The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-05 00:00:00

DUBLIN UNIVERSITY.

We are gratified in being abletOl;;stow our usual
meed of commendation on this excellent periodical.
The number for the present month is rich and
varied. We are glad to see some poetical contribu-
tions from new hands, yet we believe it will not
create surprise if we say we miss Mangan and
and M'Carthy from the "Poet's Corner." The first.
paper is a notice of the curious and able work of Mr
Layard, " Nineveh and its Remains, with an account
of a visit to the Chaldean Christians, Christians of
Kurdistan, and the Yezidie, or Devil-worshippers; and
an inquiry into the manners and arts of the ancient
Assyrians." The introductory remarks on this work
exhibit a profound knowledge of ancient history, and
will be read with deep interest by all who feel a
pleasure in exploring the awful labyrinths of an.
tiquity, and examining the relique
so f the mighty
past. "Sympathies," bArSperanza, is full of high and
pure feeling. "The Sacking of Seville," by J. S.; this
specimen of descriptive ballad poetry is founded on
the conquest of Seville by a band of Norse Sea-rovers
in 844—and exhibits poetical talents of a very high
order. The "Portrait Gallery" next demands our
attention, and gratified as we frequently have been
by the able and graphic sketches of eminent persons
which from time to time have graced the pages of
this magazine, we will confess we have never been
more so than by the selection of the learned bio-
grapher on the present occasion. The nation owes
a debt of gratitude to him who would rescue from
an unworthy oblivion the name of the honest and
eloquent Peter Burrowes. It is not difficult to draw
a fancy sketch, and raise it into an idol, draped out
in all the turgid and tawdry colouring of flattery,
but judiciously to blend the lights and shades of hu-
man character requires the nice perceptions of a
master mind. The biographer of Mr. Burrowes has
eminently succeeded in this—he has touched with a
gentle hand the amiable peculiarities of his subject
while he has raised forth in high relief the nobler at-
tributes of his warm heart, his sound judgment, and
his unswerving moral purity. Mr.Burrowes was one
of the most eloquent advbcateilgof the Irish bar, and
when that bar was then composed of such men as
Plunket, Saurin, Bush, and Curran, this is no small
compliment. In politics he was a Whig and a warm
advocate of the emancipation of his Roman Catholic
countrymen. He was on terms of close intimacy
with the then revolutionary spirits of his native laud,
yet he never for a moment wavered in his allegiance
as a loyal subject. He was a Member of the Irish
House of Commons, and a strenuous opponent of the
Act of Union, and after having filled the office of Judge
of the Insolvent Court for many years, he died in
1841, in the 88th year of his age—full of years
and honour leaving behind him, in the words
of his graceful and eloquent biographer, " both
as a public and a private man, a character
for transcendent ability and unblemished inte-
grity, quite unrivalled in the annals of his native
land." Altogether, we have seldom been more pleased
than in perusing the dignified simplicity and im-
pressive truthfulness with which the character of this
amiable man has been so happily and so successfully
sketched. "My First Legacy is a short, simple,
and graphic tale. We would suggest to the writer
to eschew pocket-books and bank-notes, and apply to
the gentle being he refers to with such tenderness, and
if she can't cure his troubled fancy, and save him from
the ghcst of Mr. Savall, his isdisease beyond our
skill, and we would consign him t,oth e hospital for
incurables. The contiuuation of , Ceylon nd the
C ingalese" is as interesting
,iand amusing as usual.
The paper entitled "The 2nies, Lord Brougham,
and the Irish Law Courts, is written in a spirited
and patriotic tone. " The Seamen of the Cyclades" is
continued in the same graceful and classic vein
which evoked our commendation in a former
"Sir ltobert
notice. The paper puder the head of

1849.

Peel on Confiscation," is able and argumentative, but
our limited space will not allow us to enter into the
merits of the points et issue. " Northern India," a
poem—though perhaps not appearing out of phiee at
the present moment, should not have lain so long on
the shelf; it is an effusion of genuine poetical feeling,
fail of pure and noble sentiments. "The ETTligrante
Ship," and " The Emigrant's Tomb," are simple and
full of true feeling. The lines to the " Sybil" are
playful and witty. This number closes with a paper
on the " Tuscan Revolution ;" the closing sentences
would seem to have been suggested by somewhat of a
prophetic spirit. In reference to Carlo Alberto, the
writer asks—" Or will he, failing to profit by the fate
of the Pope or the Grand Duke, enter upon that fatal
course which begins by an orgie of popular enthu-
siasm, and ends at Gaeta?' The fate of the Pope con-
veyed no lesson of wisdom to Charles Albi rt. His
sceptre is in the talons of the prowl eagle of Austria.
In the present state of Ireland we must expect to find
her national periodical noticing the political events of
the day ; but we u ill confess we would wish to see the
fair garden of literature as little as possible disfigured
by the unsightly weed of politics.