The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-07 00:00:00

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by Miss Frances Po" The Eternal City." The review wer
in her article on
t) review of the recent
tirnanostladtiiotonrssofaDndanNtee'swsp
vitap i
aer Wrters of the Last
uova" is interesting.
Century" wahave sketches of some of the noteworthy
o.
men of that time—Sir Jas. Macintosh being among
the most prominen t. no claims of the ryots are
put forth in tbo article on ,:iPdigo Planting in
I3etigal, and the Breach. of-Con tract .1:1.11." "The
natives," says the writer, " see perfectly welt that if
we are to govern them, we are bound to govern then
on oar own principles; that what are law and jus,
lice in England, ought fin like manner to be law and
justice in India."
An amusing account of a journey
across the Atlas is given in "Notes from Numidia."
You cross, it eeetns, in a diligence, " not one of the
ordinary French diligences, weighing three or four
tons, and as big as a house, but a lithe, compact,
wiry little vehicle, made chiefly of sheet iron," for
roads are unknown, " vague tracks" supply their
place, and are varied occasionally by beds of water-
courses. The tales now in progress are "Thalatta!
Thalatta !", and "Barren Honour."

Dublin University Magazine.

One of the most amusing articles in the present
number is that on " Bygone Manners and Cus-
toms." What verdict posterity will pass on our
own age with its "pretty horsebreakers" or crinoline
we may imagine, though we need not say; at any
rate R e can laugh or be [virtuously horrified at
our ancestors. One thing is pretty clear—outward
coarseness has to an extent disappeared. Drunken-
ness, instead of being fashionable, is now disgrace-
ful. Ladies no longer " snuff " or rap out those
peculiar little oaths with which the 18th century
comedies are so liberally besprinkled. There is
a change, let us hope, for the better. Still there is
plenty of room for improvement, though the world
is not likely to be perfected 12 our time. The fol-
lowing will give some idea of the kill of entertain-
ment in vogue during the last century :

THE RANELAGH OF THE OLDER TIMES.
Ranelagh, not long before that event, was the scene of
one of the most splendid entertainments over given in this
country by a foreigner. The French ambassador
gave an entertainment there to Queen Charlotte
and the Princesses, in which great cost was incurred
for trifles. It was very characteristic of French taste
in such displays. A host of opera girls were dressed out
as shepherds and shepherdesses, with cornucopias in their
hands, singing pastoral ditties to a lady who looked like
anything but the goddess so honoured. Sprawling angels,
genii, and allegorical transparencies, eked out the show of
heathen deities and London opera dancers ; but, then, who
could question the taste of the age of k grand monarque !
The Spanish ambassador, not to be outdone, transformed
all Ranelagh into a Spanish camp filled with tents, and at
the entrance of every tent a page in full uniform. The cele-
brated gallery was converted into a temple of Flora, and the
orchestra into a pavilion, lined with white satin, having a
heavy gold fringe. Within the pavilion a table of eighteen
covers was laid for the Queen and Royal family. In front
of the pavilion was a stage for the Spanish dancers, with
their castanets. There were lotteries open with trinkets for
prim s, such as jewellery and watches. Women waiters at-
tended, habited as shepherdesses, with garlands of flowers ,•
and they, not very consistently, handed round tea and
coffee, according to modern notions of Arcadian times. One
hundred valets de chambre, in scarlet, the scams of their
coats decorated with gold lace, and lined with blue, and
also waistcoats of blue and gold, attended upon the com-
pany. Upon these valets in scarlet, a hundred footmen, in
blue and silver coats and waistcoats, attended, Fireworks,
pastorellas, dryads, and nymphs, attended, on all sides, to
simulate Elysium, amid the murky atmosphere of London.
Between three and four in the morning splendid suppers
were served up, that at the Royal table on a service of pure
gold; the table-cloth alone cost a hundred guineas. An
ode of more than laureate doggrel was sung, and the ex-
pensive and tasteless entertainment concluded.
The scene of these revels, the once renowned Ranelagh,
had in the centre a rotunda one hundred and fifty feet in
diameter, and neither devoid of elegance or novelty. It held
numerous boxes for the company. There was a promenade
round the circular orchestra in the centre. Tea, coffee, and
refreshments were served during the concerts. Public
breakfasts were often given there; and masquerades neither
remarkable for good taste nor morality.
No expenses were spared in purchasing whatever could
be acquired for the entertainment. At the Knights' Gala,
one of the latest given, 2,500 persons of the first class
shared the hospitality of the house. A guinea the pound
was paid for cherries, and 14s. a quart for green peas. The
entertainment cost £7,000. Court dresses were worn upon
the occasion.

We are thus more minute regarding Ranelagh since its
sun has so long set, and its sweet singers are among the
dusty dead. Even its site is so changed, that it is difficult
to imagine the spot, even in the present century, to have
been one of the gayest resorts of fashionable life.
A biographical sketch of the great Greek scholar,
Porson, containing specimens of his annotations,
follows ; which shows how little he accomplished,
despite his marvellous gifts, in consequence of his
drunkenness and debauchery. The greater portion
of his late life was devoted to ribald talk
and recitations, especially when heated with
his favourite liquors. " Devil Dick was
his soubriquet amongst his intimates—a weak,
impure, wretched being—a scoffer at religion, and
a trampler on the decencies of society." In "The
Latter Days of William Pitt" we have a notice of
Earl Stanhope's recent work. " Marriage in the
Nineteenth Century" discusses the " Three Hundred
a-Year" problem. Mrs. S. C. Hall's last work,
" Can Wrong be Right," is favourably criticised, and
the two tales, " The House by the Churchyard" and
"Mildrington the Barrister," are continued.

Colburn's New Monthly.

" Obelisks" form the topic of the opening article
in this number, the recent discussion concerning the
memorial to Prince Albert having invested them
with interest. They " were set up by the Egyp-
tians of old, first as solitary or single monuments,
and afterwards in pairs before the great temples.
The original idea attached to them has been the
matter of much needless discussion, as in Zoega's
work Do Origin et Usa Obeliscorum ;' as they
seem to have been originally simply commemora-
tive monuments, like the upright stones that were
raised in all countries in memory of a person or
event ; but in this case first brought to a higher de-
gree of perfection, greater magnitude and impor-
tance, and within certain canons, or rules, of pro-
portion and form. The most poetical idea asso-
ciated with them has been that they represented a
flame of fire, which again was emblematic, like the
cypress tree, of the soul ascending to heaven." Of
all European cities Rome is richest in these monu-
ments, no less than forty-eight of different sizes
having been carried there from Egypt by the Em-
perors from Augustus to Constantine, the largest
among them being still standing. " Mithridates,
King of Pontus," the strongest man, the firstt rider,olr
the first archer, the first drinker,and t.119_
gamist of the East," is the subject o.
Brazil' we
f Sir NBfiarthsainiel's
article. In that on "The Empre.oftioura
of the
have anything but a pleasant description
climate. "To live there the European mast be ac-
climatised ;" and the happy individual is thus
described—" He has a pale. face, his strength is
diminished, his appetite fails him;. he has under-
gone a general change, and his blood is thinner."
Even then ho does not escape pulmonary r com
plaints, and "only from twelve to sixteen pe
thou-
sand live to die of old age." The tales consist of
" The Shadow of Ashlydyat," now
in its eighth
part, and " Granville de Vigne,”
in its 17th, and
there arc numerous minor articles,

Bentley's Miscellany.
The Lord Mayor of London" having passed
triumphantly through the ordeals of the inaugura-
tion and accompanying banquet, is now assailed by
family. troubles, His son and son-in-law have
fallen into the hands of sharpers. The former re•
quires £5,000, but has no objection to double that
sum ; the latter will modestly content himself with
a fifth. The Lord Mayor is disgusted and dis-
tressed, and Mr. Candish comes to the rescue. In
A Day with the Alligators" the pains and plea-
sures of stalking those reptiles are described. Under
the head of " The Diet and Dainties of Australian
Aborigines," we have an account of the native bill
of fare at the Antipodes. There, it seems, cooking
is at a discount. The Australian palate is by
no means nice. Quantity not quality is the
requisite, and every living thing is devoured, from
an alligator to a caterpillar. Dudley Costello, s
" Crooked Usage," is now concluded. There is a
tale called " The Irish Widow," and an article on
" The Convict System in the Colonies," by Captain
E. T. Du Cane, R.E,

Temple Ear.

" The Strange Adventures of Captain Dan-
gerous" are of undiminished interest. The youth
having been sold to the worshipful Sir Basil Hop-
wood, Knight and Alderman of London, is shipped
off to Jamaica, and the cabin boy dying on the
passage ho is promoted to the post. Being able to
take his own part, and thriving upon kicks and
cuff, he gains the skipper's favour, and is by him
consigned to his relation, a " mulotter" washer-
woman, to whom he becomes bookkeeper, and has
an opportunity of studying slavery under its good
old Jamaica aspect, and some of his statements are
calculated to afford much pleasure to the admirers of
that " Institution." " The Battle of the Ethnolo-
gists" is a very amusing paper on one of the vexed
questions of the day, the origin of species. " Ac-
cording to the developmentalists who have got rid
of all necessity for a creation, and have by conse-
quence no use for a Creator, the various races of
men, as well as all otheranimals, grow or gradually
developed themselves
in the progress of ages, from
lower forms of
:animal life, beginning with the

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