The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-23 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

FRONTENAC. A Poem. By Alfred B S.'reet.
After Bryant, arid Willis, and Longfellow, Air.
' Street must be regarded ai one of the most conspi-
cuous among the poets of America. As yet we be-
lieve him to be comparatively little known in this
country—as little known as a bard as his namesake,
Alfred Poe, is as a romancist. It is, therefore, a de-
cided step toward; his appreciation in these islands—
the publication by Mr. Bentley of a long poem in
nine cantos before its appearance in print in the
United Statts. By this arrangement will an emi-
nent English publisher to anticipate the printing-
presses of the Transatlantic Republic, Mr. Street has
entitled himself to the consideration of English readers
in a very peculiar degree ; and he has done so under
a very fascinating and appropriate guise, namely,
as the celebrant of the heroism of the Redmen. Those
who regard the American Indiani with the admira-
tion to which the race is so singularly entitled, those
who have been admitted into the midst of their
savage domesticity, under the guidance of Mr. Catlin,
who have reverenced with him their many virtue,,
respected with him their noble characteristics,
honoured their courage, liztened to the elogin-nce of
their orations, scanned the symmetry of their limbs, the
grace of their carriage, the vigour of their muscler,
and the barbaric beauty of their features—will 'revel
in the poem of " Frontenac." It is the narrative of
Catlin set to the music of rhythm, and decorated with
the flowing tissues of poetry. It transports the
imagination to the happy age of the Indian before
the pale faces had brought desolation to the heart of
the primeval forests, and to the brink of the fragrant
prairies. It familiarises the reader with all the ap•
purtenances of Indian life, Indian costume, and
Indian occupations. It pourtrays the chieftain crowned
with feathers, armed with the tomahawk, girdled with
the belt of wampum, decorated with the scalps of his
enemies, his calves and ancles encased in the mocas-
sins, sitting cross-legged under the shadow of the
wigwam, breathing the fumes of tobacco
through his pipe of peace, or calumet.
It carries us back in fancy to the period
when the vast territory, called the " Long House,"
stretching from the Hudson River to the Lakes of
Erie and the Ontario, was in the possession of the
Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayngas, Onondagas, and Se-
necas, those five nations who were banded together
under the title of the Iroquois—a time when the
French were predominant throughout the Canadas,
under the successive governments of Champlain, De
la Barre, De Nouville, and Frontenac. Great as were
the advantages of Yon-non-de-yoh (the Indian name
for the French• Governor- General), we there observe
how inadequate were the cannon and the discipline of
the Europeans to overcome the indomitable courage
of the aboriginal tribes; we there perceive that before
the white faces could effectually compass the destruc-
tion of the noble barbarians, before they could depo-
pulate those beautiful regions, where crime and
misery were previously almost unknown, it was
necessary that they should employ against their
heroic antagonists all the vice and the villanies,
all the craft and the cruelties, all the arts
and atrocities that have unhappily been the
accompaniments of civilization. Frontenac, although
descriptive of a single passage of that mournful his,
tory which recounts the devastations made throughou
the North American continent in the name of Chris

tianity, affords a vivid and appalling picture of the
conduct pursued by the European marauders. It
compels the mind irresistibly to contrast the peaceful
changes effected in Paraguay, with the sanguinary
horrors perpetrated on the southern frontiers of
Canada. That the natives should endeavour to reta-

liate pitilessly upon their assailants is, to no rational
thinker, matter of astonishment. They were hemmed
in by battalions, their woods were hewn down by the
axes of the settler, their beautiful scenery was haunted
by the faces of the white men, their territories were
encroached upon, more and more, until in return they
struck down their despoilers—
" Now here, and now there, as clouds fl ish in their strife,
Was the dart of the fuemen, the flash of their knife;
The hunter, whilst tracking the Hudson Bay snow
In search of the ermine, sank under their blow;
On• settler whilst plying his axe in the wood,
At the skirts of Quebec, dyed the earth with his blood;
The batteauman, pushing his craft to its goal,
Up the swift Cataraqui, fell dead at his pole;
The sentry, whilst guarding Fort Frontenac's wall,
By Ontario's waters, felt death in the ball;
The fur- trader, skimming with blanket and bead
The lake of the Hurons, was followed to bleed."
To terminate this blighting decimation of his country,
Count Frontenac, Governor-General of Canada, in
the June of 1696, made an expedition against the
Iroquois, marching his army from Lachine, a place
situated a few miles from Montreal. This expedition
forms the subject of the poem of Mr. Street. As
historians have already related, the French, after
ascending the St. Lawrence in canoes and batteaux,
after coasting the eastern mar gin of Lake Ontario,
ascending the Oswego River, and crossing
Lake Onondaga, after taking the princi-
pal village of the Aborigines and search-
ing for the population in vain in the forests or
in the flowery wildernesses of the Savannahs, were
compel:ed to return from a fruitless adventure—
being cut to pieces during their retreat by ambuscades
of the Iroquois. Mr. Street has, however, contrived
to impart a novel fascination to this familiar story by
adorning it with the combined graces of fiction and
of poetry. To this end he has selected the rhythm of
Christabel—that musical andunfettered rhythm which
places no constraint upon the revelations of every
passing emotion. in the course of the description of
the events and personages engaged in the expedition,
the poet depicts—the war song—the thanksgiving
dance—the dance of the great spirit—the war dance
—the scalp dance—and the strawberry dance. He
describes a march, a bivouac, an encampment, a hunt,
a batteau, a prairie, a cataract, a lake, a canoe voyage,
a council, a night watch, and a battle. He relates all
the associations connected with the war-hatchet, the
peace-belt, the moccasin print, and the calumet.
We are rivetted alternately to the interests connected
with Lucille or Frontenac, with On-on-dah-gah or
Jiskoko, with We-an-dah or A-ga-yen• teh. Between
the delineation of sanguinary skirmishes and assassi-
nations, we occasionally light upon a pure and
charming sketch from nature, such as that of the
breaking forth of the foliage and the early blossoms,
and the vernal songs of the birds in a Canadian spring,
when—

" With plumes were tipped the beechen sprays;
The birch long dangling tassels showed;
The oak still bare, but in a blaze
Of gorgeous red the maple glowed;
With clusters of the purest white
Cherry and shadbush charmed the sight
Like spots of snow the boughs among;
And showers of strawberry blossoms made
Rich carpets in each field and glade
Where day its kindlie.,t glances flung."
Sometimes the poet breaks off in the very core of a
dilemma to sing of the glories of a waterfall—
" The crashing, flashing, plunging form
Of floods that rush'd in fearful storm,
One mighty curve upon the air."
At rare intervals the charm of the voluble strain is
broken by such vulgarisms or conventionalisms of ex-
pression as where he says that the yacht
" with naked mast
In the lock'd shallows motionless
When sunset fell went curtseying past
As breathed the morning's 413 caress."
Without being by any means a poem symmetrical in
construction, steadily sustained in treatment, or
punctiliously exact, or even invariably graceful in
composition, Frontenac is a picturesque work which
will enable the English student to recognise the in-
tellectual accomplishments of Mr. Street. It has the
double merit of novelty in theme and in man-
ner. It conveys us, as it were, bodily into
the green recesses of Northern America.
It has all the melody and all the want of finish of a
song sung by an untutored inhabitant of the green
woods. Perhaps the most spirited and characteristic
passage in the whole of the nine cantos is that de-
scriptive of the " Mohawk's Scalp Dance." In the
monotonous cadence, and rapid metre of the verses,
in the dull resounding and repetition of the rhymes
and double rhymes, you almost hear the beating of the
feet of the braves who are dancing in a ring, and that
wild clang 1 clang ! clang ! of the gong, which has
in it an enthusiasm that becomes contagious. We
welcome the American poet as eagerly as though his
book were a flask of hippocrene fresh as im-
ported."

CONSUMPTION OF THE LUNGS; or,
DECLINE. The Causes, Symptoms, and
Rational Treatment, with the Means of Preventian.
By T. H. Yeomans, MD.
CATARRH, INFLUENZA, BRONCHITIS,
AND ASTHMA. Their Causes, Symptoms, and
Rational Treatment. By T, A. Yeomans, M.D.
These little manuals contain the best and most com-
mon-sense account of diseases of the chest that has ever
been published. The first consists of 80, and the
second of 82 pages ; and in this small compass Dr.
Yeomans has condensed more information than is to
be found in many a ponderous octavo of much greater
pretensions. His directions as to " the rational treat-
ment and means of prevention'. are admirable, and
should be perused by every parent, any member of
whose family has ever been consumptive. Consump-
tion is a disease which may be prevented, and the
rules dietetic and hygienic laid down by Dr. Yeo-
mans for the prevention of its development, are the
clearest and the most reasonable that have ever been
published.

POOR-RATES IN IRELAND..--A return, printed by
order of Parliament (moved for by Mr. French), shows
that the mili.ary force employed in Ireland in the collec-
lection of poor-rates between October 1, 1848, and Feb-
1, 1849, consisted of 11 field-officers,
46 captains, 11.
subalterns, 216 sergeants, 42 drummers, and 4,633 rank
and file. The constabulary force employed for the same
purpOse, the compulsory collection of poor-rates, con-
*Wed of Og Ohara and 2,44$ men.

NEW MUSIC.
MULTUJI IN PAR yO. A Complete Instructor
for the Pianoforte. A New Edition, Revised. By
J. A Han2itton.
As in mathematics, so in music, there is no royal
road; but the road may be made smooth, and plain,
and easy, and pleasant, and the author of this little
work is the Mac-Adam of the road to music. j'his
" Multum in Parvo" answers its name. It is the best
and the most onsily understandable of first books for
the pianoforte that has ever come under our notice.

THE LOUIS NAPOLEON POLKA.
By Miss E. L. Glascock.
This talented young lady has published a new
Polka, with the above title, which we recommend all
dancers and musicians to obtain. We had the satis-
faction of noticing a Polka by the same fair composer
a short tirna back, entitled the " Sea Serpent Polka,"
which has become a universal favourite with all
who have heard it. '1 he " Louis Napoleon Polka"
is, if possible, better than the other, displaying great
taste and musi.-.;alcaincity, and deserves the patronage
of all those inveterate dancers who are fond of a
" fast" Polka.

LOCOMOTIVE WONDER---INEW
MOTIVE POWER.
Count de Werdinsky has communicated to the
Mining Journal a discovery which he believes he has
made, by which a convenient, inexpensive,and highly
effective motive power can be obtsined from xyloidine,
or gun cotton. He crowrs this discovery by another,
which he declares he made in the course of experi-
ments for rendering the first efficacious—nothing less
than a miraculous principle by which rapid locomo-
tion is obtained without any sort of propulsion.
These are his words :
" I have been engaged in constructing an engine
and locomotive, to be worked on the common roads
by xyloidine, on the following plan :—Small quan-
tities of xyloidine are exploded successivelyinto a
copper recipient of a spheroidal form of 13 in. dia-
meter, and 4 in. strong in metal. Each separate explo-
sion is adequate to produce, by means of double cylin-
ders, a complete revolution of the crank. The object of
the copper recipient is merely to allow the intense
gases thrown into it room enough to expank and
thus to change their percussive intensity into a more
gentle dynamic power, without in any way losing
any of the quantity of that power. I can, therefore,
let out from that copper recipient as much of the gases,
through a stop-cock, as would produce a pressure of
from 30 to 60, or 1201bs. upon the square inch
of the piston; moreover, by the very heat accumu-
lated in the metal of the recipient, the gases are kept
up to their original strength, so that, the longer the
engine continues to work, the greater the compara-
tive economy of xyleidine, on account of the heat of
the recipient and of the machinery, which serve to
keep up great expansion, and consequently great
power in the gases.
" My experiments with a steam-engine of about
2i-horse power, on the 'above principle, answered
admirably; but while these experiments were going
on I made a further discovery, and this last one is
verging almost on a miracle. The most prominent
features of my last discovery are—that the
propulsion of carriages on railroads, and on common
roads, will be now effected without engines, steam,
water, magnetism, air, or animal power, and pro-
pelling of ships without either of the above means,
sails, or paddles, or any propellers whatever."

A NARROW ESCATE.—On Sunday morning two
young gentlemen, who have been in the habit of bath-
ing all winter, betook themselves to the point of the
Chain-pier to enjoy their favourite recreation, and
having, in heir usual style precipitated themselves
from the top of the pier, they immediately, as is
necessary in this cold weather, made for the landing-
place, but what was their horror and distress to find that
the late storm had washed the staircase entirely
away, and lent them apparently no chance but to make
for the shore, which, at this cold season, would have been
fatal, the distance bi fug considerable. The 3, however,
succeeded in climbing up among the piles, till they, with
the utmost difficulty, reached a landing. place. Both
gentlemen were very much cut and lacerated in their
efforts to preserve their lives, and were about half an
hour in effecting their purpose.—Edinburgh Register.
Souru-EasTERN.—The storm on Thursday has
proved most disastrous to the posts and wires of the
electric telegraph on this line. From Ashfordto Westen,
hanger especially has the machinery of the telegraph
been demolished. On nearly the whole of this ,space
the posts have been prostrated by the gale, and the wires
.mashed, and, as they had fallen inwards, the passage of
the mail train, which left London at half•past eight On
the night in question, and was due at Dover at eleven,
did not reach Dover till nearly one o'clock on the fol-
lowing morning. The delay was occasioned by the train
coming in contact with the broken fragments of the
wires and poste. The guards had to get down every
now and then to clear the rails of these impediments,
by which one carriage door was knocked completely
off. It would appear the gale had blown one portion of
the posts and wires down, and ' that the swinging of
this portion, almost as quickly as the electrid fluid
itself, tore down the others. The pecuniary loss to the
Company, by the untoward accident, must have been
extensive, not to mention the serious interruption it
must cause to the working of the telegraph.—Dover
Chronicle.

FIVE PERSONS DROWNED AT SIIIELDS.---011 Satur-
day a melancholy accident occurred on the river near
South Shields, by which five persons mot with a pre-
mature death. It appears that a vessel called the Ha-
vering has been recently launched from the building-
yard of Messrs. M'Leod, generally known as the Middle
Dock, and that several carpenters had been employed in
the vessel as she lay in the river, a short distance from
the dock. The workmen, to the number of 14, were re-
turning after dinner to the vessel in a small sculler boat,
and, when at a short distance from her, some of the men
on board commenced, in sport, to fling chips of wood it
the boat, which, causing some of the party to swerve to
one side, the boat upset, and the men were precipitated
into the water. Every assistance was rendered as speedily
as possible, and by dint of great exertion ten of the party,
including the scullerznan, were rescued; but it is painful
to add that five were drowned. One of the five, it is
said, succeeded in reaching the vessel, and, laying hold
of a chain, he nearly reached the bulwarks, but biding
either overcome with fear, or exhausted with his exer-
tions, he lost his hold and fell into the water, and was
taken up shortly after dead. The whole of the bodies
have since been found, and the following are their
Keldie, John Annison, John Yougins,
John Wade, and John Kent. The two latter were mar-
ried, and Kent has left a wife and one child. On Mon-
day an inquest was held on the bodies, at the house of
Mr. John Hall, Wheat-sheaf Inn, Green• street, when a
verdict was returned of "Drowned by the boat swamp-
ing in the Tyne."—Newcasfle Guardian.
CIiEAP LAW.--WILLITON.—In the County Court
held in this town on Tuesday last, it was decided
that a plaintiff wilfully perjuring herself for the purpose
of damaging the defence was, nevertheless, entitled to
costs of attendance ! 1 So much for County Court mo-
rality. It was also decided contrary to the recorded
judgment of Lord Chief Justice Denman and other
judges, that a servant may break open her master's pri-
vate letters, and pry into his secrets, and provided she
manages to get herself dismissed for something else be-
fore he discovers it, be has no right, it sued for excessive
wages, to plead this base misconduct as evidence of the
general character and behaviour ! ! So much for the
law and equity of the County Court.---Somerset County
1-Jerald.

OPENING OF THE NEW Dock AT GLOUCESTER.--
GLOUCE3TER, APRIL 18.—This morning the Teasel. in
the old dock were decorated with their flags. At twelve
o'clock, the Torrance Rowe, of Wexford, from Constan-

tinople, entered the new dock, with her yards manned
tied colours flying, guns firing, and cheers from an im-
mense concourse of persons assembled for the occasion.
She was followed by English, French, Prussian, Aus-
trian, Hanoverian, and Dutch vessels, some of which
immediately commenced discarging their cargoes into
trucks on the railway, which were in readiness. The
persons employed at the basin were afterwards enter-
tained at the joint expense of the Canal Company and
Mr. Guest, the contractor. The new basin nearly dou-
bles the quay-side accommodation, and there are' two
additional cranes, each capable of lifting upwards of 20
tons. At present the basin will be appropriated to the
discharge of cargoes sent by rail, which accommodation
was much required. At the general meetingof the
Canal Company, held this day, it was determined to op-
pose the Severn Navigation Bill, which comes on for
the second reading on Monday next.
KING'S COLLEGE HOSPITAL.-011 Friday the 10th
the
annual report of this hospital was issued, from which
metre
statistics may be gleaned, relative to
mtsheovereeerxaeltsepitennetciora elf y,. however, referring to the greatly
interesting
gkness and disease In the
popu-
lated
district in which the hospital •
is situated. It
appears
.that in the course of 1848 there
aunts admitted into the wards ofthe were 1,253 Pa'
establishment, being
precisely the same as during the previous year. The out-
patients numbered 19,383,
including
women, who were attended
during confinement. The at their own homes
total number of out-door
recipients treated since the opening of the hospital, in
1839, amounts to considerably upwards of 117,030,
while the resident patients have very nearly reached
10,500. The report further states that the deficiency of
the
three
income during past
years has left the charity,
at the end of 1848, in debt to the extent of 3801.; but
little doubt, however, is expressed that the efforts of the
governors and friends will speedily remove to small
pecuniary embarrassment.
PORTLAND.—We are happy to observe that within
this past week, the Breakwater begins to show itself, •0
that from the road leading to Portland it now terms a
conspicuous object. The " navvies" are Pelting their
best leg foremost; in fact all heads are putting their
shoulder to the wheel in good earnest.---Somerset Herold.
DEALT' By Fias.--On Saturday Mr. H. M. lirak-
ley, deputy coroner, held an inquest at the Middlesex
Hospital, on the body of Miss Elisabeth Pettit, aged 51.-
Mr. Petitt, gas fitter, St. Martin's•lane, said that on
Thursday evening week he had returned home to his
residence, Brooks-street, New-road, and in a few minutes
he heard the screams of the deceased, who was his cousin,
in the drawing room. He hastened there, when he found
her enveloped in flames, which he extinguished, but not
before her clothes were nearly burnt off her body. She
was taken to the above institution, where she died the
following Sunday. She was drying her stays by the
fire, when they caught, and the flames communicated
her dress. Verdict, Aooideatil death."