The Sun.
London, England, 1838-08-05 00:00:00

NICHOLAS NICKLEBY.

The Kenwige family—the conception of which is
another feather in Boz's cap—come famously out in this
Number. The individuals composing this domestic circle
are imbued with far more life and vigour than Madame
D'Arblay's over-rated Cockney characters, and may fairly
take rank beside the best of Foote's. A quick and ready
conception, and an equal readiness and facility in working
out character, are indeed Mr. Dickens's prominent 'excel-
lencies. In this respect, he is unquestionably the best
writer of his age—atleast in the homely walks of life. And
the great secret of his success is, that he does not take his
information second-hand from books; but judges from per-
sonal observation—draws direct from life. We subjoin a
favourable specimen of his descriptive faculty :

" Within the precincts of the ancient city of Westminster, and
within half a quarter of a mile of its ancient sanctuary, is a narrow and
dirty region, the sanctuary of the smaller Members of Parliament in
modern days. It is all comprised in one street of gloomy lodging.
houses, from whose windows in vacation-timo there frown long melan.
choly rows of bills, which say as plainly as did the countenances of their
occupiers, ranged on Ministerial and Opposition benches in the Session
which slumbers with its fathers, "To Let"—" To Let." In busier
periods of the year these bills disappear; and the houses swarm with
legislators. There are legislators in the parlours, in the first floor, in
the second, in the third, in the garrets ; the small apartments reek with
the breath of deputations and delegates. In damp weather the place is
rendered close by the steams of moist Acts of Parliament and frowsy pe-
titions ; general postmen grow faint as they enter its infected limbs, and
shabby figures in quest of franks, flit restlessly to and fro, like the
troubled ghosts of Complete Letter-writers departed. This is Manches.
ter-buildings i and here, at all hotirs of the night, may be heard the rat.
fling of latch keys in their ..respective keyholes, with now and then—
when a gust of wind sweeping across the water which washes the Build.
ings' feet impels the sound towards the entrance—the weak shrill voice
. p
Member practising the morrow's speech.
of some young All the live-
and clashing and clanging of little long day there is a grinding of organs
boxes of music, for Manchester-buildings is an eel-pot, which has no
outlet but its awkward mouth—a case.bottle which has no thorough-
fare, and a short and narrow neck—and in this respect it may be typical
of the fate of some few among its more adventurous residents, who, after
wriggling themselves into Parliament by violent efforts and contortions,
find that it, too, is no thoroughfare for them ; that, like Manchester-
buildings, it leads to nothing beyond itself ; and that they are fain at last
to back out, no wiser, no richer, not one whit more famous, - than they
went in.

THE DUBLIN REVIEW.—No: IX.
London, Booker and Dolman.
There are no symptoms of a filling off in the great abi-
lity which distinguished the early numbers of this religious
and political organ of the Roman Catholic body. On the
contrary, we think we can discover in the Number before
us. an accession of strength ; though, to the disappointment
of readers who take little interest in the discussion of
questions. appertaining as much to theology as to history,
the fresh mind thrown into it has added nothing to the
only feature in which it was from the first wanting—Na-
tionality. The Dublin Review is too Catholic, without
being sufficiently Irish. Hence one great cause of its not
being more popular in England and Scotland. Let us test
the truth of this assertion by a reference to the table of
contents. ,Out of nine several articles which compose this
Number, only one can be said to have direct reference
to Ireland—and. that one is confined to a-discussion
of the, at present, very uninviting subject of Irish
Election Committees ! Surely, in the long list ofim-
portant question; relative to Ireland 'that have occu-
pied the attention of Parliament since the commence-
ment of the Present Session, more than one might
been selected for discussion in have
the pages of the
Dahlia
Repiew,_ Without detracting from the merits of. the in-
genious article with which this Number commences, it would
have been more gratifying to us, and we would venture to

affirm, to the British public generally, to read a clever•
elucidation of the present relative position of parties in Ire--
land—of the progress of national education--of semo
philanthrophic effort to promote a knowledge of books in-
the interior of the country by means of the establishment
of cheap circulating libraries and reading clubs. th m to
learn that the true locality of the Boman Forum is yet
disputed, and moreover, that to the true philosopher it is
question of very little importance whether or not it be
rightly ascertained.
But while we question the sound policy of devoting the
great bulk of Ireland's only" Quarterly" to subjects in which,
Ireland takes no exclusive interest—to the prejudice of
questions which are to her of vital importance—we have-
much reason to be well satisfied with the ability displayed
in most of the articles in the Number now before us. The
positive indifference with which the writer of the opening
article on " The Roman Forum"affects to regard the la-
bours of the antiquarians of the " Eternal City," gives
quite a relish to his descriptions. Passing over his account
of the English amateur excavators, whose children " learnt
• to turn up the soil with their walking-sticks for bits of mar-
ble, and to pilfer fragments of Mosaic ;" and who them-, ,
selves " buy an unopened Etruscan sepulchre, as they would •
buy a pipe of wine at home, only with a tolerable chance of
finding it empty ;" we come to the excavators of " real
utility" employed, by the Papal Government, with a view
to make out the plan of ancient Rome. With what inex-
prelsible contempt would an Irish hodman survey such a
group as the following :

" The labourers are nose of your brawney, square-built, men of
pick.axe and barrow. They are a motley race of every age from the
mere boy to the ' lean and slippercd pantakon ;' arranged in every va-
riety of costume, most of them preserving seine remains of cast-off
finery about their persons. They wear their hats rith a certain air,

that for all its jauntiness provokes you to ridicule, and tilts handle their
spades with as much taste as they would do a loaded rifle. As caelr
workman brings his barrow to be, not filled, but sprinkled with earth;
he sits down to converse with his friend of the shovel, who, in thq
quietest way possible, measures him out just his load. When this is
obtained he forms a link in the processional train, moving at the slowest
conceivable pace. The line never proceeds far without a general stop
page. One of the first halts to take snuff, and arrests the entire train;
yet not a murmur of complaint is heard. After many such interrur
tions, each labourer reaches his destination only to assist in forming:*
mount of earth, which, in three months, must be as quietly conveyed
few hundred yards farther. It is altogether a scene from entomology
on a gigantic scale--men performing the office of ants without anyof
their industry."

Talk of the establishment of railroads in Italy after this
vivid sketch of Italian industry! What would Brother
Jonathan think of such a " go a-head" pace as a recom-
mendation for a settlement in the Back Woods ?
The Review of " Ranke's History of the Popes," is
rather an apology for the secular domination of the Holy
See from the 10th to the middle of the 15th century, than
an attempt to prove any necessity on the part of the Church
of' God to ally itself with the State. We are quite willing
to admit that, " under the bias of religious or political
fanaticism," many eminent writers have attributed to the
Roman Pontiffs the commission of crimes of which they
were innocent : but is it equally true that they at-
tributed to them any power, any secular domination
over the kingdoms of the earth to which these
most sanctified servants of the servants of God did
ncit lay claim? The Reviewer seems to intimate that in
the then state of the Christian world the patrimony of St.
Peter was necessary to obtain for the Pope a proper'
degree of influence out of Italy. If so, how was it that
the Redeemer in sending forth his Apostles to preach the
Gospel happened to overlook so necessary an adjunct to the
Divine Commission How was it that instead of
sending them forth wanderers from city to city,
without earthly heritage or possessions, and with not
so much as a second garment, he did not bestow
upon them crowns, and mitres, and palaceS, and secular
dominion over all Kings, Princes, and Potentates ? But
these questions admit of no satisfactory solution at the
hands of the Reviewer. The power of the Roman Pontiff
originated in fraud, and in this, as in all other cases,
power was necessary to secure impunity for a flagrant vio-
lation of a generally received law. Having corrupted—
we will not offend any Catholic by saying the faith—but
the ceremonial of the Christian religion, the patrimony
of St. Peter was necessary, not to obtain due re-
spect for religion, but to maintain such corruption. The
" Prejudices of Early Education" is a caustic review of a
whole catalogue of School-books in general use in nearly
all respectable Protestant schools. Extracts are made
from them of facts impressed upon, and opinions instilled
into, the minds of mere infants, not only flagrantly false,
but most uncharitable as regards the Roman Catholic
community. We recommend the Secretary of the fiber-
nian Bible Society to read this article on the " Prejudices
of Early Education," to his patrons at the next annual
mebting of that Saintly body. The article on " Galileo—
The Roman Inquisition," is one of the most laboured and
erudite essays that we ever met with on the subject of the
ecclesiastical persecution of that celebrated astronomer.
The object of it is to prove that Galileo never languished
in the dungeons of the Inquisition ; that he was merely
censured by that body for pertinaciously insisting upon de-
nouncing as erroneous a passage in the Old Testament ;
and that so far from being inhumanly persecuted, he was
openly patronised by Cardinal Bellarmine, by Prince Cesi,
and even by the Pope himself. As we could not enter
into the merits of this much contested question within the
ordinary limits of a Newspaper criticism, we will in justice
to the writer quote the concluding paragraph, in which he
gives the retort courteous to his anti-Papal opponents:—
" Should any one take it into his head to move in the next Session of
Parliament for aid to promote any one object of education at Maynooth
—how would the loudest declaimers about the ignorance and supersti-
tion of the Church of ]lone be found to vote? Our lives for it—against
the motion; though even for the sake of trying to distract the attention
of the Irish priest from his much dreaded electioneering avocation, the
experiment would be worth the making. Will they vote for a grant to
erect a printing press there ? for the enlargement of its scanty library
for a modern philosophic apparatus ? With the strongest desire to see
the scientific education of their alumni achieved, and every facility fur
that purpose attained, are not the Trustees notoriously apprehensive of
rousing the rabid hostility of the declaimers against ignorance and po-
pery by a demand for Parliamentary aid for these purposes ? If these
Persons truly love science, let them conic forward and vote a few thou-
sands for this lauded and laudable purpose. But why do we speak of
such things ? Ar_ they not at this very hour throwing every obstacle
in the way of the education of a whole nation, because they are Papists
and not to be proaelytized ? Have they not recently displayed the sem.-
spirit against their fellow-Protestants by opposing their admission to the
Universities, simply because they were more practically Protestant than
themselves, having dared to use their right of private judgment, and
differ with the Establishment ?"

These questions are regular home-thrusts—questions
which your staunch churchmen will be as ready to pronounce
ill-mannered, as were the spinsters on the Pension List
Mr. Spring Rice's inquiries respecting their ages, and the
naturt of their public services. Your high Tory priests
resemble the fair sex in more than the mere article of
duelling. There are certain delicate points upon which it
is equally rude and indiscreet to press either ecclesiastics or
ladies to say more than may be convenient for themselves.
The Review of the Life of Wallenstein embraces a
summary of the general history of the thirty years' war in
Germany. The Reviewer attempts a justification of the
conduct of the Emperor, who, after he began to suspect
the loyalty of the Duke of Friedland, and even after he had
issued secret Letters Patent for his apprehension, alive or
dead, continued to hold his wonted friendly correspondence
withb im. Such conduct was certainly in accordance with
the morality of thelmperial Court, but we do not see that at
this time of day it admits of the shadow of justification.
At this distance of time, and owing to the conflicting
testimony of different historians, it is impossible to deter-
mine with certainty whether the murderers of Wallenstein
were instigated to perpetrate that crime by private revenge
or the especial orders of the Emperor ; but it may be
safely affirmed that were the assassins not previously con-
vinced that they would stand a greater chance of being re-
warded than punished by the Imperial Government, they
would not have embrued their hands in the blood of their
General.

Passing over the articles " On the State of Peru before
and at the Spanish Invasion," and the " Authority of the
Holy See in South America," we come to a joint criticism
on Serjeant Talfourd's " Athenian Captive," and She.
ridan Knowles' " Woman's Wit, or Love's Disguises," to
the excellence of neither of which we think the Reviewer
does sufficient justice. Still, as his remarks are penned in
a most friendly spirit, and as he supports his opinions,
where they are favourable, by copious extracts from these
dramas, we shall content ourselves with simply dissenting
from him. We preceded the public in our judgment of
both works, and by that tribunal has our decision been fully
confirmed. •

LARDNER' S CYCLOPEDIA.—No. 106.
Longman, London, 1838.

.1 1
We have here Memoirs of some of the most eminent
literary and scientific men of France, penned in a candid
spirit, and with a singular freedom from all prejudice. The
life of Montaigne, in particular, does credit to Mrs. She'.
ley's sagacity. She rightly estimates the character of this
thoughtful, but somewhat fantastic, essayist—the only in-
tellectual Mayor we ever heard of. Montaigne would
have been a far more agreeable writer, if he had not been
so inordinately addicted to the vice of quotation. In his
il'lhal-Igo 't
chaer rhyl so
nsuhc,reabb,re,uesttaci:dtiaeie7sitt:eull,frhri, nibeesesc:t the t rain
solemn and subtle reflections on death, a subject en which
without:o
the
doesahegtuvoatsactioonns.taritillyistli
of his reflections
were;
suddenlyproduces
di
disturbed
subject in hand—an'
ssrioedmaedreei
nrg, t deeplyhat
it
iis
a interestinglady stlitiekcetsil at thi
co speculations,
written Memoir. But no female can ever do junsistl—iiciciesac,tobncloYr-f
enter into, the spirit of this
iiis t
extraordinaryTii writer. Every
e_anthese
thing about him is masculine.
style of reflection—his learning—ltis quainitinsss humour—his
are exclusively of a stern and masculine character. How
should a lady ever enter into the recondite drollery of the
immortal " Voyage to the Holy Bottle ?" With 11,1olierte
and especially Fenelon, Mrs. Shelley may possibly hat e
sympathies in common ; and accordingly these are tilde

Alves in the volume. On the whelk tte may say that she
,has acquitted herself successfully of a very difficult task.

;TALES OP IT:ATMORIARTY FAMIL Vols.
Bentley, London, 1838.
the aigt'uor of these tales is unque*tionably an Irishman,
'and 4.li.ittally evident is it that he possesses, in an eminent
*tree, all those rich a d racy powers of drollery for which
nis countrymen are so remarkable. Yet his humour is
everywhere chastened—everywhere ander the discipline of
good sense. His first tale, the " Wife Hunter," is his
best, if only for the admirable character of " Captain
Urrant"—a jolly, shrewd, half-tutored Irish squire—which
none but a native of the Green Isle could have pourtrayed.
The anecdote of the ancestors of this Milesian phenome-
noa, who, in drawing plans for a fine new family residence,
left out by mistake all the stair-cases, is as true to nature
in its way as Gokismith's story of the Primroses, u-ho had
a family picture painted on so large a state, that when
completed, they were unable to get it into the house.
O'Driscoll is also a well-conceived character—a heated
provincial agitator, who causes a whole country to bristle
up, by his energetic apostrophes to the " genius of uni-
versal emancipatien;" Nor is there any lack of vivid de-
scription in thcse social, light-hearted volumes, which con-
tain within them all the elements of popularity.

2 voLs.

LETTERS FROM PALMYRA.
London, Bentley, 1838.
The admirers of Gibbon, who entertain a vivid recollec.
ition of his splendid episode of Odenathus and Zenobia, and
of the glories of that wonder in the desert, Palmyra, will
peruse these volumes with deep interest, and will not find
their most sanguine expectations disappointed. They are,
indeed, worthy of all the eulogiums passed on them by Miss
Martineau—a competent and dispassionate judge.

INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL IN EGYPT, ARA-
BIA PETREA, AND THE HOLY LAND.
Br GEORGE STEP/HENS. London, Bentley, 1838.
This is a new and greatly enlarged edition of a work,
'which has already acquired an extensive popularity, as a
znost interesting record of personal adventures in the East.
The descriptions are piquant without being extravagant ;
and while abounding in evidences of curious and scholarly
research, it exhibits a careful avoidance of everything like
antiquarian pedantry. It is just the book of travels for
the drawing-rootn.

FINE ARTS.

PORTRAIT OF THE COUNTESS OF
MORNINGTON.

The execution of this painting is not less meritorious than
the design, the former being as chaste and spirited, as the
latter is fortunate in its power of awakening interest.
Lady Burghersh is the artist, and when it is borne in mind,
that the subject of her pencil is the mother of the Duke of
Wellington, and that she herself is the grand-daughter of

that illustrious and regretted Lady, who died in 1831, at
the advanced age of ninety, it will readily be conceived,
that a subject, more every way fitted to become popular,
could not possibly have been selected. The venerable
Countess is represented sitting in an arm-chair, and
holding in her hand the Gazette which contains the account

of the battle of Waterloo. She has just finished the peru-
.,Fal of that memorable document, and her eloquent counte-
' nance expresses in its every lineament, the fervent, but
calm and dignified feelings of joy and thankfulness, which
the glorious tidings have awakened in her mind. On the
table, on her right hand, is the bust of her third son the
Duke of Wellington ; and immediately beneath this bust,
is an open letter, dated from Waterloo, and signed by him-
self. On the same table, is a medallion profile of Lord
Cowley, Lady Mornington's youngest son ; on the ground,
on the left, the bust of Lord Maryborough, her second son ;
the noble artist's father ; and in the gallery at a distance,
that of the Marquis Wellesley, her eldest son. All these
are admirable likenesses, particularly that of the Duke of
Wellington, which is life itself. As a specimen of rich, but
chaste colouring, the painting is quite as effective as any
that have been lately exhibited ; in proof of which, we may
instance the foreground, the whole of which is worked up
with considerable skill and ease, yet with scarce the ap-
pearance of an effort. We are glad to find that an engrav-
ing is to be made from this fine work of art.

FINDENS PORTRAITS of the FEMALE ARI S.

TO CRA CY. No. 2.
Fraser, London, 1838.

We have already expressed our opinion that this work
will be signally successful ; and we here repeat that opi-
nion, and with more confidence than before. The last
Number was a good one, but this is many degrees superior,
containing three as lovely female portraits as were ever
drawn even by thetiattering pencil of a Lawrence. These
three—the exact number of the Graces, by the bye—are the
Countess of Falmouth, Lady Wilhelmina Stanhope, and
Lady Francis Cowper ; all exquisitely beautiful, and there-
fore we are willing to believe, correct resemblances. That
of Lady Francis Cowper has a sweet child-like simplicity—
a spiritualized expreision of countenance—that reminds us
of the fabled Psyche, as we find her immortalized by the
chisel of Canova. She brightens upon us like one of
Byron's angels newly alighted from heaven. The face of
Lady Wilhelmina Stanhope, though equally attractive, is
of a wholly diff2rent order of beauty. Its predominant ex-
pression is that of archness and gaiety. A sunny smile
lurks in the angle of the small month, and imparts brilliancy
to the full, black, eloquent eye. The Countess of Stan-
hope's countenance is that of a Madonna ; thoughtful, and
with a softened shade of melancholy diffused over it, that
cannot be regarded without deep interest. Three finer spe-
cimens of female aristocratic beauty than these, are, we
are persuaded, not to be found in Europe. The work that
contains them should be called, not simply " Finden's
Portraits," but Finden's "Book of Beauty."

RYALL'S PORTRAITS OF CONSERVATIVE

STATESMEN.—No. VIII.
Fraser, London, 1838.

The word "statesman," however comprehensive be the
meaning of the term, is scarcely applicable to the noble
Conservatives whose portraits embellish this Number. The
Duke of Northumberland ;s a towering patrician, and a
good man, but nothing more that we ever heard of ; and
as for Lords Wallace and Howe, our political annals are
singularly silent on the subject of their senatorial deserts.
Even the biographer of these illustrious nobles, though
strongly disposed to stretch a point in their favour, can find
little or nothing to allege on t! .• <r•ore of their Parliamen-
tary talents, so wisely contents Lt.nself with dealing in elo-
quent generalities—tbe only safe way of dealing with im-
practicable subjects. As works of art, the portraits are
entitled to high praise, and the illustrative memoirs are
penned in a graceful, fluent, easy style.

WINDSOR CASTLE AIND ITS ENVIRONS.
Part 1. London, Carter, 1838.
The delightful sylvan scenery in the neighbourhood of
Windsor and its classic Forest, is well-sketched in this
unassuming little work. Here we find its luxuriant Brocas
meadows ; its broad leafy woods ; gleaming waters ; river
islands, and golden corn-fields ; and its noble Castle—worthy
of England's monarchs—rearing up its proud front over
all, like the guardian spirit of the landscape. We have
seen much of home scenery ; the loveliest spots in Devon-
shire and the Isle of Wight are no strangers to us ; we
are familiar with most parts of North and South Wales ;
but we know not that we have ever met with—not even in
that most picturesque of counties, Cardiganshire—such
lovely spots as are to be found, in every direction, within
ten miles of Windsor. The beautiful in all its varieties,
and we may even add the sublime, are constantly delighting
the eye, in the deep, cool, and sinuous glades of the Forest ;
and among the green hills, from whose gradual acclivities
landscapes stretch away in distance, that might rival that
famous Tempe which the Greek writer, (Dian, has de-
scribed in such glowing terms. We are glad, therefore,
that a writer of Mr. Roscoe's well-known taste, has at
length undertaken to do justice to this delicious scenery.
Windsor and its Environs" will, we are sure, lose nothing
in his hands.

ATESMEN AND BEER SHOPS.

----er--_.
(From the 1r
' "'MU Chronicle)
But statesmen who conceive their minds to. be comprehensive,
: grantedt
vi
uocl ;
re sta h
i net
recollect that there are beer-shops,-----an and to beer-shops they resolve
to trace the increase of crime in
beer,—therefore
fm.
e Juvenilebeer-shodpe3.
predators will not hesitate to drink
, as a fact indis.
are the cause of juvenile depravity. It ;., assumed,
by Ind cannot be
potable, that boys have a horror of public-homuesesd
brought to enter dwellings that have been licensed
Quarter Sessions. In the same convenient way it is takenheft:houir:
that older thieves would as soon think of breaking into the
Governor of Newgate, as of meditating any offence against thela
a regularly licensed public-house. It is to beer-shops only
resorts. " Deer-stealing and highway robbery," says Lord Dungannon,
" are plotted in these places." But who could bring himself to believ
that at the Turpin's Head, duly licensed for the sale of "spirituous
liquors and tobacco," any man would be rascal enough to plan
the unlawful taking of a purse! Who would be so stupidly cre-
dulous as to suppose that the capture of a living haunch could
possibly be contemplated at the house of call for poachers, the re.
spectability of which had been certified by license under the hands
of just Justices in Quarter Sessions assembled ! Again : it is taken
for granted that small-beer is the great stimulator, and that beer_
shop beer
especially engenders a taste for burglary. Ardent spirits, on
the other are taken to be things not taken at all by rogues, little
or great ; gin is a beverage calculated to cool—to soothe—and to sub-
due,—it is not supposed to heat the blood, engender bad passions, or
gratify depraved tastes : but beer-shop beer is dreadfully inflammatory.
An honest man who enters a shop where he must drink his mug of
minor ale "on the premises," is sure to come forth in fifteen minutes
a confirmed housebreaker—or, possibly, he may go as far as poaching.
Now at a regularly licensed roadside inn he may (if he likes) take the
ale with him, and carry it ten niil before he lifts the mug to his
mouth; hence it naturally follows, thats though he should then drink it,
and steal a purse, the public-house "..s not the parent of highway robbery.

Lord Segrave gave an elegant white bait dinner at
Ship Tavern Greenwich, the day before yesterday to a fashion-
able party.