The Sun.
London, England, 1839-02-01 00:00:00

DEARDEN'S MISCELLANY.

'Eh .
e various prose and verse articles in this new provin-
3periodical, which is published at Nottingham, are pass-
,bale enough, but we cannot award them any higher praise.
, Chapters on Poetry and Poets" is a criticism on—what
7,2 es the reader imagine ?—that tritest of all topics,
nemer, who is pronounced to be a very fine poet—a novel
opinion, and one that indicates infinite critical perspicuity.
We have seldom read more unquestionable common-place
than is to be found in every page of this essay, wherein the
writer favours us with Homeric translations of his own, be-
cause forsooth he is not satisfied with those of Pope,
Cowper, or Sotheby, nor cven of old Chapman, whose
metre nevertheless he adopts in his own version ! The best
portion of this essay is the sonnet which closes it, in which
speaking of Homer's Troy, the writer says—and says
forcibly too—
rc along whose streets in olden days
Shone that divinest form, for whose sweet face
A monarch sire and all his kingly race,
Were too content to let their temples blaze--.
Where art thou now ? No massive columns raise
Their serried shafts to heaven ; we may not trace
Xanthus and Simois, nor each storied place
Round which poetic memory fondly plays—
Rut in the verse of the old man divine
Thy windy to veers are built eternally ;
Nor shall the E‘ges as they ruin by,
Print on thy Inilwarks one decaying sign;
So true is beau ty clothed in endless rime
So false the several monuments of time."
" Floating Rem embrances" are by a writer who signs
himself " the Old S, tilor." They are not destitute of abi-
-1113 ; but we are get ting heartily sick of the sameness that
characterizes almost all our modern naval fictions. " Inci-
dent at the battle of V 1 Taterloo" is an ordinary anecdote told
with feeling and simplicity. From " Rose Gladstone's Bridal"
--a poem by Thomas F'eatherstone—we quote the opening
stanza, for the sake of the line which we have marked in
Italics, and which convoys a truly poetical image :
" It was a soft a nd sunny eve,
The air was full of balm,
The summer-sk y without a cloud,
The Severn s mooth and calm,
Extended silvery and clear
From sedgy sl 'ors, to shore,
Unruffled with a single breeze,
• Unrippled by an oar:
A little boat with snowy sail
•-
Lay dreaming on the deep,
Whence music's voice was often heard
Across the waiter's sweep."

THE RAILWAY MAGAZINE. Wylde.
The Editor of this very useful publication has at last
taken up the too-long neglected subject of Irish Railways,
to which we trust he will devote much of his future atten-
tion. His present arti'clo on the Report of the Commis-
sioners is too brief and'. too general to enable us to judge
of the degree of care s lie has bestowed upon an exa-
mination of the mass o f useful and curious facts which the
Commissioners have br might to bear upon the adoption of
the system of Irish Railway communication, which they so
zealously recommend. But there is time enough for dis-
cussion before the qurst ion can be brought fairly under the
notice of Parliament ; ar id the knowledge to be reaped from
inquiry will well reyay i he labour which it may cost. The

Railway Reperts in the present Numbee are unuyaally lorg,
and, in the
.judgment of the Editor, mere than usually
portant. Several of them have appeared in onr columns,
but that, of course, does not supersede the neces,ity of their
insertion in the columns of a periodical devoted to the pro-
mulgation of Railway intelligence.

THE ASIATIC JOURNAL. Allen and Co

The summary of Eastern news, published in the "Asiatic
Journal" of this month, is neither long nor particularly im-
portant. The main topic is the anticipation of a war with
the Burmese—an event which we unite with the Editor in
regarding as all but inevitable. It appears from the Ori-
ental Journals that the popularity, in this country, of such
a war, is greatly doubted in the East. We are persuaded
that no real grounds exist for such apprehensions. On the
contrary, our impression is that a war carried on against
the present usurping Ruler of the Burman empire would be
decidedly popular, were the people of England only made
acquainted with half the insults which he has offered to the
Representatives of our Sovereign, and with the prepara-
tions which he has set on foot for the invasion of
our Eastern frontier, the instant he finds us em-
broiled with any of the Princes on the North West.
The " Philosophy of the Hindus," by Vans Kennedy, is
continued. It displays in every page a long and intimate
acquaintance with the sacred and recondite literature and
traditions of Hindustan. " Native Society in India—
No. V." is a catalogue of extraordinary instances, in which
persons have been•supposed dead or murdered, who, after
the lapse of years, have again re-appeared among their
friends. It appears that in India there are various ways of
putting obnoxious individuals " out of the road" for a
time, without absolutely taking their lives ; and what is
still worse, that not a few have suffered the extreme pe-
nalty of the law, on suspicion of having murdered their
missing relatives. The other articles consist principally of
oriental gossip, and profusion of such verses as usually en-
rich the columns of four-fifths of our monthly periodicals.