The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-08 00:00:00

COLBURN'S UNITED SERVICE.

According to the United Service Magazine, the
new planet Neptune bears not the slightest resem-
blance to Canning's knife-grinder—" Story, God
bless you! it has some to tell, sir ;" and the contri-
butor, who has become its mouthpiece, tells the nar-
rative of its discovery with all the zest of a lover of
hobgoblins and of an enthusiast in astronomic re-
search. " A Leaf from an old Log" has all the fla-
vour of a weavelly biscuit; it is a yarn of much
sprightliness. The " Tale of the Sea" appears to be
of indefinite length, for it continues to wind out coil
after coil without intermission. There is an admirable
article headed, " Justice to the Navy Progression,"
written by Tristram. We recommend the million to
read it, and to remember the glories of the British
navy at the same time. The following, we doubt
not, will be an interesting list to K
everybody :
RELATIVE RAN OF THE OFFICERS OF THE ARMY
AND NAVY IN QUEEN VICTORIA'S REIGN.
Admirals of the Fleet ... Field-Marshals.
Admirals ... „ Generals.
Vice-Admirals „ Lieut.-Generals.
Rear-Admirals ..• „ Major-Generals.
Commodores of First Class
Commodores of Second Class
Director-General of the Medical „ Brigadier. Generals.
Department of the Navy
Captains, after three y'ears as such „ Colonels.
All other Captains ...
Medical Inspectors of Hospitals „ Lieut.-Colonels.
and Fleets ... •••
Commanders... ...
Secretaries to Flag-Officers Corn-
manding-in-Chief „ Majors.
Deputy Medical Inspectors of
Hospitals and Fleets ...
Lieutenants, Masters of the Fleet
Masters, Chaplains ...
Secretaries to Junior Flag-Officers „ Captains.
and Commodores of First Class I
Surgeons, Paymasters and Pursers...!
Mates, Assistant-Surgeons „ Lieutenants.
Second Masters, Mipshipmen , Ensigns.
The subsequent portions of the magazine are of
average ability.

THE OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE REVIEW.
What we have throughout, from first to last, re-
cogrised as clearly as God's sun at the noon-day the
Oxford and Cambridge Review has only now de-
tected. We mean about the principles, or, rather,
the no-principles by which Michelet is actuated in
his literary compositions. Thus speaks the organ of
the two Universities :
"At length the mask is thrown off—or more charitably,
and, we believe, more truly—at length the plant is full
grown, the germ has reached its development,—Michelet
is an avowed infidel. It will be in the remembrance of
most of our readers that at a time when religious men in
this country, even good Churchmen, were more than
half inclined to look with favour on this powerful writer,
and to see in him simply an assailant of the abuses of
Popery and the villanies of Jesuitism, we came forward
to warn them against making common cause with one
whose assaults were in truth directed against religion
itself; whose weapons, while they seemed hurled against
the mere armour in which Popery stands encased,
pierced through to the very vitals of Christianity. We
proved, chiefly by the writings of M. Edgar Quinet,
whom M. Michelet admitted to be his alter ego, that it
was the spirit of the French Revolution, the spirit of
Voltaire, Rousseau, and Condorcet, which these well-
agreed joint-writers were endeavouring to propagate.
And now M. Michelet has openly proclaimed that this is
indeed the case—now at last he avers that he not only
goes the same lengths with his yoke-fellow, but that he
even goes beyond him ; for the first time he sets himself
to oppose Christianity. We are glad that it has come to
this. Henceforth the influence of Michelet in our own
country will be trivial—inappreciable. He may continue
to sway the mind of La Jeune France, but here, among
(=selves, he will be powerless. Even in France, we
are inclined to think, his popularity will suffer by the
publication of the present work. He had better have
remained where he was, the advocate of a vague Pan-
theism, than have declared himself, as he now has, a
Deist, a mere Voltairist. Deist, negative, precise, and
cold, can never attract men. Pantheism, positive, vague,
and glowing, has at all times a charm, and for this ge-
neration, which is struggling out of selfishness into love,
out of exclusiveness into catholicity, it must of necessity
have a most peculiar one. Michelet, with all his power,
will scarcely, we think, win men over generally from
the poetic and imaginative, to the more intellectual and
logical creed. He will find his followers, no doubt—but
we should expect a division from henceforth in the
councils of La Jeune France—a schism between the
Micheletists and the Quinetists—wherein the former,
uMless we are much mistaken, will be the minority.
Even if Quinet himself succumbs to the stronger mind
and keener intellect of his ci-devant friend and present
adversary, the school of Quir et will remain ; in a na-
tion of warm and poetic temperament Deism can never
absorb Pantheism."
All this is correct enough, but with a ludicrous
exaggeration in regard to the importance of M. Mi-
chelet. The writer need have no fear that such a man
as Michelet will sway the mind of La Jeune France,
while such a man as the young Count de Montalem-
bert is in existence. The leadership of La Jeune
France is the natural and avowed prerogative of le Jeune
homme 1 Michelet writes like one whose principle of
life is galvanism; the divine afflatus is not for the
like of him; his book-shelves are the very shambles
of literature; his own works, though for a while
adorned by an ephemeral glitter will, in the end, rot
and putrify, and be forgotten like the very garbage.
The magazine sustains its character.

TAIT'S MAGAZINE.
George Gilfillan has commenced in the present
number a series of " Literary Portraits of Female
Authors "—repudiating, we presume, the vulgarism
of authoresses. We regret that this brilliant critic
has abandoned the sketches he had already begun of
living writers, for notwithstanding his very biunder-
ing estimate of the poetic genius of Alfred Tenny-
son, we were solicitous to hear his utterances upon
Charles Dickens, upon Thomas Noon Talfourd, upon
Douglas Jerrold, and the like. These delineations,
we trust, are however only postponed. " Mrs.
Hemans " is considered in the present number, and
we think very justly denied the too-frequently-
abused title of a poet. For her exquisite womanliness, I
for her passionate susceptibility, for her graceful and
musical diction, we read her with the same enthusiasm
as does Mr. Gilfillan, but we agree with him she was
no poet. A songstres3 she was—a lyric nightingale
she was as much is Mademoiselle Jenny Lind—but
she was no poet. The article is cleverly written.
Speaking of the Liberator, Tait observes:—" O'Con-
nell was the most kingly man of these days. His
crown was indeed a cap, but his power was not cere-
monial, but real. He was the hero of his country-
men. In the eyes of the Liberals of Europe he was
the august voice of an oppressed nation. Roman
• Catholic Europe revered him as the sainted champion
of Religion." The remaining articles are varied, and
some of them excellent.

NOTICE TO MARINERS.
BAY OF NAPL ES—CHANNEL OF PROCIDA.
Sicilian Consulate General, London,
4th June, 1847.
Notice is hereby given, that from the 30th of April, 1847,
there will be exhibited upon the Point called Cioppeto, in the
Channel of Procida, in lat. 40 deg. 46 min. 39 sec., and long.
11 deg. 40 min. 48 sec. of the meridian of Paris, a catadiop-
trical apparatus of the 4th class, producing a constant and
unvarying light, at an elevation of about 23 metres above the
medium level of the sea, and visible at a distance of about 12
miles of 60 to the degree.
DEFECTIVE STATE OF THE LIGHTHOUSE AT
CAPE COAST CASTLE.

A communication has been received at Lloyds, complain-
ing of the very defective state of the Lighthouse at Cape
Coast Castle. The agent for Lloyds at that port, on receipt
of a written complaint to him from the master of the schooner
Guineaman, on the subject, had addressed the Colonial Go-
vernment on the subject, the reply to which was, that the
causes of the grievances complained of would be iu•
quired into, and necessary steps taken to remove them.
The lighthouse, in its present state, is represented
to be worse than useless, for that it misguides vessels. In-
stead of being visible seven leagues distant, it scarcely lights
the anchorage, indeed masters of vessels knowing the an-
chorage prefer being guided by the lights in the merchant
houses in town, or by those in the castle. The lighthouse is
well situated, but badly constructed, and still worse managed.
The light is seldom visible in fine weather beyond five miles,
and often not at all at that distance. Captain Thompson,
of the Guineaman, states that he had repeatedly, whilst at
anchor, watched the lights and seen the lamps go out one
after the other. Masters of all vessels pay a fine of three
dollars for the lighthouse.

=
CURRENTS IN THE SEA.—A slip of pasteboard
with writing on both sides, put into a bottle, was found near
the larger of the Saltee Islands, off our coast, on Monday.
The writing on one side is—" Barque Mohawk, from into
pore pore to London, March B,Current papers—Please
send to the editor of the Nautical Magazine when and where
found. Latitude 49 degrees 00 minutes north; longitude
12 degrees 29 minutes west. W. Douglas, master." On
the other side—" Latitude 49 degrees 00 minutes north ;
longitude 15 degrees 29 minutes west. W. Douglas, mas-
ter." Underneath this is now written, in compliance
with the request to state " when and where found," " West
of Large Saltees Island, May 20, 1847." Wexford Inde-

pendent.
MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.—CHATHAM, JUNE 4.—
The depot of the Bth (King's Own) Regiment has arrived at
this garrison, from Canterbury,
. for embarkation for India
and the 63d, recently formed into a four-company depot,
was detached from the Provincial Battalion, and to date its
separation from the Ist of the month. The depbt is in corn-
Mand of Major Green, who has ree,mtly returned from India.
EXETER ALL.—A performance of flaydn's
Creation" will take place on Monday next, the 14th, under
the management of the Sacred Harmonic Society, for the
benefit of the inhabitants of Scotland suffering from famine.
The Queen, the Queen Dowager, the Royal Family, and a
• boat of diattnguished peroonageo, patroniao the undertaking.