The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-04 00:00:00

ARRVALS

Wheat. Barley. Oats. Flour.
English 9,3,31) Ors S,VIO qrs. 2,450 VS 5,090 u ck,
Irish
Foreign 7,990 795

SMITHFIELD MARKET.

-- brls,

Supply large for a Friday, trade slack, and prices declined
from 4d. to 6d. per stone. 13eef 3,5. 4d. to 4s. 4d; Mutton
4s. 2d. to ss. 1 VW 4s. Od. to ss. lid. ; Pork 4s. 4d. to
ss. 4d. I3casts 665, Sheen 4,300, Pigs 380, Calves 150.
CITY FISH MARKET.
_ .

Supplies bettor, and prices rather lower. Turbot, ss. and
7s. to 10s. 153., and 255. each • Cod, 24. and 4s. to Bs. 411`,4
15s. each for large ones ; Soles, 6d. to 3s. 6d. per pair.
Whitings, 3d. to 6d. each ; Haddocks, 5,,d. and 6d. to 10d. and
Is. each, •

COLONIAL MARKET.
Bat very little business passing; there was one public sale
onlV 100 bags Barbice Coffee, which sold at previous rates.
13:P. Sugar sold steadily at much about its previous value.

MAGAZINES CONCLUDED

BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY.

We should have noticed this periodical earlier, but it
only reached us on Thursday at two o'clock. It is a capital
number, and would deserve high praise, if only for Mr.
Ainsworth's " Jack Shepherd," which is, we perceive, to be
continued regularly in the Miscellany. We hope, how-
ever, the author will not overdo his highwayman hero—
that is to say, fix the reader's attention too exclusively on
him ; for if he does, what with his Sheppards and his
Jonathan Wildes, and Boz's Fagins and Bill Sykeses, the
Miscellany will wear quite the aspect of a Newgate Calen-
dar. In the chapters before us, however, Mr. Ainsworth
gives us no cause for complaint. There is nothing re-
pulsive in his sketches of flash life in London ; nor are they
thrust forward too officiously on the canvas ; on the con-
trary, they rise naturally out of the subject, like Scott's
famous robber-scene in the cave under Ingleborough-
hill. The opening scene, where Jack Sheppard's
mother is represented sitting in a wretched, half-
furnished hut, with her infant child in her arms, is wrought
up with infinite cleverness of detail, and two or three
touches of pathos are introduced, which humanize, and
break the still life of the description. We know no no-
velist of the day who works up good materials with more
skill and spirit than Mr. Ainsworth. He does not, to avoid
the labour of thought, avail himself of the first crude hints
and suggestions that his fancy throws out, but digs deep
for his ore, and is well repaid for his industry. The whole
scene in the Borough, "in the row of old ruinous build-
ings called Wheeler's-Rents," evinces striking and success-
ful proofs of this unwearied attention to detail ; and the
flash characters, such as Baptist Kettleby, Bluskin, and
Jonathan Wilde—this last personage, by-the-bye, is very
distinctly pourtrayed, though as yet only in outline—have
each the stamp of marked individuality upon them. We
subjoin Mr. Ainsworth's sketch of the old Mint :
Mrs. Sheppard's habitation terminated a row of old ruinous
buildings, called Wheeler's-rents ; a dirty thoroughfare, part
street and part lane, running from Mint-street, through a
variety of turnings, and along the brink of a deep kennel,
skirted by a number of petty and neglected gardens in the
direction of St. George's-fields. The neighbouring houses
were tenanted by the lowest order of insolvent traders, thieves,
mendicants, and other worthless and nefarious characters, who
fled thither to escape from their creditors, or to avoid the
punishment due to their different offences; for we may observe
that the Old Mint, although it had been divested of some of
its privileges as a sanctuary, by a recent statute passed in the
reign of William the Third, still presented a safe asylum to
the debtor, and even continued to do so until the middle of the
reign of George the First, when the crying nature of the evil
called loudly for a remedy, and another and more sweeping
enactment entirely took away its immunities. In consequence
of the encouragement thus offered to dishonesty, and the secu-
rity afforded to crime, this quarter of the Borough of South-
wark was accounted (at the period of our narrative) the grand
receptacle of the superfluous villany of the metropolis. In-
fested by every description of vagabond and miscreant, it was,
perhaps, a few degrees worse than the rookery near St.
Giles's and the desperate neighbourhood of Saffron-hill in our
own time. And yet, on the very site of the sordid tenements
and squalid courts we have mentioned, where the felon openly
made his dwelling, and the fraudulent debtor laughed the
object of his knavery to scorn—on this spot, not two c itturies
ago, stood the princely residence of Charles Brandon, the
chivalrous Duke of Suffolk, whose stout heart was a well of
honour, and whose memory breathes of loyalty and valour.
Suffolk House, as Brandon's palace was denominated, was
subsequently converted into a mint by his royal brother-in-
law, Henry the Eighth ; and, after its demolition, and the re-
moval of the place of coinage to the Tower, the name was
still continued to the district in which it had been situated.
Old and dilapidated, the widow's domicile looked the very
picture of desolation and misery. Nothing more forlorn could
be conceived. The roof was partially wailed ; the chimneys
were tottering; the side-walls bulged, and were supported by
'a piece of timber propped against the opposite house ; the
glass in most of the windows was broken, and its place sup.
plied with paper ; while, in some cases, the very frames of the
windows had been destroyed, and the apertures were left free
to the airs of heaven. On the ground-floor the shutters were
closed, or, to speak more correctly, altogether nailed up, and
presented a very singular appearance, being patched all over
with the soles of old shoes, rusty hobnails, and bits of iron
hoops, the ingenious device of the former occupant of the
apartment, Paul Groves, the cobbler, to whom we have before
alluded.

" A Visit to the Chateaa of Chinon" is pleasantly and
graphically written, and we like it the better, that there is
no mock-sentiment in it. The writer justly observes that
when pacing the dungeons of this lake fortress, we think
far more of Bonnivard than of Byron. " The Twin
Doomed" is a tragic legend of the American backwoods,
something after the Damon-and- Pythias school of romance.
" Shakspeare Papers," by Magian, contains an analysis,
shrewd and subtle, but unfortunately incomplete, of the
character of lago. " Oliver Twist" is here brought down
to the murder of Nancy by her paramour, Sykes—an inci-
dent related with extraordinary power. " Songs of the
Flowers" is pretty poetic trifling ; but being of a Utili-
tarian turn of mind, we should have preferred reading
" Songs of the Vegetables," having stronger sympathies with
that useful, though perhaps unimaginative, esculent, the
cauliflower, than with any other flower that gresys.
" Merry England in the olden Time" is a very entertaining
article, in which much research is evident. The embellish-
ments by Cruickshank are in his best manner.

THE LONDON MONTHLY MISCELLANY.
Smith, Elder, and Co.
We are much pleased with the spirit with which this
unpretending periodical continues to be conducted. Among
the best articles in the present Number is the " Trip
Ashore" and the " Inedited Remains of Eminent Per-
sons," the latter enriched with a fac-simile of an original
letter addressed by Chatterton, the poet, to Dodsley, the
bookseller, " Another Word on the Old 'Watchmen," by
Cornelius Webbe, is an article not to be read beyond the
sound of Bow-bells, nor by any citizen of this our good
city of London, unable to distinguish the cut of a " char-
ley" five streets off in the grey twilight of a spring morning.
By the properly qualified it will be conned over with many
a groan for the " changes that have come over the spirit of
the times." Prefixed to this Number is a fac-simile of an
original sketch of a female figure from the pencil of Sir
Joshua Reynolds, which has at least novelty to recommend
it, as it was never before published.

MONTHLY MAGAZINE.
A new series of the Monthly Magazine commences with
this number. The work is henceforth to be under the
superintendence of Mr. Heraud—a gentleman well known
by his poem entitled " The Descent into Hell." His
present number is a very fair specimen one, but in at-
tempting to raise the tone and character of the " Monthly,"
we hope he will not give us too much of pure metaphysical
writings, for unless these be first-rate in essence, they are
calculated only to bewilder and fatigue attention. The
best article in the number is, the Editor's poem on " The
Pleasures of Genius," in which we find many bold and
striking flights of thought, and melodious versification
throughout. " Remembrances of a Monthly Nurse" is the
continuation of a series of tales that appeared a year since
in " Frazor's Magazine." It is a cleverly-constructed story,
and the interest is sustained to the close. " A New Year's
Greeting" is rather too pompous for mere gossip, which it
professes to be,

METROPOLITAN.
In the " Note Book of an Irish Barrister" we find, this
month, a sketch of Lord Avonmore, the well-known Irish
Judge, and friend of Curran. The sketch is impartial in
its tone ; but we wish the writer would lop off a few of the
verbal superfluities in which he so lavishly indulges. His
style is not quite so verbose as it used to be, still there is far
too much heaping up of tawdry epithets ; and the imagery
is too redundant, and not always apposite--sometimes
indeed not even intelligible. " Christmas Thoughts" is a
light, sprightly poem—as best befits the season—by Mrs.
Abdy, who is a versifier of no mean excellence. " Habits
and Opinions of the Poets" contains some agreeable gossip
about Cowley—.-a delightful poet, though somewhat too
fantastic, and whose translations of Anacreon are the best
we have in the language. The " Courtier of the Reign of
Charles the Second" is by Mrs. Gore. It is scarcely
worthy of her pen, In the prose article entitled " Auto-
biographical Sketches," which is the production of a lady
named Crawford, we meet with some stanzas suggested by
the sight of a beautiful moon, which are distinguished by
feeling and simplicity.

THE CATHOLIC MAGAZINE.
Simpitioe and Marshall.
We implore the relatives of the Church alarmists, who
congregate monthly at Exeter Hall, to weep over the
thraldom of priest-ridden Ireland, and to groan over
reports of the progress of Popery in England, not to suffer
them to cast their eyes over the first article in the January
Number of this Periodical. It is entitled " Prospects of
Catholicism," and corroborates, by the testimony of Ca-
tholic statements, the bare probability of which has al-
retdy driven some of the fiercest champions of the Exeter
Hall arena out of their wits. Were it road in an assembly
of the " Saints" the whole auditory would run as mad as
March hares. For ourselves, we must say that our nerves
are equally proof against the alarms on the one side and
the exultation on the other. They are both equally
groundless. In every nation in the world there are
thousands of persons to whose paculiar feelings, tempera-
ment, and mental assockatutis the predominant religious
form is not adaptea, and these, where freedom of Q hoice is
allowed, trai embrace some other. But. Vi the pre-
vii,l:.ng faith be founded on truth, ay.cli secessions will
strengthen, instead of wealAkining it. The mentally
restless, the victims of Wildorse, and the habitually gloomy,
may be e3Teckea to embrace a religion which satisfies the
hez4. through the imagination—if indeed the heart can be
said to be so satisfied ; but, happily for the world, the time
is past when the conversion of such persons might be pre-
sumed W e,ffect the civil and religious rights of the British

people. Besides, the balance is still pretty even. If Ca-
tholicism progresses in England, Protestantism is making
rapid strides in Italy and France. The " Case of Mary
Woo'Frey" occupies, as might be expected, the largest space
of any article in the present Number. It is treated with
much ability, though in a partisan spirit. Its only fault, in
a literary point of view, is the overloading the text with an
accumulation of quotations from the Fathers of the Church,
many of which appear to us not to be well selected. The
number is embellished with a well-engraved portrait of the.
late Cardinal Weld.