The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-01 00:00:00

lON DON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 1841.

MOTHER SHIPTON'S
POLITICAL PROPHECIES FOR 1841.

Hearken, Gentles, to your wise
Mother Shipton's Prophecies 1

Drums shall beat and broad-swords gleam,
Trumpets flourish, banners stream,
And tiny Thiers shout forth " Advance I"
Once again to bristling France;
Vowing by Napoleon's tomb,
To put down—he knows not whom I
And panting with desire red-hot
To achieve—he knows not what 1
But, despite his war-array,
Peace shall still maintain her sway ;
Vainly shall he ply his trade
Of bombastic gasconade;
He shall prove a very so-so
French Bombastes Furioso,
And, tho' sore against his will,
Meet the fato of Bobadil I

Rage combined with huge dismay,
prevail in far Cathay;
Mandarin with Mandarin
Shall vie in cursing Viceroy Lin,
And Emperor Fum to Premier Fo
Shall mutter, " here's a pretty go I"
As England threats with many a scoff,
To cut his precious pig-tail off!

Napier's deeds by land and sea
Shall fill the Porte with extacy,
Set Ali groaning like a paviour,
And put him on his best behaviour I

With France and England, Nick the Younger,
Daily—hourly growing stronger,
Shall strive to play a slippery trick,
Worthy of his sire, Old Nick,
But scared by Britain's wrathful mood,
Shall swear he meant it for their good 1

In the British House of Lords
Fierce shall rise the war of worts;
Londonderry shall commence
The co:Act with his usual sense,
Bursting forth in fire and fury,
Like Tom Thumb the Great at Drury;
And Proteus Philpotts, ever proudest
To be heard among the loudest,
Shall resume the hacknied story
Of Dame Church's vanished glory ;
Tell how Whiggish sons of Mammon
Have seduced her by their gammon,
Torn her from her Cantuar's arms,
Rifled all her golden charms,
Encouraged in his devilish mood
Her fiend-like foe, John Thorogood,
And—to crown their heinous
sin—
Coolly stripped her to the skin ;
But tho', shocked at such a tale,
Rosy Abinger turns pale,
And, with knowing look, like Mundell.
Sly old Lyndhurst winks at London:—
Ghostly Philpotts nought shall take
By his motion, meant to shake
A realm, for Mother Church's sake,
But crush'd by Brougham's sarcastic sense,
And Demosthenic eloquence,
Become a theme for laughs and jeers,
Like Bottom with the Ass's ears!

In St. Stephen's halls, ere yet
The (louse but one short night has met,
Oily Peel shall rise and praise
Ilis candour in superfluous phrase ;
Stanley strive iu desperate fashion,
Russell's back to lay the lash on,
Soon to feel, misguided elf,
Ills blows recoil upon himself
Thrice shall Graham rise, and thrice
Clear the benches in a trice,
Just as Coates, long time Igo,
Ch.ar'd the pit in Romeo I

Once a woek the Tory faction
Shall predict a sure reaction,
And in sunny day.dreams sip
Treasury sweets with eager lip ;
But, alas 1 the Session's close
Shail find them looking black as crows,
And—despite each fierce endeavour—
Just as far from place as ever 1

As the year rolls onward, she
Our Princess Royal, born to bo
In time to come a nation's stay,
Shall like an infant flower in May,
Lustier blossom day by day,
Crushing thus, at Heaven's command,
The last fond hope of Cumberland,
And deepening every frown, I wis,
On that ugly mug of his I
Thus my weird Predictions run
Fur the New Year, Forty One
Quoth Mother Shipton.

COURT CIRCULAR.

WINDSOR, TIIURSDAY.—Her Majesty and his
Royal Highness Prince Albert walked for some time
this morning on the terrace of the Castle.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, attended
by Lady Fanny Howard, took her accustomed exercise.
Her Majesty rode out this afternoon in an open pony
phae on, which was driven by his Rbyal Highness
Prince Albert. Colonel Wemyss, Mr. Rich, and Cap-
tain Seymour were in attendance.
His Royal Highness Prince Albert honoured Mr.
Fowler with an interview this morning, and inspected
a finished picture and sketch of her Majesty the Queen
Lord and Lady Holland and Sir George Grey,
are expected to arrive this evening on a visit.

His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge
arrived at Cambridge House, Piccadilly, a quarter be-
fore four o'clock yesterday afternoon, from the Conti-
nent. His Royal Highness, after his arrival, paid a
visit to the Duchess of Gloucester, and in the evening
dined at Gloucester House.
The Right Hon. J. B. Macaulay has arrived at
Br oadland, Hants, on a visit to Viscount and Viscountess
Palmerston.
Titre Earl of Minto has left town, for his seat near
Hawick.
Despatches for the Governor of Ceylon were sent off
yesterday, from the Colonial-office.

MAGAZINE DAY

BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.
Christopher North seems to have been nodding
of late, for we have missed for several months those
sportive sallies of humour, and light sparkling cri-
ticisms which used to illuminate the pages of
Maga. We trust " the old man eloquent" will
soon shake off his torpor; rise like a giant re-
freshed ; and come forth in all his wonted power.

Meantime, we have no great cause to complain, for
the Number of Maga now lying on our table is de-
cidedly among the best that the last year has pro-
duced. " Ten Thousand a-Year" commences it,

and forms a worthy commencement, for the tedious-
ness and frequent languor that we have more than
once complained of, are no longer visible in the
tale, which dashes forward, page after page, with
the rapidity of a steam-engine on a rail-road. The

character of Gammon,- too—that most astute

and inscrutable of attorneys—is brought out
with a tact and quietness of manner that

will iccal the teconeetion of the admirable

leg<<l sketches in Fielding's " Amelia." " A
Fourth Chapter of Turkish History" gives an ac-
count of the origin and progress of the Mamelukes
—a remarkable military corps, not very dissimilar
to the Praetorian Guard of Imperial Rome, who,
until they were annihilated by the present ruler of
Egypt, had kept that counto in subjection for cen-
turies. " Lyrics" is a review of the poems of the
late Capt. Morris, once the most fashionable bard
of his day. Often has this celebrated bon vivant
set the Carlton House circle in a roar ; but the boon

companions whom he enlivened with his wit, nay,
the very Palace wherein they used to meet, have
alike passed away ; and he himself but the other
day dropped into the grave with the snows of ninety
winters on his head. The Captain was Moore 's
i►nmediate predecessor in the festive lyric, in which
he has sometimes equalled, if not surpassed, him.
We quote the introductory passage of the criticism

on his poems :
Those who were in the habit, some forty years ago,
of wandering at the West-end of London, must have re-
marked an individual frequently seen in St. James's-
street, about the hour when, the Morning Papers having
been looked over, the Clubs pour out their members

into St. James's-street and Pall-mall. There and then
groups were to be met with in all directions, composed
of the most celebrated men of the day—when England

possessed celebrated men—busily conversing on the pro-
ceedings of Parliament the night before, or which were
to take place before another night had passed away.
From the close of the American war, thou groups were

chiefly composed of the Opposition ; for the unrivalled
ascendancy of the greatest minister that England had
ever seen, gave the Whigs the leisure for these confer-
ences which the occupations of public life generally de-
nied to the Tories, or their reliance on their great leader
rendered unnecessary. There were to be met, from the
hours of two to four, the elite of the Foxites, mingled
occasionally with a few of the leading Peers and country
gentlemen who formed the small neutrality of Parlia-
ment ; there stood Fox, with his ponderous figure, good-
humoured smile, and heavy step ; Grey, grim from his
cradle, perpendicular, and repulsive ; Sheridan, with a
face purpled over with claret—the stamp of his habitual
excesses—a stooping form and neglected dress, but with
an eye among the blackest, largest, and most beaming
that ever was set in the head of man ; Tierney, grave,
sly, and with a look of inveterate subtlety, that might
have established him as the most crafty of men, even
before he had uttered one of his cunning syllables ;
kVidtbread, short, strong, and broad-shouldered, the
complete model of the brewer that he was, even to his
pepper-and-salt coat, but with a countenance of singular
manliness, and indicative of the John Bullistn of his cha-

racter ; Wyndham, with the graceful figure, airy step,
and handsome countenance that seemed made for Courts

—if the oddity, fantasy, and ill-fortune of his career had
riot lett him in a state of oscillation between the Whigs
and Tories, and, like other pendulums, left him to swing
while the hands in front were gaining ground at every
move ; Dundas, who feared no one, and had a lively
word for all, sometimes min:in with the circle ; for a
moment thro.ving in his easy jest, and easily bearing
its return, doubtless amused by the sense that he was
the possessor of power, while they were but nibblers
at the hook. There too was Jenkinson, with the pro-
found brow that seemed surcharged with the secrets of
an empire ; silent, if not sullen, and returning their sa-
lutations as cautiously as if a bow were a betrayal.
Tnere too, on his two huge legs, was the Duke of Nor-
folk, in his grey coat and black cap. Fluttering round
and among these groups, was to be seen the individual
to whom we have alluded—a man of remarkably expres-
sive features, with a determined and even a stern air,
which, however, frequently relaxed into a smile of the
liveliest hilarity—his dress rather rieglige, yet alwsys
that of a gentleman ; his step alert, and evidently
formed by the drill ; and the Thole man bearing evi-
dence of ono who had acquired the art of using his
limbs on the parade of the Horse Guards. This was
Charles Morris, the Whig Apollo, the volunteer
laureate of' the Opposition, of whomsoever it might
be composed ; the head of the Beefsteak Club, and the
leader of pleasantry wherever he appeared.
While speaking of Captain Morris's Whig prin-
ciples, which he deserted in order that he might
still continue to bask in the sunshine of Court
favour, the Reviewer asserts that the charge of in-
temperance was a mere scandal brought against
Pitt by his political enemies. Such is not the case.
Pitt was notoriously a hard drinker, and numerous
are the anecdotes to this effect recorded of him by
Wraxall, and other contemporary memoir-writers.
" Hints to Authors" is a very felicitous quiz on
modern writers of fiction, whose love of the impas-
sioned and the intense—in other words, of the non-
sensical—is cleverly hit off in a mock-romance,
where the chief personages, in pursuance of the taste
of the day, are thieves, cut-throats, swindlers, and
such like attractive creatures. " Mohammed Ali,"
though the dish be somewhat of the stalest, is served
up with piquant sauces, so as to render it perfectly
palateable. One historical error, however, in it,
we must correct. "At the commencement of
Napoleon's Egyptian campaign," says the author,
" the Mamelukes were a vigorous enemy, but they
wanted numbers. Not amounting to more than three
thousand cavalry, and having neither infantry nor
guns, they were unable to make an impression on the
solid columns of the French ; and at the battle of
the Pyramids they were almost totally destroyed by
the musketry and the cannon." Now, it happens
that at this famous battle the Alameluke cavalry
were, not three thousand, but ten thousand strong,
for Mourad Bey, their commander, had gathered
them from all quarters of Egypt ; and their charge,
as they came thundering on in a body, is described
by the French historians as having been one of the
most impressive military spectacles ever witnessed.
" The Chew Tragedy is a spirited and diverting
poem, in the Colman style of humour. " 'Nit and
Wisdom " is an ironical allegory, setting forth, in
terms of solemnity worthy of the inspiring theme,
how Christopher North sprang full-fledged, like
Minerva, from the brain of Jupiter. In the essay
on the " Foreign Policy of France," the lash is
applied to M. Thiers' back with as much vigour
and dexterity, as if it were laid on by a six-foot
drummer at the triangles. We arc not sorry to see
the little man thus flagellated, for he is a busy,
restless, mischievous personage, who mistakes the
promptings of vanity for the impulses of ambition ;
and is constantly vaunting his regard for the honour
of France, when he is merely consulting his own
self-interest. M. Thiers is a greater man at the
Bourse, which is the barometer by which he regu-
lates his patriotism, than in the Senate, whore he
is a mere pert, shallow, though entertaining, de-
claimer.