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

justice and common sense. The remaiuing papers call
for no r,articular comment.

TAIT'S MAGA ZIAE.

" Blanche Delamere" is one of tile most entertaining
stories that Tait has yet turned out. To say nothing of
sprightly and vigorous description, there is character in it,
Which is the very salt of Magazine, or indeed of any other,
fictions. The haughty Countess of Delamere, and Blanche,
her grand-daughter, who has been educated without the
slightest regard to conventional politesse, are admirably
contrasted with each other, so as to beget a constant into•
rest. William Wordsworth,' is resumed this month, and
gives us some pleasant reminiscences of the early earner of
this eminent poet. The subjoined anecdote of Lord Lons-
dale, a relative of Wordsworth's present patron, may per-
haps amuse our readers
Lord Lonsdale, the immediate predecessor of the presentr
is not unfrcquently described by those who still remembe
him, as the ' bad Lord Lonsdale.' I have heard it said tha
he was mad ; and, at any rate, he was inordinately capricious—
capricious even to eccentricity. Ile was a true feudal chief-
tain ; and in the very approaches to his mansion, in the style
of his equipage, or whatever else was likely to meet the public
eye, he delighted to express his disdain of modern refinements,
and the haughty carelessness of his magnificence. The coach
in which he used to visit Penrith, was old and neglected; his
horses fine, but untrimmed ; and such was the impression dif-
fused about him by his gloomy temper and his habits of op-
pression, that the streets were silent as he traversed them, and
an awe sate upon many faces, pretty much like that which
maY be supposed to attend the entry into a guilty town, of
some royal commission for trying state criminals. In his park
You saw some of the most magnificent timber in the kingdom
----trees that were coeval with the feuds of York and Lancas-
t"r ; yews that perhaps had furnished bows to Cceur de Lion,
arid oaks that might have built a navy. All was savage
grandeur about these native forests ; their sweeping lawns and
glades had been unapproached, for centuries it might be, by
the hand of art; and amongst them roamed—not the timid
fellow deer, but thundering droves of wild horses."
Wordsworth, says, De Quincy, the writer of these re-
miniscences, once got drunk at Cambridge, " and the
strangest part of the story is the occasion of this drunken-
ness, which was in celebration of his first visit to the very
rooms at Christ's College once occupied by Milton—intoxi-
cation by way of homage to the most temperate of men,
and this homage offered by one who has turned out himself
to the full as temperate !" " British Commerce versus
British Corn Laws," is a remarkably well-timed article.
The substance however is anything but new, being rather a
clever digest of what has been said by others who have
bee❑ canvassing the subject during the last two or three
months, The Reviews in Tait, as usual, form very accept-
able reading.

THE SPORTING MA GA ZlNE.—Pittman.
The pictorial embellishments of this number are "made
!icast" by Scott, from a painting by Laporte, and " Rab-
bit Shooting" by Engleheart, from a design by Turner ;
of which the former is by far the most creditable to the
Skill of the artist. Of sporting intelligence there is abun-
dance to sate the curiosity of every lover of field sports in
the British empire, with a fair sprinkling of paragraphs,
over which those who never trouble their heads about
dogs or horses may wile away an hour agreeably. From
t "
Cockney in Leicestershire," a humorous article in
ruPloe, we select the following graphic description of the
most fashionable of modern tests of manly courage, a duel,
Itl'ioh will not fail to edify those fair dames who regard
"racking of pistols as the only legitimate passport to their
f
4"11r• We verily believe, with the exception of the sex
of, one of the principals, it would apply to half of those
which are weekly paraded in the fashionable Journals :
Mora came—bis new-found friend taps at his door :
" Ready ?.....time presses—party gone before."
" Will he apologize?" cries Snaggs. " and stop
The bloodshed we may brew at every pop ?"
" Apologize I By Mars I he'd rather die I"
" Won't he ?" said Dick ; " how headstron., ! then shall I?"
" Oh, no ! proh pudor I honour bids you fight :
You're in my hands—twelve paces makes all right.
Advanc'd so far, you surely won't retire,
But show your manhood, man, and meet his fire."
" I wish," said Snaggs, " this thoughtless thing could stop ;
I—wish—l ne'er had left the draper's shop I"
But on be's urg'd, and in five minutes found
His foeman fierce already on the ground.
Pistols, well cramm'd with powder and with paste,
Are given the combatants—at distance placed.
Tape! was the word. Bang—bang the pistols go,
And fear, not pellet, laid our Hero low.
A sponge well soak'd in bullocks blood was press'd
O'er the recumbent warrior's breast :
He saw and swoon'd let fancy tell the rest.
But who shall tell the tittering and the glee
That shook the plotters of that harmless spree ?
torne in a blanket to his yet warm bed,
blek roused, and question put, " Alive or dead ?"
Alive," said Sam, and rulob'd his master down
u!„t as they rub the posters at the Crown.
`There lies your pain, Sir?"—" Have you found the bullet?
The blood, but not the wound, is on your gullet."
No aveund, no scratch, could groom or surgeon find :
Dick saw the blood, and deemed the blockheads blind.
Galen a: length began to hint to Dick
lis thoughts 'twas nothing but a larking trick.
11,,,,‘ Trick !" said our hero ; I received his fire,
"8s floor'd, too, fairly search a little higher."
vainthe vest—no or'fice was found,
4 Snaggs at last confess'd to " safe and sound."
Congratulations came in scores from those
"horn late he deer-red his foes—his fellest foes:
Pow brave his bearii:q !—glad the thing was o'er !
Vs fault in field would weer be mentioned more-
-tied fought, and proved his metal to the core 1"
Cheer'd by such kindness, Dick resolves to stay—
r
.i]le thought of bolting off but yesterday)—
T!s true good nature soon forgave the past ;
11e Dons indeed had noticed him at last—
.‘' nY should he quit when fame came in so fast ?
next morn he ventured out, rejoiced to spy
e
E,e was "the cynosure of every eye :"
II children followed with endearing wile,
And pluck'd his coat, while maids and matrons smile.
Prouder be grew at every step he trod—
A,Ciubman bow'd, a Peer vouchsafed a nod. •
This
nod ---this notice—this unlook'd-for luck,
thought, were only owing to his pluck.
BQ was no more a scorn'd and scouted fellow :
He'dßlind
fought a Gentle, braved the dread duello I
tnd at the best are mortals ! could he know
ri
11 'fair antagonist was—Betty Snow 11"
she it was, who, tutor'd to the trick,
"sguised in coat and hat, had met poor Dick!
9"
Mutat° nomine, but the combatant really was of the feminine gender,