The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-02 00:00:00

THE MAGAZINES.
BLACKWOOD.
The most agreeable contribution in the December
Instalment of Blackwood is assuredly, to our think-
ing, the elegant paper which commences a series
called "Paeans of the Athenian Navy." It reminds
one that the system of naval tactics which justifies the
17)3
leaking of an enemy's line of battle dates back many
centuries before the days of Nelson or Rodney,
namely to the age when Pericles roused the Athe-
nians by his oratory and Themistocles by his valour
and generalship. The prose portion of the article is
Merely introductory to a clever and impassioned poem
written in the metre which the writer describes as
"the splendid measure invented by Mr. Mitchell for
the rendering of the Aristophanic Tetrameter Ana-
Pest." It is entitled " Phormio's Victory in the Co-
rinthian Gulf," and depicts one of those terrible
actions with the triremes, manned by three banks of
rowers, which tended so considerably to raise the
Power of Athens and to depreciate that of Laced(e-
ninn• " The 'Widow of Glencoe," suggested by that
same deplorable catastrophe which inspired Sergeant
Talfourd with his eloquent and historic tragedy, is
another piece of versification which enhances the
character of Maga. It is penned in an exquisite
3:tr.ain----a measure more splendid than that of
ltehell, because more adapted to the supreme pathos
of a domestic incident, There is a prolonged frag-
ment, half-critical, half-social, half-moral, and half-
romantic, headed " An Unpublished French Novel."
Those who' can enjoy a piece of natural de-
scription will relish this contribution as
tid-bit of literary pirating, not unworthy of old
racy Ebony. Ralph Waldo Emerson receives
due weed of approbation from the first of the
,magazines of England, and finds a welcome fitted
for a descendant of the Anglo-Saxons. As one of
the most eloquent and profound of the thinkers of
America, Emerson well deserves the panegyric here
Pronounced upon him by Blackwood, as a man of
most original genius; and his writings justify in a
irreat measure the analogy which is attempted to be
drawn between his essays and the writings of Mon•
taig ne, and the " Religio Medici" of Sir Thomas
Brown. Baron Vaerst's narrative of his peregrina-
tions in the Pyrenees gives rise to a capital paper
in Maga, descriptive of the peculiarities, domestic,
geographical, social, and municipal, of that moun-
tainous region. " Judaism in the Legislature" is, as
might be anticipated, a violent diatribe against those
,who would connive at the admission of Israelites into
Parliament ; and the concluding article—" Our Cur-
rency, our Trade, and our Tariff "—is imbued with
all the political prejudices and predilections of the
magazine. The number for December is varied and
intelligent, and has precisely that combination of the
grave, the gay, the lively, and the severe, which is
most acceptable to readers at this season of the
fireside.

FRAZER.
The most valuable article of, perhaps, all the ma-
tiines for the month is the opening article of Frazer,
rtY-five Unpublished Letters of Oliver Cromwell,
ceromunicated by Thomas Carlyle. The history of
the manner in which these letters came into the hands
of Ur. Carlyle is as strange as it is interesting. He
styll---
Sores eight or ten months ago there reached me, as
"'an) had already done on the like subject, a letter from
Ito unknown correspondent in the distance; setting forth,
BiraPie, rugged and trustworthy, though rather pe
tlliar dialect, that he, my unknown correspondent—
Who seemed to have been a little astonished to find that
Oliver Cromwell was actually not a miscreant, hypo-
trite, &c. as heretofore represented—had in his hands
11 stock of strange old papers relating to Oliver: much
consumed by damp, and other injury of time; in parti-
"tar, much eaten into by a vermin ' (as my corre-
spondent phrased it)—some moth, or body of moths,
Rho had boarded there in past years. The papers, he
said, describing them rather vaguely, contained some
things of Cromwell's own, but appeared to have been
postly written by one Samuel Squire, a subaltern in the
:tuned regiment of Ironsides, who belonged to the Stil-
•011 Troop,' and had served with Oliver from the first
mount' of that indomitable corps, as Cornet, and then
..
`Auditor'—of which latter office my correspondent
cctild not, nor could I when questioned, quite specificate
l' meaning, but guessed that it might be something
," that of adjutan in modern regiments. This Auditor
inquire had kept some Journal, or Diary of proceed-
tx.ll,gB, from the first mount,' or earlier, from about 1642
d the latter end of 1645, as I could dimly gather; but
tic it was spoken of as Journals,' as Old Papers,'
~4aanuseripts,' in the plural number, and one knew not
"finitely'what to expect: moth-eaten, dusty, dreary
old
tup brown papers; bewildered and bewildering; dread-
'Y difficult to decipher, as appeared, and indeed al.
post a pain to the eye—and too probably to the mind.
'""1",k into which, nevertheless, my unknown corre-
k,,-nuent professed to have discovered various things.
adventures,
unknown aspects of affairs, moving accidents,
such as the fortune of war in the obscure
,7etern Association (of Lincoln, Norfolk, &c.), in the
arlY obscure part of Oliver's career, hitherto entirely
iftcant and dark in all histories, had disclosed themselves
my Unknown correspondent, painfully spelling in the
rear of that destructive vermin: onslaughts, seizures,
'Prises; endless activity, audacity, rapidity, on the
Lart of Oliver; strict general integrity too, nay rhada-
neanthine justice, and traits of implacable severity con-
revriesetesdtrtohnerr
biutht, which had rather shocked the other-
spondent.modern, nerves of ray unknown cor-
respondent.
certain Interspersed, Icould dimly gather,
as
' Letters,' from Oliver and others (known,
or hitherto unknown, was not said); kept, presumably,
'33? Auditor Squire, the Ironside Subaltern, as narrative
documents, or out of private fondness. As proof what
e., ri°ll3. and to me interesting matters, lay in those old
ltlpapers, journals or journal, as my unknown correspon-
ont indiscriminately named them, he gave me the fol-
"wing small Excerpt; illuminating completely a point
~
..!thich I had otherwise sought light in vain. See, in
Cromwell's Letters and Speeches,' Letter sth
eY, 1644 ; which gives account of Marston-Moor
and contains an allusion to Oliver's own late loss,
aiir'. You know my own trials this way '—touching
wins'sTo as it now proves; dark hitherto for all readers.
just tines Colonel Cromwell again after some absence,
" en the edge of Marston Battle (it is Auditor Squire
11.2 that writes), I thought he looked sad and wearied; for
rlZtnad hat a sad loss; young Oliver got killed to death
andl tlog before, I heard: it was near Knaresborough,
firtY More got killed.'
f"lnteresting papers beyond doubt, my'nnknown cor-
°l BP°odent thought. On one most essential point, how-
!' he professed himself at a painful pause: how far,
,atellether at all, these papers ought to be communi
aorru to the public, or even to myself ? Part of my
li,d,Pondent's old kindred had been Roundhevls, part
sent ell Royalists; of' both which sorts plentiful repro-
obii:;tives yet remained, at present all united in kindly
pbiele4 of those old sorrows and animosities; but ca-
into _ Yet, as my correspondent feared, of blazing up
questu.ne knew not what fierce contradictions, should the
IN 194 be renewed. That was his persuasion, that
3 his amiable fear."
Will
ev__ it be credited that this fear triumphed over
thEri other feeling, and that baying copied these
JrY•five letters, and transmitted them to Mr. Car-
osrnthe correspondent committed the originals, the
the al, and all the other Cromwell documents, to
oil flames. Under these circumstances one might
ost feel inclined to doubt the authenticity of these
t'ecrs• They, however, bear internal evidence of
genuineness, and Mr. Carlyle expresses
himselftru truly perfectly satisfied that they are really and
IY What they profess to be. Every one, of course,
n‘ 0. takes any interest in historical or antiquarian
subjects,
s, or in the character of the greatest man that
perhaps the world, has ever produced,
ellon Highness the Lord Protector Oliver, will of
urae peruse these letters, and we therefore shall not
dilate upon their contents, but merely observe, that
among the scraps in Squire's handwriting, appended
to them is what is in all probability a list of
the names
of the original Ironside captains. The
political ar-
ticle
of this month, entitled " What will the Minister
do is nothing more than a commentary
Punch's clever pencilling of " Lord John in a
fuopge;n"
the article on " Currency and Banking" is a
profession of faith in, rather than a defence
of, " Peel's Bills ;" and the " Manchester Bishop-
ric" furnishes the key to the meaning of the
cry of " More churches." This High Church
has
admits that the party which it represents
nes for years past been clamouring for more bishops,
but What they wanted really was more political power
for the Church, and they now candidly confess that '
they would much prefer that Manchester and every
other large town should be without the benefit (what-
ever it may be) of episcopal superintendence than
that the new bishops should be without seats in the
'""use of Lords. We take note of this confession,
Znd shall use it, should any attempt be again made
s)r
get up the cry of "More churches." The story
" The Guerilla" is continued, and promises to be
of intense interest; and Sam Slick furnishes us with
zn admirable description of a ball at Government
ouse• The other articles are all of more than ave-
rage'-t Merit.

THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY.
The present number forms a fitting conclusion to
the 30th volume of this talented periodical, f II
already
Maintaining and adding to the high itreputationubaYs
acquired. The first paper is well suited.ri stto-
the present season. Fireside Horrors for Uh
Maa" accords well with the gloomy chill of December.
are cordially concur with the author when he says
that " horrors belong as naturally to the fireside, as
the fireside belongs to Christmas. The cold of the
season does not more cravingly demand the genial
blaze than the heat of the blaze demands that agree-
able chill which a churchyard reminiscence will send
vith electric swiftness through the blood. The pass-
ing shiver that runs over you, as you listen to some
chimney corner legend, of wan women with their
throats cut that sit down opposite solitary students at
midnight, or of hands thrust out of unhallowed
graves to point to the murderer as he goes by, is as
if!ratefully refrigerant and bracing to the nerves as a
Supernatural will have a rich treat in the wonders
here related.
„urally " The Eloquence of' the Camp" na-
attBgeats " Napoleon," that mighty genius,
whose eloquence of the geld no ex-