The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-17 00:00:00

passant we would recommend the editor to be a
little more careful in his supervision of the foreign
adages, quotations &c. We have sevoral times en-
countered very singlar specimens of the Gallic
tongue. After Easter most of the visitors quitted
Rome, three hundred horses being ordered for the
bight of Easter Monday alone. The following
anecdote gives a ludicrous illustration of the profit
made out of the Signori Inglesi.
" THE DOG AND THE SHADOW.
" An amusing instance of the wish to keep the English
to the last moment occurred on Monday. In the morning
it was reported in the Hotel des Isles Britanniques to the
landlord, that his cellar of charcoal was on fire, owing to
the negligence of a servant, and was gaining such a head
that it would be better to send for les pompers. By no
means,' quoth the landlord; 'throw as much water as you
can upon it ; shut the doer, and hold your tongue. The
Signori Inglesi will all go to-night after La Girandole is
over, and when they are gone we will put out the fire ; but
if they hear of it now they will quit here this morning, and
get their dinners elsewhere, and perhaps not come back to
the house next year.' In this spirit of calculation he acted,
and closed the cellar door. But the fire would be no party
to the landlord's saving project, and broke out before
dinner ; so the dinners wero all spoilt, the pompiers were
obliged to be called, the Signori Inglesi did leave the house,
and the landlord's kitchen was burned down."

The fact of the state of affairs being now
so very different that the pictures of that
day are hardly recognisabla in the present, adds
considerably to the attractions of the volumes.
It is strange to read the familiar gossip and easy
narrative relating to a country as far removed from
the Italy of Victor Emmanuel and Garibaldi as if it
belonged to a byegone world. The artistic reflec-
tions are, however, as appropriate to-day as ever.
Pompeii and Herculaneum are indifferent to the
conflicts of peoples and dynasties ; the Coliseum has
seen too many ages to fear the steps of years ; and
the great masterpieces of painting and sculpture
receive with unchanging beauty the homage of suc-
cessive generations. As combining in a rare degree
the attractions of politics, literature, science, and
art, the work addresses itself to a large circle of
readers who will feel for its author the interest in-
spired by high rank and great misfortune, accom-
panied by considerable talents and consistent
advocacy of principle.

Which does she _Love? By Colburn Mayne, author
of " Madeline Clare.' 3 vols. Hurst and
Blackett.

In these volumes the reader will find great
variety, and some of the leading personages are
mgenaously introduced to our notice. Ada is not
at all an attractive heroine. She wants decision in
the first place, and self-control after she has at length
made her choice. Her conduct towards Lionel was
*wrong in the extreme, and displayed recklessness
that almost amounted to heartlessness. Happily
she married at last a man of sense, who was able to
direct her erratic course far better than the excit-
able and enthusiastic Lionel could have done. Some
of the sceoes in which she displayed her utter
ignorance of all prudence in money matters are
almost amusing in their absurdity. As it
happens that matters right themselves at
last, one can be allowed to smile at the
extravagant notions of the young wife, which would
!coon have turned her paradise into a pandemonium
if not checked in time. Clara, the other heroine,
is also unsatisfying in her demeanour. She is
cleverer than Ada, and of more feeling; but she
mars the good qualities of her disposition by her
hesitation, and thus is as useless as Ada, not from
want of reflection, but from a sort of morbid ner-
vousness, which made her fail in the trying moment
of danger. She should never have agreed to let
her father go to Paris without her, and afterwards
ate should have been resolute and decided, instead
of trying to compromise with an arch-deceiver like
her aunt. This latter lady is an adept in crime of
all kinds, and certainly she possessed, in a forcible
degree, all those attributes of energy which the
otherladieslacked. Herfinal discomfiture and sigaal
defeat is a striking success in the-narrative, and
is a positive relief to the mind of the reader,
after havin been so long indignant at her strata-
gems and plots succeeding so well. She was
caught in her own toils; the villain she had bribed
turned round upon her, and circumvented her in
her hour of success. In this world so complete a
retribution does not often overtake the criminals.;
but it seems only right and fitting when we meet
with such an illustrative judgment in the pages of
fiction. It is seldom indeed that a more effective
passage is met with in a novel than the one which
relates the scene on the wedding morning. The
retribution was also for Philip Helmer, as he was
confronted by his first wife ; and thus she, whom
he had neglected and maltreated in the morning of
his life, appeared in the evening of his days to
comfront him and stay him in his reckless course
of crime. The author seems almost too lenient re-
garding this guilty pair ; but there is much truth
in the remarks made on the insufficiency of human
adjustments in matters of right and wrong, and thus
it is forcibly stated :—" Ah, reader, have you made
up your mind to follow always only justice in this
world P—then think of what you have decided on.
As this world is constituted think of the many
hearts you must break, of the many hopes you
must crush, of the many lives you must ruin ; and
then think again if justice may not safely be left in
the hands of the all-perfect God, and if mercy be
not better suited to the nature of erring man."
Edmund Morton is a peculiar style of character,
who reminds one of Wilfred in " Rokeby"—
Nought of his sire's ungenerous part
Polluted Wilfred's gentle heart—
A heart too weak from early life
To hold with Fortune needful strife.
Mrs. Dorr,ngton received another warning in the
realisation o, her dreams as well as in their destruc-
tion, for her ei:erished idea was fulfilled of Clara
and Edmund bein j united, but it did her no good ;
her day of power wi2e over, her reign of inquity no
more. All the sins of ,her lifetime hidden from her
fellow-creatures were set down in the awful account
of hereafter, and while her conscience recalled them
to her mind, her judgment to!d her they were of
no avail. She had perilled her soul for the posses
session of gold that had turned to dross in the
touching, and for fruit that had become ashes in
tasting. Some portions of this work are marred by
overstrained descriptions, which are the more to be
regretted as there abounds throughout these volumes
180 much variety of incident, and the style is flowing
find often vigorous in its tenor. It is to be trusted
that on a future occasion the author may avoid such
.extremes, which deteriorate from the effect of
his admirable constructions. " Which does
she Love, " apart from such considerations,
Contains much to attract, much 'to excite, and
Much to interest. Some of the most potent pas-
sions of human nature are here aptly described,
and appropriately descanted upon. We meet with
illustrations of persons who in actual life, form the
adventurers who shake kingdoms by their machina-
tions, and the bandits and bravos who convulse pri-
vate life with their plots. Also some secondary people
are ably treated of, as Miss Foster, afterwards
Mrs. Pindar. Mrs. Harwood is an apt representa-
tion of a soi-disant good woman, who will work her
own purposes, and sees so many faults in others that
her own are rendered invisible. On the whole there
is good reason to suppose that :this novel will gain
approval from the readers of romances, and it de-
serves it in many parts, for while it evidences the
faults and follies of life in strong colours, it also
shows some instances of a better and brighter
state of things. Thus it can lay claim to the merit
of blending a romantic tale with some of the stern
lessons of reality that all who mix much in the
world must find inseparably interwoven with the
most fascinating cycnto and tho moat alluring
prospects.

The Russians on the Amur. By E. G. Raven
stein, F.R.G.S. Trubner and Co.
Russia, although a leading state and one of vast
power, is, in point of civilisation, as yet but partly
developed ; while other nations date back their his-
tory to before the Christian era, the history of
Russia,
until the end of the 17th century, was al-
most traditional and not to be relied on for parti-
culars. But notwithstanding their state of semi-
barbarism, the spirit of colonisation was inherent
in the race; wild exaggerated stories of the wealth
of eastern Asia were brought by and
adven-
turers, and the Government of thwwandering
e Czar determinedto take possession of the Pacific coast
tofthe
pent. The rich valley of the Amu; rich in cmine-
rals. and possessing a fine climate, gave promise of
But when an El Dorado to the new colonists.enere
is not a directing spirit, where no power of there
is
com-
mand is maintained, can colonisation succeed
Bands of plundering marauders overrun the coun-
try, and turned a friendly people into determined
,enemies ; and, although the first advance of the
Russians into the far East was as early as the end
of the 15th century, it was not until the time of
Peter the Great that any real progress was made ;
then, as if waking from a primeval trance, the
mighty power of Russia began to develop itself, and
far and wide the mighty power of the Czar ex-
tended itself. The Chinese found it convenient to
make terms with a power whose law is a word and
a blow, and yield by treaty what they could not
hold by force, thus the whole of Northern Tartary
Vas surrendered to the north, and the vast area of
the valley
of the Amur, containing upwards of
720,000 square miles, became the property
Russia of
GEOGRAPHIC AL DESCRIPTION or THE RIVER AMUR.
The Amur, one of the largest rivers of Asia, drains with
its tributaries a basin of 766,000 square miles. This basin
l! bounded on the south i,y
the Shan-alin mountains and a
lute passing through Korchin and the Gobi desert. To-
tills the west and north the Yablonoi and Stanovoi
ranges separate it from the rivers flowing to the Arctic
Ocean and the sea of Okhotsk, and in the east the coast•
range from the rivulets entering the Channel of Tartary or
'Manchuria.
eßussian. geographers look upon the sources of the Kerlon
head-waters of the Amur; the Chinese, however,
wako it take its rise in the Shan-alin or White Mountains,