The Sun.
London, England, 1831-11-10 00:00:00

LITERATURt.

TOUR IN ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND
PRANCE.—Two VoLs.
ST A GERMAN PRINCE..—LONbON, issiL
The magical words " By a German Prince,"
will render this *orlc popular, independently of
any other recommendation it may possess.
Princes are always so clever, so handsome, so
brilliant ; every thing they say is said with such
grace, every thing they write is written with such
spirit, that it is impossible not to be delighted
with them. This, as in the days of Pope, when
that great satirist and shrewd man of the world,
exclaimed—
., What woeful stuff this madrigal would tic
In some starved, hacknied.soinieteer or me,
But let a Lord once iwn the happy lines,
How the wit brightens, how the style refines !
Wfo7C. his sacred name flies every fault,
And each exalted stanza teems with thought,"

is still the opinion of the majority of our Eng-
lish readers. The spell of nobility has indeed
lost something of its former magical influence ;
but even yet the title of Lord, and above all,
Prince, prefixed to a work—no matter whether
such work be as light as a feather, or as heavy as
the national debt—is nearly, if not quite, suffi-
cient to insure it a prompt circulation. But the
present volumes need no such potent recom-
mendation. They have talent enough to enable
them to make their own way with the public.
They are uncommonly sprightly, full of just ob-
servation, and, singularly enough, utterly devoid
of any undue aristocratical bias. Prince Puckler
Muskau, to whom we understand we are in-
debted for them, writes not like a Prince, but a
citizen of the world ; he does not carry his patent
of nobility about with him in his pocket, by way
of advertising his claims to general astonishment
and admiration, but modestly sinks his preten-
sions, and trusts for effect to his recommenda-
tions as a man of talent and observation. The
portions of the Prince's travels with which we
are most pleased, and with which the greatest
pains have evidently been taken, are those re-
lating to Ireland. The Prince here seems to
have imbibed no slight share of the lively Hi-
bernian character ; to have entered into the
humours of Donnybrook fair as completely as
if he were the owner of a booth there ; and to
have visited and talked with O'Connell at his
romantic residence at Derrinane, in the true
spirit of an Irish repealer. His descriptions of
North Wales arc scanty, and to our minds un-
satisfactory. He talks of having ascended
Snowdon, and having descended again to the
charming little inn at its foot, without expe-
riencing fatigue. Now, this, we beg leave to
tell the Prince, is utterly impossible. The ascent
of Snowdon is no joke, but a thing to be re-
tnembered in the joints and muscles for at least
a week afterwards. He talks too of being able
to count (as it was a clear day) twenty lakes
from the summit of the mountain ; now the very
first thing the guides point out to your attention
on gaining the ascent, is the sight of upwards of
thirty distinct lakes, glittering like sheets of
silver in the sun beams. The author could
scarcely have forgotten this, had he really
ascended the mountain. This is the only ob-
jection we have to make to the work, which, as
a whole, is admirably written, and digested, and
has even called forth the eulogiutn of the illus-
trious Goethe. This sanction alone, we might
almost say, is a sufficient passport to immortality.

MEMOIRS OF THE LATE WAR.
LONDON. 1831.

hatever may have been the fate of former
campaigns, it is clear that the memorable cam-
paign in Spain and Portugal, under the direction
of the Duke of Wellington, will stand no chance
of being consigned to oblivion for want of some
adequate military historian to hand it down to
posterity. If there be one subject more than
another that has been discussed—described—
commented on, now in a flattering, now in an
adverse spirit, the late Peninsular campaign is
that one. It has been brought before the public
in the form of pamphlets—quartos—octavos—
duodecimos, and newspaper discussions, and we
may add, in each and every shape, has proved
most attractive reading. Among the most en-
tertaining volumes that,have yet been produced
on the subject, we may mention those now
before us, by the Earl of Munster and Captain
Cooke. Both were actively engaged in the
scenes which they have undertaken to depict, both
distinguished themselves by their feats of skill
and gallantry. That portion of the present
volumes which comprises the personal narrative
of the Earl of Munster has already appeared in
successive numbers of the " United Service
Journal," but being considered (as it undoubt-
edly is) worthy of being preserved in a less
perishable form, has been now for the first time
republished. The great merits of the work are
_its simplicity—its. conciseness—and its tempe-
rate, but inquisitive character. No statements
are hazarded on mere hear-say, no on dits are
admitted ; nothing. is set down but what can be
securely relied on. It might- have been easy,
with less expenditure of time and thought, to
have produced a more dramatic, and conse-
quently a more taking history ; but the Earl of
:Munster has bad the good sense to
.sacrifice
effect 'to truth. This volume therefore abounds
in valuable materials for the future historian.

The East India Company's ships Waterloo,
Duke of York, and Inglis, arrived in Anjeer-roads, the
former on the 196, and the two latter on the .4th of July.
The requisition of the high Sheriff to con-
vene a county meeting, for the purpose of of the
fre,.holders of Norfolk an opportunity of expressing their
confidence in the King's Ministers, and at the same time
to adopt such measures as may be deemed expedient to
forward the great cause of Parliamentary Reform, has
been complied with, and Saturday se'nnight is the day
fixed fur this public demonstration of the feeling of the
county. The requisition is signed more numerously, and
by persons of greater weight and influence, than any we
ever recollect to have seen. It is headed by the Duke of
Noitrenx, Earl Marshal of England, by eight Noblemen,
and five Baronets, by both the County Members, and up-
wards of 1,000 freeholders and occupiers, comprising a
great proportion of the largest owners and occupiers of
land in the county. Will the 'Tories dare to say, after
this, that there is a re-action in Norfolk, and that the
agriculturists are indifferent to the question of Reform ?
011 yes, after what they have said they will say any thing,
and we should not be at all surprised to see this meeting
designated by .lohn Bull or the Standard, as a hole-and-
corner meeting, got up by a few revolutionary radicals,
who, having no stake in the country, are doing all they
can to subvert its institutions and pull down its established
• chureh.—East Anglian.