The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-22 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

BPIVTLEY'S MODhIIN LITERATURR.—The
Letters of Horace Walpole. 6 Vuls The Letters of
Lord Chesterfield 4 Vols.
On the first appearance of this serial publication we
took occasion to remark upon the numerous excel-
lences by which it was characterised, and upon the
advantages it afforded those who were desirous of
making substantial and valuable additions to their
libraries. Since then sufficient time has elapsed to
test the merits of the publication, and to show whe-
toer the promises of the prospectus have been capable
of fulfilment. According to the arrangements of the
publisher, the various copyright works comprised in
his plan have continued periodically their course of
publication without any intermission, and without any
abatement in the style of their "getting-up." Twice
every month a separate Part has been issued ; once
every month a Volume, massively bound and ele-
gantly emblazoned, has appeared, so that twenty-four
parts or twelve volumes are forwarded to subscribers
in the year. While the paper is richly glazed, and of
a very durable texture, the type is large and clear,
the printing distinct, the arrangement of the contents
complete in all respects, and the embellishments nu-
merous and appropriate. So many advantages,
coupled with such remarkable moderation in price,
cannot fail to redound to the credit, and to ensure the
compensation of the entrepreneur. It would savour
more of affectation than of judgment to volunteer
any critical remarks upon the epistolary works
here republished by Mr. Bentley, the celebrity
of the letters of Horace Walpole and the Earl
of Chesterfield being @trivalent to the extra-
ordinary abilities they display. Of Horace Wal-
pole, Earl of Orford, as a correspondent, it is impos-
sible to speak too highly. His "incomparable let-
ters" are beyond all panegyric. It is upon those
apparently ephemeral, but really immortal, composi-
tions that his fame rests, more particularly than upon
any of his more laboured productions, although
we have an eminent authority for rating his
other literary pieces at more than their ordinary va-
lue. We remember that Lord Byron, in the preface
to his splendid tragedy of " Marino Faliero," thus
vindicates Horace Walpole from the contempt with
which he is too generally regarded :—" He is the
father," says Byron, "of the first romance and last
tragedy in our language, and surely worthy of a
higher place than any living writer, be he who he may!"
We are not prepared to go so far as Lord Byron has
gone in this momentary ebullition of spleen or enthu-
siasm ; but bating the conduct of Horace Walpole to
the wonderful poet, the author of " and his
frivolities at Strawberry Hill, and his ridiculous
jumbling- together of oligarchism and dernocrvism,
we regard Horace Walpole as entitled to our esteem
as an author, and to our gratitude as the writer of
his delightful and matchless Letters. The epistles,
again, of Phillip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of
Chesterfield, though redolent with pedantry,
and ludicrous from their aristocratic primness,
are always pleasant, always sparkling, and al-
ways instructive. The present beautiful edition
is illustrated with editorial notes by Lord Mahon.
Both series, namely both the Walpole correspondence
and the Chesterfield correspondence are rendered
peculiarly attractive and interesting from the cir•
cumstance of their being accompanied by numerous
letters now first published from the original manu-
scripts. In the present deteriorated state of the
bulk of periodicals, " Modern Literature " is a
welcome and deserving innovation.

HISTORY of EURE3PE from 1789 to 1815. Vol I.
By Archibald Alison. Seventh' Edition.
Any criticism upon this splendid and elaborate
historical composition would be superfluous. The
great work of Archibald Alison, has, both from the
European importance of its subject and from the
eloquence of the narrator, assumed a position in our
national literature as elevated as it is permanent. An
analysis of its character and an examination into its
merits were consequently unnecessary. So much
has already been written upon the dramatic and
elegant style of Alison, as well as upon his endeavoK
to maintain throughout his pages a scrupulous im-
partiality, so familiarized is the general public with
his magnificent production, and so fully are the abilities
of our historian appreciated that we shall content our-
selves with simply commenting upon the peculiarities
which exclusively characterise the present edition.
In its publication the utmost care has been taken to
preserve every portion of the original, unmutilated
and unabreviated, so that in the compass of a most
portable volume are comprised the entire contents of
an octavo, or even of a quarto. The classification,
the arrangement of the chapters, the footnotes, and
the marginal references are singular for their com-
pactness; and this supervision has even extended to
the enumeration of the authorities quoted in the nar•
rative. A merely superficial glance at this catalogue
will be sufficient to show the enormous research and
labourt en
dn g rozurirme da iyn h
ut
ni e m d
rceod p o
volumes,s it o --a
nad n researchecesi
ta t
ienxg-
a perusal of documents in German, French, English,
Italian, Spanish, Latin, and Russian. Even in ex-
ternal appearance the work is remarkable for the
attention paid to its general character, the binding
bPing at once chaste and substantial. As a frontis-
piece there is a beautiful engraving from the admir-
able bust of the anther, produced in the studio of Mr.
Patrick Park. A better edition, suited to the public
at large, could not possibly have been issued. It is
observed by Mr. Alison in the interesting preface
affixed to the commencement, that " a subject
so splendid in itself, so full of political
and military instruction, replete with such great and
heroic actions, adorned by so many virtues and
darkened by so many crimes, never yet fell to the lot
of an historian." No one will dissent from this esti-
mate, no one will deny that " the annals of modern
Europe will be sought in vain for a parallel to that
brief period of anxious effort and chequered achieve-
ment ;" and no one will hesitate to aver that in
earnestness, in enthusiasm, in perspicacity, and in
judgment, Mr. Alison has shown himself competent
to grapple with that vast multitude of astonishing
events, or that his earn estness is not usually modu-
lated by his impartiality, his enthusiasm tempered by
his justice, his perspicacity varied by his illustration,
and his judgment unswerving upon the most delicate
and complicated questions.

KNIGHT'S WEEKLY VOI,IIIIIE. No. CXIII.
Bacon ; his Writings and his Philosophy. Vol. 111.
On this excellent abstract of Lord Bacon's philoso-
phical and miscellaneous writings, arranged by Mr. G.
Craik, we have already spoken at some length. Now
that the production is completed in the present vo-
lume, it would be a matter of supererogation to insist
upon advantages which are so generally acknow-
ledged. In the miniature compilation of Mr. Craik,
the very kernel of the wisdom of " the wisest of man-
kind" is contained. While, however, the elaboration
the great originals of the immortal Verulam is
evaded, there is no sacrilegious mutilation of his
thought and dogmas—even the quaintnesses of his
manner are preserved, and we are rejoiced at this, for
those quaintnesses form the most characteristic gar-
ment of the Baconian philosophy.

THE CABINET 1118 TURY OF ENGLAND.

Vol XXII
As an abridzement of the chapters entitled, " Civil'
and Military History," in the Pictorial History of
England, accompanied with a continuation up to the
present time, by the author, Charles MacFarlane, this
pocket edition of our national records is singularly
complete and sensible. It has now proceeded to a
sufficient extent - to enable us, in a great measure, to
estimate the value of the work as a whole, and it is
impossible to deny that it is deserving of particular
commendation. While the main narrative possesses
all the staidness of Goldsmith, its minor episodes are
sketched with a brilliant and effective pencil. As an
example, we may quote the description of the closing
scene of the Reign of Terror. The master murderers
are caught in their lair, at the Hotel de Ville. Ro-
bespierre has broken his jaw-bone with a pistol-shot
in attempting suicide. Coffinhal has hurled Henriot
from a window into an open sewer. Lebas has killed
himself with a bullet. Saint Just had armed himself
with a dagger, and Couthon has crawled under a
table, when they are surprised by Leonard Bourdon
and his associates.
" When Leonard Bourdon burst into the room, fol-
lowed by some g•endarmes (himself, according to some
accounts, including his own, being disguised as a com-
mon gendarme), Robespierre was sitting bleeding on a
chair, with a knife in his hand ; Couthon was lying
under the table as though he were dead ; the municipal
officers were throwing off their scarfs, and apparently
preparing
covered in the foul
the gendarmes, and
submitted toconspirators quietly
for flight. One or two pistols. were fired by
be. then all the
broken and a skulla
wounded, disfiguredtaken
vaee
wahnderebhoeunhda.d.
fafilleefiari;oit‘,agbaa:lt.liya
, and covered with filth, was dis-
c were now
Robespierre was so found alive, though with limbs
running over every partl of
fractured. Some of the armed people,
crowding into the council- chamber and
his ceaer s from under the table, and pro-
posedthe vast building, dragged
throwing
out Couthon by the heels
he opened his e •esca-,e into the Seine ; but here-
uponthat he was not yut (lead and
gave them to understand
wounded "ere put upnr; nor so much as dying. The
shouting " Victory ! victi)brr.anr?ards or stretehers, and,
ducted them to the Tuileries, Leonard. Bourdon eon-
between three and four o'clockl3y this time it was
o'clock in tho afternoon,
astorn the
_ morning. At four
out-
rages, and tortures, which proved insults,
triumphed were as ferocious as those that those who
pierre, his brother Augustin, Saint Just, who fell, Robes-
riot, and sixteen others, were carted at the Couthon, Hen-
ri) be carried through the busiest streets ofe
onniergerie
Paris to the
Place de la lievolu;ion. The carts were followed
by a
countless multitude, and the windows and housetops are
said to have been more crowded than ever they had beeni
before. Jestings and laughii.g, filthy puns and que(ti.
bets, were mixed with wire curses, shrieks, and anathe-
mas. During a halt, a band of women, formerly his own
Tricoteuses, or Furies of the Guillotine, executed an in-
fernal dance round his cart, with chipping of hands and
tether demonst.ations of joy. On arriving in the Place
de la Revolution they laid him down on the groupd at
the foot of the scaffold, for he was to be executed last of