The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-06 00:00:00

UN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 6 MO

the masque of fragrant flower-beds. Ten years before
( we had stood upon that spot, and colVd then hue
counted i's graves of" mark and likelihood;' now they
he thick about one, and there is diiii;mlty in recalling
not only the most striking of the monuments, but the
reanes of the once-important personages who tenant
them. Then it was but a sepulchral suburb, sprinkled
with ornate tombs, the principal of which were
Ducrow's mausoleum, with its shattered garlands and
broken pillar, beehive, and sphinxes—then only
tenanted by his wife; that of St. John Long, with
its temple crowncd summit, and drooping female •
figure with the Escullpian serpent round her arm;
toe Freeling pillar, with its capital commenced ; the
vault of the ilygeist ; the simple grave of the mother
of the writer of " Rook wood ;" and a few others of
less well-known names. Now it has become a monu-
mental city; a little knot of aristocracy keep their
state in the catacombs, and a prince of the royal blood
has his granite palace in the midst; judges, warriors,
and merchants, churchmen and simple citizens, will a
few others, whose epitaphs are written in the affec
(ions of ilpir fellow men, not only of this generation,
but cf those that are to come, make up the elenients
of which this mixed society is composed, and type
themselves in marble after death.

TIIE WELSH CHURCH.
LETTER V.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,—.I have already exhibited various instances of
churches in the Principali y which are wholly aban-
doned as places of worship. Many more might be
mentioned at which the attendance is so scanty, that
the diffused congregation would be insufficient to
afford one individual to each pew.
Let any stranger go on a Sunday into almost any
rural church in Wales, and he must immediately
remark the smallness of the assemblage. On inquiry
he will generally find that there is only one service
in a day, the clergyman having duty to perform in
other churches. Let that stranger next visit the local
Welsh meeting-houses, and he will find them inva-
riably thronged three or four times a day to the very
doors.

It would be superfluous for me to select instances,
for throughout all the rural districts of Wales the
churches are empty, and the Welsh Dissenting cha-
pels are full. Dissent is everywhere alive in energetic
activity, while Episcopal Christianity is dying. The
cause too is as obvious as the effect: the people love
religion, and desire spiritual instruction from men
who speak their own language, enter into their feelings,
and share their predilection tbr poetry, singing, and
music, and elevate their minds with earnest and
impassioned oratory. They will not attend upon
services which they cannot feel as well as understand.
They will not accept a mere form or ceremonial of
religion for a living reality. Had the Bishops of
the Welsh Church during the last hundred and forty
years provided it with native pastors as pious, as
zealous, and as diligent as the Dissenting teachers,
then would the Welsh people, fond as they are by
temperament of all ancient and venerable usages,
have been found at this day rejoicing within its
precincts, a nation of stedfast Churchmen, instead of
a nation of Dissenters.

Things have now been urged to an extremity, and the
very existence of the Welsh Church apparently
depends upon the remodelling of her hierarchy.
ENGLISH _Bishops have brought this Church to the
crumbling verge of ruin. For nine years, indeed,
Bishop Thirlwall has been studiously endeavouring
to remedy an irremediable ill, by the palliating
expedient of acquiring the native language, yet he
remains a dry scholar still, and though an able
linguist he is an inefficient Welsh preacher, incapable
of carrying out the reforms which he admits to be
necessary, unable to fit his visitation charges to the
requirements of his clergy, incapable of comprehend-
ing the full responsibillity of his own position, and
unwilling and incompetent to understand the character
of the Cy mry. He offers a conspicuous example, a
beacon warning to Ministers of State against similar
appointments. His whole course of inconsistent
Episcopal management in the diocese of St. David's
emphatically proves, that if the Church of Wales can
even yet be saved, upheld and restored to vigorous
usefulness, it cannot be by the efforts of the most
learned of the English Prelates. The inference is
clear, the earthly hopes of the Welsh Church are all
concentrated in a native hierarchy. The whole
system of Ecclesiastical government in Wales is so
completely disorganized as to require the aid, not
merely of conscientious rulers, but of able reformers,
which I shall still further demonstrate in my next
letter. I am, Sir, &c.,
GOIIBONIAN.

THE TIME 7 AND THE HUNGA-

RIAN EXILES. -
TO TIIE EDITOR or TITS TIMES.
Sir,—Your paper, of which only accumulated
numbers occasionally reach us, contains unfounded
imputations on the Hungarian refugees, and in par-
ticular cn the late President-Governor of Hungary.
As having been during several months, and up to
the present time, attached to and never separated
from the person of M. Kossuth, and as being perhaps
as cognizant as himself of his private transactions
and
affairs, I am enabled circumstantially to refute the
charges to which you have attempted to give cur-
rency. Being the only person, beside Count Casimir
Batthyany, who accompanied him when he retired
from Arad, I consider myself so far implicatA in
3 our general remarks, as to feel entitled to claim the
insertion in your columns of the facts which consti-
tute that refutation.

On the 13th of September M. Kossuth, having
conditionally delegated the powers of government,
with which he had been invested by the Diet, to
Gorge-y, quitted Arad. He had then 1,000 ducats
(less than 5001.) in his possession. At Mariaradna
we were met by M. Duschek, the Finat.ce Minister,
who asked his instructions as to the disposal of 90
cwt. of gold and silver ingots, valued at 5,000,000
florins, nearly 500,000/ of your English money.
M. Kossuth had then due to him upwards of
33,000 florins, being two months' arrears of the salary
awarded to him by the Diet. The state was at the
same time indebted to Count Casimir Batthyany in
nearly the full amount of his salary since he had been
minister, besides 442,000 florins advanced to the Trea-
sury out of his private purse.
1.1.. Kossuth sent this treasure back untouched to
Arad for public purposes, ordering M. Duschek only
to pay over out of the arrears due to him as Pre-
sident Governor 5,000 florins to the account of his
mother.

The 1,000 ducats which M. Kossuth took with
him from Arad had been diminished by various ex•
penses, mostly of a public nature, to less than half
by the time he reached the Turkish frontier ; and
this sum, together with a small travelling bag, was
all the property with which the late President-Go-
vernor of Hungary entered Widdin. As to the
crown of Hungary, it was sealed up by a committee
of the Diet, and delivered into the charge of the
responsible Minister, who duly provided for its safety.
I can solemnly aver, to the best of my belief and
knowledge, that the President Governor never saw it
in his life.

These, Sir, are the facts to which, as a gentleman,
I pledge my word of honour. They will, I think,
dispose of the calumnies by which, wittingly or un-
wittingly, you have allowed your columns to be so
disgraced. To the correspondent or correspondents
—your authority—l cannot even extend the benefit
of this alternative indulgence. I cannot believe that
their calumnies were forged even at Pesth or Vienna,
because Kossuth's Austrian enemies would assuredly
have framed some scandal more plausible than a charge
of which his whole life had been a glaring refutation.
Everybody in Hungary knows that M. Kossuth's
disregard of his personal interests induced several
proprietors and magnates to propose, even before he
was yet a Member of the Diet, endowing him
with considerable estates. Everybody knows that
M. Kossuth refused this honourable testimonial, as
well as on all other occasions the frequent offers made
by his political admirers and friends to compensate
the injury to his private affairs occasioned by the
exclusive dedication of his time and talents to the
public interests.)
The Parliamentary transactions of a more recent
period show with how much difficulty he was induced,
as President- Governor of Hungary, to accept the
salary of 200,000 florins voted to him by the Diet ;
and the whole of Hungary is aware bow large—how
inconsiderately large I may venture to remark—was
the proportion of this salary spent in charities.
I am a soldier, not a penman, Sir, and can there-
fore only call on your anonymous informant or in-
formants to come forth, that I may fling by name the
falsehood in their teeth. At the same time you must
understand that, as I am yielding to a purely per-
sonal impulse, the publication of this letter can form
no impediment to such legal steps as the late Presi-
dent Governor, on his arrival in England, may think
fit, in vindication of his character, to take against
yourself, as the responsible circulator of such calum-
nious aspersions.

- I a►n, Sir, your obedient servant,
ALEXANDER ASDOTIf,
• Lieutenant-Colonel, Adjutant General to the
ex-President-Governor of Hungary.
Widdin, Nov. 1.

FASHIONS IN MOURNING.-Mr. Landells, the
eminent artist and wood-engraver, has been enraged,
during the week, • in making elaborate drawings of the
most recherché examples of the novelties of fashion for
the approaching general mourning. These illustrations
will form a large portion of the forthcoming number of
the Lady's Newspaper, being intended to serve as un-
erring &Lit sin the arrangement of the toilet. The
specimens selected are distinguished for unquestionable
taste and surpassing elegance, and will prove of the
greatest service to those persons who, residing at a
distance, aro deprived of the advantages of seeing the
originals which have been chosen by the leaders of
ton from the selectiins made by the Messrs. Jay, of both
the Yorisiau and Luglisla Marchands de Nodes.

HARRISON AINSWORTH'S WORKS,

Complete ih

WINDSOR CASTLE. Pp. 220.
One Volume.
Following the example of several of his eminent
contemporaries who are endeavouring to popularize
still further their already popular productions, Mr.
William Harrison Ainsworth is now republishing his
well known fictions in a form of extraordinary cheap-
ness. " Windsor Castle," formerly issued in a costly
shape, with illustrations by Cruikahank, is here
before us in a compact book, printed on excellent
paper and with the clearest type. Within the com-
pass
.of 220 pages are collected together the six
books of the famous chronicle of the national palace.
Those who delight in the marvellous adventures con-
nected with Herne, the goblin huntsman ; in the hu-
morous rencontres between Patch and Will Somers,
the jesters of Cardinal Wolsey and his royal master;
in the fortunes of Mabel, of Tristram, of
Surrey, of Wyatt, of Fen wolf, of Geral-
dine, of Catharine, of Anne Boleyn, and
especially of the right high and puissant King Henry
the Eighth, will prize a volume which comprises the
whole narrative in portable dimensions. Although
not one of the most felicitous of our romancer's his-
torical tales, this brilliant fiction is nevertheless
characterised by considerable power; and is more
particularly remarkable for the vividness with which I
it peurtrays a remote age, blending together moreover,
without any apparent effsrt, much less any striking
anomaly, the generally incongruous materials of
diablerie and reality. The panorama unfolded to us
by Harrison Ainsworth in this (manifestly his
favourite) fiction, is marked by its gorgeous colour-
ing and its judicious delineation of character. Several
of the historical personages, especially Henry himself,
are admirably sketched, tallying in almost every
particular with our ideals drawn from the memorials
of contemporary scribes Remembering
the maudlin outcry raised a few years since against
Mr. Ainsworth as a novelist, we shall not be at all
surprised if this cheap re issue of his compositions be
the theme of much prudish and preposterous repre-
hension. Of this, however, we are equally well satisfied,
that the jeers of cant and the sarcasms of a stilted
morality, will have no effect upon the circulation of
works calculated in no respect to lower the tone of
society, or to deprave the public imagination any
more than the works of some of the most celebrated
and lauded authors in our literature. What is a
subject to us of profound indignation—to us, total
and entire strangers to Mr. Harrison Ainsworth—is
that most absurd outcry raised against him as the
originator of that school of literature in which crime
is made the theme of fiction, and in which the hero
is the criminal. Harrison Ainsworth, the originator
of this school of romance ! One might as
readily accuse the blossom of being the cause
of the seed, the roots, the stalk, the branches,
and the bud from which it has emanated. Why, the
veriest blockhead in her Majesty's dominions is aware
that this species of fictitious composition was in vogue
in the days of' lEschylus and Euripides, in the age of
Shakspere, and in the time of Boccaccio ; and that,
to come nearer our own era, it was the mode with
some of the noblest and most eulogized intellects.
Fielding, we opine, has chosen one of the most vil-
lanous wretches that ever crawled upon God's earth
as the hero of one of his most renowned works, the
" History and Adventures of Jonathan Wild." God-
win, we presume, must be regarded as the author of
"Caleb Williams," and "Caleb Williams," we believe,
is the celebration of the career of a murderer. Nay,
nearer still to a contemporary period—Sir
Bulwer Lytton had recounted the life and
death of Eugene Aram, together with
the vicissitudes of the highwayman Paul
Clifford, while Charles Dickens had limned to the
very life the brutal ruffian, Mr. William Sykes, in
the narrative of " Oliver Twist," long before " Jack
Sheppard " was published in the pages of the very
same magazine which had immortalised the murderer
of Nancy. And yet Harrison Ainsworth--not
Dickens, or Bulwer, or Godwin, or Fielding, but
Harrison Ainsworth—is accused of having been the
originator, forsooth, of this school of romantic litera-
ture. If to have followed in the wake of half a hun-
dred novelists, and to be the last in point of time, in-
stead of the first, be to be the originator of this
system of composition, then, but not otherwise, must
we regard Mr. Ainsworth as the originator of this
species of romance. The logic of his assailants is
amusing,—he is the predecessor because he is the
successor. It reminds us of Mrs. Malaprop in
Sheridan's comedy, " Come, sir, you're our envoy,
lead the way and we'll precede !" What we maintain in
regard to the cause-ot our indignation in this matter
is simply as follows :—lt strikes us as being rather
too bad to have applauded Fielding first, and then
Godwin, and then Bulwer-Lytton, and then Dickens,
and at last to have come down unexpectedly, pen-
men, harum-scarum, upon Harrison Ainsworth for
following exactly in the same track. First of all the
public foster the germs of a certain style, and then,
when those germs have blossomed, become outrage-
ous. Nay—every one had already lauded to the very
skies Mr. Ainsworth's previous romance of " Rook-
wood," in which Dick Turpin, the highwayman,
figures very conspicuously. But to I and behold,
after swallowing with a relish Fielding's Jona-
than Wild," and Godwin's " Caleb Williams,"
and Bulwer's " Eugene Aram," (a work which
elicited the panegyric of Sir Walter Scott), and his
Paul Clifford," and Dickens's " Oliver Twist," and
even Mr. Ains worth's own work of " Rook wood,"
the public suddenly became squeamish on the
appearance of "Jack Sheppard," and visit the
whole of the bile of their spurious and pretended
morality on the unfortunate head of William Har-
rison Ainsworth. Ps:haw ! we have no patience with
such wretched exhibitions of sanctimoniousness on the
part of those who have tolerated so much deserving
real reprehension. They call to our recollection
the diTusting assumption of sanctity visible on the
part of Joseph Surface at the very time when the
screen conceals the object of his adulterous intrigue.
If "Jack Sheppard merits condemnation, then
most certainly does every one of the kindred
works already enumerated; and yet the vial of popular
wrath is poured out exclusively over the former.
In spite of the abuse of an ungenerous hypocrisy, the
principal among the fictions of Harrison Ainsworth
have still preserved their popularity, for the intelli-
gent public of readers cannot fail to recognize their
peculiar, and in their way, their consummate ability.
Dick Turpin's Ride to York—one of the most
brilliant, and altogether one of the most
remarkable descriptive passages in the language—is
still fresh in the popular recollection. It cannot,
moreover, be forgotten how many bygone personages
have been resuscitated by the magic wand of the
novelist _round the ancient buildings of Old Saint
Paul's, Saint James's, the Tower of London, and
Windsor Castle. 'Versatility delineated in " Crichton,"
fanaticism in " Guy Fawkes," a long past age
in the " Miser's Daughter," and another remote
period in the " Lancashire Witches," are still retained
in remembrance. Hence we can understand the
rapid sale of the first edition of this cheap re-issue—
that sale having been completed on the first day of
publication. Tawdry and meretricious decorations
there undoubtedly are in the writings of Mr. Ains-
worth, but there are also blended with those
others of a genuine excellence—vigorous por-
traitures of the passions (chiefly, it is trite, the
darker passions,) of humanity, enthralling succe
sions of incident, ingenious complications of plot,
and through all a delicate and subtle analysis of
character. Those are bis titles—and they are high
ones—to our consideration. His position as a no-
velist is very far indeed from being unimportant, for
he occupies the place in the present, which Mrs
Radcliffe occupied in the past generation.

NEOTYPOSCLIESSMEN.
An entirely novel and in some respects a peculiarly
ingenious set of chessmen has just appeared--adapt-
able on occasions to the games of chess, draughts,
and backgammon. They are flat and circular, with
an embossed effigy representing the different men in
the game of games. To amateurs we doubt not they
will prove acceptable, though we are equally certain
they would have been discarded by a Staunton, a
Phillidor, or a Do la Bourdonoec.

SONNET TO WOMAN.
BY ROBERT GILFILLAN.

-••
Bright stars of earth!—not ye, fast-fading flowers,
That bloom a while, then vanish in decay;
But ye, fair beauties, form'd in Love's fond bowers,
Who give to Man what sunbeams give to day!
What were this world were Woman's smiles away !
An arid waste—a desert of the wild—
A lonely rock, with ever-dashing spray,
On whose rude summit Nature never smiled,
But stood in ocean grandeur all forlorn;—
So Man's frail bark, by every tempest torn,
Oft foundered but for Woman's guiding ray,
Who o'er the gloom makes night appear the day!
Her worth, her heart, her love to Man is given,
To show on earth. a Pisgah view of heaven!
East Hermitage, Leith, 3d Dec., (842.
—From the Scotsman.

TILE LATE QUEEN DOWAGER.—We have reason to
believe that the usual ceremony of " lying in state" will
be dispensed with, for the first time during many centu-
ries, in the case of her late Majesty the Queen Dowager.
It appears that an objection exists in the ceremony
taking place at Bentley Priory in consequence of that
mansion not being royal property. The removal of the
late Queen's remains to London for the purpose is also
thought undesirable on many accounts, not the least of
which is said to be the great risk of accident from the
rush of spectators who would inevitably endeavour to
obtain ad.nission to the ceremony. Another deviation
from the usual custom with deceased members of the
royal family is the omission of the process of embalming
the body,which has been dispensed with by express desire
of her late lamented Majesty. The second coffin, which
is lined throughout with lead, was sent down to Stan-
more yesterday. The funeral, it is generally supposed,
will take place at Windsor on Saturday, th 9 15th inst.,
in a most private manner.