The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-19 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

•
THE DIADEM.
Smith, London, 1838.
The Editor of this splendid Annual, which is of a full
quarto size, is Miss Sheridan, who is the author of several
lively pieces in prose and verse, which attracted no slight
notice in their day. She has executed her present task
with great ability, selecting only such contributions as are
likely to meet with public favor. The first article in the
volume is a poem from the pen of Thomas Campbell,
which is founded on an interesting anecdote recorded of
Napoleon at the time when he was busy with his army at
Boulogne, preparing for the invasion of England. The
poem is written in a somewhat quaint measure, but con-
tains passages of genuine feeling, as, where describing a
British sailor who had been take❑ prisoner, and carried to
Boulogne, the author says of him,

" They suffered him—l know not how—
Imprisoned on the shore to roam,
And aye was bent his youthful brow,
On England's home.
" His eye, methinks, pursued the flight
Of birds to Britain, half-way over,
With envy—they could reach the white
Dear cliffs of Dover I"
In addition to contributions from the pens of some of
our most eminent living writers, Miss Sheridan has pre-
sented us with some short pieces that have never, we be-
:eve, till now, appeared in print, written by Congrevl, the
famoi. Earl of Chesterfield, the Duke of Richmond, and
the beanial Duchess of Devonshire, of Westminster-
election nutori:°ty. That by the Earl of Chesterfield is a
short poem, court and pointed, penned, in short, in a very
gentleman-usher sort of style, as was the case with the
rhymed bagatelles of poetic,l amateurs of rank and fashion
in those days. The best line jn this lively trifle is
wherein Truth is described as a " strange, old fashioned
fellow," than which no two epithets could have been more
happily characteristic. " Absence" by the Hon. Grantley
Berkley is sad stuff, and reminds us of the " Verses by a
Person of Quality" in Swift's Miscellany. What is to be
said for such a couplet as this ? that
" Oh let the balmy morning breeze this sigh bear on its wing,
And waft it to that shady grove wbere hymns of Nature ring.
Toe words marked in italics are mere expletives—a sacri-
fice of reason to rhyme—and worthy only of the genius of a
fourth-form boy at Eton. " Lines to Lady Emmeline
Stuart Wortley, on seeing how well she looked, after her
hair was cut quite short at Beivoir Castle, in 1838"—haw
exceedingly particular Sir J. Dean Paul is in recording the
dAte of this remarkable operation !—are worthy to vie with
the " Absence" of Mr. Grantley Berkeley. The gift
Baronet after comparing her Ladyship to Sampson---that
prodigy of muscle ! hastens to address her in this comp
mentary couplet :
" Your classic head, when stripped of every tress,
Gaining by loss, looks beautifully less !"
This is unquestionably a striking fact, and one that deserves
to be embalmed in the imperishable poesy of Sir John Dean
Paul, Bart.! What indeed can be more surprising than
that a lady's head should look less, when she has had it clo4
cropped, than when all the hair was growing upon it !
John goes on to observe,—
" Pope would have writ of ravished locks in vain
Had he but seen hew you, by clipping, gain,"
(There is a slight mistake here. Lady Emmeline did sot
" gain by clipping," but her hair-dresser, who was no doubt
handsomely remunerated for the operation.)
" And Beauty's critics, seeing what you are,
Would say that now you're suited to a hair !" no
Beauty's critics—begging the poet's pardon—would sai
such thing ; but on the contrary, they would say that a 1:1;:',
with her head shaved, might be suited to a wig, but eertalpnlY,
not " to a hair," inasmuch as there would not be a siafie,° a
left upon her scalp. " The Captive of Tripolitza rdsh
well told anecdote, by Mr. Cochrane ; and the " Tur ect
Lady's Morning" a lively extract from an which
journal, by Mrs. Fitzroy Howard. The engravings; i.heita,
are not less than thirteen in number, are, many 0' - m
00,
of very superior merit. Among the best we may mean _
" The Jealous Italian," which is executed by Cooke fro
0(1
design by Perring ; " Turkish Ladies," " Jeannette," aof
the " Border Harvest Scene," which last contains one
the loveliest female faces we ever met with. unpublishr!cu

Earl Fitwilliatn has given the munificent sum of
6001. towards furnishing a museum to the Geological All
Polytechnic Society of the NV.,sat Riding of Yorkshire. x.retr
It appears, by accounts from St. John S, 11
u ad rp.
Brunswick, of the 16th ult., that the fret had set in most .
usually early, and in very open parts oi' the country. h_.,
already seriously injured the crops of potatoes anti buck whe,7l
His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex,
by Lord John Spencer Churchill, was expected to arrive )1e....5
terday on a visit to Lord Dundas, at Upleatham Hall, nerd
Guisborough, Yorkshire, from Raby Castle. His Royal HlP-
!less will next proceed on a visit to Mark Milbank, Esq., 5°11"
in-law of the Duke of Cleveland, at Thorpe Hall; and subse"
quently to Kinwell Park, St. Asaph, the seat of Lord Dilisr"
ben, where he will pass his Christmas. :IWO tr.
Sir Robert and Lady Peel have given np their COO
templated excursion to the Continent, i
on account of the au-
vanced state of the season. Sir Alexander Grant Sir
Follett, aid. Mr. Croker, ~ho have been visit for soma
days to Sir Robert, have left foi.leir respecotinvearesidences.
Yesterday, Lord Howard at. Walden, Ambassador
to Portugal, had a conference with Dr. Quail and Mr. Brad-
William
ford, Agents for the Spanish Auxiliary Legion, on the subject
of forming a Joint Commission, to examine the British military
claims on Portugal, so long delayed.
FAMINE IN INDIA.—Most ?eplorable accounts
have reached this country from the Upper Provinces of India.
by which it appears that myriads of working people have lis.,eo
reduced to starvation through the general s.atern of making
e
their subsistence contingent upon a certain pratortion of th
produce they raise, instead of paying them a fixti amountra,
re-
gularly in the shape of money-wages. The Cis of Ag
which contains about 80,000 inhabitants, has had its opulatiou
fully doubled by an influx of perishing paupers, and t ntrrn
00u
her of these victims to disease and hunger amounted O,
per
WORCESTER HOPS, OCT. 17.—Considering 'C
shortness of the growth, our market on Saturday Watched
supplied with new hops, from 7 to 800 pockets being,P__'i "offe,
for sale ; but so very inferior were most of the samples in Oder,
that the trade could not be prevailed upon to Purchilgtes d fullalthough offered at a further decline from former radon°, 'all
12s, per cwt., consequently but little business was yearlings
277 pockets of new and 46 of old being weighed: enerall;
and the finest old hops are in most request, being forisigbr•
preferred to new, and are verittle lower the last
DDuty estimated at 4,0001. Weighed during th week's
uty
New, 34 pockets; old, 20 ; new Worcesters,_ brownoe to
mou'dy, 565. to 755. ; best, 8 is. to 106 i. ; YearlingS'
95s ; 1835's and 1836'5, 38s. to 655.
v On el;,erl
WEST RIDING DEMONSTRATIO—•-- or evo
highway and bye-road, approaching within seven
Monday last
miles of the place of meeting* were to be seen on seding
banners of various descriptions, floating in the hir,Srees'oacel
groups of men from different towns and villages, a arance °
trating tn the grand point of attraction. The aPPesig. ill
the
.meeting from the hustings was particularly Plea speakers'
addition to the immense mass immediately below tbE' what tv. a,s
were hundreds, who, finding it impossible to hear otairiro
said, were pacing the extremities of the Green, or
oceas#l'
refreshments at the numerous booths erected for.the s Vire
Amongst these were several bands of music in uniform,. dirigg,
have neither space nor time to comment upon the
but we have no hesitation to state, that we pro.ee! every
eonce_lv:i such°
effort to miscalculate or undervalue the importance beet%
an assemblage as an impolitic act. It is impoliti i bit sh
the state of public feeling should be fairly represent : 01/atteirs
public Press, and it is doubly reprehensibler oasio. 0
yvherein not only the decision of a great politicat,.q.be otiol
involved, but wherein also the peace and welfare
.otJeti is we,',/-
are so deeply implicated. The address of Mr. Fie„;_forper "
deserving the deep consideration of every sincere rt.
the working classes.—York Courant.
,relics arld CO(Cir
WALLACE'S SWORD.— Among the the spat
iu
riosities preserved in Kinfauns Castle, Perthshire,,. soba _
Lord Gray, is a sword said to have belonged toot I''',o. ?Oil_
Wallace. Kinfauns was at one time the property
tr'sdition
and. the,
.., tbc
wag
de Longueville, the friend of Wallace ;
history of the family is that the Scottishpatriot antvo.o
ro it
ors
1300, presented this weapon to his friend, by
__lio°o_ i',_e_
carefully cherished, and bequeathed to his ss!cce!:abiecoliccrt
Gray has appropriated a conspicuous place in his. vari__ts oe.iia._.ro
tion to this precious relic of the mighty dead.; It firiscript:li,
of frame-work by the wall, accompanied
relatin; its history and antiquity. The sworee,.',usted prier
_t
with
.au,,_ ioncv
large and double-handed—a rude powerful b.laad It' boa rerieL
with what may well be the rust of five centuric-. ,_ ,ay ftln"a
venerable and imposing appearance, and anion: r h.
-, Wag • 'near
ture of the lordly mansion, contrasts almost
lf
oirld app
seems as strange, as the Wallace wight_himse
_wroriesi...e
set down in a modern drawing-room.— invernetiro`"ThrSha;;,
ELOPEMENT EXTRAORDINARY:-- _of 40 Y,e_xit,
last, the 12th instant, a lady of the juvenile agnug_..„ercis;_.
and weighing nearly 20 stone, the wife of an Standingra e'" si% feet
eloped with a discharged invalid dragoon, ~_,,,,tis tirn_lt.,
high. The parties left this place ( Chatharh)a7 Loot " I
`I, tie.
o'clock, leaving the husband minus nearly 200,1; 11,/, („.a.e .1
_._,Aerate":l in tlica
of plate. Fortunately they have no family.
Several inhabitants of Geneva, it Is st_ 5 back, A
Journal de l'Ain, were en the qui vive a feW.al".3„sobserve`;',
consequence of an extraordinary movement which wl, niseo ?!
from the towers of the church of St. Peterl to
etes"e_lied
tantn u
the road from La Faucille to Gex, and svhich rie.,l%poo.
march of a number of military squadrons adral'?...s.birtore ti'
city. The invaders ultimately proved to ben ottnub
a herd of cows descending from the Jura.
On Wednesday night, between elevens.ding in fore,
o'clock, as the groom of 'Lyon Stevens, Esq.,.re ' -a eabriol
ith b' d per"
man-square, was waiting for his master w
corned
o_,e,
near Drury-lane Theatre, some musicians
alarm
street
the h r,to
forming, the noise of whose instruments so
ci' as
egAtre.." on
are
that he dashed from the opposite side of Bry
sg _ /are s!fore
the foot pavement, and forced his head through a
~,.
so— 13'" se
of plate Hass in :Ile shop wirdow of. Mr.
.Th_ oen'l2,sivs vere
.1_
the animal had power to extricate ,linrelt th ", bv junipLl
caP the broke
cured by c. policeman. The groom had. .es d ebuy '
from the cab. The horse was severely injure and twelv:
glass.