The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-01 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, OCT BER 1, 1863

The 'Weather—Sun Office, Oct. 1, 1863.

TEI
This day at Two o'cH
IockMOIIETER. 64
Barometer-29.38.
Wind—South-Easterly; moderate, and fine.

eijit r-a' •
SUlt

lONDON, THURSDAY, OCT. 1, 1863.

Upon the whole the Revenue Returns for the
Quarter may be pronounced satisfactory. Remem-
bering the long continuance of the American War,
which has shut out from us, for so protracted an
interval, the customary supply of cotton required
for see large a branch of our manufactures—these
tables, showing that in spite of the American War,
in spite of this sudden, and almost total, and fright-
fully protracted continuance of our yearly cotton
supplies :has in no conspicuous way injuriously
affected our commerce, cannot but be followed with
a sense of grateful exultation. There is no doubt
rather disagreeably noticeable, almost at the first
glance, a large apparent decrease in the Revenue of
the Quarter. A decrease large, that is, compara-
tively. A decrease, however, that is, as we have
stated merely apparent—because one arising purely
and simply from the double reduction made by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer in his last Budget :
here by the diminution of the duty upon tea, here
by the dropping of a proportion of that burdensome
tax upon income and property, every penny in the
pound, of ivhich represents upwards of £1,000,000
sterling, wrung from the earnings of the whole ag-
gregate of our busy toiling population ! Hence,
and solely because of this reduction upon the income
tarn and upon the tea duty, the more notable dimi-
nutions referred to in the total Revenue
ht of the
which—notwit d in g
Q earter. Notwithstanding
the decrease in the proceeds of tha Propertysa Tax
upon the Quarter to the extent of ZlOB,OOO, and the
decrease under the Customs Returns upon the
Qnarter to the extent of £329,000, mainly attri-
butable to the remission of duty upon tea—notwith-
standing that decrease upon:the Quarter under these
two heads to the tune (together) of £437,ooo—there
is yet manifest this most gratifying consideration,
viz , that while there is a slight deficit discernable
upon the last Quarter, and a yet slighter one upon
the last Half-year, there is very.nearly a good round
million in the way of surplus upon the whole Year,
or, to be plain, a net increase upon the year to the
extent of exactly £808,842. There is but little doubt
of it, altogether, in point of fact, that we have small
reason for solicitude of any kind in regard to our
financial position—even in very despite of this
woeful civil war in North America, a war
that by necessity, of course, so very seriously
(but, thank Heaven, as our financial tables continue
to show for our consolation, not disastrously) affects
our manufactures. We should have still less reason
ence to those highly elaborated
for anxiety in refer
but smoothly working contrivances by which the
balance is maintained in our complex fiscal
slid financial arrangements accordingly as they
are
modified by the annual influence of the Budget
--were
it not for the remembrance that, in the
person
Of thegifted man who is now entrusted
with the responsibilities devolving upon England's
Chancellor of
Exchequer, we have, besides the
to questionable Man of Genine, the great Orator,
the ripe Scholar, the, loyal Minister, the patriotic
Administrator—a most
rash, a most dangerous,
and a most eccentric Experimentalist as a Finan-
cier. Of that there can be no f arther doubt what-
ever. This last
Year's Budget_if there ever was a
doubt of any kind, of even the flimsiest kind,
upon the subject—set that doubt
at ones and for ever : in
the mind
at restand
co2selence, that is, of everyeae, but azn-ind
par-
tisan of the Government.r. rigid
`ILA t'STO E'S
forgottim. The
escapades of last year were too fligrant, in truth,
of their kind to be very readily
propJsed club tax, the proposed tax upon charities,
the whimsey hers, and the crotchet there, juggled
before the House by that ambidexterous rhetori-
ciar, as cleverly but about as distressingly (merely
to witness even) as the fl ishing to and fro of the
Lult, dczen daggers tossed from hand to hand by
B.:31510-SAMMEE—who can think of these even
now without a qualm of discomfort at the prospect
neat spring of another and kindred performance?
Fantastic crotchets and whimsies in the way of
experimental-finance—(still in this like those
glittering daggers of RAmmo-SAmmEE)—that
the Conjuror himself might swallow but
that the spectators could not ! Swept aside as
"rdlY 106 Perilous than they were beyond any doubt

ridiculous, they will in all likelihood, these dis-
creditable eccentricities in the last Budget be emu-
lated in the next by others as perilous and as
ridiculouF. It is the perpetual thought of this an
Micro that yields ne a qualm of discomfort, even
when we are most disposed to congratulate our-
E&17113 while turning over (as we have been doing
just now) a comparatively satisfactory balance sheet.

Sir H. VERNEY and Mr. HUBBARD have been
practising their rhetoric in Buckingham with very
tolerable success. It is true that they did not
agree altogether in their estimate of foreign affairs,
particularly in regard to Russia and Poland. In
this skirmish Mr. HUBBARD had the worst of the
argument. He spoke at some length, and his ob.
servations were very quietly put and speciously in-
troduced, but the tone of them altogether failed to
represent the spirit of the country. He stated
that it was a very satisfactory thing to notice that
Earl RUSSELL had observed lately that there was
no immediate chance of a war because of Poland.
This may be a fact, and perhaps it is, for all things
are not prepared for a contest just now, and there
are certain contingencies and difficulties that might
interpose awkward delays and occasion inconve-
' nient ;estrangements if that event took place. It
was the explanation of the affair that rendered Mr.
HUBBARD'S remarks so unsuitable, for he seemed to
insinuate that we had no right to have interfered at
all in the affair. He set out with this assertion,
that "nonintervention was the true policy of this
country—non-intervention in every case in which
the direct interest or honour of England did not
call upon us to go to war." This is rather a sweep-
ing assertion, because England would be stultifying
herself if she did nothing and said nothing, what-
ever happened of cruelty and tyranny in a foreign
State. It would not be doing nothing but perform-
ing something in a very bad cause if our mighty
nation had tamely acquiesced in the policy of St.
Petersburg, and thus tacitly encouraging the cruel
and devastating course that the legions of the Rus-
sians have been pursuing in Poland, turning her
fields into burial grounds, and threatening to de-
populate her cities. Mr. HUBBARD went on to say
that " great injustice had been done to Russia by
the way in which the question had been debated in
the House of Commons, and in every public meet-
ing which had been held in this country." It is a
great pity that any influential public man should
speak in this strain, because it furnishes an excuse
to the opponents of liberty to say that our country
is not at unity on the question. Mr. HUBBARD
was very indignant that we should have presumed
to dictate terms to a nation so mighty, to tell the
absolute ruler of seventy or eighty millions of men
to cease from hostilities. Times and manners must in-
deed have changed,for the worse when the exponents
of England's policy pause tore fleet if a ruler is mighty
before taking up the cause of the weak he is tramp-
ling on, or defending the poor who are in jeopardy
from his wrath. If we are to fear any empire, from
whence are there to come any champions of the
oppressed. It should be the proudest boast of our
countrymen that their Government consider no state
too mean to be protected, and regard no empire as
too mighty to be opposed if the cause of justice
demands it. The spirit of honour, the claims of
humanity, and the voice of the oppressed ones on
GoD's earth have ever been held sufficientlp potent
to call forth the assistance of England, and arm her
hosts for any encounter. It is a proud thought to
dwell upon that on our empire the sun never sets,
but it is a higher and better cause for rejoicing to
reflect that on our shores the slave is free. When
Mr. HUBBARD said that the first outbreak was the
" midnight assassination of Hessian troops quar-
tered in a Polish province," he might have remem-
bered what caused that outbreak. The midnight
seizure of Polish youths to serve in the ranks of their
enemies will be held by many as a sufficient provo-
cative for even greater deeds of violence. It is
really a relief to turn to Sir H. VERNEY'S remarks
on this subject. He said that he dissented from his
colleague in his views regarding Poland. He gave
it as his opinion that " those who went to Russia
were miserably deceived," this is, doubtless, very
true, but those who stay at home will coincide with
Sir H. VERNEY'S assertion that, "there is no coun-
try in the world that has been so dreadfully tyran-
nised over as Poland has been by Russia." He
considered that we ought not to permit such a state
of things to go on without uttering a protest.
He went to political grounds, and stated that
peace could never be satisfactorily established
in Europe until Russia ceased to tyrannise over
Poland. This was a word in season, and must have
been the exponent of the feelings and the represen-
tation of the opinion of many persons. Mr. HUB-
BARD'S views in regard to foreign policy were alto-
gether of a questionable character on this occasion.
He briefly adverted to America, and thereupon
affirmed that " in this case our Government had
acted with great firmness and consummate wisdom."
It would puzzle many to explain how and in what
matter " great firmness" is consistent with the
shuffling policy and variable demeanour that have
characterised all the course of the transactions of
our Ministers during thetrans -Atlantic controversy.
" Consummate wisdom" does not appear in a line of
action that is estranging both sides from us far more
than any open espousal of an adverse cause would
have irritated either party. Lukewarm acquaint-
ances aie worse than enemies, and dilly-dallying
with things that want immediate decision, and a
wavering purpose in settling affairs where a strong
will is needed, can never occasion anything but
doubt and discontent. Non-intervention is not the
present policy towards America. Have we not
just heard Earl RUSSELL'S statement that he will
protect, to the utmost of his power, one side more
than the other. Everyone knows what that means
coming from such a quarter, and, therefore, it is
quite unavailing for adherents of his policy to try
to win over doubtful minds, for such bold assertions
are not proved at all.

Sir H. VERNEY spoke on the subject of labourer's
cottages. He expatiated on the advantage accruing
to the landlords by providing good and comfortable
residences. They might thus combine interest with
duty, and benefit themselves while they bestowed
a blessing upon others. He believed that the land.
lord could give his son no better education than
how to manage their land better and to obtain a
thorough knowledge of it. He had had ample
experience of the efficacy of the changes intro-
duced into the condition of the dwellings. uls
had seen the character of the labourers improved
by taking them out of the bad cottages and placing
Mr. EUBBARD, in adverting
tthoemth'il ral goodeilbiecotn,ere.e'm'arked that it had been said
the cottage questioa was a landlord's, but that it
was also a farmer's question. " The tenant far-
mer paid wages to t.t.ie labourer, who could only
cecullY his cottage at a rent that would remune-
rate the
his 1 b ' proceedings passed off with
a our.' The
owner when he got sufficient wages for
satisfaction to all concerned, and the discussion
of local interests will doubtless be productive of
great service to the good cause noW in hand in
81
labouring omuarni nyg places of
instances Pveraisetnege
striking furnishing better homes for the
e
end exec. importance to the com-
munity of enabling the labouring
with comfort, decency, clasacS to live
has attested in many
It is no use
their keariDg sermow from the , Ipit,
tJwisdom

from the learned, or sage counsel from the em-
ployer, if he returns to a miserable dwelling that
seems a mockery of the sacred name of home, and
a violation of all the best feelings of humanity.
Eloquent exhortation have not been wanting to
testify to the importance and extent of the advan-
tages ensured to a country when possessed of a
hardy generation of the sons of the soil. In fanciful
allegory one writer has declared that ".'tis from the
peasant's hardy stock the race of giants are ;" and
the Ayrshire Ploughman has made memorable the
following vindication of his class in these lines :
" Princes and peers may flourish or may lade,
A breath can make them as a breath has made;
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroyed can never be supplied."

It would seem that liberal principles are rapidly
developing themselves in Denmark, and there is no
reason to hope that the stormy period through
which she has passed will lead in the end to sub-
stantial benefits. Once relieved from the weight of
German authority, and set free from the continental
harass to which he has been subjected, the KING no
doubt has liberal views and tendencies. He and his
Ministers have the sagacity to see that they must
identify themselves with the party of progress and
constitutional government, if they hope to retain
their position in Europe. It is an independent and
constitutional monarch, supported by the love of his
people and anxious for their welfare, that King
CIIRISTIAN claims our sympathies, and, although
an excuse might easily be made for deferring the
proposed reforms until a more tranquil time, it is
certain that the line now taken is the wiser as well
as the bolder one. No time has been lost in fulfil-
ling the expectations of the people. The day after
the assembling of the Rigsraad the President of the
Council laid before it the draught of a new consti-
tution for Denmark and Schleswig, by which all
questions common to the two provinces are to be
regulated. This draught shows, we are told, great
progress in the development of liberal ideas in Den-
mark, and from what we can learn of it such is cer-
tainly the case. The members of the Lower House
are to be freely elected without any consideration
as to their income or the income of the electors. A
property qualification will only be requisite for the
members of the Upper House. This is certainly an
important step, and it will make the constitution of
the two representatives in some respects similar to
that of our English Houses of Parliament. All
matters concerning Denmark per se will be settled
by the Rigsraad, and those of Schleswig by the
estates of that Duchy. There is, therefore, a fair
opening for a new political career, but unhappily
the Holstein discussion is not at an end. When in-
deed will it ever be ? It has become the chronic
difficulty of European statesmen, and any means of
satisfactory settlement would be accepted gladly
by the political world at large. It may be that
such a settlement is at hand, and that German
pbo by
rescue,
as-
sumption and obstinacy will push matters to an es-
tremity that will necessitate the final adjustment of
athneceloonfgs-pweenddeinn,gwdhiosphuats com
e.S upol
dr tled the a
e
y t
o th e
and strong in the unanimity of her people, Den-
mark presents no contemptible front to the German
invader. Should matters proceed much further,
moreover, England must infallibly take part, and
that part, notwithstanding the sympathies of our
Foreign Minister, will not be with the German
Confederation.

At every port the arrival of the Channel Fleet is
the signal for festivities and rejoicings. Hospitable
Ireland has, of course, formed no exception to the
vale, and has rivalled Glasgow, Sunderland, and
Liverpool in the warmth of its reception and th 6
extent of its interest. The visit to Belfast has been
succeeded by a trip to the Bay of Dublin, and
although, unfortunately, from the state of the wea-
ther, their stay was necessarily very limited,
there
can be no doubt that it was very beneficial in its
influence, enlisting the quick ofsympathies the
Hibernians on behalf of their noble vessels and
their intelligent and courteous commanders. The
banquet given by the citizens of Dublin to Admiral
DACRES was the occasion for peat rejoicings, and
although the time for preparation was necessarily
limited, the goodwill of the hosts displayed itself in
the brilliancy of the reception. Th© addresses were
chiefly remarkable from their heartiness and
unanimity. The Mayor, in proposing the health of
his visitors, remarked that the "wooden walla" to
which Old England chiefly owed her glory, were
now things of the past, but he expressed his con-
viction that as much depended on the men
as on the
ships, and certainly, however beneficial may be
changes in the one, we need not seek to improve
upon the other. Admiral DACRES, who Will be-
come quite an orator if he has so many opportuni-
ties for speechmaking, said, as he has said before in
other words, that the enthusiasm of the
people at
every spot they have visited showed the very
interest felt in the Navy throughout the country.
The gallant Admiral attached great importance to
the unity of feeling between the merchant service
allies for
and the Navy, and hinted that valuable strong
the national cause were to be found, if need existed,
in the merchant service. In the course of the even-
ing a bumper was drunk to the
health of Sir LEO-
POLD M'CLINTOCK, a countryman of whom Irish-
men may well be proud, and that officer, in return-
ing thanks, spoke of the liberal praise bestowed on
him and his companions. It seas not surprising
that the successful explorers of the far-famed North-
West Passage should have been warmly
their countrymen, for not only did they celebrate
in
the achievement of that task, Which seemed well-
'ugh an impossibility, but, greeted by
honouring them, the
nation paid homage to the brave men who had laid
down their lives in those inhospitable regions. No
guest could have been more fitting at a banquet held
in honour of ships and sailors, and no one could
have been better qualified to appreciate the capa-
bilities of the noble vessels then anchored in the
Bay. Universal admiration
and a feeling of confidence and security appears to
spring up in the minds of landsmen at the sight of A
such capable defenders. of them is expressed,
commercial gentleman
of Dublin gave an amusing illustration of this. He
had lately heard some one making inquiries about
a Southern farmer of enormous size and strength.
" Was he a quarrelsome man ?" " Ah, no," was
the reply, '° not in the least." "Was he ever seen
to fight P.' " No, never ; ho was a very quiet man
entirely ; he was a most peaceable man ; but (this
was added in a whisper) I never saw the man who
had a fancy to fight with him !" Such, it is to bt
hoped, will be the case with that goodly array of
" leviathans afloat" under the command of Admiral
DACRES ; and cettLiuly it must be a satisfaction to
all lovers of peace and safety that we have such a
"material guarantee" for the undisturbed repose of
our shores. The cruise of this year has unques-
tionably done good in awakening the old naval
enthusiasm of tho people, and in showing them
that all the discussions about national defences have
not ended in empty words, but that England really
possesses a fleet worthy of her name, her position,
and her character.

THE FRENCH EXHIBITION OF THE WORKS OF
LIVING ARTISTS, to be held next year in Paris, will open
on the Ist of May, and close on the 15th of June. Foreign
as well as French pictures will be admitted. Works for
exhibition are to be sent in between the 10th end 20th of
mext,

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

[REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.]

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.

CRACOW, OCT. 1.

An engagement took place on the 29th ult. at
Mipzow in the Wojwodschaft of Cracow between
the insurgent chief Otto and the Rassians. Fifty
Cossacks, with their arms and horses were cap-
tured.

Another engagement was fought on the 27th
ult., near Semworno, in the Wojwodschaft of
Kalisch.

Arrests continue to be mad© in Warsaw.

TURKEY.
CONS FANTINOPLE, SEPT. 30.

It is still affirmed in the best financial circles that
there will shortly be an issue of 30,000,000 fr. in
Cansolides for the payment of the Syrian indem-

nity.
The same announcement has been made by the
Levant hlerald, and has not been denied by the

Government.
It is said that the new securities will only be
negotiable in Syria, and will be redeemable in five
years.

MEXICO.

PARIS, OCT. 1.

The 31-oniteur of to-day publishes a letter from
melice describing the rapid progress which has
been
made by French intervention.
The same correspondence comparing the present
with the former state of things, says that the num-
ber of victims under the rule of Juarez was 7,305,
of whom 2,065 were assassinated while' defending
their liberty, their life, and their property.

FRANCE.

PARIS, OCT. 1.

Letters received from Rome to the 27th Septem-
ber announce that General Montebello had pub-
lished an order of the day, acquainting his soldiers
with the disgraceful act of the Pontifical gendarme
in firing upon the Italian officer on the frontiers,
end with the equally blameable conduct of the
pontifical Government which protected such assas-
sins.

The relations between General Montebello and
the Pontifical Government were not friendly.
Every possible difficulty was provoked by Mgr.
Merode, Pontifical Minister of War.

BounsE, Sept; 30. —The reponse de primes
(option) has been made at 67f 85c for the Threes.
kiarket quiet, and with but a trifling variation in
quotations, Threes, for the account, being now at
67f 80c. Mobilier at 1,210 f. Railway Share
Market without animation, and prices generally
well maintained. The market improved towards
the close, and left off as follows :
it per Cents .. 95 90 Italian Loan 74
Do, end month.... Do. end month 74 55
3 per Cents
Do. end month.... 68 Do. end month....
Credit Mobilier....l2lB 75 Russian
Do. end m0nth....1220 Austrian
Bank Shares 3365 Spanish Threes.. ,
Credit k oncier 1360 Home Debt ...... 511
RAILWAY%

Cash. Account.
.
Orleans 1026 25 .. 1028 75
Northern
New ditto
Lyons and Mediterranean 1025 .. 1025
Geneva 497 50 ..
Southern 737 50 .. 740
Western
Eastern .... ....... , 5lO .. 507 50
Sardinian .....
Austrian ........ 415 .. 410
Lombard ...... 570 .. 56S 75
North of Spain
Saragossa.. 655 .. 655
Ditto to Barcelona

• • •--•-.

AUSTRIA.

.At the sitting of the Austrian Chamber of
Deputies on the 25th the committee charged
to examine the reclamatioos of the Polish
Deputy, Count Dzieduszyski, presented its
report. The Count's carriage had been
stopped at Lemberg and driven to the police
office ; as, however, the arrest did not con
tinue longer than was necessary to search the
vehicle, the Chamber did not see in the fact,
any attack on parliamentary inviolability, and
passed to the order of the day on the proposition of
the committee.

LITERATURE,

Breakfast in Bed; or, Philosophy Between the
Sheets. By George Augustus Sala. One vol.,

pp. 334. Maxwell and Co.

Foremost in the second rank of our English men-
of-letters now living, stands the author of these, and
of we don't know how many other, delightful pages.
Mr. Sala will not take the phrase here employed by
us (as distinctively expressive of his position) in any
way invidiously. Of that we are certain. He is
himself a critic of too much discernment to be de-
luded in this matter into any such misapprehen-
sion--even by his remembrance of those halcyon
dreams he must, doubtless, at times have in-
dulged in eagerly enough during the earlier days
of his adoption of the intellectual craft of author-
ship—cherished hopes and wishes in regard to his
assuming his place, sooner or later, in the front rank,
among the most distinguished of his literary con-
temporaries. Further than to one of the foremost
positions in the second rank of authorship, he must
be himself as conscious as anyone that he has not
advanced. But in that second rank, to our thinking
14e has taken his place by this time, not merely
among the foremost, but par excellence as the Fore-
most. While in the first rank, stand the literary
Sauls of cur generation, towering each of them
by far more than a head and shoulders
merely above the average intellectual sta-
ture of their age, men of conspicuous genius
who have already hewn out their own niches,
or built up their enduring pedestals in the
Walhalla of our National Literature, an incompar-
able Humorist like Dickens, a Crichton of Letters
like Bulwer, a Poet like Tennyson, a Satirist like
Thackeray—others there are, amongst the most in-
dustrious writers of the time,who have signalised in
a variety of ways the possession ef gifts securing to
them a great deal-of our attention, attracting a
large share of our sympathy, and even fre-
quently winning from us our very cordial adniira-
don. At the head of these we unhesitatingly place
Mr. Sala. Daring the last ten or fifteen years he
has plied his pen with extraordinary assiduity. It
would make a goodly list, we should imagine, by
this time, the mere enumeration of the periodicals to
which he has, in succession, been, all this while, a
contributor—a contributor whose individuality
could not but arrest the observation at once of
readers and reviewers. Whether writing in this
way with an ever flying pen for the wonderful
twopenny double columns of Household TVords,
or for the übiquitous penny broadsheet of the
Daily Telegraph, whether following London Life,
7wice Round the Clock, in companionship with
his whimsical artist friend William M'Connell, or
recounting, in the earlier chapters delightfully, in
the later chapters most disappointingly, the per-
sonal history and the artistic career of the most
original and the most national of our English
painters, "William Hogarth," in the pages of the
Cornhill Magazine—whether editing a shilling
magazine of his own, The Temple Bar to wit, or re-
lating his voyaging in the Baltic, and his journey-
ing onwards to St. Petersburg, whether penning a
romance like that entitled " The Seven Sons of
Mammon," or recounting in old-fashioned diction
and in old-fashioned ways the " Strange Adven-
tures of Captain Dangerous "—Mr. Sala is always
readable. He is coarse occasionally, but he is
always entertaining. We only remember one of his
more pretentious works that we could feel at ail,
even at rare intervals, to be in any way wearisome
—namely, a work already here particularised, and
that, too, with a hint of disfavour or depreciation,
meaning his biography of Hogarth. Otherwise
than in that one exceptional instance, we have
never yet been tempted to throw aside anything to
which Mr. Sala has put his hand, whether as a writer
of books or as a contributor to the periodicals, out of
a sense of its tediousness. Least of all, perhaps,
among his many vivacious and varied performances,
should we be tempted to do this by the very book
now under notice. And we say this in spite of its
titlepage—to us an unpleasantly effected, and even,
it might be said, a positively unattractive titlepage.
" Breakfast in Bed—or, Philosophy between the
Sheets—a [what is it Mr. Sala calls it ?] a Series
of Indigesable Discourses !" The last (generic)
designation of the book, besides being intensely
disagreeable of its kind, is, to our mind, beyond
that, nothing less than a flagrant misnomer. In-
digestible these dozen discourses are not—at least
we have not found them so. Devouring them with
a relish, we have found, on the contrary, that from
page 1 to page 334 there was nothing in the whole
collection of this really appetising hotch-potch
or gallimaufry of innocent fun and humorous
observation upon men and things, that we could
not, with perfect satisfaction to ourselves,
" read, mark, learn (some of it almost by heart),
and inwardly digest!" Mr. Sala's " Breakfast in
Bed," without having about it any of the sardonic
wit, has much of that perennial vivacity for which
the famous breakfasts of Mr. Rogers in St. James's
were so remarkable, They are, one and ail of them,
frolicsome, discursive, and anecdotal. The only
thing especially noticeable in it is that our host has the
whole of the talk to himself. That talk, while it is
throughout conversational in its character, is not by
any means conversational in the sense of the ordinary
give and take of remarks among a cluster of inter-
locutors. It does not even widea into Dialogue.
It is a series of Discourses—strung together like a
succession of Monologues. Upon themes, too,
whimsical enough to draw mirth from an anchorite
—even from a dirty, unclad, unwholesome
anchorite like Mr. Lucas, of the dilapidated farm
down in Hertfordshire. Instance—" On a Remark-
able Dramatic Performance," meaning my Lord
Dundzeary, "On a Little Boy going to School,"
" On the Condition of My Poor Feet"—" On a
Remarkable Dog"—" On a Young Lady on a Bal-
cony," and so forth. While the almost distasteful
title of the book ie disagreeably suggestive of
notions such for example, as that when Mr. Sala,
was correcting the proof-sheets of his " Breakfast
in Bed," he must have found them unpleasantly
full of crumbs—we, as among his readers (and
reviewers), as one of the guests bidden to this
matutinal banquet of his providing, sitting there
by the side of the well-spread fourposter, have never
once felt disposed so far to enforce Poor Richard's
recommendation of early rising, as to administer to
its occupant what might be properly called a sort
of cold pig of criticism, viz., by throwing cold
water upon our Entertainer, or upon these Twelve
very capital " Breakfasts in Bed" pleasantly pro•
vided by him for our entertainment.