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

THE SKN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 7, 1862.

attempts to address the house, was met with a repetition of
the most discordant and unnatural yells from members be-
low the gangways.
Sir R. PEEL, in resistin; the proposal, reminded the
house that the grant had received the sanction of both Mr.
Pitt and Sir R. Peel with a yew to conciliate all interests,
remove religious irritation, and unite in one common bond
all classes of her Majesty's suljects. Ho admitted that the
pectations which had been foiled in this respect had not
been realised; still, as a ina,,ter of justice and policy, he
considered it would not be wcllfor the house to rescind the
arrangement of 1846.
Mr. NEWDEGATE thank(' Sir R. Peel for his frank
and honest acknowledgment, tlat the object which his late
father had had in view when hepassed the act of 1815 had
been defeated. This Ives the Pettit of the action of the
Ultramontahe fiction in the Clinch of Rome, and the time
had now arrived when the Collige at Maynooth ought to
be put in the position in which Mr. Pitt desired to place it,
and be maintained by the Rorni,n Catholics themselves.
On a division the motion was negatived by 193 to 111.
HARBOURS OF REFUGE.
Mr. LINDSAY moved, that in he opinion of the house
it was the duty of the Governmeit to adopt measures to
carry into effect the resolution of tie house of the 19th of
June, 1860, in regard to harbous of refuge. The hon.
member pointed out at sable lengtithe obvious advantages
of harbours of refuge to the mercantile and shipping inte-
rest, as a means of saving both lio and property; and for-
tified his proposal by reference tc the recommendations of
the select committees and Royal commission who had in •
quired into and reported upon the subject.
AdeniralllONCOMßE seconded the motion, but ex-
pressed a fear that in the present state of the finances the
Chancellor of the Exchequer would not be able to spare the
money required to give it effect.
Mr. BAXTER opposed the motion, and said that but
few vessels would receive any benefit from the construction
of harbours of refuge at the points .ndicated by the Royal
commissioners, and commented uron the discrepancy in
their recommendations and those of the select committee ;
the latter suggesting that th 3 expenditure should be de-
frayed out of the passing tots, and the former that the
greater portion of the amount should bo paid out of the
general taxation of the country, whilst they also differed
with regard to the total outlay. Ho warned the house
against adopting a resolution fledging them to embark
upon an expenditure which would be far greater than any
advantage that was likely to be dirivcd from it, which the
financial position of the country did not warrant, and of
which, when once commenced, net a man living would see
the end.

Sir F. SMITH, as a menher of both select committees
and the Royal commission, cold that the committees only
gave an opinion as to what the cost would be, but that the
commissioners treated the question from an engineering
point of view; and he ventured to assert that their esti-
mates were sufficient to carry out the works, inasmuch as a
large margin was allowed for contingencies.
After some observations from Lord A. VANE TEMPEST,
Mr. PEASE, and Mr. BLAKE,
Mr. M. GIBSON opposed the motion, and reminded the
house that a bill had recently beet passed authorising the
public
works loan commissioners to make advances of
money, repayable in fifty years, at per cent. interest, for
the enlargement and improvement of existing harbours ;
that numerous advances had been made during the present
year; and that several additional plans were now being con-
sidered by the commissioners. It Wl/13 but fair, therefore, to
give a scheme of that kind time to work, and see how far it
would mitigate the evil complained of, With a view to saving
life and property at sea, nothing was so important as to im-
prove the access to the existing trading port ; because it was
at their entrances that vessels ciiefly congregated and that
the larger number of casualties )ccurred ; and ho believed
that if time were allowed to work that bill great advantage
would result therefrom. Accoriing to the commissioners
themselves, their recommendations could not he carried out
for less than £4,000,000 ; bit he should be sorry
to take the responsibility of saying that tho works could be
executed for less than £6,000,)00; on the contrary, he
believed they could not be accomplished fully and com-
pletely under 0,000,000. Was the house, then, prepared
to pledge itself to the resolution? If it were, it must not
trust to the illusions put forward by the commissioners re-
specting local assistance, but /lust provide the money by
Parliamentary grants to the amount required, and the re-
quisite ways and means to meet the expenditure. The
great loss of life and property through accidents at sea did
not take place in the neighbourhood of the proposed har-
bours of refuge. More could be done for the protection of
life by lifeboats and mortars and rockets stationed along
the coast, than by the erection of tylew piers, constructed
at an enormous expense ; and in the absence of represen-
tations from shipowners, or the expression of a readiness
on their part to bear any part of the expenditure, he hoped
the house would not assent to the motion.

The debate was continued by Mr. LIDDELL and Sir M.
PETO.

Sir J. PAKINGTON owned himself disappointed at
what had fallen from the President of the Board of Trade,
who preferred to substitute his own unsupported conjec-
tures for the carefully-considered calculations of the Royal
commissioners. The riglAt hon. gentleman's argument was
neither more nor less than this—let shipwrecks take place,
and then trust to lifeboats and mortar and rocket apparatus
stationed along the coast for saving of life. The value of
harbours of refuge could not be better illustrated than by
reference to Holyhead and Portland, both of which in case
of heavy weather were always crowded with merchant
shipping. With regard to ways and means, the Govern-
ment knew in 1860 what was the report of the committee
and of the commission, and what was the opinion of the
House of Commons. They knew the cost; yet in 1861
they recklessly wasted the resources of the country,
which they might now have applied to this beneficent and
useful purpose.

Sir G. LEWIS opposed the motion, and condemned the
taking any precipitate step in the existing state of the pub-
lic finances.

Mr. BENTINCK approved of the motion on the ground
of humanity and public policy, but thought that Mr. Lind-
say had put himself out of court by the course he had taken
in voting for the abolition of the paper duty and supporting
the recent financial measures of the Government. He
hoped, therefore, the bon. gentleman would not ask the
house to go to a division.

Mr. CItOSSLEY suggested that the ways and means
might be found by borrowing the required amount upon
terminable annuities of 30 years, or some other period.
Sir F. BARING expressed alarm at the facility with
which hon. members talked of raising loans. It was a very
pleasant means, perhaps, of getting rid of a difficulty, but
he warned them that tho moment they entered upon that
downward course they would find it extremely difficult to
retrace their steps.
Sir S. NORTHCOTE believed that the house would be
acting rashly in adopting the motion, and intimated that he
should vote against it.
A brief reply from Mr. LINDSAY terminated the de-
bate, and on a division the motion was negatived by 115
to 77.

Captain JERVIS obtained ithe appointment of a select
committee to inquire into the best means of preserving
Harwich Harbour as a harbour of refuge.
Leave was given to Mr. M'MAIION to introduce a bill
to facilitate the obtaining of sites for places ef religious wor-
ship in Ireland.
Mr. CRAUFURD moved for certain returns relating to
the benchers of the several inns of court. The motion led
to some discussion, and, upon a division, was negatived by
54 to 19.

The remaining business having been disposed of, the
house adjourned.

ANOTHER MURDER IN TIPPERARY.

(From the Freeman's Journal.)

CARRICK.- ON-Sumß, Tuegetay, Two o' Clock.—Again has
Tipperary been stained with blood I and again, I am sorry
to say, land is the undeniable cause. This time, however,
it is not the landlord who has been assassinated. To-day I
record the cowardly and bloody murder of a respectable
farmer named Maguire. The alleged and believed cause of
the act was that ho recently became the tenant of a farm
from which the previous tenants were ovitted. To-day,
about twelve o'clock, while passing along the road near
Glenbower, ho was barbarously murdered. The police at
once received the intelligence, and immediately made ar-
rangements for a, vigorous and, it is to be hoped, a success-
ful search. The inquest will be hold to-morrow by Mr.
Shec, the same gentleman who has only just concluded the
investigation at Rockwell on the body of Mr, Thieubalt.
(From the Clonmel Chronicle.)
CLONMEL, Tuesday.—Another frightful murder was
committed to-day within a mile of Glenbower, near Nine-
mile House. It seems a man named Maguire had taken a
farm from which a person named Kennedy had been evicted
a few days since. Maguire was shot dead at 12 o'clock
this day.

POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS WITH BRITISH COLUM-
BIA.—Af the monthly meeting of tho council of the Liver-
pool Chamber of Commerce, on Monday, it was decided to
memorialise Government for the establishment of a line of
steamers for the conveyance of mails and passengers be-
tween British Columbia, Vancouver's Island, and Panama.
It was stated that the Government is at present entirely
dependent upon. American steamers for the carrying on of
this work, and the council deemed it essential, for the
proper development of the resources, And improvement; of
the colonies, that the conveyance of mails and passengers
should be in the baudo of Government.

LITERATURE.

The North British Review.

The first article on the list, termed " The Church
of England—Respondent," discusses the contents of
two volumes recently produced in answer to "Es-
says and Reviews," the one being edited by the
Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, the other by the
Bishop of Oxford. The views of the writer are, of
course, perfectly orthodox, but le admits that good
may come of the recent controversy. He says:—
The Church of England has recently not merely given
decisive evidence of its firm adherence to the Christianity
which it professes, but has shown its ability to repel un-
belief in the mode of dispassionate and learned argumenta-
tion. The attempt lately made to gain a footing for the
German infidelity within its pale has signally failed. No
similar attempt, probably, will be thought of for some while
to come; nor ever again, if only a clue improvement is made
of this recent agitation. What we mean by a due im-
provement of it will consist in a more free development of
genuine biblical criticism, This criticism must be more
free than at present it is, in several senses. It must be
free from the smouldering anxieties of those who, un-
fixed in their own belief, have doubted what might be the
issue of studies of this kind. Exempt also this criticism
must be from intimidations uttered by uninformed and in-
telligent good men, who would frighten their better in-
formed brethren bythe threat to denounce them as heretics.
tree also must biblical criticism be from those restraints
which in all ages have arisen from the disingenuous and
dishonest reluctance to admit any exposition of Scripture,
in single instances, from which opponents would be quick
to snatch an advantage. 'rake it now as certain that the
Scriptures are from God, in their own sense; then, if so,
what are our fears P What is it that we apprehend f
Not that the claims of this book should after all be dis-
proved I Not that, when honestly interpreted, Scripture
itself will lead us astray I Not that the sense it gives us,
in any one instance, may be of dangerous tendency, and
that therefore it should be suppressed or disguised I All
anxieties of this kind—all cautionary expedients or eva-
sions to which we may be tempted to give way in the
interpretation of the Scriptures, are, in truth,. nothing
better than so many forms of our own inward mistrust of
them.

In " Geologic Changes in Scotland in Historic
Times," we find earthquakes enumerated among the
causes. One shock, which took place in 1608, ex-
cited such alarm at Aberdeen "that it was re-
garded as a document that God is angry
against the land, and against this city in
particular, for the manifold sons of the people I
From time immemorial it had been customary to
carry on the salmon fishing in the Dee on Sundays,
and the Kirk Session set this down as the proxi-
mate cause of the earthquake." There are three
articles on poetry, namely, " Recent Homeric
Critics and Translators," " Early Poetry of Eng-
land and Scotland," and "Last Poems of Mrs.
Browning," the latter of which is the best. We
cannot resist quoting one or two passages 4—

WOMAN AND LITERATURE.
In his Essay upon Joan of Arc, De Quincey thus ad-
dresses Woman, not as the general mother, but as the
general sister: "Woman, sister—there aro some things
which you do not execute as well as your brother, Man; no
nor ever will. Pardon me, if I doubt whether you will
ever produce a great poet from your choirs, or a Mozart, or
a Phidias, or a Michael Angelo, or a great philosopher, or
a great scholar." With perfect fairness might our sister
retort that there are many things which she can execute
better than her brother. She might also urge something
more to the point, in the fact that woman has done very
great things both in art and literature since De Quincey's
words were written—the greatest things probably she has
ever done. She has not yet produced her Shakspeare, her
Newton, her. Bacon, her Handel ; and most likely never
will. But what she has done during the last twenty years
is quite sufficient to make man look down on her from his
intellectual throne with less of the smile of superiority. In
more than one department of literature she has run almost
abreast of her brother in the race. It is very doubtful if
the highest and richest nature of woman can ever be un-
folded in its home life and wedded relationships, and yet at
the same time blossom and bear fruit in art or literature
with a similar fulness. What we mean is, that there is so
great a draft made upon woman by other creative works, as
to make the chance very small that the general energy
shall culminate in the greatest musician, for example. The
nature of woman demands that to perfect it in life which
must half lame it for art. A mother's heart, at its richest,
is not likely to get adequate expression in notes and bars, if
it were only for the fact that she must be absorbed by other
music. That which makes the mother wealthiest, will at
the same time hinder the artist by at least one-half. Thus
a woman-Shakspeare would really have to be doubly as
great as the man Shakspeare, for he had not to bear a family
with all its precious burdens ; nor does it appear that he paid
very much attention to his family when it had been borne
for him. So that, if woman should never stand
on an equality with her brother at his noblest height, she
may fairly plead inequality at starting, and more hin-
drances by the way. Great writers are the exception
amongst men, and they must be still more so amongst
women, Women, who are happy in all home-ties, and
who amply fill the sphere of their love and life, must, in
the very nature of things, very seldom become writers.
For most women, the whole of life is uttered in the one
word "love," the whole world compressed in the one word
" home," They live the reality in such fulness, that there
i 3 no imperative need to seek refuge in an ideal world. And
then, where is the incentive to sing or write ? Perfect joy
does not often set people writing. Joy is a more uncon-
scious thing than sorrow. The reason why sorrow has in-
spired so many singers is because it appeals so much more
to the consciousness. It turns the eyes more within. And
then it babbles, is more communicative, and loves to ease
the heart of its burdens by telling its troubles. It is also
lessened by being shared. Woman will seldom be able to
"catch up the whole of life, and utter it ;" it will generally
be only the half of life, and because it is only the half will
she often strive to utter it. Nevertheless, where the nature
of woman is drawn or driven to seek expression in art or
literature, by all means let her have warm welcome and
brotherly cheer. She has many a tender and vivid reve-
lation to make which is sealed to man. But her deeper
intuitions demand an alliance with the most massive
powers, ere the great books will be written of which her
nature affords an index.

THE POETESS.
The world in general has got its first glimpse of Elizabeth
Barrett through Miss Mitford's kind old eyes, that dwelt so
lovingly on the young Greek-student girl, living her lonely
London life with books for companions, instead of women
and men. We have seen an early poem of hers on " Mind,"
or some such title, printed earlier than the classical period
of her studies. It showed the brain at work before the
heart had sent up its inspirations. It revealed a young
poet of such parts, that she needed all that we sum up in
the word " life," to ripen her nature, and do justice to her
great gifts. very shoot put forth by her expanding ex-
istence ought to have come into contact with such kinds of
food as would have assimilated healthily. These should
have been—grasping the human world, end the world of
flowers and leaves, beasts and birds. The sea, it seems,
should have sent its salt freshness, the old grey mountains
have contributed strength, the green country its sweetnesses,
the spring wind should have given her blood a brighter
bloom, the blue heaven and golden sunshine have made her
spirits dance within her; and these should have led out
with ruddy cheek, happy light heart, and ready hand, into
the companionship of live human beings, all of which might
have enriched her nature by giving or receiving. Instead of
this, we hear of the early doom indoors, the dim life in the
sick-room, the mental life kindled and burning at the expense
of the physical, the long train of many sufferings, the way of
life sad and shadowy to be walked wearily in ill health, and
the vista marked across at the end with an early grave. Such
was the life and prospect which have been sketched for the
young poetess in her early years. We doubt whether in
this case, as in others, the lot was really so bad as our ima-
ginations are apt to colour it, especially when it has been
drawn by the imaginations of others. We have met with
people who have assured us that the sisters Brent° by no
means lived the dismal life that we had realised ; and that,
amidst all the loneliness and misery. they often managed
to extract a good deal of pleasure from life. Still there was
enough shutting up, in the case of Elizabeth Barrett, to set
her mind growing in the world of books when it ought to
have been expanding in a world warm with life; the mind
was growing, as it were, in a dark collar, when it should
have been shooting and striking root but of doors under the
breathing influence of spring.
The whole tendency of this life was to grow apart from
that material which is the very clay in which the poet
works. At any time, the strong imagination has difficulty
enough to get fleshed, as we may phrase it, so as to dwell
in common human forms, walk in common human foot-
steps, and speak our common human language. It is no
easy matter to catch Pegasus, and put him into harness.
But when the outer world is mainly closed, and the inner
world of consciousness unhealthily quickened and stimu-
lated, the difficulty of bringing the imagination to bear for
working purposes is many times greater. Ordinary pr.
n
and women grow up naturally in the ordinary forms,
They are moulded to the ordinary condition of things,
while the consciousness is awaking gradually.
to use the
dons feel lost with surprise at the state of matte' in which
they have grown up. They do not feel eager
stride of a disembodied spirit, and so step
ot tththheteaoetn itv eeuervseyeime-r
world's boundaries. They take kindly the law oefy gra-
vitation. They are fitly fleshed, and don't forth over this
of the spheres, but are quite contentr ratoohttanotroweaande,
day track. If strongly moved by
noses,
.soar over the heights
find room to palpitate within the senses'
ay' e dropt on
trying to flap its wings without, si
that hem it round.
this natural aatruede
They appear
aar receivingt
o food and
not to grow up in thi
growth through the senses.
They
of pain, that is heard high
the planet ready made.
world, and seek inavfaobrattndoe
ay
pleasure—low
for very happiness
get in often;
go they
wailingvisele. dwellahnnrr e
round apart,l our
eyes for the sorrows an. wrongs, the scars and rents of
of
lhiiugnhnboityve;
tahlel
musicear
hey see all the
that fills so Tally a life to the brim of mournfulness, because feeling so
vinoicaenioffimisery is shrill. T
—becausem
o're of
life'sthe
of the empty cup when
down. There was something of this in Mrs.
it
littleis d
dashed
sf
hiet
ds joy,
feli-
city. They only hear the ringing
Browning, and she found many doors into life closed to her
during those early years. This will account for her endea-
voursto make a world of her own, not baing native to ours,
which she did with an intrepidity of impulse more daring
than mans deliberate valour, or rather with the courage of
acahnild that is not tall enough to apprehend the obstacles
which aro visible to a loftier vision.
The work of Sir G. C. Lewis on "The Astronomy
of the Ancients," is reviewed, and the remaining
articles touch on " Our Colonies," "Lunacy Legis-
lation," " Present Movements among the French
Clergy,"
and " The Commemoration of 1662."

Frazer's Magazine.
As our colonial possessions are now attracting
Considerable attention, the question of their ex-
puiditttre and defence are here diseussed under the
head of "The Colonies." A by no means favour-
able picture of Rome during the Carnival is drawn