The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-04 00:00:00

joyment," exclaims the writer, " how good a thing
it is ! It keeps the temper sweet, and when it is
mixed with love and thankfulness and sunny days,
brings us some of that spirit of pure, gentle,
peaceable wisdom which we might aptly name after
Izaak Walton." The clever and interesting story
of " Gilbert Rugge" is continued. The author of
this tale and its predecessors abjures that sensa-
tional style which is the mischievous fashion of our
own day, and although after, a novelists' indisput-
able custom, he brings the great catastrophes of life
to figure on his scene, they make their appearance
after the good old manner, and the interest of the
narrative rests mainly on its characters, not on their
crimes and disasters. The story of " The Beau-
clercs" is also continued, and there is a lengthened
and appreciative, though somewhat severe, criticism
on Mr. Carlyle.
COLUMN'S NEW MONTIILY.—It is not very diffi-
cult for the readers of the New Monthly to guess the
subject of the first article, " The Electric Girdle
Round the Earth." It is remarked at the outset
that when we consider the progress made in tele-
graphy during the last fifty years what may we
not expect of the next quarter of a century ? " The
creation of the electric wire in England only dates
twenty-years ago, and the short line from Baltimore
to Washington does not date back half a century.
Yet the system has already assumed a colossal ex-
tension. Europe is intersected by a network of wires.
In North America, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
are brought together at points, and will soon be so
in directions still more important to British
interests, as from Newfoundland to British
Columbia, and from Halifax to Victoria. In
Europe and in Asia the electric telegraph extends
from Gibraltar to Kiachta, on the frontiers of
China ; and from Edinburgh to Constantinople ;
and, again, from Constantinople to Rangun, in the
kingdom of Pegu. India, the colonies of the Cape,
Australia, and North Africa have adopted the
system, and it is almost daily extending itself in
South America." The submarine line to the great
Continent of the West is the branch of the subject
chiefly dwelt upon, and the merits of the various
routes proposed are examined. Francis Jacox con-
siders " Toil as a Boon to Sorrow," and he does not
find it difficult to collect passages in prose and verse
to substantiate his case. It has been well and
truly said, that labour was God's gift to Adam in
his first great grief and desolation, and that the ex-
perience of all successive ages has found no better
remedy. Cyrus Redding always deserves respectful
attention, from his venerable rank as a contributor
to the New Monthly, but he might really have found
some more gracious subject than the demolition of
Gray's beautiful old Elegy. After the fashion of
Shakspere's would-be improvers, he examines it line
by line, touching it up and making alterations and
emendations of various kinds. But the fact is, that
its faults, if faults it has, aro dear to all lovers of
poetry, and whether or no Mr. Redding is to be
included in such, it is certain that he is disposed
very greatly to curtail the poet's privileges, and to
keep him to the rigid matter of fact. The critic
takes everything au pied de la lettre. He objects to
a " living" lyre, to a yew tree with a shade, and
an dm without it ; he is equally indignant
with a pure ray being called " serene," because it
must necessarily be so, and with a heart being
" pregnant with fire," because it cannot possibly
be so ! As an improvement on the line—

i" Some frail memorial still erected nigh,"
our critic would have us believe that " still erect"
was intended, a conclusion enough to bring metri-
cally correct and melodious Gray up from the grave !
We must do Mr. Redding the justice to add that
he expresses the warmest admiration of Gray and
his poems, the faulty elegy included, which makes
it more surprising that he should examine them like
the stop-watch critic at the theatre, who measured
the declamation of genius by the number of minutes
it took, or like the editors of our " improving" school
reading book, who arrest you in the middle of the
finest passages with a question about the case of a
substantive or the relation of verb and pronoun.
" Idalia" is continued, and the story approaches a
crisis. " Lilian's Inheritance," a romance of Anglo-
Mexican life, promises interest.

THE UNITED SERVICE.—This number commences
with a sensible paper on " Promotion by Choice,"
a subject of the utmost importance not only to the
army, but to the country which depends on that
army for its independence, perhaps its very safety.
The author says that he proposes to examine the
question in a spirit of impartiality, for, though him-
self an officer, his days of service belong to the past,
so that he has nothing to hope or fear in the way
of promotion, nor, indeed, to complain of. His
testimony may, therefore, be taken as honest, and
his opinion, if not altogether just or correct, is at
least perfectly patriotic. The question of promo-
tion has long been a vexed one. It affects the sol-
dier in the ranks, but more espeCially the officer,
who is seldom contented with his lot, for, however
high his position, there is still an Alp above him,
and his ambition is ever looking up. This is natu-
ral, but so too is one's forgetfulness of his own com-
petency, for it is one thing to be a fine swell on
parade, but quite another to excel on the field of
battle, or in the more trying difficulty of a retreat
which tests a man's capacity to the very depths, for
on his generalship may depend not only the safety
of the army, but the ultimate safety of everything
depending on that, so that promotion by choice
may be good or bad, just as it " turns up." The
" long stagers" on the forlorn hope of promotion,
where the heart sickens but wears on, cannot look
with complacency on the young upstart placed over
their heads, not once or twice, but ever and anon,
and that, too, often irrespective of qualification or
ability. " Money makes the mare to go," or favour
covers a multitude of sins, on the abrupt and rugged
road to promotion. Sometimes it is luck, but luck
generally favours the brave. Our author thinks
routine--that is the ordinary service or time—may
be confined to a certain rank, say a captaincy, and
after that choice may select the proper man founded
on a just discrimination. In fact, he is fortified in
this opinion by the authority of Lord Stanley, who
is as much the true friend of the soldier as he is the
patriot statesman. The recent American war, like
the war of the revolution in France, has served
greatly to bring forth impromptu men of talent,
whose original quality is daily improved by expe-
rience, to justify promotion by choice, while the old
system of favour has been the ruin of nations, by
giving the command to incompetency. This has
been exemplified by Austria, who gives to princely
incapacity what ought to be conferred on merit.
In the late war of 1859 the French said, very cha-
racteristically, of that system, that while the Aus-
trians " make princes and counts generals, we make
good generals dukes." the majority of instances
it takes a long time before it can be made out what
a man is fit for, and this is the root of all the evils
appertaining to promotion by seniority—which
would seem to justify that by choice when
merit becomes conspicuous by accident or by
some brilliant achievement. We commend
this article to those in the proper quarter as the
phrase runs, who should remember the line written
by Johnson from his own experience.—
"Slow rises worth by poverty depressed."
" Tristram's Overhaul of Prince de Joinville's
French and American Navies" is now concluded,
and a pretty severe dressing the naval prince and
critic has got, and that very deservedly. "On Re-
treats" is an interesting subject, well handled. So
is the article on the " organisation of cavalry."
The new gunpowder invented by Captain Edward
Schultze, of the Royal Prussian Artillery, is a vast
improvement on the present " villanous saltpetre,"
and promises soon to become a general favourite
both for its efficacy and economy, being four times
more powerful than that in use, and better in every
respect for cleanness. " Sailors' Homes" and " Pro-
visions for Troops on Board Ships," with several
other topics, are well discussed.
111ACMILLAN.—MiSS Yonge's interesting story of
" The Dove in the Eagle's Nest," comes to a con-
clusion withwhrilltihsetrielnasgar,tsetmw, oeouvrkethnisowffihtithlleey
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husband returns from his long captivity to die at
peace in his old home, amid the wonderful changes
which his little bride has wrought. One of her
twins passes early to his rest, but the other lives to
carry out her teaching, and become honoured and
respected by a far wider circle than the grim Adler-
steins once ruled over. The story shows an inti-
mate acquaintance with German history of those
troubled earlier centuries, and is interesting from
the picture of that quaint social life, as well as from
the life-like delineation of character, which is always
Miss Yonge's forte. An additional " Letter from
Egypt," by Lady Duff Gordon will be read with
interest and pleasure by all who have already seen
her attractive book. Those who have not will be
tempted to turn to the volume where such animated
descriptions and kindly sketches initiate the cold
and reserved Englishman into the innermost circles
of Arab domestic life. The next article is one that
deserves attentive study by all our sanitary re-
formers. It narrates the wonderful story of the
Broad-street visitation of cholera in 1854, when
it was almost indisputably proved that the
famous Broad-street pump was the origin of an
attack which occasioned 700 deaths, in Broad-street
alone, first decimating a population of less than
900. The gentleman who writes this account, the
Rev. Mr. Whitehead, was a curate in the parish at
the time, and was actively engaged in visiting the
sick and dying patients. He afterwards formed one
of the Committee of Inquiry, which was appointed
by the vestry of St. James's to inquire into the pos-
sible origin of the catastrophe, and the information
he gives respecting it may well startle the indiffe-
rent, and urge on committees and inspectors to re-
newed efforts in these days when we are threatened