The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-01 00:00:00

Notwithstanding that Italy is so hacknied a
theme, we have read with pleasure an account of
some of its principal cities, in an article entitled
" Letters from the Continent," which stands the
first in this Number, and describes in a fervid, almost
ate enthusiastic, manner the impressions made on the
writer's mind by its magnificent public buildings, its
majestic ruins, its sunny skies, green hills and pic-
turesque shores. His sketches of Genoa, in par-
ticular, and of Naples, are among the most vivid
we have ever met with. But how comes it that he
"iever thought of associating the idea of Rome
with snowy mountains ?" Surely, as a Cambridge
man, he must have remembered that social ode of
Horace, wherein the poet makes special mention of
the snow-crowned Soracte I We should have ima-
gined that no Latin scholar could ever have seen
the eternal city, without instantly calling to mind
this classical mountain. •‘ Lord Powerscourt on
the State of Ireland" may be a useful dissertation,
but it is a very dull one, and merely goes over the
ground which has been already trodden by at least
a hundred statists. " A Scene from Calderon" is
a lively, smooth specimen of versification, but we
cannot speak of its merits or demerits as a transla-
tion, for we do not happen to be acquainted with
the original. '' A Chat with Anacreon" is a
light a! d sparkling essay, penned, as its
title imports, quite in a conversational style. The
writer is an ardent admirer of the old Tcian
bard, and speaks of Moore's version of his odes just
in the terms that such an elaborate failure deserves.
It has been the fashion for many years to compare
the Irish poet with the old Greek one, whereas no
comparison can possibly be instituted between
them. With the exception that they both sing
of love and wine, they differ as much from each
other as light and shade. Moore is full of meretri-
cious glitter ; Anacreon is all simplicity. The
former abounds in epithets, the latter is remarkably
sparing of them. Moore is florid and diffuse in
his style ; Anacreon is terse, and even epigram-
matic. The one seems never to know when he has
said enough on a favourite theme ; the other bestows
on it just as much as it will bear, and no more.
But we shall speak more in detail on this subject,
when we come to notice Moore's Translation of
Anacreon, which, as we perceive by the advertise-
ments, is on the eve of being republished, together
with his other poems. Meantime we may state,
en passant, that the best versions of the old bard
of Teos arc those by Cowley ; and that the writer
who most nearly resembles him in genius is Her-
rick. " Introduction to the Study of the Old Eng-
lish Dramatists" is a learned, but assuredly a very
heavy and inanimate paper. From the " Sketches
of Spanish Generals" we quote a portion of a me-
moir of the Count de Espana, the willing and re-
morseless tool of the late King Ford'nand :
" The attempt made by the Apostolicals, in 1827, to
place Don Cellos on the throne is well known to those
acquainted with the modern history of Spain. Ferdi-
nand, monster as he was, did not come up to the idea
entertained by the Catalan monks of what a Catholic
monarch should be. An army of 80,000 men was
raised in the mountains, and the command given to the
notorious Jep-del Estanys, who had practised the call-
ing of a fisherman until 1822, when he joined the stan-
dard of the Faith as a simple volunteer. The hist:l--
section assumed so threatening an aspect that Ferdinand
determined to proceed to Barcelona, and exercise his
personal influence to'Ptit'it-doWn•. Ho was attacked-on
his way by the insurgents, who were, how ever, entirely
defeated by the Royalist troops, and their leader taken
and shot. On leaving Barcelona, Ferdinand appointed
the Count do Espana Captain-General of Catalonia,
with instructions to root out every remnant of the re-
bellion ; and the faithful Viceroy well understood the
import of his mission. We shall not sicken our rea-
ders with the disgusting details of the enormities of the
Captain-General during the seven years of his govern-
ment, The pen cannot describe, the tongue can scarcely
utter, nor the heart of man conceive, the barbarities in-
flicted on all indiscriminately by this savage satrap.
Carlist and Constitutionalist, Liberal and Legitimist, all
alike furnished the same materials for his refined
cruelty. The Hyniii of Riego, the Troge/a, Lied other
patriotic airs, were, by his order, performed at the foot
of the gallows, in order to mock the last agony of the
expiring Constitutionalists. The gibbet, the poniard,
ante even the deadly drug, were alike the instruments
of punishment employed by him ; and torture of the
most ingenious construction was added for the purpose
of augmenting the excruciating pangs of death. His
vengeance was not alone lavished on the living,—the
cold and decomposed remains of his victims were again
torn from their graves, and exposed to indignity along
the public highways ; and the inhabit ants of Barcelona
and Tarragona beheld daily the decaying remains of
their friends and their relatives suspended along the
walls of their cities, and blackening in the noonday sun!
He was cruel by nature, and a monster by constitution
—the Count de Espana! In early childhood he is said
to have manifested a similar disposition for inflicting
torture on the helpless ; and it is related of bun that he
was in the habit of frequently amusing himself by apply-
ing to the limbs of his aged and blind father a red•hot
iron, and of expressing the most unbounded delight at
the anguish of the old man. His acts a more mature
period of life render such a tale highly probable."