The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-16 00:00:00

NY ADVENTURES DURING THE LATE

IVAR, 2 Vols.
Colburn, London, 1839.
Captain O'Brien, of the Royal Navy, who
is the author of these volumes, gives an account
therein of his adventures during the late war,
which comprise a narration of shipwreck, captivity,
escapes from French jails, &c., between the years
1804 and 1827. This narrative can scarcely fail to
give pleasure to the reader, for it is full to overflowing
of striking incident, and recapitulates a variety of suf-
ferings borne with that cheerfulness and unshrinking
fortitude which characterize the British seaman. On
the renewal of hostilities with France in 1803, Captain
O'Brien had just been promoted to a Lieutenancy, and,
in the following year, he went out to join Sir Edward
Pellew's squadron off the Spanish coast. On his voyage
back to England in the Hussar frigate, he was ship-
wrecked off the coast of Brest, and compelled to sur-
render himself, together with many others of the crew,
prisoners to the official authorities of that town. While
resident at Brest, he was civilly, and even kindly
treated ; but when he was marched into the interior of
the country, nothing could exceed the harshness of the
treatment he experienced ; he was transferred from jail
to jail, just as if he had been a convicted felon ; at
Laval, he " Was kept some time in the market-place as a
spectacle for the inhabitants; and in every French town
he passed through, was compelled to put up with the
worst possible fare. After encountering many priva-
tions, and much insult from the French rabble, the
author reached 'Verdun, where he remained some time.
During his stay here, " Bonaparte," he says, " passed
through twice ; the last time was after the treaty of
Tilsit. The inhabitants had triumphal arches, &c.,
erected for him. Prince Murat was with him in his
carriage. His guard was his favourite Mameluke, and
the gens d'arrnes and young men of the town that met
him to escort him through. I observed him bow with
seeming complaisance to the prisoners of war, who took
their hats off as he passed. The ever-memorable action
of Trafalgar was reported to us to have been gained by
the French ; they boasted of killing the only he
aro Eng-
land had, and of taking the Prince de York, British
three-decked ship, and another whose name I now for-
get. The truth very soon transpired, although they
endeavoured as much as possible to stop all communica•
tion between both countries." Captain O'Brien's de-
tails of his escape from Verdun, of his recapture, and of
the mortifications to which he was subjected in conse-
quence, are narrated with much spirit and vivacity ;
but, indeed, the whole work is full of exciting details,
and verifies the trite adage, that truth is much more
strancze and interesting than fiction. In the first volume
there is a tolerably well engraved portrait of the author.

CRANKIER. 3 Vols.
Coliing, London, 1839.
Cranmer is the production of a gentleman well read
in English and classical literature, but, we suspect, un-
practised as a novelist. He possesses feeling, and some
knowledge of character, but he is deficient in the con-
structive faculty—that is to say, he cannot concoct, or
unravel a plot skilfully, or cast it in the mould of pro-
bability. Nevertheless, he has contrived to produce a
very readable tale, abounding in strange and unforeseen
incidents, anddeveloping in some of the more impassioned
parts, energy of a superior order. The story turns chiefly
upon the adventures of a young man, R-ginald Cran-
mer, to regain possession of certain moneys and title-
deeds deposited by his father, just previous to

I his death, in the castle of Furstenhoff—a Gothic
pile situated on the borders of the Black Forest
in Germany. Reginald is a youth endowed with
rare physical and intellectual graces ; and previously
to his setting out on his romantic expedition, he forms
an attachment to Caroline Ponton, an artless, impas-
sioned girl who resides at Thornbury Abbey, in the im-
mediate neigbourhood of Dacre Hall, the ancestral seat
of the Cramer family ; but fearing that during his ab-
sence she may forget him, or that some mischance may
occur to prevent their union, he clinches matters at once,
by prevailing on her-to meet him one evening at an old
chapel near Thornburg Abbey, and there kneeling before
the altar, to repeat with him the " words of the marriage
service." She unhesitatingly accedes, shortly after
which Reginald sets off for Germany, an d after eneoun
tering and overcoming some few perils, succeeds in re-
gaining possession of his father's papers, notwithstanding
all the opposition offered him by Baron Vesenmeyer, the
owner of Furstenhoff Castle, who, it seems, has a
strong interest in withholding the parchment do-
cuments from Reginald. On our hero's return to
England, he is, of course married, after the
orthodox fashion to Caroline, while his sister is at the
same time married to his wife's brother, and his uncle,
Major Dacre, to a widow aged forty-five ; and the tale
concludes, leaving all parties in a state of the most un-
bounded connubial felicity. There are several clever
descriptive sketches in Cranmer ; and the author
pourtrays the characters that are usually to be met
with in a sequestered English village, with a minuteness
and readiness that convince us he draws from life.
The prolific Mrs. Thompson, " with a few little
tendrils, in the shape of five children, creeping
picturesquely about her" is well hit off; Mrs. Markham
—the Lady Bountiful of the neighbourhood—is also a
skilful portrait ; but we must protest azainst Silvertop.
the village lawer, as a character which never had
its prototype in real life. In his penitent clerk,
Fordham, the struggles of a naturally good dispo-
sition with long confirmed habits of improvidence
and dishonesty, are depicted with much force and truth
of detail ; but the gem of the tale is Major Dacre, a
jolly, frank, scholar-like soldier of sixty, who frequently
reminds us, and this is high praise, of Scott's Major
Bellenden, in " Old Mortality."

PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS, 2 hors.
Longman, London, 1839.
A somewhat unpromising subject has here been treated
n a way not unlikely to make it popular. The author
does not sound the depths of his theme, but plays at
his ease among the shallows ; and has succeeded in fur-
nishing us with abundance of entertaining gossip, in the
form of anecdotal reminiscences, &c., about the most
celebrated physicians of past and present times. His
accounts of Doctors Warren and Willis, and the method
of treatment they pursued towards George the Third,
when that monarch was seized with his first attack of
insanity, is exceedingly curious, though some portions
of it have already appeared in print. In the second
volume, which, by the bye, contains the most readable
matter—there are brief memoirs of the majority of our
most eminent living physicians, which are neatly written,
but in rather too uniformly panegyrical a spirit. We quote
an anecdote, which used to be related by Doctor Wil-
liam Hunter :—" During the American war he was
consulted by the daughter of a peer, who confessed
herself enciente, and requested his assistance. He ad-
vised her to retire for a ti:ue to the house of sonic con-
fidential friend. She said that was impossible, as
her father would not suffer her to be absent
from him a single day. Some of the servants
were, therefore, let into the secret, and the
Doctor made arrangements with the Treasurer
of the Foundling Hospital, for the reception of
the child, for which he was to pay 1001. The lady
was desired to weigh well if she could bear pain
without alarming the family by her cries. She
said Yes ;' and she kept her word. At the usual
period she was delivered, not of one child only,
but of twins! The Doctor, carrying the two
children, was conducted, by a French servant,
through the kitchen, and left to ascend the area steps
into the street. Luckily the lady's-maid recollected
that the door of the area might, perhaps, be locked, and
she followed the Doctor just in time to prevent his be-
ing detained at the gate. He deposited the children at
the Foundling-hospital, and paid for each 100/. The
father was a Colonel of the army who went with his
regiment to America, and died there. The mother after-
wards married a person of her own rank."

P.ENCILLINGS OF POLITICIANS.
Cunningham, London, 1839.
These sketches are the production of one who holds
strong political opinions, and boldly and frankly ex-
presses them. He is no Tory, neither is he a Whig,
his notions on the subject of Reform being in advance
of those entertained by the present Government. Per-
haps we should not be far from the mark if we were to
say that he is a Reformer of the Durham school, who
feels that Ministers must move, and move briskly and
promptly too, if they desire to retain their hold over
public opinion and effect permanent good. His sketches
of the leading politicians of the day are all penned in a
free, flowing, off-hand style ; occasionally, as in the
portrait of Dr. Phillpotts, they are bitterly sarcastic in
their tone ; but, in general, they are calm and impar-
tial. We have perused them with much pleasure, and
so, we are sure, will the majority of our readers.

A R GEN TINE.
ith and Elder, London, 1839.
Argentine za tale over which a lover of fiction may
pass an agreeable hour or so, for it is short, is by no
means barren in point of incident, and is penned in an
easy unaffected style ; in short, it is one of those novels
which neither soar above nor fall below mediocrity.

LARDNER' S CY CL PrE D lA. No. C XV.
Longman, London, 1839.
The present volume of this popular Miscellany forms
the second and concluding one of Mr. Foster's Life of
Cromwell, a life skilfully and impartially written, accu-
rate in its details, and indicating in places considerable
vigor and subtlety of thought. We have been pleased
with the minuteness and spirit of the author's account
of the closing days of Cromwell, and more particularly
with the justice and eloquence of his reflections on the
conduct that ought to have been pursued by Parlia-
ment after the crowning victory of Worcester. " The
first act of the statesmen of Westminster," justly re-
marks Mr. Foster, " after the Worcester victory, should
have been the passing of their Bill for an amended re-
presentation, and the dissolution of the l'arliament in
which they sate. The next, the greatest, and most
serviceable stone of the superstructure, should have
been a fearless appeal to the people." The volume is
embellished with a neatly engraved portrait of the fa-
mous John Pym.

OREIGN Q UAR 7'ERL Y REVIEW —No. 46.

_Blach, London, 1839.
In point of mere scholarship we have not, in any one
of the leading Quarterly periodicals, read an article
more deserving of praise than that on " Greek
Rhythm and Metres," which is very properly placed
first in the present Number. We like it the better, that it
is utterly free from that pedantic parade of learning, which
so many scholars have brought to the theme, and which,
instead of enlightening, serves only to bewilder and irri-
tate the reader. The introductory remarks are apposite,
and elegantly turned, in proof of which we quote the fol-
lowing passage :—" If a neat, precise, critical under-
standing will thrust itself into the enchanted island of
poetry, where music floats upon every cloud, and hangs
upon every green tree, what is to be expected from such
an untoward conjunction, but confusion, and babble,
and discord? All criticism, indeed, of poetry, when
attempted to be constructed by the mere understanding
in a systematic, scientific shape, is a thine. impossible.
The best things that have been said Oaf' poets, have
been said by those who would as soon have attempted to
write a cosmogony of the universe, as to point out cri-
tically the beauties and the faults of their favourite
authors ; but in the fulness of poetic love and reverence
they have accidentally thrown out words that have ex-
pressed the character of this or that great writer with
more striking truth and precision than pages of
most erudite criticism could have elaborated."
Many of our readers' recollections will, no doubt, supply
them with proofs of the justice of these observations.
The Reviewer's character of Bentley is forcibly pour-
trayed, but, we think, he underrates the critical perspi-
cacity of Person. In the elaborate account of " Ver-
sailles" we have some interesting, though scarcely
novel, details of the progress of French architecture
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. " One of
the great charms of Versailles," says the Reviewer,
" and indeed of most of the royal and noble residences
of France, as they were originally formed, is, that
every thing is in keeping, and consistent with all
around it ; it is all real ; no show, no make-believe ;
royal, or noble, or ecclesiastical, just as the case may
be ; and the eye and the mind are alike satisfied. We
speak of things as they were, in France, not as they are."
The essay on "Russian Literary Biography" is a clever,
and apparently impartial biographical sketch of the well-
known writer Lomonosof, and his contemporaries. The
essay would have been more acceptable, had it been
more condensed. Symptoms of spinning nut are visible in
parts of it. " Tieck's Collected Tales" gives a sort of
analysis of the most popular fictions of this favourite
German writer, of whose abilities the Reviewer speaks
in the highest terms. There are one or two other ar-
ticles which we have not space to notice.

ENTOMOLOGY.—A very fine specimen of a
female moth (the Glory of Kent, tendromis versicolor), has
beer, taken near Monmouth, and is now in the possession
of Mr. W. Watkins, Monmouth. There can be no doubt
but there are others in the neighbourhood, which show
that they are not located exclusively in Kent and its
vicinity.

STATE OF TRADE.-AlthOllgh wools were sold
at our fair last week a trifle lower than was anticipated they
would have been, no effect has been produced upon the
prices of yarns, which have been selling for some weeks at
barely remunerating rates, calculated upon wool at present
prices. We understand the demand, though not yet very
brisk for the home Autumn trade, is decidedly improving,
and that several buyers for the American and Continental
markets have been in Leicester this week. The houses
in the fancy trade continue to be fully employed.—Leices-
tcrshire Mercury.

IPSWICH ELECTION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sir,-1 beg to send you a few facts relative to our dee-
tins. It is true that the TerieS have a majority of six—
and why, ?
Three persons in the firm of filnsome and Co., iron-
founders, would not vote, because Mr. Gibson voted in
favour of the repeal of the Corn-laws; these men are
Quakers, and profess everything Liberal—but mark the
selfishness.

One other of the same sort, C-, a linen-draper, ob-
jects to Mr. Gibson because he voted against Agriculture ;
he is also a Quaker, and was at the last election Chairman
at several meetings to secure the return of \Vason and
Tutfoell. In the greatness of this man's apostacy he has
discovered, and boldly asserts that lan believes, that the
country would be as well governed by the Tories as the
Liberals.
These four individuals could and would have secured
Mr. Gibson's election if they had acted honestly.
Several other persons, acting upon similar principles,
did likewise.

Then allow me to draw your attention to the present
Member, F. Kelly, Esq., canvassing the electors with fair
and beautiful promises. To one he says (Mr. B ),
after urging him to vote for the Tory candidate, but re-
fused, "Is it
it." This the man will swear to. Is this fair play for a
Member of Parliament, and a lawyer into the bargain, to
canvass thus? We poor Chartists dare not go this length.
Sir, trusting these particulars, which are facts, and no-
thing less, may be properly used, and I have no doubt they
will, do not allow the public to be undeceived by the de-
feat of Mr. Gibson. We have a majority any day in
favour of Liberal candidates.
YOUR CONSTANT ADMIRER.
Ipswich, July 15, 1839.

NATIONAL PETITION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sin,—lt having been mentioned in 7Yie Sun of the
13th inst. that I voted for Mr. Attwood's motion for a
Committee of the House of Commons on the National
Petition, which was not the case, as I voted against it,
and stated in my place it was my intention to do so, I
will thank you to contradict the same in your next
publication.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
ANDREW WHITE.
3, Manchester-buildings, Westminster, July 15.

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS

TIME S.—Considering what alarm was felt and expressed
in the City on Saturday at the announcement of the in-
tended sale of the "dead weight" by the Bank, the trifling
effect produced by it on the Money Market of to.day is
truly remarkable. In fact, the general impression is, upon
more calm consideration, that it will lead to nothing, and
that it is a mere demonstration meant to make capitalists
lock up their spare funds, but which, now that they under-
stand the matter, they will employ just as they did before.
This view is strengthened by the very imperfect iuforma•
tion conveyed by the notice, to which nothing can be
added, it seems, to-day on personal inquiry at the
Bank. The chief accountant or the cashier, to which-
ever department the transaction may be assumed to
belong, can state nothing beyond what appears upon
the face of the document. If the Directors really meant
that the notice should be carried into c ffeet to any extent,
they would either have made it more explicit or would have
fixed some day previous to the bithlings at which parties
desirous of information could have been admitted to an
audience with the Board to ask and receive explanations,
as is done with Government loans and contracts. A pur-
chaser of these annuities wo ild be influenced in the terms
of his offer by knowing how much of the " dead weight"
the Directors intend to dispose of—whether a whole or a
part only—and without that knowledge it will be imprudent
in him to make any offer at all. If nothing is meant to be
done, the notice is a very suitable one, but otherwise it is
as destitute as possible of the forms which belong to trans-
actions of so important a nature. It need not be asked if
any offers have been made to the Bank, as that is at pre-
sent
quite out of the question ; all that has occurred is a
few inquiries at the Bank, which have been answered in
the unsatisfactory mariner above stated. Some of the
heads of the great insurance offices and other public com-
panies of large capital are said to have met and conferred
on the propriety of coming forward on this occasion, but
they must necessarily be as much at a loss how to proceod
as private individuals. One error is shown by this notice
to have prevailed very widely last week, which is, the at-
tributing the large sales of annuities which took place to
the Bank ; they must have been, on the contrary, for par-
ties who were aware of what was meditated, and who de-
sired to take advantage of the market before so large a
supply was thrown upon it. Money is not more scarce
than it was on Saturday, and nearly all descriptions of
public securities are higher.

The celebrated George Robins has prepared his
readers for his great approaching sale of Tullichewen
Castle, by a rich, eloquent, and glowing description of it,
and of the contiguous scenery, with the silvery Loch
Lomond, &c. &c. it extends to an entire column of small
type, in The Sun of Wednesday. It is too long to allow
us to transfer it to our own columns, but we can say that,
for a rapid, comprehensive outline of the gorgeous and
profuse natural beauties belonging to this splendid pro-
perty, it surpasses the best efforts, heretofore, of this highly
imaginative and vigorous sketcher. Scenes, like these,
which have given rise to the sublime inspirations of some
of our most admired poets, might be apt to lead to the use
of lavish and hyperbolical praise ; but here there is no un-
meaning pomp of expression, nothing of what sailors call
" professional brine," but a vein of elegant couleur-de-rose
description, as variegated and tasteful as that which winds
through and enriches the most beautiful marble ; and like
marble being the more beautiful by the means of the high
polish that is given to it.—Exeter Flying Post, July 11.

SECOND EDITION.

SUN OFFICE, Seven o'Clock.