The Sun.
London, England, 1836-05-02 00:00:00

" Letters from the South." These letters, now in the
course oF publica!'on in the " New Monthly," less reject
the sentiments and feelings or a poet, than they exhibit the
keen sagacity and enlarged political views of a statesman
and a philosopher. Occasionally the " Bard Hope" C.e_
votes a page to t'- e description of African scenery, and
when he does, Lis sketches have all the seeming reality and
the vividness of panoramic paint'ngs ; but for the most
part he ( onfines himself to the delineation of the social
condition of the African,, and more especially to tl:e mea-
sures resorted to by the French Government, for the pur-
pose of effecting a permanent sett!ement wierin the Re-
gency of Algiers. The French are proverbially the worst
colonial ru!ers in the world : at once haughty and unstable,
bigoted and profane, rapacious and unprincipled—they are
feared, not reverenced by the natives of their colonial pus.
sessions in every part of the world. Should they persist
in following Clausel's policy with respect to the native in-
habitants of Algiers, the permanence of their dominion in
Africa may yet admit of question. It is to be hoped, how-
ever, that the opinions of such a man as Thomas Camp-
bell—as distinguished for his patriotism as for his poesy—an
unbiassed and unprejudiced witness of the working of the
French system—will have their due weight with the present
Cabinet of France.
The first letter contains an account of 4 terrific storm at
Algiers on the 11 th and 12th of February, 1835. The
loss of property on this dreadful occasion was estimated at
one hundred and twenty millions of francs. The coast was
st:ewed with wrecks. In the midst of this awful scene the
following characteristic trait of British heroism was mani-
fested. We trust the Captain and his " Noble boy" may
attract the notice of the Lords of the Admiralty :
" One glorious instance of intrepidity was given, I am happy
to say, by an Englishman. The French have not published
it, but they speak of it with due and high admiration. The
captain of a British merchantman, whose name I am sorry I
omitted to leant, though he was pointed out to me, had con-
fidence enough in his own seamanship to weather the whole
storm, and when a boat was sent out to bring him ashore, he
calmly said, That it was his duty to save the ship and cargo
if he could, and that he would do his duty.' His vessel, a
puny looking thing of some fifty tons, had a crew of five men,
four of whom he sent ashore, and retained only one sailor,
besides his own son, a boy only ten years old. ' Why retain
the poor child ?' you will say. I tell you he was no poor
child, but a noble boy, and he persisted in refusing to leave
his father. Nor was this a freak of rashness on the part of
the captain, but an act of cool and calculating bravery. He
I:new the strength of his little brig, and trusted to the tena-
city of both his anchors. He even reckoned that he should
be safe with one of them, should it be necessary to cut the
cable of the other. This manoeuvre eventually became ne-
cessary. During those two awful days, the main cause of
destruction to the ships was their running foul of each other;
accordingly when one or two of the miserable drifting wrecks
were coming down, and ready to bump him to destruction, he
cut his cable and swung out of bumpint, reach.
When I saw this brave mariner and his boy, the counte-
nance of the former struck me by its expression of mildness
almost amounting to simplicity : it reminded me of one of
Morland's best pictures of an English peasant."
" Songs and Chorusses of the Flowers," by Leigh Hunt,
are as buoyant and beautiful as we could desire to read on
a May morning. But, alas ! on this particular morning
Nature and the Poet are at sixes and sevens ; for while
the latter is all smiles and sweetness, the former looks as
sour and as surly as an old woman whose last grinder is
attacked with toothache. The greater is the poet's merit
say we. W,hatever others may think, we are 0b1i.2-ed to
Leigh Hunt for verses which hold "a mirror up to Nature
and which, if she be not bereft of all feeling, will undoubi
edly make her ashamed of herself.

Miss Landon's songs are pretty, and that is as much as
we can say for them. We are surprised that this elegant
writer should be so led astray by her judgment as con-
stantly to seek occasions of pourtraying the feelings, and
describing the passions of the male sex. There is some-
thing disagreeable--at least to us—in female portraitures of
abstract male characters, when intended to represent men
of fashion. We do not mean this to apply to such charac-
ters as Charles Bouverie and Horace Langham, although
both are as insipid and useless as the most celebrated of their
class. " Liberty and Slavery in America" is a much more
amusing article than our readers would suppose merely from
the title. The anecdotes of the kissing parties, and the
zeal of the Methodist Preachers, are very amusing. The
following pithy address from a pulpit would have had a very
different effect upon a London congregation from what it
appears to have had upon our Trans-Atlantic brethren :
—" People say that I bawl—let them. God has given me
lungs to bawl, and I will bawl !" " The Wild Honey-
suckle," by the author of " Corn Law Rhymes," is full of
sublime imagery, and true poetic feeling. But the lines
are rugged, and sometimes the sentiment is only half ex-
pressed. The critical notices and notes for the month arc,
as usual, very carefully written.

THE UNITED SERVICE JOURNAL.
Henry Colburn.

• This Number is more generally entertaining than any
that have preceded it. " A Few Days at the Head-
quarters of Don Carlos," though written by a violent
partizan of that Prince, is full of interesting anec-

dote. The writer was introduced to Don Carlos
whom he describes as " below the middle height,
fair complexioned; with light hair, wearing an enormous
moustache." He says that his air is princely, and his ad-
dress polished and elegant. He also assures us with equal
candour and naivete, that The true reason why Don
Carlos does not march forward, is his want of arms
and ammunition : with an army nominally exceeding
sixty thousand men, he has not muskets and bayo-
nets to arm one-fourth of- that number : this is the

true state of the case, and the only impediment
in the way of Don Carlos !" This reminds us of the tale
of the Physician, who discovered that, to restore a deca-
pitated criminal for life, it was only requisite to re-unite
the head and body, and re-produce animal sensation as it
existed previous to the death of the subject of so sage an
experiment. But on the whole the article is well written,
and generally interesting.
The " Conscript" is a stirring tale, but so sentimental that
we wonder how it came to find its way into the pages of
the United Service Journal. If the occurrence arose from
negligence on the part of the Editor, we are not sorry ; if
from a desire to render this periodical a greater favourite
with the ladies, we are extremely glad. We think it might
be improved by Makin.- it less exclusive ; and we have no
doubt but that the officers, naval and military, would like it
all the better for an occasional dash of sentiment. The usual
naval and military intelligence for the month is well selected,
including a mass of important private correspondence.

ASIATIC JOURNAL.
Allen and Co., Lea(knhall-street.

The great value of this Journal consists in the copious-
ness of the intelligence which it furnishes on all subjects
relating to our Oriental empire. In this feature the pre-
sent Number does not fall short of its predecessors. Of

the articles which may bit considered original, the " Mis-
sionary Voyage to the North-east coast of China," and
" Mr. Rich's Residence in Koordistan," are the most. inte-
resting. " Egyptian Hieroglyphics," is; an article which
cannot be very pleasing to the disciples of M. Champol-
lion. It consists of extracts from the writings of Dr. Du-

jardin of Paris, in which that celebrated Coptic scholar
oppugns with most formidable arguments Champollion's
theory for explaining the hieroglyphi(ml inscriptions found
in Egypt, out of which a writer in the last Number of the

" British and Foreign Review" says it will not be difficult
to frame a minute history of the ancient state of that
country.

THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE.
Simphin and Marshall.
The " Gallery of Illustrious Irishmen" is rapidly filling
with full-length portraits of men whose memory will only
cease to be cherished when the country that gave them birth
is no more. Berkeley and Boyle—the Columbuses of the
Visible and the Invisible World—arc most appropriately
placed side by side, in the May Number of this able and well
conducted periodical. While we have such neutral ground
as these articles furnish to meet our old acquaintance An-
thony Poplar upon, he may say what he pleases upon the
tithe question, without a fear of disturbing our equanimity.
The " German Fabulists" is a capital article, displaying
throughout a most intimate acquaintance with German
literature, and particularly with that portion of it which is
least known in this country, even by German scholars. The
" Black Mask" is one of the thousand and one Magazine
legends, about the merits of which critics bad as well be
silent. When young ladies take it into their heads to rise
out of their waves, and walk about in their shrouds, we are
well content to leave the questionquestionof the propriety of such
proceedings to be settled by their mammas, their lovers, and
the sexton.