The Sun.
London, England, 1840-11-14 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

THE COMET OF MANY TALES.
Ball, London, 1840.
We took up this Comic Kalendar under the im-
pression that, like many others of its class, we
should find it merely a collection of flippant, thread-
bare jokes, and tales illustrative of the different
months of the year, and accompanied by engrav-
ings worthy to keep them in countenance ; but we
have been agreeably disappointed, for it is really
and truly- a most amusing Miscellany, sprightly,
and even novel, in its character, and full of
plates which, besides being happily suited to the
nature of the work, are as r°ich in a sort of broad,
rollicking drollery, as some of George Cruikshank's
chefs d'amvre. We subjoin a description of two or
three of the best of them. " The Charity Dinner" re-
presents two well-paid, full-fed parish officials feasting
together on fish, flesh, and fowl, while near them,
stands a half-starved charity boy, picking a mutton-
bone with the voracity of a Grub street poet. How
thoroughly lean and famished the wretch looks !
Shakspeare's starved apothecary was an Alderman
to him. His very teeth go stiffly and clumsily to
work, as if the operation of eating were a novelty
to him ; and his clothes hang loosely about him,
just as though they were hung upon a lath or
skewer. No wonder that fat, portly beadle,
with the glass of old port in his hand, and the
dainty sirloin smoking under his red nose, turns
with contempt from such a lean libel on humanity !
Had he his own will, we are satisfied from the ex-
pression of his face, that he would order the pauper
a dosen at the cart's tail, as a punishment for his
daring to look hungry and miserable in the presence
of his superiors. The " Political Dinner" is capital.
A patty of Tories—they must be Tories from their
sour looks,%shich not even punch and port can dulcify
—are conversing over their cups on the prospects of
the country, and, what they take still more to heart,
the prospects of their own party. You can read at
a glance in their faces that they have not the re-
motest expectation of ever getting into place again.
Out they are, and out they feel convinced they will
remain to the end of the chapter. One of the
squad bears a flattering likeness to Dr. Phillpotts,
and, so far as we can venture upon a guess, he is
haranguing the company to the effect, that it will
never le well with England, till Ministers give him
back his rich living of Stanhope, of which he was
so ruthlessly deptived some years since, and which
he was so nervously solicitous to hold in commen-
dam with his bishopric. The " Christmas Din-
ner," exhibits some highly ludicrous effects. The
family are all at table—the pudding is just brought
in—when, behold I a skrimmage takes place be-
tween two of the children, one of whom is banging
her brother's head with a spoon, while he retorts
by poking her in the ribs with a fork. A mighty
uproar is the consequence. Papa thunders from
one end of the table ; Mamma expostulates from the
other ; while the guest—a grave, stout, elderly
gentleman, who, we suspect, has rather a dislike
than otherwise to the practical pleasantries of
children—looks on with an embarrassed and
dissatisfied countenance, as though lie would
say, " drat them infants !" As a specimen
of the literary contents of the Comic Kalendar, we
quote a series of smart prose sketches, under the
title of " Reigning Sovereigns :"
" FRANCE.—Louis Phillippe, barn in 1773. A man
of three titles—Duke of Orleans, King of the French,
and Napoleon de la Paix. The first, the work of birth ;
the second, the work of accident ; the third, the work
of talent. His fortune has been triple like his titles :
first a Noble, next a Jacobin, and thirdly a King. His
wealth is enormous, and he has used it for three pur-
poses :—to enjoy the reputation of being the richest
man in Europe ; to marry his daughters to ail the needy
Princes of Europe ; and to purchase the French by gilding
Versailles for the Parisians, hanging up fables of French
battles, and delighting them, from the Peer to the beg-
gar, with the belief that they are the first populace in
the world. A people of contradictions, they are now,
with one hand trumpeting a challenge to Europe, and
with the other digging a ditch for the defence of Paris.
They have erected a despot, under the title of a
" Citizen King," and, to revive Republicanism, are
bringing back the bones of the haughtiest of Emperors."
" BELGIUM.—LeopoId the First, born in 1790. The
luckiest of the luckiest family of Europe.—An Austrian
Captain of Cavalry, who superseded the Prince of
Orange in the alliance of the Princess Charlotte of
England ; enjoyed a pension of 50,0001. a-year for
twenty years, of which he saved every shilling ; next
superseded the Prince of Orange in the possession of
Belgium ; and is now a King on the simple credit of
having a good leg, doing nothing, and being a Coburg."
" Russin.—Nicholas the First, burn in 1796—a
daring, active, and ambitious despot. He began by
excluding his brother Constantine from the throne,
and is supposed to have the largest o3sophagus of any,
sovereign in existence. He has already swallowed Po-
land ; has made an enormous bite out of Persia ; holds
Tartary in his left hand, ready for a luncheon ; Turkey
lies drest before him for his dinner, and what he is to
sup on, or where, is known only to himself and his old
namesake. But he is vigorous, vigilant, subtle, and
persevering ; and therefore the fitter to be baffled by
Lord Palmerston !"
" AUSTRlA.—Ferdinand, born in 1793. In Austria
the Governmant is wholly constructed on the principle
of the nursery : the people are children who think of
nothing but their breakfasts, dinners, and suppers, and,
if furnished with dolls and dances, are as happy as the
day is long. But they never grow. When refractory,
they are whipped, or put in the black-hole. When
good-hamourecl, they are suffered to run about the
fields, provided that they never run out of sight of the
head-nurse, and can be brought back by a check of the
apron-string. While they live, they merely walk in
go-carts ; when they die, they are merely wrapt up and
put to bed."
" SPAlN.—Maria Isabella Louisa, born in 1830.
The youngest of Sovereigns, though by no means the
most childish. Her mother manages the State for her ;
General Espartero manages the State for her mother ;
the city of Madrid manages the State for General
Espartero ; the mob manages the State for the city of
Madrid ; and the mob itself is managed by the beggar,
the thief, and the soldier. The civil war has died out
for want of material—and Spain is now amusing itself
with shooting prisoners."
" SWEDEN AND NORWAY.—Charles John the Four-
teenth, born in 1764 ; formerly Bernadotte : a singular
instance of fortune, seconded by conduct. A French-
man entering the service as a common marine ; rising
through all the ranks of the army, to time highest ; then
rising above the highest to the throne ; and then rising
above the man who placed him there, by keeping the
throne when Napoleon had lost it. He now lives the
solitary survivor of the Napoleon monarchs ; a bold,
vigorous, and honest man ; a brave soldier, a successful
general, and, in a country of strangers, a secure King."
" TURKEY,—AbduI Niched the Unfortunate, the son
of Mahmoud the Unlucky, born in 1823. He has
come to the throne as a man might come to his dinner,
with a party of wild beasts round the table. It is not
likely that he can much enjoy his meal. All the sove•
reignties of Europe are open-mouthed round him, and
he is spared from hour to hour only by the show of their
tusks at each other. But the first bite is the signal for
universal battle, and, whichever gorges, Turkey must
furnish the meal."
" AMERICA.—Mr. Van Buren, President ; an expe
rimental King governing by an experimental Constitu-
tion, and ruling an experimental people ; the whole
undergoing a constant change ; the President every five
years sinking into the multitude, time Constitution sink-
ing into democracy by the month, and the people nover
the same for a week together : the whole defying any
living sagacity to know what they, or any of them, will
be in five years from this moment. America, the land
of liberty, with the slave•trade a national traffic ; the
land of equality, with one-fifth of its population slaves ;
the land of law, with the populace for its administra-
tors ; the land of religion, with a hundred sects in per-
petual quarrel ; and the land of national justice, with
a fiery eye on every possession of her neighbours, and a
fierce hand ready to grasp them."

COUNTRY POST-OFFICES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Stir,—ln your Paper of yesterday I perceive a letter,
signed by " An Oh Roadster," complaining of the in-
justice done to the public by the postmasters in country
towns being permitted to regulate the closing of their
respective offices by their own private clocks and
watches, and expatiating largely on the enormous profit
accruing to them from such a process.
You will not, I am sure, object to correct this state-
ment of your Correspondent, as under the present
system the postmasters are not, as formerly, allowed to
appropriate the pence received for after-lime letters.
I am, Sir, your most obedient servant,
Bath, Nov. 13. AN OBSERVER.

QUEEN CHRISTINA.—A Toulon letter, 6th
inst., states that Queen Christina was received there the
day before with all the honours due to crowned heads, and
was that ch.), conducted by the Maritime Prefect over the
various establishments of the dockyard and arsenal. Her
Majesty had been on board the Ocean to visit that fine
vessel. Admiral Lalande attended her Majesty.
RECENT ADMINISTRATIONS OF FRANCE.
—ln 1836, M. Thiers was Prime Minister of France, but
resigned, and in 1836, Count Mole and M. Guizot ac-
ceded to office. 111 1837, M. Guizot and the Doctrinaire
section of the Cabinet retired. In 1839, Count Mole and
his Ministry resigned. In 1839 Marshal Soult was named
Premier. In Feb. 1840, Soult resigned, and M. Thiers
was named Premier. In October, 1840, Messrs. Soult
and Guizot acceded again to office.