The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-02 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Bed Track._ By Gustav© Aimard. Ward and

Lock, Fleet-street.
However opinions may differ as to the truth of M.
Aimard's tales, there can be no doubt that with
those who delight in narrative of adventure in the
far West, they are highly popular. Multitudes
who never killed a sparrow revel in the description
of a life and death struggle with a grizzly bear,
and those who would fly in the utmost terror from
en excited cow can sympathise to any extent ivith
the hero's unlimited slaughter of his fellow-crea-
tures. The present work is the last of the series
comprising "The Tiger Slayer," "The Gold
Seekers," and" The Indian Chief," all which should,
of course, have been previously read. It narrates
the vengeance Valentine took on General Guerrero
for the murder of his friend, the Count de Prebois
Crance, and give the results of the Tigrcto's search
for his beloved Dona Anita. Tie following extract
Will sufficiently indictie the style
A MEXICAN NOBLEMAN.
tt Now listen, senores," he said, "and judge this man
impartially; but do not judge him according to prairie
law, but in your hearts. General Don Sebastian Guerrero,
who is standing so bold and upright before you at this
moment, is one of the greatest noblemen of Mexico, a
Christianviejo' of the purest blood, descended in a direct
line from the Spanish Conquistadors. His fortune is im-
mense, incalculable, and he himself could nor determine its
amount. This man, by the mero strength of his will, and
the implacable egotism that forms the basis of his character,
has always succeeded in everything he has undertaken,
Coldly and resolutely ambitious, he has covered with
corpses the bloody road he was compelled to follow in order
to attain his proposed object, and he has done so without
hesitation or remorse; ha had looked on with a, mailing
face when his dearest friends and his nearest relations fell
by his side; for him nothing which men respect exists—
faith and honour are with him but empty sounds. He had
a daughter, who was the perfection of women, and he
coldly lacerated that daughter's heart; he fatally drove
her to suicide, and the blood of the poor girl spirted on
his forehead, while he was triumphantly witnessing the
legal murder of the man she loved, and whose death he
resolved on, because he refused to palter with his
honour, and aid this man in the infamous • treachery he
was meditating. This human-faced tiger, this monster
with the mocking, sceptical face, you see, senores,, has
only one thought, one object, one desire—it is, to attain
the highest rank, even if, to effect it, he were compelled to
clamber over the panting corpses of his relations and friends
sacrificed to his' ambition ; and if he cannot carve out an in-
dependent kingdom in this collapsing republic, which is
called Mexico, he wishes to seize, at least, on the supreme
magistracy, and be elected president. If this man's life
merely comprised this egotistic ambition and these infa-
mous schemes to satisfy it, I should content myself with de-
spising instead of hating him, and not being able to find an
excuse for him, I should forget him. But no; this man has
done more—he dared to lay hands on a man who was my
friend, my brother, the Count de Prebois Crance, to whom
I have already referred, senores, without mentioning his
name. Unable to conquer the count loyally, despairing of
winning him over to his shameful cause, he at first tried to
poison him ; but, not having succeeded, and wishing to
come to an end, he forgot that his daughter, an angel, the
sole creature who loved him, and implored divine mercy
for him, was the betrothed wife of the count, and that killing
him would be her condemnation to death. In his horrible
thirst for revenge, he ordered the judicial murder of my
friend, and coldly presided at the execution, not noticing,
in the joyous deliverence of his satisfied hatred, that his
daughter had killed herself at his side, and that he was
trampling her corpse beneath his horse's feet. Such is
what this man has done; look at him well, in order to re-
cognise him hereafter ; he is General Don Sebastian Guer-
rero, military governor of Sonora."

The Rest ; or the World as it will be.

By the Rev. John Cumming, D.D., F.R.S.E.
Bentley, New Burlington-street.
This volume is, it appears, the third and last of
a series in which the author has " laboured to set
forth that nearing blessedness, that bridal of hea-
ven and earth, the consummation of a long
betrothal—that sunshine which once bathed all
Eden—and interrupted, clouded, and refracted for
six thousand years, will break—the sooner the bet-
ter—on our earth, and perfect a world that will
never fade, and cover it with a glory that will
never die." It contains 37 lectures on such themes
as " The Great White Throne," " The Binding of
Satan," " The Death of Death," &c., and will
doubtless prove acceptable to those who agree with
Dr. Cumming's theological opinions.

An Epoch of my Life : Memoirs of Count John
Arrivabene. Translated from the Original, with
Notes, by C. Arrivabene. Booth, Regent-street.
Those who feel interested in Italian affairs will
welcome the present work, as throwing consider-
able light upon the efforts of Italian patriots,
some forty years ago, to free their country from
the Austrian yoke. The events here narrated oc-
curred during the years 1820, 1821, and 1822,
when the author was imprisoned, was released,
fled to Paris, came to England, was again accused
of treasonable designs, his property was seques-
trated, and himself condemned to death, as "re-
fractory." It contains, also, various specimens of
the arbitrary edicts of the Milan Government, as
well as two patriotic songs by Rossetti and Man-
zoni, and six letters of Silvio Pellico.

A Family Tour round the Coasts of Spain and
Portugal. By Lady Dunbar. Blackwood and
Sons. Edinburgh and London.
That anything very new should be told us of
countries which have been so thoroughly explored
as these is not to be expected ; nevertheless the
style of the writer is agreeable, and she hus pro-
duced an amusing volume. It has been published,
moreover, for a charitable purpose, and will
doubtless meet, as it deserves, with a consider-
able sale.

The Cornhill.
That " Philip" has made a stride this month is
unquestionable, but we doubt if he has advanced
much in the good graces of the reader. He is now
married and has a child, but quarrels with and in-
sult his employer, who has treated him with civility
and invited him to dinner. In fact, he behaves very
much like a snob—some would use a harsher term.
" Brown, Jones, and Robinson" no longer bore us
with their struggles," and we are thankful to be
at length delivered from "Agnes of Sorrento."
The tale called "A Fit of Jealousy" is well written,
and has a good moral. " Fire-damp and its Vic-
tims" treats of that scourge of the mines. The
physiological paper is, as usual, excellent. It is
styled " The Brain and its Uses," and thus con-
cludes :

The invention of towns were a pure gain to humanity, if
due admixture of the country life can be secured. And to
obtain this advantage for our labouring populations is one
of the great tasks of our age. Our physiology teaches us
that the vice and misery of our great towns can never be
combated successfully in the strongholds which they have
made their own, and fortified for ages—the courts and alleys
where the poisonous atmosphere combines with all hateful
sights and sounds at once to deaden and to irritate the ner-
vous sensibility. From the continued breathing of a vitiated
atmosphere inevitably arises either apathy or a craving for
intoxicating drinks; in all probability, each in turn. The
dark blood, accumulating in the vessels, at firstacts as an
irritant, and then reduces the organs to a state of lowered
activity ; both conditions aliltekxciting the taste for poison-
ous doses of alcohol. To deliver the brains of the industri-
ous poor from these oppressive demons of bad air and hate-
ful sights' wore a task worthy of the highest ambition.
Nor is it foreign to our theme. For of all work for the idle,
or change for those who have been overborne by their own
pressing cares, what but a genuine interest in the pains and
aspirations of those who need our aid comes nearest to the
true " use of the brain ?"

The article called " First Beginnings" discusses the
preliminary signs of insanity. That "On Growing
Old" speaks of the compensations brought by ad-
vancing years. In "The Inner Life of a Hospital"
we have a description of the management of one of
the great London establishments; and Mr. Thacke-
ray, in his Roundabont Paper, " The Notch on the
Axe," treats his readers to a bit of mystification.
Moreover, in this number he resigns his post. His
farewell address appeared last week in Ike Sun.

Dtify's Hibernian Sixpenny Magazine.
The article in the present number which elaims
the merit of utility, is that on " Canada and Ire-
land." The writer has evidently a strong feeling
against this country, is deeply impressed with the
wrongs of his own, advises his countrymen to
escape bondage by emigrating to Canada, and looks
forward with faith and hope to the time when that
colony will be a great Irish Republic, or Empire,
we are not sure which. The tales comprise "The
out. quartersof St. Andrew's Priory," "The Two
Lenores," and "Pains and Penalties." There is
an essay on " Norse, and Gaelic Popular Talus," and
under the head of " An Ugly Subject" we have a
disquisition upon ancient and modern poisons,

Illustrated Dublin Journal.

This, which seems a compromise between the old
Penny Magazinoand the cheap illustrated journals
of the day, contains tales by Gerald Griffin and
Blanchard Jerrold, with numerous minor articles.
Prominent among them are descriptions and illus-
trations of Irish Ruins, and various interesting
localities.

EXTENSIVE FlEES.—Yesterday morning a fire, in
a comparatively brief space of time, laid in ruins the Crown
and Sceptre Tavern, Woolmore- street, Poplar. The adjoin-
ing house, let out in tenements, has also sustained damage
by fire, and the poor occupants were uninsured.—A fire also
took place in the premises belonging to Mr. Gentle, a grocer
and tea dealer, carrying on business in Pembrook-road,
Waltham-stow. Fortunately the building and contents
were insured in the Imperial Fire• office.