The Sun.
London, England, 1836-12-20 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO MODERN HISTOR
C. Knight, London, 1836.
This volume is the result of the author's (Mr.
Von Raumer) historical researches in the British Mu-
seum and the State Paper Office, and is chiefly taken
up with extracts from the official correspondence of
the day, relative to the two queens and rivals, Mary of
Scotland, and Elizabeth of England. It is a useful
work, and furnishes admirable materials for a compen-
dious history of that particular period. A portrait of
the Queen of Scots, taken, as Mr. Von Rau►ner
conjectures, when she was only in her sixteenth year,
forms the frontispiece of the volume ; and if it be really
a genuine likeness, will go far to dispel the illu,ons
under which we have so long lain, respecting the per-
sonal attractions of the unfortunate, and—we fear we
must add—too guilty, Mary. She is here pourtrayed
as a very grave, formal-looking lady, apparently some
rive or six-and-twenty years of age, and of a truly
masculine caste of feature.

Y.

LIBRARY OF ANECDOTE, Vol. I.
C. Knight, London, 1836.
The author—perhaps we should say, compiler—of
this dandy, little duodecimo, is a gentleman named
Bucke, who has produced a very readable miscellany—
a sort of omniunz-gatheruni of essays, anecdotes, cri-
ticism, and brief, piquant reflections.

A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON TEETH AND

DENTISM.
Longman, London, 1836.

We should strongly recommend all those—and they
form a large portion of the community—who are
troubled with painful affections of the teeth and gums,
to peruse this work attentively, for it contains more
practical information on the subject, expressed in the
clearest and most familiar language, than any work of
the sort it has been our lot to meet with. Mr. Pater-
son Clarke is the author, a gentleman who has had
great and varied experience as a surgeon-dentist, and
is the inventor of the well-known anodyne cement.
The following is his method of curing that intolerable
nuisance, the toothache :—" The author's method of
curing toothache is in general by the application► of an
anodyne poultice. When applied, it is of the con-
sistence of soft dough, and affords immediate•relief in
all cases of simple toothache. This poultice produces
no effect whatever on the appearance of the tooth, and
may be swallowed as harmlessly as a crust of bread:
The volume is embellished with several neatly finished
and appropriate engravings.

Princess Polignac and her children, who hr,d been
detained at Calais by unfavourable weather, arrived at the

Clarendon Hotel on Sunday, from Paris.
THE LATE MADAME MALIBRAN.—The remains
of the unfortunate Malibran, after a lapse of eleven weeks.
—chiefly occupied by proceedings in the Consistorial Court,
altogether unprecedented in modern times—are at length
to be disinterred and removed to Belgium. The arr; sad of
Madame Garcia, the deceased's mother, on Thursday week,
and her earnest application to the appellant and the par-
ties who have thought and acted with him in this extraor-
dinary matter, arc the causes of this abandonment of all

further opposition.—Manchester Guardian.
The lucrative sinecure of Receiver-General of the
Customs, held by Sir William Boothby, Bart., which it was

. -
proposed, we believe, some time since, to abolish or dis-
continue, is not for the present to be done away with,

On the night of Monday se'nnight, the corn, stacks
of Mr. Lee, of Hockwold cum Wilton, were set on fire by
some vile incendiary, and completely destroyed. A reward

of 2001. is offered for the discovery and conviction of the

offender.—Norwich. Gazette.

It is worthy of remark (says the Mark Lane Ex-
press), that while the farmers in the northern and western
departments are complaining of continual wet, which pre-
vents the termination of sowing, they are crying out 10
Languedoc against the drought, sufficient moisture not
being afforded to enable the young wheat to rear itself, and
they are fearful they shall have to re-sow the ground.
The party assembled at Drayton, the seat of Sir
Robert Peel, consisting of several of the neigbourin%
nobility and gentry, have had this week an accession of
numbers to partake of the Christmas festivities of the Right
Hon. Baronet, who, with his friends, have had abundap.ce of
sport in pheasant-shooting on his well-stocked preserv,is.
The expenditure for Warwick county in 183 4 was
15,3361. 4s. Id. The annual value of real property in 1835
was 1,236,726/., the rate on which is twopence three far-
things in the pound.

On Friday morning, about half-past ten cjelock, a
young m
i a
ndannamed
obtained
a li Bailey,vi who
living
by turning
resided
aa t‘No
mangle,
. In It a
at t opne:
riod to his existence by hanging himself. He ~vas in the
shop of the landlady of the house only a short time before,
and purchased some article of food for his breakfast, but
she observed nothing extraordinary in his manner. lie
was discovered hanging in the cellar a short time after
the occurrence, but life was extinct.
The Journal du Havre of the 29th ult., after stt-Airig
that the port is crowded with weather-bound vessels, dwells
on the damage occasioned by the violent westerly gales'
which have prevailed almost without interruption sir ,ce the
early part of September, and which have put a stop 1;0 most
of the works on board the vessels being armed and fitted out
in that port at high tide. On the morning of the 29th there
was a heavy sea, which dashed over the most elevat, .d part
of the quays, and at every instant the end of the jetty to
the north, as far as the level of the battery constructed up 01)
it, was completely covered by the sea.
We are at length enabled to announce that all tile,
necessary arrangements for transferring to the Board. 0'
Admiralty the packet establishment of the Post-office Lave
been finally completed, and that the transfer will immedi ateli
take place. The Post-office will of course regulate; the
times of departure, and in other respects advise the Adol;
ralty as to the services which the mail packets are r equirer
to perform ; but it will most properly rest with the .Nclol
ralty to determine what description of vessel is best a dapte
to the particular, service required, as well as to, appoint
officers best qualified for its command. It has, -however,
been arranged that all contracts for the packet sr .mice of the
Post-office, about to be transferred to the Admiralty, °lc
to be under the management of the Treasury.--Observe r•
During the last three or four days men have hoe°
employed in covering the surface of the obelisk with a enn'
centrated solution of caoutchouc, or Indian rubber, in or' ler
to preserve it from the effects of the air of this climr
which is injurious to the granite of Egypt, although the
granite of this country is not in the least degree liable 4;,0 b°
affected after an exposure for ages. The quantity con'
sumed in this operation will be about 84 quarts, ; and tb,e
surface to be covered is about 190 square yards. —Pall'
Paper.
At the small hamlet of Birkdale, in the palish of
Dufton, near the confluence of the Tees and. Maize B.,eekr
a melancholy occurrence took place on the 24th ult. fill;
John Allinson, belonging to that place, aged about 1-'a
years, who lived upon his paternal estate, which consisted
of a small plot of enclosed* land, but with an unlimitear
right of common upon the adjoining fells, in consequence
which a large stock of sheep are kept, went with a servantoo
man, named Ritson, early in the morning of that days
+4
' 0,0
look after the sheep, and release any of the unfortu.
animals (which are generally not a few) that might If. ri
been overblown by the snow, which had fallen leer,
deep the preceding night. They continued their es
tions for a considerable time, having many a ti,.net,l
venture into the river Tees to rescue the sheep wl-aelt
sheltered under the crags and brushwood on its batiks,
~a
almost exhausted. They then determined to prnerbot
homeward, being not more than two miles from it ;
the quantity of snow which had fallen rendered it a u,_` ;t
cult task ; however, they assisted each other M the a
way they_could, and succeeded, till within ,a quarter
mile from home, when Allinson sank down powerless,rer;
questing his companion to wait awhile till he recd
but 0
but Ritson, well knowing if that were the case they
both perish, endeavoured to get home by crawling (!nv'"i_f„
t
hands and knees. Their friends, who were begin,
e'l4
to get uneasy, were just commencing a search for :tr_
when they heard a call, and made to the place when,
soundy came,
e xba swhen.t
they
H e foundmade Ritson,th emunderstand
that%,,lll,lemrhee e 70k
linson was left ; thither they proceeded, and found t
ject of their search in a dying state ; they raised him
in their arms, when he fetched two or three convulsive
u d
can he
and expired. He was borne with diffiulty t
o We'
home, where the anguish of an aged mother
P
ses
laoisrwi al
yltykfrenelst'e
ntvhearne d s
s crtd
itbnede.r
n dHerald
Ritson •a.s assisted bon. 4"
• e
MINERAL TALLOW.—Specimens of this suUsltartries
were lately found in a bog on the binders of Loch
This curious mineral was first observed by some pea t,
on the coast of Finland in 1736 ; afterwards it was
fou
in one of the Swedish lakes. A similar substance vi!Lsrro,.
at Strasburg by Dr. Herman, and in this country b.%,"-,ale
fessor Jameson. It has the colour and feel and tastil
low, but without smell. It is as volatile and cortil)'ust_.
any of the volatile oils, or naphtha,

ha..w

THE SPANISH CONTEST.

BY PELAGIUS.

LETTER 11.
In my former letter I pointed out some of the causes
which have tended to prolong the struggle between
Carlos and the Constitutionalists. Many others, unfor-
tunately, remain to be noticed—not the least formida-
ble among which is the inefficiency of the superior
officers of the Queen's army.
Under Ferdinand, not only was talent overlooked, it
was almost a bar to promotion, and the higher com-
mands became the reward of servility, intrigue and
bribery. In consequence, the Constitutionlists found the
troops in the hands of Generals, scarcely worthy, ge-
nerally speaking, of wielding halberts, instead of trun-
cheons ; and have to form officers—since those in the
lower grades have not had experience enough to com-
mand large bodies of men. The sudden increase, also
in the numerical force of the army, has caused the ratio
of good officers to the number of men to fall still lower.
The peculiar character of the country, is, moreover,
a great evil to the Constitutionalists, and a correspond-
ing advantage to their opponents—divided into nume-
rous provinces, differing in the manners, customs, and
interests of the population ; there is not any sympathy
or simultaneous action among the various parts of the
body politic, and even military communication is ren-
dered difficult by chains of high mountains, crossing
the country in every direction—hence a combined ac-
tion of the forces scattered, in small masses, over the
kingdom, is extremely rare.
The tactics of the Carlists have been governed by
the geopraphical character of the country. Placed in a
strong, mountainous district, which may be considered
in the light of a vast fortress, they threaten their ad-
versaries from every point of an immense semicircle,
requiring a kind of line of (what an Irishman would
call) circumvallation, maintainable only by a force
vastly superior in numbers.
If an attempt be made to penetrate into this natural
fortress, the assailants are attacked on each flank, pre-
cisely as an army assaultinc, the breach' in a fort is,
from the works on each side of it, and the extent of the
ground on which the conflict is maintained affords the
defenders the means of taking up new positions inces-
santly—they cannot be, like the garrison of a town,
driven into a corner and compelled to surrender.
While thus, in great measure, protected from attack,
the Carlists can continually send out detachments (like
the foragers from a fort), who scour the enemy's coun-
try without resistance—for here again comes in the
peculiarity of Spain, to account for the rapid progress
of a Gomez, a Sanz, or a Cabrera.
The most absurd and injurious imputations have
been lavished on the Spanish population, because the
Carlist bands have passed over wide tracts unimpeded.
The fact is, all Spain does nbt contain a dozen towns
( the fortresses excepted) which could be successfully
defended by their own population against three thou-
sand men !
Every one is aware, that it would be preposterous to
expect Harwich, Colchester, Romford, or Daventry,
to hold out ten minutes against two battalions of
troops ; yet the Spaniards are called " apathetic" and
cowardly, because they suffer their towns, nineteen-
twentieths of which are not so populous as the third-
rate English ones I have mentioned, to be occupied by
bands of from two to ten thousand men !
So thinly peopled is Spain, that the three central
provinces of Leon, Old and New Castile, containing
exactly as many square miles as England, cannot
boast of a greater number of inhabitants than three-
and-a-half millions ! and, with the exception of Mad-
rid, do not possess a single town equal in population
to Yarmouth
In such a country, it is obvious that a force of three
or four battalions may, unmolested, traverse hundreds
of miles ; and in this way has Goinez marched and
countermarched probably little less than two thousand
miles within the last three or four months—distancing
his pursuers by the simple expedient of eating up the
scanty provisions of a district, and leaving them to
hunt for bread over a wider space.
By this plan of making__ excursions into, and raising
bands throughout the Constitutional provinces, the
Carlists obtain two important advantages—first, they
impede the organization of the militia, and the collec-
tion of the public revenue ; and, secondly, they obtain
recruits among all those who are willing to seek plunder
under any flag. They also dreadfully harass and
reduce in number the regular forces of the State.
Thus, the inroad of Gomez, has probably put 2,000
of the Queen's troops into hospitals, prisons, or their
graves, while his own force swelled from about 7,000,
with which he entered Andalusia (after his junction
with Cabrera, &c.) to nearly 11,000—its amount
when lie captured Cordova—in the absurd attempt to
defend which, above 2,000 of the militia were thrown
away.
The necessity of protecting various and distant
points compels the Government to employ much more
numerous forces than those of the insurgents, yet with-
out it being possible to make this superiority of number
of much avail in acting against them. When Gomez,
for example, occupied Cordova, his power of threat.-
ening either Estremadura, Granada, or the rich coast
towns of Andalusia, compelled the employment of dif-
ferent corps, which separately could do little more than
check his progress, although the united amount of them
would have outnumbered the band of the Carlist
General.
The insurgents have moreover a potent body of
allies in Clergy—priests have ever a leaning towards
despotism—and the riches and influence of the monks
are both 'at the service of the representative of abso-
lutist opinions—the ignorant and bigoted peasantry are
induced, by those evil guides, to withhold from the
Queen's armies, provision and information, and to yield
both to the " Wenders of Holy Mother Church,"
as the banditti of serviles modestly denominate them-
selves.
The main support, indeed, of the Constitutional
cause is to be found in the towns, whose intercourse,
education, and the opportunities of observing the im-
morality of the friars, have combined to emancipate the
people from the monkish yoke.
•The decided measures adopted by the Cortes to re-
move from the Spanish monarchy the incubus of a
priestly domination, under which its wealth was con-
sumed, and its best energies paralyzed, have made ir-
reconcileable enemies of the whole body of clerical
locusts—numerous enough to form among themselves
only an army far outnumbering that which the Pre-
tender at present commands.
When we maturely consider all those circumstances
( and many others might be mentioned) which have
militated against the efforts of the Constitutional Go-
vernment, we shall not be so much surprised at the
duration of the struggle, and the ill success which has
hitherto attended the arms of the Queen ; but let us
not thence fall into the error of deeming the ultimate
success of Carlos probable ; that and other points will
be hereafter dis Cussed.

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

[Erratum in the letter inserted on Saturday—For " Fos,
lion of the Queen's army," read " composition," &c.]

POOR LAW.—The Suffolk Chronicle contains at
a length quite disproportioned to its importance the report
of a meeting held last Wednesday, for the purpose of con-
demning certain clauses in the New Poor Law Act, with
a view to getting them repealed.
On the night of Wednesday, the 30th ult., two
fine Devon heifers, the property of the Bishop of Kilmore,
3vere poisoned in one of his Lordship's paddocks.
The colossal statue for the column of July has just
been cast ; it is about 15 feet higho.and in its lower part
bears some resemblance to the statue of Mercury, at Bo-
logna. The operation of the casting was ably and skilfully
conducted by M. Soyer. It is calculated that the statue
will not cost above one-fifth of the expense incurred for
each of the statues of Henry IV. and Louis XIV. The
column itself is to be about 158 feet high from the lower
socle to the socle above the capital. This altitude exceeds
the height of the column of the Place Vendome by about
15 feet.—Paris Paper.
On Friday morning Sarah Crabb, aged 15 years,
committed suicide by swallowing a quantity of oxalic acid.
She was living in a family in Seymour-place, Camden-town,
and having by some means procured the poison, took it in
some tea at breakfast. She was soon seized with excruci-
, sting pain, but for upwards of an hour forbore to state that
she ,11Fd taken poison. She then admitted the fact, and
was immediately conveyed to the North London Hospital,
but expired as she was carried in. The cause of her com-
mitting the dreadful act is alleged to be her receiving warn-
ing to leave her situation.