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

MAGAZINE DAY

BLACKWOOD.
The tale of the " Onyx Rine is brought to a close in
this nunaber. It is a well-wr;Aten fiction, containing many
choice, descriptive, and poe,iic passages, which none but a
man of glenuine powers of, fancy could have penned; but,
as a whol E., it is of too dreamy and abstracted a character
to please g enerally. There is a want of sustained human
interest in. it ; and laesides this fatal deficiency, the author
does not. I work ou.t the purpose which he appears to have
in view, wi th suriicient distinctness. " Some Account of
Himself" is a humorous, biographical sketch, interspersed
with incidis nts of a stern, tragic order, by one who signs
himself an :Irish Oyster-eater. The dialogue portion of
this eccentt ic. memoir is the worst part of it. In " Italy as
it was" we hi tve a spirited account, by an English traveller,
of a robbery committed upon him and his party by the
Italian brigat ids of the Appennines. The theme is a hack-
nied one, for Washington Irving and Mrs. Graham have
already made it sufficiently familiar to us, but it is descanted
en with a live liness and animation that impart to it almost
an air of novelty. " De Lamartine" is a memoir of the
celebrated French Poet, whose " meditations" have made
him so popttl ar on the. Continent. It is pennedin a flat,
tering style, for De Lamartine's politics are Conservative,
and in politics of this stamp Maga rejoiceth. " Mitchell's
Second and 'Third Ex,,teditions" is a clever digest of some of
the most rect tat jourrAies of discovery in New South Wales.
Well may ern tigrantFi from all quarters of the mother country
be daily flock ing to this remote settlement, for by -all ac-
counts it is co ze o'i the most fertile and salubrious spots on
the face of the 'earth " Persia, Afghanistan, and India"
is a well-timed article, and treated in a more just and
liberal spirit tha a we should have expected in this uncom-
promising Tory p eriodical. " Our Pocket Companions" is
an able criticism„ from the unrivalled pen of Christopher
North, on the poetry of Collins, in the course of which
Christopher tread is Dr. Johnson's strictures on the same de-
lightful poet, wii.ll3 notable severity. We subjoin the intro-
ductory passage of this article, which is in the author's
most delightful s t ad characteristic manner :
" No weather snore pleasant than that of a mild winter day.
So gracious the ' season, that Hyenas is like Ver—Januarius
like Christopher North. Art thou the Sun of whom Milton
s

" € Looks through the horizontal misty air,
Shorn of his beams,'
an image of disc onsolate obscuration ? Bright art thou as at
meridian on a Ju Ise Sabbath ; but effesing a more temperate
lustre not unfelt by the sleepirg, not insensate earth. She
stirs in her sleep and murmurs—the mighty mother ; and qtnet
as herself, thong' a broad awake, her old ally the ship-hearing
sea. What thei t,ll the woods be leafless—they look as alive
as when laden v rith umbrage; and who can tell what is going
on now within tl ie hearts of that calm oak grove ? The fields
laugh not n0w..... but here and there they smile I If we see no
flowers we think of them—and less of the perished than of the
unborn ; for regi •et is vain, and hope is blest ; in peace there
is the promise of joy—and therefore in the silent pastures a
perfect beauty ho w restorative to man's troubled heart I The
Shortest Day in .411 the year, yet lovelier than the Longest.
Can that be the •voice of birds? With the laverock's lyric our
fancy filled the sk y—with the throstle's roundelay it awoke the
wood. In the al ;r life is audible—circling unseen. Such
serenity must be is ihabitssd by happiness. Ha I there thou art,
our Familiar—the self-sameßobin red-breast that pecked at
our nursery window, at id used to warble from the gable of the
school-house his Bs; eet winter song lln company we are silent
—in solitude we so;tilot juize. So dearly do we love our own
voice that we cannot b ear to hear it mixed with that of others
—perhaps, drowned ; and then our bashfulness tongue-ties us
in the hush, expectar it of our golden opinions,' when all
eyes are turned to the speechless old man eloquent,' and you
might hear a tangle d ishevelling itself in Netera's hair. But
all alone, by ourselves s, in the country, among trees, standing
still among untroddt tri leaves—as now—bow we do speak I
All thoughts—all fe ,:lings—desire utterance; left to them-
selves they are not 'fiappy till they have evolved into words
winged words—that: sometimes settle on the ground, like
moths on flowers--sc anetimes seek the sky, like eagles above
the clouds,"

FR. ASER'S MAGAZINE.
" The poetry of Guy's Ari•bmetic"—a quaint title—
consists of two me )ek-ballads, the exact meaning of which,
we have not been fortunate enough to discover; neverthe-
less, some of the stanzas are infinitely amusing, and the run-
ning commentary on them in black letter, adds to the drol-
lery. " Nisbetrs Sweepings of Exeter Hall" is a review
of a work lately published, in which the characters of many
many of the Exeter Hall orators are hit off with much
breadth of effect:. " Rough Sketches Afloat," is another of
those naval yarns, which have been so popular during the
last five or six ;mars. The taste for these sort of sketches
is, however, no av on the decline ; and we arc not sorry that
it is so, for ev.ough is as good as a feast. " Humours of
the North" is a. sketch of the late Dugald Stewart, of whom,
we are told, that in his later works, he was so fastidious
with regard to style, that
" Sometimes a fortnight's correspondence would be kept up
about the modelling and remodelling of a single sentence in a
proof-sheet. Various readings of the identical passages were
produced, with suggwitions of Mrs. and Miss Stewart. Fi-
nally, the printer was requested to end the matter, by taking
which editions he like' I best, the original author not having been
able to make up his n tind 1"
An eminent poet of the present day is said to be equally
fastidious in the c arrection of his proof-sheets. " Our
Annual Executionii" is a sensible notice of the different
Annuals of the prusent year. The reviewer is severe but
not undeservedly- so, in his censures on many of these
showy ephemera. " The Cant of Criticism" is a lively ar-
ticle. " Guisep•pe Recca" is a tale told with much dra-
matic tact.

TAIT'S MAGAZINE.
The reminiscences of " Wordsworth" by the English
Opium Eater, an article to which is assigned the foremost
place in this number, is a very curious production, being
eloquent and nervous in some pl ices, and in others as weak
and silly as fee laugh of a Davie Gellatly. Mr. De
Quincey, the reminiscent, tells us that he took fright at the
very mention of Mr. Wordsworth's name—owing to his
excessive admiration of him--for upwards of four years,
when he was at last brought into his presence by sheer
accident, and very nearly went off in strong hysterics from
intensity of reverence. When, however, he recovered the
shock of seeing the real Wordsworth standing before him
with " solemn and spiritual eyes," and " nose a little
arched and large," he was delighted to discover what an
exact resemblance his face bore to that of Milton! The
following anecdote respecting the great Lake Poet will
amuse our readers. Though somewhat personal, yet it
cannot possibly give offence, for it is as innocent as the
bleat of a young sheep :
Once on a summer morning, walking in the vale of Lang-
dale with Wordsworth, his sister, and Mr. J---, a native West-
tnorelraid clergyman, I remember that Miss Wordsworth was
positively mortified by the peculiar illustration which settled
upon this defective conformation: Mr. J—, a fine towering
figure, six feet high, massy and columnar in his proportions,
l'aPPeaed to be walking, a little in advance, with Words-
worth. ; Miss Wordsworth and myself beingin the rear ; and
from the nature of the conversation which then prevailed in
pur front rank, something or other about money, devises,
buying and selling, we of the rear-guard thought it requisite to
preserve this arrangement for a space of three miles or more ;
which time, at intervals, Miss W. would exclaim in a
tone Of vexation, Is it possible ?--can that be William ?
How wry mean he looks and could not conceal a mortifica-
tion that seemed really painful, until I, for my part, could
4'4 for bear laughing outright at the serious interest which she
carried into this trifle. SiZ was, however, right as regarded
the mere visual judgment. Wordsworth's figure, with all its
defects, was brought into powerful relief by one which had
been cast in a more square and massy mould ; and in such a
ease it impressed a spectator with a sense of absolute mean-
ness. more especially when viewed from behind, and not
Counteracted by his countenance ; and yet Wordsworth was
of a good height, just five feet ten, and not a slender man ; on
the contrary, by the side of Southey his limbs looked thick,
almost in a disproportionate degree. But the total effect of
Wordsworth's person was always worst in a state of motion ;
pfor, according to the remark I have heard from many country
eople, ' he walked like a cade'—a cede being some sort of
insect which advances by an oblique motion. This was not
always perceptible, and in part depended, I believe, uponthe
position of his arms ; when either of these happened, as was
hey customers, to be inserted into the unbuttoned waistcoat,
walk had a wry or twisted appearance ; and not appear-
nee only—for I have known it, by slow degrees, gradually to
‘ge off his companion from the middle to the side of the
high road.
~ If this account of Mr. Wordsworth's peripatetic pecu-
lhe iarities be correct—and we see no reason to doubt
must be a very unsafe person to walk arm-in-arm with,
°r while you are listening to his eloquent conversation—
and who would not listen to it with avidity
graduallvedging the road till at last, by one
you across le roa , ?—he may keep
Precipitate nudge of his elbow in your short-ribs he shoots
you unawares slap into a green ditch, like a ball into the
pocket of a billiard-table. Mr. Coleridge, we have some-
where read, laboured under an equally eccentric peculiarity
;k pedestrian. Pedestrian. He had a trick, when you were walking
haci him, of treading on your toes, especially those which
hissfro,„e upon them ; so that despite the pleasure derived
Bel" wonderful powers of conversation, you were always
Woearidiling in his company ! After describing minutely
ferentBl"th's person, who, it seems, has very indif-
tion ege--perfectly in keeping, however, with his voca-
f.._., oar Poetic legs usually border on the invisible—in
°evil are little better than mere shadowy abstractions,
obserr.. De
Quincey goes on to describe Mrs. Wordsworth,
in ving, after a whole page of rapturous panegric,. that
her
obliquit eyes 51f. vesper gentleness there was a considerable
aon„,, Y of. vision"—in other words, she squinted, a per-
'LL Peculiarity which, we think, might as well have been
"a‘i;Pt_ir:i.the background. " How do Poor Men Live ?" is
animates it is manly, and the writer shows himself heartily.
inteest throughout it. " Dialogue of the Unborn" is
ed to be fanciful, but is heavy by mistake. " Blanche
":1 re" is a tale that promises well. It is,however, " to be

continued in our nest," which is a notice we always dislike to
see. These monthly continuations are sad balks to one's
amusement. " Lord Durham and the Reformers" is too
personal against his Lordship, and is calculated rather to
injure than to befriend the cause which it professes to have
most at heart.

THE UNITED SERVICE .TOURNAL.
Colburn.

The ordinary limits of a newspaper notice will not admit
of our doing justice to the excellent and well-timed,article
which the United Service Journal devotes to the considera-
tion of the present state of the British navy. We shall,
however, revert to it in a day or two in our leading columns,
as no subject can be of more importance to Englishmen
than the state of our navy, and to none are we resolved to
devote more vigilant attention. Besides this article, the
present Number contains a letter from a veteran seaman
to the Earl of Hardwicke, complaining of the gross igno-
rance with which the direction of our naval affairs is con-
ducted. From this document, which is the very reverse of
diplomatic in its construction, and from the bare perusal of
which Metternich or Nesselrode would recoil with horror
and disgust, we extract the following frank exposition of
the veteran tar's convictions upon this subject :
The greatest evil is the want of a direct and positive re-
sponsibility. All boards are notorious for shifting ignorance,
and imbecility, and injustice, from one shoulder to another.
The moment the weight grows unpleasantly inconvenient one
Lord throws it on the next, and so on to the Secretary in the
Lower House, who, being a great man, who is not supposed
to know anything about the matter more than his dear friend
the First Lord, flings it on the working Secretary, who, in
his turn, sits in the atmosphere of his own small authority, the
household fixture, it may be, of half a century of misrule,
shrugs up his shoulders and signs bn, as the spokes
of the wheels (the clerks), in this leaden machinery,
touch his nose or tickle his ear. It keeps going, as a matter
of course, under any " Vicar of Bray"—with what use, ca-
pacity, and intelligence, begins to be felt and seen to our sor-
row, to our shame, to our imminent danger. Look at our
dock-yards, look at our ships in ordinary, at our sea-going
ships afloat, our seamen, and lastly, by way of temporary
plaister to our wound, at that pleasant advertisement, stuck
up at the corners of our streets, at the eleventh hour, ex-
posing, as it does, the supercilious nodding of egotistical self-
complacency their worships have so long enjoyed (together
with their fat salaries), undisturbed.
Where, I would ask them, are those floating nurseries for
now " wanted" seamen, which should have been their special
care and contrivance for these last twenty-two years? Who
will take the shame (it should be a heavier penalty to an in-
jured country), of not baying had these nurseries to transplant
from at every port ? How many thousand vagabond boys
might have been trained in usefulness thus, instead of being
sent to Botany Bay, and at almost as great an expense to the
nation The Times talks of such men as Hume insisting on
an unwise economy; but Mr. Hume's voice has never stopped
the outlay of ten pounds in our yards or afloat. The unwise
economy (skinning a flint with the left hand, while the right
hand squandered prodigally), has been the sole wish and will
of successive Boards—whose secretaries, or some Captain or
Admiral in the House, have induced it to acquiesce ( 0, proh
pudor I) in the constant niggardliness in the most essential
things connected with our service; all those pretended and
false economies (not one real), falling constantly on the work-
ing hands in our dock-yards and ships : the skeletons of all
establishments, overpaid clerks, store-keepers of no stores,
and useless persons, little or nothing meddled with. There
has been no economy whatever of public money, or of public
things; the very yearly estimates should have kept what little
there is in a better state, judiciously applied; and those esti-
mates would have been increased had the Admiralty, through
their organs in either House, but said the word, as essential
for the good, forthe safety of our fleet. Descending from gene-
ralities to particulars, in what one thing is their wise, proper,
and superintending economy (to which a necessary vigour is
essential), in any one department of the hulls, and rigging,
and stores of our shipping ?
Where are the stores of wood in our yards, knees, ribs,
planks, and fir scantling ? How got ? How paid for ? How
controlled as to its being the best and cheapest—(growing in
Canada) ?

Where the masts and yards ready made--ready for imme-
diate stepping, at once to launch a fleet in a few days' notice,
from being housed over in ordinary ? Where, indeed !
Where the rope made within our yards ? Our rope-houses
are empty both of hemp and men I—where the canvas ? Way-
ng to the breeze in Russian end Norwegian fields.
Our very iron-work of all sorts and kinds is not what it
should be in stock in-hand—often not in workmanship.
Where are our vast piles of cannon and anchor's, such as
England could so easily have within her Dockyards ? Should
have 1 Though in these two things we may be least deficient ;
stillthat is not the question.
It is still worse with chain-cables and water-tanks, and hun-
dreds of other essential fittings, that a wise economy would
have stored as the least'periahable, and easily kept in order.
No Admiralty or set of men must be blamed for the forced
inaction of the times—fur allowing the Lion of England to lie
down partly hid ; but for allowing him to be so crippled that
he cannot spring to his feet with a bound, and shake the
island-hating wolves, who every year prowl closer and closer
to his covers, show their teeth, and snarl louder and louder.
And here it is at once necessary to say, that until men, no
matter in what station, are made strictly answerable, each for
his department, it will be in vain expecting rich stores of any
one thing, nor any sort of proper economy c ither in the pur-
chase of them, or in their expenditure or their care ; for it is
in the very nature of things (of human nature) to be as selfish
aa possible, and to do nothing but what is imperiously enforced
under heavy penalties. In all high offices of trust, improper
contracts should be made to fall on the fortune and person of
the offender; bonds and heavy deposits would prevent people
being lazy and careless, and playing tricks with the public
money, or allowing their subordinates to waste it. All this
with us is very much too lax and irresponsible, wherein lies
half the evil in our Dockyards, and to our naval stores of every
description ; but to dive into our ill-managed details would
require three volumes octavo. Here I can but urge you, at
least, to lift your voice in the Upper House against the more
prominent features of the neglect and bad management of the
naval service, long felt and grievously, from a three-decker
down to our 10-gun sloops, to our very ships' boats—from
Admirals to Midshipmen, and down to ordinary seamen and
ships' boys. It is to little purpose, some cry out; it was
always so—we conquered under it I I reply, we conquered in
spite of it. Surely nothing but puerile blockheads, or those
concerned, by being too well paid for doing nothing, will
attempt to defend the manner our naval concerns are ordered.
We have outgrown the snip-snap petulance of arbitrary imbe-
cility : neither the times, nor mere especially our empire, can
afford mere offices to be the shuttlecocks of amusement, and
salary to insignificant individuals, of no more moment in the
scale, per se, than my poor self. England it is that says this—
not I alone ; I am nothing, nobody—have nothing at stake—
have nothing to hope or fear.
If the Russian sets his accursed foot on Sheerness, I will
take my rifle, and in common with other Englishmen, at least
try to defend our fields from his cold, savage, Cossack tread.
This unpleasant image is scarcely exaggerated in the prospect ;
while to the West we have another power and its attendant in-
solence to threaten us. The boundary-line of Maine forced,
will next dictate one through the heart of England ; the dis-
tance is at once annihilated.

While our near neighbours, the French, have (taking a
lesson from defeat) employed, most wisely, the four-and-
twenty years of peace in creating a great naval force,—created,
as it is guided, by a clear-headed, impartial, and vigorous
vconom!„ we--looking to ourselves, Yorke—we have imitated
them (of course) in nothing but the facings of our heavy-
pieced and patched uniforms—ay, and with a rare stupidity,
adopting even the ugliness of the French strap (long familiarly
associated with higher rank in France) on the left shoulders
of our Lieutenants; so much against the grain ( I was going
to say genius) of our ideas, that every puny ensign in a march-
ing regiment, or cornet of the Guards, has two great bullion,
or grain d'epinard—epaulettes ; thence does it look so doubly
mean and degrading. These are our naval improvements ;
whilst us poor Mids are left with an unmeaning patch and
paltry bit of gold twist. To imitate the French Middy's
graceful aiguillettes, is beyond the heavy fancies of our snips
in office. So, too, are we excluded from Court; but any in-
justice or absurdity does well enough for the Navy, and all the
poor devils in it ! Will the Commission now sitting do away
with one jot of the injustice and absurdity that reigns? Not
a bit of it, or they will much belie their past labours ; truly a
mountain labours, and a poor half-starved, half-drowned (in
salt water) mouse will appear.
I have lost the space for graver things (which they had
better look to !) than how many sixpences, more or less, small
officers arc to have—whether to be called this or that. Our
ships that are, and are not, is now the one great question and
concern ; the other, our working hands—their want of lifting
in the scale—their want of care and encouragement. We
want hands. Why have we not got them? Why are our
shipping and our shores neglected, and next deserted, and
those ships, called manned, not manned as they should be?
Not one of our ships, my dear Lord, is manned as she
should be; the scale is too niggardly, nor are the men paid
sufficiently. We must talk some other time of the care of our
ships in ordinary, their repair and conversion, and of the ships
built from year to year, and of the neglect to be remedied of
rearing boy-sailors on board hulks in all our ports; the neg-
lect of our shores and our fishermen,. in a word, of all our
taval iriterests. I must wind up with fixing your attention,
i?
itrst on our seamen—that's the unkindest cut of all ! Look to
we must, or Almack's and Regent-street may tremble.
The Notes Notes of an Eastern Traveller" are as fresh and
as vivid as the scenes amidst which they were written.
Waterloo Albums" is capital. The idea is worthy of
Hood, and we recommend it to a place in his next Comic
Almanac. Several of the other articles are well calculated
to gratify the curiosity of the gallant veterans to whom
they are more immediately addressed. Taken altogether,
this Number contains more than the average amount of
clever, interesting articles.

lON

D_ WILY CHRONICLE.
t that
greatract
commercial speculation,
The " Great Western Railway Enquiry," is an article
, and chiefly interesting
to
of at
the
e exclusively
Shareholders
ac
in ica
to whom accordingly we leave it, the more especially as
the author confesses that he entirely abstains " from ex-
pressing any opinion or deducing. any conclusion from the
experiments actually made,', which, to u!, seems tanta-
mount to a confession that he has been telling a long story
about nothing. " Portuguese Literature" 'is
.a graceful
notice, the work of an elegant and lettered mind, of the
productions of some of the most popular Portuguese
writers, not of the present, but of the past time. " Studies

of Undeveloped Characters in Shakspeare" is a light,
pleasant, ingenious paper enough, and attracted our favour-
able notice in the very first sentence, where the writer ob-
served that it was not his intention to attempt to discover
any new faculties in Shakspeare. The remarks on the
Merchant of Venice are clever, but what, in Heaven's
name, does the author mead by talking about " the deep
woods and meadows green, where Shakspeare's procreant
feet have trod ?" Were his heels or his brains the " pro-
creant" parts about him ? We can understand the mean-
ing of " procreant feet" as applied to Vestris, but Shak-
speare worked with the other extremity of his outer-Adam.
'• Pythagorean Silence " is an entertaining essay, just long
enough, without fatiguing attention. Of the remainder of
the articles, we may say that each sufficiently answers its
purpose.

NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.
The first article in this number, " Widdlezig," is by
Theodore Hook, and gives us a brief sketch of a Mr. and
Mrs. Von Doddle—a sort of German Darby and Joan—
which is quite worthy of the pen that drew that admirable
specimen of uxoriousness, Mr. Peckover. The tale, which
is evidently meant to be ironical throughout, though the
irony is not quite as obvious as it might have been, professes
to be an abridgement of a German novel in eleven volumes,
with notes by a learned commentator hight " Zlippzopp."
We have read it with pleasure, and laughed heartily at the
moral wind-up. " The Polar Star" is by Mrs. Maclean,
better known as L. E. L. The fines seem to have been
written on board ship, and to have been dispatched home
by the first conveyance. We subjoin a few stanzas :
A star has left the kindling sky,
A lovely northern light—
How many planets are on high,
But that has left the night.
I miss its bright familiar face,
It was a friend to me,
Associate with my native place,
And those beyond the sea.
It rose upon our English sky,
Shone o'er our English land,
And brought back many a loving eye,
And many a gentle band,
It seemed to answer to my thought,
It called the past to mind,
And with its welcome presmice brought
All I had left behind.

The voyage it lights no longer, ends
Soon on a foreign shore;
How can I but recall the friends
Who I may see no more ?
Fresh from the pain it was to part--
How could I bear the pain ?
Yet strong the omen in my heart
That says.—We meet again.
Meet with a deeper, dearer love,
For absence shows the worth
Of all from which we then remove,
Friends, home, and native earth.
Thou lovely polar star, mine eyes
Still turned the first on thee,
Till I have felt a sad surprise
That none looked up with me.
But thou hast sunk below the wave,
Thy radiant place unknown ;
I seem to stand beside a grave,
And stand by it alone.
" Letters from Ireland," by John Carne are chiefly re-
markable for their vivid descriptions of external nature.
An episode is introduced into them, which is told with con-
siderable pathos, and has the additional recommendation of
being founded on fact. The " True History of a Great
Pacificator" is a sort of quizzical memoir of Van Amburgh,
the famous tiger-tamer. " Scenes in the Life of an Ad-
venturer" ''crive one or two graphic sketches of the closing
days of Napoleon, when he fought ali but single-handed
against the armies of combined Europe. " Shakspeare's
Historical Plays" display much curious research. They
are from the pen of the Honourable T. P. Courte-
nay. " The Lesson of Life" is in Mr. Jerrold's most
nervous and thoughtful manner. This writer is a man
of strong mind, but does not take sufficient pains to con-
ciliate his readers. There is no reason why he should be
always dosing them with barley-sugar, but neither is it
absolutely necessary that he should be always cramming
strong mustard and pepper down their throats. His pre-
sent tale describes the dying hours of a criminal with pro-
digious energy, yet without the slightest exaggeration. A
few years hence, when Mr. Jerrold's powers have become a
little mellowed, we predict he. will be one of the most
popular writers of the age. The good stuff is in him, but
at present he turns it out in a crude form. A " Cloud of
Canvass" is a sea tale, and as good as such tales usually
are. The " Splendid Annual" is by Poole. It is a capital
quiz on the Annuals—more especially on the " Keepsake,"
with its long array of common-place, Aristocratic contri-
butors. Altogether, the number is a fair enough ave-
rage one.

THE RAILWAY MAGAZINE.
Wyld.
Prefixed to this Number is a map of the Glasgow,
Paisley, Kilmarnock, and Ayr Railway, now in the course
of rapid formation. This great work was o.nly commenced
in June last, but such has been the zeal of the Directors
that its completion in the Spring of 1840 is confidently
anticipated. When this road is completed, the communi-
cation between the West of Scotland and England will be
so direct and expeditious as to be productive of the most
beneficial results to the commerce of both countries.
Other improvements:will of course follow, among which
we are disposed to class the obliteration of many local pre-
judices, and the establishment of a more uniform standard
of general opinion. " Principles of Administration of
Works of Public Enterprise," is a paper more sugges' ive
of insurmountable obstacles in the way of carrying on such
undertakings than of directions for their avoidance. This
is an omission, and a very great one. The other articles
are on subjects, which, though of considerable interest to
Railway proprietors and engineers, arc of little moment to
the public at large. As a Railway Magazine—viz., a
Monthly Journal devoted to a specific purpose—this pe-
riodical is conducted with zeal and ability.

THE CHURCHMAN. Painter.

" The design of this work," says the Editor, in the pre-
face to the volume just concluded, " is to convey useful in-
formation in a form which will generally be intelligible—to
direct the attention to every danger and schism which may,
from time to time, threaten the Church—to vindicate the
authenticity and all-sufficiency of the Scriptures—and on
all occasions to defend our religious Establishment." This
pledge to the public none of the contributors to this perio-
dical are wanting in efforts most faithfully to keep. Their
zeal is praiseworthily alive, not only to real danger, but to the
" shadow of a shade" of it. They see Popery and Dissent
overwhelming us at every turning, and they attack and
abuse them most lustily. To avoid the imputation of being
" dumb dogs," they bark continually, dividing their growls
between the Papal Conclave and the Melbourne Cabinet.
The Number before us is embellished. with a handsome
view of the exterior of the Canterbury Cathedral, accom-
panied with a historical sketch of that noble ecclesiastical
edifice. Among the original articles there is one levelled
against the political equality claimed by the Dissenters,
and another against the Oxford Tracts and tract-writers,
which we doubt not will greatly edify a numerous body of
Churchmen.

DEARDEN'S MISCELLANY. Orr and Co.

This is the first Number of a new monthly periodical,
not unworthy of being classed with some of our old esta-
blished magazines, and yet published at little more than
one-third their usual cost. Among the contributors we
observe the names of James Montgomery, Richard Hon'itt,
the Rev. F. W. Maltby, the Rev. S. Woodhouse, Thomas
Ragg, and T. Featherstone. First numbers are not pro-
perly objects of criticism, as they are generally brought out
under accumulated disadvantages on the part of the editor
and the contributors. In politics " Dearden's Miscellany"
is pledged to a moderate course in which the expression of
extreme opinions will be carefully avoided. We wish it
every success.

THE ASIATIC JOURNAL.
Allen and Co. •

There are several very interesting and instructive articles
in the Asiatic Journal for this month. The " Philosophy
of the Hindus," by Mr. Kennedy, exhibits an extensive
acquaintance with oriental literature. We are no less
surprised than the Author that such a paper should have
been rejected by the Royal. Asiatic Society, merely be-
cause it contained an exposure of the fallacies of a member
of that body. " British Interests in Persia," and " the
Kingdom of the Sikhs," derive peculiar interest from the
recent proclamation of the Governor-General—an interest
which they will hardly fail to gratify. The Review of
" Conolly's Journey to the North of India" is likewise
fraught with curious information relative to the manners
of the native tribes in regions hardly known by name to
the people of England. The Notes for the Month are nu-
merous, and selected with judgment.

A GENERAL OUTLINE OF THE ANIMAL
KINGD 0111.—P4sr 111.
BY THOMAS RIWER JONES, F. Z. S.
Van Voorst.
This is a publication which we expect soon to see in
general repute among naturalists. The style is plain
and unpretending ; the arrangement simple and perspicu •
ous ; and the pictorial illustrations numerous and well exe-
cuted. Our only objection is to the price, which many
will think bordering upon exorbitant in this age of cheap
literature.