The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-07 00:00:00

MAGAZINES, ETC.—(CONTINUED.)
THE RENFREWSHIRE MAGAZINE. Nos.
1., 11., DI, and IV.
A new aspirant for public patronage, published at
Paisley, and issued at a trifling amount monthly, is
lying upon our table„ The contents are singularly
varied, singularly-well written, and singularly intel-
ligent. We are glad to obserre throughout, the
breathings of a gentle and philanthropic spirit. Many
of the contributions are brimming over with an inno-
cent and agreeable humour, such as the " Passages in
the Life of Oliver Nappe," and the " Nights at the
Peesweep," a feeble imitation of the glorious" Noctes
Ambrosiance." Several of the contributions—such
for example as "Dr. Nichol's System of the World,"
" The Province of Intellect," and others, though
brief, are of superior merit. "My Old Arm-chair"
is an unsatisfactory copy from the ballad composed
by Henry Russell. On the average the periodical
begins admirably.

SIMMONDS'S COL(ANIAL MAGAZINE.
It is melancholy to observe the lamentable manner
in which the rhythmical contributions of the Colonial
for 1847 are commenced. Such puerility was
scarcely ever perpetrated by the disciples of Bayes as
the lines entitled the " Bell Buoy." Neither Swift
nor Pope could have discovered among the lucu-
brations of Catnach a more miserable specimen of true
bathos—

" Far famed Dalhousie, the great god of war,
Lieutenant-Colonel to the Earl of Mar!"
was nothing to it. The writer kindly informs us in
a foot-note that the production was composed after
reading the account of the perilous voyage of the
Great Western. With the opening of the first stanza
the sun is described as having legs; for the author
says, that luminary " strode on toward the west."
Two lovers are on the deck, looking upon vacancy,
and thinking about the same, when they hear the
sound of the bell-buoy :
" 'Tis a voice like a conscience that warms solemn/9
'Tis the toll of the bell-buoy that rings out at sea."
Then the bell-buoy is described as having something
or other to do with a " shroudless corse" which it
dandles about—

" On its many-backed courser, the ocean tides."
A courser with many backs ! why it must be a
kind of equine polygon! This same corse is de-
picted as " tugging and tussling the white foaming
main." Shortly after comes an account of the par-
tial catastrophe of the Great Western—which is con-
densed in one charmingly graphic line—
" A rock, and a roll, then mad shrieks of despair!"
and afterwards comes the very acme of absurdity,
when

" Her captain is heard, still undaunted, to shout—
Mind the helm, boys ! Steady ! Look out, lads—
look out!"
Surely this is the art of sinking in poetry with a ven-
geance ! Besides which, it conveys to the mind a
detestable levity in connexion with a spectacle of real
sublimity. One of the most monstrous specimens of
this kind of levity is in Tom Ingoldsby's " Old Wo-
man clothed in grey :" where the soul of the old lady
is refused admission into Paradise by St. Peter—" so
she tucked up her shroud," and said, " here goes for
a fly!" Hardly a jot less monstrous is the tone of
this poem on the Bell-buoy. Otherwise the magazine
is of its usual merit.

GILBERT'S DICTIONARY OF THE ENG-
LISH LANGUAGE. Parts XII. and XIII.
This extraordinary and laborious work is still con-
ducted with ardour and intelligence. A few blunders
among such thousands of explanations are inevitable,
and certain omissions are also at intervals almost un-
avoidable. Making every allowance, however, for the
difficulties of the task imposed upon the editor, he is
compiling a work which will, when completed, be
altogether invaluable.