The Sun.
London, England, 1840-12-09 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

BLACKFRIARS9-BRIDGE.—The last crnbellisi,
meets for this bridge have just been finished, and are now
erecting over the centre arch, facing the cast and west.
They consist of two specimens of the armorial bearings of
the City, executed with considerable skill and ability, and
which appear with good effect on passing up and down the
river.
CHEATING BAKERS,—No fewer than 181
bakers have been recently prosecuted before tbe Tribunal
of Simple Police at Paris, for selling bread under the
proper weight. In the cases of 73, the Court found ex-
tenuating circumstances, hut the rest were condemned to
the maximum of the penalties imposed by law.
REPRESENTATION OF SCARBOROUGH.—We
announced last week the intention of Sir Charles Style to
retire at the next election. Colonel Phipps, a relative of
the Must Noble the Marquis of Normanby, has since then
made a public entry into the town, and is making a general
canvas.— Yorkshirernan.
THE NEW lIOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.—The
walls of the new Houses of Parliament arc progressing
very rapidly. The elevation of most of the outside walls
now reaches about twelve feet. Every exertion will be
made to complete both houses in the rime originally spe-
cified.
The new Reform Club-house in Pa is
nearly finished. The architecture and appearance of the
exterior are very handsome ; the apartments in the inte-
rior arc exceedingly well arranged, lofty and vvell propor-
tioned, and throughout the whole of the building beauty
and convenience arc united.
About eighteen months ago a French vessel, the
Neptune, de Means, was:rrrecked under the high cliff near
Birling gap, and in March last another French vessel, the
Auguste Marie, de 'Vannes. was wrecked near the same
spot. Both crews would inevitably have perished but for
the generous gallantry of Lieutenant Blair, R. 4., com-
manding the Coast Guard station at Birling gap, and the
crew under his orders. At great personal risk,—and in
the ease of the latter vessel particularly,—they succeeded
after protracted and severe exertion in saving from a
watery grave twelve human beings out of the thirteen who
composed the two crews. The circumstances having been
reported to the Minister of Marine by the French Consul
at Brighten, the report was laid before his Majesty Louis
Philippe, who desired that an honorary gold medal should
be presented to Lieut. Blair, and silver medals to three of
his crew, viz., Wm. King, Wm. Davis, and Duncan
M'lnnes, who incurred peculiar hazards in obeying the
Lieutenant's instructions during the tremendous gale when
the latter vessel was lost. These medals will be forwarded
through the French Ambassador in London and the Bri-
tish Admiralty. This occurrence is equally honourable to
both countries, and at this particular moment is most de-
lightful,ias showing that the wild cries.of a maddened peo-
ple cannot stifle the sentiments of gratitude in a ruler's
breast. —Brighton Gazette.
Information was on Monday given at Bow-street,
that John Delton Holt had, on Thursday last, absconded
from his employers at Liverpool with 3,0001. in notes and
gold. One of the notes taken is a Bank of England note
for 5001., No. J. C. 7,665. The delinquent is about 41 or
42 years of age, about 5 feet 8 inches high. His person
is thin, and slightly made, and his complexion pale and
sallow. His eyes are large, and his hair black. A reward
of 2001. is offered for his apprehension and conviction.
Grouse-shooting ends to-morrow. The season
has been pioductive of much sport in Scotland, Cumber-
land, and other northern counties. It is a fatiguing and
manly amusement compared to pheasant and hare shooting
in preserves, which comparatively cannot be denominated
sporting.
The Leeds Reform Association, invited INTr.
O'Connell to a public dinner; and he has accepted the
invitation. It is expected there will be six thousand per-
sons present on the occasion.
When Jean d'Acrc was formerly taken, the same
negligence was observable when the victors entered the
fortress that occasioned the iate explosion of a magazine
and other mischief ; the powder lay loose about the place
and between the guns, which was noticed in the account at
the time of its surrender many years ago.
Olin ELEVEN DAYS.--Bradley, astronomer
royal, had a considerable share in the assimilation of the
British Calendar to that of other nations. Lord Chesteasr-
field was the orinal promoter of this measure, which w
carried in 1751. The following curious anecdote happily
illustrates the presumption and ignorance of the mob in
those days --Lord Chesterfield took pains, in the peri-
odical journals of the day, to prepare the minds of the
public for the change ; but he found it much easier to
presail with the Legislature than to reconcile the great
mass of the people to the abandonment of their inveterate
habits. When Lord Chesterfield's son stood the great
contested election for Oxfordshire in 1754, one of the moat
vehement cries raised by the mob was, " Give us back the
eleven days we have been robbed of ' (the reader will re-
collect that Hogarth introduces this in his Election Feast)
—and, several years after, when Bradley, worn down by his
labours in the cause of science, was sinking under the dis-
ease which closed his mortal career, many of the common
people attributed his sufferings to a judgment from heaven
for his having been instrumental in what they consider to
have been so impious an undertaking.

DUBLIN RE VIE W —No. XVIII
IYoThu London, 1640.
The objection which We have so often made to
this Quarterly Journal—that it is heavy and mono-
tonous in its character, appiles less to this Nurrrber
than any of its predecessors. We now meet with
none of those scholastic theological discussions is
which it used formerly to abound, and which had
no other effect than to perplex and mystify the
general reader ; these abstruse themes are, in a
great measure laid aside, and their place supplied
by others better suited to the comprehensiour of the
majority of readers. The first paper is devoted to a
consideration of the " Transactions of the Armco-
relogical Society ;" and the remarks interspersed
throughout it on the economy of the atmosphere,
are distinguished by just such a spirit of fervid and
commendable piety as the subject necessarily
awakens in the mind of a thoughtful man. We dif-
fer, however, from one or two of the Reviewer's in-
ferences, especially when speaking of the height at
which life can be sustained without inconvenience ;
he says, " Humboldt and other travellers who have
surmounted the Cordilleras of the Andes, affirm that
tile", Auffered great difficulty in breathing when they
reached those summits. Monck Mason how-
ever, in the account he has given of his
celebrated aeronantic expedition
that acrossthe the
balloon
Chan-
nel with Mr. Greene N
frequently attained an alttude of twelve thousand
feet ; and that at Pa time ciLl they experience the
slialue effect on their bodies fre'm th• diminished
superineuenkat weight of the atmosChere. He, as
we think, justly gatibutes the difficulty of breath-
ire, spoken of by getaboldt and ethers, to the
museelee fatigue necessarily i!esurred in the cou7o
of their uuWet4
,journey." Nov ;lois inference is
untenable, as being drawn from wrong, premises.
Humboldt's difficulty of iateething was not the le-
stilt of fatigue, but of the fa euperior elevation
he had gained, having actually reached—see his
own ttevels translated by Helen Maria Williams,
a work which we read evith infinite pleasure many
years age—to within eleven hundred yards of the
summit of Chimborazo; which is nearly twenty-
four thousand feet in height : At the compara-
tively insignigeght elevation attained bv. the
aeronauts he complained of no difficulty of breath-
ing ; indeed, how could he, with justice, when we
all know that it is no uncommon thing for enter-
prising travellers to ascend to quite as great a height
up Mont Blanc, as Monck Mason reached in his
balloon ? The following circumstance e ill be new
to many of our readers :—" It is a singular thing,
mentioned by Colonel Ileid, in hia observations on
the law of storms, that no storm has ever been
known to occur at St. Helena: The degree of
magnetic intensity Lhere is the lowest yet ascertained
on the globe. That fortunate island may be said
therefore, to be placed in the tare Pacific ocean of
the world." How strange, that the mighty Napo-
leon, whose life had been one continued scene of
storm and tempest, and who had swain over
Europe like a desolating hurricane, should at last
nave found his grave in an ever-peaceful region,
where storms were unknown ! But, unluckily for
the sentiment of the thing, such is not the fact, for
Scott and Autcmmarchi both assert that the day
of the Emperor's death was marked by a furious
tempest ; and that, like Cromwell, he drew his
last breath while the elements were all in fear-
ful activity about him. " Shakspeare" is a defence
of this incomparable dramatist from the heretical
opinions, as the Reviewer seems to think them, of
Mr. Peregrine Courtenay. In the course of this
defence, Dr. Johnson's definition of history is
quoted, which we do not remember to have met
with before. " History," quoth the sage of Bolt-
court, " is a narration of events and facts delivered
with dignity." If this be really the true definition
of the word, then is George Robins one of the
greatest historians on record ; for who narrates
" events and facts"—such as the sale of an estate
and its various local recommendations—with dignity,
equal to his ? His mode of narration has quite an
epic majesty about it. Like Goldsmith, he elevates
whatever he touches, and were he but to announce
the sale of a cargo of Irish pigs, they would be sure
to assume in his advertisements the dignified aspect
of elephants. We have often thought that it
would be an excellent speculation were Mehemet
Ali to commission George to sell his Egyptian
deserts in lots, for our great modern historian would
describe them in such a sublime and impressive
manner, dwelling with special emphasis on the
amazing fertility of their soil, and the copious va-
riety of streams which traversed them, that they
would find instant purchasers. " Modern French
Romances" is a spirited protest against the extrava-
gance and licentiousness that characterise the majo-
rity of French works of fiction. The passing obser-
vations on the novel "Georges Sand" arc calculated
to do great good. There are two or three more
articles, which we have neither time nor space to
Lscuss ; and among the best of them is the one on
to present state of our foreign affairs.

MR. M'CULLOCIPS DICTIONARY.
Part VIII. is just published, which completes
the first volume of this work. The most interest-
ing articles in this Number are on Hanover, Hol-
land, and Hindostan, in which the history, geo-
graphy, and statistics of these countries are given
with Mr. M'Culloch's usual accuracy and judg-
ment. Every new Number, however, makes us
regret that a work of this importance should be
printed in such a small type. Old people can-
not read it, and as the young will in time be old,
it will be to them also a sealed book. Had it been
expanded to three volumes, with a little additional
charge, neither the editor nor publishers would
have suffered. It is but proper, however, to state
that the letter-press is very distinct, and the maps,
in general are well executed. The following brief
history of the ancestors of the Queen of England,
taken from the article " Hanover," will be found
interesting at the present time
Tonv.—Tha kingdom of Hanover is formed out
of the duchies formerly possessed by several families of
the junior branch of the house of Brunswick. The
reigning family derives its origin from the union of the
Marquis d'Este, in the 11th century, with a wealthy
princess of Bavaria, the issue of which received the sur-
name Guelph, from his maternal ancestors, and inhe-
rited the dukedom of Bavaria. Henry the Proud, third
in descent from him last, mentioned, married Gertrude,
the ruling Princess of Brunswick ; their son, well known
in the history of the crusades as Henry the Lion (born
1129), was the first Gerdph Duke of Brunswick. He
married a daughter of Henry 11., King of England ; and
from this marriage both the houses of Brunswick and
Luneberg are descended. The history of Hanover for
the two centuries preceding the Lutheran reformation
presents little interest, except in the connexion of its
princes with the wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines,
in the latter end of the 14th century; little or nothing is
known of its internal history. The reformation num-
bered the Princes of Brunswick among its most zealous
supporters, and their subjects, during the thirty years'
war, warmly seconded their anti-papal efforts. Ernest
of Zell, the reigning Duke, was one of the most elo-
quent defenders of Luther at the diet of Worms. His
endeavours to improve the people by establishing cleri•
cal and general schools, when learning was esteemed
only by the few, show him to have been a man of en-
lightened views. His grandson, Ernest Augustus, mar-
ried Sophia, a grand-daughter of James 1., of England
(by his daughter Elizabeth, the wile of the elector-
palatine) ; and on this marriage was founded the claim
of the elder branch of the house of Brunswick to the
English Crown, acknowledged by Parliament in 1701.
George Louis was the issue of this marriage, and be-
came King of England in 1714 ; from which time, till
1837, at the death of William IV., both England and
Hanover have had the same Sovereign.

:__._ _ .. _ .....

1,

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,re

selet .tions from Sir Walter Raleigh and Cow
t as good as could have been given ;
aboa those
from Jeremy Taylor, too, and Tillo en,,
.ar e not
amiss; • but why have we nothing-fisill qv' Er ilton,
whose
A urose works, in detached frit!, '.."!" -,-, -n the
most ac
ceptable reading possib ;3_11411„;* ---=',:;?.t 1 the
frequent ruggedness and obscure
_itivoAtig -1,::.,77i;.) it is
somewhai t of a task to wade .0-1,,,,.--.-
- Y-:-, ',!_-://
whole ? The poetical extracts Itt. -tididieni.: .?"'/
up --.1,- !.-f de
by no means remarkable for super

vci-
PICTORL4L SHAKSPEARE, PART X ;Cl/47
C. Knight, London, 1840.
This Part comprises the entire comedy
" Twelfth Nigiit," to which is affixed a " Suppl
-neintary notiee," from the pen, we presume, of tl
Elitor, whose rem lirks show a thorough appreciatio
of iti‘e myriad beaujes of the play. The illustra
lions ::rc as apposite and engiaved with as much
frbility as ever ; the I:Tontispiece, in particular, ex-
Pubis two: full-length figures, Olivia and the dis-
gc,,ised Vie4i, who arc standing talking together in
the ft ire-ground of the picture, and are compicuous
by tha exceeding grace of their attitudes.

VICTORIA.
E. Wilson, _London, 1840.

In a in gdest, chastely written preface the Author'
of this poen ► eAplains the objects he had in view. ire
a. yid adds that he " entertains a hope
writing it,
that some share: of that indulgence which has been
usually shown h T the public to the first attempt of
an I may prove to be well founded,
aspiring poet, way be extended to him." We
may meet with a favourable re-
atrruidstallaiatt:tilsiispoheorpr:
ception, for the set, titnents are such as do equal
credit to his head and heart, and hare their full
effect given to theta by the aids of concise, vigorous,
and barmonious language.

DEFOE'S WORKS. VOL. I.
Clements, Londone, 1840.
volume of this work. is now completed,
an in Dr
es a memoir of the Author, for the •ma-
:Tic'oC fit : its.
which the writer has heel) much indebted
tt eo r sor v
a:ter Wilson's researches, and several .of
Defoe's mino Y to les, such as his " Colonel Jack,"
" Moll Flande,-s) As we entered at length,
"
when the first Number of this
some months ago,•
Edition was publis•hodi into Defoe's peculiarities
as a novelist and a pa ty pamphleteer, we need'gay
no more on the preseot i.‘ce„asion, than that his
works are here brought oaf in a cheap bnd commo-
dious form.

THE GIPSY KING.
Ball, London, ] 840.
The Gipsey King is a poem from the p, m of
Richard Howitt. It is of a very mediocre chara,ut •t•
as regards talent, but there is nothing in the thoughta
or sentiments to which the sternest moralist Cattl.
object. Some of the minor poems are pretty ; but::
the " vision and the faculty divine"—as Words—
worth somewhere calls poetic genius—is wanting
throughout.

IRELAND, PAnr
The present Part of this useful work contains
two choice engravings, and a map of the county of
Kerry, which is very carefully executed. The
letta-uress is from the lively and intelligent pen •f

THE ,07VUAL BLACK BOOK AND POLI-
TicA,r‘ IJLMANACK FOR 1841. By H. J.
R„.„„woK. Cleave, London.
This is a c,lmpilation of many statistical facts con-
which will be
con-
cerning the reve:"e and expenditure,
found extremely u„-ful to those who desire to know
the workings and beal.4ngs of our political system.
It is intended for the ta.:'.payus, and by many of
them it will no doubt be stm..4jeci'

''EASONS,

LEE'S BOOK FOR ALL Z.
London, Cleave. , Christmas
A pleasant compilation, intended fo.
Agreeable
or holiday present; cheap, and full 0.4'

is &
but