The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-29 00:00:00

IRELAND.

The following is the letter of Lord Ebrington to the
Duke of Leinster, announcing a subscription of 200/.
to the Irish Agricultural Association, which we noticed
some days ago. The letter is characteristic of the good
sense and kind disposition of the present Lord• Lieu.
tenant of Ireland :

"Dublin Castle, March 12, 1841.
"My dear Duke,--I request that you will have the
goodness to announce to the Committee of the Irish
Agricultural Society a contribution from me of 2001.
"I have abstained from offering this at an earlie,
period of your proceedings from no want of interest it
their success, but under an impression that that success
would be based on a surer foundation from the spon
taneous liberality and public spirit of Irish gentlemen
than from any additional stimulus which my co-opera
tion, as the head of the Government, could have gives,
to the outset of the undertaking.
" Tne result has fully borne out my expectations, an(l
whilst the general principle of the English and Hightail(
Agricultural Societies will, I believe, furnish you tilt-
beet materials wherewith to form one for Ireland, tht
composition of the Committee, of which your Grace i
the Chairman, affords a full guarantee that these prin.
ciples will be judiciously and beneficially adapted to
this country.—l am always, my dear Duke, yours very
sincerely, "EBRINGTON.
" The Duke of Leinster."

GREENOCK.---OPENING OF THE RAILWAY.
—Monday two locotrotives with twelve waggons loaded
with coke arrived at the terminus, direct from Glasgow.
At Paisley the arrival of the train was hailed with cheers.
and on arriving at Bishopton the workmen and villagers
turned out and welcomed the unexpected visitors by tre-
mendous cheering. The trains, in coming over the line,
were stopped on every arch, and thus tried the stability of
the works. The first train ran over the whole line of the
railway the very day that the stupendous and magnificent
ater-wheel of the cotton-mill performed its first revolu-
tions. Tee3day next the Et:rectors and Shareholders are
to proceed from this town to Glasgow by the railway ; and,
on the following day, the line is to be open to the public.
We congratulate our readers on the near completion of a
work fr.,m which we confidently anticipate much conve-
nience tl individuals, and great benefit to the t0wn......
Glasgow Chronicle.

SHAMEFUL AND UNFEELING FRAUD.—We
have received a number of communications, in reference to
the scandalous fraud perpetrated upon mechar.ics and others
by offering them engagements in New York, on condition
of their send,ng a sovereign each, to secure registration ;
but, as these do not add materially to the facts detailed
in the Guardian on Wednesday, we do not think it neces-
sary to publish any of them. From what has come to our
knowle,:ge on the subject, we are inclined to think that
many of those who have been imposed upon by the letters
of Mr. WaahinOon Percival, and induced to send a sove-
reign each to No. '2, Oxford-street. will recover their money;
as tie seems to have taken alarm at something which be saw
or heard, and discontinued his visits to the house,
before any large number of letters had arrived. One
communication which we have received, states that there
were in the care of the police as many letters as a man
could hold in both hands, many of them evidently contain-
ing money er orders. We believe it will turn out that no
letters which arrived in London after the Itith instant
would fall into the bands of the swindlers; and those
parties who transmitted money on or after that day would
do well to address letters to the head Commissioners of
the Metropolitan Police, Scotland Yard, London, re.
questing that their money may be returned; taking care
at the same time, to Rive very careful and clear directions
as to the mode in which letters are to be addressed so av
to find th-m.—Marichester Guardian.
CuA RTIST VINDICATION.—Mr. Hethering-
ton, in a letter to the Chronicle, attempts a vindication of
the sarong-headedness of the Chartists. Failing in novel
arguments, he int oduces the story of the cock. " The
worki, g classes who a'tend public meetings are beginning
to take a right view of th. it position. They view the
parties calling a public meeting, for any purpose not in-
cluding the suffr,ge, in the light of the rustic who was re
pteiented convoking the poultry of his barn-yard, with this
opening address;—' Dear animals, I have assembled you
to advise me what sauce I shall dress you with ;' to whieu
a cock responding, We don't want to be eaten,' is
cheekqd by You wander from the point.' Just so with
you, Sir. When we demand political justice and protec-
tion above all otter thing:, you tell us that we wane.e.
from the point,' and ' deprecate' public meetings, called
for the express purpose of asking the cocks what sauce
they shall be dressed with—being thus violently thrust
into abeyance.'"

REVISION OF OUR COMMERCIAL CODE.--
On Wednesday morning, at eleven o'clock, pursuant to
notice, the Mayor presided at a public meeting held for the
above purpose in the Town-hall. Mr. T. H. Higgin
then moved the adoption of a petition, praying Pat hareem
to re%iie the whole of our Commercial Code. Mr. J.
Armstrong seconded the adoption of this proposition. A
mechanic of the name of Lund,seconded by another named
Addison, moved an amendment, to the effect that the work-
ing classes were much interested in this discussion, and that
therefore it should be adjourned until half-pa3t seven-, in order
to give them an opportunity of attend Lg. Agreed to.
At the adjourned meeting Mr. John Greg made a few re-
' marks. Thomas Lund, a Chartist, said the Chartists
are favourable as any man can be to free trade, yet we
differ from many tbi.igs the last speaker has said. The
Whigs have given us some good measures, but they have
also with them given us bushels of evil. Look at the
continuance cf the war system. Is it right to increase
our coinrre, C 3 and extend the Gospel at the point of the
bayonet ? He despaired under the present system of ever
seeing the tights of the people attended to, and therefore
should move, as an amendment, that the charter,
as a means to ai end, take pri: rlty of all other measure?.
This amendment was seconded by another Chartist. The
Mayor said that the amendment proposed by Lund could
not be put. Mr. T. H. Higgin agreed with what the
Mayor had said. The original motion was carried. After
thanking the Mayor the meeting separated.....-Lancashire
Guardian.

We hear that some curious discoveries of old
coins, bones, &c., have lately been made in pulling down
the French Protestant church in Theadneedle.street, by
Mr. Moxbay, the purchaser of the ground from the City.
One of the coins appears (although the image and super-
scription are almost entirely effaced) to be one of
Char'es l.'s reign. From a reference to old books and
records, the space in the immediate vicinity of the French
church, which is enclosed on one side by Threadneedle.
street, and on the other by Old Broad-street, was for.
tnerly laid out in gardens,

LITERATURE.

MOORE'S POETICAL WORKS, Voz.
Longman, London, 1841.
In his preface to this volume, Mr. Moore gives
some interesting particulars respecting Lalla
Rookh, the most successful, with the exception
perhaps of the Irish Melodies, of all his poems.
After stating that a negotiation was opened on
the subject with the Longmans in the year 1812,
and that the late Mr. Perry offered himself as the
poet's representative in the treaty, he goes on to
say—" The short discussion that then took place
between the two parties, may be comprised in a
very few sentences. lam of opinion,' said Mr.
Perry, enforcing his view of the case by argu-
ments which it is not for me to cite, that Mr.
Moore ought to receive for his poem the largest
price that has been given, in our day, for such a
work.' That was,' answered the Messrs. Long-
man, 'three thousand guineas.' ' Exactly so,'
replied Mr. Perry, and no less a sum ought he
to receive.' It was then objected, and very rea-
sonably, on the part of the firm, that they had
never yet seen a single line of the poem; and
that a perusal of the work ought to be allowed to
them, before they embarked so large a sum in
the purchase. But no, the romantic view which
my friend Perry took of the matter was, that
this price should. be given as a tribute to repu-
tation already acquired, without any condition
for a previous perusal of the new work. This
high tone, I must confess, not a little startled
and alarmed me ; but, to the honour and glory
of romance—as well on the publisher's side as
the poet's—this very generous view of the trans-
action was, without any difficulty, acceded to,
and the firm agreed, before we separated, that I
was to receive three thousand guineas for my
poem." At this period, scarcely a line of Lalla
ftookh, as it at present stands, had been written ;
but in the year 1816, it was sufficiently advanced
to be placed in the publishers' hands. Alluding
to the time spent in its composition, Mr. Moore
tells us that he had been "at all times a far more
slow and painstaking workman than would ever
be guessed." This confession does not at all take
us by- surprise. for we have no great faith in what
may be called the impromptu inspirations of ge-
nius, and cordially agree with Sheridan that very
often " your easy writing is d—d hard reading.'
Genius, if it desire to display itself to advantage,
and make its fine powers appreciated; must
labour, and labour hard .too; it must dig deep
for the golden ore of thought and sentiment, and
not content itself with that which comes readiest
to hand, and lies on the surface. But to resume
our quotations :
Having thus laid open the secrets of the workshop to ac-
count for the time expended in writing this work, I must also,
in justice to my own industry, notice the pains I took in long
and laboriously reading for it. To form a store-house, as it
were, of illustration purely Oriental, and so familiarise myself
with its various treasures, that, as quick as Fancy required the
aid of fact, in her spiritings, the memory was ready, like an-
other Arid, at her " strong bidding," to furnish materials for
the spell-work,—such was, for a long while, the sole object of
my studies ; and whatever time and trouble this preparatory
process may have cost me, the effects resulting from it, as far
as the humble merit of truthfulness is concerted, have been
such as to repay me more than sufficiently for my pains. I
have not forgotten how great was my pleasure, when told by
the late Sir James Mackintosh, that he was once asked by
Colonel W--s, the historian of British India, " whether it
was true that Moore had never been in the East ?" " Never,"
answered Mackintosh. " Well, that shows me," replied Colonel
" that reading over. D'Herbelot is as good as riding
on the back of a camel."
I need hardly subjoin to this lively speech, that although
D'Herbelot's valuable work was, of course, one of my manuals,
I took the whole range of all such Oriental reading as was ac-
cessible to me ; and became, for the time, indeed, far more
conversant with all 'elating to that distant region, than I have
ever been with the scenery, productions, or modes of life of
any of those countries lying most within my reach. We know
that D'Anville, though never in his life out of Paris, was able'
to correct a number of errors in a plan of the Troad taken by
De Choiseul, on the spot ; and, for my own very different, as
well as far inferior, purposes, the knowledge I had thus ac-
quired of distant localities, seen only by me in my day-dreams,
was no less ready and useful.
An ample reward for all this painstaking has been found in
such welcome tributes as I have just now cited; nor can I
deny myself the gratification of citing a few more of the same
description. From another distinguished authority on Eastern
subjects, the late Sir John Malcolm, I had myself the plea-
suoe of hearing a similar opinion publicly expressed ;—that
eminent person, in a speech spoken by him at a Literary Fund
Dinner, having remarked, that together with those qualities
of the poet, which he much too partially assigned to me, was
combined also "the truth of the historian."
Few poems have been honoured with more tri-
umphant marks of public approbation than Lalla
tiookh. On its first appearance it was received
vith a burst of enthusiasm by all classes of
English readers ; and since then, it has been
,ranslated, not only into most of the Continental
languages, but even into Persian ! Mr. Fraser
.net with a copy of it at a "town on the shores
Jf the Caspian ;" and a splendid divertissement,
founded on it, was acted at the Chateau Royal
-)f Berlin, in 1822, when the present Emperor
end Empress of Russia performed two of the
inincipal characters! Yet notwithstanding these
striking testimonies in favour of its power of
,twakening interest, we are not disposed to rank
Lalla Rookh among the happiest flights of its
author's genius. It is too much encumbered—
ndeed overlaid—with ornament; and the very
learning, on which Mr. Moore so much piques
iimself, assists in leading him astray from the
right path of taste and judgment. With a little
less parade of orientalisms he would have pro
duced a better poem, nor would he have los
anything in point of popularity.

THE FRENCH STAGE AND THE FRENCH
PEOPLE. Two VoLs.
Colburn, London, 1841.
From the title of this work many readers would
he apt to suppose that it referred to the drama as
it at present exists in France, but such is not the
case ; it is a collection of anecdotes and sketches
illustrative, for the most part, of the French
stage previous to the revolution, when Preville
and Le Kain were in the height of their celebrity,
and Talma was yet a name unknown. The au-
thor is M. Fleury, a comic actor of considerable
note during the latter part of the reign of Louis
the Sixteenth, and who. was specially patronized
'.)y the ill-fated Marie Antoinette, herself an
amateur performer of no ordinary talent. In his
s cond volume, M. Fleury indulges in some re-
ainiscences of the stage subsequent to the-death
of the King and the Queen, and makes one or
two passing allusions to Napoleon, and the
effect that his avowed patronage produced on
the drama; but these are the most meagre and
uninteresting portions of his work, whose attrac-
tion may be said to be confined in a great mea-
cure to the first volume. It is from this, there-
fore, that we shall select our extracts; and first,
here is a recollection of Voltaire at Ferney, with
whom the author, then scarcely out of his teens,
tad just commencing his theatrical career,
chanced to be staying on a visit :
We stayed about a fortnight at Ferney, and during that time
were overwhelmed with kindness and attention by the great
philosopher. For my part, I had my share of censure as well
as of praise, and both had their influence on my subsequent
success. I have still present in imagination that satirical coun-
tenance, every wrinkle of which seemed to laugh the whole
world to scorn. Voltaire's wig was a memorable curiosity. I
had for some time sacrilegiously premeditated an attack on this
strange sanctuary of genius; and I made an attempt to put my
design into execution one morning when the philosopher sallied
forth after breakfast. Voltaire turned sharply round, and with
his penetrating eye scanned my little figure from head to foot,
while I stood as it were transfixed and spell-bound. After a few
moments he said, " Per-met-fez-rnoi, Mon-sieur
Having uttered these words, dividing the syllables in his pecu-
liar manner, he paused as if ransacking his memory, as if
searching for some appropriate term of reproach. Then curling
his mouth to the left side of his face, as he always did when he
wished to be particularly sarcastic, he continued, " Per-met-
tez-moi, Mon-sieur . . . de Fleury . . . to tell you (here he
softened his tone, doubtlessly thinking me sufficiently punished),
that lam not royal enough to understand and tolerate pages'
tricks. Remember, that at the court of Ferney wigs are re-
spected in consideration of what may happen to be within
them." Observing my mortified and penitent air (which he
seemed to suspect, and rightly, was partly assumed), he placed
his hand under my chin, and raising my head, said, " Come,
let me look at you; if I mistake not, there is something in your
face that tells me you will be a wicked rogue, and a good
actor."
Every one remembers, of course, Burke's de-
scription of Marie Antoinette, whose charms of
face and figure have been praised in the most
extravagant terms by almost every writer who
lived during her reign. We subjoin M. Fleury's
sketch of this celebrated Queen, who is not
quite so lavish of his admiration of her, except
as an actress :
I have seen her Majesty perform, and superintended several
rehearsals, and her acting appeared to me to be very far from
royally bad. She was quite at her ease on the stage ; and in
the art of acting the acquirement of self-possessian is one-half
the battle. On the other hand, Iby no means agree with those
who have so loudly extolled the beauty of Marie-Antoinette.
Still there was something in her look and manner even mons
fascinating than positive beauty. Her eyes, though not
large, had a power of expression which rendered them a perfect
index of her mind. Her skin was delicately fair, and the con-
tour of her neck and shoulders exquisitely formed. Her mouth,
though stamped with that peculiarity which has been termed
the Austrian lip, was exceedingly pretty, and had a certain
pouting expression, which was peculiarly appropriate in many
of the characters she personated. In /liaise and Babet, for
example, nothing could be more charming than her manner of
half reciting, half singing, the following lines
:
"Le soir on dansa sur l'herbette,
Blaise et moi nous dansions tous deux;
Mais it me quitta pour Lisette
Qui vint se meler a nos jeux.",
The fact is, that the Queen's acting was characterised by a
degree of grace, feeling, and delicacy, which would have made
the fortune of any public performer.
These volumes, which are translated, we pre-
sume, by the Editor, Theodore Hook, abound in
curious anecdotes, though they certainly do not
illustrate the manners of the French people, as
is stated in the title-page.

CHOICE SELECTIONS FROM THE BEST
FRENCH POETS.
Whittaker, London, 1841.
The compiler of this useful school book, M.
Delille, is a gentleman well known as a success-
ful teacher of the French language, and the