The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-30 00:00:00

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

BRIGHTON STEEPLECHASES.—WEDNESDAY.
These steeple chases came off to-day, and were well
attended considering the severe character of the weather•
The course was nicely adapted for the purpose, and in
good condition. The leaps were twenty in number, and
among them were three or four of a dangerous kind.
At three o'clock the following started, for a
A Sweepstakes of 151. each, 10 ft, with 301. added for
the second horse. H.W. Four miles. (10 entries.)

Amateur riders.
) 1
Mr. Cornwall's g h Chartist, lOst 81b... (Owner)
Mr. Campbell's b g Eagle, Ilst 71b ••• ;
Mr. Wesley's c g Albert, 1 Ist 3lb •••
Mr. Preston's b h Ould Ireland, lOst 41b ..•
Mr. Camerall's b g Cossack, lOst •••
Mr. Lewis's b m Victoria, 10st 71b ..•
Mr. Campbell's c h Major, 10st 121 b 0
Mr. Hall's b m Celeste, lOst ... •

Mr. Gordon's br g The Duke, lOst
Chartist was freely backed against the field at •.6 to
4, and Eagle, Albert, and Victoria, had each their
friends. The race was uninteresting. Chartist ridden
with care, having victory in his reach all the waY
(barring accidents), finished an easy winner by twenty
lengths. The speed was very good, the ground being
got over in eleven minutes.
Mr. Cornwall, after the race, sold the winner for
the foreign market at a high price.
At four o'clock the second contest took place, for
A Sweepstakes of 31. each, 2 ft, with 251. added.

Three miles. (8 entries.).
Mr. Drake's Bangalore, lost 121 b ...(Mr. Powell) I
Mr. Cornwall's Legacy, 12st ... 2
Mr. Mess's Faith, 9st 71b ... 3
Mr. Drake's Scarlet Runner, list 31b 0
Mr. Mesa's The Queen, list... 0
Mr. Ball's Brighthelmstone, lOst 0
Mr. William's Duke of Richmond, 9st 71b.... 0
Faith was favourite, though Bangalore and Legacy
were backed with considerable spirit. The race was a
very excelleat one, Bangalore gaining the laurels,and
the prize by three lengths, after a hard contest, in
which all the horses were well up. Time—nine minutes,
two seconds. Though there were several falls we are
happy to say no one was injured.
A pony match wound up the amusements.

SAVINGS BANKS. The National Debt Cantu's;
sioners sold, on account of the trustees of savings banks:
between the 16th of June, 1847, to the 9th of December,
the following consolidated and reduced stock :—Coosnli;
dated Three per Cents., 380,0001. ; Reduced Three per
Cents., 745,0004; total, 1,125,000 L The amount which
the Commissioners received was 951,910/. 2s. 6d. The
prices varied from 891. 55., received on the 30th of
June, and 801. 7s. 6d. received on the 4th of Noveniber.
No Exchequer bills were sold during the period.
DRY MEASURE.—An amateur performer, wuos:f
delivery was chiefly remarkable for the prolongsti°°7
the syllables of such words as he wished to make Inlc,
i:
cularly emphatic, performed Othello one night in palh
before a crowded gallery and a very thin pit and 1)0°6
On coming to the passage, wear my heart 1
__l
my sleeve for daws to peck at," he laboured very bl"
to make a " point" on the word " peck," and dwelt on
its first letter, p-p-p-p, so long, that an impatient deity
called out from above, "Hallo, Blackey, how Mani
pecks to the bushel ?"—Family Jo Miller.
EXAMINER or RECOGNIZANCEB OFFICE.--11341:
following is the list of counties and boroughs in which
the seats of the sitting members are petitioned again.B:
The sureties in all of them have been perfected, wit*
the exception of Athlone:—Great Yarmouth borough'
Lord A Lennox and Octavius E. Cooper; Moatgoulerl
borough, Hon. IL Cholmondely and D. Pugh, double
return; Stockport borough, James Heald and Alderman
Kershaw; Maldon borough, David Waddington and l•
B. Lennard; Cheltenham borough, Sir Willoughby
Jones, Bert.; Gloucester county, western division, R. 13*
Hale and Hon. G. F. Berkeley; great Marlow borough,
T. P. Williams and Lieutenant-Colonel B. W. Knox;
Kinsale borough, Richard Samuel Guiness; Abingdon
borough, Sir F. Thesiger; Lyme Regis borough, nos.
Abdy; Carlow borough, John Saddler; West-
bury borough, James Wilson; Lancaster borough,
Samuel GreysQn and Thomas Greene; Peebles county,
William Forbes Mackenzie; Leicester borough, Sir J.
Walmsley and Richard Gordon; Drogheda borough, Right
Hon. Sir W. M. Somerville, Bart. ; Bodmin borough, James
Wald and Henry C. Lacy; Carlisle city, John Dixon
and W. N. Hodgson; Bolton borough, W. Bolling end
John Bowring, L.L.D.; Aylesbury hundred., J. I'.
Deering, Lord Nugent; Bewdley borough, T. J. Ireland;
Stafford county, northern division, C. B. Adderley and
Viscount Brackley; Nottingham borough, John Walter
and Feargus O'Connor; Harwich borough, John Bag-
shaw and John Attwood; Andover borough, Williant
B. Coles and. William Cubitt; Lincoln city, Colonel Sib'
t horp and Charles Sealy; Hythe borough, Edward
Drake Boorkmen; Essex county, northern division, Sit
J. Tyrrell and Major W. Beresford ; Colchester borough
Sir G. Smith and Joseph A. Hardcastle; Newcastle'
under-Lyme, Samuel Christy and William Jackson;
Walsall borough, Hon. E. R. Littleton ; Dundalk
borough, Charles Carrell M'Tavish ; Derby borough.
Hon. E. Strutt and Hon. F. L. Gower; Monmouth
county, C. S. Morgan and Lord G. Somerset; Dublin
city, Edward Grogan and J. Reynolds; Horsham bo-
rough, John Jervis; Sligo borough, John Patrick
Somers; Athlone borough, William Keogh; Longford
county, Major W. Blackall and R. M. Fox.
We have been requested ,to state that Miss Emma
Stanley, the report of whose death we contradicted yes'
terday, has been pronounced by her medical attendants
quite out of danger.
To-day (Thursday) his Royal Highness the Prince
Consort intends to honour with his presence the per-
formance of the Adelphi by the Westminster scholars-
For this purpose his Royal Highness will come to
London by a special train from the Slough station of the
Great Western Railway, at four o'clock in the after-
noon, accompanied by the Marquis of Abercorn, and at'
tended by the Hon. Colonel Grey and Colonel Bouverie.
The royal party will dine at Buckingham Palace on
their way to Westminster, and after the performance
they will return to Windsor Castle the same evening by
the old turnpike-road, through Brentford. Hounslow, S;c•
The Earl of Burlington and the youthful Lord
Cavendish have arrived at the Earl of Carlisle's, Castle
Howard, from Holkar Hall, Lancashire. Viscount Mor-
peth, Lady Dover, Viscount Clifden, and a numerous
family circle are passing the holidays with the venerable
Earl and Countess.
Lord Brougham was to leave Paris on Tuesday last
for Cannes, in the south of France. The Noble sou
Learned Lord, after a sejour of four weeks on his estate
there, returns to London by the 4th of February.
foecompany has just been formed at Cop Denhagen,
stablishing steam communication between Denmark,
the Faro Islands, Iceland, and Scotland. The comma'
nications, which will take place every fortnight, are to
be commenced on the Ist of April. The Government
has accorded a reduction of port and anchorage duties to
the steamers which may undertake them.

LITERATURE.
LEONORA: a Love Story. 3 Vols.
Leonora : a Love Story—such is the title of one of
the most beautiful books, of its kind, that we ever re
*umber having met with. Its name is sufficiently
attractive to excite an interest in the work, but how
much is that interest augmented when we learn who
is the "Leonora," and what the "story" to which it
refers. The "story" is one peculiarly fascinating,
because it is true—the story of a love sublimated by
genius, and sanctified by misfortune : "the Leonora"
is Leonora d'Este—the beloved of Torquato Tasso !
There are some pages in the history of the past which
seem to possess an irresistible and universal source cf
attraction, we are never weary of dwelling on them ;
they are familiar to us as household words, yet they ap-
pear to us ever fresh and ever delightful. Many of these
pages, strange to say, are blotted with tears—with
the tears of successive generations; as they aroused the
sympathies of our ancestors, as they now affect our-
'Pelves, so will they hereafter influence our successors.
They possess a similar interest for the whole
human family, for they treat of a theme intelli-
gible to all—the history of human hearts. And of
these pages in the history of the past, none are
deemed so attractive, and none are so fondly recurred
to as those which contain the records of unhappy
love. This theme, of all others, seems to possess the
most universal and powerful interest. The wanderer
in Pere la Chaise will pass by the monuments of
prince and prelate to linger by the tomb of Abelard
and Eloise. Great historic events are forgotten or
uncared for, wkile the names of Petrarch and Laura,
of Dante and Beatrice, of Tasso and Leonora, are
familiar to all hearts. We will not pause to inquire
why this is—that it is so, is proverbial ; and for this
reason this very charming tale cannot fail, indepen-
dently of its own merits, to excite a most powerful
interest. There perhaps never existed a man whose
career was so well calculated to "point a moral," or
read a sermon on the vanity of human wishes, as was
that of Torquato Tasso. The two most dearly
coveted prizes of human life—love and fame
—were his, and in an extraordinary degree ;
but how were they bestowed upon him ?
Loving with all the ardour and intensity of a poet's
nature, and beloved as devotedly as poet could desire,
the happiness of love seemed only for a brief moment
vouchsafed to him in order that he might the better
experience all its agony. He dared to lift his thoughts
to a princess, and the consequence was his forcible
separation from his beloved, and his incarceration in
a gloomy dungeon for seven long weary years, till
she was dead, and then, and not till then, was he
restored to a world that in his estimation had become
valueless. Small happiness did Lore award to Tasso.
Nor was Fame more propitious. True, the poet of
Jerusalem now enjoys a world-wide celebrity, and
even in his own day was hailed as the poet of his age
and country, and the triumph of the capitol was
decreed him—a triumph unawarded during two hun-
dred years. Yet what joys did these glories afford the
poet ?—his great epic was published while he languished
in a dungeon—and the day before the one appointed
for his triumphant coronation he expired! Such is
the history of Tasso, and interesting as such a history
would be under any form, it is peculiarly fascinat-
ing as narrated in these volumes of " Leonora."
They are written, we believe, by one who has long
been familiar to us all, as the able exponent of the
genius of others, and a most natural and truthful
expositor of nature and truth. She now comes for-
ward in a higher character, no longer to shine in a
merely borrowed light. Much as we might have
anticipated in a work from such a hand, we
must own that these volumes have both surprised
and delighted us. The whole story is narrated
in such a simple, natural, and pleasing manner—
the love and sorrows of Leonora and Tasso are pour-
trayed with such feeling,` and tenderness, and genuine
pathos; there is such an entire absence of (ffort, of
fectation, and overstrained sentiment, and such a
constant flow of kindly and generous thought
throughout the whole work, as to render the " Love
story" of " Leonora," as we have already said, a most
beautiful and charming composition. It is a book we
would gladly see in the hands of every one, for it is
a book to do the heart good, by arousing some of its
warmest sympathies, and eliciting some of its purest
and noblest aspirations. True, the theme is a some-
what mournful one, and is likely to call tears to the
eyes which peruse its pages, yet the book is far
from being a gloomy one ; on the contrary, it
is pervaded by a thoroughly religious and, con-
sequently, right cheerful spirit. Not that it contains
a superabundance of sermons and moral reflections,
to which novel readers are invariably repugnant, but
by casual observations on the affairs of life, and
happy allusions to the universal beauties of nature,
no small amount of profound philisophy and practical
piety is infused into the narrative, by which the
reader finds himself imperceptibly elevated and
cheered. We might give many extracts to corrobo-
rate our assertions, but as we trust the book itself
will be generally read, we will only adduce a few
examples of its merits. Two is asked how he traces
the manifestations of a Deity in nature ?
" I should say," he answered, after a moment's reflec-
tion, " that it is in her beauty and sublimity. The
sublime scenes which are presented to our view create
awe and reverence in our breasts; and this is because
the omnipotence of God is expressed by the sublimity
of Nature. The beautiful pictures of our world call
forth spontaneous Jove, gratitude, and confidence, be-
cause the love and mercy of God are reflected in all that
is beautiful. In these two clearly developed features of
Nature, I see the power, and welcome the love, of my
God. If I shrink before the one, I am cheered and
consoled by tokens of the other. Yes, lady, I believe
all Nature to be symbolical of him from whose mighty
hand she sprung."
Again, speaking of Nature, hew exhilarating is the
following description of spring, and the beneficial in-
fluences it should exert
Already the sweet promise of spring had come with
gladness, to succeed the sternness of winter. Nature
again became young, as if a creation of but yesterday,
and welcomed with a happy smile the sweet buds which
were wafted into her lap by vernal breezes. Inanimate
objects seemed to pant for their coming liberty, to woo
the gerial influence that should unloose their bonds, and
to shake off the wintery chains of crystal ice which had
bound them. Vegetation burst forth, as at the com-
mand of Him who said, Let the earth bring forth
grass: the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding
fruit and it was so. In the figurative lan,;uage of
that volume, which abounds in sublime delineations of
nature, the hills appeared to shout for joy, the woods to
clap their hands, and the valleys to break forth into
singing; for, lo ! the winter is past, the rain is over and
gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the
singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is
heard in our land.
" The rich blue of the Italian sky was la fleeted in
every stream and rivulet, the mountains were covered
with verdure, the meads were enamelled as with the
brightest gems.
" All nature was happy ; and was not Tasso also
happy? Did the inanimate works of God rejoice; and
yet was a child of God, was one of the vast family of
man, fur whom these beauties shone, sorrowful or de-
sponding? Oh, it should not be so !—for the Creator
giveth us all things richly to enjoy :—the heavens and
the earth are full of His mercy I
" It is painful to reflect, that in a scene of such sur-
passing loveliness there can be any human being
wretched; and yet the poor, the oppressed, the desolate,
are out of tune with all the sweet harmonies of nature.
The brightness of the sun oppresses them: they long
for shade, for darkness. The return of spring bears
not to them a return of former joys, but mocks them as
she declares, My children are renewed in strength, in
gladness, and in youth; they are born again; from their
very ashes they derive a new and happy existence.' But
then she gently leads the child of woe by the hand, and
would console him: ' Come and Eee the delights I have
prepared for thee. It is for thee, not for myself, I have
spread this feast. Come and smile with me.' "
And in another place, referring to the same

theme :
" To those who, even while in health, are worn out by
fatigue in doing nothing, and are incapable of taking
pleasure in Nature's scenes, we would say, be ill for a
time, in order to be well. Be shut up in ycur room for
some weeks in summer; behold the light streaming
through your prison window, babbling of green fields and
running streams, which you in your enfeebled condition
can desire, but not enjoy. And then, on the return of
health, when you can wander in country lanes and daisied
meadows, when you may again ascend the hill and view
the smiling valley, again roam by the ocean wave and
taste the delights of liberty, you will not complain of
life, you will no longer be indifferent to Nature's charms;
every leaf will possess its peculiar interest, every song
of the merry birds will be sweet music. You will then
find—
Tongues in trees, books in the running brook,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything."

The following is a splendid exposition of the truth of
poetry. Tasso is told that his noble art is very well
as an amusement :
" An amusement!' replied Tasso, scornfully; 'it is
a business of life; it is life itself ; nay, more than the
life of this world. It is the power of the life to come,
shedding its bright, immortal influence upon our souls.
Amusement! It is one of the most serious affairs un
which our minds can be engaged.'
" Yes, yes; what you say is true, to some extent.
But even you must allow it is mere fiction after all, not
reality, about which our, or rather your art is con
corned. I have heard it said, by learned men, that
poetry is a lie.'
" ' Then, said Tasso, with enthusiasm, ' is existence
itself a lie; a gross deception from beginning to end. If
poetry be not true, then is nothing true on earth, in our
hearts, in our souls. This is a slander on one of the
diviaest gifts which has been vouchsafed to man. Poetry
is the expression of the truest and deepest emotions of
our souls. It appeals to the purest and most permanent
principles of our nature, to the divine part of humanity,
the essence breathed into man by his Maker, and
destined to live for ever. With earnest, yet simple
truthfulness, it tells us what we are; with prophetic
power it shows us what we shall be. Hence, in ancient
times, the poet end the prophet were one. He is styled
divine, because he seems to partake of divinity by the
similarity of his operations to those of the Sovereigt.
Artificer; the Greeks named him by an attribute of
deity, inferring that none deeene the name of creator