The Sun.
London, England, 1849-07-02 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

At the grand ball given by her Royal Highness the
Duchess of Gloucester, at Gloucest( r House, on Friday
evening, the following Waltzes, Polkas, and Quadrilles
were darted; Herr Strauss and his band attending :
Waltz,l—Marien, Wanderers Lebewohl, Sophien,
Kunstler Ball.

Polkas—Alice, Fredericke, Kathinka.
Quadrilles—Martha, Carnaval, Jubal.
The band also played the Defilier" March, and the
" Spanish Nobles" March.
The Queen and Prince Albert rode out on horseback
on Friday, attended by the Hon. Eleanor Stanley, Lieut.-
Colonel the Hon. C. B. Phipps, and Colonel Buuverie.
Her Majesty the Queen of the Belgians and the
Duchess of Orleans, accompanied by the Count de Paris
and the Duke de Chartres, visited her Majesty on Satur-
day afternoon at Buckingham Palace.
The Queen, attended by the Hen. Elizabeth Lennox
and Lieut.-Colonel the Hon. C. B. Phipps, visited her
Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, at Clarence
House, on Saturday.
Her Majesty and Prince Albert, attended by the Coun-
tess of Mount Edgcumbe, 11,,n. Eleanor Stanley, Hon.
Ehzabeth Lennox, Lord Waterpark, Lieut.• Colonel the
Hon. C. B. Phipps, and Colonel Bouvarie, honoured the
Royal Italian Opera-house with their presence on
Saturday evening. Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess
of Cambridge and the Hereditary Grand Duchess of
Mecklenburg S'relitz also honoured the performance
with their presence.
Yesterday morning the Queen and the Prince walked
in the garden of the Palace, and the Royal Family took
their usual exercise.

Yesterday ma..:.,5-hr ar.i..ty and Prince Albert, the
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Court, and the domestic
household, attended Divine service in the private chapri
of Buckingham Palace. The service was read by the
Rev. Mr. Vane, and the sermon was preached by the
Bishop of Norwich.
Her Majesty the Queen of the Belgians, and the
Duchess of Orleans, accompanied by the Count de
Paris and the Duke de Chartres, paid a visit to her Royal
Highness the Duchess of nt at Clarence House, St.
James's, on Saturday afternoon.
Their Royal Highne,ses the Duchess of Cambridge,
the Hereditary Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg Streliiz,
and the PrincessiMary attended Divine service yesterday
morning in Grosvenor Chapel.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge visited
her Royal Highness the Duchess,of Gloucester yesterday,
at Gloucester House.

Mr. Rutherford, M.P., and a deputation had an inter-
view with Lord John Russell on Saturday.
Colonel W. L. Freestun, M.P., had an interview with
Sir George Grey on Friday, at the Home-office.
Lord John Russell received a select circle at dinner
on Saturday, at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park.
The Duke of Wellington and the Marquis and Mar-
chioness of Salisbury attended the early service yester-
day in the Chapel Royal, St. James's. The Rev. Dr.
Wesley preached the sermon, and afterwards adminis-
tered the holy Sacrament to the Noble Duke and the
Marquis and Marchioness.

SUDDEN DEATH OF MR. PHILL-

On Saturday night, alt)Oeil;ThtS.o,clock,
a jury was em-
panelled before Mr. Bedford, the coroner, in the board-
room of St. James's, Workhouse, Poland-street, West-
minster, to inquire into the circumstances attending the
death of John Phillpotts, Esq., the late Member for
Gloucester, and brother to the Bishop of Exeter, who
died very suddenly in an omnibus.
Mr. Alexander tire, of No. 24, Bloomsbury-square,
surgeon, deposed that the deceased gentleman was
seventy-four years of age, and resided at Nu. 14, Pall-
mall. The deceased was a barrister•at-law, and was
Member for Gloucester for upwards of seventeen years.
Witness never attended him professionally, but always
considered him to be a healthy man.
James Roberts, of No. 26, Park-street, Camden-town,
said he was conductor to one of the Waterloo omnibuses.
On Friday night, about a quarter past ten o'clock, the
deceased hailed him at the corner of Devonshire street,
in Portland-place. The omnibus stopped and the de-
ceased got in without usehdaneo perfectly
well. On reaching the Regent's-circus, Oxford-street,
the omnibus stopped, it being usual to wait several mi-
nutes to take up passengers at that point. Two minutes
had not elapsed, when witness looked in to see how
many passengers there were. The deceased was sitting
next the door, and there were two ladies and a gentle-
man in the omnibus. Witness had only just looked in,
when the deceased suddenly fell on one side, and lay along
the seat. Witness immediately opened the door, and
assisted in lifting him up. Ile appeared quite helpless,
and in a state of insensibility. Witness, with the as-
sistance of several persons, carried him to the shop of
Mr. Bridge, a chemist, in Regent's-circus, and a sur-
geon was instantly sent for, who, upon his arrival, pro-
nounced the deceased to be quite dead.
By the Cotten-tun—Only a little saliva came from his
mouth, and be never spoke after he fell.
By a juror—The omnibus was stationary when be fell.
Mr. J. G. French, of No. 41, Great Marlborough-
street, parish surgeon, said he bad made a post mortem
examination of the body of the deceased gentleman that
afternoon (Saturday), in the presence of Mr. Ure. There
were no outward marks of violence, with the exception
of some marks over the region of the beast, which indi-
cated that the deceased had been cupped. The heart
was considerably enlarged, and double the usual size.
It weighed about 23 ounces, the usual weight being
about 11 ounces. The valve of the left ventricle was
ossified. The rest of the organs were quite healthy.
Witness opened the head, and found an effusion in the
ventricles of the brain. Witness was of opinion the
deceased had died of a diseased heart, which was quite
sufficient to account for the suddenness of the death.
There was no appearance of any deleterious matter in
the stomach. Death must have been instantaneous.
The CORONER said, after bearing such evidence there
was no occasion to proceed further in the inquiry. The
death was most awfully sudden, and a most melan-
choly one.
The jury immediately returned a verdict of " Natural
death from a diseased heart."

The Coroner is,ued his warrant for the burial, and
the body of the deemed was placed in a coffin and re-
moved to Pall-mall.

ARMY EXPENDITURE.—I3y a paper, which bears
date, " War-office, June 55, 1849," it appears that a sum
of 119,950/. Os. ld. is required to be voted in order to de-
fray the excess of the army expenditure beyond the
grants for the year ended on the 31st March, 1848, as
shown on the annual account of army receipt and expen-
ditme for th4t year.
St,:;!_lv. NYS' PRON'iDENT ".;1) BEN FVOLENT SO
CI Illg.?sti Prince Albert has Lent a
donation of 1001. to this estimable institution.

Richard Blanchard, Esq., is named as the first
Governor of VancouTer's Island.—Observer.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE
METROPOLITAN REFORM ASSOCIATION.
Sir,—On Wednesday the 27th, the Member for
Lambeth (C. Pearson) renewed the debate on Prison
• Discipline; a subject on which there will be an infinite
riding of hobbies one against another. Questions of
this kind must wear themselves out. The end will pro-
bably be that it will be discovered, that neither im-
prisonment in a mask nor imprisonment without,
solitary nor in company, with instilment of A B C
nor without it, will be competent to cope with the
gigantic danger which the progress of population and
society is causing to appear above the horizon, the
danger of the honest men being run away with by
the rogues. Moral lectures will never touch it; the
best of exhortations will he like whitewashing the
negro to-night, with the certainty that he will be as
much a negro to-morrow. Here and there may be a
solitary instance where a wondrous cure has been
wrought, and the circumstances may be trumpeted
about in pamphlets and cheap periodicals, with the zeal
applied to the authentication of Hol.enlohe's miracles.
But the great black fact will be there scowling still,
that those who came in thieves, will go out thieves,
and will proceed with all alacrity to multiply their
kind. The case is one beyond the hands of benevolent
old ladies, or insinuating young ones. If the whole
female world that are honest, should turn into Mrs
ttey
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But
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actnot o
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ieh
into n
INa-
ture'ssy
suit our case. Fifty years ago, if a ship arrived with
half its company dead of typhus fever, the first thing
thought of was to mew up the survivors in the small-
est possible space, and there medicate and experiment
on them till such as were doomed to survive recovered
in spite of all. Modern observation has made an ad-
vance on this. It eeys, disperse your sick, with such
moderate precautions as may not unnecessarily court
contagion, and the disease will die out. We do the
same with our dirt, perfectly or imperfectly. Lon-
don alone would require a vessel of a thousand tons
to sail daily for the Nore with her accumulated ma-
nure, if in innumerable ways it were not silently
exposed to mingling with the elements through other
modes of dispersion. We take advantage of the world
being wide. We divide our nuisances into places
where for want of concentration they can do no harm.
Just so, we shall end by finding out, we must do with
our thieves. We must send our pickpockets where
there are no pockets to pick, or where at all events the
number is so small, that the trade of a pickpocket shall
have as little chance of flourishing as the trade of
making coronation robes. Instead of potting out
our early thieves in rows, in cells where they shall be
seen or not be seen by the eye of imaginative charity,
and leaving them to nurse the expectation of the
happy day which is to restore them to their old
companions dear, we must in simple self-defence
picket them out in bleak situations, where there shall
be the least possible chance of a seed being
brought hack by the winds to keep up the breed of
weeds at home. This may be very cruel ; and if
so, we must wait till it is more cruel to let it alone.
But it is not true that it is cruel. It is the best and
kindest thing that could be done for the juniors of the
thief family. One of the most striking phenomena
of the present day, is the extent to which the march
of intellect has progressed among thieves, and the
conviction it has produced in them, that anything
which should present the chance of making a new
start in life, would be an enormous boon to the born
plunderer. It may be all very well to look prudish ;
but if the first lady in the land, had instead of that,
been horn of a mother who called her " clever
little girl" for bringing the linen off a hedge,
%%here would she have been by this time ?
The truth is, the thief is an animal to be
put down, but not to be maltreated. We should any
of us have been hereditary thieves, as we should
have been hereditary sovereigns, if the power that
rules all had seen fit to fasten a different ticket to
our birth.
The inference from this is, that after sufficient sums
have been expended on all manner of incarceratory
experiments without success, it will be found we
must go to the expense of planting out our thieves in
the scantily peopled portions of the earth, and there
giving them the best chance we can, of living by
working either for themselves or others. Give the
thief air ; if possible let there be twenty miles be-
tween him and the breath of rival thiefilom. No
mewing men up in hulks, or exposing them in ballast-
lighters as done upon the Thames, to insult modest
society as it passes in steam-boats, and show how
nearly human creatures may be trained into
the likeness of rib-nosed baboons. An iron
discipline may be necessary, so long as it
is impossible to get your thieves dispersed.
But the very sufferings of this iron discipline should
be made the foundation on which to build the expec-
tation of submission to reform. Only, they must not
be reformed here. A man might as well talk of re-
forming his manure-heap by keeping it in his parlour.
It is a process which must go on at the other end of
the earth, or at a distance that is equivalent. It is
there that the peccant matter, though necessarily con-
veyed in masses, must be doled out and dispersed, for
the chance of being wrought into the soil without
any being the worse for the process.
At this moment the cry is against transportation.
It is very likely it must come back to it; though with
amendments to remove the old objections. Captain
Maconochie must be Cadmus ; with leave to sow his
dragon's teeth in such places as shall be most likely to
produce neither armed men nor dragons. This will
not be done till the nuisance of preserving the said
teeth in close conservatories has become intolerable.
But when that time arrives, everything will give way
to necessity.
Ors Thursday was a slow progress, through an ex-
traordinary multitude of divisions, with the Poor
Relief (Ireland) Bill in Committee.
On Friday the same continued. One or two points
had a little more of general interest than the rest.
An attempt was made to lay a portion of the Irish
poor-rate on mortgagees. To which the answer
seems to be, that a mortgage is a bargain between
two free agents; and that it would be as just to buy
a horse, and then ask to be allowed to subtract a por-
tion of the price because there was talk of a new
horse-tax, as to do the like in the case of a mortgage. A
plea was also advanced for exempting the Irish
Church from paying any share of poor-rates on its
compositions fur tithes. At first sight this looks as
if it came under the head of a bargain, like the
other. But on examination it will be seen that there
was no bargain, but a direction of the Legislature.
And this leads down upon the fact, that the income
of the Irish Church altogether is the creature of the
Legislature ; and consequently the Legislature, if it
sees fit, may direct a poor-rate to be paid in part out
of the income of the Irish Church, with no more in-
fringement of compacts than when it directs it to be
paid out of the income of a private landlord.
On Saturday the House met at noon to continue
the Committee; and some further progress was made
with the Bill.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
AN OLD REFORMER.
London, July 2, 1849.

THE MAGAZINES.

111ACKWOOD.

The arrival of July at length enables us in some
ineaaure to satisfy our curiosity as to the fate of
Fanny Trevanion. In the current chapters of the
" Caxtons" the whole mystery of her abduction is
explained ; and the conjecture we made at the very
outset, and which we have since reiterated so fre-
quently, namely, that Gower or Vivian was no other
than the reprobate son of Captain Roland de Caxton,
proves to be correct. An expression used by Sir
Edward Bulwer Lytton in the eighty-first chapter, to
the effect that the reader would divine the secret from
the very introduction, appears to indicate that that
conjecture has not been unobserved by the author.
Ills narrative of the chase of the fugitives by Roland
and Pisistratus is intensely enthralling throughout,
and is told (we cannot resist the employment of the
word as the most expressive of the merits of the
description, even at the risk of being charged with
the crime of punning) in the most racy manner ima-
ginable. You hurry over the pages breathless with
expectation until you came to the capture in the
lonely hostel, the recognition of the villain, the
saving of his intended victim, the arrival of Lord
Castleton in the midst of the confusion, and the resto-
ration of Fanny Trevanion to Lady Eleanor. There
appears to be a glimmering of reprntance in the one
whom we may still designate Vivian. That repent-
ance, however, threatens to be too tardy a consolation
for his father, for Roland has been thrown upon a bed
of severe sickness in consequence of the mental and
bodily excitement caused by the late occurrences.
The scene in which the old soldier seeks consolation
in the Holy Book is beautiful. It ferns one of those
brief but eloquent and touching incidents which have
been already scattered so profusely through this ad-
mirable novel. No one but the author of the " Cax-
tons " could have conceived that graceful dialogue
between Lord Castleton and Pisistratus, or more
especially that subsequent interview so simply but so
earnestly narrated. With the departure and farewell of
Fanny Trevanion, the heart of Pisistratus has lost for
ever its " youth and its poet-land." Christopher
promises to he greatery than ever (if that be possible)
" under canvas!. llis wit and his wisdom his
animation and his eloquence appear to have this in
common with good wine, that by age they are mel-
lowed and ripened. Mellow and ripe as they were of
yore, to-day they are mellower and riper. The
Dies Boreales threaten to rival in excellence, as se
are certain they will in popularity, the immortal
Soctes Ambrosiance. It does our heart good to hear
Buller congratulating the great North upon his being
" himself again," declaring that he cannot detect en
his face or forehead one single additional wrinkle—
" nay, not a wrinkle at all—not one—so fresh of colour,
too, sir, that the irradiation is at times ruddy—and
without losing an atom of expression, the countenance
absolutely plump--yes, sir, plump's the word
plump, plump, plump." In a burst of admiration
Buller indeed cannot help telling Christopher
North to his face that he is " one of the finest
looking old men in Britain, in Europe, in the World."
In mind as in body he is still the same glorious
Christopher. Witness it in his masterly analysis of
the beauty of Virgil's famous description, in the
Georgics, of a storm cf thunder and lightning; the
way in which he controverts the opinions of Karnes,
Blair, and Alison ; the vividness with which he paints
in language the tempest that has actually overtaken
him at Cladich ; his comments on Jemmy Thomson;
his account of his having once himself been " in the
sulks" in his childhood. We must, perforce, extract
the last-mentioned passage, it is so inimitably ex-
pressed
" Once, and once only, durirg ore of the longest and
best-spent lives on record, was I in the mood proscribed
—and it endured most part of a whole day. The anni-
versary of that day I observe, in severest solitude, with
a salutary horror. And it is my Birthday. Ask me
not, my friends, to reveal the Cause. Aloof from con-
fession before man—we must keep to ourselves—as John
Foster says—s corner of our own souls. A black corner
it is—and enter it with or without light—you see, here
and there, something dismal—hideous—shapeless—
nameless—each lying in its own place on the floor.
There lies the Cause. It was the morning of my Ninth
Year. A I kept sitting high upstairs by myself—one
familiar face after another kept ever and anon looking in
upon me—all with one expression! And one familiar
voice after another—all with one tone—kept muttering
st mo—' He's still in the Sulks!' how I hated them
with an intenser hatred—and chief them I before had
loved beat—at each opening end each shutting of that
door ! How I hated myself, as my blubbered face felt
hotter and hotter—and I knew how ugly I must be, with
my fixed fiery eyes. It was painful to sit on such a chair
fur hours in one posture, and to have so chained a child
would have been great cruelty—but I was resolved to
die, rather than change it; and had I been told by any
one under an angel to get up and go to play, I would have
spat in his face. It was a lonesome attic, and I had the
fear of ghosts. But nut then—my superstitious fancy
was qm lied by my troubled heart. Had I not deserved
to be allowed to go? Did they not all know that all my
happiness in this life depended on my being allowed to
go? Could any one of them give a reason for not al-
lowing me to go? What right had they to say that if I
did go, I should never be able to find my way, by myself;
back? What right had they to say that Roundy was a
blackguard, and that he would lead me to the gallows?
Never before, in all the world, had a good boy been
used so on his birthday. They pretend to be sorry
when I am sick—and when I say my prayers, they say
theirs coo; Out I am sicker ,ma,—and they are not sorry,
but angry—there's no use in prayers—and I won't read
one verse in the Bible this night, should my aunt go
down on her knees. And in the midst of such unwordtd
soliloquies did the youug blasphemer fall asleep. I
know riot how long I slept; but on awaking, I saw an
angel with a most beautiful face and most beautiful hair
—a little young angel—about the same size es myself—
sitting on a stool by my feet. Are you quite well now,
Christopher? Let us go to the meadows and gathe-r
flowers?' Shame, sorrow, remorse, contriticn, came to
me with those innocent words—we wept together, and I
was comforted. have been sinful'—' but you are for-
given.' Down all the stairs hand in hand we glided; and
there was no longer anger in any eyes—the whole house
was happy. All voices were kinder—if that were pos-
sible—than they had been when I rose in the morning
—a Boy in his Ninth Year. Parental hands smoothed
my hair—parental lips kissed it—and parental greetings
only a little more cheerful than prayers, restored me to
the Love I had never lost, and which I felt now had
animated that brief and just displeasure. I had never
heard then of Elysian fields; but I had often heard, and
often had dreamt happy, happy dreams of fields of light
in heaven. And such looked the fields to be, where
fairest Mary Gordon and I gathered flowers, and spoke
to the birds, and to one another, all day long—and
again, when the day was gone, and the evening going,
on till moontirae, below and among the soft-burning
stars."

Talboys makes his appearance and promises to be
no small acquisition. Hear him tell of the adventures
of his umbrella with a gusto Mr. Rod s ell would
envy ! And hear his sonnet read by the musical voice
of Cnristopher !
"(On reading Dies Boreales.—No. I.')
A friend returned! spring bursting forth again!
The song of other years! which, when we roam,
Brings up all sweet and common things of home,
And sinks into the thirsty heart like rain!

Such the strong influence of the thrilling strain
By human love made sad and musical,
Yet full of high philosophy withal,
Poured from thy wizard harp o'er land and main!
A thousand hearts will waken at its et],
And breathe the prayer they breathed in earlier youth—
May o'er thy brow no envious shadow fall!
Bleat, in thine eye the eloquence of truth!
Thy righteous wrath the soul of guilt appal,
As lion's streaming hair or dragon's fiery tooth!
One or two of the facetious repartees are capital—as
where North, on being called a Laker, and having
answered thereto that he is a Locher, not a Laker,
13uller hums to himself ironically " Tweedledum—
tweedledee." "That means," says North, "the
Tweed and the Dee ? Content." When dinner is
served up the four comrades discourse again on a
variety of topics, Christopher being especially elo-
quent in his definition of the " Classical," in his pane-
gyric on the ancients, in his remarks on the meaning
of words, and, above all, in his impassioned oration
as to the existence of a God. As the conversation
turns on a hereafter, they all move out into the open
air to look at the stars. And there the second por-
tion of the Dies terminates. Blackwood contains an
ingenious paper on Sardinia, suggested by Mr. Tyn-
dale's recent historical description of that island.
"Pestalozziana" is the sketch of an educational esta-
blishment worthy of sketching. "The Game Laws
in Scotland" afford a subject for grave discussion in a
well -written and well-digested article. " Dominique"
presents a very powerful attraction—being an enter-
taining magazine story, such as will more than
°s
repay perusal. Poetical as is the title of thelast
contribution in Maga—" The Crowning t the
Column and Crushing of the Pedestal"—it
very sober character, beingnothing less tan an in-
i of a
It.?
itam now that
quiry into the prospects of Great 13
tree trade has been completed by the abolition of
the laws relating to navigation. It is scarcely pus,
sible not to recognise throughout the argument the
hand of the historian Alison.

BENTLEY.
'The "Note Book of a Coroner's Clerk, with which
this number of Bentley commences, gives us the tra-
gical conclusion of the comical adventure recorded in
the preceding number. It should be read attentively
by those witless but not in general evil-intending per-
sons who indulge in what are called practical jokes.
The consequences of a " practical joke," played in the
travellers' room of a commercial inn, were, in this in-
stance, the deaths of two persons, and the ruin—the
irretrievable ruin of many more, including the perpe-
trator of the joke. The author of " Wayside Pictures "
takes us a pleasant trip to Ghent, Cour rai, and
lYaterloo. Courtrai has been, as our author says,
shabbily treated in the guide•books, and as
it lies out of the tract of ordinary tour-
ists, is, comparatively speaking, unknown.
Our author, however, has made a discovery which
will henceforth secure for Courtrai a visit from alt

artists and lovers of art. He shall describe it in his
own words—

" But the one grand thing which has altogether es-
caped notice, and which has thus tempted me to invite
the render to an excursion of two minutes to remo'e
Courtrai, is a Vandyk in one of the churches. A
stranger would as soon think of looking for a Michael
Angelo under a paving-stone as fur a Vandyk in
Courtrai; yet hero is an unmistakeable, veritable' Cruci-
fixion' by that master. His hand is so clearly in it, that
you may detect him at a single glance. The figure of
the Christ is fine, and the head, and the heads of the
figures all about; but, for Vandyk, in whose great pic-
tures there is always an epic sense of repose, a solemn
purity of treatment, and lofty grandeur of expression,
the composition is more elaborate and crowded than
might have been anticipated. For this reason, perhaps,
people may have passed by this Vandyk, and thought it
a capital picture by some obscure artist, and so left it.
But expend a little time over it, and by degrees you will
find the figures coming alive out of the canvas, and the
various characteristics and modifications of the emotion
in each palpably individualized. Still, there is too much
effort in it, too many arms straining upwards, too much
physical movement; and one cannot help regretting,
eotwithstandirg the melancholy beauty with which the
principal figure is invested, that Vandyk slid not more
strictly follow the suggestions of his eon chaste judg-
ment in a picture which he appears to have entered upon
with a bold conception and more than ordinary euthu-
siasm. No doubt the greatest of his Crucifixions is that
at St. Michael's in Ghent, which, defaced and retouched
and injured as it is, still retains, like the ' Last Supper'
of Leonardo da Vinci at Milan, vivid traces of the force,
invention, and originality of the master. His genius
seems to have reached its happiest achievement in that
famous picture, which, spoiled as it has been by bung.
ling- attempts at restoration, is not so much spoiled, after
all, as Sir Joshua has represented it to be. The ama-
teur of high art will be better able to appreciate its
merits by a peep at this other Crucifixion,' in which the
subject is treated in a different manner, and with greater
variety. After he has seen this picture, he will not
think that he has thrown away an hour or two in the
little excursion by railroad from Ghent to Courtrai."
Mrs. William Kirkland furnishes an excellently,
written and admirably intentioned paper, en-
titled, " What Strikes an American in Eng-
land." The aim of the authoress is to smooth
down those a'perities which too often prevent
a cordial social intercourse taking place between
the subjects of her Majesty Queen Victoria and the
citizens of the United States, who visit this " our
tight little island ;" a worthy object, and one which
Mrs. NV. Kirkland is admirably adapted to carry out.
Sylvanus continues his "Bye Lanes and Downs of
England," and Warren his " Adventures on
the Banks of the Amazon." An ela•
borate review of Eliot iiryrburton's re-
cently published memoirs of Prince Rupert and the
Cavaliers, is illustrated by a finely engraved portrait of
the Prince, from the original painting of Honthorst, in
the Earl of Pembroke s collection, at Wilton. The
illustration of the month is by Leech, to the Note-book
of a Coroner'sCleik. We have, in addition to these, a
classical tale, entitled Cleomenes, a fourth instalment
of the memoirs of Chauteaubriand, some pleasant gos-
sip anent Boulogne, by Maxwell, besides more than
the usual quantity of verse contributions,

DAVID COPPERFIELD. No. 111. By Charles

Dickens..

It is not possible to read this number of David
Copperfield without weeping. Those, at least, who
can peruse the last chapter in it, the ninth, without
shedding tears, can never have known what real sor-
row is, or must have had their natural feelings
blunted by misfortune, or can never have experienced
the bitterness of losing those they love, in death. A
more simple, true, or more touching piece of compo-
sition even Dickens himself has never before written.
It is another and most exquisite testimony of the
genius of this great writer; another and most re-
markable proof that the golden wand of the very
highest order; of genius has been confided to his
hand—that wand which can evoke at will either tears
or laughter, and which constitutes the sceptre exclu-
sively of the " bright particular stars" of literature.
Much as it has become the fashion of late to decry
Charles Dickens, and to depreciate his extraordinary
intellect, such an incident as this of the death of little
David's mother shows in a sudden gush of emotion
the absurdity of his assailants. When the last number
of the:last work of "Boa" contains such passages as the
one to which we are alluding, our illustrious author may
well afford to laugh at those who are envious of his
immense reputation. He knows the way, not merely
to the admiration, but to the affection of his reader.
He can command at pleasure those overflowings of the
heart through the eyes which are expressive of a
nobler homage to his great gifts as an author than
the most impassioned panegyric. Chapter VII., "My
First Half at Salem House," gives an amusing por-
traiture of the life of a schoolboy in one of those
suburban academies in the neighbourhood of the
metropolis where " the system" is excessive cruelty,
and where " the Principal " is an ignorant, " inca-
pable brute," with " no more right to be possessed of
the great trust he held than to be Lord High Admiral
or Commander-in-Chief." Mr. Creakle is just such
a character. Many as are the evils and atrocities
which have already been " put down" in such places
by the writings of Dickens, especially by his account
of the diabolical Yorkshire schools, through the esta-
blishment of Mr. Squeers, and especially again by
his sketch of the ruinous "forcing system" as evinced
in the House of Dr. Blimber, he is here em-
ploying hii powers generously for the suppression
of not the least miserable of all the grievances yet
surviving in such regions for the tuition of young
gentlemen. In describing the ill-treatment of him-
self and his comrades, David mentions the habit this
fellow Creakle has of " cutting" at the boys with his
cane or his ruler, thereupon observing very naively—
" I am confident that he couldn't resist a chubby boy
especially ; that there was a fascination in such a
subject which made him restless in his mind, until
he had scored and marked him for the day." Un-
luckiest of all the unlucky little dogs at the school
is poor Traddles—who is described as being dressed
in such a very tight ekyblue suit that it made
his arms and legs look " like German sausages or
roly-poly puddings." His career proves him to have
been in truth " the merriest and most miserable of all
the boys." By way of comforting himself after
being caned or ruler'd, Traddles bas a habit of
drawing skeletons all over his slate. Little David
at first seems to have wondered what possible comfort
Traddles could have derived from this operation;
but after various surmises he comes to the conclusion
that Traddles only drew skeletons " because they
were easy and didn't want any features." On one
day he is described as having been imprisoned so
many hours (after a severe castigation) " that he
came forth with a whole churchyard full of skeletons
swarming all over his Latin dictionary." This was
after the occasion when Steerforth laughed in church,
and Tommy Traddles, wrongfully mistaken for the
offender, was walked out in custody of the beadle,
" despised by the congregation." Mr. Mell is dis-
charged through the medium of a quarrel with James
Steerforth, when Traddles is moved to tears by the
circumstance, and " relieves himself as usual
by a burst of skeletons." Mr. Peggotty and Ham pay
David a visit at the academy, and at the end of six
months the latter goes home for the holidays.
Chapter VIII. depicts those holidays, " especially
one happy afternoon." The description of the meet-
ing between little David and his mother is exquisitely
beautiful—" I spoke to her and she stared, and cried
out. But seeing me, she called me her dear Davy, her
own boy ! and coming half across the room to meet me
kneeled down upon the ground and kissed me, and
laid my head down on har bosom near the little crea-
ture that was nestling there, and put its hand up to
my lips. I wish I had died. I wish I had died
then, with that feeling in my heart! I should have
been more fit for heaven than I ever have been since."
Soon afterwards, he says, poor Peggotty " comes
running in, bounces down upon the floor, and goes
mad about us for a quarter of an hour." On the
close of the holidays which have been effectually made
miserable by Dlr. and Miss Murdstone, the poor child
is bundled off again to Salem House. Chapter IX.,
" I have a memorable Birthday," is as yet the gem
of all the chapters of Copperfield. It is written not
from the head, but from the heart. All of it is
touchingly beautiful—from the moment
Davidwhenthat his
Mrs.
Creakle breaks the news to littlel
mother is dead, and he bursts into " a desolate cry,"
and feels an orphan in the wide
when he reaches the Rookery
andw o rdto
the beholds
y—
eseolemn windows, looking blindly on him, like
those
o time
closed eyes once bright." How wonderfully natural
that minute account of the child's grief—where it is
said "If ever child was stricken with sincere grief I
was." And yet Lis thoughts " were idle;
not intent on the calamity that weighed upon his
heart, but idly loitering near it." He thought of his
home, of the little baby, of his father's grave, and of a
hundred other things. Then—" I stood upon a chair
when I was left alone, and looked into the glass to see
how red my eyes were, and how sorrouful my face.
I considered, after some hours were gone, if my tears
were really hard to flow now as they seemed to be, what
in connexion with my loss it would affect me most to
think of when I drew near home—tor I was going
home to the funeral." The account of the mother's
death, and of her little baby's, and of their funeral,
and of David's wretchedness, is, to us, eminently
pathetic, and, from its marvellous truth to nature,
singularly sad and beautiful.

MAKING HAY ON A RAILWAY.—We have heard
of grass growing in the streets of decayed towns, but
never till now on railways—such, however, is the fact,
on the line from Exeter to Crediton, where during the
present week haymaking has been in full operation.
This ine, which was constructed three years since, is,
owing to a dispute between the broad gaugers and nar-
row gaugers, still unopened fur traffic, though there is,
veibL.ps, scarcely another in the kingdom better situated
tor it.
General Lahubaudiere died suddenly a few days
since at Quimper, at the moment when he was getting
into a carriage to proceed to join hie family at Brost.