The Sun.
London, England, 1836-02-15 00:00:00

LITERATURE

SKETCHES BY "BOZ." 2 Vols.
.3facrone, London. 1836.
The majority of these " Sketches" have already ap-
peared in the columns of an Evening Contemporary,
and some few of them in the Monthly %'.lttgazine ; and
as they were uniformly well recei';ed, the author has
very properly consented to theic republication. They
evince great powers of obsuivation, and fidelity of de-
scription, combined with a humour which, though
pushed occasionally to the verge of caricature, is, on
the whole, full of promise. But their principal merit
is their matter-o F.-fastness, and the strict, literal way in
which they ad.liere to nature. The characters are
not
idealities, but have all the " mark and likelihood"—
especially the admirable one •of Long Dumps, the
splenetic old bachelor—of set portraits. Two more
amusing vo!umes in their way have not appeared this
season, and we have litt.),e or no doubt that they will
grow rapidly into f:„vour with country readers, who
must naturally fee!, a curiosity to read about the oddi-
ties which art:, to be met with, in such abundance,
among the middle and lower classes of metropolitan
his
The work is illustrated by Cruickshank, in
nis b.cst manner. We subjoin a pleasing extract from
an 'article entitled " Hackney Coach Stands :"
" What an interesting book a hackney-coach might produce,
if it could carry as much in its head as it does in its body !
The autobiography of a broken-down hackney-coach would
surely be as amusing as the autobiography of a broken-down
hacknied dramatist ; and it might tell as much of its travels
with the pole, as others have of their expeditions to it. How
Many stories might be related of the different people it had
conveyed on matters of business or profit—pleasure or pain
And how many melancholy tales the same people at different
periods ! The country-girl---,:ne showy, over-dressed woman_
the drunken prostitute !—t'ne raw apprentice—the dissipated
spendthrift—the thief !
" Talk of cabs ! Cabs are all very well in cases of expedi-
tion ; when it's a matter of neck or nothing—life or death_
Your temporary home or your long one. But, besides a cab's
lacking that gravity of deportment which so peculiarly distin-
guishes a bqckney-coach, let it never be forgotten that a cab
is a thing of yesterday, and that he never was anything better.
A hae%ney-cab has always been a hackney-cab from his first
entry into public life, whereas a hackney-coach is a remnant of
Past gentility--a victim to fashion—a hanger-on of an old
English family, wearing their arms, and, in days of yore,
escorted by men wearing their livery—stripped of his finery,
and thrown upon the world, like a once-smart footman when
be is no longer sufficiently juvenile for his office—progressing
lower and lower in the 'scale of four-wheeled degradation, until
at last it comes to—a stand .1"
R.

'EPORT of -MR. GIBBS, CIVIL ENGINEER,
Upon the SEVERAL PROPOSED LINES for a
BRIGHTON RAILWAY.
:London : Smith, Elder, and Co. 1836.
The readers of this journal will at once See the
Justice of our abstaining from all comment upon the
relati,„„uperiority of any of the proposed lines of road
bet`ween London and Brighton. We are the advo-
bates of the principle of rail-roads ; but to the directors
of the several Companies, and to Parliament, we leave
the task of deciding upon the merits of particular plans,
every one of which may have advantages peculiar to itself,
and of which we may want time or inclination to in-
form ourselves. What we look to is the public good ;
and we have always found that that is best promoted
by allowing enterprising speculators the greatest pos-
sible latitude in the selection of the means wherewith
to accomplish any great national object. The inte-
rests of the Directors themselves are so interwoven
With those of the public, that there exists not the
aliglltest necessity for any appeal to them on the score
°f general convenience. At the same time we highly
approve of the principles of the Report before us ; and
the execution is exceedingly creditable to the talents
of Mr. Gibbs. The map which accompanies the Re-
Port is well executed.

Emoirts OF DON MANUEL DE GODOY,
Prince of the Peace. TVritten by Himself,
In Two Volumes.
London, R. Bentley. 1836.
This is a defence of the Minister—we had expected
a life of the man. Hence a disappointment which all
will experience, who, like us, prefer the anatomy of his-
tory to the correctest delineation of its general outline.
The object of these Memoirs is not to put the world in
possession of the manners of the Court of Charles IV.
---of the nature of those services which procured for
the Prince of the Peace the first notice of the Sovereign
of Spain—of the means whereby the Minister con-
trived to retain the influence which he acquired over
the King's mind—of the tastes, habits, pursuits, and
amusements of the Royal Family—of the Prince's own
Private friendships, intrigues, rivalries, and jealousies--
or of the circumstances under which the King deter-
mined upon giving him a daughter of Spain in mar-
l'iage. In fact, the Prince treats of nothing in his
Memoirs which is not now a matter of history—
his conduct as Prime Minister of Charles the
'e•urth. The reason of his previous silence,
45 the defender of himself against the aspersions which
had been cast upon his public and private character,
by General Foy, M. De Pradt, Escoiquiz, Napier,
and many other historians of the time in which he
uireeted the councils of Spain, is very satisfactorily
accounted for in the first chapter of this work. He
:114(1 made known to Charles IV. in May, 1808, his
lietention of defending his Majesty by publishing the
istarY of thc intrigues which led to the abdication at
tiav
if,'rie-; but the Ex-King positively forbade it during
a':vn life and that of Ferdinand ; which, as Godoy
several years older than the Prince of the Asturias,
:has tantamount to a command not to write at all. But
Prince of the Peace lived to see every obstacle to
18 Public defence' removed, without violating the pledge
the
from him by the fallen Monarch ; so that to
vlet circumstance of the premature death of Ferdinand
4,1.! are we indebted for these Memoirs.
th it is rather remarkable that Godoy, throughout
these volumes, never once alludes to Southey's " His-
ery of the Peninsular War--a work which contains
IMarber of the gravest charges against the Prince of
l,„1 Peace that. could be prefered against the worst
'Mt
of the most licentious court, in Europe. It
8 true that the several charges advanced by Southey
b4re inaticed, and those of a public character are declared
(r 3: the Prince and his apologist, Lieut.-Colonel D'Es-
nard, to be totally groundless ; but no reference
e
whateverB is made to the history of the Laurent. As
f ("dhey's work includes the whole of the charges pre-
against the Prince of the Peace by the histo-
raeng ,se
h Spain, France, and England, we shall quote
- passage
" Don Manuel de Godov, Duke of Alacudia, and
rinee of the Peace, was at this time (1807) Minister
PlSPain- He was an upstart, who, because he had
owen the Queen's paramour, had attained the bighes
ingratiated
in the State, and by whatever qualities he had
agratiated himself with the King, possessed his con-
fidence, and even his friendship. There was no
JShe,lousy in the Queen's attachment to this minion ;
gave him one of the Royal family in marriage,
atr_t the private life of the favourite continued to be as
infamous as the means whereby he had risen. It is
41.'41d that there was no way
nti so certain to obtain pro-
on as by pandering to his vices ; and that wives,
sisters, and daughters, were offered him as the price of
Preferment in a manner more shameless than had ever
t before been witnessed in a Christian country. eel,
tatri it is, that the morals of the Spanish Court were
the last degree depraved, and that this depravity
affected all within its sphere like a contagion. He
.s`4l.l'.aauy
Was rapacious as well as sensual ; but as his sen-
was amply fed by the creatures who surrounded
so was his avarice gratified by the prodigal favour
of the Crown, and Godoy had nothing to desire be-
)'ond the continuance of the authority which he en-

joyed. The cruel part of his conduct ruhst be ascribed
to that instinctive dread of *i.sdotu and hatred of virtue
which such iiieti necessarily feel in their unnatural
elevation."

The first charge in the above list is that of being
an upstart, This is denied by Godoy, who states
that his family was nobit on the father and mother's
side—that on being admitted to the military Order of
Santiago, he exhibited proofs of eight uninterrupted
degrees of nobility--and that the Supreme Council of
Castile, when admitting him a Grandee of the first
class, reported to the King that his titles of nobility
were the most complete of any they had inspected for
a long time before.
The other charges are thus met in the introduction
to this work, on the testimony of D'Esmenard:—

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE PRINCE OF THE PEACE

" During a long residence in Madrid (from 1792
to 1808) and a further stay in Spain during the
whole of the war which commenced in the latter
year, I was unremitting in my inquiries—a practice I
ever had through life—and attentively treasured up the
answers given to them. I have read all that has been
written, seen with my own eyes whatever was to be
seen, and was by no means prepossessed in, the Prince
of the Peace's favour. * * * The result is that I

have yet to discover any clear and precise fact which
can be adduced against the public or private character
of Charles IV.'s Prime Minister." * * *

MORAL PROFLIGACY OF THE COURT, HOW FAR ASCRIBABLE

TO THE PRINCE'S EXAMPLE.

" The licentiousness of public morals was not the
work of the Prince of the Peace ; for this is the vulgar
text for the invectives of a hypocritical jealous sect."
—" It is proved that the manners and influence of

the young Minister have, on the contrary, softened
down, I may even say purified, that corruption of the
age."

AVARICE OF THE PRINCE.

" The Prince of the Peace never received any
,ling beyond what was spontaneously, lawfully given
,o him. He gave away much money in charities."
DESPOTISM AND CRUELTY OF GODOY.

" The pretended despotism of the Prince of the
Peace has not been sullied by a single act of cruelty
or even of harshness. How many acts of indulgence
and even of the kindest good nature might we not, on
the contrary, adduce on his behalf !"—" The Prince

of the Peace never caused the effusion of a single drop
of blood ; no liberal opinion was ever persecuted so
long as he held in his hands the reins of Government.
* * * He gave away much money in charities."

Southey also charges him with having betrayed his
country to the French. The following words will bear
no other construction :

" The French have at all times had less public

faith than any other nation in Europe ; but whether
under their old monarchy, their democracy, or the ab-
solute tyranny in which that democracy had its natural
end, they have effectually protected their agents and
partizans in other countries. Godoy had been the
creature of France, and Buonaparte was resolved to
save him."

This crime Godoy regards as the most monstrous
of which his enemies have accused him; and he cite
the evidence furnished by a number of State docu-
ments to prove its falsehood. Nevertheless, he has
failed in accounting for the interest which Napo-
leon took in his fate after the first resignation of
the King at Aranjuez. No ordinary motive could

have induced Napoleon to stipulate with Ferdi-
nand for the preservation of the life of a Minister,
who declares that he was known to the Emperor to
be the deadliest enemy of France.
From what we have said of these Memoirs, their
general character will be easily understood. The future
historian will act wisely in consulting them, before heap-
ing odium on a man who contrived through good
report and evil report, to preserve the friendship and
esteem of the personages through whose kindness he
was first raised to distinction, and the exercise of all
but supreme power. The work is embellished with

portraits of the Prince of the Peace, Charles IV., and
his queen, Marie Louise. The prince is handsome,
the king benevolent looking, and the queen—in ap-
pearance at least—a crooked-minded, vindictive hag.
Were the Prince to follow up this work by an auto-
biography of the whole of his private life, half his
errors would be forgiven, in gratitude for the new lights
which he would thus be under a necessity of throwing
upon the history of his own times.

THE LONDON AND EDINBURGH PHILO-
SOPHICAL MAGAZINE, AND JOURNAL
OF SCIENCE. Longman and Co.

The February Number of the " London and Edin-
burglL Philosophical Magazine " (which a press of
important Parliamentary matter has hitherto prevented
us from noticing) fully supports the high character
which this journal has long maintained. Of all our
scientific periodicals there is none, in our opinion,
equal to it. In its reports of the proceedings of learned
so cieties, we see the ever-varying face of science faith-
fully reflected, and it numbers among its contributors
of original articles almost all our eminent scientific men.
In the Number before us there are some very able

papers by Faraday, Powell, Macculloch of Trinity
College Dublin, Barlow, Challis, &c. The article,
however, in which the general reader will feel the
greatest interest is that entitled " Newton and Flam-
steed, by the Rev. W. Whewell." The public has
seen with disgust the unworthy attempt to depreciate
the moral character of Sir Isaac Newton, to which the
" Quarterly Review" has lately lent itself. Mr. Baily

had, it seems, been employed by the Board of Admi-
ralty to superintend a -new edition of Flamsteed's Ob-
servations, and took this opportunity to give the world
some account of the author. Flamsteed was the bitter
enemy of Newton, the would-be rival of Halley, and
at variance with every one who seemed to stand in the
way of his own arrogant pretensions. He was a dili-
gent and accurate astronomical observer, and that is
the utmost praise that he can claim. His stock of
mathematical learning was slender enough, and, as a
philosopher he is not even known. He was, in fact,
far behind his age in every thing but vanity, jealousy,
and spitefulness. In these qualities be had no supe-
riors and few equals. Yet it is from the testy ebullitions
of this man's spleen that we are, at this time of day,
called upon to renounce, our reverence for the name of
Newton ! And what was Newton's crime ? He had
made the greatest discovery ever made by mortal man.
His theory of universal gravitation was not adopted, or
rather was opposed, by the learned of that day. He
was anxious that the world should see how far it was
corroborated by celestial phenomena, and applied to
Flamsteed for the observations which he, as Astrono-
mer Royal, had made at the Greenwich Observatory.
This not very unreasonable request was refused.
Flamsteed would yield to no solicitations, either on th
part of Newton or his friends ; till at last the Queen
interposed her authority, and appointed a Committee
of the Royal Society to superintend the Royal Obser-
vatory, and use the observations there made, which
were public property, as they. might think most condu-
cive to the advancement of science. This Committee, of
which Newton the President was one, took the steps
necessary for the publication of these observations ;
and it was full time—for Halley states that thirty
years had elapsed since Flamsteed's appointment to
the office of Astronomer Royal, and nothing had pro-
ceeded from the magnificent Observatory with which he
Was entrusted. The refractory astrv''')mer is at last sub