The Sun.
London, England, 1838-07-31 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

BRITISH AND POP.E.ION REVIEW. No. XIII.
Taylor, London, I,ti;

The besetting decct of this Number is d:ttt its articles
are too long. That, in particular, on the " Custody of
Infants' Bill" is immeasurably tedious—indeed sufficient to
fill a volume ; and as the subject has now for the present
passed away from the public mind, not. to be revived till
next Session, and perhaps not then, we cannot but think
that it is a flagrant error of judgment to discuss it at such
length. The Reviewer finds all sorts of faults with this
Bill ; sees in it the germ of all that is unconstitutional and
immoral ; attacks Sergeant Talfourd in no measured tcrms
for having presumed to bring forward such a measure ; and
hints pretty significantly that under no possible circum-
stances, is it ever likely, as at present drius n up, to pass
into law. If so, why not leave it to its fate ? Why pour
forth a whole volume of abuse on a measure which is des-
tined never to have the opportunity of becoming mischie‘-
ous ? We have read the Reviewer's diatribe on this sub-
ject with some attention, but have neither been persuaded
by his argument, nor carried away by his zeal. He is
evidently in such a passion throughout his article, that with-
out knowing much of the merits of the case, we feel
strongly tempted to believe that he is altogether in the
wrong—and not only this, but that he has himself some
misgivings of the sort. " Christian and Pagan Architec-
ture " is a notice of an elaborate work by the late Mr.
Hope, and which, if we remember rightly, was reviewed in
the two great Quarterly periodicals some two or three
years since. The account of the rise and progress of the
classic Schools of Architecture is very neatly and succinctly
given, and in a true con amore spirit. The three principal
forms are pertinently described as follows :—" If the Doric
style had the expression of a great and grave man stead-
fastly employed on some weighty business, the lonic may
be imagined to represent the graces of a lovely woman, who
refuses not to heighten by ornament the delicacy cf her
light figure. In after times, when the two great races had
lost much of their distinctness, and the smaller states had
been broken down and amalgamated into larger masses, a
third order came into vogue, resulting from a combination
of something of the strength and size of the first, with the
luxuriant decorations of the second ; and such was the Co-
rinthian." The Reviewer, after tracing the progress of,
what he somewhat vaguely p,alls, " Christian architecture,"
winds up with speculations on the future improvements
that Englishmen may make in this science, observing—for
it is plain to see that he is something of an Optimist—
" already we think we can trace some germs of a style that
may develope the true Christian loftiness and sublimity in a
natural and balanced organisation." Where are these much-
to-be-desiderated germs ? Not in the new buildings of
Regent-street ; not in the dandy new Churches that start
up, day after day, like mushrooms, in and about the metro-
polis. There arc certainly a few redeeming points in the
Post Office, and a faint plea may be put in for the Custom
House ; but when we come to speak of national architee.
ture—of a science that is to make England an authority
with after-times—it cannot be denied that we are glaringly,
we might almost add, hopelessly, deficient. Still, though
wanting as a people, in the true sense of architectural
grandeur, we have every reason to be satisfied ; for we
have achieved triumphs " above all Greek, above all
Roman fame." The steam-engine is ours ; the rail-road is
ours ; and this last alone may make the famed Appian and
Flaminian Ways of Rome hide their diminished heads.
Ours, too, is that striking invention, the Suspension
Bridge ; and we may point to the master-piece of Telford
hung from sea to sea, as an achievement in art which even
the Rhodian Colossus never surpassed. " The Rise and
Fall of Athens" is a notice of Mr. Bulwer's late publication
on this subject. We cannot but think that that gentleman
is hardly dealt with, especially in the remarks on his trans-
lations from the Greek dramatists, which combine poetic
grace with all requisite fidelity, in no ordinary degree. To
translate, is not to render literally, line for line, and word
for word, as old Trapp did with Virgil, and a myriad of
scholastic pedants have done with Horace ; but to
impart the veritable spirit and character—the genuine
racy flavour of the original text—as we find it
imparted in Cowley's (not Moore's) Anacreon ; in
Chapinan's Homer ; and, coming down to modern times,
in Shelley's splendid fragment of Faustus. This Mr.
Bulwer has done ; and if here and there he has misappre-
hended the meaning of some unimportant epithet in
Sophocles, why all we shall say is, that he is by no
means qualified to become " a word-catcher" and
" live on syllables." With the Reviewer's observations on
Mitford we wholly agree, and only regret that he did not
urge his objections with more emphasis. If comprehensive-
ness blended with acuteness of mind ; high and rare scholar-
ship ; equanimity of temper ; grace and dignity of style ; and,
aboveall,aready power of sympathizing with the g reat and
good ofpast ages—if these qualities be necessary to constitute
an historian ; then is Mitford not only a bad one, but one of
the worst that ever lived. His learning was of the dryest
and most barren kind, inducing no great results ; kindling
no enlarged thoughts or emotions ; he wrote about
republicans and their institutions in the most jaundiced
spirit of Toryism ; and discussed the character of Demos-
thenes, in just the same candid style that some red-hot Con-
servative would discuss the character of Lord Brougham.
As for his style, it is uniformly heavy and inelegant ; here
affecting terseness, and there defaced with cumbrous and un-
meaning epithets. " The City of the Sultan" passes a just
censure on the lavish tropes and metaphors that dazzle or be-
wilder one in every page of Miss Pardoe's volume. " Lower
Canada" is an article in which much useful research is
manifested. The remaining notices are of the usual calibre.