The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-14 00:00:00

nisation of that most injurious system of taxa-
tion which has for so long a period tended
to paralyse the industry of the population.
Mr. Doubleday has described the atrocious origin and
the malign influences of the national debt of England
in his financial history of the country, and he has
described them with such admirable perspicuity as
to their gradual developement, and with such wither-
ing sarcasm as to their producers, as to afford him, in
our opinion, a right to the title of a patriotic phi-
lanthropist. It is a curious circumstance to re-
flect upon the monetary and social condition of our
Anglo-Norman ancestors under the sovereignty of
the Plantageneta, when the revenues of the monarch
and the state were derived in a particular manner
from his territorial possessions—when the royal
beeves and the royal harvests were carried to his
shambles and his granaries from his own pasture and
arable land, and were not wrung from the pittances
of the wretched artisans, earned by the de-
nial of their domestic comfort and the perpe-
tual sweating of their' brows. Until the aristo-
cratic ambition, and the feudatorial avarice had
beaten down the buttresses and desolated the orchards
of the religious establishments ; until the lords of the
soil had glutted their coffers with the most unprin-
cipled and profligate spoliation, and had by the con-
tagion of their example rendered their lord para-
mount, the King, the participator in their corrupt
and execrable proceedings, the miseries of a poor-
law were unexperienced, and the labour of the land
untaxed. Those are the circumstances which do, in
a very great measure, render the olden times, in com-
parison with ours, the golden days; those, at least,
are the antique customs which we would willingly
see revived by the disciples of Young England ;
those are the immunities which must, in a very
great measure, have compensated our forefathers
for the scientific advantages reserved for a future
generation. 'While, indeed, we have been blessed
with the art of printing, we have been cursed
with the woes of taxation ; while our activity
has been promoted by a magic-dragon of steam, our
strength has been undermined by the horrors of the
nightmare of the National Debt. The creation and
growth of these monster evils are well and compre-
hensively described by Mr. Doubleday. From the
first dawning of the debt until its accumulation
in 1711 to a principal of 16,394,7021. ls. 7d., in
1739 to a principal of 46,954,6231. 3s. 4d.,
in 1748 to a principal of 78,293,313/. Is. 10id., in
1775 to a principal of 135,943,0511., in 1783 to a
principal of 257,213,0431., in 1797 to a principal of
413,140,832 Z., until its extension in these latter times,
after the wars against France— war,: forced upon us
by the pertinacious egotism of Pitt—to a terrific total
of 800,000,000/. How such miseries have been
entailed upon the industrious population of
these islands is readily to be comprehended,
when we recal to our recollection the expenses of a
protracted war, the odious subsidising system of
William Pitt, and the monetary suction of the
nobility. Mr. Doubleday has, in his present compo-
sition, become in a very great measure the impartial
historian of English Finance ; at the same time it
must be acknowledged that his style is throughout
impassioned, but this earnestness arises from the
ardour of his patriotism. In writing these brief
observations we are in no manner disposed
to dismiss a volume so remarkable and
valuable with a few cursory remarks. We are
only solicitous to direct the attention of the
public, as speedily as possible, to a very extra-
ordinary and perspicuous work, recounting the in-
justice and incompetence of bygone statesmen. As
we shall repeatedly have occasion to refer to the ar-
guments of Mr. Doubleday, either for the purpose of
coinciding with them, or refuting them, we shall
abstain from entering upon their general analysis.

HOME AND I7'S INFLUENCE. A Novel. By
the Hon. Adela Sidney. 3 Vols.
The title of these volumes is a recommendation in
itself, and when we have said that, the tales which
they contain effectively carry out the moral which
that title seems to convey, further commendation is
almost needless. It would be well if a larger portion
of fictitious literature were devoted to a similar pur-
pose, and inspired by as amiable motives, as are these
volumes by Miss Sidney. However much it may be
customary to regard novel-reading either as a sad
waste of time, or, at best, only as a means of making
a few hours pass pleasantly, we are inclined to think
that works of this class, not individually, perhaps, but
collectively, exercise a not unimportant, and might
exercise a most beneficial, influence upon the morals
and the disposition of the community. Historical or
political romances are, doubtless, useful in their way,
as tending to impress certain facts more indelibly in
the memory, by means of familiar association and
kindly sympathies ; but their influence is immeasur-
ably less powerful than that exercised by the un-
pretending domestic novel. Always supposing such a
novel qualified to execute effectually its important
mission, namely, teaching by example. To do this it
is necessary not only that some good lesson should be
inculcated by the moral of the tale, but also more es-
pecially to render the example available, it is im•
perative that the characters and conduct of its heroes
and heroines should be truthfully and naturally pour -
trayed ; and then, according as they are good or evil,
they may serve as an incentive or a warning. His-
torical romancist though he was, such lessons abound
in the pages of Sir Walter Scott. We may ponder
with admiration, reverence, delight, or a thousand
kindred emotions, over his narratives, of the gallant
doings of the old crusaders, or the varied fortunes of
modern monarchs, from the doughty Richard to the
gentle Mary, or pedantic James; but we turn with
a sympathy ever glowing, and an interest ever new,
to study the histories of his humbler characters—fic-
titious they are called, but we know them to be
realities—and from those histories how many lessons
may we not learn ! For instance, a
hundred elabo-
rate orations, a hundred eloquent panegyrics, upon
the various excellences and beauties of those two most
necessary and not incompatible virtues, resolution and
humility, must inevitably fail in producing a hun-
dredth part of the effect which would the perusal of,
perhaps, the most beautiful of all Scott's beautiful tales
—the " Bride of Lammermoor." There, in the odious
character of the imperious Lady Ashton, and the
pitiful weakness of the gentle and yielding Lucy, its
fair readers more especially, may see the fatal effects
of two opposite extremes and become more anxious to
discover that happy juste milieu which avoids them
both—excluding alike wilfulness and weakness.
Innumerable lessons of this kind may be found
in the pages of the great novelist; and, notwithstand-
ing their manifold attractions, it is for such lessons
that they are chiefly valuable. And such or similar
lessons we are always glad to find in the works of
our modern novelists, and it is because they aspire
to follow in the same course that we gladly welcome
Miss Sidney's otherwise unpretending tales. To
extol the happiness, and illustrate the beneficial in-
fluences of domestic life, is a peculiarly appropriate
subject for a work which, like this, is chiefly designed
for the younger and fairer members of the community.
The early studies of kings are chiefly directed
towards obtaining a knowledge of the countries
over which they are to rule, and in gathering
from the records of other sovereigns lessons
of experience for their future guidance ; and
in like manner should the early studies of women
tend in some way to qualify them for the right ad-
ministration of the future scene of their sovereignty—
the little empire of home. These three volumes con-
tain three tales—pleasing tales, pleasingly written—
" Beatrix," "Dinah," and " Clemence." Of these the
last is by far the most interesting, and is an exquisite
romance. It is liable to some objections, certainly,
and the conduct of the heroine, in her heroic self-
sacrifice, is perhaps not very wise, even if natural ;
but then we must remember " he never errs who sa-
crifices self;" or if he do,
" such hero-errors purify our kind?'
The story of " Dinah" is perhaps likely to be of most
practical benefit. It very forcibly pourtrays, in the
person of its heroine, the terrible consequences which
are occasioned by a fault-fin ding, domineering temper.
" Home and its Influence," then, may be cordially re-
commended as likely to afford, not only harmless and
agreeable recreation, but also many not unimportant
lessons. The object of the whole is to
"that
happinessve, i
in the
is
concluding
etwnoartdusrfrof_othnaet all
ofththeetales
~h
charms of pleasure—
, the excitement of fame—bear with them concealed
thorns ; but that existence is happiness only when
. virtue and love shed,, their lustre over an united and
intellectual borne.

ameret
THE NATURAL 11161 OR Y OF THE BALLET
GIRL. By Albert Smith.
The cloak of Buffo') has been a very long while
falling, and Albert Smith has caught it without any
doubt. It sits admirably on his shoulders—may he
wear it just so long as it shall not become threadbare!
After flaying the execrable, and detestable, and most
atrocious, and most abominable race of " Gents"
alive ; after punishing the whole genus of " Gents"
with a sort of literary " tar-and-feathering," Albert
Smith changes his theme from the grubs, as he very
expressively terms the " Gents," to the butterflies, as
he no less expressively terms the " Ballet Girls."
But his labour in this. second chapter of his facetious
" Natural History, is not the labour of destruction,
or scarification, or ridicule, or satire. Tothe honour
and good taste of the author, be it said, the poor
" Ballet Girls" may here find their palliation, if not
even their panegyric. On this account the little
book before us, anent the danseuses, is right welcome;
it is a blithe, sparkling, humourous sketch behind the
cenes, and it is a very great deal more—it is the
enunciation of a kind word, and the expression of a
generous and honourable sympathy for an abused, and
we do believe, a wrongfully slighted class. We
cannot afford a better notion of the gentleness of sen-
timent which imparts
pressuech nt
bar plocehausraen,t flthaanv obuyr
gtiovitnhge
out
-Pfoluloriwnignsgodfetfehnece of the moral characters of the
members of the corps de ballet.
" The Ballet-girl is my fond of finery. Ina rosi-