The Sun.
London, England, 1831-10-28 00:00:00

LANARKSHIRE MEETING.

(From the Glasgow Chronicle of Tuesday.)
At three o'clock this day, as announced by hand-bills, a
pnblic meeting of the inhabitants of Lanarkshire was held
in the Green of Glasgow, to address his Majesty for a
creation of Peers to pass the Reform Bill. Though the
day was exceeding unfavourable there could not be
fewer than 30,000 people assembled from all quarters,
some of the districts carrying flags attended by bands
of music. A waggon servtd as the hustings for the
Committee

Mr. JOHN STEWART, from Clydebank, was eilled to
the chair. He said the old Bill is lost, and we must have
a new ono. What kind of a Bill would they take ?
(Cries of " Universal Suffrage.") Will you take one less
efficient than the last—will you accept of a 20/. suffrage
for a 101. suffrage?—(No.) He said ti e 101. qualifica-
tion We 3 the keystone of the Bill, and by that keystone he
would stand or fall.—(Cheers.) Ile then referred to the
Bishops who gave votes adverse to the Bill. They said
they were the messengers of peace, but be said they were
the messengers of evil.---(Cheers.) They were like the
priests spoken of by the prophet Isaiah—dumb dogs that
bark not—greedy dogs that never have enough ; they
took the fleece from the flock, and let the flock pb to
the devil.—(Laughter.) We shall have the Bill, and
none less efficient.—(Cheers.) The speaker then in-
culcated the necessity of Political Unions in carrying
their object.
Mr. J. BURN moved the first resolution. The Bishops
tad stood in battle array against the King and the country,
and even against their God, by the had example they had
set. They had incurred the odium of every friend to his
country, though they had called themselves the gentle
shepherds of the flock of Christ—that holy name they took
in vain They were set to give a good example but we
would no longer follow the example of such execrable
wretches. The people must get the Bill, and then they
will ge: all that they wish to possess. Ile concluded with
proposing the following resolution :—" That the House
of Conmons having virtually declared itself unconstitu-
tionally formed, can no longer consistently exercise legi.
slative functions, grant supplies to Government, or impose
taxes on the nation."—(Great cheers.)
Mr. C. M'Orttcort seconded the resolution.

Mr. J. M'DoNALD said, what could lie said of the
Bishops, who professed to be servants of him who had not
where to lay his head, and who were luxuriating in afflu-
ence wrung frorn the sweat of our brows? They professed
to be the messengers of peace, hut they had done all in
their power to lighten up the torch cf discord, and to di.
side a brave and peaceable people.—(Cheers.) On those
girdles where " Holiness to the Lord" ought to have been
inscribed, they, with their own hands, had written
Ichabod, the glory is departed."—(Cheering.) Had
they succeeded in sowing dissension they would have tri-
umphed; but the people would remain united. After some
further remark he proposed the following resolution:—
" That the Lords, who have rejected the Bill of Reform,
have done so in defiance, and in despiteebofpvtrhoi
the express
thatxpress
viishes of the King and the people,
their interests, and those of the nation, are opposed to each
other. This, in consequence, may be construed into an
Her dangerous to the safety of the State, calculated to tear
asunder the bonds of sociev, and goad on an exasperated
people to acis of tumult and revolution."
Mt. D. \VALIUM. seconded the resolution. 11the pm-

' tion was put to him, what is the House of Peers cbni-
prised of ? he would reply in the words of a Benfrewshire
gentleman, that they were a set of old-fashioned dominies,
debanchees, and young idiotic boys. Now what was to be
done with theta, for the people must have the Bill ? There
were two prerogatives in the country, which could be used
t pa,s the Bill;—the first was, the Kites prerogative of
m.kir'r new Peers; and the next prerogative was, that the
people had an undoubted right, if they thought proper, to
abolish the House of Peers altogether.—(Cheers.) The
Xing ought to have crewed Peer's hsfoe this: it was not
unconstitutional to do sie, as some alleged. It was not
called unconstilAitional when former Kings made Peers to
piss the foulest measures. He maintained that the prople
had a right, if they found it necessary, to thOlisli the House
of Peers altogether, but lit !taped the King would have
sense enough i a his Timd to prevent the people from exer-
eisint that prerogative, by a timely creation of Peers.— '
(Cheers.) His Majesty must know that he has an enligh-
tened but a determined people to do with.--f Cheers.
Charles the Tenth of France offered tu give Up his
tyrannical edict against the liberties of the people, but
he was forty-eight Wars too late in doing so; and if the
King reftireil to create Peers—he did 'not say his Ma-
jesty was refusing to do so--.L.Efut shoulii he refuse, he
perhaps may find that he will offer to create them when he
is forty-eight hours too late—(lmmense. cheering)—for the
preservation of the peace of the country. The Bishops
had opposed the Bill. The people were anxioas for some
invasion of their rights by the Bishops, in order that they
might sever them for ever from all connection with the
State. If they had complied with the will:ca of the people
they might have held on longer than they would do in their
present state, but their conduct had sealed their doom.
They were foul spoilers of widows' houses, living in afflu-
`eate wrung from the blood and sweat of the peopl- ; hut
by Heavens they would do it no lcnger.—(Cheers.) The
Bishops had nothing to do With Scotland. Their fore-
fathers had fought to get rid of them ; and would they,
their dettendants, allow them to rule over them ? No.
the same glens which their forefathers frequented still ex-
isted, and they could go to these glens, too, end oppose the
Bishops as they had done. Then lift your covenant, and

swear with me, that the Bishops filial' have nothing to do

with us, or our Bill.—(Cheers.) It was wonderful that
the nation, erlitm the Bill was thrown out, did not with
one leap assail the House of Peers, and annihilate it for
ever; and it was wonderful it was not instantly followed
by revolution. They spoke about the Constitution ; he
did not know much about the Constitution, but they would
have the Bill whether it was constitutional or not.—
(Cheers.) They must have the Bill—the Bill or the bar-
ricades.--(Cheers.) They knew nothing about rioting.
It was an insult to say they could be guilty of rioting;
hut one determined spirit could rouse the whole west of
Scotland into a civil war.—(Great applause.)
Mr. J. FAICIINEY, in moving the next resolution,

spoke of the insult offered to the nation by the Bishops,
and the evils of the present system, and said they would
suffer it no longer. The doom of the Church of England,
Le said, had been signed by the Bishops. He concluded
by declaring that if the Ministers did not give them the
whole Bill, they would perhaps have more than the Bill.—
(Cheers.) He then moved a resolution declarative of their

intention to remain united, and to adopt every legal mea-
sure, however hazardous, to get the rejected Bill, or one
more popular and t fficient.
. . _

Mr. D. M'AuLAT said the determination for the Bill
was greater now than ever ; Ministers could not venture
to give a less efficient Bill. He seconded the resolution.
Mr. Jolts TAIT said they had declared before Heaven
that one House had no power to impo,4s taxes, and they
therefore had no right to pay them. They should advise
the King to create Peers. It was but a poor expedient ;
but it was better than to throw the country into a civil
war. He then mov,d an address to the King enforcing a
creation of Peers.—(Cheers.)

Mr. EDWARDS seconded the motion.
Thanks were the❑ voted to the Chairman, and the meet-
na up.

Though it rained very heavily during a great part of the
proceedings, comparatively few of the vast assembly left
the ground. The waggon which was used as hustings for
the Committee was, on the:meeting being dissolved, laid
bold of by a number of the crowd, and drawn through
the green amidst tke loudest huzzas and the waving of
fligs and pinying of the bands of music. The wagon,
which was full of people, was drawn at a rapid rate into
the city, followed by a crowd, who continued to cheer
loudly, and was taken through a number of sheets to the
great astonishment of the inhabitants, who were not pre-
pared for the circumstance. The crowd soon after dis-
persed in the greatest good order.

- - -----
BERMONDSEY MEETING.

Agreeably to intimation through the medium of adver.

tisernents, or placards, a public meeting was held yesterday
in the Church, for the avowed purpose of addressing his
Majesty on the bite rejection of ti e Reform Bill.
About half-past ten the Churchwarden was unanimously
voted to the chair.
Mr. VOCSIEY rose to offer himself to their attrntiou.
They were bound to prosecute this great measure to an end
by constitutional mean•.--(Hear, hear.) He would ask
any of then, if they held a bill for a debt due to them, and
it they called at the door of the debtor for payment, and
were merely told that the account could not be
settled, if they would then abandon their claims.
For his own part he could gay that he would not ;
but be would call again and again until he received
payment ; and this measure he considered to he simply a
just bill of r.ccount between the aristocracy and the people,
which the aristocracy could afford, and were entitled to
pay, and they should call until they had it settled. They
ought not to take less than their just right ; it was a just
bill, and they must not take less than twenty shillings per
pound. He did not mean to ask for any thing like equality
of property ; but what he would ask for himself and his
children from the aristocracy was the just liberty of the
subject; and he would repeat, the Bill was a just
one, and the aristocracy could well afford to pay it.
There was one subject to which he with much reluctance
alluded, but he could not help expressing his regret at the
conduct of the Bishops ; they had always been in the habit
of supporting Government when the measures were for
the Government, and not for the people ; but how did it
stand now with them, when the object of the Government
was to give something to the people? then they oppose
themselves to the King, the Government, and the people,
They had done it, no doubt, to trip up the Grey Admini-
stration as it was called. If they referred to the state of
the Church, they would find that the revenue of the Church
of England was more than the revenue of most of the
States in Europe. For himself, such was his feelings, that
were he to go into a church and a Bishop to enter he would
leave it, because he would consider himself in bad corn-
pany.—(Hear.) He had heard them defended by an in.
dividual as being useful men, for the dissemination of know-
ledge, and he was inclined to agree with that sentiment ;
but he was likewise convinced that unless there was a re-
formation in the church they would soon eat them all up ;
but he would leave them to a Reformed Parliament, who,
he bad no doubt, would deal with them as they merited.
He concluded by moving the first resolution.
Mr. JOCYLEY seconded it, and it was unanimously
agreed to.
Mr. VousLvv proposed the retraining resolutions,jwhich
were seconded by Mr. KITCHEN and Mr. CURLING.
They were in substance, that the address be prepared by
to-morrow (this day), at ten o'clock, and to lie at the
church for eight days for signature, and that the resolu-
tions be advertised in The Sun, Times, Herald, and
A/Oen/rig Advertiser newspapers.—Carried unanimously.
Mr. Kircirma rose to more the second resolution. He
had merely to remark that he most cordially agreed in the
sentiments so ably expressed by Mr. Vousley.
Mr. ROBERTSON seconded it, and it was carried una-
nimously.
Mr. ROBERT JONES rose to move the third resolution.
He contended that Bermondsey should assert their rights.
They ought to act, as Mr. Calvert had done, who although
he disapproved of part of ti:e Bill, had supported it,, be-
cause it had been met with so strong an opposition. Some
men said too much at times, and such bad been the case
with the Duke of Wellington. If the measure had been
faulty, it might have been put to rights in the Committee
of the Lords ; but no; they must needs kick it out; and
now, if the Wellingtonites, the Peelites, and the rest of
them, came into power, they would trounce the liberties of
England. After expressing his deep reverence for reli-
gion, and admiration of the Church, he alluded to the con-
duct of the Bishops, which, he said, had manifested a breach '
of religious duty. They have been deficient in religious
duties, in not listening to the distresses of the people. He
thought it strange that the Bench of Bishops should have
entered into a combination against the people, when he
considered the origin of some of them. Some of them had
gained their preferments, and were raised from those very
people, the pot-wallopers that they now opposed. One
Bishop he knew, who had been in a seed-shop in Black-
man-street, and had taken to study, and obtained holy
orders, and from one of the most humble livings, had,
through the influence of a certain Marchioness, high in
f,vour at the time in a certain quarter, in a twelvemonth,
teen elevated to one of the highest dignities of the Church.
The Bishops it would seem, like the Duke of Newcastle,
wished to keep all their friends under them.
Mr. docKLEy seconded the resolution, and it was carried
unanimously.

LITERATURE,

THE BRAY O. BY THE AUTHOR OP
" THE SPY," " THE PILOT," 4-c. 3 VoLs.
LONDON, 1831.

The question of the propriety of novel rt,ad-
ing has been often asked, but never satisfactorily
.ans•:',•ercd. While one party condemns the pe-
rusal of them as detrimental to the best interests
of youth, another regards them with indifference,
third iNith marked approbation. Even the
grave, the learned, the philosophic, have held,
and still hold, different opinions on the subject.
The very first literary authorities may be
adduced in support of either side of the ques-
tion. Locke, we know, and Newton and
Hume, ever spoke of them with marked con-
tempt ; Gray, Burke, Gibbon, and Robertson
were their staunch advocates. In the present
day, Sir Walter Scott and Southey are for, Lord
Brougham and Professor Herschell against,
them. " Who shall decide when Doctors dis-
agree ?" Not we ; so leaving the question—
which, however insignificant it may appear, is
really one of moment, influencing as it does, in no
ordinary degree, the hearts and heads of thousands
—to abler pens, we shall content ourselves with
remarking that for every one work of science, or
grave literary research, that the schoolmaster who
is now so generally abroad disseminates, he is
the means of putting into circulation at least a
dozen novels. Doubtless Lord Brougham, who
was mainly instrumental in setting the worthy
pedagogue forth on his travels, did not
anticipate that this would be the result of
his wanderings: such, however, is the fact ;
the age is essentially a novel reading one ; and
for every prose fiction that issued from the
Press a dozen years since, twenty are now pub-
lished. Novelists, who in 1821 could scarcely
afford a wheelbarrow, in 1831 drive their car-
riage ; where once they were as lean as lizards,
they are now as fat as Falstaff's ; and quaff chain-
paigne where they formerly sipped swipes. The
trade is indeed a thriving one, but strange to
say, the market is not yet overstocked. The cry
fbr a new novel still continues loud, general,
and uninterrupted ; while for a new work of
science, or philosophy, or profound literary re-
search, it is, alas, faint and genteelly exclusive.
The public roars like a Polyphemus for the one,
but whispers like a sort echo for the other. The
popular novelist is lionized—stared at—grins
on canvass at the Exhibition, and protrudes '
himself at full length without a cravat in ma-
gazines and print-shops ; the philosopher and 1

he man of science, unfeted, unnoticed, are left

alone to the solitude of their study. Such is
ever the destiny of those who amuse, and those
who instruct mankind. The former obtain
solid pudding, the latter empty panegyric. The
one class are rewarded with present cash, the
other with a reversionary monument.
Mr. Cooper, the author of the volumes before
us, is one of those who have had the good for-
tune, if not to instruct, at least to amuse, man-
kind. He is a novelist of the Lion class, of the
genus Leo ; but though his roar has been heard
at the West-end, and has even astonished the
good folks of Paris, it is but justice to add that
he is perfectly tame, and seldom or never bites.
He is in fact a lion of most invincible good na-
ture, as the quality of his productions sufficiently

betokens. In the style and conduct of his no-

eels he is a close, but not servile, imitator of the
great Northern Ariosto. To the Scotch tales
we are indebted for the American ones, which,

however, follow their matchless prototypes, as
./Eneas followed the Sybil, " hand passibus
cequis." Mr. Cooper has great and varied
powers of description, but he wants ease and
judgment. He perpetually overdoes his sub-
ject. Effect seems his chief aim, and provided
he produces this, he cares not by what means it
is brought about. In his able tale of the
" Pilot" he has devoted no less than seventy
closely printed pages to the details of a vessel's
passage throtigh some shallows into the open
sea. We have first a description of all

the dresses of all the officers on board ;
secondly, a technical catalogue of the masts
—or to adopt his favourite phrase, spars—sails
and rigging of the vessel ; and lastly, a minute,
the most minute, account, of the rocks,
breakers, quicksands, &c., that she passedi n her
hazardous voyage ! In his description of the
new American colony in " The Pioneers," Mr.
Cooper is still more prosingly particular, as if he
were rather a land surveyor than a novelist.
This is his chief leading defect. In the con-

duct of his male characters he is nearly, i

not quite, equal to Scott. Nothing can be finer
in this way than his coxswains—his marines—his

Indians—his back-woodsmen--and his Con-
gress troopers. All are drawn from life, and bear
the stamp of reality in every lineament. His
females, however, are sad failures. They are
insipid, monotonous, and differ from each
other solely in name. Mr. Cooper clearly
does not understand the heart of woman.

She is a mystery to him, as indeed to
most men ; but he does not even take ordinary
pains to pluck out the heart of this mystery.
Nothing can well be tamer than his female cha-

racters in " The Pilot" or " The Pioneers."

While the men are all spirit, the women are all
insipidity, just as if one was purposely set off as
a foil to the other. Sir W. Scott, in this re-
spect, beats all the novelists of this, or indeed of
any age. His females are truly Shakspearian,
full of mark and likelihood, and as distinct one

from the other, as we find them in real life.

What can surpass in truth and earnestness of
expression, his Flora Mthor, his Rose Brad-
wardine, his Lucy Ashton, his Lady Margaret
Bellenden, his Meg Merrilies, or that exqui-
sitely finished portrait, his Nlause Headrigg ?
The neat individual touches of nature thrown

out, as if by accident, in the progress of these
enchanting creations, may perhaps be equalled,
but cannot be surpassed. Mr. Cooper has
adopted Pope's opinion, that " most women

have no characters at all." Sir W. Scott has

taken Shakspeare for his guide, who thinks, and
has proved, that they are full of character.
In his descriptions of Indian scenery and
manners, Mr. Cooper is full of vigour and ani-

!nation. Here, we suspect, he has drawn from
close personal observation. In his sea-sketches
he is similarly fortunate. Nothing is omitted,
nothing sketched from mere fancy. Nature is
his sole inspiration. His officers have the true
quarter-deck character ; his rude, blunt tars, the
rolling, shambling gait, the peculiar pith and
energy of look and manner that we have so often
recognized in real life, or what is the same thing,
i❑ the pages of Smollett.
Mr. Cooper should never trust to his fancy
for the materiel of his tales ; he should rely
solely on his extensive personal acquaintance
With men and things. It is the great fault
of his present novel, " The Bravo," that
he has not done so ; that he has relied
on his reading and his imagination, rather
than on his varied, individual observation, for
effect. His " Bravo," though meant to be a
forcible and animated sketch from nature, is, in
fact, a mere lifeless lump of insipidity. More-
' over, it is a close copy from Mr. Cooper's own
" Spy," and will doubtless share the fate of most
servile imitations. The best portions of the
tale are those least suited to the pages of a pro-
fessed novel ; those, we mean, which describe,
in a half-historic spirit, the character of the old
Venetian Administration. As for the Doge,
Senators, fishermen, &c., they are precisely the
same sort of personages that we meet with in all
tales whose scene is laid in Venice. The Se-
nator Gradenigo may perhaps be an exception ;

but even he is but a sorry creation.
Mr. Cooper should never quit the quarter-
deck, the cock-pit, the Prairie, or the wild In.
than forest. In all these places he is perfectly
at home, and reigns undisputed sovereign.
But Venice is wholly out of his proper route.
We conjure him, then, as he values his re-
putation, to give us—and we care not how soon
—another " Pioneers," " Pilot," or " Red
Rover." Let him return to the quarter-deck ;
summon up another sea-storm ; fight another
naval battle ; or light up another conflagration
among the dry branches of an American forest.
His readers will then sympathise with him to
the fullest extent of his ambition.