular he was more inscrutable than
Beau Wilton or St. Leon. Those who were most in the
secret, opined that Joscelyn lived by patronage, not how-
ever in the vulgar sense of that term—rot by receiving it,
which experience proves to be poor work, but iee conferring
it. Certainly, no man ever possessed such a talent at per-
suading others of his vast power to serve them, nor did any
candidate for public favour in any way ever converse wit!`
him for ten minutes without being convinced that could lie
but obtain Joscelyn's good word, he was a made man.
Hence he had regular morning levees, crowded with solici-
tors of every description, and his portly figure, as be sailed
about among them, looked like a whale among a shoal of
herrings. Here were actors, artists, poets, projectors, can-
didates for Parliament, opera figurantes, meritorious young
clergymen, tailors, tavern-keepers, and envoys from NCW.•
gate and the hulks, all looking to Joscelyn as their guar-
dian angel. Nor is it to be inferred that he was a mere
man of pretences : seven offenders he certainly saved from
the extreme penalty of the law ; and not less than twenty
tavern-keepers made their fortunes under his auspices ;
what less could result from the patronage of a man who
was never happy except when instituting clubs, and arrang-
ing revels ? whose object, it was to keep the world conti-
nually feasting, and to make life itself one great dinner?
The ever open table which was emulously offered him by
his grateful hosts, was surely but a slight recompense for
such services. In the theatres, too, Joscelyn was poten-
tial ; 'forty pieces he introduced to the stage, and the only
one of the lot which escaped damnation, was saved by an
affecting appeal made by Joscelyn to the audience, from
his usual station in a side box : to that box every debit-
taut looked anxiously for his encouraging nod, his bravo
was decisive. "those of Joscelyn's clients who had least
reason to be satisfied, were his metrical friends ; Joscelyn
had unluckily the ambition to be a poet himself, not that
he ever did or could write a line, but every one whom he
knew or suspected of being able to do so, he plucked with-
out remorse into his service ; and he published a volume
of poems by Joscelyn Joyce, Esq., the contents of which
had been furnished by not less than fifty different contri-
butors. Never did any one book exhibit such an anoma-
lous combination—it was an absolute monster ! Here were
amatory effusions in the style of Moore—here, hymns.
after the manner of Dr. Watts—in one page was an imi-
tation of Young's Night Thoughts,' in another Joe Miller
versified, and original compositions in • choice Italian,'
figured away by the side of • stanzas' in very disputable
English. The reviewers did not know what to make of
it ; some laughed at the author, some called him mad, some
praised the versatility of his genius, and Joscelyn marched
about, happy in the unction of, publicity, and apparently
with the most perfect conviction that he bad ;written every
line of the book himself. On one occasion a detached
poem, published by him, on a popular subject, procured
him an introduction at Carlton House ; Joscelyn was pro-
digiously aristocratical, and his exultation may be ima-
gined ; he hastened back to his friend who bad really writ-
ten the poem, made the most fervent acknowledgments
(for he was no: incapable of gratitude), but hinted, that as
this introduction had given him a new rank in society, their
intimacy must in future be conducted on less familiar terms.
Yet, amidst all these absurdities, no man had a quicker.
perception of the ridiculous in others than Joscelyn.
" Joscelyn's resemblance to Falstaff was modified, in some
particulars, by the advanced civilization of the age in which
he lived. He had an intense passion for the fine arts, and,
with commensurate means, we really think, would have
been a munificent encourager of them. As it was; he felt
that a collection of pictures was necessary to his happiness,
and he was satisfied to get one in the best way be could.
We have heard of individuals possessed of such astonishing
finesse as to be able to outmanoeuvre a horse-dealer ;
Joscelyn's dexterity far surpassed theirs, he actually out-
witted the picture-dealers, and his walls were decorated
with chef d'cenvres of the various schools presented him by
individuals of that worthy fraternity. Artists were his re-
gular quarry, particularly the younger class of them. No
sooner bad one of those aspirants began to make an im-
pression on the public, than Jocelyn pounced on, and
plucked him with the celerity of a hawk. His processes
of cajollery were original and inimitable ; his usual mode
was, in the first instance, to humiliate his man by criticisms
and inuendoes disparaging to his talents, then, when he
had lowered him to th proper point, be would suddenly
wheel round, and pour in such a dose of exhilirating pane-
gyrie, that the astonished practitioner, bewildered by con-
flicting emotions, and happy to escape from a disagreeable
to an agreeable impression, willingly gave him anything he
asked for."

LONDON AND EDINBURGH PHILOSOPHI-

CAL MAGAZINE.
B. Taylor, Red Lion court.

We have only had time to cast a very hasty glance
over the October Number of this periodical ; but it
appears to keep pace in talent and variety with its pre-
decessors. Several of the papers commenced in the
last Number are continued in the present with
equal ability. We were somewhat amused by
a paper from the pen of Mr. Beke " on the Com-
plexion of the ancient Egyptians," in which the learned
author attempts to reconcile the statement of Herodo-
tus, that the Egyptians were black, with the inferen-
tial facts of Scripture, which lead to a contrary conclu-
sion. Mr. Beke's key to unlock this difficulty is tl e
hypothesis of two distinct races existing at different
peliods. His reasoning does not appear to us very
satisfactory.

C11R1.57.7.4.N REFORMER. SherLcool and Ca.
" Notes on Fusssages of Scripture" are resumed in
the Number before us, and will well repay perusal.
" On the authority of Solomon's Song," from the
lien
of Dr. Pye Smith, is well reasoned. The Rev. Doctor
denies the authenticity of this singular composition—
perhaps we should rather say that Ile denies its right
to be admitted into the Canon of inired writings.
We are much pleased with the remarks on the charac-
ters of the most eminent British Statesmen o.c the last
and present age, which are contained. in the paper
entitled " Corrupting influence of Toryism." In the
" Minor Correspondence" the reader will find several
articles of interest ; and the " Dotoestie Intelligence"
is as usual copious and well arranged.

At the Wandsworth Petty Sessions yesterday, after
several cases of minor importance had been disposed of, the
magistrates were occupied in investigating the partict&ra
of an alleged robbery that had appeared in several of the
morning papers, stated to have been committed by a police-
man at the house of a Mr. Constable, at Battersea. Mr.
Bignell, the superintendent of police, waited upon the ma-
gistrates to inform them that no robbery of the kind men-
tioned had taken place within the distr:ct eluded to, and
from the most minute inquiries which he haJ no
robbery had occurred at all. The report was one, he said,-
Calculated materially to injure the chanxter of the plied
force in the public estimation, and he trusted that the diur-
nal press would use the same means in giving the contra-
diction publicity as they had made use of in first publishing
the report. The magistrates expressed themsek es pleased
to. hear that an atrocity of the above daring nature had not
been committed by any of the police force, and conettrrin
in Mr. Bignell's observations, the session was adjourned.
On Friday afternoon Mr. E. Davies, stond'
mason, fell from the roof of the Shrewsbury Abbey Church
on to the ground, and was kiiled on the spot.—Salopiati

Journal.
TRING, HF,IITS.—This little town 13 at present
visited by a terrible scourge in the s'oetpc of an epidemic fe-
ver, which is daily sending its victims to that " bourne from
whence no travellers return." The aillieted are principally
amongst the poor and ill-fed.