The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-09 00:00:00

LITERATURE.
• r IVANHOE. Cadell, Edinburgh, 1841.
,;We have here one of the most popular of the
Waverley Novels, published first in an octavo
form, and secondly in a duodecimo, and in both
cases got up with remarkable neatness. These
editions are far preferable to the original ones in
forty-eight volumes, which were much too bulky.

SCOTT'S LIFE OF NAPOLEON.
Cadell, Edinburgh, 1841.
This is the Fifth Part of the Second Volume
of this well-known historical work, and com-
mences with the proceedings of the year 1806,
and goes down to the Battle of Busacot which
was fought in the year 1810. Thp work is singu-
larly cheap, considering the elegant manner in
which it is published.

ANECDOTES of CHANTREY, WITH
A LIST of his WORKS, CHRONOLOGICALLY
ARRANGED.
1782. On April the 7th, our Sculptor was born at Nor-
ton, a small village on the borders of Derbyshire.
1790. Death of his father ; his mother marries again,
and apprentices Chantrey to Ramsay, the poet, then a
carver and gilder in Sheffield.
1793. Leaves Ramsay, having served him three years.
During the leisure hours of his time, instead of making
ornaments or moulds for picture frames, he purchased
clay, and, in a small room in Sheffield, wrought, often far
into the morning, at his art. Let us notice, here, that
there is, among the treasures in the house of the Poet of
" Memory" and " Columbus," a table, with the ornaments
by Chantrey ; it was recognised, the story goes, by the
great sculptor when dining one day at the house of the
poet. "Who made that table ?" said Chantrey. The
poet named the maker. " No, no !" said Chantrey, "he
did not make it, but I did ; I was in his employment ;
I wrought those ornaments." Mr. Rogers directs the
visitor's attention to the table in the MS. catalogue of his
curiosities.
1802. Chantrey, confident of his own genius, pur-
chases from Ramsay the remainder of his engagement,
and in April comes to London. Here he at first painted
miniatures, and entered the Royal Academy, where he
tear* to draw and model. He painted a likeness of him-
self in oil, which Allan Cunningham has now over his
fire-place.
1804. Chantrey's first exhibited work was a Portrait
of D. Wale, Esq., on the walls of the Royal Academy.
He then resided at No. 7, Chapel-street West, Mayfair.
1805. In this year he was living at 22, Vine-street.,
Piccadilly, and exhibited at the Academy three Busts :
one of a Gentleman ; one of W. Younge, M.D. F.L.S. ;
and one of the Rev. J. Wilkinson, late Vicar of Sheffield.
1806. This year he exhibited a Bust of Bigland, the
essayist ' • and was living in Charles-street, Si. James's.
1808. When at. 24, Curzon-street, Mayfair, he exhi-
bited a Bust of Satan, still in his studio.
1809. Chantrey in this' year received his first order,
one from Mr. Alexander the architect, for four colossal
busts of Howe, St. Vincent, Duncan, and Nelson, for the
Trinity House and the Greenwich Naval Asylum. He
also married, at Twickhenham Church, his cousin, Miss
Mary Ann Wale, the present Lady Chantrey, and re-
moved to Eccleston• street, Pimlico, a place he never left.
1810. In this year Chantry executed a posthumous
Bust of Mr. Pitt, for the Trinity House.
1811. In this year his career of fame and fortune com-
menced. Chantrey had six Busts in this year's exhibi-
tion, viz.-1. Horne Tooke '• 2. Sir Francis Burdett ;3.
J. R. Smith ; 4. Benjamin West, P.P.A. ; 5. Admiral
Duckworth ; 6. William Baker, Esq. Horne Tooke and
Raphael are among the best of his busts. The delight
experienced by Nollekens at the Tooke, we have before
related. Chantrey was also elected by the City this year
to execute the Statue of George 111., now in Guildhall.
1812. Busts of Johncs of Hafod, Curran, Stothard, and
Northcote.
1813. A Bust of Cline and six others.
1814. Busts of the King and Professor Playfair.
1815. Bust of James Watt.
1816. Busts of the Marquis of Anglesey, Sir Everard
Home, and Sir Joshua Banks.
1817. Made an Associate of the Royal Academy.
" The Sleeping Children," now in Lichfield Cathedral.
There is not a more exquisite group in the whole range
of modern sculpture than this. The sisters lie asleep in
each other's arms, in the most unconstrained and graceful
repose. The snowdrops which the youngest had plucked
are undropped from her hand, and both are images of
artless beauty, and innocent and unaffected grace.
Busts of Nollekens, Sir James Clarke ; Bone, the ena-
melist ; Bird, the painter; and Hokham Frere. Or-
ders now crowded in upon him as they were never known
to crowd before upon a British sculptor. To busts and
portrait statues, more than he could well execute, were
added orders for poetic figures, left to his own selection,
from the Prince Regent, the uke of Bedford, the Duke
of Devonshire, Sir Robert Peel, an excellent likeness ;
and a Bust, the last he lived to execute, of Lord Mel-
bourne, for the Queen.
1818. The Royal Academy created him an R.A., and
in this year he exhibited his Bust of Sir John Rennie, and
the exquisite Statue at Woburn of Lady Louisa Russell,
the present Marchioness of Abercorn. The child stands
on tiptoe, with a face of the most exquisite and arch ex-
pression, proud with delight of the dove which she fon-
dles in her bosom. All who have been at Woburn will
will recollect this little figure.
1836. Chantrey was made D.C.L. at the same time
that his friend the Marquis of Camden was elected Chan-
cellor of the University of Cambridge. He at the same
time received the honour of Knighthood from King Wil-
liam IV., and had a Baronetcy offered him; but he re-
fused, on the ground that he had no one to succeed f4in
in the honour.
Of Chantrey's statues in bronze there are those of
George IV. at Brighton and Edinburgh ; of Pitt in Edin-
burgh and in llanover-square, London; of Sir T. Munroe,
on horseback, at Madras; of George IV. on horseback, for
wherever her Majesty's Ministers may choose to place
it; and an equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington,
for the City of London. This last, though incomplete,
is left in that advanced state by its great artist that a
common foundryman may give it all the finish that it
wants. We wish that we could say the same of the two
statues on one bench of those noble brothers, by birth and
genius, Lords Eldon and Stowell; or of the statue of Dr.
Goodall, for Eton, or the Marquis Wellesley, for the
India House.
" We cannot," says a Contemporary, who witnessed
the scene, " avoid referring to the solemn sight his
body presented in its winding-sheet on the night of the
inquest. In an exquisite little gallery, built for him by
Sir John Soane, who always was good when his limits
were cramped, lay the body of the great sculptor—his
eyes closed, his face calm, but with an expression
serene and solemn even in death. Above were
wax-lights burning clearly, and all around a collec-
tion of the finest casts from the antique. The Lao-
coon was at his head, the Venus and the Apollo
on his right and left, and around the room the
Ilissus and the Theseus, and other of the glories of
Greece, with one or two of Canova's own casts. This
was no get-up for the occasion—no manufactured pro-
priety ; but nothing we thought could be more appro-
priate, or more suggestive of thoughts suitable for so so-
lemn an occasion. He has left the bulk of his fortune
for the sole encouragement of native art. The terms of
the will arg not yet known, being as yet unread ; but
we believe it is left, not for sculpture, but for competi-
tion pictures. Sir Francis, not unmindful of the -long
and valuable services of Mr. Allan Cunningham, for
eight-and-twenty years the foreman of his works, has
left him 2001. a year.

ANOTHER CHILD BURNT TO DEATH.—On
Tuesday afternoon an inquest was held by Mr. Higgs at
St. George's Hospital, Hyde Park-corner, on view of the
body of Henry Wiggins, a child aged five years. It ap-
peared from the evidence of William Hallett, of Shep-
herd's Bush, brickmaker, that about twelve o'clock on
the morning of the 25th of November last, witness was
at work in one of Mr. Bird's brickfields, opposite to the
White Horse at Shepherd's Bush, when, hearing a vio-
lent scream, he looked round, and saw two children
running out of a shed iu the field, evidently in great
alarm. Witness instantly went to the shed, and there
found deceased enveloped in flames. Witness, assisted
by deceased's father, who also hastened to the spot, im-
mediately extinguished the flames, but not before de-
ceased had been most dreadfully burnt. In spite of every
care and attention he died of those injuries on Saturday
morning last. Verdict—" Accidental Death."
The Droil states that a gentleman of property
arrived in the capital a few days since from the country,
and immediately sent for his nephew, who had been for
some time resident here. The young man came, but, in-
stead of embracing his uncle, drew a pair of pistols from
his pockets, and swore he would first shoot his uncle, and
then kill himself, if he did not instantly receive a written
engagement for 5,000 fr. The uncle attempted to remon-
strate, but the young man was so determined that
nothing was left but to sign the paper. While this was
doing some one knocked at the door, and the uncle hoped
for a moment that his nephew would be deterred from
his crime ; he, however, persisted, and would not suffer
the door to be opened till he had the obligation, and then
passed out as the, other person came in. The uncle has
laid a complaint before the police, with great distress of
mind, as his nephew, up to this criminal act, uniformly
conducted himself with propriety.
THE CAUSE OF THE PRESENT FLOODS AND
INUNDATIONS, says Mr. G. T. Smith, " is the approxi-
mating conjunction of the two superior planets Saturn
and Jupiter, accompanied as they are, in this instance, by
the southern declination of all the planets, the effect of
which (as far as research will assist and comparison de-
termine) has invariably been a decided tendency to con-
tinual rains in summer, and excessive rains or snow in
winter." Mr. Smith adds---" Reasoning upon inductive
principles, some further proof of the effects produced by
southern declination may be expected towards the middle
of September, 1842 ; all' the planets but one will then be
in southern declination from that period. In the months
of Oct., Nov., and Dec., 1842, there will be a continual
tendency to heavy rains."—Mr. Smith lays claim to the
honour of having predicted the general state of the.
weather in 1837 and 1840. If he have such power, the
sooner his talents are made available to the State the
better. He should be constituted Meteorologist to the
Home-office, and the Legislature might, under hisdirec-
don, pass a Corn-law in such years as 1835, and suspend
it in such years as 1838-1841, informing all the world,
two or three years beforehand, that the people would
require great supplies of food.
DUBLIN SOCIETY.—The Society having com-
municated to the Lord-Lieutenant their intention- to dis-
continue the news-room on the Ist oihJiasnrry,llthey have
been informed by Lord Eliot that
recommend to her Majesty's Government toupeetietinocnyiVir-1
turkent (so Lord Eliot expresses himself) for a grant of
5,3001. for the current year ending 31st March, 1842."
Dublin Pilot.
NEW INYIRMARL—A tradesman at Wool-
wich, who is a maker and mender of various articles,
writes over his door, " Hospital for umbrellas—none
turned out incurable."