The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-24 00:00:00

THE SUN, L

HOMES AND HA UIV7'S OF THE MO ST
EMINENT BIaTiSH POETS. 2 Vols. MI
William Homy itt.
Agreeable as have been the previous writings of Wil-
liam Howitt, this is unquestionably the most delightul
work he has yet produced. There was a necessity.
moreover, for a hook of this description, a book forming
a topographical illustration to the inimitable biographies
f Dr. Johnson, and perpetuating as far as possible the
remembrance of the scattered localities in which the
poetic genius of England has resided. Without sonic
clue to the abodes of the departed illustrious it wets
difficult to form any c:inception of their domestic habits,
of the incidents by which their lives had been diversified,
or of the natural and artificial objects by which they
were continually surrounded ; and without some know-
ledge of these habits, incidents, and local characteristics,
it were almost impossible to conceive to ourselves the
idiocyncracies, the dispositions, the partialities, or the
prejudices of those men otherwise from their cornposi-
thins. That would indisputably have been a lamentable
loss to humanity, for it is from the contemplation of the
biographies of remarkable persons that we derive some
of our most salutary and benign itnpresions. From the
perusal of biographical works we derive a plenitude of
experience ; the memorials of our distinguished prede-
cessors are for us fountains of the purest wisdom. In
this respect biography is superior to history, and it is
superior to history because the vicissitudes of in-
dividuals come more home to each of us than the
vicissitudes and revolutions of empires. The story and
the moral of biography is more applicable to our con
fined fortunes, that the story and moral of those records
which relate to the progression of entire races. To the
statesman, the legislator, and the anointed sovereign,
history furnishes an inexhaustible instruction ; to every
one, without exception, biography teaches truths that
are essential for the happiness of mankind. It is in
consequence of these immutable principles, it is from
our intimate relationship with one another, the prince
with the mendicant, the sinless infant with the most
reprobate felon, it is from the similarity of the
humsn character in all grades and positions of society,
that biographical compositions are invested with such a
peculiar fascination. In the narrated peregrinations of
the great, we find reminiscences of our own wanderings;
in the utterance of their homeliest sentiments we listen
with rapture to the thoughts which have floated through
our own imaginations; in the troubles by which they
have been buffeted, we discover a striking similarity to
our own misfortunes; in the joy which they have ex-
perience Ave frequently recognise something parallel to
the emotions of which we ourselves have been con-
, scions. It is like the realisation of a dream; it is precisely
that mysterious sensation, sometimes of awe, sometimes
of delight, which agitated the heart of Charles Dickens
when as he tells us in his little volume upon Italy, he
came upon a secluded spot in Switzerland when evening
was closing in, and his carriage was toiling up the hill
at some distance behind him. A quiet scene which,
though of very ordinary features,' thrilled him with
the most unaccountable feelings of awe, as though lie
hal known it in connexion with some appalling murder,
and in a previous state of existence. Strange and bewil-
dering as these things are, they are nevertheless by no
means unfrequent ; and it is nearly impossible to read
much or to talk much without being sometimes affected
in a similar manner. But biography does not only aff ird
us these eccentric sensations, it gives us lessons; it is
pleasant and useful to con; it presents us pictures fraught
with wholesome truths; and it almost enables us to live
in imagination many times instead of once. The work
to which we would here especially direct attention is to
our mind an addition to our national biography as va-
luable as it is novel. It comprises, indeed, some of the
most essential elements and rudiments of biography, for
it is descriptive of those homes and haunts from the
peculiarities of which our poets have derived the whole
colouring and bias of their intellects. What, for ex-
ample, would Drummond have been had he resided
elsewhere than in llawthornden ? What would have
been the result had Falconer never

—" Sailed along the deep,
Where the stormy winds do blow."
had Wordsworth never trod the herbage of Grasmere
or Rydal Mount; had Burns never staggered through
the streets of Dumfries ; had Shakspere never poached
among the fern of Stratford, or strayed into the parlour
of the Mermaid Tavern, Friday-street, Cheapside?
Should we have heard ought of the Shipwreck, of the
rural sonnets, of Tam O'Shanter, of Jacques, or of Bar-
dolph? Would Spencer have ever imagined Gloriana,
or the Shepherd of the Ocean, if he had never
loved the woodlands or encountered Raleigh ?
Had Chaucer never known the Tabard Inn, in
Southwark, where would have been his priest, his
reeve, and his miller? Because these men received
nts from the scenery, whether of their homes or of
their particular impressions in their most impressionable mo-
m eeir haunts, they wrote as they didd ; had they never
beheld that particular scenery at those particular times,
they would have written otherwise, and perhaps not at
all. Hence we are satisfied that we are gratifying
more than a merely idle curiosity, when we seek
after the houses, and the fields, and the
streets sanctified by the footsteps of genius. Hence
the researches of 'William Howitt, in the neighbourhood
of Belvoir, when co'lecting materials for his paper on
Crabbe, of Laracor for Swift, of Sandy-knows for Scott,
of Sloperton for Moore, and of Sheffield for Mont-
gomery, have a purpose higher than that of pandering
to some unprofitable appetite of the multitude. So
satisfied are we with the labours of Mr. Howitt in
the production of the two volumes now under notice,
that we are solicitous the subject may be completed by
one
who is evidently so well qualified for it by
his industry, his literary enthusiasm, and his graceful
and fluent style. There are, of course, minor blemishes
in the book, such for example as the monotonous repeti-
tion of the same phrases. Take as an instance the fol-
lowing iterations occurring within scarcely orrt- bun-
d red pages of the second volume :—p. 365, " the scene
in
the gardens and the pavillion is not surpassed by any •
thing of the hind in the language;" half-a-dozen linos
lower down, " one of the loveliest poems in the
language;" p. 448, "gems of as noble and perfect
poetry as any in the language ;" p. 461, " amongst
the most perfect things in the language ;" and
so on over and over again. Otherwise the
composition is simple and vivid. Occasionally, too, Mr.
Howitt, evinces an acerbity that jars in upon the subject
treated of, very unpleasantly. It must be acknowledged
that he encountered in his gentle and amiable inquiries
after the homes and haunts of the English bards treat-
ment enough to irritate the most gentle and amiable
disposition. As sin cimens of this treatment, we may
refer with a very sympathetic indignation to the articles
upon Thomas Campbell, Sir Walter Scott, Shelley,
and Mrs. Tighe—a poet, by the way, not very appropri
ately introduced among such illustrious and immeasurably
superior minds. Since the publication of Mr. Howitt's
work npon the British poets, we have seen with regret
a singularly ungenerous and undeserved attack upon
him from a correspondent of the Atlienceuni newspaper
—that correspondent being none other than the widow
of Robert Southey. We are altogether unacquainted
with either Mrs. Southey or Mr. Howitt personally;
to our knowledge we have never even seen
them ; our remarks, therefore, are uttered with
the most disinterested feelings. Mrs. Southey on
the bare representation of an anonymous critic-,
chooses to become very indignant with Mr. Howitt;
for, inasmuch as she has been assured by the said critic,
that her deceased husband is spoken of with untrue
harshness in the work entitled "The Homes and Haunts
of the English Poets." Beyond this, Mrs. Southey
couples the expression of her indignation with a petulant
insinuation, that Mr. Howitt speaks thus harshly of her
dead husband, out of revenge for the refusal of
his widow to supply him with anecdotes of the
private life of Southey. And, as a climax to
this ungraceful aspersion, Mrs. Southey observes,
that she has never read a syllable of the "Homes
and Haunts," and remarks that she shall probably never
even see the book ; as much as to say, it is too con-
temptible a production. It were well if Mrs. Southey
had read the book before writing as she has written; had
she done so, we would wager that she would have written
otherwise, and might probably have abstained from
writing at all upon the matter. For Mrs. Southey would
have found that obnoxious article to have been dictated
in the kindliest spirit toward her husband, and in the
noblest manner towards herself. The close of the
A
paper indeed amounts to a panegyric upon Mrs. Southey.
suchtak a followingetwheoman,
,
simple
Southey)
sentence,
vol.s aII proof.,
has adorned the literature of her
country with some of
its most exquisite contributions, and sacrificed every-
thing to render the last days of one of its finest writers
as serene as possible, ought not to be left to wear away
the remainder of her life in the res augustce donor,
stripped of those simple elegancies and enjoyna •to
which, as a gentlewoman, she has always been e"
accus-
tomed It were well it Mrs. Southey had read
the article of which that is a solitary sentence.
In that article Mr. Hewitt awards a thousand fold more
praise to Southey as a poet than we ourselves considered
.
to be deserved. The only point which he speaks in
depreciation of the " L eke Poet," is in reference re his
sudden transformation from a liberalist and a revolu-
tion into a tory and a bigot. Arid what honest man could
speak of .tl at mournful and suspiciouschirgen other
than language of depreciation. De mortius nil nisii bonum,
has always appeared to us a very sickly and maudlin
sentiment. Acting upon it, we should become the
panegyrists of the most depraved and vitiated. Give us
the manly nil nisi verum ; give us the man who can call
things by their right names without any spurious,
modesty. or any bowing down before the idols of Con-
ventionalism. That Southey was nothing better than
au arrant renegade as a politician, no one will have the
temerity or idiotism to deny. The metamorphosis was
ton abrupt to allow of our designating it by any other
epithet ; and consequently it became incumbent upon
Mr. Howitt to speak as emphatically in reprobation
of that monstrous tert;giversation, as he cities in approval
ot. ,aithe's's virtues and abilities. We have spoken thus
plainly, became of the fallacious and inviduous stature of
the. cnarge levelled at Mr. Howitt. Any quotation
from these fascinating volumes would be insufficient as a
testimony of the talent by which they are characterised.
We shall content ourselves with observing that the
.biographical sketch of Scott is among the most brilliant
in the collection ; that the euligium upon Tennyson is
as disc-irninating as it is deserved; that the publication
is daintily embe fished with wood-engravings ; and that
it is equally ()elemental in appearance, and excellent
as a ent:CUI

A. REvuNur. .7/UTTER SUNK AT Sl:A.—Between two
end three o'clock on Friday afternoon, the 19th instant, the
Nimble cutter, :111. J. I'. Blundell, commander, was standing
betwen Berry Head and Dartmouth, in chase
of a small smack, when her progress was suddenly arr,:s•ed
by a sunken roclt, and caned a rapid leak; the vessel fell
over on her starboard side, drifted from the rock, and in-
stantly soak, in at upright position, in deep water. The crew
„,,re ,aye,' by lostiiy cutting- away the boats from ti.e
ta,kies, but witbott cioihes, bag.:, or oedding. It is said the
fatal rock is not hid down in any chart, and that the com-
mander is ti zealots ()facer and highly respected.

INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGI-
NEERS, Fan- 16.
Sir JOHN RENNIE, President, in the Chair.
The pa psr read was a centinua tion of that which was
browsht forward at the last meeting by Mr. G. B. W.
Jackson, Assoc. Inst. C.E. It gave an" Account of the
mode of gaining land from the sea; by Folders ; antl the
art of building writ fascine work, as practised in Hol-
land and Germany."
The paper commenced hy reference to the works of
Msis, Weibtking, Spanzin, Calaud, Hyde Clarke, and
others, as having given the best known accounts of
Datch water mists-us:Lions, and the situations of these
labours. It then described the "Polders" as being
tracts of land la covered from the sea, by a construction
of a belt of dykes, gradually raised to above the water
level, and then pumped dry, by which means they were
still rendered habitable, the level of the many more an-
cient being beneath that of the sea. When thus re-
claimed they form the finest land, and produce, for
many years, immense crops, almost without the appli-
cation of manure. The a teal construction of these
dykes wss described to be, by sinking successive layers
or beds of fascines or faggots of about 30 inches thick,
by from S to 16 yards in width, and of proportionate
length, weighted with gravel and stones, mingled with
clay, sea-weed, and salt. These layers were continued
until they reached ab.ve the sea level, when the tcp
was constructed of more solid materials, and sometimes
cupped with a flooring of brickwork, as the public roads
were formed upon them. The difficulties of the usual
construction of the larger and of the smaller dykes, of
various forms and heights, were fully described; parti-
cularly entering into the details of the dimensions and
quantities of the materials employed, and the precau-
tions to be taken fur the delicate operation of closing the
last portion of each dyke, which, unless skilfully con-
ducted, in proper weather, frequently hazards the safety
of the whole work.
The different kinds of lock-gates and sluices used for
facilitating the outflow of the land waters and prevent-
ing the ingress of the sea were fully described, and drew
from several members accounts of balance and other
gates of peculiar construction used in Holland and else-
where. The original kind appears to have been the
self-acting balance-gates of unequal surface, so placed
upon the pivots that on the rising of the tide they closed,
and remained so until on the receding of the tide the
weight of the accumulated land waters fitted them open.
Iteceritly machinery has been employed for opening and
shutting these gates, and the ordinary lock-gates have
generally been adopted, as it was found that they were
frequently prevented from shutting by some floating
matter getting between the mitre posts, and great
leakage ensued. The general details were then given of
the methods adopted fur the subsequent drainage of the
Polder lands, the separation of the springs, the upland
and lowland waters, and the method of conducting
them out to sea. The slopes of the faces of the dykes
vary considerably; some of the low d) es are, in section,
of the form of an arc of a circle of six to ten feet chord,
and ten inches to one foot versed sine, covered with
fasciae matting, staked down upon a clay bed. Others
have a base of 19 feet wide and 5 feet high, of a trian-
gular section, also made of fascines and stakes, secured
by hurdles and wattling ; with clay, peat, sea-shells,
and sand well rammed in, and then covered with turf:
Others are formed of rows of piles 16 feet long, with
their heads 6 or 7 feet above the shore, joined longitudi-
nally and laterally by waling timber, filled in and
around with fascine beds, and weighted with stones.
Baskets filled with sand are also used in certain situa-
tions, as *sell as various modifications of all these kinds
of protections. It was stated that these constructions
were found to succeed better, and last as long, as stone,
being, at the same time, about half the cost ; and in the
discussion which ensued, this statement was confirmed
even for some parts of England where stone was not

ex pensive.
Our limits will not permit a more extended notice of
this excellent paper, of which it was justly said by one
of the speakers that "it is the first detailed account in
the English language of some of the most interesting
hydraulic works of Holland."

THE INDIAN GABELLE.
(From the Eraminer.)
Humble trade is, after nll, the great civilises and humaniser
of mankind, and has, unquestionably, contributed far more to
the prosperity of our Indian empire, than statesmen and
warriors. It, alone, overthrew the great commercial mono-
polies; abolished all-pervading transit duties and Octrois;
bound the Custom-house to moderation ; gave personal free-
dom to British subjects in exchange for proscription ; created
an Indian public opinion, and established the freedom of the
press—the security for all other freedom.
We observe that this busy agent is again engaged in its
quiet, but effectual labour of benevolence. Its present ob-
ject is the overthrow of the notorious gabelle of Bengal, by
tar the ugliest, and the most comprehensively mischievous
of all the monopolies which still continue to disgrace the
legislation of this empire. Cheshire, Worcester, Liverpool,
Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds, Hull, Bristol, are
all alive to the subject; and, as the question will soon come
before Parliament, we shall give a brief account of the pre-
sent state of the great public nuisance.
There exist, all over British India, either monopolies in
salt, er heavy duties, which are bad only in the second de-
gree. This. of course, includes all the native states within
our frontier, called " under our protection," and, consequently,
this necessary of life is vended to an indigent people,
amounting to 150,000,000, at prices the most exorbitant,
while the subjects of the native princes, beyond the walls of
the fiscal prison-house, with its peine forte et dure, get their
salt as cheap as the citizens of New York—that of Cheshire.
But the salt monopoly exists in its most exquisitely per-
nicious form in the finest provinces of cur Indian empire;
those of Lower Bengal, over about forty-eight millions of
people. This country is low and moist ; its coast, in propor •
Lion to its area, small; and here alone, fur there exist neit.lier
salt lakes, nor brine springs, nor fossil salt, can salt be
manufactured.
On this limited coast, covered for the most part with un-
wholesome jungle, the brine is weak, because the sea receives
at it the drainage of the Himalaya and Vinoya ranges, as well
as that of the Gangetic plain, 1,500 miles in length, and often
500 in breadth.
The natural cost of manufacture is, consequently, great,
and it is enhanced by the unskilfulness of the sole manufac-
turers, the lion. the East India Company, the leasehold
3res ina
iiimraen aosf
delegates, on behalf of the Crown of Great Britain and
the
a ton, or about
Ireland. The process is rude, in fact, beyond what would be
credited at Nantwich or Droitwich—such as it was under the
M
th
eia,th:rrigteci ;gel v
brstde,
ir:aietltiettigide:rnagi
written.
delegates
oe,aiot
~th:l:ebrtaehitiaeitreensnlrst
Imperial
n saltpoao erns
rtdwai
litsuLe
nctia;trteoloirp,uepyrtonsoobh6ii
sa.oa probably
nott
only the sole
manufacturer, but, in violation of the spirit and letter of its
engagements in 1833 to forbear front every kind of trade, the
sole wholesale merchant. It conveys all the salt for the
consumption of forty•eight millions of souls to one spot, not
a centrical one, the town of Calcutta, and here it sells whole-
sale, or even retail, the salt of the best quality at near 121. a
ton, being about twelve-fold the price of good Cheshire salt
in Liverpool.
Then, the salt falls into the hands of a small combination
of native dealers who exercise a second monopoly in it, and
having, according to the analysis of Professor Farraday, laid
before a Committee of the Commons, mixed it with from
fifteen to twenty per cent. of earth, proceed to dispense the
" black drose", which has lost every feature of a muriate of
soda, over the provinces. The transit is generally against
the current of the Ganges and its tributaries, so that by the
time it has got to a moderate distance, the price ranges from
30/. to 401. a ton ; that is, from about fifteen to twenty times
the retail price which the people of England pay for their
salt !
Let us now turn to the capacity, as tax-payers, of the
people who are to consume salt at such prices. The vast
majority are rural labourers, earning at the utmost from 31.
to 4/. sterling a year, and the majority not near so much.
The hard earnings, then, according to distance from the sup-
ply, of from a month and a half to three months of a labour-
ing man are required to furnish his family with a supply of
salt, the consumption, which with a less stimulating diet, and
hardly any other condiments, ought to be greater, being less
than one-half the average consumption of each individual
in this country.
Let the English reader fancy to himself an English day-
labour earning 301. a year, obliged to pay for this single con •
diment of salt from 5/. to 101. a year, being, at the same
time, reduced to half a ration, and then he will have some
tolerable notion of this pet tax, so long and so obstinately
defended by the British Government of India.
We do riot mean to assert that the prices we have given
are always paid by the Indian peasantry. We know that
they are not, for the smuggler steps in and relieves the
people of some share of the burden imposed on them—in-
deed of a considerable share, for it has been computed that
not less than one-fourth part of all the salt consumed is con-
traband ! There are, however, situations which his benevo-
lence cannot reach, and here the people eke out the pittance
of culinary salt they can afford to purchase, by the use of the
ashes of vegetables, muriate of lime, and Epsom salts, vul-
garly called the " bitter purging," an article which we ven-
ture to guess that our East India director would,not find a
pleasant, however much it might be a sanative ingredient in
his own curry !
The monopoly is, in fact, a frightful capitation tax, in
some respects worse than the old French Gahetie, which con-
tributed so handsome a share towards bringing on the Revo-
lution, for the old French Government distributed its salt
over the province,, while the British Government vends it all
at one corner. The proof that it is worse is, indeed, afforded
by the fact that, deducting the supply derived from smug-
gling, the average consumption in Ifeegal per head is not
greater than under the G« Belle, where salt was dearest, and
Newon ,o
York oa rb kovt to twenty
greatly below what it was where cheapest.
a earning,
contrast
the rate of 455. h
The duty charged on British salt in the United States of
Cal-
cutta, tAmerican is about Bs. a ton. and in British India Si. 3s. 6d. a
oughtvery wtoelsl
to n labourerstiainn times sat
cosd
tttimmuch.aet B cityßritish earning
l a salt is
.rissa
osdfOal
aaal
-tt
ton;hapmaied,so4mde.
pae-odpafse',ianttol2l.
mo-
deration.
The whole revenue
from its much erived by the Indian
cherished Gover-
nment monopoly is 1,300,000/.
a-year, or less than the amount of our soap duty,
The British Government
yielded to it, four-andA although the salt duty
1,500,000/. a year, and, although'v)einty years ago, above
it was infinitely less onerous
that the Bengal salt monopol
abolished it. The year after die votedtot it a nuisance and
abolition, 1826, the
whole public revenue was larger without, than
dt had been
with the salt duty, and this without any increaaei
All good example, however, is lost on the East India
Company in financial matters. In administrative and l
judi-
cial reforms, it is often held and judicious; but the moment
finance is touched, it bele ngs to time fifteenth century. In
1836 a Committee of the House of Commons made a
careful and searching inquiry into this very salt monopoly,
and the virtual drift of its report was that it was a pub-
lic nuisance which ought to he abated. 'fen years have
passed away, and the Indian Government has done nothing
but nibble at it. The salt is as high priced as ever—as dirty
as ever; the rulers of the monopoly are as stringent as ever,
and smuggling is more rife than ever. In finance the Com-
pany does- nothing, except at the point of the bayonet. It re-
quired two heavy chary ee, of that bayonet in 1813 and 1833
to dive tleami from their great commercial 'mewl: ones, as In-
jurious to England as to
India, and ruinous to themselves in
back the whinland
trade character. A few years. e
puree arean infiaitv of transit duties
trade of India was harrassed by
and octrois, which were abolished ocilv by a bold act of
virtual disobedience on the part of one of their overt
efortune servants,
had place in temporary au t h
whom gae
They had long been tilting their ci)frers by taxes on the
felloions rites and superstitions of the ; us , from the car
of. Jag,roat, down to the bathing or the shaving of a pit-
grim ; and these iinposts, of vr,rse odour than th famous
dirty tax of Vespasian, have, even now, been only partially
abandoned, and this not voluntarily, but through shame of
the public opinion of England.