The Sun.
London, England, 1849-09-07 00:00:00

THE SON

MAGAZINES, &c.—(CO NTINUED.)

L. dra in the d
present nuinb,:r of Tait, be true—if the Polish nobles
bear the remotest resemblance to Count Stanoiki and
his son Casimir, then we are not in the least surprised
at the failure of the outbreak of 1845, or at the
massacres of the nobles by the serfs. The nobles
should have come into court with clean hands, and have
commenced their movement by giving to others that
which they claimed for themselves—liberty. Any
Polish movement to deserve success should begin
by a general emancipation of the serfs.
The " Modern Vassal" is to be concluded
in the next number. Tait this month is rich in tales
of travel. The most interesting of these is " There
and Back Again," a sentimental journey, by James
Augustus St. John. In the present portion of his
narrative Mr. St. John takes us over the Simplon to
Milan, and thence through Lombardy into Piedmont.
He is the most delightful of travelling companions,
tells a piquant anecdote with the most exquisite point
in the world, and dashes off a sketch of society with
the ease and spirit of a Balzac. As a specimen of his
descriptive powers, take the following picture of the
passage of the Simplon before sunrise :
" Never shall I forget that morning. Far in the dis-
tance behind us the summits of the Bernese Alps,
blanched with snow, pierced the sky, while the bright
moonlight seemed to repose with pleasure on their cold,
glittering peaks. Towards the southwest the sight
plunged down a series of deep valleys, partly lighted up
by the moon, partly enveloped in shadow, while one
solitary lamp from some window, perhaps in Brigg,
sparkled like a star among the rocks below. Scattered
masses of white, silvery vapour hovered over the distant
valleys and lowlands far beneath, and looked like a
broken floor, through which the moon's rays penetrated
to the earth. Close by the road, chasms, which in the
moonlight appeared of prodigious depth, wound along,
while rapid torrents, whose white foam was once or twice
visible between the dark pines, brawled and roared at
the bottom. Here and there, vast conical mountains
sprang up from these abysses, and their white heads,
clothed with preternatural beauty by the moonlight, at
once astonished and delighted the imagination. The
stars shone with amazing brightness, and the constella-
tion of the Great Bear, in particular, seemed to have a
brilliance and beauty I had never observed before. But
the exquiste beauty of the dawn surpassed everything.
The snow-sprinkled peaks of the Alps now seemed to
become transparent; while starlight, moonlight, and the
pale yellow metallic brilliance of the sky, flushed with
the first approaches of the dawn, diffused over every
rock, and glen, and stream, and forest, and glacier, a
wild, sparkling, mysterious, unearthly beauty, which
electrified the very soul. I see lam repeating the same
terms again and again; but language, with all its plastic
power, is insufficient to render with fidelity the nume-
rous exquisite emotions which at such times crowd upon
the mind. I was certainly for a time literally `wrapt,
inspired.' Heaven appeared to touch earth, and
Poetry sat enthroned upon the mountains."
But it is not alone amusement that may be found in
the perusal of this new sentimental journey ; the
conversations of the various travellers are replete not
with wit only, but with wisdom. What can be more
just than the following criticism on Machiavelli:—
" Machiavelli,' he replied, was essentially a revolu-
tionary writer; he despised all the established govern-
meats of his time, and laboured earnestly to subvert
them by propagating those principles of expediency
which render men indifferent respecting the means they
employ to accomplish their ends; he esteemed liberty
the greatest good that men can enjoy, and thought them
justified in wading to it through seas of blood. The
princes and rulers of his time set no value on human
life, which they sacrificed in all ways to gratify their
most despicable caprices. He therefore counselled the
people to follow their example, and laboured all his hie
to undermine the sentiment of respect for greatness
which is one of the most fatal weaknesses incident to
human nature. To dissipate this feeling, he dwells on
the crimes and follies of kings and princes, and seeks
to overwhelm them beneath a load of contempt. No
man can rise from the perusal of Machiavelli with the
same sentiment of loyalty with which he commenced it.
His attack is conducted in the most insidious manner,
for he often praises what he wishes you to hate; but is
careful that his praise should be calculated to provoke
your detestation.'
" Strange,' interposed Carlotta, that of so great a
man's life so little, comparatively, should be known.'
" ' Signora,' replied Castrucci, the lives of the greatest
men the world has ever produced have been obscure,
like his. We see the effects their genius produced, but
are unable to measure the productive force; just as, in
our own country, we behold a mountain thrown up into
the air by volcanic agency, but never perceive the power
at work.' "

What may be the length of the journey which Mr.
St. John contemplates we know not, but if he goes on
as he has begun the longer it is the better. Among
the works of imagination in the present number of
Tait there is one which is quite a literary curiosity ;
it is entitled " Tarass Boulba," and is a translation
from the Russian of Nicolas Gogol of a tale illus-
trating the manners of the Zaporog Cossacks. Under
the title " The Hungarian and European Wars,"
Tuit gives a resume of the history of the last eighteen
months, which he thus concludes :—" This is the
wretched end of an eighteen months' struggle for
freedom, and the game might have been better
played." Undoubtedly it might, but the end has not
arrived yet. "If it was na weel bobbit we'll bob it
again."

TILE HISTORY OF PENDE NNIS. No. XI.

By TV. 111 Thackeray.

Pendennis is now regularly engaged on the " Pall
Mall Gazette," and the present number of his history
is replete with piquant sketches of the purveyors of
periodical literature of every grade. The description
of the grand dinner given by Bungay, the publisher,
to the contributors to the " Pall Mall Gazette," of
which he is proprietor and publisher, is one of the best
pictures of society that Mr. Thackeray has yet gives
us, but it is unfortunately too long to extract. The
following could have been written only by one who
had himself been behind the scenes :

"Considerable success at first attended the new journal.
It was generally stated, that an influential political party
supported the paper; and great names were cited amongst
the. contributors to its columns. Was there any founda-
tion for these rumours? We are not at liberty to say
whether they were well or ill founded; but this much we
may divulge, that an article upon foreign policy, which
was generally attributed to a Noble Lord, whose con-
nexion with the Foreign-office is very well known, was
in reality composed by Captain Shandon, in the parlour
of the Bear and Staff public-house near Whitehall-
stairs, whither the printer's boy had tracked him, and
where a literary ally of his, Mr. Bludyer, had a tem-
porary residence; and that a series of papers on finance
questions, which were universally supposed to be written
by a great Statesman of the House of Commons, were
in reality composed by Mr. George Warrington of the
Upper Temple. That there may have been some deal-
ings between the Pall Mall Gazette' and this influential
party, is very possible. Percy Popjoy (whose father,
Lord Falconet, was a member of the party) might be
seen not unfrequently ascending the stairs to Warring-
ton's chambers ; and some information appeared in the
paper which gave it a character, and could only be got
from very peculiar sources. Several poems, feeble in
thought, but loud and vigorous in expression, appeared
in the Mall Gazette,' with the signature of P. P.';
and it must be owned that his novel was praised in the
new journal in a very outrageous manner."

HOME.

BY TEE BEY. JOHN YOUNG.
(From Eliza Coot's Journal.)

" Our home is not where we are, but where we wish
..._

to be."—DIAMoND DUST.

'Tis Home where the heart is, wh, rever that be,
In city, in desert, on mountain,• in dell ;
Not the grandeur, the number, the objects we see,
But that which we love is the magical spell.
'Tis this gives the cottage a charm and a grace,
Which the glare of a palace but rarely has known;
It is this, only this, and not station or place,
Which gives being to pleasure, which makes it our own.
Like the dove on the waters, a rest•place to find,
In vain for enjoyment o'er nations we roam;
Home only can yield real joy to the mind,
And there where the heart is, there only is home.

COURT CIRCULAR.
BALMORAL, SEPT. 3.
Her Majesty and the Prince, accompanied by the
Princess Royal, the Princess Alice, and Prince Alfred,
drove out in a pony. carriage this afternoon.
The Prince of Wales, attended by Mr. Birch, rode out
on horseback.
The Earl of Aberdeen has arrived on a visit to the
Queen.

SEPT. 4.
Her Majesty will hold a Privy Council this afternoon.
The Council will he attended by his Royal Highness
Prince Albert. Lord John Russell, the Earl of Aber-
deen, and Earl Grey.
Dispatches were received yesterday at the Colonial
office from the Lord Iligh Commissioner of the lonian
Islands, and from the Governor of Gibraltar.
Viscount Palmerston returned to town on Wednesday
evening.

SUDDEN DEATH OF Miss HOBHOUSE.—We regret
to state that the above young lady died yesterday, at
Erlestoko Park, the seat of Sir John Ifobhouse, alter a
very short illness. Sir John had just returned from a
tour in the Channel Islands with his family, when Miss
flobhouse was suddenly seiz2d with illness, which, un-
fortunately, ended fatally.
DEATH OF COULON THE DANCEIt.—CGUIOD, the
well known operatic dancer, died at Paris a few days ago
of cholera.

WREXHAM THEATRE.—This place of amusement
will be opened by Mr. George Owen, the celebrated
tragedian, on the Ist of October, the opening play being
Othello—Othello by Mr. Gt•orge Oven, who has gone
to a very heavy expense in newly decorating this beau-
tiful theatre in a novel manner;. the walls are hung with
300 yards of costly chintz, and tce theatre elegantly
beau: ified.

AMERICAN IcE —Amongst the late imports into
Liverpool, we notice 200 tons of Wenhain Lake Ice,
which has b,'en imported by the proprietor of /the
Waterloo Hotel. As the stcck of this article on hand
was rapidly diminishing, this arrival has come in good
time.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

przo-,1: T"1! PArt. OF TITIS

,

os er-seuguiee pessehs suppose," that the new Muriel et"
of France, who had laved a great portion of his life out
of his own country, and who had sojourned for many
years in England and America, would nee the propriety
and fitness of abolishing the execrable passport system.
But though the Duke of Orleans, subsequently King of
the French, must have been well aware of the folly and
and futility of the passport system—though he must
have been aware how much it interfered with the busi-
ness avocations, the pleasures, and the free power of
locomotion, of Frenchmen and foreigners—though he
must have known how little security it afforded to the
honest and well-intententioned—and how little calcu-
lated it was to put a bit or a bridle into tl e mouths of
knaves—yet for 18 years he and his various Ministers
suffered the execrable, the lying, the fraudulent, aed the
exacting system to continue, to the shame and disgrace
of France, and to the spoliation and an-
noyance, not alone of natives, but of all
foreigners of all nations. Such a system of
fraud—such a means of rising money—such a
despotic interference with the liberty of the subjece was
well worthy of that Government which raised the budget
which in 1829 was fixed for 1830 by the Government of
Charles X. at 972 millions of francs, to one millard and
a half. The time for delusion, for deceit, and for tric-
kery, is now past, and it is due to history and to truth
to declare that never was there so reckless, so profligate,
and expensive a Government in France as that of the ex-
King Louis Philippe the First. At the commencement
of the present century, and in the most glorious epoch of
the Consulate, a budget of 500 millions sufficed. In 1807,
in a period of five years, those 500 millions increased
only to 720—in 1810 they had risen to 795 millions—
and in 1814 and 1815, with all the expenses of a restora-
tion, of a restored nobility, and of indemnised emigrants,
the budget was only 884 millions. In 1822, the year
before the expedition of the Duke of Augouleme into
Spain, it was 912 millions; and in 1829, the last year of
the restoration, it was 972 millions. The revolution of
1830, however—called the best of republics—namely, a
monarchy surrounded by republican institutions—greatly
increased the public burdens. The lowest budget of the
Government of July was that of 1835, which amounted
to one milliard twenty-one millions. In the twelve years
from 1835 to 1847 the budget of the fallen Government
presented a scale of continued and progressive elevation,
till at length it attained, as we have already stated, the
enormous figure of more than a milliard and a half. The
disproportion between income and expenditure—not-
withstanding all the legerdemain tricks of French finan-
ciers—must have ended in bankruptcy by 1850, had not
bankruptcy been anticipated by a revolution in 1848.
Bad, however, as the financial condition of France was,
public liberty suffered in a greater degree at the hands
of the best of republics. In 1827, 1828, and 1829,
though passports existed in France, yet, except in gar-
rison and frontier towns, they were rarely demanded,
and foreigners were under no obligation to take a
passe provisoire. But, no sooner had the " best of re-
publics" been installed in 1830, than this system was
altogether changed. Vises and examinations greatly
multiplied, and every foreigner was obliged on landing
to take a passe provisoire at an expense of two francs.
For very many years, we entertain no manner of doubt,
that the yearly tribute derived from the English
alene, in this respect, amounted to an annual sum of
eighty thousand pounds or more, making, from
the period of the accession of Louis Philippe down to
February, 1848, a sum, in round numbers, amounting to
about 1,500,000/. What became of this money, or how
it was applied, we have no means of informing our
readers. But this we will say, that a more unjust or
more iniquitous spoliation was never committed by one
civilised government upon the subj, eta of another than
the exaction of this money in de tail. The pecuniary
sacrifice and expeucliture, however, was by no means
the worst feature of the transaction. Most of the per-
sons who travel abroad are psrsons in the batter classes
of life, in very easy circumstances, to whom a sum of
one shilling and eightpe rice is of no manner of moment.
The pecuniary tax, though a most unjust one, was not,
therefore, half so much felt as the unwarrantable inter-
, feience with one's personal liberty. An Englishman,
whether of the highest or of the lowest rank, always felt
himself degraded by this passport system. He was
obliged to attend himself, or to send a commissioner from
his hotel, at the bureau de police of the frontier town
at which he landed, and there his signalrnent, or per-
sonal description, was entered down in a book, and re-
gistered on the passe provisoire which he obtained. This
signabnent, meant for the protection of himself and
others, was in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred
grossly incorrect. We have seen passports by hundreds,
in which men with blue eyes were described as men
with grey, in which men with brown hair were de-
scribed as black haired, and in which men and women
of fair complexions were described as basanes, or tawny.
We have seen passports in which women of sixty were de-
scribed as thirty and thirty-five, and men of seventy-two
and seventy-five as forty-eight, and fifty. If the system
were good for anything—which it plainly is not— it
should have been strictly and correctly enforced by a
proper and trustworthy description; whereas, not in
one instance in 20,000 was the description given of
Englishmen, or any other foreigners, in the faintest de •
gree correct, or even approaching to correctness. Nor
was the system more exact in reference to French man
or French women. We have seen French men with
long faces described in the passport as " visage ovale,"
and French women with long sharp chins described as
menton rend. The system, though so vexatious, mi-
nute, and exacting, afforded no security what-
ever. So notorious and well-known a personage as
the Duchess of Berry, at a period when her capture
would have been of the highest importance, traversed
France from one end to the ether without recognition or
discovery; and Don Carlos, a personage equally well
known, made his escape from London to Spain, though
the French police and all the prefects and gensdarmes of
the kingdom were on the alert. A more striking in-
stance, however, is afforded in the case of the present
President of the French Republic, M. Louis Napoleon
Bonaparte, who, though well known in that part of the
country, escaped from the fortress of Ham, in Picardy,
with a false passport, and arrived safely in London. How
a man who availed himself of a false passport to deceive
the police and gensdarmes, and who succeeded in deceive
ing them, can allow so worthless and vexatious a system
to continue, we cannot imagine. The whole thing, from be-
ginning to end, is a delusion and a mockery, affording no one
real advantage, harassing the honest and well-intentioned,
arid too often misleading the officers of justice in pursuit
of criminals. Chateaubriand, in his most interesting
memoirs just published, tells us, that when proscribed as
an emigrant he lived during the Consulate in Paris for
many months as a Swiss, with a passport under the name
of Lassaing; and we have ourselves known three Minis-
ters of Charles X. and one Ambassador (two of the gen-
tlemen are still alive) who lived in Paris for months
under false names and with false passports when a price
was upon their heads. To suppose that the passport
system favours the detection of criminals and aids the
French police in scenting them out is the greatest of all
delusions. There is not a bagne in France, from Brest
to Toulon, in which there is not a regular fabric of
false passports—nor a large town in which a criminal
cannot find a passport and a disguise for a very small
sum. The escape of so many criminals—political
and social—during the last 18 months under a pass-
port system affords the best evidence of the utter
worthlessness of that system. Political criminals have
always been more vigorously hunted down in France
than murderers or forgerers ; yet within a few months
see how Caussidiere, Louis Blanc, Ledru Rollin, Boichot,
Demontry, Felix Pyat, and so many hundreds of others,
have escaped. Compare this system with our own, in
which, without passports, Manning and his wits., Tawell,
and the murderer of Mrs. Henrichson at Liverpool, are
apprehended almost instantaneously, and there can be
no question as to which is the more efficient and prefer-
able, on every public, private, and social ground. At
the present season, when so many English are leaving
London, many of whom land at Boulogne, Dieppe,
Calais, and Havre, the discussion of such topics is ex-
tremely opportune. English interests at Paris ought
surely to be represented by the only English journal in
that capital, Galignani, and we could wish to see that
paper directing the attention of the French Govern-
ment to a grievance which must, more or less, affect
every one of its subscribers.

ADVERTISER.—The slaveholders of the -United
States appear to have great expectations in reference to
California, expectations which, if realised, will convert
that El Dorado into a scene such as the most fiendish
spirits in this or any inferior world must contemplate
with ineffable delight. They have discovered that slave-
labour will be very profitable in that country, "parti-
cularly so since the discovery of the gold mines." Their
unbiassed judgment, after due consideration of the whole
subject, leads them to the conclusion that " no Lbour
can be so well adapted for mining purposes as slave-
labour;" and they are quite satisfied that the people of
California will soon ascertain this fact to a demonstra
tion, and, as the result, insist on the introduction of
slaves into that country. Of course it will create no
surprise in the mind of any one, that there shoal be
found in our day, as there have been in former times,
men so completely under the influence of selfish prin-
ciples, as to be morally incapable of perceiving the ini-
quity of anything by which their lust of gain may be
gratified. If these men, who have accustomed them-
selves to regard one portion of the human family as
essentially inferior to themselves, and created for the
purpose of occupying a place scarcely superior to
that of beasts of burden, should now discover that
Africans were created expresfly to fill the pockets, and
augment the happiness of southern men, the discovery
would be just such as we should expect them to make,
and every way worthy of the men by whom it might be
made. It would, however, then remain a question, in
the solution of which we should take a deep interest,
how far these men are under the control of pu4lic opi-
nion throughout the world, and we should be concerned
to ascertain whether or not there is power in the
Northern States of America, in Great Britain, or in
other non-slave-holding countries, to prevent these mon-
sters in human shape sporting with the feelings of hu-
manity, and re-enacting the worst deeds that have
blackened the annals of man's history. It is somewhat
amusing to observe the manner in which the slave-
holding Americans deprecate all interfence, on the part
of Congress, with ti-eir assumed " right" to do wrong to
the slaves whom they are anxious to carry into Cali-
fornia. "For the Congress to interfere with that right
to introdue them would be not only unconstitutional, but
grossly oppressive and unjust." How strange—
that men whose occupation is to trample on the
rights of human nature, and grind their victims
in the dust, should still have such a delicate sense of
justice in reference to their own most precious selves.
'rho Congress will, we hope, when this most important
question comes under discussion, for ever disappoint the
expectations of the men who, without its sanction, will
be unable to accomplish the purpose on which they are
intel•t. It is a happy circumstance, in favour of those
who are destined by these slave-mongers to toil for