The Sun.
London, England, 1836-07-27 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

EDINBURGH RE VIEW. Ko. 128.
Longman, London, 1836.
The first article in this number is the most interest-
ing, being a notice, full of anecdotical extracts, of
" Captain Back's Expedition to the Arctic Regions,"
in search of his friend Captain Ross. The difficulties
attending this expedition are fully explained by the
Reviewer, who furnishes us with an admirable digest
of the gallant Captain's publication, drawn up in that
spirited and condensed manner, which used to render
Mr. Barrow's articles of a similar nature, in the Quar-
terly, so attractive. Sir John Franklin underwent
severe sufferings in his voyages along the shores
of the Arctic . Ocean, but scarcely greater than
those which were sustained by Captain Back and his
party, who were not only in a state of semi-starvation
for weeks together, but frost-bitten with the intense
cold ; debilitated by disease, in its worst and most lin-
gering form ; and, when the summer heats set in, ex-
posed:incessantly to the assaults of musquitos and sand..
flies, which absolutely darkened the air like rain-clouds,
and caused the face and hands to stream with blood,
and swell to such.an extent that not a feature could
be recognised. The following extract will give some
idea of the horrors of Captain Back's situation. We
give it in the words of the Reviewer, not having the
narrative by us to refer to :
" Captain Back and Mr. King were themselves reduced to
half a pound each of pemmican a day, though the labouring
men required a pound and three quarters. This scanty supply
of food was rendered less tolerable by the extraordinary rigour
of the season. Captain Back has already mentioned a cold of
102 deg. below the freezing point, or 70 deg. below zero,
which occurred about the end of December. The mean
temperature of January 1834, was so low as 39 deg. below
zero, and the first week of February was still more severe.
This excessive cold drove every living thing from the fort, and
even the few white partridges which had cheered them, dis-
appeared. On the 4th February the thermometer stood at
60 deg., which, with a fresh breeze, was almost intolerable.
The temperature could not be raised above 12 deg. in a room
where eight large logs of dry wood were burning in the fire-
place. Ink and paint congealed. The sextant cases, and
boxes of seasoned wood, which were principally of fir, split;
the skin of the hands became dry and cracked, opening into un-
sightly and smarting gashes ; and on one occasion after Captain
Back had washed his face within three feet of the fire, his
hair became clotted with ice before he had time to dry it.
The Society of Fort Reliance received a gratifying variation
by the arrival on the 9th of February, of Mr. M'Leod, who
had preceded a party of men laden with meat. His face was
frost-bitten in seven places, and all the Indians, to the number
of fourteen, were similarly lacerated. The latter compared
the sensation of handling their guns to that of touching red-hot
iron ; and so sharp was the pain, that they wrapped round the
triggers leathern thongs, to keep their fingers from the steel.
Under such circumstances, the forest was no longer a shelter,
nor the land a support, famine with her gaunt and boney arm
pursued them at every turn, and strewed them lifeless on the
cold bosom of the snow. Nine had already fallen victims, and
the others were preserved from a similar fate by the humane
interposition of Mr. M`Leod."
In the course of his expedition, Captain Back dis-
covered a water-fall of a more magnificent charac-
ter than even the far,famed Niagara, and every
where speaks with enthusiasm of the gran-
deur of the Alpine scenery, through which he
passed. "We cannot," says the Reviewer, summing
up his digest of the Captain's narrative, " look at the
map of his discoveries, without being gratified with the
important additions which lie has made to our geo-
graphical knowledge. He has filled up the great blank
which lay in our maps between Bathurst inlet, the
Great Slave Lake, and Hudson's Bay, and united his
survey with an extensive estuary of the Polar Sea."
" Greek Idyls" is a notice of Mr. Chapman's recently
published volume of translations from the minor Greek
pastoral poets, and is penned in a lively, graceful and
piquant style. We suspect it is the production of a
young and fresh hand at reviewing. The cursory
sketch of Pindar is very cleverly drawn. The critic
is perfectly right in saying that he was at heart an
aristocrat, and lived and breathed in an atmosphere of
nobility, though he is far from being so literally
correct when he states that Pindar's language
is drawn " chiefly from the treasury of Homer."
The Reviewer speaks in enconniastic terms of Mr.
Chapman's translation of the " Syracusan Gossips"
of Theocritus, an extract from which he quotes.
Judging from this extract, the translation is certainly
an able one ; but in point of grace and ease and
buoyancy, will not bear a comparison with Pole-
whele's, which is in the anapestic measure, the most
appropriate for such a subject. In the article
headed " Recent Lives of Cowper," we find a minute
and impartial notice of Southey's and Grimshwe's
biography of this celebrated poet. The closing para-
graps of this criticism are very creditable to the right
feeling and worldly sagacity of the Reviewer, espe-
pecially where he observes that the desire which is apt
to haunt restless and excitable natures, which have at
the same time a tendency to mental indolence, of seek-
ing a visionary happiness in the retirement from active
life,t should be resisted to the utmost. " Foreign
Slave Trade" is a statistic article, in which much
pains-taking is evident, but which is by no means of
an ad captandum nature. The hit at Jonathan
for his perseverance in this abominable traffic, which
most other countries have abandoned, is richly merited.
So long as slaves continue to be flogged and tortured
to death in the southern parts of the United States,
Europe will only listen with mingled disgust and con-
tempt to Jonathan's lofty boasts of his own love of
freedom. The " New Poor Law" is an article cha-
racterised by a just and manly tone of feeling, and
triumphantly vindicates the Commissioners' Report
and the Act to which it gave rise. " Marquis Wel-
lesley's Indian Administration" gives some entertain-
ing, though far from novel, particulars respecting the
rise and progress of the power of the most inveterate
enemy British India ever possessed, the late Tippoo
Saib. Altogether, the Number is a good one, though
there are no articles equal to those written in it a few
years since by Macauley.

VIENNA, JULY 16.—Marshal Marmont returned
to this city yesterday, after an absence of some years. His
Majesty, the King of Naples, has put off his departure to the
27th. Prince Paul Esterhazy's departure for his post at Lon•
don is deferred for some time ; he intends first to visit his
estates in Hungary. It is believed that Prince Esterhazy will
hardly set out before Sir F. Lamb arrives.

TOPLITZ, JULY 12.—His Majesty Charles X.,
the Dukes of Angouleme and Bordeaux, and Cardinal Lalil,
set out yesterday for Budwios, which seems to be again chosen
for an indefinite time for their place of abode. The Duchess
of Angouleme is gone to the same place from Dresden. It is
said here, that Charles X. will return to this place—perhaps
about the end of August—again, to see the waters, from which
he has already derived much benefit.

THE INDIGO TRADE.—The private trade sales,
which commenced on the 12th inst., concluded yesterday. The
whole amount declared was 9,362 chests, of which 411 were
withdrawn. The descriptions were principally good and good
middling qualities, with a pretty fair quantity of fine, and but
a small amount of ordinary. At the commencement of the
sales but little animation was displayed, but during their con-
tinuance an advance of 3d. to 9d. per lb., and in some cases
Is. per lb., on the quotations on the sale of April last, was
realized up to the close of the present declaration. There
were but few buyers from the manufacturing districts during
the sales in comparison with the attendance at former sales.
The dealers and dyers, being pretty well supplied, did not
purchase extensively. On the prices at the sale in April last
the following may be quoted as the several advances of the
various qualities :—From 4d. to 10d. per lb. on fine and good
Bengal; 6d. to Bd. on middling and ordinary ditto; 2d. to
4d. on good and fine Madras ; and 3d. on middling and ordi-
nary ditto. The following are the quotations of the different
descriptions and the number of chests disposed of :—Twenty
chests, from Bs. to Bs. 9d. per lb. ; 2,303 ditto, from 7s. to
7s. I ld. per lb. ; 5,747 ditto, from 6s. to 6s. 11d. per lb. ;
1,049 ditto, from ss. to ss. lld. per lb. ; 134 ditto, from 4s. to
4s. Ild. per lb. ; and 7 ditto, from 3s. 2d. to 4s. 1 Id. per lb.
LABOURERS' UNION.—It is with extreme regret
we find that the labourers in Tendring Hundred have not yet
been brought to a due sense of the utter folly and criminality
of their conduct, and that the Union for raising the rate of
wages is still in existence.—Essex Herald.
Mr. Arnold, of the Three Mariners public-house,
Moulsham, has now a skylark in his possession, perfectly white,
which was this year taken with four other nestlings of the
usual colour, from a field in the neighbourhood. Mr. A. has
been offered a good price for the little captive, but he refused
it.—Essex Herald.

A ROYAL SHAVER.—The King has been gra-
ciously pleased to appoint a person at Sheffield " Razor
Maker in Ordinary to his Majesty."
Another severe thunder storm, accompanied with a
heavy fall of rain, was experienced in the north part of Fife-
shire on Friday week. A fatal occurrence resulted from it.
Da id Melville, who had been about thirty years in the service
of Mr. Russell, Haystone, was killed instantaneously by the
lightning, while engaged in the operation of harrowing. The
horses escaped unhurt; and, having gone to the farm-
steading, alarm was excited from there being no person with
them. Some of the other servants then proceeded to the
field where the unfortunate man was, and found him a lifeless
corpse.
A collier, for a trifling wager, lately ate three pounds
of raw beef in fifteen minutes,