The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-17 00:00:00

TILE ETHNOLOGICAL JOURNAL.

What we have already commended so repeatedly
in this new organ of a new science, we still
find in abundance. The numbers of the _Ethno-
logical Journal continue to be replete with
sound, pertinent, and practical information. What is
of yet greater advantage, this information is conveyed
in an agreeable, and even fascinating manner, re-
lating as it does to so many and such remote quar-
ters of the globe—a circumstance which invariably
throws a film of romance over the most arid reality.

THE NATIONAL LTBRAILY OF SELECT
LITERATURE. Parts I. and 11. By Charles
Knight.

Another serial publication, from Charles Knight,
the author, the critic, and the publisher. The
Notional Library, as far as we can estimate, from
merely two introductory portions, is eminently
worthy of the originator of the Penny Magazine, of
Old England, of the Weekly Volumes, and of the
new edition and the new commentaries of Shakspere.
Shakspere proves to be the inspiration of the work
here commenced, the two first parts being critical
observations, written by the accomplished editor, on
Pageants and Mysteries, on Titus Andronicus,
the hamlet of 1603, on Timon of Athens, on Arden
of Feversham, the Two Gentlemen of Verona,
the Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour Lost,
All's Well that Ends Well, the Taming of
the Shrew, and Richard 11. The work, when
completed will form a companion to the Ara-
tional Cyclopcedia lately issued from the same adven-
turous establishment; the National Library being in
reference to literature what the National Cyclopcedia
was in reference to general knowledge.

STOKERS AND POKERS. By the Author of
ii -

Bubbles from the Brunnen of
As the sixty-sixth number of Murray's Home and
Colonial Library, the masterly article about rail-
ways, which very recently appeared in the Quaatvrly,
and which at the time of its anonymous appearance
was generally understood to be from the lively pen
of Sir Francis Head, has been republished. With
considerable additions, a few emendations, and a
copious index, the paper has swollen into a goodly
volume of 208 pages, constituting the only work ever
printed descriptive of the working and the arrange-
ments of a great railway establishment. Al-
together, as a composition, the book is one of
the pleasantest books we can recollect reading.
It possesses the extraordinary and unusual merits of
rendering the dullest subjects the most agreeable, the
most common-place incidents the most enthralling,
and of doing all this in a light, jocular, sparkling,
and thoroughly unaffected manner—a manner abso-
lutely provocative of good humour, and brilliant
throughout. The author, without restricting his
sketches to any individual line, has culled the ma-
jority of his facts from the London and North-
Western Railway—starting from the grand station,
or rather terminus, at Euston-square. In a series of
vivid chapters he unfolds to us a succession of myste-
ries—the mysteries being in connexion with scenes fa-
miliar to almost every reader, such as—The Trains,
Euston—The Railway Carriages—Lost Luggage-
office—Parcel Delivery-office—The Locomotive En-
gine, Camden—Goods Department. Wolverton—
Letters: and Newspapers—Crewe—A Railway Town
—The Electric Telegraph—The Railway Clearing-
house" Besides an account of the difficulties en-
countered and conquered in the construction of a
Railway, and a chapter on the maintenance of the
Permanent IVay, the volume opens with a facetious
" Introduction, and closes with a suggestive
"Moral." In the Appendix are a multiplicity of
Rules and Regulations. No one who has not
chuckled over the bubbles blown by the
old valetudinarian, from the effervescent springs,
or Brunnen of Nassau, can form an adequate conjec-
ture of the bonhommie which casts a mellow atmo-
sphere over the lucubrations of Sir Francis Head.
His pleasantries are enough to busy up whole pages
of statistics, and to render an account of the railroads
of Great Britain amusing to those who have been
sa-
tiated with the pictorial writings of the ronnondcoitst.
es
Almost every leaf has its anecdote, and theonalne
are no Joe Millerisms, but such as could
re-
counted in this go-a-head generation.
Sir
Francis Head
observations or calculations made bySeverayl be
ef
thehe says that 10,000,000 d/.
cwteo
are worthy of being printed i‘norgeoeldxpblazonry—as
Parlia-
mentary
Parliamentary contests in
mentary inquiries
at the, rate of uld,
20,0,0 1
1845, 1846, and 18470a,i.anydr
tZte,thhaatvemocon constructed u‘
miles length—saq front
national railway on
are satisfied ilia the
London to Aberdeen. IVe
volume
will have the enormous circulation of which
it is eminently deserving.

CON CI?EGAN, THE IRISH GIL BLAS.

Parts 1., 11.,

Con Cregan is the most amusing of scamps. He
has more wit and devilry than his Spanish prototype,
whom he resembles in his cynicism and his fund of
worldly wisdom. Con Cregan will achieve a great
success.

KING DOBBS' SKETCHES IN ULTJ?A-
MARINE. By James Hannay, Author of
"Biscuits and Grog ;" " A Claret Cup," 6-c. Parts
11., and 111.
The mantle of Captain Marryat has fallen on
James Hannay, and " King Dobbs" is worthy to take
his place by the side of " Peter Simple." But it is not
as a nautical novelist merely that Mr. Hannay shines;
his descriptions of scenery gg 10g4441, Div ups

managed to invest with new interest the oft-described
scenery of the Bay of Naples, and in the lonian
Islands he occupies ground which has hitherto been
almost untrodden. His descriptions of the scenery of
Corfu and of Patras are perfect pictures.