The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-17 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

LITERATURE.

THE USES OF TIIE SENSES. 1 Vol.
Pp. 335. By Catharine Lake.
Without being a mere copyist, or a servile imitator,
the authoress of' this intelligent volume has
taken a suggestion from the Correspondence of Mrs.
Chapone, arid from the Conversations of Peter Parley,
and has, by carrying out those suggpstions upon a
religious framework, produced a book of a very agree-
able and entertaining character. Sometimes, we
must acknowledge that the tone of the writer sounds
rather too dogmatic ; but, generally speaking, the
work abounds with wholesome and elevated thoughts,
gracefully expressed and illustrated by perpetual al-
lusion, to the Universe. The title is sufficiently in-
dicative of the contents ; and the argument of the
whole production tends to impress the mind of the
reader with a conviction of the beneficence and omni-
science of the Divinity. This object alone would be
enough to elevate the writer from amongst the herd
of ordinary bookmakers, and to invest the volume
with a novel and dignified charm. Of the wood -cuts,
which are intended to form the embellishments
of the narrative, we can say nothing whatever,
and of the incidental verses scattered through
the pages very little, indeed, in commendation. Tine
excellence of the book is restricted almost exclusively
to the letter-press, and of that letterpress to the
prose, and of that prose to its tendency. Inasmuch
as the writer enlarges upon the blessings attendant
upon the laudable employment of the five senses—
upon the chaste use of the eyes, the ears, the palate,
the nerves, and the nostrils—she demands and re-
ceives our eulogium. Although the manner of the
authoress is too frequently sedate and chilling, from
the dogmatism of tone already spoken of; it is evident
that she has written throughout from her heart's
earnestness.

CLOUDS AND SUIVSIIIIVE; with other Poems.
By John James lialls,B.A.
As among the first flutterings of a young spirit on
poetic pinions, we receive the verses contained in this
little volume with all due tenderness. We have a
covert sympathy for those who bend in a reverential
mood to the streams of Helicon, to quaff their earliest
draughts of Hippocrene. And among these reve-
rential votaries we class the author of" Clouds and
Sunshine." As in the majority of such instances, his
most ambitious efforts are his least successful; take,
in point, his " Napoleon," and " Richard the First at
Acre." Occasionally his conceits are quaint, but
sometimes a delicate thought is marred by an abrupt
conventionality of language,—as where, in " The
Condemned Soldier," he drops suddenly into the
bathos of the prosaic by telling us that the captain of
the regiment gazed upon the betrothed of the private.
There is a dry humour in the lines called " Mathe-
matics versus Poetry." But we cannot give a more
felicitous example of the style of Mr. Halls than in
the following dream, penned under the inspiring
remembrance of Robert Herrick or of Sir John
Suckling :

THE FIVE SENSES.
" I SLEPT. Methought my form around
A fairy girdle, rich and bright,
Seem'd cast—which, by its magic, bound'
Each separate sense in new delight.
" A beauteous scene before me spread;
Arabia's odours filled the air;
And heavenly music seem'd to shed
Its softest notes upon mine ear.
" Something more soft than India's web,
With silken touch stream'd o'er my cheek;
And nectard draughts were at my lips,
That king's might leave their thrones to seek.
" I WOKE—and found the vision real,
For thou wert bending o'er me there;
That silken touch was not ideal,
For o'er me waved thy glossy hair.
" More than Arabia's spices choice
Thy breath sweet perfume shed around;
And in the whispers of thy voice
I heard prolong'd that music's sound.
" The neetar'd cup, the zone of light,
Well might I deem them both divine;
Thine arms had form'd that circle bright,
Thy lips were gently press'd to mine."
In the sensuous school of poetry the author has found
his efforts to be the happiest ; and for this reason we
take the title of his volume to be not altogether inap-
propriate.

THE OLD JUDGE ; _ or Life in a Colony.

By Sam Slick. 2 Tli*

We are glad to meet again our old friend " The
Clockmaker," and to find him as warm-hearted, as
spirited, and as good-humouredly sarcastic as ever.
One of the objects of these volumes is to give an idea
of the various peculiarities of colonial life, an-
other, and a more important one, is to amuse
and interest the reader. Both objects have been
successfully accomplished—the latter most trium-
phantly. Both volumes abound in lively sallies,
capital sketches of men and manners, interesting
narratives, and amusing anecdotes, all given in Sam
Slick's attractive and inimitable manner. Here
and there, in our wanderings through the co-
lony, we meet with some interminable talker,
from whose lips, once opened, pours forth an endless
stream of anecdotes, reminiscences, and incredible
facts; related with the most unblushing effrontery,
mingled—strange as it may seem—with maxims
of wisdom and lessons of philosophy, doubly
attractive, and hence doubly valuable, from
the quaint and original manner in which
they are set forth. As a sample of the charac-
ters to be met with in this colony, and also as a
specimen of Sam Slick's rattling style, we beg to intro-
duce Master 'Leh Hunt, " a drover and horse-jockey,
who lives on the road, and is the pest of every tavern,
and the torment of all travellers."

" < Morning to you, Squire !' he said, in his accus-
tomed loud tune and familiar manner. lam glad to
see you I have been waiting for you for some time, to
lock at a horse I have here, that will just suit,you. He
is great, that's a fact; a per-ft et case, I assure you. He
can trot his mile in two minutes and thirty seconds,
and no break, shuffle-rack, or pace, but a handsome
round trot, with splendid knee action; not pawing the
air like make-believe, nor pounding the road like break-
ing stones, but a sort of touch-me-light-and-go-easy
style, like the beat of a gall's finger on the pianny ;
and so gentle, a child can manage him. When you
want him to go, take up the reins and he's oft like a
fox; when you want him to stop, throw them down,
and he'll stand all day. The way he makes the spokes
fly round in a w heel, so that you can only see the
rim, as it it was a hoop, is amazing. It frightened me
at tirtht, and I ain't easy scared by a horse. He is a
su-perior animal, beyond all doubt. I never was suited
before in all my lite, and I don't know as he ain't spoilt
me, so I shall be suited agin. Sometimes I think I
can't part with him any how, for I can't never get
another like him; and sometimes I take a notion into
my head I ought to sell him, as it is too much money
for a poor man like me to have in a horse. You've
hearn tell of Heber of Windsor, haven't you? Well,
he's crazy after him; and, if he don't know a good one
when he sees him, he does when he tries him, and that's
more than most men do. I'd like you to have him, for
you are a judge of a horse,— perhaps the best in these
parts (though I've seen the leak put into you, too, afore
now.) You will take good care of him, and I wouldn't
like to see the critter knocked about like a corn. He
will lead your tandem beautiful, and keep his traces up,
without doing the whole work and killing himself. A
thread will guide him; and then he knows how to slack
up a going down hill, so as not to drag the wheeler off
his legs. Oh, he's a doll! His sinews are all scorpion
tails and whipcords, and he's muscle enough for two
beasts of his size. You can't fault him in no particular,
for he is perfect, head or neck, shoulder or girth, back or
loins, stifle or hock, or chest and bastions; and, as for
hoofs, they actilly seem as if they was made a purpose
for a trotter. In fact, you may say he's the greatest
piece of stuff ever wrapped up in a horse-hide. Come
and look at him, and judge for yourself. My price is
two fifty; but, if you like him, say the word, and he
is yours at two hundred dollars, for I'd like you to
have him. I consait he'll suit you to a notch, and do
me credit too. Heavens and airth! ain't he the boy
to slip by the officerb' tandems club to Halifax, like wink,
and you a bitting at your ease, pretending to hold him
in, and passing of them, nodding and laughing good-
natnred-like, as much as to say, 'Don't you wish you
could keep the road now you've go it?"'

Zeb's truthfulness being called in question, he thus
satisfactorily establishes his character as a " candid"
man :

" ' Squire,' he said, turning away with apparent con-
tempt from the man who had ti educed him, ' if there is
any one thing Lpride myself upon in the world, it is on
being candid. I am straight up and down; what I say
I mean, and what I mean I'll stand to. I take all man-
kind to be rogues, more or less, and, what's more,
canting, hypocritical rogues, too ; for they pretend they
are honest, all the time they are cheating the world and
the devil. Now, I am straightforward, open, and above
board. I pretend to nothing. I won't say not get
the advantage ill can in a horse trade, or any other
trade. I don't deny it. I avow it open. What sort of
a deal would it be, were I to get the disadvantage
always? Why, in six months, I shotildn't have a horse
to trade with; for, what is trade, if you come to that, but
gambling with the chances in your favour? I am not
bound to tell my horses' faults. I don't like to dwell on
the faults of my friends ; I praise their virtues. People
don't cry stinking fish, in a giniral way, in any market
I war ever in yet, becruse folks have noses, and can smell
for themselves. I don't talk of sprains, curbs, and ring-
hones; people have eyes, and can see for themselves:
and, if they ore too pinny careless to look, whose fault
is that? No, sir, I scorn a dirty thing. 1 conceal no.
thing. I say, publicly, I expect the advantage in a bar
gain; and, if I can't get it, I don't trade. That's my
rule, sir; and I don't care who knows it. I hate and
despise pretence. The world's full of it. Every man, in
a giniral way, has more cloaks to cover his villany than
shirts to cover his back.'
" My eyes were first opened to the baseness and
falsehood of mankind in elections. I had no idea what
rascals politicians were—canting about patriotism, re-
form, public spirit, education, ameliorating the condition
of the people, and so on; and all the time using these
slang Words as blinds to conceal office and place seek-
ing, selfish ends, grasping public money, and what not.
I first started in life on the 'I ory ticket, for I am a loyal
man, and so was father afore me. He was a refugee
loyalist, and left the estates and all his property to foliof

the flag of his king into this cold country, that's only fit
for wolves and bears. Well, we had a great election to
Digby, and we carried in our Tory man, Lawyer Clam
(him that was raised on the mud flats to the joggin);
and, when our side won the day, ano I went to get my
share of the plunder, he had the impudence to tell me
all the offices that could be spared must be given to the
Radicals, to conciliate them. 'Conciliate old Scratch!'
says I: giving them fellows sops, is like giving bits of
raw meat to bull-dogs ; it only makes them hungrier,
luriouser, and wickeder.' But so it was, and so it always
has been, with that party, in America; they don't stick
to their friends, and I gins them up in disgust, and
changed sides right away.
" I am a candid man. lam willing to serve the
country, but then I like reciprocation, and the country
ought to serve me. Friendship can't stand on one leg
long, and, if it does, it's plain it can't go ahead much at
at any rate. Well, bymeby, the Rads come in. Now,'
said I, remember Z, b Hunt; he wants an office.' But,
lo and behold I the offices were all wanted for the leaders,
and there were none left for the followers but the office
of drudges. Seeing they were both tarred with the same
stick, one side of which had too much liberality, and the
other too much selfishness, I thought my chance would
be better to lay hold ,on both ends of the rope; and I
went on both sides, one foot on one and one foot on
t'other; but they pulled so far apart, they straddled me
so wide, they nearly split me up to the chin. Politics,
squire, are like pea-soup; they are all very well and very
good when kept well stirred; but, as soon as the stir is
over, the thin part floats up by itself, and the rich and
thick settles down for them who are at the bottom of
things. Who ever heard of a fellow like me being
choked by a Government loaf, cr his throat hurt by the
bone of a fish that's too large to swallow? Now, I've
taken uncle Tim's place; lam neuter. I avow it, for I'm
a candid man; and a fellow can't be honest if he don't
speak up plain. lam neuter now, and courted by both
sides, and whichever comes nearest my mark will get me.
But neuter is my ticket just now.' "
Zeb has all the talk to himself. The most casual
observation draws from him anecdote upon anecdote,
of which the following is a specimen. A friend in-
quires after his mother, and hopes she enjoys good
health:—

"' Pretty well,' replied Master Zeb; pretty much as
usual; she is about and stirring, though she complains
a little of rheumatism lately, and my opinion is, it was
" Chick, chick, chick !" that caused it.'
" Chick, chick, chick said the other; what under
the sun's that ? I never heard of such a complaint !'
"'Lord bless you !' said Zeb. I thought that every
body that know'd mother, know'd that story. Five years
ago, come next summer, the old lady made a trip to Ha-
lifax, in one of our Digby coasters, to see sister Susan-
nab, that is married in that city to Ted Fowler, the up-
holsterer, and took a whole lot of little notions with her
to market to bear expenses; for she is a saving kind of
body, is mother, and likes to make two ends meet at the
close of the year. Among the rest, was the world and
all of eggs, for she was a grand hand in a poultry-yard.
Some she stowed away in boxes, and some in baskets,
and some in tubi so that no one accident could lose them
all for her. Well, under the berths in the cabin were
large drawers for bedding; and the routated that out, and
packed them full of eggs in wool, as snug as you please,
and off they started on their voyage. Well, they had
nothing but calms, and light airs, or head winds, and
were ever so long in getting to town; and, when they
anchored, she got her duds together, and began to collect
her eggs all ready for landing. The first drawer she
opened, out hopped ever so many chickens on the cabin
floor, skipping and hopping about, a-chirping, " Chick,
chick, chick !" like anything I
" Well, if that don't beat all !' said mother, and she
looked the very picture of doleful dumps. I hope there
is no more of them a coming into the world that way,
without being sent for l' and she opened a second, and
out came a second flock, with a 6 Chick, chick, chick I'
and another and another, till she pulled them all out.
The cabin floor was chock full of them; for the heat and
confined bilge air had batched all the eggs that were in
the close and hot drawers. •

" Oh, the captain, and passengers, and sailors, they
roared with laughter I Mother was awful mad, for no-
thing makes one so angry as accidents that set folks off a
tee-hee-ing in that way. If any body had been to blame
but herself, wouldn't they have caught it, that's all? for
scolding is a great relief to a woman; but as there war'nt
nothing left but to cry; and scolding and crying are
two safety-valves that have saved many a heart from
busting.
"6 Well, the loss was no great, though she liked to
take care of her coppers, too; it was the vexation that
wot ried her. But the worst was to come yet. When
she returned home, the boys to Digby got hold of the
story, and, wherever she went, they called out after her
" Chick, chick, chick 1" I skinned about half-a dozen
of the little imps of mischief for it, but it only made
them worse ; for they hid in porches, and behind doors,
and gates, and fences, as soon as they seed her a-coming,
and roared out, " Chick, chick, chick 1" and nearly
bothered her to death. So she give going out any more,
and never leaves home now. It's my opinion, her rheu-
matism is nothing but the effect of want of exercise, and
all comes from that cursed • Chick, chick, chick 1' "

According to the oft-quoted fable, a brick is no spe-
cimen of a house, and these extracts give but an
inadequate idea of the fund of wit and wisdom con-
tained in these very amusing ♦olumes.

NEW MUSIC.

1. MY BROAD LANDS I HOLD IN TRUST

FOR THE POOR. Sung by Mr'. Weiss. Com-
posed by E. J. Loden
2. SAY WILT THOU ROAM WITH ME.
Sung by Miss Poole. Composed by E. J. Loder.
3. OH ! WERE NOT THIS A WORK OF

BLISS. Sung by Illiss Poole. Composed by E.

J. Loden
4. OH! SWEET REMEMBRANCE OF
DAYS LONG VANISHED.' Swig by Mr.
Charles Braham. Composed by E. J. Loder.
5. MY VILLAGE CHURCH. Ballad sung by
Mr. Weiss. Composed by E. J. Loder.
The above songs are all from the ballad opera of
Robin Goodfellow, one of the most beautiful of
Loder's compositions, and which is now being
performed nightly at the Princess's Theatre
with almost unexampled success. No. 1 and
No. 5 are bass songs ; both are excellent,
but the melody of the latter is more flowing, and from
the sentiment expressed in the words, and admirably
rendered in the music, it cannot fail to be popular.
No. 1 is a glorious composition, full of spirit and
warmheartedness. It is just the song for an amateur
to sing to a party assembled around tilt Christmas
fireside. Nos. 2 and 3 are beautiful and graceful
melodies, No. 2 being a most agreeable and sparkling
composition. No. 4 is an exquisitely plaintive me-
lody, full of sentiment and expression. It is by no
means difficult of execution, and will no doubt be a
great favourite with all amateurs who possess a to.
lerable tenor voice.

THE HAPPIEST SPOT ON THE OCEAN

A National Song. By J. Beuler.
This is one of the happiest ot Mr. Beulees efforts;
although a chanson de circonstance, more particularly
adapted to the present state ot the times, yet it has so
much character about it that it can never become
obsolete. Both words and melody are full of spirit.
Old Charles Dibdin might have written this song and
have been proud of it.

WOOD'S EDITION OF THE SONGS OF

SCOTLAND.

No. XXII.

The present number of this truly national work
contains the popular songs of " Och! Hey Johnnie
lad ;" "The Night is dark, the Way is long;" "Up
in the Morning early ;" " Annie Laurie; Aiken
Drum ;" " Since all thy Vows, false Maid," (this
beautiful lyric is set to the air of? " Cromlet's Lilt") ;
"O'er the Muir amang the Heather," and "Bonnie
Jean." The pianoforte accompaniments to these
songs are composed by Messrs. Finlay Dun, T. M.
Mudie, J. T. Surenne, and H. E. Dibdin. The
songs are copiously illustrated by notes containing
much curious information, interesting alike to the
musician, the antiquarian, and lover of the romance
of family history. The manner in which this work
is produced reflects the highest credit on its accom-
plished editor, Mr. George Farquhar Graham.

CO CICS' S MUSICAL ALMANAC for 1849,
containing all the Useful Information to be found
in every Almanac. Also, the days of Birth and
Death, and the Remarkable Events appertaining to
all distinguished Musicians and Vocalists of every
Age and Nation.

Had the promises contained in the title-page been
fairly carried out, this would have been really a valu-
able manual of musical information; but, unfor-
tunately, the most important thing recorded of all the
musicians and vocalists whose names are mentioned
in these pages,,,is, that the works they composed, or
the songs they sung, are published by Cocks and Co.
The music shop of Cocks and Co. is, according to this
work, the vestibule to the Temple of Immortality.
It is, in short, an advertisement in the guise of a
goodly octavo pamphlet.

SUSSEX• HALL LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTI-
TUTION.—Last night a ball was given at Willis's Rooms,
King-street, St. James's, under Jewish patronage, to
celebrate the anniversary of the opening of the Jews and
General Literary and Scientific Institution, Sussex-hall,
Leadenhall-street. This institution, with its library,
reading-room, lectures, and evening classes, has supplied
the means of instruction and amusement to great numbers
of persons living in the eastern portion of the metro-
polis, and its success has fully justified the anticipations
of the wealthy and influential Jews who founded it, and
under whose patronage the ball of last night was held.
Between 300 and 400 persons were present, among whom
we observed Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore, Mr. Hana-
nel de Castro, President of the institution; Mr. Salomons,
Mr. C. Anstey, M.P., and several of the vice-presidents
and officers of the institution. Jullien's band discoursed
the sweetest music, Mr. Corrie made an efficient master
of the ceremonies, a liberal supply of refreshments was
at hand, and the dark-eyed Rebeccas and Jessicas were
dancing away as if the Jewish Emancipation Act were
already passed, or if the people had already passed their
own emancipation act who are among the foremost in
acts of charity and liberal and discriminating benevo-
lence towards their fellow-citizens.
MARGATE.—The trial of John Clelan Bennett, the
Margate Savings Bank defaulter, who was committed. to
Dover gaol, has been removed to the assizes, true bills
having been found against him for felony and misde-
meanor.—Contabn Journal.