The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-08 00:00:00

SHOOTING THE MOON.

"An acquaintance of mine, who had been quartered
some months in the same town on the continent with
myself, came to England. I found him domiciled in a
second floor in London; he was then on half-pay, and
having no further means, bad placed his landlady so
long on no pay, that though, in the month of January,
she had stopped all issues of coals to him, he found his
apartments, in the common phrase, too hot 'to hold
him.' A. leather portmanteau contained all his kit.
This he knew the-sentry in the shop would not allow to
pass. So, one night, when the enemy were at mess,
alias supper, availing himself of a long cord brought for
the purpose, he quietly lowered his baggage from. the
window, which a friend, stationed as outpost, received.
Our soldier, then, did not beat, but made a silent re-
treat ; and, between the two friends, his necessaries were
conveyed somewhere in the neighbourhood of Covent
Garden, and a fair friend gave shelter to the enterprising
soldier, who, like an able general, lost none of the ma-
terial of war in the retreat. He shortly afterwards
married a rich widow, and honourably paid his land-
lady, greatly, no doubt, to her satisfaction, and, pro-
bably, no little to her surprise."
Another time lie tells us pleasantly enough of the
summary way in which a civil friend of his acted in
SETTLING A LONG BILL.
" An acquaintance showed me a most portentious-
looking bill that had been sent into him. Gad I said
I, it's a precious long one." "It is,' said my acquaint-
ance, ' but he'll find the time a precious deal longer
before he gets it.' He went abroad a day or two after-

wards." -
Or, take another instance, where our author re-
counts with charming gravity the repetition of the
famous

HINT TO AN IRISHMAN.
_ "One well known to most men about town, and, in-
deed, in meat other places, had, as his regular custom,
some little time since, exceeded his income by a goodly
number of hundreds ; consequently, somebody, or, in
sooth, many bodies, constantly suffered by it. He is,
in figurative language, frequently getting into the fire,
but as adroitly gets out of it. He is, is this way, a
veritable phoenix. I need hardly say it is about as dif-
ficult to get an interview with him as with a prime
minister, when either know anything is wanted of them.
However, a sturdy creditor did, by some ruse, get into
the house, and into the presence of him he sought. He
was politely offered a chair—for the person alluded to
is one of the most gentlemanly men in London. sturdy,
however, refused the offer in no courteous terms. "He
was determined to be heard ;" and, after pretty con-
siderable and lengthened abuse, he told his customer
he was ' a rascal, and he would expose him all over
London.' Our hero, had never moved a muscle of l'iis
face during all the volley fired at him ; but on the laot
observation, he quietly rose and said, :'My good fellow,'
you can tell London nothing about me that it does not
know. I dare say you are quite correct as to my being
a rascal ; but I have a particular dislike to being called
so.' He then, as cooly as he spoke, knocked his
visitor down. He rose ; the drawing-room door was
politely opened for him ; he took the hint at once, and
it, was well for him he did. This was certainly one way
of ' squaring an upleasant visit.' "
Squaring it, indeed, with the world, and—literally
—with a vengeance. Reminding one, in fact, of
the exemplary manner in which little Paul Dornbey
is described by his creator Mr. Dickens as having
behaved towards the world immediately after his
entrance into it. According to a notable sentence
on the first page of the memorable fiction, we &co"
given to understand—" Son" [of whom we hav e
learnt before that a few minutes after birth he ill
' carefully disposed on a low settee immediately in.
front of the fire and close to it, as if his constitu-
tion were analogous to that of a muffin, and it was
essential to toast him brown while he was very
new']—" Son, with his little fists curled up and
clenched, seemed, in his feeble way, to be squaring
at existence for having come upon him so unex-
pectedly." It is not thus, however, that Harry
Hieover would have us " square it" with " the
world," whether it comes upon us expectedly or
unexpectedly. Shortly before bringing his argu-
ment to a conclusion he gives us, as one of the pre-
cious axioms to carry about with us like an amulet
or a talisman, the holy words—
" Live in charity with all men."
Howbeit, one of these epigrammatic recommonds,
tions appears at page 277 in the oddest manner
imaginable, coming forth, as it does, from this par-
ticular volume : " Never give advice." And this
advice never to give advice—to add to the joke—
is italicised ! But then—Harry Hieover is a wag :
with all his wisdom he cannot be rid of his wag-
gery. Possibly to which circumstance we may
attribute the fact that in his most serious moments
he is never tiresome. It is certainly with him in
the shadow as an Author, as in all probability it is
with him in the substance as a Companion. You
are never bored by the grave look, becatioe you are
sure all the while the man's heart is stained by
his inextinguishable good humour. And so one
closes the little book thankful for its blending of
gay seriousness and sober merriment.

The World : How to Square it. By Harry Hie-
over. T. C. Newby.
Well—it has been done at last ! The mystery
has been solved. Not the contrivance of a certain
means for the discovery of the longitude. Not
perpetual motion. Not the Greek kalends. Not
the universal language. Not the elixir vitae. Not
the aurum potabile. Neither do we mean the
fabulous kingdom of Prester John—any more than
we allude to the imaginarycity of El Dcrado, which,
for that matter, might be regarded as having been
found at last, either in Melbourne or in San Fran-
cisco its all-sufficing representatives. No, we refer
to none of these things as mysteries which have
been explained. Our reference is plainly and
simply to the elucidation of what might have
seemed to the superficial the elucidation of a yet
greater difficulty, the solution of a yet more bewil-
dering problem, that, namely, of—the Quadrature
of the Circle. It has been done at last, we repeat.
The problem has been solved, the mystery has been
explained. The wizard is Harry Hieover. Here
we have it before us, reduced to a compass almost
small enough to go into a shell, as the saying is.
Certainly small enough to be packed away as the
toothsome kernel of a moderately sized cocoa-nut
shell, or as the sufficiently explosive entrails
of a literary bombshell—with the name of the
author neatly labelled on the title-page, " blazing
away" like the fuzee ! THE WonLD—that is the
circle (ample enough, in all conscience) selected for
illustration—and how to square it! There we have
1 the fact frankly and at once announced—the fact
The Young Voyageurs. By Captain Mayne Reid. of this marvellous and long-expected achievement.
Bogue. i
Surely Harry Hieover must be the long-talked-of
A charming sequel to the "Boy Hunters" brings 1
Coming Man—Come at last. Hitherto we have been
us into communion once more with our old young i
impressed by the writings of our author with the
favourites—Basil, Lucien, Francois ! Heartily
belief that he knows a great deal about Horses.
welcome are they—the stripling Nimrods of North
His latest effusion, the book before us, published
America : welcome for their author and for them-
by Mr. Newby, conducts us irresistibly to the con-
selves. Adventurous as they were found to be
elusion—that, after all, he knows nearly as much
throughout the whole of their well-remembered
about Man. As full as an egg is of meat, this little
search after the White Buffalo, in the present
volume is of his experiences. Quite as much as the
narrative of their fortunes they will prove on era- Justice of Jacques in "As You Like it," it is—
mination to have been yet more so. It will be
borne in recollection by the reader of the former "Full of wise saws and modern instances."
story that among all the mazes of its incidents the Altogethernd common sense, flavoured with an agree-
the work appears to have been dictated
b
writer contrived to scatter many delightful illus- sou
trations of the fauna and flora of the temperate aby le tincture of the humorous. Harry Hieover
undertakes, through its pages, to set all sorts and
Hemisphere. "In doing this, however," as the
classes of readers right—if they will only listen
Preface here reminds us, "marry .animls, and par- to him—with theirneighbours and with themselves.
ocularly that interesting class known as the fur- He has a word for every one—for the rich as well THE INDIA, CHINA., AND AUSTRALIAN liec.Ate was
bearing animals, could not be introduced. without as for the poor, for the busy man struggling against despatched from the General Post•office on Satorday in
bringing the mountain to Mahomet." It is the indigence, and for the indolent man blessed or 22 omnibuses, and from the Waterloo Station i.R seven
author's own acknowledgment- Recognising the cursed, as the case may be, with a competence. He railway
_waggons. It contained nearly 600 boxes,
boxes were for India and China, and nearly 460 for
importance of the omission, he determined at once administers each little bolus of counsel, moreover/ .b Kt b gs, and w. eighed about 25 toes ; 140 of the
to obviate the difficulty by the exceedingly simple, agreeably and not repulsively—less like a pill than boxes
and very natural, and most obvious device of taking like a sweetmeat. He does not force yfou i to
CURIOUS CASE OF KNIGHTHOOD.—Sir Samuel 13ig-
Mahomet to the mountain. Malionaet, for the tening to him by talking on with the. voci erounsperti-
nold, who was knighted by her Maesty at the levee ma
nonce, being represented by the three sons of the tacit of a bore. But, instead of this he decoys you
Wednesday, met the corporation of Norwich (of which
old Colonel of Louisiana. Alas ! that we should by the button-hole. He gossipsaran, ther than lectures.
dropswhie your heart city he is mayor) on Friday, and narrated the somewhat%
have to say formerly of Louisiana, for the brave He trolls you off an anecdote,
e d in a little of singular circumstances under which he obtained the
veteran has gone quietly to his fathers iu the is opened in laughing at it h
wisdom— balm for social honour of knighthood. It appears that he was COin-
interim and Hugot, too, the faithful ex-chasseur, the oil of his homely d
forwiall the hurts aci • missioned by the corporation of which he is the head to
faithful' even in death, has followed his beloved bruises, an anodyne . acquired in convey to her Majesty an address on the subject of the
the W
buffetangs of orld, "Tae
master to the grave, attending even across the the rubs and
to Square it 1 H ?had
boundaries of the tomb the gentle emigre on his World"—and How
Turn over his OW , Harry the fullest confidence in the course her Majesty
last removal—this time, however, a removal the Hieover tells you.
,P, eto.
reverse of expatriation. But Marengo, the blood- pages and you
learn,
not 30 much by dry argument M.P., his card of presentation bearing the words The
and practical illustration. the address, her
hound with the cross of a mastiff, stilFsurvives, and as by brief Listen to Mayor of Norwich." After receiving ~
little scraps of advice—hints, some Majesty inquired the mayor's name. On learn'
ing IL,
his trio of youthful owners, Basil, Lucien, Fran- his --of them, f
full
cois, are still together. And so together they startof sly c. •
Here is
on a new and more daring expedition. Upon an Etrra
Bois, he has noderstruck,
malice either, even when his remarks unexpectedly conferred upon
he says, with the honour so . .
this they are compelled, nevertheless, to enter only might seem
to savour most of the malicious : him. The citizens of Norwich are highly pleased vitta
after having parted with the poor mule Jeannette. ex. gr., after the circumstance, which they regard as a graceful tom'
urging elderly
Attended merely by the dog Marengo they set out gentlemen not to dance
s olkas and waltzes • ptiment to their ancient city. s Areater
upon their journey—a journey, as we are told at 1?
he adds : with young ladies of eighteen, TWO PERSONS DROWNED IN THE THAME •
drowned in the
the outset, long, toilsome, and perilous. Tao da •,y a gentlemanly-looking man was
ut of the
" I et got o
Colonel being dead, Hugot being dead, and I , not your anger rise, my hearts of oak, at what T; lames at Shadwell, The body was
unknown, the de-
Jeannette being sold, the Boy Hunters have never-
onsea fast ofyou ; you are not alluded to by youth but by w 3.ter, but life was exti,nct,
1131
edienagd-house to be owned.
theless one other besides their black-muzzled com-o \Ting in your wake, and who, if 'he went c( ased was removed to
Thebhadw
of that for a `weight body is that of a DWI
panion : Norman—a cousin—the only son for age plate,' would not have to carry al id also for an inques
a feather •tt: clad in black Oxonian coat and
far-off uncle of theirs, iv. quest of whom they are
of
you
bears
so pray take it in good part, for what I say al 3out 35, tall and
blacksts°•':tin waistcoat. The dead body of
going, when the book opens, to travel through all oat my hapless self so far as pretensions tr ousers, an
aout '5O, respectably clad in black, was
go, thou l
the wild regions of the Bed River, havg in order
pelk.' gmi peorlidapi:inenodt aistiro
John Stevenson,
' for I don't atam tlig,tehneroumtat:
:f the Thams at Loudon-bridge, and re.
to get thither, first of all to traverse the summer b:yl o.ift. Irish
n't 3 Ted to the vaults of Stets:gnus Church, to be own
melody renown,y used to' say latteirl
prairies of the South, and to pass the mighty good legs, but they won't walk ;' 313'0', I nytake'esno‘ doubt,e very
au; d for an inquest.
forests of the Mississippi. A. superintendent or are mine, admirable legs—they do as well on horseback. HEALTH OF VIE
wi
ll doubtless MILITARY FORCE IN Tile
" factor" of the Hudson's Bay Company, this re- ic: inc.—As our readers v.tillr doubtless be anxious to lea
as ever, really will walk, and occasionally make an at- ct of health &c
motely situated uncle of the Boy Bunters [a Scotch- tempt at a run ; but I have a faint it'-• ones how our troops far in
tespe
..
~ f ~ r pular-
- . 2'. younger from time to time, o pubush such in orma ton
man who had married the Colonels sister, Corsica would do better in a dance ; but this is no rule for I i°Se,
be able to obtain from sources on which implicit
having therety yielded for once a good wife to a others to go by—that is, if they can go." •we may
as they knew, reliance may be placed. April 18.—The sick at Scutari
wandering Highlander] lived, - i
' this day amount to 53, the strength of the garrison being
appointed post hard by the shores of the Arctic trations are not given to us simply upon hearsay. five regiments, or about 4,200 men ;no fevers ; a large
Sea—a spot to attain which they would have to If he is talking of anything that may seem to re- proportion of the cases local. April 19.—The barrack and
make a canoe voyage across the American Conti- quire such an elucidatory accompaniment he always ital accommodation at Scutari is on a large scale,
tent 1 A cruise of many thousands of miles in has some pat reminiscence just apt to the matter and the men, for the present, well lodged and healthy.
length, equivalent in length, indeed, to a trip across under consideration : " Walking throughthe street s April 20.—The battalion (Rifie Brigade) is
exceediegly
the Atlantic; the lakes andrivers of that wonderful the other day," &c., or " calling upon a friend las t healthy, what diseases there are being unimPortant"
region being, in fact, the highway of their country night," ex., or "an acquaintance of mine Isom A MediCa Tinto and Gazette.

White's Natural Idistory of Selborne. Edited by
the Rev. J. G. Wood. illustrated. George
Routledge and Co.
There is no interruption to the enterprise of Mr..
Routledge. It is not enough that he is pouring
from the press, month after month, week after
week, almost day after day, a profusion of popular •
works of a most miscellaneous character—accessible
to we had almost said the poorest, certainly to
among the poorest of our railway travellers. Not
contented with adding to this a cheap edition
of our English Poets, published periodically—and
a series of fictions, both reprints and originals
—novels and romances, some of them written by
authors as celebrated as Dickens and Bulwer Lyt-
ton. Not satisfied, we say, with all this, the spe-
culative and munificent firm headed by Mr. Rout-
ledge, is continually affording the communiry, from
time to time, the opportunity of procuring' from
the book-stalls at the principal railway station for
two or three of the smaller coins of the really one
of those renowned works which have come long
since to be regarded as among the popular classics
of our literature. Conspicuous among this mivit
be ranked the book mentioned at the head of this
notice, of which the present issue constitutes an
elegant edition, adorned with a profusion of appro-
priate woodcuts by way of scattering among the text
both illustration and embellishment. Everyb.odl
of even moderate education, has heard of " Wh!te 0
History of Selborne "—that most precious little
manual of the English naturalist. It is sc.arce.l7'
necessary to remind those that the production is,
in all essential respects, the work of a life, the work
of that calm, contemplative, and observan. t life of.
7nfiatyiveaersv,ilplasa:eedobfystehibeoßernev:
author havina been born on the 18th of July,
iGnilubearrat Wpshhtire.te: isiohurts
1720, and havg died on the 26th of June, 1796,
in that peaceful little village, the fauna and fora
of which he has so delightfully celebrated in this
collection of Epistles,. forty-four addressed to
Thomas Pennant, and sixty-five to the Hon. Daines
Barrington. We doubt not that this excellent re-
issue of "White's History of Selborne," edited, by
the way, by the Rev. J. G. Wood, with remark-
able ability, will be accepted as a valuable anve
d
welcome boon by not a few of the more _reflecti
readers among our intelligent population..