The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-02 00:00:00

MONTHLY MAGAZINE.
The tale of " Alfred de Rosann," which is continued in
this number, deserves praise, not so much for its incidents,
the majority of which are little, if at all, elevated above the
tame, flat " Bedford level" of common place, as for its dia-
logues, which are uniformly easy and animated, and occa-
sionally pointed and humorous, and reflect with great fidelity
the peculiarities of the different speakers. The tale is em-
bellished with one or too illustrative engravings, which are
cleverly and spiri,edly executed. " Mrs. Norton and the
British and Foreign Review" takes up the cudgels in favour
of this lady, who has been of late subjected to much unmanly
persecution. The tone of this article is very creditable to
the writer's sense of justice. The " Patron and the Pa-
tronized" is a sprightly dramatic sketch from the pen of
Miss Beevor. " Secret Anecdotes of the Bourbons," is mere
childish gossip. The " Modern French school of Litera-
ture" contains some brief but pertinent critical remarks on
the writings of Eugene Sue. As a specimen of the poetry
of the number, we extract some stanzas written, we suppose,
by Mr. Moncrieff, the popular dramatist. They are tender
and unaffected in their manner :
I never loved the fading,
I still shrink from the dead ;
I woo'd the blythe and vernal,
From the stern and sad I fled.
But the young and gay have left me,
To mate with the worn and sere ;
And 'tis this that makes me welcome
The leaf-fall of the year I

Hail 1 hail 1 declining autumn !
Like thine my pleasures die;
My summer hues have vanished,
My winter-time draws nigh.
I wander with heart blighted,
Akin to all that's drear ;
And 'tis this that makes me welcome
The leaf-fall of the year !

Love's sweet springtime hath fleeted—
Hope's promise-hours have flown ;
My ev'ry joy has vanished,
And left despair alone !
I've lived to mnurn their falsehood,
The treasured arid the dear;
And 'tis this that makes me welcome
The leaf.fall of the year I

THE UNITED SERVICE JOURNAL.
Colburn.

This Number opens with an article which may be
said to put an extinguisher upon the preposterous pre-
tensions of Marshal Soult to the glory of defeating the
Duke of Wellington before Toulouse in 1614. Prefixed
to it is a plan of the town, and the disposition of the Allied
and French armies before, during, and after the engage-
ment. " A Recollection of Tobago" abounds in descrip-
tive passages of great beauty ; while the article on the
" Decline of the Turkish Empire" cannot fail to attract
very general attention. With every disposition, however,
to do justice to the merits of this very well conducted pe-
riodical, we cannot possibly advert to one half the articles
which it contains. Nor is it at all necessary that we should
do so, in order to convey our impression of its excellence as
the accredited organ of the Naval and Military Services,
whose interests, claims, and retards it so temperately, yet
so powerfully, advocates.

THE SPORTING MA GA Z INE.
Pittman.
Three handsome embellishments ornament this Number
—a Vignette of a Jackall in his native wilds ; a Portrait of
" Harkaway ;" and the " Sportsman's Present"—all en-
graved by Engleheart, from paintings by Turner. Two of
them have great merit both in design and execution. The
letter-press is devoted exclusively to subjects connected
with the chase, nor does its least merit consist in being the
production of contributors to whom the gun end the saddle
are more familiar objects than a pen and an inkstand. In
every article the keen sportsman will recognize the spirit
and the voice of a kindred spirit.

THE NETV SPORTING MAGAZINE.
The lovers of the chase—and their name, at this season
of the year, is Legion—will find abundance of, to them,
pleasant and instructive reading in the pages before us. In the
length and selection of the more general articles the Editor
exhibits much good taste. The pictorial embellishments con-
sist of the " Chillingham Bull" mortally wounded by a
shot, from a drawing by Jackson, engraved by Nicholson ;
and " Harold," by Hacker, from a painting by Robinson.
They are both spiritedly executed.

THE MONTHLY LAW MAGAZINE.
Richards and Co.
The Conservative party find in this Periodical an able,
and we can have little doubt, an influential auxiliary. Still
it has its defects. Though its political articles abound in
solid information, and in arguments imbued with all the
rancour of violent party spirit, they are, nevertheless, ex-
cessively dull, tedious, anti tiresome. There is not a spark
of imaginative fire—not a gleam of fancy in them. Among
the best articles in this Number we include one, on the
Third Report made to the House of Commons by the In-
spectors of Prisons ; and another on the Report of the
Select Committee on the Metropolitan Police-offices. The
subjects embraced in these articles are of national interest,
and though our opinions by no means coincide with those
of their respective writers, wo deem them well worthy of
serious consideration. The article on the " Imprisonment
for Debt Bill" is evidently written by one to whom the
minutest details of that measure are perfectly familiar.
We regret that a publication so well calculated to promote
a general knowledge of the law, should restrict its utility
by claiming to be the political organ of a faction in the
Profession, and in the country.

RAILWAY MAGAZINE.
The October number of this periodical contains a va-
riety of useful statistical information on the progress of
Railways in this country and abroad. It appears that
out of sixty notices for Railway Bills, sent in during the
last Session of Parliament, only twenty-six made their ap-
pearance by petition, and but eighteen received the Royal
Assent. Only two of the Bills passed were for new lines,
and thus, as the Editor very justly observes, the enterprise
of the country, in measures for its own internal improve-
ment, has been completely paralysed by the notable
Standing Orders of Parliament. Contrast this with
the 150 Railway Companies lately incorporated in Ame-
rica, in addition to the vast number of lines already com-
pleted or in progress, and the immense strides which
Railways are making in various parts of the Continent, and
Englishmen must be struck with the disadvantageous po-
sition in which a few injudicious and absurd regulations
have placed this country. We trust that another year will
not elapse ere the sound policy of revising these most
improper restrictions will have forced itself upon the minds
of our Legislators.
The following observations upon the Great Western
Railway line, about which so much discussion, and, we may
add, misconception has been abroad of late, are fully borne
out by our own personal observation
With regard to continuous bearings of wood, every engi-
neer whose opinion is worth having, admits that the soft run
over timber is incomparably more easy, noiseless, and inde-
structive of the machinery and carriages, than stone blocks.
Years of experience in America, the late experience on the
Dublin and Kingston, the Manchester and Bolton, and com-
mon sense, all concur to this one point. The chief difficulty
is, how it shall be done. Some insist that the timbers are
likely to warp and twist with very wet or very dry weather,
and that they will not keep in their places without they are
held down by force. But if the rails are well fastened on the
timbers, how can they warp ? The Americans lay their longi-
tudinals on troughs of broken stone rammed down, and, it ap-
pears, find they stand all. If weight be wanted to keep them
down, Mr. Motley's plan in this Number will certainly do it.
But we have never heard that experience has shown any diffi-
culty in the matter; and if the longitudinals of the two rails
are connected with iron transoms, every four or five feet, it is
nearly impossible, whether on an embankment or in a cutting,
they could get out of gage.
" The Americans—whose experience in railways is greater
than ours—use sometimes wooden runners, on which are laid
transoms, and then longitudinals notched into them. We
therefore suggested a short time since to an engineer, whether
it would not be an improvement to make the sections of the
runners, or even of the longitudinals, an isosceles triangle,
with the angular point downwards, like Mr. Reynold's trough
rails. A figure of this sort, as was admitted by Messrs. George
Stephenson and Bryan Donkin, when we were speaking on
Mr. Motley's sleepers at the Newcastle meeting, would be
much easier packed, and kept adjusted at a much less expense
than any blocks or flat bearings.
However, no fault can be found with the principle of the
Great Western longitudinal bearings, unless it be for the mere
Purpose of finding fault.
" We have ben on the Great Western line with several
engineers, and their opinions all are that it will be a most ex-
cellent line ; though no more than the Birmingham, South.

demni,ty for the war. But, as if the insult already perpe-
trated were not enough, on the 12th of October, 1831 the
Russian Envoy at Constantinople communicated to Mr. Man-
deville, the British Minister, and to the representatives of Fo-
reign Powers at the Porte, tha fact of certain regulations of
Russia excluding foreign merchant-ships from all the ports of
the eastern coast of the Black Sea, excepting Anapa and Re-
doute- Kale. Such then is the position arrogated by Russia at
the existing period ; such the manner in which she respects her
treaties; such the reply she furnishes to the sceptics who re-
gard her means of conquest as a fiction.
To persons about to visit India, we recommend an ar-
ticle by Miss Emma Roberts, on the very important sub-
ject of domestic economy in that country. It is the tenth
of a series, which, when completed, we trust to see pub-
lished in a separate form. We do not consider ourselves
competent to offer any opinion as to the justice of the Prince
of Oude's claims, and therefore we can only direct atten-
tion to the article upon this subject. The " Notes of the
Month" are scanty, owing to the non-arrival of the over-
land mails, but they are nevertheless selected and condensed
with industry and discrimination.