The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-24 00:00:00

TRADE MARKS BILL.

In reply to Mr. ROEBUCK,
Mr. M. GIBSON said he hoped to be able to obtain a
day next week for going into committee on this bill.
FORTIFICATIONS AND WORKS.

Sir G. C. LEWIS, in a committee of the whole house
on fortifications and works, moved the follow:ng resolu-
tion:—" That, towards providing a further sum for defray-
ing the expenses of the construction of works for the defence
of the Royal dockyards and arsenals and of the ports of
Dover and Portland, and for the creation of a central
arsenal, a sum not exceeding £1,200,000 be charged upon
the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, and that
the commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury be authorised
and empowered to raise the said sum by annuities for a
term not exceeding 30 years ; and that such annuities shall

be charged upon and be payable out of the said Consoli-
dated Fund." The right hon. baronet observed that mea-
sures of national defence necessarily partook of the charac-
ter of an insurance, and such measures might be quite pro-
per, although subsequent information might prove that the
precaution in which they had their origin was unnecessary.
The experience which we had acquired duriug the progress
of the Crimean war created a general conviction through-
out the country of the expediency of increasing the efficiency
of our armaments, and increased efficiency was but another
word for increased expenditure. The additions which we
had of late years made to the strength of our military estab-
lishment had originated exclusively, or almost exclusively,
with the political heads of the War Department, who had
themselves only acted in conformity with the wishes and
opinions of their colleagues, of that house, and of the coun-
try. The right hon. gentleman, after having expressed his
belief that our armaments had not attained any extravagant
dimensions, and, after having stated a variety of details in
reference to the number of men, of guns, and of other ele-
ments of our military power, passed to a consideration of the
special question of fortifications. The total cost of all the
works of this description which had already been constructed
or for which the Government had actually entered into con-
tracts, was £3,335,000; and the estimated charge for comple-
ting our present plan of fortifications was £6,700,000. Im-
mediately after the naval action in America, in which the
Merrimac had been engaged, the house had expressed a
wish that the works at Spithead should be suspended; and
the Government had yielded to that wish, and had deter-
mined on not renewing the consideration of that subject
until the spring of next year. But they did not therefore
think it desirable that the progress of all our proposed new
fortifications should be arrested ; and as those undertakings
had already received the sanction of Parliament, he trusted
that the house would not by their vote on the present oc-
casion give the enemies of constitutional government any
excuse for saying that the conduct of the principal legisla-
tive assembly in the world had been marked by inconsis-
tency and vacillation.
In reply to a question from Mr. BRIGHT,
Sir G. C. LEWIS afterwards stated that ,he did not
mean upon that occasion to raise any money for the con-
struction of a central arsenal.

Mr. OSBORNE moved as an amendment to the resolu-
tion the omission of all the words after " that," in order to
add the following words :—" Considering the changes and
improvements now in progress affecting the science of at-
tack and defence, it is not now expedient to proceed with
the construction of the proposed forts on the shoals at Spit-
head, or the additional defences at Portsmouth, Plymouth,
and Dover, recommended by the commissioners appointed
to consider the defences of the United Kingdom ; and that
in any general system of national defence this house is of
opinion that the navy should be regarded as the arm on
which the country must mainly depend." Tho hon. gen-
tleman said 1,0 Liu me right lava. harm
that works of national defence were measures of national i
insurance ; but ho believed, at the same time, that the
Royal Marine Insurance Office afforded the best element
of security to this country; and if the house should be
of that opinion they would, no doubt, be prepared to
adopt his amendment. He entirely dissented from the
statewent of the right hon. gentleman that "increased effi-
ciency" translat ed into Treasury English meant nothing
more than " increased expenditure." But his special
duty upon that occasion was to oppose the con-
struction of the proposed fortifications at various points of
our coast. The hon. gentleman then proceeded at consider-
able
length to argue against those works, founding his ob-
jection to them on their indefinite but necessarily enormous
cost, on the very questioaable character of their advantage
to this country, and cr. the impossibility of our manning
them even it they were completed. The number of men re-
quired to garrison them would amount altogether to 93,000,
and we could never expect to have an army available for
such a service. The command of the Channel was our real
security ; we were not to assume that it would be lost ; and
if we should cease to retain it no forts could materially help
to place us beyond the reach of foreign invasion.
Sir G. LEWIS replied to various statements in the ad-
dress of Mr, Osborne, and contended that it would be ex-
tremely impolitic to leave our great dockyards and arsenals
undefended.

Sir F. SMITH supported the amendment, and expressed
his decided disapproval of the proposed system of fortifica-
tions, which would involve a vast outlay, and which could
only be manned by throwing into them an immense force
that could be much more usefully employed in the field.
Mr. H. A. BRUCE hoped the committee would adopt
the original resolution ; and would not abandon those works
at the instance of gentlemen who had opposed them from
the commencement.

Mr. D. SEYMOUR spoke in favour of the amendment,
Capt. VIVIAN thought the Government acted wisely in
determining to continue those works.

Sir S. NORTHCOTE objected to the mode in which
the question was brought by the Government under the
notice of the committee. They had no security that if
they were to agree to the resolution the money would not
be devoted to the commencement of new works which
had not received the previous sanction of Parliament. He
trusted that the Government would afford them some ex-
planation upon that subject; and the vote which he would
give would very much depend on the contingency of his
receiving an assurance that they should not be involved in
any unexpected outlay for works of that description.

Mr. BENTINCK said that under all the circumstances
of the case he should vote for the resolution, but he would
remind the Government that they could not pursue any
more fatal policy than by neglecting our maritime defences.

Sir M. PETO recommended the Government to institute
a more careful inquiry before they committed themselves
any further to that enormous and very questionable ex-
penditure. There was nothing that could have been done
which was left undone by the Government of France during
the last few years to show the most cordial friendship to-
wards this country, and that circumstance ought to diminish
the apprehension in which those works had originated.
The debate was continued by Sir John Walsh, Mr.
Monsell, and Lord C. Paget.
Lord PALMERSTON defended the course adopted by
the Government in that matter. They proposed to extend
the expenditure over a series of years because the works
were to be of a permanent character, and would naturally
be advantageous to distant generations. They readily ad •
witted that the navy was the great arm of defence in this
country ; and it was because they recognised that principle
that they were anxious for the construction of fortifications
which had for their object the protection of those great
naval stations or arsenali without which we could have no
navy whatever. The Emperor of the French had un-
doubtedly manifested the most friendly feeling towards this
country. That was a fact which was willingly acknow-
ledged by her Majesty's Government and by every man in
the United B ingdom. But that was not a ground of
security on which a great nation could tranquilly repose in
a matter of such vital interest as its means of defence
against the possibility of attack. The most certain source
of union between two great and civilised states was an
equality of strength, which .nould leave each of them the
master of its own destiny.
n
Mr. DISRAELI said ho could not help thinking that
the Government had displayed great vacillation in dealing
with that question. Their estimates of the cost of those
d works
they
had undergone some very considerable variations,
were still unable to decide what were the portions
of theiroriginal scheme to which they should adhere, and
whatwere the
headportions
of h
whichte
ve
tGheoysrhnoolnt
ulectrelinquisehh.orThe
noble lord at the
withchangingedververy
differenttheir
in thatthe
sub
ject, had himself
used
year
1860 in reference
by
F
t our relations with France, from that
employed
which he
upon the present occasion. He had
then held out to the house the danger of an immediate inva-
sion of this country
becoming e e
tbutterms
mhs
of
he
theow spokefrjetid in
per-
fectly conciliatory and
feel-
ing which subsisted, and it was to be hoped would continue
to to kubsist between the two nations. With respect to the
amendment proposed by the hon. member for Liskeard, he
could not b Oak that it wu no longer applicable after

Mr. OSBORNE replied. He would not press the
amendment to a division.

The amendment was accordingly withdrawn ; the origi
nal resclution was agreed to; and leave was given to intro.
duce a bill founded thereon.

The remaining business was then disposed of, and the
house adjoutnccl.

LITERATURE.

Homer and English deter. By W. G. T. Barter
Esq. Bell and Daldy.

Upon the importance of rendering the greates,
poet of ancient times accessible to the English
reader we need not dilate ; it is manifest, and has
of late largely engaged the attention of the literary
world, as the numerous essays, translations, ad
reviews which have appeared, testify. But if opi-
nions have been unanimous as to the necessity for a
faithful translation of the Iliad and Odyssey they
have differed widely as to the form it should take,
although some, of note, have strongly advocated the
hexameter. As Mr. Barter had published a version
of the Iliad, in the Spenserian stanz9, 1854 ; toge-
ther with a preface in which he discussed the nature
of epic poetry, the principles which should govern

translation, and the differences between Greek and
English metre, he has now taken the opportu-
nity of republishing it, together with another essay
in which his opinions on these points are amplified,
and he gives at the end of the volume specimens of
his version of the Iliad and the first book of the
Odyssey both in Spenserian stanza. As the views
propounded by him are original and accurate, we
will lay before the reader some of their features.
Thus speaking of " the proper metre for English
he says—
glish metrical
traonnsltahtisioinnyofoptihneionllifarand ahlnydisOtdhyatssineyE,".
translation, from whatever language, the metre should be
English, and the translator do as the original author had
done, consult the requirements of the tongue in which he
is writing ; so that Spenserian stanza should not be exacted
in Greek version of the Faery Queen, for example, nor
hexameter in English Iliad or Odyssey. I am aware, how-
ever, of a growing opinion to the contrary, and of a certain
general expectation among scholars that, when the proper
man to do it comes, the Iliad and Odyssey shall appear in
the full lustre of their original metre. When the thing is
done it will prove itself, solvitur ambulando, it is said. And
when it comes to that I shall hail it with pleasure, and
none the less for its being an unexpected one. It is difficult
to think at all without a certain tenacity of what comes of
it; but I flatter myself with not holding by my opinion so
firmly as not gladly to let go of it for a better. In the
meantime the following are among the grounds of my not
being sanguine as to the advent of the coming pedestrian,
who is to walk into popular English acceptance at hexa-
meter pace.
The philosophy of Shakespeare's lines---" A jest's pros-
perity lies in the ear of him that hears it," yields a prin-
ciple which, if applied to poetry, would have saved much
spasm in versifying by prescribing the limits within which
new experiments are possible. For the prosperity of all
attempts in verse must ultimately rest with the ear to
which it is addressed; and the requirements of this are
according to the language.
A verse or line consists of words arranged in a certain
rhythm, usually different from prOse, but in which the
words separately are pronounced exactly as in prose. Poetic
licence, indeed, sparingly deviates by marking words out of
their accent, when driven by stress of metre, but the licence
is grudgingly yielded in long works, and is absolutely inad-
missible in short ones, and, with the progress of poetry,
almost disappears from the works of the best poets. From
the above description it follows that words are fragments of
the poetic melodies of a language, and that, whatever the
language, no verse is possible in it but that of which the
words be fragments.

With this we see clearly how, in Greek and Latin, they
should early have taken to hexameter, as the words, for the
most part, are fragments of hexameter; being either whole
feet, or parts of feet, that easily range and cluster into that
verse without requiring the words to be separately pro-
nounced otherwise than in prose, yielding spondees as well
as dactyls in abundance. IT? '
aeity and content you \ k 11. C:
even if rnr• „el obf.
wo are hplessly deficient in spondees, without which
the hexameter is as tasteless a metre as can well be ima-
gined, and perfectly impotent to express the flexible and
varied melodies that the ancients have drawn from it, mith
a free command of both kinds of feet of which it is com-
pose I.

Those who' advocate the use of the hexameter
in an English translation of Homer appears
to forget, as Mr. Barter observes, "that of the
ancient poets who wrote in it the hexameter of each
was characteristic of him ; that the hexameter, for
instance, of Hesiod in the 'Works and Days,' was
quite another thing from the hexameter of Homer
in either the 'lliad' or' Odyssey ;' and that though
Virgil, Horace, and Juvenal all wrote hexameters,
the hexameters of the ' Ars Poetica,' or 'Epistle to
the Pisos,' are very different from thoseof the
or Georgics.' " It is clear, then, "that
if you give one kind of hexameter where Homer
gives quite another kind (and an allegro for an
andante movement, or vice versa, is clearly so), you
will gain nothing in proximity of metro by using
that which is called indeed by the same name but
is alien in tone." In fact English hexameters, in-
stead of expressing all the variety and beauty of
which the language is susceptible, reduces it to
monotony, destroys its force and spirit, and is in
spirit the most antagonistic to Homer that could be
chosen ; whilst the Spenserian stanza, which the
author has selected for his version, is one of the
most harmonious forms of verse our language pos.
sesses. Another important point with regard to
translation is the degree of literalness to be em-
ployed.
Literal metrical version, both from its difficulty, and its
little scope for original power, will never be very popular
with translators. Neither is it desirable or practicable with
all poems. It is a sort of engraving which will give in-
valuable results from high originals, although it be com-
pelled to renounce colour. Such poetry, then, whose
characteristic is colour, with little else, in other words,
whose beauty is untranslatable, as lyric poetry, for the most
part, will lose incalculably in. the process. It is accord-
ingly fittest for poetry that hath body and bone in it ; best
adapted, therefore, for rendering the very early poets, whose
objectivity in picturing people and manners gives the trans-
lation its value, and, at the same time, takes from its diffi-
culty. For literal version of such, as compared with what
lacks that objectivity, is like drawing from the original or
from a copy of it. Such is the posture of a translator of
Homer or Virgil. Homer is nature, Virgil but a copy of
him ; and literal translation of the latter, from his vague-
ness, gives no field of choice whatever beyond the expres-
sion before you. In Homer the thing is brought out
definitely, and with sharp precision, and you can picture it
bodily with little or no fear of misapprehension, however
you may doubt your own ability of limning from the life.
The difference between Homer and Virgil in this parti-
cular is partly in the poet, but more in the age in 'which he
lived. Objectivity may be, and is, the quality, to some
degree, of every great poet in a modern cud artificial state
of society, as of Dante, for example, mad Shakespeare ; but
in the early and primitive states it is an indispensable qua-
lity of all poets who get any hearing at all of their country-
men. We find it more or less in all early ballads. Virgil,
be it observed, for those who are not conversant in these
matters, was a modern poet, not merely in point of chrono-
logy, but as regards the state of society in which he lived.
For all practical purposes he was as far removed, in man-
ners, thought, faith in their mythology, artificial civilisa-
tion, and so forth, from the times of Homer as we are our-
selves. For it is not chronology but the state of society
that determines this. Literal version, in my point of view,
would be as inappropriate to the rendering of a Latin poet
of Virgil's day as to a German or French of our own.
It is of productions of the early states of society that lite-
ral translation is so telling. How it tells in such case no
reader of our noble literal version of the Scripture need be
reminded. Its value consists, among other advantages,
especially in this, that it makes the translator stronger than
himself. I mean that it enables him to give a faithful
rendering, which shall be thoroughly understood in its full
significance by another, though it appear dark to himself.
I will give an instance from our own versi n, and from
,
the fine old German of Luther, in which our translators are
literal, and beat the great Reformer by rigorously sticking
to what they felt to be the letter, while he produces what
he thought the spirit of the passage. It occurs twice in
Exodus, and once in Deuteronomy, xiv. 21, where, in
our Bible, it is rendered, "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in
his mother's milk." But Luther, expressing what he
thought to be the significancy of these words, translates it
as referring to the cooking a kid, not in its mother's milk,
but while the mother is suckling it. " Du sollst des BOck-
lein nicht kochen, weil es noch seine Mutter sauget." In a
sensible note on the passage in the Nuremberg folio Bible.
ed. 1731, the literal rendering of the Hebrew is preferred,
the annotator considering that it pointed at the heathen
superstition of boiling a kid in its mother's milk, and
sprinkling their fields with it to make them fertile. Be
that as it may, the English version lets in the gloss, which
the German excludes, and the value of it is the same
whether the English translators knew of the custom or
not.
"Translation," the author observes, "may be of three
sorts. The first is very free, in which you go upon
principle, giving what
the compensation you sup-
pose as good as the original," whilst the second
" gives the thoughts of the original, but takes a
latitude in the expression," and the third " ainls at
giving both the thought and the manner of its ex-
pression." The author illustrates the difference

POETIC DICTION.
Many words, though fewer than some suppose, are fit
for poetry without being suitable to prose ; but he knows
of few words, not scientific, that fit prose, and may not find
a place in poetry. The poetic character of the latter class
lies in their value in the place they appear in. And, apart
from that value, where is the poetry of the best ? The
separation of prose and poetry is rat her in the phraseology,
than the single words; though, as regards phrases, he
would have a miserable notion of the grounds of poetry
who should 'cm about to exclude idiomatic exFressions from
its diction. That was the great fault of a school that once
had its admirers in this country. They had a notion of the
elevation of language apart from its indissoluble connection
with thought. Rmoteness from common speech, and
sheer grandiloquence, with such are very apt to pass for
elevation. There is, however, the right expression for the
right thought. If they meet they must not be parted ; it
is a blessed union, be it prose or poetry ; if separate it is a
make-shift, whether you get the thought without the ex-
pression, if indeed such a thing be possible of the whole
thought, or, which is too possible and too common, you get
the expression denuded of the thought.
And Homer, himself, with all the resources of his mar,
venous language at command, was anything but a lover of
grandiloquence. Far from thinking that sublimity lay in
avoiding common speech,he was much of our Shakespeare's
mind, and uttered the highest things with familiar sim-
plicity. Little did he think that the dignity of the Epic
might be compromised by his not uttering common things
in an uncommon out-of-the -way dialect. And his negli-
gence in this way has troubled the Daciers and others con-
siderably, who aro for giving him a lift on these occasions.
As for eschewing common wards that aptly expressed his
meaning, nothing could be farther from our poet's manner.
The very familiarity of these words, and their at-homeness
in the minds of the hearers, would have been their greatest
recommendation to him as to our own sweet idiomatic
Shakespeare. The translator, therefore, confesses to having
made no attempt at this species of epic dignity in the follow-
ing version, although there are not wanting high names on
its side. Clarke, for instance, whose appreciation of our
poet is in general very just, yet, in a note on Iliad xiii. 707,
gravely repudiates the word riµvEi as too familiar
for epic elevation I The remark would, of course, not apply
to so ripe a scholar ; but, from Greek being a dead language,
and consequently all its words on an equal footing as to
familiarity, i. e. equally un-familiar to most readers of the
orginal, they are apt to lose sight of a very important fact
in judging of the elevation of the diction, viz. that there
was no distinction between written and unwritten language
as with us. The language of books, as a separate body of
words, could not have existed, for there were no readers.
Homer indeed, I am persuaded, himself wrote and carried
his written compositions about with him for recitation ;
hut the audience he addressed was of necessity, in an
age when manuscripts were rare and costly, unable to
read. So that in the measure that his poem should recede
from the spoken language it would cease to be intelligible.
In fact, his poems, like our old ballads, must pertorce have
been written in the common language of the country, and
only more graceful because that language had attained to a
higher pitch, and the people were, perhaps, of higher
aesthetic capacity. Poetic diction, as distinguished from
common speech, there was none.

The specimens of translation given are both spirited
and faithful, but for them we must refer our readers
to the volume itself, which contains a body of infor-
mation indispensable to those who would rightly
comprehend the subject therein discussed.

The Last Judgment. A Poe»). in Twelve Books.
Longman and Co.
The fact of a new edition of this poem being
issued is a sufficient proof that it must have
found favour with the public, a result to which the
orthodox element in it has, no doubt, contributed.
We give a specimen of his " comfortable creed"—
" Come ye by Me, and by My Father bless'd;
Inherit, and enjoy, your endless rest ;
Enter the Kingdom through Jehovah's love,
Before the world was made for you prepared above."
While yet those words in heavenly music flow,
The Just with full immortal transport glow,
While all the joys of Heaven, in current sweet,
Flow through their raptured souls in bliss complete.
With look severe, which all compassion spurns,
The Judge then to the left in anger turns;
While wicked men, swift as His words advance,
Shrink from His eye, and wither 'neath His glance :
"Depart, ye cursed, into endless fire,
Prepared for Satan 'neath Jehovah's ire;
There, far, from Heaven and bliss, for ever dwell,
Tortured by Dernnn n ,fi.. "

" Unto this last:" Four Essays on the First Prin-
ciples of Political Economy. By John Ruskin.
Smith, Elder, and Co.

Diffidence is not one of Mr.ltubkin's characteris-
tics ; and in the preface to these essays, reprinted
from the Cornhill _Magazine, while admitting that
they were, to use his own words, "reprobated in a
violent manner, as far as I could hear, by most of
the readers they met ho still asserts, "Not
a whit the less, I believe them to be the best, that
is to say, the truest, rightest-worded, and most ser-
viceable things I have ever written ; and the last of
them, having had especial pains spent on it, is pro-
bably the best I shall ever write." Upon the type
and binding we bestow unnualificd approval.

La Belle Nark. A Romance by the Author of
" Smugglers and Foresters," &c. Booth, Regent-

street.

It is so common now-a-days for novels to be
written with the professed view of improving the
reader that it is a relief to occasionally meet with
one which appears to aim solely at amusing him,
and in this the writer of the present work has
thoroughly succeeded. The scene is laid on the
coast of Cornwall, one of the heroes is a bold
smuggler, and the characteristics of the wild and
lawless inhabitants of that district have all the
vigour of sketches from life. The style, moreover,
is clear and spirited. The story is interesting, the
sequence of events is natural. The writer never
obtrudes her personality, and the result is highly
agreeable and praiseworthy.

GENERAL REPORT OF THE EMIGRA-

ZION COMMISSIONERS.

The general report of the Emigration Commis-
sioners for 1861 has been issued.

Emigration from the United Kingdom attained
its maximum in 1852. In 1855 emigration began
to fall off. It revived to a slight extentin 1857, but
since then has again fallen off. In the year 1861
the number who left the United Kingdom was only
91,770, being the smallest emigration in any year
since 1844, and a reduction, as compared with 1860,
of 36,699, and as compared with 1852 of 256,984.
The great reduction was of course in the emigra-
tion to the United States, which fell from 87,500 in
1860 to 49,764 in 1861. The decrease to Aus-
tralia was only from 24,302 to 23,758, while to
British America there was an increase from
9,786 to 12,707. And, as might be expected,
the principal diminution was in Irish emigration,
which fell from 60,835 to 36,322, being a decrease
of 24,513, or more than two-thirds of the whole
reduction. Even if civil war had not broken out in
the United States, it is probable that the emigra-
tion to that country would never have recovered its
late proportions. As it consisted almost entirely of
Irish, the depletion of Ireland by the excessive emi-
gration of recent years must, under any circum-
stances, have brought it down to moderate propor-
tions. Between 1841 and 1851 the population of
Ireland fell from 8,175,124 to 6,515,70, or a
tdee-
crease of 1,659,330 ; but during the same period 9 the
Irish emigration amounted to at least 1,28 ,000
n
souls, or more than three-fourtobsuleaftiothe d
of lecrerelanased
Between 1851 and 1861 the p p
or a decrease of
fell from 6,515,794 to 5,764,543,
751,231. But during the same period the
Lien,dulthelrish
emigration was upwards of 1,21 ,o
therefore, after making allowanmcoayfohrelireisehludseetdtleind
in England before 1851, who
the return of Irish emigrants, there remains a large
margin to be accounted for only by the excess of
births over deaths in Ireland.
The amount of remittances from settlers in Ame-
rica to their friends
as far as the
Thethe commissionersgarbe above
het
ba
uval have
obouefne
it
able to
t,
In the United Kingdom in
1861 was,
,28th5a. t
was sent from and to Irish, would have been more
assuminga,SCElesritsaipnr'olba4b2l6e,
than double what was necessary to pay the whole
expense of Irish emigration.
emigration has again
Thebeen very healthy.
The mortality in ships proceeding
whichtheeemmtoisstileieccUreniaterde
States (for returns of
obliged to depend on the shipowners) has been only
.05 per cent. In ships proceeding to the St. Lay.;