The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-06 00:00:00

DOLMAN.

When writing for the New Monthly, poor "Peter
Priggins " was christened the " Ghost of Theodore
Hook ; " the contributor of the first article in this
month's number of Dolman we are almost disposed
to christen the " Ghost of Peter Priggins." A
similar theme is selected, and a similar tone of plea-

santry characterises each ; but the spirit by which
the two writers have been actuated is singularly
different. What "Peter Priggins " was to Oxford,
this " Trinity Man" promises to be to Cambridge ; but
the contributor tc the New Monthly was a staunch
upholder of the Church of England, while the con-
tributor to Dolman is an avowed seceder from that
Church to the Church of the Roman Catholics.
Nevertheless there is no acerbity in his revelations ;
indeed, his portrait of his college tutor, Dr. Hamlet,
is most fascinating, and is, in its manner, filled with
affectionate remembrances. We anticipate many
glimpses in the mysteries of—no, not of the prison-
house, but—of the University. When a Cantab of mani-
festly high spirits and of earnest conviction withdraws
at an early period of life from the religion which he has
been taught to regard as the orthodox road to salva-
tion, and becomes a cordial writer in the organ of the
faith to which he has passed over, there is, surely,
very considerable probability of a few marvellous dis-
closures as to the habits and dispositions of the com-
munity amongst which he was an unit, but of which
he is evidently disposed to speak now as of the dwel-
lers in moral darkness and the believers in a theolo-
gical error. We shall scrutinise the serial as it appears
In piecemeal chapters. Another serial, but of a
marvellously opposite character, is commenced in the
July number, namely, " Sketches of Irish Agitators.'
Although the first is devoted to a biographical notic e
of Patrick Costelloe, it is quite certain that the great
name of Daniel O'Connell—the name above all other
agitators, and assuredly above all other Irish agita-
tors—must recur repeatedly. It does. An interest-
ing anecdote about the Liberator when an advocate
will be found in this article. Of Patrick Cos-
telloe himself it is impossible for the general
reader not to think admiringly when he is told
that Mr. Costelloe, though now closing his 60th year,
"is the living personification of Irish devilry."
" Exeter Hall ; its Patrons and Dupes" is a bitter
satire from the pen of the Editor. The contribution
by Scott Nasmyth Stokes upon " The Authorised
Version as a Test of Truth" is laboriously learned,
and will be perused with deep interest by Protestants
as well as by Roman Catholics. The Editor in his
remarkable chapters upon the last days of the " Penal
Laws" is plunged into the very midst of
the Gordon riots, where from forty thousand
to eighty thousand of the rabble under Lord
George Gordon besiege the Houses of Parliament,
kick Lord Bathurst " like a football," tear the gown
of the Bishop of Lincoln to ribbons, and compel him
to fly ignominiously over the tiles. The descriptions
are brilliant, but are deplorably painful, showing as
they do the brutalities resulting from fanaticism.

7'HE KNIGHT OF G WYNNE. Nos. XIX. and
XX. By Charles Lever.
After nineteen months have elapsed since the
commencement of this tale of the time of the
Union, it is concluded. At the outset of the
narrative we were peculiarly gratified with the
promise of a fiction of unusual brilliancy from the
usually brilliant pen of Harry Lorrequer. Now that
we have read " The Knight of Gwynne" down to
" The End," we cannot but protest our disappoint-
ment. There is no excuse whatever for the rambling,
careless, book-making, style of the latter portion of
the work, for Mr. Lever had originally grouped to-
gether materials of extraordinary excellence for the
composition of a novel. The time chosen was one
fraught with a strange and national interest; the cha-
racters outlined were bold, original, and attractive.
There was the boldest, the most original, and the
most attractive of all the sketchy portraitures by
Lever—we mean, of course, Bagenal Daly ; yet
Bagenal Daly disappears at a comparatively early
moment in the story, and is only introduced just at
the conclusion, in the midst of a preposterous bustle,
and when tha traits of his character are lost in the con-
fusion of departure. There was the knight himself;
he is abruptly carried off, as the saying is, " neck and
crop" to Egypt. There was the old butler; he is
utterly forgotten in the closing numbers. There was
Gwynne Abbey ; it is entirely lost sight of.
There was young Darcy ; he is hurried out of the
way as though he were an illegitimate child, or an
irreclaimable felon. There is honest Tom Gluson ;
he is only whispered about in the letter-press, his for-
tunes are only told with any distinctness in the in-
imitable etchings by Phiz ; indeed the double num-
ber before us is mainly attractive from the four
capital illustrations by the first of all the serial
artists. The frontispiece represents Erin sur-
rounded by a swarm of mannikins showing Ire-
land as she might be, " Great, glorious, and
free"—great in the development of her resources, glo-
rious in the happiness of her people, free from po-
verty, misery, and anarchy. The title-page is still
better, showing the dilemmas resulting from the
Union. Altogether we are gratified at the conclusion
of the least successful of Mr. Lever's productions,
though we are disappointed at its being the least
successful.