The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-22 00:00:00

LITERATURE. TANCRED, or the NEW CRUSADE.
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t.n;hur bt-i.oAl the OUS r
duciions of his pen collected together after many years
of periodical publication, it is no less pleasant to his
admirers. The writer of these goodly volumes has long
since acquired for himself no small share of popularity,
and that not merely through the enterprise which he
has evinced in aiding his brother in the dissemination of
knowledge by cheap publishing, but likewise through his
own earnest and industrious labours as a contributor to
modern literature. The bulk of the humorous and
familiar essays contained in the work just issued is
already known and appreciated by the million. Some of
the articles have been printed and reprinted in a hundred
different forms, and distributed to the reading Corn-
munity through as mar.y different channels, so that they
will attract attention less from their novelty than from
their bearing about them the associations of the old
familiar faces. What is particularly observable through-
out the collection is, the admirable simplicity of the
author's style, and the sedulous exclusion of anything
pernicious, whether in manner or matter, from his com-
positions, The humour is always genial and natural;
the themes are often homely, but never vulgar; the
sarcasm is invariably good-natured; and the thoughts
are, with one exception, namely, in the eccentric chap-
ter upoa " Christian Names," never pursurd to an ex-
travagance. To those who regard Robert Chambers
as a source to them of many literary boons both agree-
able and beneficial--and of these there are thousands—
the appearance of his select writings will be a matter
of congratulation, as it will enable them to enshrine
him on their bookshelves as one of the most welcome
and valued of their household companions. The volumes
are compact and elegant, all their appointments being
excellent—printing, paper, arrangement, and binding.
The collection was wanted.

c:!!. :!

HUGH TALBOT. A Tale of the Seventeenth Century.
By William J. O'Neill Daunt.
By several previous publications—more particularly
" Ireland and her Agitators"—Mr. Daunt is already
familiarly known to many, of his countrymen. His
present work, though coming under the unpretending
title of a tale, we cannot but regard as the very best of
his productions that have come to our knowledge. There
is a liberality, moreover, about the object of " Hugh
Talbot" that, to us, is peculiarly palatable. It makes
its appearance, too, at an appropriate crisis, when the
bile of the polemical disputants throughout the kingdom
is being excited into rancour by the revival of one or
two very old and very obsolete bugbear cries. As is
announced on the title page, the book is founded upon
the Irish confiscations of the seventeenth century—
namely, during the reign of James I. and the supremacy
of Steenie. At all times the contemplation of intole-
rance is distressing; at all times it forces upon us
the spectacle of the degradation of our species. But
when we find that intolerance, coupled with the dis-
semination of the Biblical truths, and, in fact, sprouting
like a villanous disease out of the very stem and
branches of Christianity, we cannot but mourn doubly
for the blindness and degeneracy of our forefathers.
The history of the penal laws is among. the most lament-
able portions of our national records, and the skeletons
of those penal laws—these laws which Mr. Watson is
just now endeavouring to have obliterated from the
statute book—is a damning proof of the authenticity of
the narratives relating to their operation. Those
laws—the laws, we mean, which are at present
under the consideration of Parliament—are virtually
abolished already. They are no longer enforced;
and we would stake our word fer it that the
Honourable Baronet the Member fur the University
~f Oxford would be very loath to clamour in the House
of Commons for their enforcement. Bet, dead-letter as
they are now, they were once enforced with the utmost
rigour of the executive and many others, yet more
strigent, which have been some time since, to the credit
of Parliament expunged. A barbarian code is not the
code for a civilised and enlightened race, and, therefore,
the laws we speak of, have been abolished It is upon the
miseries entailed upon the victims of those enactments
that this noveldte has been penned. It is a melancholy and
distressing but salutary and Eistructive picture. Hugh
Talbot is calculated to do good service in purging from
the popular mind that old leaven of bigotry and of
religious animosity which is still—though to an insig-
nificant extent—fermenting in the community. It is
likely to render all classes more charitable the one
towards the other, and to render the most obstinate and
zealous religionists indi-posed to tyrannise over their
neighbours. Dogmatism, of course, can never be got
rid of until human nature he thoroughly transformed,
but cruelty and petty despotism may be, and, indeed,
are now tolerably well overruled. That not only in
this country, but throughout the world generally, a
spirit of sympathy and brotherhood is spreading is
manifest. Through that expanding spirit Ibrahim
Pacha was induced to pay amicable visits to the courts
and people of Western Europe. Through that spirit
his children are being educated in French seminaries.
Through that spirit Dwarkanauth Tegore was prompted
to labour in London for the moral and mental regenera-
tion of his oriental fellow-countrymen. Through that
,pirit almost as much as through force of arms, new
relations of amity have been established between
the Emperor of China and our beloved Sovereign.
And very recently, through that same benign and enlarg-
ing spirit, a cordial understanding has for the first time
been arrived at between the head of the Papacy and the
Mahometan Sultaun. For these reasons we are disposed
to welcome this little tale by Mr. Daunt with pleasure.
The times are those of progress and liberality, and the
book is in accordance with the principles of the times.
Hugh Talbot is the chief victim of the laws of confisca•
tion—being a priest. Eveline is the heroine, and, for
the advantage of her father and the benefit of the priest
Hugh Talbot, and also for the gratification of her own
lust of power, she sacrifices herself by marrying an old
nobleman, Lord Carthwaite. The incidents of the story
are numerous and interesting, particularly those descrip-
tive of the various escapes and perilous adventures of
Hugh Talbot himself. Altogether the tale is a genuine
original.

JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL AGRICULTU.
RAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. Vol. VII.
Part 11.
Another of those important and elaborate volumes
which have in their character something absolutely
national, is lying before us. As a specimen of the industry
of the persons engaged in its composition, and as a sign
of the comprehensive efforts made by the society from
which it proceeds it is peculiarly remarkable. Agri-
culture, at this particular period, is attracting more
notice in Great Britain, than it has ever done previously;
and it is attracting more notice, for two reasons, first,
because there is a manifest necessity for an increase of
our enterprise as cultivators of the soil, now that we
have to compete upon the same footing with the agri
culturists of the whole world ; and secondly, because
Ireland and Scot-
the vegetable disease, now afflicting
land, is a fresh inducement to to to study yet more pro-
foundly the mysteries of the growth and nourishment of
plants. On these accounts, the present part of the
voluminous library of the Royal Agricultural Society of
England is invested with more interest and importance
than any of its predecessors.

MR. GYPSON'S BALLOON.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
' Sin,—ln the report which your widely-circulated journal
ave of the accident which attended the private trial of Mr.
(Tycoon's new and magnificent balloon it is stated that the
cause of the disaster was owing to the netiing being of an
" inferior description," and that it was " discovered by com-
petent judges to be defective in its meshes." Now, although
the termination of the experiment would seem to justify this
and incorrect, and will, as briefly as possible, po
conclusion, I have no hesitation in pronouncing it p
int premature
circumstances under which the first fracture happened, and
the final separation, which led fins parr being " left in the
lurch" with feelings of disappointment and regret. When
er here the
the inflation was commenced the weather ass
p remarkof ably
fine. No sooner, however, had the upp
gigantic machine become distended with about 15,000 cubic
feet of gas than the breeze freshened considerably, and
agitated the balloon with greater violence than is usually
experienced at public gardens, owing to the protection
afforded by the surrounding trees of such place& The gas being
exceedingly rood on this occasion, and the lower lines of
d i t i o n a l length
shi
stronger
that swept
1 le the
sgewnee
practicableph
than
ho overarn-1
the netting being left ten feet longer than is commonly•
07
pdptahmrea3;
us,balloon
re-
quired, in order to allow room to test some ingenious
theihoop-lines.
the
hs
. et:
united gas-works
:P -d: s i
machinery invented by Mr. Gypson, and in readiness for use ;
the balloon in consequence was subjected to the full force of
eraffrtokhrsatstb, tremendousor
fae sk,a,t,ebrsaoetiuinnttecfhfirl oirntimnye
a strong wind, which had greater power on it from the ad-
ditional
indisputably have saved nine." but the
that
fiaawtissralfiisnisttedf,tuwaalnblogitdueusilnshdatgandnidt friends the balloon could not be hauled down,
and the pressure becoming from wind and restraint unequal
on the netting, the injured part yieldedagrdually, and that
eand
bearing, alf wai
continuedg h t,when t
e
workedsufficiently large to
perfect
a the netting is good,
Notwithstanding the
everygwi hviee hwraweysi
,pl 1
e untilct bearive
anline more
aperturethha 3 no
it
saw
was
sro
proper
satisfaction of the
positive proof of the
adroitaccident, o f tlli
boldlye escape
give o fmt
yh the
opinion balloon.
intend to share with
strong, and fit for general use; and,
construction
the
intrepidearnestnesso of f
proprietorin the faith,
whole
dangers of a second private trial, which the honours and
pro-
bably in the course of a week or ten days.
will take place I
remain, Sir, your obligedn
Editor of the "Erostatic maga2inielENßY COXWELL.

DEATH OF SIR. HARFORD JONES BRYDGES.—This
venerable Baronet expired on the 20th inst., at his seat,
Boultibrook, Herefordshire, aged 83. He was son of Harford
Jones, Esq., of Presteign, Radnorshire, by the daughter of
Richard Hooper, Esq., of Whittern, Herefordshire. Ile was
born in 1764, and in 1796 married the eldest daughter of Sir
Henry Gott, Knt. In 1822 the deceased gentleman was
created a Privy Councillor, and in 1826 assumed the addi-
tional name of Brydes. He was a Deputy-Lieutenant for
Herefordshire. The great grandfather of the deceased having
highly distinguished himself in the army, especially at the
battle of Blenheim. was presented by Queen Anne with a
valuable sword. The title, which was created in 1807, with
the estates, are succeeded to by Hartland Jones, eldest son of
the late Baronet, who was born in 1808.
DEATH or' COMMODORE HARRISON.—The public
in general, and more particularly the patrons of aquatic
sports, will regret to hear announceti the unexpected demise
01 William Horatio Harrison, Esq.. late Commodore of tt,e
Royal Thames Yacht Club; he expired on the 17th inst., at
his residence at Brompton, in the 49th year of his age, after
a lengthened illness. He was a true English gentleman, re-
markable alike for benevo!ence of disposition, goodness of
heart, gentlemanly demeanour, and integrity of conduct. He
was an ardent admirer of aquatic sports, and was Commodore
of the Royal Thames Yacht Club up to a few months since,
when be resigned, owing to ill health.

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The result of extensive inquiries as to the amount
of orders from the United States by the last packet is upon
the whole satisfactoiy. The purchases considerably exceed
those of the corresponding period of last year, and a promise
is held out in the general advices of a further increase, as it is
expected a large number of buyers wiil leave New York and
Boston for this country by the packet which will sail at the
beginning of next month.

RIISAI,E3I

•, •.;.grk.-,,,,a the of -1,1c42;-; cet,
but. its beam has long lett the garden of Gethsemane anu t...
tomb of Absalom, the waters of Kedron, and the dark abps
of Jehoshaphat. Full falls its splendour, however, on the
opposite city, vivid and defined in its silver blaze. A lofty
wall, with turrets, and towers, and frequent gates, undulates
with the unequal ground which it covers, as it encircles the
lost capital of Jehovah. It is a city of hills, far more famous
that those of Rome; for all Europe has heard of Sion and of
Calvary, while the Arab and the Assyrian, and the tribes
and nations beyond, are as ignorant of the Capitolian and
Aventine Mounts as they are of the Malvern or the Chiltern
Hills. .

" The bread steep of Zion, crowned with the tower or
David; nearer still, donut Moriah, with the gorgeous tem-
ple of the God of Abraham, but built, alas! by the child of
Hagar, and not by Sarah's chosen one; close to its cedars
and its cypresses, its lofty spires and airy arches, the moon-
light falls upon Bethesda's pool; further on, entered by the
gate of St. Stephen's, the eye, though 'tis the noon of night,
traces with ease the Street of Grief, a long winding ascent to
a vast cupolaed pile that now covers Calvary, called the
Street of Grief, because there the most illustrious of the
human, as well as of the !Hebrew race, the descendants of
King David, and the divine Son of the most favoured of
women, twits sank under that burden of suffering and shame
which is now throughout all Christendom the emblem of
triumph 'and of honour; passing over groups and masses of
houses built of stone, with terraced roofs or surmounted with
small domes,we reachl the hill of Salem, where Melchisedek
built his mystic citadel ; and still remains the hill of Scopas,
where Titus gazed upon Jerusalem on the eve of his final
assault. Titus destroyed the temple. The religion of Juclwa
has in turn subverted the fanes which were raised to his
father and to himself in their imperial capital; and the God
of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, is now worshipped before
every altar in Rome.
"Jerusalem by moonlight! 'Tis a fine spectacle, apart from
all its indissoluble associations of awe and beauty. The
mitigating hours soften the austerity of a mountain land-
scape magnificent in outline, however harsh and severe in
detail; and, while it retains all its sublimity, removes much
of the savage sternness of the strange and unrivalled scene.
A fortified city, almost surrounded by ravines, and rising in
the centre of chains of far-spreading hills, occasionally offer-
ing, through their rocky glens, the gleams of a distant and
richer land!"