The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-17 00:00:00

FINE ARTS.
CANADIAN SCENERY.
V.rtue, London, 1841.
In this Pail there are not less than four en-
gravings; one of which, called " The .Squaw's
Grave," deserves great praise as a carefully exe-
cuted work of art. It represents a scene on the
Ottawa River, which spreads out, like a huge
lake, to the extreme verge of the horizon, while
its Banks, which form the foreground of the
picture, present to the eye as pictimsqut, an ob-
ject as could be desired. The literary descrip-
tions of .?.d.r. Willis are passable enough.

SCENERY and ANTIQUITIES of IRELAND.

Virtue, London, 1841.
Though inferior to Mrs. Hall's splendid work on
Ireland, and far more limited in its plan, yet the
present publica:ion is not without its value, lbr
its plates are invariably good, and some of them
of superior excellence. Of such a character is
the sketch of Ross Castle, in the enchanting
neighbourhcod of the Killarney lakes, which is
touched off with singular
,grace and delicacy.
The little wooded islands in the background,
whose shadows are reflected in the serene., wave-
less waters, and the bold ruins of the rock-hised
castle in front, give great beauty and variety tt
the landscape. The letter-press portifin of the
work is but indifferent.

L ETE RAT URE

SUPPLEMENT TO WADE'S BRITISH HIS-

TORY.
Wagon, London, 1841.
In the preface to his able chronological " His-
tory of Great Britain," Mr. Wade has justly ob-
served, "it is only by marshalling in line, as it
were, events and occurrences, foreign and do-
mestic, moral and physical, social and intellec-
tual, that the bearing and action of an age can
be comprehended. Changes of the seasons, do-
mestic incidents, discoveries and inventions, the
births, characters, and deaths of remarkable
persons—all contribute to the drama of life, in-
fluence the course of legislation, the policy of
.Government, and the progress of society ; and
unless each is explained and brought forward in
its due place, proportion, and juncture, the pan-
orama is incomplete, the contemporary scents
imperfectly delineated, and the reader's path ob-
scure and perplexed. The author's History,
which, if we remember rightly, appeared in the
cc-muse of last year, was conducted upon the
plan here laid down, and, as nti!rht have been
ticipated, met with very general approbation.
Something, however, was still ivantiu,. to its
completion, and accordingly, in the work Lefire
as, Mr. Wade has furnished us with a Sapplement,
wherein he gives several useful practical Lists
and Tables; and, among others, a table of the
relative value of gold coin from the Conquest to
.the present time, and a curious alphabetical list
of the principal public treaties and conventions
between European nations from the period of
the fourteenth century. Thus carefully corn-
pleted, we cannot vermit ourselves to doubt of
the lasting success of Mr. Wade's History.

SETTLERS AT HOME.
Knight, London, 1841.

This little volume forms one of the numbers of
Miss Martineau's " Play-felioe—a series oi
tales, the first Number of which we noticed a
few days since, and whik li it is proposed to publish
quarterly. The tale is entitled the " Szttlers at
Home," and details the fortunes of an industrious,
harmless, Dutch family, who had settled in the
north-east of England, among the swamps of
Lincoln, during the period of the great civil
war ; and by unwearied perseverance and i%-
f,,,ennity had managed to drain a cons::1?r-
-able portion of the . land, so as to r.ader
it arable, and fit also for the rearing of fruits and
vegetables. By doing so, however, the honest
Dutch folks injured .the interests of many of the
neighbouring peasantry, who, from time Imme-
morial, had supported themselves by fishing; and
shooting in the swamp ; and the tale is chi.fiy
occupied with detailing• the hardships that the
.Dateh. settlers sustaitied.at their hands. It is
pleasantly written, in a style of easy, fan: iar
eloquence.

SATAN: A POEM:
Mz:rray, Glasgo c, 1841.
We have here, what the title-page calls, "The
People's Edition of Satan"—a poem ivhieh in its
day enjoyed a very fair measure of popularity.
Two prefaces—one, we suppose, not being
deemed sufficient—are prefixed to the NirCr::,
both of which are written in a
.verbose, turgid
style, and are singularly deficient in idols. Here
is a sentence, for instance, which,though evidently
intended to be pregnant with thought, scents ;o our
limited understanding, to be a mere jumble of
nonsnse :—" How much it would tend to lift us
out of the blinding materialism in which we are
so co:dent to grovel, if we dilated the finite into
the infinite, and so Owed our judgments to run
parallel with the eternity to come rr.Again, what
on earth is the meaning of the " stream
of time rolling forward to an eternal conclu-
sion ?" How can that which is eternal
ever •be concluded ? With regard to the
poem, the author has certainly made many alter-
ations for the better in it; and it now trundles
on smoothly enough ; the best portions of it are
the descriptive; and Mr. Mont2.oinery seems to
be aware that description is his forte, for lie
gives us sunrises and sunsets without number; to
say nothing of a couple of thunder storms, one
of which commences and the other conchides
Satan.

THE REPERTORY OF PATENT INVEN-
TIONS.—No. XC.
J. S. Hodson, 112, Fieet-street.

So fertile in discovery as is the present age, it
is but judicious to have a specific record, wherein
more solid nd patentable inventions should be
preserved. This is the purpose of the " Reper-
tory," and during 1840-41, we are glad to observe
that inventive men have chiefly turned their at-
tention to improvements in those departments,
whose importance craves more than ordinary
consideration, as Steam and Weaving. Not one
of the least curious in the present number con-
sists of Mr. Nyren's improvements in the manu-
facture of oxalic acid, singularly effected by po-
tatoe and harsc-chesnut juice.

THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FRANCE.
Part I. Orr and Co., Paternoster-row, 1841.

National prejudices are fast disappearing-, and
one nation desires to look into the history of
another, for the wisdom or pleasure which its
pages garner. The history of France possesses
peculiar interest for Engli3limen, since the his-
tories of the two countries are so intimately in-
terwoven—and most of our olden institutions
fathered by feudalism. Mr. Bussey's work,
whereof the present forms the First Part, is
commendable tbr accuracy and detail. Dismiss-
ing those remote times, of which no authentic
voice bears record, he takes up his history at
that period of which "in the Comment u ics
Ciesar writ," and coevally with which C!ovis
filled the Frank throne. Around this King in
the present number the entirety of events %vneel
as round a common centre. In his reign the
land of France appears as a roomy platform, on
which, amid the semi-transparent obscurity of
the times, great but barbarous movement.: oc-
cur. The Cinibri and Teutons, Alemanni and
Helvetii, pouring out of their northern hives,
seek for fairer than their rugged homes amid the
valleys of the Loire and the Garonne. The
overthrows they meet with from the Romans
—a small but magnanimous band, circumvallat-
lag themselves among their barbaric swarms—
forms a singular portion of history, knowing as
we do that these Franks-were no trivial enennes,
for, hardened by perpetual toils, it was affirmed
of them, " that the snows of winter were as
pleasant to them as the flowers of spring."
Th2.author renders his history additienally at-
tractive by many minor anecdotiana interspersed:
—as of the defeat of the Helvetic host on a
summes day at Langres—the answer of the
proud Goth Ariovistus to CEesir—the !zigoth
law for aKi " Thou wilt be King ii thou
perform just actions, .but if not, King th(ai wilt
not be," &c. &c.
The work is creditably got up and
print good--and the vignettes embodied in the
text well-designed and neat.

The true character of the 'forks has been ex-
hibited in a most striking light during the last few nights
in the Howe of Commons. Some reckless parti.ian of
31r. Walter's (Nottingham) Laving presented, through
the immaculate Mr. Godson, of Kiddern.inster, a pet:-
tion alleging bribery against the _Ulm-A party in the
former town, Mr. Thomas Duncombe was entrusted 1‘ ith
two petitions from respectable parties there, &mon-
stratinz the most corrupt and profligate bribery by the
• Walterites. Mr. Godson, before he was aware of the
counter-petitions, had moved that the one which he pre-
sented should be printed—a step of late vears understood
to be the ground-work of a motion in the House. Mr.
Buncombe gave notice that he would, therefore, move
that all the petitions should be taken into consideration.
But this would not suit the Tory purposes, and both on
Monday and Tuesday nights, when they stood among
the notices of motion, they twice contrived to " count
out" the House, showing that they evidently dreaded the
discussion they had themselves oriezoinated.
THE STRONG MAN My son, Loki up
your head and tell me who was the strongest man " Jonah."
" Why so?" "'Cause the whale could'nt hold him af'cr he
had got him down." " That's a man ; you can take your seat."
ORIENTAL STEAmEtt.--Captain Soy, the
commander of this vessel (on board of which Sir David
Wilkie died on his passage from Alexandria), has been
presented with a goldsnuff-box, and a letter of the nki
from the passengers,

THE ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN

AND THE LAW 0 MARRIAGE.
TO THE 1.:DITOil or THE TIME?.

S'r,—Yett ar3 at liberty to refer to nie a§ approving
of tho abo!itions of the r,:stricdons on marriage to which
you ailnie.

As no clever and strong case has been made out Of
important advantage to the public from such restrictions,
I stake my hand on the broad general principle that
crow restriction is tin evil in itself; that political liberty
(as Paley observes) colaists in a man's being sahject to
no restriction that is not counterbalanced by a greater
amount of public advantage : that the general rule, ac-
cordingly, should Le to let every One do as he pleases,
the burden of proof lying upon the advooates of any
r.-_:striction to show its necessity.
This principle, Olen stated generallv, most persons
will, I think, admit. They would acknowledge that a
man aught not to be deprived of his liberty of action
merely on the ground that lie might not make thatiuse of
liberty winch all, or the majority, of his neighbours,
might think the bast. but merely when some serious
positive detriment was likely to arise to the public or to
his neighbours.

In p;irtieular instances, however, men are sometimes
apt to lose sight of this principle. In the present CfHe,
fir e::ample, if, although several worthy and respectable
persons (as is undoubtedly the fact) approve of the mar-
nagas in question, a conzideiable majority, as is probably
the case, disapprove of them, some might think the fair
and natural result should be, that those marriages should
be prohibited, on the ground that the minority should
give way to the majority.
Now, I should consider this a case of oppression of the
minority by the majority—which is no less unjust than the
converse ease. I should say that the fair and natural
result would be (supposing always no clear case of public
inconvenience to be made out)" that both parties should
be 1:-ft at liberty. Those who approve of such a mar-
riage wcald then be free to contract it when they might
think proper ; and those mho disapproved of it might
abstain from it.

• What may be called a meddling system of government,
amounts practically to a moat intolerable tyranny. If the
Legislature of a country comisted of the most disin-
terested and publits,-spirited men, but who should think
it their duty to compel: by law every individual to do
everything that-might Vent to them best, and to prohibit
evz:ry 67.1(_! from .tain:q-11:7.any step which they might not
think advisable, it would be found; 1 believe, that even
the government or oppressors would be preferred
to this.

And yet, I believe, in the present case, the question
appears to many men's minds to be, whether the mar-
riage with a deceased sister be or be not desirable.
Suppose it decided in the negative ; most peiple would
&vide a!so against the desirableness of a-marriage where
there was a very great disparity of years or of station, or
wh.,re there is a taint of insanity, or other hereditary
disease, or where ther.2 is no adequate provision for chil-
dren, &a.
.YeE how intolerable would be a system of
legislation which, in th:,se and similar cases, should un-
tkrtake to.prescribe the conduct of every individual. A
society so governed would resemble those children who,
to insure their straight and perfect growth, are from
their infitney so swaddled, bandaged, and ironed, as ef-
featually to prevent the fell development and free use of
all their members.

1 have been proem:ling rll along on the supposition
that no sufficiontly strong et:3J has been made out to jus-
tify departure in this matter from the general rule of
non-restriction.

As for the allegations from the Levitical law, if any
one brings them forward in sincerity, he should be pre-
pared to adro.....ate adherence to it in all points alike ;
among o:hers, the compulsory marriage of a brother
with his deceased brother's widow.

The only objection, which, at the first glance, appears
to have any plausibility, would be porceived, I think, on
a very little reflctien, to be extremely feeble—namely, the
supposed advantage (under the prohibition.of :such mar-
riages) of a WIA.IOWer'S enabled, without s2rmdal,
reside wit:: his decw.sed wite's Sister.
In fact, nothing more efi.ectually guards against. any
surit scandal than its being known that if any were so
disposed, they were at liberty to marry.
But as- for any abirnwttre of cohabitation between
them as nionstrorts and unnatural being created by a law
prohibiting their marriage, no law can be more absurd.
law does rot p•Arnit a woman to marry during her
hus'oand's ; ret this does not ob+late the
scandal that arise from the unrestrained familiar
interetair.;e of a..yonag married woman with another man.
Although, therZorc, there would probably be many
persona who would think the marriages in question unde-
sirable, I cannot think that any reasonable man, keeping
in vietn c. a Ornerai principle . I set out with, can think that
a sutliciently strong rase has been made out for Legisla-
tive interference with individual freedom of action.
I am, Sir, your obedient humble servant,
G. A. Esq. 11. DUBLIN.
Dubi;n, April 30, 134 I.

BEWARE!—We caution the electors, and the
non-tlectors also,"against being yullec! by the shout of No
Poor-lain, to prevent them joining in the rigl.:eous cry of
No Corn-Alit, If the labourer werenot robbed, he would
need neither new nor old poor-laws, and it is a disgrace
t) a wor'iing man to be compelled to ask for parish cha-
rity. Hid it not; been for the increase of poverty,
ro "seed 1m Co eqrn-tm,, the new Poor -law wettid ti.wer
ha.e been enacted. What have noble-minded -English
lab:Auer:3 to do with bastiles, relieving odimrs, or work-
house diet ? Give them th:ir afa:r optn malltet for
their labour, and, fx.) fcr as they are concerned, every item
of th law might be torn from the statute-h:lok.. That
there are som kind-hearted souls who say, " Oh, don't
join the clamour f ch,ap food; be quiet, and we will
upset the Somervt-house tyrants, and then, instead of
going to the Union Biard, von shall have parish pay at
your own doors, administered by a kind overseer." This
pretence of pity is to blind von to the real grievances
you endure. It is the Ltre:td A mendatent Art, and that
alon, . tin• which you are now to fight and conquer. Let
the cry of every man, woman, and child in the king& m
be, DowN wt-rn n; Co N- L WS :—..llCfrOpOlitan A n ti-
Corn-hiw

A HAUNTED HOUSE AT WI NDSOII.
Winasor has for some days been in a state of excite-
ment in consequence of a house, known as " Wanes
Cottage," occupied by Mr. and (Mr 3. Wright and their
daughters, being reportad to be " haunts a.'' unae-
coantable noises which have been heard at intervals re-
semble those which would be caused by a person rapidly
striking his knuckles for two or three minutes against
the panel of a door, leading f:oin the kitchen into the
water-closet in the house. Several Magistrates of the
county, clergymen, and others, have been present at the
time Of these noises, and in vain have endeavoured to
unravel the mystery. Last week Mr. Riley and Lord
Clement Hill stationed themselves in the hall within
three yards of this doar, and, as soon as the knocking
commenced, rushed to the spot within a second after--
wards, but not a soul was near it, and the whole of the
family were in a different part of the house. The whole
of the machinery of the water-closet has been removed,
the flooring taken up, and the ground excavated, under
the impression that the noise might have proceeded from
foul air in the pipes or drains, or from some other cause
connected with this part of the interior of the house, but
the noise still continues as before, at intervals, and to-day
and yesterday it was even more violent and loud than
ever. In order to asaertain if the door of the closet was
struck a small piece of chip was laid upon the projecting
portion of the panel, and,after the knocking had ceased
this had fallen on the floor, but no shadow of a cause
was perceptible. Mr. Wright and his family are in that
state of mind that they are making preparations to leave
I the house immediately.

CAUTION TO TRAVELLERS BY RAILWAY.-
Mat Industrious fraternity, the " Swell Mob," appear to
have transferred their operations upon the travellers in
the omnibuses to those by the railway, and the public
will do well to be upon their guard against their pro-
endings. On Mo-day afternoon, an elderly gentleman,
named Scott, who resides at Guildford, took a place by
the train of 013 Southampton Railway to Woking, and
in the same carriage with him were three well-dressed
persow:, one of whom, during the journey, spread an
open.cloa'.: upon his knees. Mr. Scott observed that this
person sat very close to him, but nothing occurred to ex-
cite his suspicion, and when the tram arrived at the
Kingston station, the three "gentlemen" politely wished
him a good evening, and left the carriage. A few minutes
afterwards he put lzis hand in his pocket, and found that
hi; purse, Nviiieh contained upwards of five pounds in
go!d and silver, had been stolen. Upon his arrival at
Esher he gave information to the railway police, who
instituted an inquiry and search afies- the " gentlemen,"
but without success. The police have received informa-
tion of several other robberies of a similar description,
but it is to be hoped 'that this caution will put a stop to
emu for the future.

en4ceishtor
WORCESTER..—On Friday last a most extra-
rortzythoecc3tlterliv•
having;
at ,Worcester. Dr.
repaired to the See
house, for the -purpose of taking possession, found the
gates of the palace closed against him, and on present-
ing. himself at the grand entrance, and demanding ad-
mission, was told that the palace was in possession of
another party, and that his Lordsh would not be per-
mitted to cogs ! A• crowd o' persons, attracted by
these novel and most unusual proceedings, witnessed the
fact of his Lordship's application and denial, and awaited
with great api-arent interest the result. The Bishop
persisted in Ws claim. The party in possession was
deaf to all remonstrance or entreaty, and the Bishop's
family Was obligel to seek an asylum elsewhere. llis
Liggage remained in the street some time, and his Lord Ship
eventually slept at the house of Mr. Foley, a solicitor.
This
.painful spectacle is understood to have ari::en from
a chum made by a creditor of the late Bishop upon cer-
tain property within the palace. Bishop Pepys returned
to London on .Saturday, bat his family remained at
Worcester. 'On Sunday they attended the Cathedral ;
and on Monday we are told that a sum of money having
passed, and a commomise having been effected Mrs.
Pepy.s and the Prelate's family have been permitted to
enter the Palace. The terms of the compromiEe have
not transpired, but the fte:ing o: those in Worcester
Who are attached to the Church and her interests is this
—that so distr,N:sing a ;:irctaele, and one which drew
forth so many pikes and jests, ought never to have been
permitted to take place.
T lin CtNstis,---Tucmiay the Enumerators in
e various districts gave in their returns to the various Be-
gistrars, by whorl they will be forwarded to the Census Com-
missioner -. A part of tl:e duty of each Enumerator was to
tabulate and arrange his returns, which will render the la-
linens of the !atter comparatively light, and a pretty correct
extent of tho xtent of the popula-ion will be obtained in about
a fortnight.
TH E JEWS' DECLARATION BILL.—LOl.l.
Brougham voted in tl:e minority en the Jews' Civil Dil'attrties
fti lief Bill. His Loo ship's name was ei,..-cidenAssly omitted in
the published list.
The weather contitlw st to be dry, warm, and,
beautiful duyi:..g the jiay. but there have been cold winds
in the evening. it cord:tit yet be sold that the crops are
,uttining. from drought, }'ter doubtless a smart. shower
would nos be alike welt •que. end bc..neheml.—Glaspe
fierak