The Sun.
London, England, 1840-06-04 00:00:00

THE SPORTING REVIEW.

Lord WilliamLennox bas a good sporting article,
as usual, in this number, in aa.,•!,ich he draws an amuse
ing contrast between a day with the Queen's stag-
hounds and the tona-fooleries of Cockneys at Epping
an Ester Monday. He forgets not on the occasion to
pay due respect to her Maj,sty, who honoured the
hunt with her presence, and points out, most conspi-
cuously, the sportsman-like qualities of her illustrious
husband. Prince Albert, he says, " every inch a
sportsman," was well up during the best run, equipped
in scarlet, with undeniable boots, and et cetera: that
would have excited the envy of poor Brummel, in his
.best days. In till, Number there is a plan of New-
market Heath, which is a new feature in the publication,
and is to be foLowed up by maps of all the principal
race courses in the kingdom. Might we suggest, as
au additional improvement, a scale with each plain
A map without a scale is an anomaly hitherto unknown.
The Number is also ornamented with a good portrait
et the famed editor " Craven." It is well executed, as
most of the plates in this fashionable publication are.

MrIC V LLO CH'S GEOGRAPHICAL, 4.c., DIC-

TIONARY, Pm IV.

Longman, London, 1840.
There is a useliAl map prefixed to this part of Mac-
ealloch's Dictionary—yhich, by-the-bye, is the most
sensible work he has yet Attempted—exhibiting the na-
vigable rivers, the completed and proposed canals and
railroads, tog-ether with the coal-fields, light-houses, &c.,
of Great Britain and Ireland.

BRITISH. MAGAZINE.
Ritington, London, li4o.
This Number, which is chiefly taken up with religi-
ous and clerical subjects, contains a biographical account
of Photius, one of the early patriarchs of Constanti-
nople ; and a curious article, entitled " Antichrist in
the Thirteenth Century." It gives, in addition, a re-
gister of the religious and ecclesiastical information of
the month.

POOR JACK, No. 6.
Longman, London, 1840.
Captain Marryat's naval tale of • Poor Jack" con-
tinues to rise in interest, though (so far as it has yet
proceeded) we cannot take upon ourselves to say that
it is by any means equal to his " Peter Simple." The
illustrations by Stanfield, three of which are appended
to each number, display considerable skill of execution.

ANATOMY OF SUICIDE,
Renshaw, London. I S4O.
The object of this work, observes the author in hi 3
Preface, is to " establish the fact that the disposition
to commit self-destruction is, to a great extent, amen-
able to those principles which regulate our tre4t.
meat of ordinary disease ; and that, to a degree
more than is generally supposed, it originates
in derangement of the brain and abdominal vis-
cera." This hypothesis, which is by no means
a novel one', is illustrated by a variety of apposite anec-
dotes, which will serve to amuse those readers who
may be too indolent, or too indifferent to the suliject,
to wade through the more substantial and argumeni!ve
portions of the work. Mr. Wenslow, in enumerating
the authors who have discussed the question of Suicide,
makes particular mention of Hume, of whom he ob-
serves, "it has been said that he was scarcely
guilty of a good or benevoleni-t, ac ion. His treat-
ment of Rousseau was unfeeling in the extreme."
On the contrary, Humes treatment of this crazy French
philosopher, when he fled from his own country to Eng-
land, was uniformly considerate and friendly ; d was
repaid—as was indeed to have been expected an
ingratitude by fla-
grant on the part of Rousseau, who had not
a spark of healthy, generous feelinz in his nature, but
was throughout life the victim of that morbid species of
sensibility, which, for want of a better term, we may
call sentimental cant. Altogether, we have been pleased
with Mr. Wenslow's volume ; though it is much too
rambling and desultory in. its character, and stands
greatly in need of compression.

WESTMINSTER REVIEW. No LX t' I.
Hooper. London. 1840.
Who is not fatnliar with the name, and still more,
with the works, of George Cruikshank—the moat
spirited, fantastic, yet with a meaning even in his wild-
est fantasies—and the most humoutous of caricaturists,
who surpasses Hogarth in versatility, and almost equals
him in skill and lucidness of design, and the singular
power with which he contrives to render his humour
subservient to a moral purpose ? Those who regard this
artist merely as a caricaturist, regard only one phase of
his genius ; he is a sturdy moralist of true British
growth, who, even while he amuses, enforces a useful
lesson, as in his well-known sketches entitled " Misera-
ble Sinners," and " A Gin-shop on Sunday Morning."
The Number before us of the London and Westminster
Review, enters at considerable; length into Cruikshank's
peculiarities as a humourist, and gives several of his
best caricatures. The article is elaborately written ;
but it is not sufficiently discriminating, and makes little
or no allusion to the powers of fancy which George pos-
sesses, and which are among the most remarkable of
his qualities. Those who have seen his Illustrations of
tales of Diablerie, such as Peter Schlernil ; and the
apparition which was observed by the crew of a vessel
coasting off the Bay of Naples, plunging headlong into
the crater of Vesuvius, will at once admit that Cruik-
shank blends fancy in nearly an equal degree with
humour. We know of but one series of sketches that
are unworthy of his genius. and those are the illustra-
tions to one or two of the volumes of Roscoe's Novelists
—" Tom Jones," especially—in which he has unac-
countably managed to miss the ideas sought to be con-
veyed in Fielding's text. We cordially coincide in the
spirit of the following remarks :
What amazing energetic fecundity do we find in him I
As a boy he began to fight for bread, has been hungry
(twice a day we trust) ever since, and has been obliged to
sell his wit for his bread week by week. And his wit,
sterling gold as it is, will find no such purchasers as the
fashionable painter's thin pinchbeck, who can live com-
fortably for six weeks, when paid for and painting a por-
trait, and fancies his mind prodigiously occupied all the
while. There was an artist in Paris, an artist hair-dresser,
who used to be fatigued and take restoratives after invent
ing a new coiffure. By no such gentle operation of head
dressing has Cruikshank lived: time was (we are told so
in print) when for a picture with thirty heads in it he wa,
paid three guineas—a poor week's pittance truly. and a
dire week's labour. We make no doubt that the same
labour would at present bring him twenty times the sum ;
but whether it be it -paid or well, what labour has Mr.
Cruikshank's been ! Week by week, for thirty years, to
produce something new ; some smiling offspring of painful
labour, quite ind..pendent and distinct from its ten thou-
sand jovial brethren ; in what hours of sorrow and ill-
health to be told by th• world, " Make us laugh or yoi.
starve—give us fresh tun ; we have eats-a up the old and
are hungry." And all this has he been obliged to do—t
wring laughter day by nay, sometimrs, pernap;, out o
want, oft, n certain') from ill-health and drpr ssian— to
keep the fire of his brain p rp-tu,lly alight, fur the green)
public will give it no leisure to co I. This he has dot:,
and done will. H • has told a thousand truths in as man.
strange and fascinating ways; he has given a thousan:,
new and pleasant thoughts to millions f people ; he ha,
never used his wit dishonestly ; he has never, in all th
exuberance of his frolicsome humour, caused a bingl, pain-
tul or guilty blush ; how little do we think of the extraor-
dinary power of this man, and how ungrateful we are to
him 1"

`• Dutch and German Schools " is a sensibly reasonen
essay, in which se meet with many judicious obs'•rva-
tions On the subject of education. " In Holland," says
the Reviewer, " no person can s t up a school, or even
receive private pupils, without receiving, first, a certifi-
cate of competency granted by a Board of Eviniiners ;
and, secondly, permission of the School Committee of
the town or district. Nor is the consent of such
Committee to be obtained for asking, as a mere
matter of form ; the object being to prevent undue
competition, and thereby to keep men of talent in the
profession." It a ould be a great advantage to the
community were this system to be acted upon in Eng-
land, for then we should not have so many quacks and
adventurers starting as schoolmasters, as is now the
case. London and its suburbs—and we suppose every
provincial town also—abound in " Academies for young
Gentlemen," but to how few of these can a con-
scientious parent send his child ! Their cheapness is
their great—indeed, in the majority of cases, almost
their only—recommendation. We do not hold with
the Reviewer in his opinions of the classics. We be-
lieve that the time bestowed on giving a youth, what is
called, a sound classical education, is never misspent, as
it imbues him with correct tastes ; teaches him to struggle
boldly against difficulties—for without practising per-
severance, there can be no acquiring a sound knowledge
of the Greek and Latin tongues—and purifies, elevates,
and disciplines his understanding. " Lyra Urbanica "
is a review of the poems of the late Captain Morris—
one of the most celebrated of the Carlton House wits
and bon tivants. The gallant author's bacchanalian
and amorous ditties had a great run in their day ; but
that day is past, and they have been long since con
signed to oblivion. They have few merits, besides those
of jovial good-humour and smooth versification. " The
Slave Trade" is a painful article to read, tor the Re-
viewer shows, by a variety of incontrovertible docu-
ments, that ti.is atrocious traffic, notwithstanding all
the efforts that England has made, and is still making,
to suppress it, has of late years been greatly on the in-
crease. The notice of "Sir Samuel Romilly" does no
more than justice to the character of this great and
good man, who was a Reformer, without being a party-
man, and boldly advocated every public measure that
had common-sense and justice to recommend it. In the
article on the " Boundary Question," which is shrewdly
and dispassionately argued, the Reviewer justly re-
marks—" What the present Government chiefly wants
in order to give it stability, is a more favourable opinion
of its decision, activity, and practical skill. In the pre-
sent position of the Tory party, we feel confident that
a I irge proportion of the more moderate of it, crowd
rally round a Liberal Government, that, not frightening
them by any attempts at organic change, won d show
itself capable of pr,,ctical retorms, and of a wise ad-
minis'rative policy. Nothing would so conciliate such
a cla.s of persons as the frettivmeut of thr 13,,unoary
Question "

THE CHRISTIAN REF ORMER.
.Sherwood and Co.

There are various articles in tiie present number of
this periodical which will well repay perusal. The
most generally interesting at the present moment is a
statistical account of the lately-disturbed dicricts in
Wales, by Mr. Kenrick, of Varteg iron-works. The
author has collected a considerable quantity of taluable
information relative to the population of this part
of the country, and undertakes to prove that
tie working classes there, so far from being what
the Tory newspapers bave described them, a set of igno-
rant semi-bai harians prone to violence, are upon the
whole superior in point of morality, religion, and intel-
ligence, to the general run of working men throughout
the kingdom. Some of the details which he gives are
highly curious. Many persons, we doubt not, will be
surprised to learn that in the parish of Trevetbin, a dis-
trict which has been tabooed for its insurrection-causing
ignorance of the English language, the proportion of the
whole population of 17,196 persons, incapable of speak-
ing English, is just one half per cent !

LONDON AND EDINBURGH PHILO•
SOPHICAL MAGAZINE.
R. and E. J. Taylor, Red Lion-court.

This Magazine contains, as usual, a number of
ably-written papers on suhjects either purely scient fic
or closely connected with science. Among the contri-
butors to its present pages, we find some of the most
eminent philosophers of the day in their different de-
partments. Our present limits do not allow ua to par-
ticularise the articles—it is enough to mention the
names of Dumas, Lubbock, Forbes, Poggendcrff,
Draper, and Miller.

ILLUMINATED ATLAS OF SCRIPTURE
GEO GRAPIIY,
C. Knight, London, 1340.
A series o:
Maps delin.ating the physical and histori-
cal features in the
67ography of Palestine and the ad-
jacent countries, is a won
that has long been wanted,
:
end the present appears likely to supply the deficiency.
The maps, so far as we can form a j%lgment, are care-
fully executed, certainly with much elegance ; and each
is accompanied by a brief explanatory notice from the
pen of Mr. Hughes. The volume is a quarto of very
convenient size.

THE EMPRESS ANNE OF RUSSIA.—The
Empress Anne sometimes mingled in her practices so much of
oddity, that it was impossible not to be entertained. Once she
decreed that a certain P-ince G— should become a hen. to
punish him tor some trifling misdemeanor ; and for this pur •
pose she ordered a large basket, stuffed with straw, and hol-
lowed into a nest, with a quantity of eggs inside, to be nlaced
conspicuously in one of the principal rooms at court. The
and render
was condemned, on pain of death, to sit upon this nest,
render himself to the last degree ridiculous by imitating
the cackling of a hi n.—Memoirs of the Princess Daschkaw.
The
Shrewsbury Chronicle, adipitno to the late
Ludlow election, says thatA bribery and intimidation were un-
blushingly practis'ed
re-
fused on the morning of the ktheeti,haenemcdoostteos,f thehi3 fvo,l,the,widn
mi f.'i
igt
u p that t
,Nnl
dr
e. poll 50/. ; but at two o'clock. tind-
id field was a-head, he wrote to his Corn
ring his vote at the morning's price. That
yond doubt.nue Thewhose ()owing
there has t,,,,n vile •
fact has been communicated
tiootr•dation at the last election, is be.
A young tradesman was atiirtet
to us by !less cannot be duubted :
going
?„.s oTlhein the street thus— • Alr•
—, where ar you
h'iF,o
hr :fend: r,dt
r•-plied the interrogator. " if you vote
my vote." "Then,"
for the Liberals I will rli,i.,-,iiyitumottsoa-nmswoerrro,,w,,a.o:T"
at all." Is the Ballot
I man, our informant adds.
wanted or not ? Let Lord John Russoelel
rea
us
nf
nuthirty or forty ssr.
RUSSIAN MAGNIFICENCE % answer. . .
with old-tashioinieli(rosUrtlines,,
arriving, we
were usherea into the antechamber, where
head over heels
bvoaonttsi,i,kner.ichTliiiveenritehsedGiseennceurauLbEf
flannel
was seen at the end of a gorgeous suite of paint:' and 'ware,'
rooms, reflected in mirrors at every aide, and
from the glasses on the ceilings, shuffling towards us' in a blaze
of orders, bowing at every step, and advancing to receive us at
the firs' door of entry from the antechamber. ue , having
kissed our hands, and we his forehead. conducted us through
brilliant rooms, strange to say, without carpets, till we reachedg
the dejeune—a tab', laid out with liqueurs, cavair, horseradish.
cheese, and pickled herrings—round which the company stand
and eat a morsel now and then, till they sit down to cards, at
which they usually remain tilt between two and three o'clock._
211cmairs of the Princoo ,Pilschka"