The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-01 00:00:00

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for„

BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY.
We are glad to find -Washington trying among the
eontriautors to this Miscellany ; and still more pleased
that in his " Crayon Parrs" he has resumed those
admirable sketches of early American manners that
formed the principl (thane of-his Sketch. book. In his
details of English life and scenery there was always
something tame and timid, as if he felt that he were not
treading on safe ground ; he imitated also with rather
too much- servility, the quiet manner of Addison and
Goldsmith ; but it was different with his transatlantic
tales and sketches ; here he felt himself at'lome ; and
accordingly, of all his various -works, the quaint, racy
" History of New York," and the story of " Dolph
Heyliger," are those by which he will be longest re-
membered. His " Woolfores Roost" in the present
numb.,r, is not unworthy to vie with these clever produc-
tions. Indeed, in point of style, it is an improvement on
them, fur it is less dres:;y—if we may be permitted to use
such an expression-1 's* made up for the drawing-room.
Washington Irving now writes pure easy, flowing, idioma-
tic English—the same that Addison wrote, and that
iaduthey still lives to write. '6 Jack Sheppard," as uswal,
contains some stirring incident. The burglary at Dollis
Hill is detailed with singular enfl.gy ; but the chapter
that followe, where Jonathan Wild quarrels with Jack
Sheppard, is strained and unnatural throughout.
Tire
former's character is here wholly out of leeping—for
surely a cold, calculating scoundrel, such as he has
been hitherto drawn, would never been frank awl chival-
rous enough to allow Ja,:k an hour's start, before he ar-
rested him for burglary ! The idea is absurd. With this
exception, the chapters are clever and interesting. Mr,
Ainsworth, too, mellows, as he proceeds, in his dialogues,
which have lost much oft hat cast-iron stiffness and rigidity
which formerly characterised them. There is room for
improvement even yet. " The Adventures of th,
Cannon Family" are by no means the great gun—this
is a villainous pun, but we cannot make a better—of the
Miscellany. Nevertheless, there is some little fun in
rcbem- " Old Morgan at Panama " is a rough, vigo-
rot,s-
poem,.whose versification is as dissonant as the
grating of a file on a hand-saw. We can imagine it
written upon deck in a hurricane, to the music of an
Atlantic north-wester. " Veterans of Chelsea Hospi
tal "is somewhat . prosy, as veterans are apt to be. " A
Nautical Tale " sprightly, and will create a smile, if
not a laugh. In the " Lay of St. Dunstan" we recog-
nise the pen of that sterling humourist, Thomas In-
goldsby. In the quaint, mock-ballad -style, this writer
has no superior, scarcely an equal, among his contem-
poraries. His humour is not only rich and unctuous,
but it is also picturesque, and developes much of the
fancy of the poet. May he write a hundred more
" Lava," and may we live to read them ! " Cohn
Clink" maintains its interest unimpaired, which is saying
a great deal far it. From -the " Thames and his Tri-
butaries" we quote an anecdote illustrative of the last
days of poor Kean. The scene is Twickenham :
" But to return again to Eel-pie Island. The place
was the favourite resort of Kean for a few months befare
his death. The boatman we were fortunate enough to
hire was the boatman generally employed by the great
actGr, and from him we learned, that after the fatigues of
the aight were over at the theatre. he often caused him-
self to be rowed to Eel pie Nand, and there left to wandcr
about by moonlight till two or three o'clock in morn•
ing. The tavern used at. that time to be frequented by a
poetical sawyer of Twickenham, whose poetry Kean
greatly admired. The first time he heart the sawyer's
rhymes, he was so delighted that he made him a present
of two sovereigns, and urged him to venture upon the
dangerous seas of authotsbp. By his advice the sawyer
rushed into print, and published a twopenny volume upon
the beauties of Eel-hie Island, the delights of pie-eating,
and various other matters of local and general interest.
Kean at this time was so weak, that it was necessary to
lift him in and out of the wherry—a circumstance which
excited the boatman's curiosity to go and see him in
Richard the Third at the
I Richmond Theatre. '
tel
was some difference then, reckon,' said the honest fel-.
low ; so much, that I was almost frightened at him. He
seemed on the stage to be as strong as a giant, and strutted
about so bravely, that I could scarcely believe it was the
same man. Next morning he would come into my boat
with a bottle of brandy in his coat-pocket, as weak as a
child, until he had drunk about half the brandy, when he'
plucked up a little. One morning became on hoard—l
shall never forget him—be was crying like a child, and
sobbing as if his heart was breaking.—'twas the morning
when his lady' ran away from him, and 11:, told me all
about it as well as he could for his tears. He had a bottle
of brandy with him then, He gave me a quartern of it,
and drank all the rest before we got to Twickenham, and
then be was much better. But he was never the same
aferwards ; he said hts heart was broken ; and I be-
liesve itt was, for he never held up bis head again, poor
tellosv "

NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. ,
The first article in this .Number is from the pen of 1
its editor, and is entitled " Publie Amusements." Its
object is to give a sketch of the various places of public
resort that have been Libionable during the last cen-
tury. Among these, the theatres of course occupy a
foremost place, though, in Mr. Hook's opinion, they are
now all but in extremis. We fear there is but too much
I i rush in this opinion. Late dinner hours, elutes, con-
" certs, and novel-reading have been the ruin of the
dr,ml. We have no longer a taste for tragedy. The
relish for it waned with Kean, and was extinguished by

seven Q'clock, Macready has striven nobly to
revive it, but who can Stand up against fate? We fully
exl,-.et to Eul Covent-Garden, in a few years turned
into a conventicle. Among the placeS most in repute
atn,,ng our ancestors-, half a ecntory ago, were the fol-
-I,,win, qhose very names in t short time will be utterly

tt
:•---
S,renty years ago, a fashionable public place
Marybone Gardens,' existed, where now stand Wey
mouth, street, Upper Harley-street, and that of the sur- -
rounding buildings; nothing remains to mark this once
favourite spot but a small public- house, still extant in
High-street. The entrance to the gardens having been
the site of a!arge dwelling, once a ladies'seminary, and now
in the occupation of Mr. Tilbury. Ranelagh, sixty years
since was the very acme of fashion—it was the indispen-
sable comfort and support of society—its amusements con-
sisted of walking round the rotunda, like a horse in a mill,
amidst the fumes of tea and coffee, which wore made
from kettles of eater, killing on fires in the centre
of the room, and dank by the gallon, in little.
I,iicte-r-hole boxes, by the most ex-,lted and distin-
guished persons in the realm, whose conversation
was just sufficiently mystified by the music of a
particularly bad orchestra to make it safe—hut Rinelpgh
was fel- years all in all ; the carriages have been known to
reach from the top or St. Jrnws's-street in one continuous
line to its do.;rs ; and a ithiu these very few years, the road
now ceded Rrieelagh.street, I believe, was divided down
the centre with posts and rails, to keep the "trains" going
and returning on their resreive, lines. Ranclagh has
vanished from the face of the earth ; another ladies' semi-
nary occupies part of its site, a steam-engine puffs forth its
noisome smoke, where in other days the sighs of lovers
filed the air, and a thing called a dolphin, constructed
for the purpose of pumping up pure water from the embou-
chure of the common sewer of Westminster, rears its heal,
where formerly a splendid flight of stairs invied the an-
xious guests who preferred visiting the terrestrial paradise
by water, to the perils of the crowd of carriages by land."
" A Day to One's-self," is written in a light, airy style.
There is one remark in it, however, to which we must
demur. " Tom Browns" says the author, " has
ob-
served that the most melancholy time of a man's life is
when the reckoning is called. Mr. Raymond is here
incorrect. It is not. Tom Brown, but Rabelais, who
makes this remark, and puts. it -into the mouth of the
incomparable Panurge. " A Dish of White Bait" does
no more than justice to these piscine dainties, so delight-
ful to people of elegant appetites. Mr. Hook, how-
ever, in a note appended to the article, protests against
all praise of whi:e bait, which ho compares to silk-
worms—fwd certainly, in one respect, they are silk-
worms, for they are spinning a fortune for Love-
grove. " WidoW l3arnaby" runs her course
rojoicing. Her adventures at the Custom House are
detailed with remarkable humour, in parts, perhaps a
little too much exag4erated. " Westminster of Old"
is rather dry and prolix. In the "c Life and Times of
Peter Priggins," we have a whimsical portrait of an
offended College Bursar at Oxford. The " Morality
of the Stomach" contains some lively and ingenious
writing. It might, however, have been abridged with
advantage. " A Summer in Bavaria" is passable. Of
the " Phantom Ship" we have already spoken, when it
came before us in the shape of three volumes. In the
" Literature of the Month" the reviews of new publica-
tions are neatly written. . .

FRASAR'S MAGAZINE.

Fraser is clever this month, but by no means op.
pressive in his brilliancy. Soave few of his articles are
as heavy as lead, and the '' Trinity of the Gentiles" is
one of these. Nor can we speak much more favourably
of the " Ruling Vice of Modern Politics," in which
diatribe the writer gravely proposes to turn the House
of Commons into a Church or Conventicle, where Hon.
Members may preach sermons, instead of perpetrate
speeches. "No good reason," he tells us, " can be given
why men should wish to suppress theological discussions"
in Stephens. This observation is more to be com-
mended for its ori';,in:ility than its discretion. Conceive
Joseph Hume !lolling forth on the doctrine of Trans•
substantiation ; Tom Duncombe on the Mosaic Dis-
pensation ; and Colonel Sihthorp on the Wisdom of
Solomon ! Why, one half hour of such discussions
would clear the House as effectually as Peter Borth•
wick cleared the Surrey Theatre when he played
Othello there a few years since ; or as the Episcopal
Bench .was cleared the other evening when the clock
struck seven, their Lordships' dinner-hour. " A Case
of Clairvoyance" is a capital tale, whose object is to
I quiz the long-eared tribe of antiquarians and animal
magnetizers. A gentleman under the magnetic influence of
a couple of bottles of old port, imagines himself trans-
kirted to London in the year 3838, where he meets
with a party of Jonathan Oldbucks, who entertain him
with prosy dissertations on the habits and customs of
the Cocknies in the olderi time—that is, the present day
inforMing him, among other equally sage and tie-
irate matters7of4aet, that Field-Marshal - Wel-
lington was a celebrated field-preacher in his
'day, who bruised the.head of Apollyon, alias Napoleon ;
and that Billingsgate was the principal law-court of the
metropolis, " where the chief pleaders of the time
studied elocution !" This last is a pungent touch of
irony, worthy almost of Swift. " A Chapter on Sor-
cerers," &c., contains some curious information, for much
of which the author is indebted to Godwin's " Lives
of the Necromancers." Perhaps a few of our readers
may be desirous, from motives of laudable curiosity, to
raise the Devil ; and if so, we will tell them bow to
set about it. Tney must first " baptize a toad," and
" then dress him up in livery," after which Beelzebub
will be sure to make his appearance, either in the
shape of a " black dog," or else in that of " a very. pale
man, with obnoxious breath, dressed in black, and with
feet like cow !" Some of the Sorcerers were, it
seem, endowed with almost unlimited poWers ; and one
who lived at Cyprus is recorded, on the grave authority
of the Archbishop of Tyre, to " hav'e turned an English
soldier into an ass"—which, by the by e, is no very miracu-
lous metamorphosis, for these is a certain Conservative
Colonel in the House of Commons, now living, who is
labouring under precisely the same transformation,
having " been turned into an ass"—doubtless by some
wicked 'Fury conjuror—ever since we can remember.
We quote the following description of the.mal-practices
of a notorious witch, who was convicted of sorcery, In
e ear 1527, but prordsed a pardon, on condition
iat she would make a display of her necromantic obi-

titles :
" Tao Commissioner. Iving desirous of ascertaining the
truth of these statements by his own evidence, promised
pardoi to one of the witehes, on condition of her perform-
ing some act of witchcraft in his presence, and allowing
her to avail herself of the means of escaping, if they
'off.!red in the course of her performances. The old woman,
having accepted the proposal, asked for a certain box of
ointment which had been found on har person, and mounted
a high tower, accompanied by the Commissioner, whom
she stationed by her side at a window. In the presence of
a great number of persons, she then anointed the palm of
her left band, her wrist, the point of her elbow, her arm-
pits, and her left side, awl afterwards cried cut with a loud
voice, Art, thou there?' and all the spectators beard a loud
voice in the air r,ply, Yes, lam here !' The old woman then
crept out of the window, and began to descend the wall of •
the tower head foremost, using her feet and hands in the
same manner as a lizard. When she had descended Shout
half way, she suddenly flew up into the air, and continued
to be seen by the people until she had sailed beyond the
horzon. -In the midst of the astonishment into which every
body was thrown by this prodigy, the Commissioner de-
clared he would give a considerable sum of money to any
One aho could bring back the sorceress. At the end cf
two days she was found by some shepherds ; and the Com-
missioner inquired why sh. bad not' flown beyond their
reach, when she replied that her master would not carry
tier more than three leagues, and had left her in the field
wh-Je the shepherds found her."
" Ruins on the Banks of the Ganges" is picturesque in
is descriptions, and striking in its incidents. The
pisode, in particular, of the river pirates, teems with
animation. " Whigs and Tories" is sad stuff. "Oa
the Sinking of the "Vengeur" is an exposure of a false-
hood which has passed current for upwards of forty
years, and was fist pointed out by Admiral Griffiths
in a letter which he sent to this Journal for insertion,
about six moutbs ago. The falsehood is to this effect
—namely, that the crew of' the Vengeur, when that
vessel lounder.ll at' the moment of Lord Howe's vic-
tory of the Ist of *lime, went to the bottom, shouting
" Vice la Republique !" Barrere first propagated this
"enormous he' in tile French National Convention, and
of course all the Paris Journals adopted it. From their
ct:umns it was copied by our own historians, Alison and
Carlyle ; and is now, for the first time, contradicted by
Admiral Griffiths, who was present at the battle in
question, and declares that " the whole story is a ridi-
culous piece of nonsense." The " Eastern Question" is
not devoid of shrewd and ingenious suggestions, but is
too much tainted with party spirit to be implicitly relied
on. Iu " Bunyan's Life and Times" some pleasant ex-
tracts are given from Mr. Philip's Memoir
.of the great
Puritan. The writer concludes by saying, " a life of
Bunyan, in all respects satisfactory to us, has hot yet
appeared. Southey had not till the materials ; Philip
has not the talent ; and WE have not the time." This
is modisst

TATI"S MAGAZINE. 1
Parliamentary Reports are not, generally speaking,
remarkable for their sprightly, entertaining, or anecdo-
tical character ; but now and then there occurs
an exception ; and the Report of the Commissioners
for establishing a Constabulary Force in England and
Wales, is one of them. This curious document fur-
nishes the theme of the first article in Tait's present
Number,—and a most agreeable article it is, whether
viewed in regard to its original matter, or its extracts.
The writer is opposed to the institution of a constabulary
force which he calls " a system of State espionage," and
threatens to return to the subject, when he will of course
I
prop in every thirty-one is sure to be a
that is to say, as regards the nuMber of its rogues—but '
sispeaaknooteurtioinustlsiceamusputal
ii manly,verposotlraisig,,rhatt-loerrwamrodrefamshoiorant
that characterizes Tait's Magazine. Meantime he gives
us some furious criminal statistics, by which we learn that
in Bristol, one
rogue ; and that in Newctotle, one in every twenty-seven
then what it wants in quantity it males up in quality, for
i its thieves arc among the eigst de*terons end hest:.
e,luealed in the profession, many of o.Fpl. having gri,t-
-i duated at the best London seminaries, under the pieN)
! I super,inlendence of the most accomplished erackstntru.
I
To Lto •" A town-bred thief "is naturally considered a

• Y~~ 1
i~ W r

high honour among thcsc, arti-sts, who take a 'singular
pride in their vocation, " the love of ame," observes
Tait," forming no small proportion of their composition."
Nevertheless, we quite agree with our Radical friend,
who is quite pathetic on the subject, that the art of
thieving—the most ancient in the world, the God Mer-
cury being the first known prig on record—is sail:y
degenerated, the wost illustrious roasters, the shining
lights of the profession, having long since earned their
last promotion on the gallows. We have no Jack
Sheppards now-a-days ; no Claude Du Valsa who rob on
the high-way in such a gentleman-like style that it is
quite an honour to be robbed by them ; no Dick Tur
pins who ride to York at a hand-gallop, and think no-
thing of it ;—all these brilliant geniuses are gone, a race
of tame burglars and area, sneaks has succeeded, and
" the glory" of the high-way " is extinguished for
ever." But never mind, friend Tait. If the race of
highwaymen is extinct that of small attornies is
still flourishing among us ; and while these exist, we
need never complain that the art of taking a purse
is at a discount. A pettifogging lawyer is only a high-
wayman domesticated. Having concluded his " La-
Ment"—which, though brief, is singularly touching in
its pathos—Tait goes on to describe, in their own words,
the adventures of two promising young " town-bred"
family men, who set off about a twelve-month since on
a professional. tour to
_Kidderminster. These adroit
thieves built a dog-cart, with a false bottom filled with
bad money, stole two dogs from Smithfield, bought
seventeen shillings' worth of brooms, hardware, &c.,
which they paid for of course with spurious coin, and
while they were engaged in making this purchase, two
others of the profession stole for them, in the same
shop, upwards of twenty-seven shillings' worth of mis-
ullaneous articles ! Thus equipped, the two young
scamps quitted London by way of Wandsworth, and
robbed their way direct to Kidderminster, " living
very well on the road, never condescending to eat
broken victuals, having meat breakfasts, good dinners,
good suppers, and frequently going to bed very drunk."
They were remarkably punctual, it seems, in their at-
tendance at Church, where they eased many a devout
gentleman of his 'watch ; and on one occasion disein-
harassed a very fat man, who was on his knees in
the aisle, of almost all his moveables. Once, however,
one of them had the ill luck to be ducked in a horse-
pond, whereupon his companion, who appears to have
been of a quiet, philosophic turn of temperament,
quietly waited for him in a field a few miles off the
scene of action, till the process of ablution was ended.
On the whole, their expedition was singularly produc-
tive, for they robbed both going and returning, and
when they again reached London they were received
with acclamations, and pronounced by their seniors in
the profession to be a " credit to the family !". Tait
gives many more extracts of this sort from the Com-
miss;oners' Report, out of which he has contrived to
fabricate a most amusing, and, if rightly interpreted, a
most instructive article. " Perils and Escapes of a
Covenanter" reminds us, " as with a difference," of
Dean Swift's truthful details of the adventures of
Captain Crichton. " Pedestrian Tour of a Scottish
Emigrant" is a concise narrative of an excursion in the
middle States of America. The account of Baltimore
is spiritedly written. In the " Lake Reminiscences of
Wordsworth and Southey" Mr. De Quincey is far too
unreserved in his communications. His details of his
Republican conversations with these two poets—the
date of which is clearly erroneous—where he represents
them as expressing an ardent wish to have. Geiarge
the Third shipped off to Botany Bay, might, we think,
have been omitted with advantage ; nor need he have
said that Wordsworth was the " man whom of all
since the Flood I most yearned to behold," for such en-
thusiasm is absolutely ridiculous, the more especially
when it is remembered that such men as Shakspeare,
Milton, Bacon, and Newton have been among us. Mr.
Wordsworth, who, with all his imagination, is a tho-
rough man of the world, must laugh at this panegyrical

METROPOLITAN MAGAZINE.
There are several light, sketchy, and entertaining ar-
ticlesin this Number, which is of more than average merit.
Mr. Addison, the traveller, figures among the chief
contributors, and supplies a most minute, and we have no
doubt, accurate account of Jerusalem, as the Holy City
now exists. He spent, it seems, some time there, and exa-
mined all the localities alluded to in Scripture. The
spot where Joseph of Ai imathea and Nicodemus placed
the body of our Saviour, particularly struck his fancy,
and accordingly he enters into very minute details re-
specting it. We subjoin his sketch of the sanctuary
wherein the corpse of Jesus was placed :

*6 We now took off our shoes, and prepared to enter
the second sanctuary, which, it is altrred, is the very
chamber hewn in the rock, but cased with marble, in
which the body of our Saviour was placed ! A curtain
was drawn aside, and, on stooping to enter a low door-
way, the scene ;hat presented itself was imposing to a
degree. The interior of the sanctuary was clouded with
the wreathing smoke of. burning incense, and the air was
loaded with perfume. Forty lamps of massive gold, or
of silver gilt, the presents of as many different Euro-
pean Potentates, suspended by chains of like material from
the ceiling, diffused a briliiant but softened light through-
out the marble chamber, and around a marble sarcophagus
placed at the side of the sanctuary. Oa the right of the
doorway extended a row of lighted wax candles, placed in
richly chased candlesticks, and leaning against the oppo-
site marble wall was seen a tall, motionless figure,
.babited
in a long black robe ; his hands were folded across his
breast, and he held within them a long white wand.
The pealing organ was still faintly heard, and the voices
of the choir dying away in the distance. The orcimonk
knelt by the aide of the marble tomb, and, influenced
by a thousand varied emotions, I placed myself by his
side. What matters it that I did not believe that the
tomb before me was that of our Saviour, or that the
marble sanctuary was the sepulchre in which he was
lard. I was in a Christian church in the heart of Jeru-
salem, and at all events but a little way removed from
the spot where Jesus Christ suffered on the cross, and
offered himself as a sacrifice for mankind."
The " Mariners of the Pollen" is a curious account
of a suburb adjoining the town of Dieppe, in Normandy,
which, says Mrs. Gore, " though divided from it by the
estuary of a river scarcely half the width of the Thames,
differs as completely from the parent town in manners
and customs, dialect and costume, as the capital of
England front that of Spain." The " Fog Gut," is a
terse and energetic lyric, modelled on the style of Camp-
bell. In the " Curiosities of Legal Experience" we
have a tale told with no slight skill and power. " Na-
tional Sonnets" are by William Howitt. They are not
amiss, but the author has written much better poems.
The best in the present series is the sonnet on Izaac
Walton, in which he talks of
" The April shower on bush and tree
Pattering with silver footing pleasantly."
6' The Pirate" is but aso so tale. " Saturday Night'.
is an essay containing some dainty bits of description.
‘4 Charming Roselle" is a song written in the Della-
Crusca style. " M.'ms in the Mediterranean" are lively
and anecdotical ; and the " Notices of New Books,"
which conclude the Number, penned, so far as we can
see, in a calm, impartial spirit.

CHRISTIAN REFORMER.
Sherwood and Co.
The most important article in this number is the
Report of the Solicitor-General's Speech before the
House of Lords, on the celebrated Lady Hewley case,
whicra is given at full t'ngth from Mr. Gurney's short-
hand notei., and bears internal evidence of correctness.
The speech is highly creditable to Sir M. Rolfe, as a
lawyer and a pleader. He shows, we think, that the
judgment of his Honour, the Vice-Chancellor, affirmed
by Lord Lyndhurst, cannot stand without affecting
the whole law of charitable trusts, and shaking number-
less foundations throughout the land ; so that this is a
question, not merely between Independents and English
Presbyterians—though we have good reason to believe
that the former respectable denomination are far from
approving generally the conduct of the relators in this
suit—whether this body or that shall have certain an-
cient endowments, but whether the supposed private
opinions of the Founder of a Charity, not expressed in
#se. D„,i_e-rrastratrattirer-. oened.and a tchtboth for
trustees and bervficiares for ever. The paper on.
Samaria, by Dr. Bowriog, is interesting in no ordinary
degree. It contains an account of the Doctor's late
visit to that place, together with a description of the
terFEbcolieflesiastieal Forgeries," we
e service
state of its inhabitant', and carries the
reader back to the times, and makes him at home in
forms of bei
Scrovlic aens d '
of the Church the scenes, of sacred story. " Thoughts on the Recital
of Creeds in Public Worship," is a judicious defence
of
e
tht
e plan
a r t !lef
of
e n
the
tnai C
have a full exposurethe fabulous legend relating to
Of Elena. " The Evange-
our Savour and the King
lical Clergy v. Dr. Pye Smith," in the matter of certain
lectures
of
this divine on geology, is a proof not quite con-
firmatory of boasted " march of intellect." These are,
it is clear, now, as in the days of Galileo, thole who
would not scruple to sacrifice science to human formu-
laries of theological faith, and would erect inquisitions
to prevent the world moving on. Poor fools!

JUNE 23.—This morn-
ing,
einni understand, schooner, of Guernsey,
dserstand, was Cleal, and
B about half-past sFt silDisi,tAlt
this :part of the coast was visited
a tremendous storm of hail and rain, of about a quarter
It blew
ano hour's duration. a perfect hurricane from
S. S. W, and the sea raged and foamed tremendously.
off Bcachy Head, and
sWthBeetocr
nt,epsg,traewitiel t,notv
‘s,dhtoaowtseen
,t hnaabatmo tueht,ei
;1-I,e
one of the crew named Griffiths, perished. Three men
were taken from a spar in an exhausted state, by a Deal
lugger and a Brighton fishing boat, and conveyed to
Brighton. The vessel, which was laden with a cargo of
wheat in bulk, was bound from London to Gloucester;
and the unfortunate sailor who perished with the captain
was a London man, who was taken on board in London
the day before. It was
his watch on deck, and it is sup-
posed that he was
swept off in the squall. The captain
was in his hammock,
sod so sudden was the accident, that
the crew had not time to apprise him of his danger.
MONUMENT TO BOILDIEU TIIE COMPOSER•
/, .t.c.,,„7.,e statue of the late eminent composer Boildieu,
by Wantan, jun., wes ilisugurafed at Rouen, of which
niipc, be vra a patVe, on T4tirsclay bist, in the presence
6. ;ip priopo authorities. The statue is erected in thp
middle of ate pig Iv 41; 14 9.49)94F.§ POP!

LITERATURE.

ENCY CL P 2E' DIA BRIT ANN ICA.
Vez:• XIX . PART L
Black, Edinbuzvh. 1839.
There are three admirable articles in this Part—we
say nothing of the elaborate one on " Railroads," be-
cause it is wholly made up of minute practical details,
on the correctness of which we cannot venture to offer
an opinion—and these. three are, the essays on Ro-
mance and on Rhetoric, and the brief critical Memoir
of Rabelais. This last is penned in a sententious style,
pregnant with matter, and gives evidence of a familiar
accraintance with the works of the first humourist of
the modern world. " Rabelais," observes the writer,
" is essentially good-natured even in his severest moods ;
and this is apparent even in the very form of his satire.
Its most caustic strokes are given with a merry voice
and laughing eye ; and yet, while apparently revelling in
the most unrestrained ebullitions of mere animal spirits
and licentious fancy, he is covertly stripping sensualism
of its enticements, and enforcing the strongest lessons
of humility." Certainly nothing is more calculated to
strip sensualism of its enticements than the sarcasm of
Rabelais, for he lays it bare in all its naked deformity,
as if for the purpose of exciting disgust. Passages,
indeed, of the most horrid filth and obscenity abound in
the earlier chapters of Pantagruel—thev are more rare
in the Voyage of' the Holy Bottle—and this is one of
the reasons why this sterling satire must ever remain,
comparatively speaking, a scaled book. Swift, who
should have known better, did not think it derogatory
to the character of a clergyman to imitate Rabelais
in this respect, though he in vain attempted to
equal him in imagination and invention. As regards
the good-nature of the French satirist, of which his bio-
grapher speaks in terms of deserved praise, Friar John
of the Funnels is a matchless illustration of this genial
quality, the most attractive that any writer can possibly
possess. The Essay on " Romance" is, we understand,
from the pen of Mr. Moir—the well-known " Delta" of
Blackwood's Magazine. It is carefully written, and
takes a comprehensive view of the subject. The writer's
criticisms on our English writers of fiction are, in gene-
ral, just ; and we heartily coincide with him in his opi-
nion that Richardson's character of Lovelace, in Cla-
rissa Harlowe, is " the most finished picture of the self-
possessed and insinuating libertine that ever was drawn."
The ease, and grace, and wit of this remarkable portrait
are indeed superlative—the very salt of the novel. As
for Clarissa, we cannot say we have any particular sym-
pathy with this paragon of excellence, notwithstanding
Mr. Moir's eulogiums. She seems to us to be, like all
Richardson's heroines, a very prosy, cold, strait-laced
young gentlewoman, and when she eventually " gets
into trouble," through the intrigues of Lovelace, she
dies off after a fashion that reminds us of the last mo-
thents of one of the she-saints in the Evangelical Ma-
gazine. In discussing Fielding's works, Mr. Moir talks
Of his " flaw of animal spirits, and healthy vivacity of
manner." Now we must demur to this opinion. " Animal
spirits" are by no means the characteristics of Fielding's
manner, which, on the contrary, is grave, subdued,
and full of repose. The writer's comments on Sterne
and D foe are capital ; to Goldsmith, he scarcely, we
think, does justice ; and speaking of Mackenzie, he
makes no mention of his two cleverest and most finished
tales, " Louisa Venoni," and Laroche," while he con-
siderably overrates his maudlin " Man of Feeling."
On the whole, however, Mr. Moir has done every jus-
tice to his task of which it was susceptible. The ar-
ticle entitled " Roman History" is indebted for many of
its facts to Dr. Arnold's valuable work on this subject.
It is penned in a condensed and familiar style. The
Plates affixed to the part are, as usual, executed in a
superior style of excellence.

HEMAN S' P OEM VOL. 11.
Blackwood, London, 1839.
This volume contains some of the earliest and most
popular poems of Mrs. Hemans, and is embellished with
a likeness of her favourite residence at St. Asaph, in
North Wales, to which allusion is so often made in her
Letters, and in the Memoir by her sister, which forms
the first volume of this elegant edition.

THE iORESTER. 3 Vor.s.
Longman, London, 1839.
The period of this tale is well chosen, for the year
1688—the time at which its principal incidents are sup-
posed to have occurred—is one of the most exciting in
English history, not merely as regards public affairs,
but as it influenced the private relations of society.
Scarcely a day passed but was marked by some stir-
ring event which came home to the hearts, and affected
the interests, of the lowest as well as the highest
classes. The leading actors, too, on the political
stage—the Churchills, Godolphins, &c.,—were
all men of first-rate capacity, admirably fitted
for the difficult parts they undertook. Miss Boyle, the
authoress of the tale before us, has, in her sketches of
many of these prominent personages, adhered with tole-
rable fidelity to history, especially in her portrait of
Lord Churchill, afterwards the famous Duke of Marl-
borough, whose cautious speech, contrasted with his
courteous, and apparently frank bearing, are delineated
with much adroitness. The interview that takes
place betwei.'n this accomplished statesman and Mary
Saville at a woodman's cottage in the Royal forest of
Savernake, has a freshness and vigour and lifelike spirit
about it, far superior to what we are usually in the habit
of meeting with in those modern fictions which profess
to be historical. Nor is the account of the quarrel be-
tween Walter Fleming and Philip Dudley, where the
one accidentally shoots the other, less graphic and ener-
getic ; but the subsequent detail of Jane Dudley's
conduct, as she vows revenge beside her brother's-
corpse, is too much exaggerated, the passion of the scene
being torn to tatters, and producing, consequently, a
ludicrous, rather than a Magic, effect. Miss Boyle
should beware of this sort of exaggeration, which is
ss mptomatic, not so much of strength, as of weakness.
The character of Mary of Modena, the young Italian
bride of James the Second, and whose life was one long,
uninterrupted series of disasters, is sketched with a firm,
but delicate pencil, and the language put into her mouth,
is just such as she might have been supposed to utter,
under the trying circumstances in which she
was placed. We have been pleased with the
following reflections which she addresses to her faithful
companion, Mary Saville, at a time when her best
friends are daily falling off, and James's cause is all but
lost :—" The word change is inscribed in mournful
letters upon the book of life, and every moment bears a
sad testimony to the truth of the inscription. One by
one, the companions of our youth fall before our eyes,
tarry and loiter by the way, or strike off in a new
direction, to join some other pilgrim in a distant
road. The flowers that we cherished in our bosom
fade and wither there ; the bird that warbled in
our bearing droops and dies ; morning glows into day—
day mellows into evening—and sinks into night. The
eye grows weary of looking for the last time ; the lip,
of bidding farewell ; till at length impressed with the
transitory nature of all around us, a holy change is
wrought within our bosoms; and beckoned forward by
the hand of God himself, we love to strain our eyes in
the direction of that lasting world, where there is
• neither sorrow nor disappointment ; where there is no
monotony in sameness, no satiety in pleasure." Miss
Boyle has not succeeded in drawing the portrait of
James ; but in the character of Lord Fleming, she has
ably limned the high-minded English aristocrat, resolute
to pursue the path of honour, no matter what be the
difficulties that beset him, or his temptations to deviate
from the path. Her tale_ is one that will meet with an
average popularity, for the incidents are ingeniously con-
rived, and the dialogues easy and natural.

TILE MANOR 0 E.G LENM 0 RE, 3 VoLs.
Bell, London, 1839
The introductory chapter of this tale, which describes
the manor of Glenmore and the beautiful sylvan scenery
in its immediate neighbourhood, is one of the most ef-
fective in the whole work, particularly those portions of
it which are intended to give the reader an insight into
the social condition of Ireland in the memorable year
182 S, when the Catholic Association was in all
its glory, and the " simultaneous meetings," which
had such an effect on the nerves of the English
Government, had been just carried into execution
throughout the sister country. It is to this stormy
period that the present tale refers, but the author
has not made so much of his materials as he might have
done, for, in general—with the exception perhaps of a
striking scene, where an Irish peasant is prevented from
committing murder by the opportune arrival of his
priest—his incidents want energy and character, and the
plot of his story moves on at a slow, heavy, and languid
pace. Of his dramatis persona), the best is the portrait
of John Glennon, which could have been drawn by no
one who was not thoroughly acquainted with the pecu-
liar idiosyncrasy of the Irish peasant. The language of
the story is flowing and animated ; but we must enter
our protest acainst the use of such words as " know-
ledgeable"—" convulsingly"—" fatiguedly"—aud the
like, which are neither English nor Irish, but sheer
gibberish.

EXTORT OF TIMBER FROM THE HIGH-
LANDS.—The progress of the railroads in England and
Scotland has lately caused a great demand for fir wood in
this part of the country. The sound of the ax,!.. and the
saw mill are heard in the loneliest and most remote parts
of the Highlands. We have heard of one proprietor sell-
ing his fir wood for 10.0001., and another for 5,300/.
Within the last eight or ten years, a vast number of sales
of this kind have been effected, ranging from eight or ten
thousand to as many hundreds each. A considerable amount
of shipping is engaged in this trade; and the vessels that carry
out the timber in the shape of railroad-sleepers, pit-props,
&c., generally return with cargoes of coals, lime, and other
commodities. The number of men employed in felling the
trees, sawing them up, and exporting them, is also a source
of advantage to the country. A great trade has thus
sprung up, the avatar, we trust of extended commerce in
our northern region. When the Duke of Gordon, about
fifty years ago, sold his mighty forest of Glenmore for
10,000/., the sum was considered unprecedented; yet the
same timber would now, from superior management, as well
as superior value in the market, be worih more than treble
the amount. Previously to this period, the Laird of Grant,
it is said, sold his timber at the rate of Is. Bd. for what one
man would cut and manufacture in a year Thus, our fine
forests have been thinned and destroyed, and the country
dentided of one of its noblest ornaments and most valuable
Products.—lnverneaq Courier.