The Sun.
London, England, 1830-04-15 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

MEMOIRS OF VIDOCQ, Vot. 4.—Lownow, 1830.

To the former volumes of this accomplished
gentleman we have done, we hope, adequate
justice. They are replete with anecdotes of
prigging (we adopt the scientific term) in every
department of the art ; from the simple abstrac-
tion of a pocket-handkerchief, a watch and seals,
a key, a purse, or a pocket-book ; down to the
more complicated, perilous, and enterprising
achievement of a burglary or a grand larceny.
The present volume, which completes the work,
furnishes an equal modicum of amusing, not to
say instructive, burglarious reminiscences, and
the whole forms a comprehensive Encyclopedia
of Priggery, in which this peculiar science is
treated with a befitting dignified gravity. Mr.
Vidocq, as probably our readers are aware, has
been himself an artist of no slight merit in this
line of business. He has achieved feats which
even Jonathan Wild might envy, has cast
Major Semple into the shade, and eclipsed the
glories of that eminent pocket-operative, the late
Mr. Barrington. But old age palsies the ener-
gies of the best of us, and M. Vidocq shrewdly
anticipating the approach of that disastrous
period when he could prig with impunity no
more, resolved, some few years since, to beat a
retreat in time, and accordingly accepted an in-
fluential situation in the French Ministry, as
agent of the Parisian police. He remained in
this situation up to the period of 1817, when
he retired, full of years and honours, to St.
Mande, where he amused his leisure hours with
the composition of his great historical work—
the present Encyclopaedia of Priggery. There
is something gratifying to the feelings in the
contemplation of a great mind, thus, in the sun-
set of its existence, morally and amiably em-
ployed ! Mr. Vidocq, naturally anxious to set
hiniielf right with posterity, has dedicated the
autumn to the record of the spring of his exist-
ence: and, while he does justice to his own
abilities, is above the paltry meanness of depre-
ciating those (if his cotemporary prigs. Hence
we may believe in the truth of his various
skstches of character, and wonder (though we
hope without envy) while he assures us that in
talent, impudence, in all, in short, that ensures
eminence in the complex science of prigging, the
Parisian burglar is many, many degrees superior
to the London one. His style of operation is
more rapid and versatile, his conceptions more
brilliant, his execution more decided and energetic.
This, perhaps, may be a mortifying national
reflection, but we seriously apprehend—and we are
far from wishing to depreciate the talents of our
native artists—that it will be found, on conside-
ration, to be the truth.

LIFE OF SIR W. WALLACE.—EDlrratntax, 1830.

The very title of this book, which forms the
fifty-third number of " Constable's Miscellany,"
will at once ensure it readers. Every one is
familiar with the names and achievements, mag-
nified as they have been by the romantic tradi-
tions of the time, of Wallace and the Bruce.—
The memoirs of the former, in particular, are
too closely connected with the great struggles in
the 13th century, between England and Scot-
land, not to be deeply interer;:ing. The author
of the present volume does not disappoint ex-
pectation : his " Life of Wallace" is a well-
written, authentic, and spirited production, full
of research, and exhibiting considerable powers
of description.

STEWART'S MODERN GEOGRAPHY.
EDINBURGH, 1830.

All the recent improvements in geographical
science, the discoveries of Clapperton and Den-
ham in Africa, of our best modern travellers
among the Himalayas, the Andes, and the more
untrodden parts of South ar.d North America,
are incorporated in this very instructive little
work, which is the best school-boon of geography
we have yet seen. We have no doubt that it will
become eminently popular.

INGRANI'S MATHEMATICS.-EDINBURGH, 1830.

This is a consise system o f mathematics in
theory and practice—comprehending algebra,
practical geometry, logarithms, plane and sphe-
rical trigonometry, and a variety of other useful
practical sciences. It is chiefly intended for the
use of schools and private students, and pos-
sesses the advantage of a copious index, con-
taining the more useful propositions of geome-
try, conic sections, fluxions, &c. The author
has performed his task admirably, and shrunk
from no labour, however great, that might ad-
vance the utility of his work.

THE TOY- 8 HOP. -SwA FFHAM, 1830.

An amusing, useful little school-book, well
adapted for the entertainment and improvement
of the youth of either sex.

Two PINTS LESS THAN A QUA RT.—lf
pint of water and a pint of sulphuric acid be mixed, the
compound will be considerably less than a quart. The
density of the mixture is, therefore, greater than that which
would result from the mere diffusion of the particles of the
one fluid through those of the other. The particles have
assumed a greater proximity, and therefore exhibit a
mutual attraction. In this experiment, although the
liquids before being mixed be of the temperature of the sur-
rounding air, the mixture will be so intensely hot, that the
vessel which contains it cannot be touched without pain.
—Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopcedia, Vol. V.
SMUGGLING NEAR SUNK ISLAND.-.
HULL, APRIL 13.—A very extensive cargo of contra-
baud goods was landed at a place called Stone Creek,
near Sunk Island, during the evening of Sunday last,
the most valuable part of which the smugglers succeeded
in getting safe into carts, in which it was conveyed up the
country. Information was given yesterday morning to the
Excise-officer residing at Hedon, who went to the spot and
succeeded in finding thirty-ono tubs of brandy and gin,
and one keg of snuff, which have been forwarded to the
Excise-officer of this place. We understand that the
smuggling lugger mounted twelve or fourteen guns. The
boat in which the goods were landed measured thirty-
five to forty feet in length and fifteen in width ; and was
protected by nine stout fellows, well armed. Some of the
articles are reported to have been deposited in a brick kiln
at Keyinghana the whole of yesterday, and during last night
to have been taken thence in three carts, guarded by
fourteen men, armed with cutlasses and pistols. It is
said that almost the whole of the lower order of the in-
habitants of the villages in the vicin;ty were in a state of
intoxication ; and that there are stia many kegs in the
neighbourhood, which have been stolen several times over !
The boat was given to some bankers by the owners, on
condition that it should be destroyed in their presence,
which was accordingly done....- jull Packet.