The Sun.
London, England, 1853-11-03 00:00:00

serted, and three times ran away from prison ; at
last he returned to his native village, where he met
with an old fellow-clerk of his youth, who had
just returned from a term of transportation, to
which he had been sentenced for forgery. Not
content with all their past errors, these two
worthies no sooner met than they resolved
on crowning their atrocities by murder. Ac-
cordingly they attacked and killed a man then
returning home with money. They were unwise
enough to bury the body in a new bridge that was
then being built. Sixteen years afterwards the
waters overflowed in a storm and destroyed the
bridge. The body was discovered in the ruins. A
trial was arranged, at which a not very learned
judge decided in favour of the guilty party, and
the affair was left in mystery. On his death-bed
the hero of this sketch sent for a clergyman, but
he dared not divulge the fatal secret while his fel-
low in guilt was still alive. Some years after, this
clergyman received a visit from a strange female,
who gave a packet into his hands containing the
awful events referred to. Considerable ingenuity
is displayed in the arrangement of this story, but
it may be questioned whether the author's talents
could not have been better employedc, " Queer
People" is a very amusing sketch • it is divided
into sections of " People who ought know, very
Queer People, and People who will think about it."
" Nicholas Flamer is continued. For the first
time for many months the " Confederates" is ab-
sent.

Dublin University.—There is an interesting bio-
graphy in this number of Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of
Lucan, who was colonel of the Life Guards to
James the Second, Commander-in-Chief of the
Forces in Ireland, and afterwards general officer
in the French service. He died at the battle of
Landen ; it is remarked that it was a soldier's
death on a glorious and memorable field, but that
it would have been looked back to with less regret
if he had been permitted to fall at the head of his
own Irish Brigade. In conclusion, it is said, "Of
Patrick Sarsfield's busy life very few details can
be gleaned from authentic sources. He was a man
of action rather than a man of letters, more fitted
for the field than the bureau. It is even unknown
where he was buried, or if any monument was
erected to his memory ; but his name perpetuates
itself, and requires no sculptured marble, nor elabo-
rate epitaph, to keep it fresh and glowing in the
memories of his countrymen." "Narrative of an
Excursion to the Limbos, in Spiritual Com-
pany," by the author of " The Bachelor of the
Albany," is a very amusing sketch, in which
all the ephemeral wonders of the day are sup-
posed to be consigned to the limbo of failures,
Table-moving, Mesmerism, Quackery, French
Constitutions, Annual • Parliaments, &c. •" Sir
Jasper Carew" is continued in three chapters.
" Secret Service" is a very mysterious one, in
which the hero overhears some plot against him by
two strangers.. The second is called "Discoveries,"
in which he revisits his native village, and finds all
his friends departed. The " Ordeal" is the descrip-
tion of Margot's entrance into the world, previous
to becoming a nun, and renouncing its pomps for
ever. Instead of returning, however, to the shade'
'
of the cloister, she fled ts;the glare of the stage.
In "Rhymes for November," there are some good
verses. Some entitled " The Oaks of Gleneigh" are
here given :

Oh ! think of the days when the crags hoary masses
Bent o'er oar green forest in Houra's wild passes,
When the grey wolf was king of the forest and mountain,
And the red deer ran free by the blue torrent's shore,
When the prey scarcely rested at eve by the fountain,
Swept on by the spear of the wild creachatiore !
'Twas a brave time—a wild time—the hills seem to mourn
Till the splendour of glade and of forest return ;
Yet is not their splendour as wild and as shaggy,
Where the huge blasted roots of that forest remain,
Wide spread o'er each deep cave and precipice craggy,
Sending scions of strength to the blue sky again?
Afar where Molanna in thunder is flowing,
Afar in Gloneigh are these strong scions growing—
They spring from the stream, and they tower from the
ledges
Of the, huge rocks which frown o'er that wild fairy
dell :
Like young guardian giants encircling the edges
Of the deep silent pool, and the moss-wreathed well.
How thick in the Summer their green leaves were shining!
How sere and how scattered at Autumn's declining !
But the wild hills shall see them far greener than ever,
When Winter hath fled from the bright looks of May.
Ah ! thus should Adversity's children endeavour
To breast the rude blasts, like the oaks of Gleneigh !

Colburn's United Service.—The United Service
opens with an article on " The Turkish Crisis." A
paper on the recently published "Journals and
Correspondence of Sir Harry Calvert" is the next
that engages attention. " The State of Austria"
and " The Organisation of the Russian Army" are
on' subjects of similar interest. " A Treatise on
Small Arms" is continued, and also the " Extracts
from the Journals of the late Major Macready."
The "Editor's Portfolio" touches on two points of
general interest—the Arctic Expedition, and the
Peace Incendiaries. The following extract is from
the first paper, and ably describes the critical posi-
tion of Russia :

"However tempting may be the prize—and to be
enthroned on the Golden Horn, with one foot in Europe
and the other in Asia, is enough to turn the head even
of the Czar of all the Russias—still it cannot be denied
that his present position is one of great peril ; a single move
in a wrong direction may be productive of the most fatal
disasters ; the contingency even might arise—which
should fall, Russia or Turkey ? for, notwithstanding his
clever government may have succeeded in impressing
the world with a belief in the great strength and vast
resources of the Russian empire and security from attack,

it contains within itself all the elements of a dangerous
conflagration. Independently of Poland, which would
hail even the Sultan as a deliverer, the whole of the
numerous population inhabiting the vast territory ex-
tending from the Baltic to the Khirgis Steppe, are dis-
contented with his rule ; to say nothing of the Cossacks,
the Tartars of the Crimea, and numerous other powerful
tribes on the Black Sea and elsewhere, whose nationali-
ties have been absorbed in his unwieldy empire, and who
would most assuredly, in the event of his armies receiv-
ing a check, rise and assert their independence ' • while,
at same time, we might expect to hear of at least a
hundred thousand of those hardy mountaineers of the
Caucasus, the Circassians and the Lesghians, with their
allies the Tartars and the Persians, carrying fire and
sword into the heart of his empire. Besides, to add to
his difficulties, and to those of his allies, the tide of de-
mocracy would roll onward from the plains of Moldavia,
Wallachia, and Bessarabia, to Hungary and Croatia, and
from thence spread into Austria, Germany, and -Italy,
overwhelming in its progress the landmarks of kingdoms,
thrones which have stood for centuries, and all the institu-
tions which have bound society together since the dawn
of civilisation."

Tait's Edinburgh Magazine.—The first article
in Tait's is the most superior. It is the last of the
series of essays on " A Triad of great Poets, their
Temperaments, Genius, and Art." Milton, Dante,
and Aschylus are sufficiently suggestive subjects.
The following fine passage is the conclusion :

" The free-will and fallibility of mankind—there lies
the material of our three grand religious poets. They
strove to mould this primal subject in the form of the
sacred mythology of their churches, already popular
with reflecting and pious minds. They chose different
sides of it for illustration. Milton ascended to the
source of that sad contradiction, between the actual de-
gradation and the noble destiny of our race, in

' That forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world and all our woe ;
lEschylus limited himself to exemplifying the self-in I
flicted vengeance of excessive passions, and the earthly
punishment of the wicked, by the whetted knife of Fate,
and the Fury, with dark-bosomed ire;' Dante endea-
voured to expand the process of retribution throughout
three spiritual worlds, and to show the eternal conse-
quences, as well as the intrinsic character, of all the
deeds done in the body, whether they be good or bad.
"We have finished. The kinship of the great Poets,
whose names have been often mentioned together, has
been clearly made out. The line that we predicated,
drawn from the centre of their hearts, and predominating
in the artistic course of their genius, depends on their
single-minded consistency in the pursuit of a fixed moral
aim. They dealt truly with the realities of human life,
and did not evade its difficulties. They made use of
' pity and terror' to 'purge the heart' of the world with
the medicine of tragedy. It was among the mountains,
and by the plaintive sea, that we began to study them
in this comparison. The hills and the waves, the clouds
and stars—these invariable objects of poetical invocation
—are mighty and sublime ; but there was, in the books
we carried with us in the heart we carried with us, that
knoweth its own bitterness and joy, the strife of its own
hopes and anxieties, and its own insatiable wishes, a
power beyond this things on earth, of the ocean and the
sky • a moving interest, an inestimable importance.
And, if we could recal, in 'person, these victorious souls
—if we could meet the large eyes of lEschylus gazing
' at the fiery eruption of Etna which he saw, thinking
how the huge bulk of a flame-spitting Titan lay crushed
beneath the tortured mountain—if we could walk on the
lonely Appenine paths with Dante, or enter into the
sublime darkness of Milton—we would not question
them of scenery or natural phenomena. No ; taught
by these masters of the knowledge of life, we would learn
what it behoves ourselves to do and to suffer ; we would
receive, across the shifting ages, the agreement of their
testimony to God, virtue, and immortality.
" Priest and People" continues with diminished
interest. The "Darien Canal," and the " Maine
Law" will attract the learned. The " Alderman
and his Visitor," a sketch, is meant to show that
by neglecting the health and well-being of the poor
around them, the rich bring disease and death to
their own hearths. The remainder of the contents
is unimportant.

Th 3 Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Re-
view.—The first article in this number is entitled
" Sir Walter Raleigh at Sherborne:! It commences
the account of the dispute that arose between
Raleigh and John Meere, whom he had appointed
overseer to his newly-acquired property, It ap-