The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-02 00:00:00

TAI T.

A t

- •T.N.17 ED

Mr. St, John's "Miranda" progresses well. "The
Revoltvion" is approaching its climax. In the pre-
sent number we take part in the scenes of the " 10th
August" and the "2d September." Charles Clement
is introduced to the King, and the unfortunate
monarch vacillates for a moment between the salutary
advice of the loyal Republican, who boldly tells him
that " the nation has resolved to govern it,ta, but as it
requires a chief magistrate to execute the laws, and as
guided by a representative assembly, a king is quite
compatible with liberty, the nation delegates to
majesty the execution of the law:," and the evil
counsels w his mistaken Queen, who passionately
exclaims, " Letter die than be king at that price
In these chapters the stern republicanism of Mr. St.
John is very apparent; he frankly tells us that al-
though the executions of Louis XVI. and Marie
Antoinette are sad, terrible, and lamentable things, they
are to him personally no more than the execution of
any other men and woman who perished on the scaffold.
We are surprised, nevertheless, to find the author of
"Miranda," after pronouncing a just condemnation
on the execution of a " woman who was only dan-
gerous in Paris as a flag of conspiracy," declaring
that he considers the man who sent Marie Antoinette
to the scaffold on the same level with Charlotte Cor-
day, who assassinated a man who had never injured
her. Without wishing to exculpate even " the angel
of assassination," as Lamartine has styled Charlotte,
from the odium which invariably attaches to the
shedder of blood, we cannot but think that between
the execution of Marie and the assas ination of Marat
there exists at least the essential difference which
distinguishes the dastardly cowardice of strength
crushing helplessness from the heroism of weakness at-
tacking strength. The executioners of Antoinette only
gratified their own evil passions. The murderess of
Marat voluntarily forfeited her life. An interesting
article on the "Literary and Scientific Society of
Edinburgh" presents us with some tolerably accurate,
but by no means flattering portraits of the literati of
Edinburgh in the present day. This article would
be more attractive were it in some instances less
severe. Very few will concur with the assertion that
the merit of the publications of the brothers Cham-
bers is " mediocrity." Mediocrity would never have
obtained for those publications the popularity which
they so deservedly enjoy. In this opinion
w e are borne out by another writer in
Tait, who, in reviewing " The Haunted Man,"
marvels at the cause of the exceeding popularity of
Dickens's " Christmas Books." " Great popularity
of this kind," he says, " cannot be attained without
some foundation. The kindly disposition evinced
in the tales would not suffice to sell them faster than
the press could throw them off. Shoals of new books
will not sell only because the author is a good-
natured man. Mere novelty of style would not ac-
complish that desirable object. It has a certain in-
flaence, but one greatly circumscribed within the
range of these works. Their popularity evinces their
suitableness for the times." If this be so, we may hail
it as an auspicious sign, when we call to mind
the truthful remark of this reviewer, who, in
closing the " Haunted Man," again bears witness " to
the perseverance of its author in making all his op-
portunities subservient to the enlargement of human
happiness, and the reduction, or, if it be possible, the
removal of human misery." If themes like these be
" suitable to the times," again we say it is an auspi-
cious sien of the times. " The English and Dutch in
the Indian Archipelago," another chapter on " Scot-
tish Rivers," an interesting biographical article on
Thomas Campbell, halt-a-dozen poems of indifferent
merit, and some remarks on Mr. Cobden's budget,
form the remaining contents of the January number
of Tait. One of the best poems above enumerated
is suggested by the following singular circumstance,
one well calculated to inspire a poem :—" At the time
of the ineeincholy wreck of the steamer Atlantic,
when forty souls perished, a piece of the wret k, with
the steamer's bell attached to it, became, and con-
tinues still, fastened between two rocks. During
every swell of the waves the bell tones forth its me-
lancholy note over the spot where the vessel's living
cargo was engulphed."