The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-02 00:00:00

MAGAZINE DAY.
BLACK WOOD'S MAGAZINE.
We have here the closil4 chapter of " Ten
Thousand a Year"—the most lengthy tale that
has appeared in print since the days of the in-,
terminable Richardson. It terminates, as might
have been anticipated, with the recovery of his
Yatton property by Mr. Aubrey; the marriage
of his sister Kate with the son of the Lord De
la Zouch; and the utter ruin of Tittlebat Tit-
mouse, who, distracted with his misfortunes and
the brandy-bottle, is confined for life in a pri-
vate lunatic asylum. As for the inferior per-
sonages, they are disposed of in a very summary
manner. Messrs. Bloodsuck and Mudflint, the
provincial patriots, after being tossed about on
the stormy waves of litigation, and trying in vain
to get up a public subscription to indemnify them
for their sufferings in the cause of Reform, at
length cast anchor, and find a haven of rest in
the Insolvent Debtors' Court; Mr. Tagraa, the
broken down haberdasher, turns Church-rate
Martyr, and finds his account in the specula-
tion; and Messrs. Swindle O'Gibbet and
O'Shirtless, the Irish Reform Members, are
suddenly found wanting in London, leaving
divers perplexed and inquisitive creditors in a
state of very delicate distress. Some of these
incidents display considerable vigour of sarcasm,
though we must protest against the spirit that per-
vades them; indeed Mr. Warren has far more
of the satirical than the humorous in his nature ;
when he attempts the purely comic, he almost
always fails, from his proneness t) extravagant
buffoonery. He has no idea of keeping within
the safe meaa of propriety. The interest of his
story may be said to come in and go out with
Gammon, for we care little either for Aubrey or
Titmouse, the one being a sentimental, and the
other a grotesque, caricature, as unlike real life
as it is possible to be. Despite its numerous
defects, however—the result rather of careless-
ness than want of ability—the story is an ex-
ceedingly clever one, and must have given plea-
sure to thousands of readers. " A Glance at the
Elections" is remarkable for nothing so much as
its 'solemn cant and twaddle. The writer attri-
butes the result of the elections to " that over-
raingYrovidence by which, the iswes of -events
are controlled.' It was not, the •Cliandos -clause
that degraded Ministers in the counties ; it Was
not the Carlton Club funds that assisted the
Tories in many of the more accessible boroughs;
nothing of the sort; it was Jehovah that .did it !
Heaven itself fought on the side of the Opposition!
Yes, Omnipotence--and no less an authority—
has declared against free trade, and in favour of
taxed bread, by returning a Tory majority to
Parliament! Such is the opinion of the scribe
in Blackwood, who, thus thinking, muct of
course look on Sir Robert Peel as one in di-
red communication with Heaven of which
we must own we entertain strong doubts, seeing
that he has as few celestial attributes about him
as any man we know ot. But if he be really in-
spired by any superhuman Power, then we
should say that the inspiration came to him from
below, rather than from above! The writer goes
on to express his conviction that Ministers "ad-
vised the late dissolution, knowing that the re-
suit would be a considerable majority against
them !" and yet, in the face of this conviction—
which, to make it the more impressive, he has
put in Italics—he adds, in the very next page,
that " the object of the dissolution was to excite
an evil spirit through the country, which might
weaken the numbers of the Conservative party "
Thus the Whigs dissolve, first, it seems, to secure
a Tory majority, and secondly, to weaken the
numbers of that majority ! Who can pin faith on
a writer who argues in this inconsistent and ab-
surd fashion ? But the article is full ofsuch crazy
trash, being throughout consistent only in incon-
sistency-. " The World's Honesty" is a tempting
theme skilfully handled. The " French in Ar-
geria",describes the recent changes in this colony,
and the embarrassment under which it still la-
bours, in a temperate, and, so far as we can judge,
impartial manner. We should say that the
discussion on the " Non-Intrusion Question" was
dull, could. we but understand it, but we have
never yet been able to make out what the
Scotch theologians have gone to loggerheads
about. "The Announcements and Three Rooms"
is an amusing story, with a -dash of farce in it.
The " Pied-a-Terre" is a lively jeux d'esprit.
We quote a portion of the stanzas:—
Sentimental young students may be in the right,
To dream of a cottage with roses grown o'er ;
And nothing to think of from morning to night,
But ,ome pink-and-white Lucy to love and adore. •
But you're fast getting grey, as perchance you perceive,
And I guess 'tis high time such green fancies to leave,
And sit down in a civilized pied-a-terre
Within cry of the Clubs, in the heart of Mayfair.

Though worn to the bone by the labours of office—
tnottAii ect of her est by my lady's dissipation,
and a her ntealn by my lady's selfishness—though ha-
rassed by flaws of temper and caprices of taste, there is a
species of one and mil visibility between the mistress and
maid, characteristic of the umbrageous nature pointed
out. An instinctive esprit du corps unites the daughter
of Eve who washes the laces, and is to inherit them,
with the daughter of Eve who wears them in her pinners.
Against my master, or my lord, on the other hand, the
lady's maid cherishes an equally intuitive apathy. Even
my master's own man7nay, even the family butler and
coachman does she detest as dependencies of " master."
" Master" is a tyrant—master is a nuisance—master is
never satisfied—master is always complaining of the
manner in which his linen is starched, or left un-
starched ; and master's shirt-buttons have twice as great
an aptitude to come off as any other gentleman's. And
then, master keeps such hours ! Master goes to bed, and
rises earlier than can be accounted for on any other prin-
ciple than that of matrimonial contrariety. Master
comes into my lady's dresSing-room in dirty boots ; or
sets down his flat candlestick on a new cap. Master is
full of fancies, such as having his newspapers ironed;
and worrets people out of their lives about keeping din-
ner, or the horses waiting. According to the lady's maid
there is no end to the peccadillos of •• master."
Not but that my lady has her faults too. My lady is
sadly thoughtless and heedless, and seems to think that
people have twenty pair of hands, and no need of rest or
recreation. But she is such a good creature, after all
And, if it were not for having such a brute of a husband,
she would be such a sweet-tempered lady. Ali ! poor
thing ! if people only knew what they were about when
they married ! The lady's maid swears she would not
change her situation for anythinf; that anybody could
offer her ; that is, her situation in life. As regards her
vocation, it must be admitted that she enjoys peculiar
advantages. Other slaveys occupy the place of Tanta-
lus. The butler is no wise privileged to be the better
for the wine he is decanting, or the plate h? is cleaning ;
or the gardener for the pines or peaches he is forcing.
But if the task of the lady's maid be an eternal smoothing
of coats, and darning of pinholes, she has at least a vested
interest in the fruit of her labours. The lawn kerchief,
or brocaded mantle, will one day be her own ; and the
young heir who watches the growth of his father'S plan-
' tations; is not more personally interested in their well-
doing than the lady's maid in the safe packing of her
lady's imperials and chaise-seat. The lady's maid is
usually an hysterical, nervous personage ; her constitu-
tion broken by irregularlrest and irregular diet.

principles were at least h'ovever
feeply they were at timesstiplitirtvd. "
tations in the Wen" is a collection of
observations strung together hap-hazard. The
sketch of a Westminster election in the olden
time, when so many patriotic hustings speeches
used to be pointed and rounded off by a shower
of dead cats and cabbage-stalks, is highly divert-
ing nor, on the, whole, can we object to the fol-
lowing description of a Whig, though we think
that the colouring might here and there have
been softened advantageously :
It has been thought.anomalous that the Whigs have
more frequently incurred the indignation of " the mob"
than the Tories. 'Nothing can be more natural. The
Tory and the mob are political antipodes ; they rarely
come in contact. When the Tory is advised to face "the
mob" (nota bene, .‘ the mob," properly speaking, is to
be found only in towns—it is a free body—the rural serfs
are not sufficiently high-spirited and intelligent to con-
stitute a mob), it is as a forlorn- hope. There is no dis-
guise: his obnoxious political principles are avowed; and
to allow of this being done with the least possible amount of
danger, some frank, jolly, good-humoured person is
selected, who can keep his temper, and make the rabble
like him, though they detest...his politics. The Whigs,
on the other hand, court. the' alliance of " the mob,"
without knowing its character well enough to know how
to deal with it. A Whig is necessarily a pedant :he
sees the people, and every thing natural, reflected in the
softening mirror of books. He has never mingled with
the crowd. When a child, he was mamma's well-be
haved darling, who never played with naughty boys or
dirtied his clothes : when he was at school and college he
was a pattern of industrious study--and, if he did not
carry off the lowest premiums and honours, at least
ranked next to thoSe who did : and in after-life he re-
mains the same incurable, neat, decorous prig. IVith
him " the child is father of' the man" indeed. He wishes
to square his own conduct, and to see others square theirs,
to the precepts he has imbibed from his godmothers and
godfathers. He is shocked at the levity and restless
overbearing conduct of the Tories. He is shocked at the
coarseness and waywardness of " the mob." He would
clip and smooth all mankind into a likeness of his own
prim self, as old-fashioned gardeners clipped forest-trees
into peacocks, Adams, and Eves. He has no sympathies
with the habits and thoughts of others : he has no con-
ception how other men can differ from him. With Par-
son Adams, he would'read his sermons to the 'squire's
drunken led-captains and toad-eaters : but he lacks the
robustious bon hommic of .the parson—he.
garetali rs filthy
at onb aco cold a nmv.tdd a
_l6e
f,
tainiedmis na
his ignorance of men, and then anger by his. pragmatical
all.
censoriousness. There is a natural antipathy between
'efitrse a t
e vxincaitleoe as ever
nsion by
such a one and " the mob :" it is impossible they can
come into contact without quarrelling.
" Chapters on English Poetry" discuss the
merits of Scott and Byron—a theme which is
very cleverly discussed, notwithstanding its want
of novelty. The article is not too long, and
reads very pleasantly. " The Green-Gaunt-
let" is brought to a close this month.
It is a clever story, and furnishes us with
a vivid idea of the horrors that charac-
terised the Irish Rebellion of 1798. ." Memoir
of Dr. Jamieson" abounds in anecdotes of cer-
tain Scottish oddities, in politics and literature;
who figured towards the close of the last cen-
tury. " Campbell's Life of Petrarch" is an im-
partial estimate of the merits of an entertaining,
but somewhat hastily-written, work.