The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-03 00:00:00

BELGIUM.

The King of the Belgians, - the Duke and
Duchess de Brabant, the Count de Flandre, and
the Princess Charlotte, returned to Bruges on
Tuesday evening from Ostend. The illustrious
party found the city brilliantly illuminated. The
next day there was a grand historical and religious
cavalcade, in imitation of those of the olden time.
After it was over, the King, the Princes, and
Princesses left for Ghent, and on their arrival in
that city were received with most hearty enthusi-
asm. His Majesty and their Royal Highnesses
afterwards attended a grant banquet offered by the
city, and visited the theatre, and a grand fete at
the Casino. Everywhere they were greeted with
acclamations.

The Belgian journals state that of the eight
muskets which were taken from the manufactory
of arms at Liege, in the recent popular movement,
seven have been already returned. They add, to
show the deplorable influences of disturbances on
account of the dearness of corn, that several
dealers had arrived at Liege from Prussia to offer
grain at lower prices ; but that, on seeing the as-
semblage of the populace, they returned without
effecting any sale.
On the 30th ult. the magistrates of Liege ordered
that all the public-houses and cafes in that city
shall be closed at nine o'clock in the evening until
further orders. They have also interdicted all
assemblages of persons in the streets beyond four
in number.

AUSTRIA.
The Government has received the Emperor's
orders to modify the state of siege at Milan.
The Gazette of the 28th ult. publishes a decree of
the Imperial Lieutenant of Lombardy, Count
Strassoldo, imposing an additional tax of 6 kreut-
zers per florin (about one-tenth) upon the province,
in order to cover the deficits of 1852 and 1853 in
the receipts of that part of the empire. The tax
is to be levied in the course of the current year, in
two instalments, one payable on the 20th of Sep-
tember, and the other on the 10th of October. All
payers of direct taxes, including
and the tax upon salaries, are liable-the income tax
to this addi-
tional tax.

ITALY
Our letters from Turin,
of the 30th ult., state
that specie is becoming daily more scarce in that
city and at Genoa, the National Bank had thought
proper to limit its metallic issue to 1,000,000 per
week, and to raise the rate of discount from 5 to 6
per cent. Since then, that alarming situation had
ceased ; money had reappeared in abundance, and
the National Bank no longer placed restrictions to
its operations. This result was ascribed to some
measure adopted by M. de Cavour, on his return
The brigades which are to take part in the
from the country.
manoeuvres at the Camp of Marengo were begin-
ning to occupy the positions assigned to them.
Between 17,000 and 18,000 men will be on the
ground about the 10th of September, under the
command of the Duke of Genoa. The Royal family
now residing at La Spezzia, and the King, who
stays at the Chateau of Stupinigi, are to meet there,
and to return together, after the military opera-
tions, to their winter residence of Moncalieri.
The death of a clergyman, named Barthelmi
Bottaro, had caused a great sensation at Genoa.
His funeral was followed by as great a concourse of
people as that of the mother of Mazzini.
in wveell investigation
That
priest, known for his political psalms, had beeknncoewnn-
sured by the Holy Congregation of Rome. Having
refused to retract his opinions, he became an idol
with the Democratic party. His body having been
opened exhibited symptoms of poison. The causes
to
of
justifyiii s tragic
a
conjecture. were A
not
judiciary sufficiently
had commenced.

THE PENINSULAR MAIL.

ARRIVAL OF THE TAGUs.

The Peninsular Company's steam-ship Tagus
arrived at Southampton at midnight yesterday
with the usual mails.
Her dates are—Gibraltar, Aug. 26 ; Lisbon, 29 ;
Oporto, 30 ; and Vigo, 30.
She had thirty-eight passengers.
In specie the Tagus brought 6,1801., besides 642
half-chests of lemons and other cargo.
The Pope's Nuncio at Lisbon was very ill, and
had received the last rites of the Church.
The Duke and Duchess of Terceira have arrived
by the Tagus, too late to attend the marriage of
•
the Duke of Brabant at Brussels on behalf of the
Queen and King of Portugal.
The Lisbon exchanges are quoted this mail 54f
do na
m, Lisbon,43; a t three
Hamburgh,months
and
Paris,
; Genoa,Amster-
-532
g2B. Few
transactions had taken place, money bills being
equally scarce. In the new Three per Cent. Stock
a fair amount of business had been done, at 42i to
42 ; few operations in Portugal Bank shares, at
137 to 135 milreis per share, those rates being in
Lisbon Bank notes at a discount of ai per cent.
The Oporto Bank shares were at 41 to 5 per cent.
premium, in metal.
The Lisbon letters and papers contain the adver-
tisement inviting applications for shares in the
General Peninsular Company of Portugal.

NG, SEPTEMBER

LITERATURE.

Charles Av,thester. A Memorial. 3 yds. liurs.

and Blackett.

If it be true, as a poet affirmed, that " next to
genius, is the power of feeling where true genius
lies," then the author of this work has confessedly
at the outset a claim on our attention, for he has
thus dedicated it—" To the author of Contarini
Fleming,' whose perfect genius suggested this im-
perfect history." The motto on the title-page is
one of those " gems of thought" which Mr. Disraeli
has scattered far and wide, as the fabled heroine
who never spoke but diamonds and pearls fell in
glittering showers around her—" Were it not for
music, we might in these days say, the Beautiful is
dead."

The idea which possessed the mind of him who
composed it must have been a grand one, the purpose
of his labour partakes of the highest. The reader
who enters fully into his subject, shuts out for a
time the discords of this jarring world. With the
young enthusiast, whose autobiography introduces
us to the great and glorious of his worshipped art,
he passes into the regions of harmony. The style
is simple—that is necessary to the true elucidation
of the mysteries described, but there are passages
where it rises into the sublime, and instances in
which the beautiful irradiates its character and ex-
pression.

- Charles Auchester, the hero, is born of obscure
parents, in a quiet town ; but his energies 'could
not be confined in such narrow limits. The wish
of his heart was to become a musician, and it re-
vealed itself under every obstacle. His first great
struggle to enter the Town Hall, during the cele-
bration of the Musical Festival there, was the
cause of his meeting his first friend, although sub-
sequently the young aspirant soared so high from
his early associate that the one rested on earth,
while the other seemed to reach heaven's gate ;
yet Lenhart Davy was the one to whom he owed
his first step in the mystic scale. It is not the for-
tunes of this dreamer in search of realities, this
visionary who would behold face to face the mighty
ones of his day, that give a charm to the narra-
tive, or shed a grace over the events. Charles
Auchester is left poor ; he never distinguished him-
self ; and his life contained none of those touching
episodes which lend romance to the plain, and
make the poor need not wealth. He shines with
a reflected light, and interests from his surround-
ing objects. The dream of his young life was
fulfilled in being admitted to the Festival, and
there he beheld one who served as his hero of
thought and fancy. In the description of this feel-
ing the author is pre-eminently successful. The
fervour with which an imaginative soul would at-
tach itself to one whose power was manifested in
the supreme sway over an act which that soul
adored—the excitement which would thrill the
frame, the exultation which would arouse the spirit,
are apparent to the thoughtful, and these are all
sketched with the master hand of genius. In no
nobler manner could the mighty genius be introduced
to us—by no higher triumph could his advent have
been celebrated, than by entrancing the heart of
one born to the study of the subjects he created,
and in forming the day-spring to a pilgrim bound to
the glorious shrine of which he was a ministering
spirit. Hero-worship belongs to the imaginative
and enthusiastic. -Surely, then, it is not out of its
sphere among the votaries of music. The events
of that day in which he first beheld the Chevalier
Seraphael were to Charles Auchester the beginning
of a new life ; from then began his happiness. Still
it was not all fair and smiling, for he had to leave
his family and friends and sojourn among strangers;
but, as he owned, it was requisite to shut out all
else, if he were ever to be raised " from the valley
of material life to the mountain heights of art."
Aronach, the master of Charles, is a wonderful
character, and some of his sayings are replete with
wisdom. The scene is admirably given in which he
hears the " One," as his celebrated pupil the Che-
valier Seraphael is called.
_ _ _

44 It was as if a stone had rolled from his heart,
and it had begun to beat like a child's ; it was as
if his youth were renewed like the eagle's ; it was
as if he were drinking silently but deeply celestial
knowledge from those young and heavenly eyes."
The culminating point of Seraphael's triumph is at
an oratorio in Westminster Abbey. The glory that
is rarely gained even by genius was then his own,
and high above his celebrated contemporaries was he
ranked in the Temple of Fame. To be appreciated,
this scene must be studied in the author's language,
in which it is depicted con amore. The glowing
zeal, the fervid adoration of the young admirer
was naturally kindled at this momentous occasion,
and most truly is it explained how, when the feel-
ings are highly strung, and the mind wrapt as it
were in the clouds, that most painful was it to the
senses to return to earth. Every-day life and com-
monplace things jarred on the nerves after such a
communion with one of the brightest of heaven's
messengers, who spoke in language worthy of his
home on high. The overture thus began :

"It opened like the first dawn of lightning, yet scarce
yet lightened morning ; its vast subject introduced with
strings alone in that joyous key which so often served
him, yet as in the extreme of vaulting distance ; but
soon the first trombone blazed out, the second and third
responding with their stupendous tones as the amplifi-
cations of fugue involved and spread themselves more
and more ; until, like glory filling up and flooding
the height of heaven from the heaven of heavens
itself, broke in the organ, and brimmed the brain with
the calm of an utter and forceful expression, realised by
tone. In sympathy with each instrument, it was alike
with none, even as the white and boundless ray of which
all beams, all colour tones, are born. The perfect form,
the distinct conception of this unbrothered work, left
our spirits as the sublime fulfilment confronted them ;
for once had genius, upon the wings of aspiration that
alone are pure, found all it rose to seek, and mastered
without a struggle all that it desired to embrace; for the
pervadingpurpose of that creation was the passioned quie-
tude with which it wrought its way. The vibrating har-
monies pulse-like, clung to our pulses then, drew up,
drew out each heart deep-beating and undistracted, to
adore at the throne above from whence all beauty
springs. And opening and spreading thus, too intri-
cately, too transcendentally for criticism, we do not
essay, even feebly, to portray that immortal woak of a
music-veiled immortal.

"Inextricable holiness, precious as the old Hebrew
psalm of all that hath life and breath, exhaled from every
modulation, each dropped celestial fragrancies, the fresh-
ness of everlasting Spring. Suggestive—our oratorio
suggested nothing here, nothing that we find or feel—all
that we seek and yearn to clasp, but rest in our restless-
ness to discover is beyond us ! In nothing that form of
music reminded of our forms of worship—in the day of
Paradise it might have been dreamed of, an antepast of
earth's last night, and of Eternity at hand—or it might
be the dream of Heaven that haunts the loving one's
last slumber.

"During the last reverberations of that unimaginable
Alleluiah, I had not looked up at all ; now I forced my-
self to do so, lest I should lose my sight of hint, his seal
upon all that glory. As Seraphael had risen to depart,
the applause, stifled and trembling, but not the less by
heartfuls, rose for him.

"He turned his face a moment, the heavenly half-
smile was there ; then, at that very moment, the sum-
mer sun, that falling downwards in its piercing glare,
glowed gorgeous against the flower-leaf windows, flung
its burning bloom, its flushing gold, upon that counte-
nance. We all saw it, all felt it, the seraph-strength,
the mortal beauty—and that it was pale as the cheek of
the quick and living changed in death—that his mien
was of no earthly triumph !"

The next phase in the life of the genius is more
solemn, but equally glorious. He is left in the realisa-
tion of his dreams of this world's greatness,but we
next find him sufferingfrom its anguish. Thewreath
of fame has been put off for the " Crown ef
Mar-
tyrdom." While his renown had been spread abroad
to all the civilised nations of the earth, thegifted
has sunk under the burdens, of his oifts The
idolised favourite among true. artists was removed
from the art he immortalised, as if to teach them
that only as a passing guest could such a spirit so-
journ among men.
In a valley by the Rhine, far from the strife of
cities, did the faithful adherent to the mighty one
last behold him. There, at the midnight hour,
Charles Auchester dreamed another dream of Sera-
phael, as he watched him borne by torchlight to the
church to await heaven's rest. " That bier was
carried proudly as of a warrior called from deadly
strife to death's own sleep." Clara, the beloved of
the dead in life, the " companion of his earthly
hours," as she called herself, is supposed to perform
his last composition as a requiem, while the
sad procession moved on, lts thrilling tones
spoke comfort to the listener at the grave, and
seemed to say that " Music never dies," for he
whose memory he mourned lived again in her
records, that death could not touch. " With
all of genius that can perish," passed the beauty
of his heart's affection, and the freshness of
his early days, but with the everlasting part of
genius " that lights its torch at nature's funereal
pile," his spirit rose to hail the glory of its chosen
king, with the might and majesty of a devotion
that could never pass away. Few out of the many
who peruse these pages may really and truly appre-
ciate their purpose ; but all right-thinking and
high-minded will acknowledge the sincerity of. ex-
pression, the consistency of judgment maintained
throughout. The love of the art seems to inspire
and influence the imagination of the author, and
a higher and holier could not be found. " Music
is a theme beyond the tongues of men and angels "
is declared at the conclusion, which suggests the
idea that it is the only one they have in common.

Fraser.—A more extravagant contribution was
perhaps never inserted in any periodical, than one
which appears this month in Fraser's Magazine.
It is entitled the " Toad's Curse," than which no-
thing sillier possibly was ever penned, printed,
and published. From first to last it is what the