The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-06 00:00:00

1847.

MA G E CeTiN T if%ttEr)

TAIT'S AfrIGAZIA'E.

CHRISTOPHER TADPOLE. Part VI.
In the opening chapter of this part, Christopher
is introduced to the interior of Gudge's Villa, at
Brompton, and having been fitted out in a second-
hand suit .of page's costume by a Jew client of
Gudge's, appears as the " Buttons " of the establish-
ment, whose duty it is to attend to Mrs. Gudge in her
peregrinations, and to drag the "Olive" round the
neighbourhood in a child's chaise. Sprouts and his
companions, Bessy Payne, Miss Twits, and the Jolly
Man, after their sudden ejectment from Gudge's
chambers, adjourned to a steam-packet, of which the
brother of the Jolly Man is the steward, where they
finish the evening, the Jolly Man undertaking to
attend the ladies home, while Sprouts, having no
place of abode, sleeps on board. The following de-
scription of a summer night on the river is as true as
it is bssufful

" If you have never passed a summer night.upon the
river as it flows through the metropolis—and the
chances are, that circumstances have never offered you
the chance of doing so—you cannot conceive how much
of the beautiful, and even romantic, still hangs about
our cold, common-place, money-getting London. You
must wait until the roar of swarming life has been stilled
in the streets and on the bridges ; and all traffic has
ceased upon the water; until the house-fires have nearly
all died away, and the moon is shining down from the
clear heaven upon the sleeping city. And then Venice
itself is scarcely more beautiful. For the outlines of the
very warehouses, softened in the tranquil light, assume
picturesque forms that might be palaces with less effect ;
and the spires of the churches, with their vanes faintly
gleaming, rise sharp and white in the air ; whilst along
the banks, mingling with the lamps, here and there, red
fires break out, reflected quiveringly in the winter, and
throwing the forms of those who move about them in
giant shadows upon the adjoining buildings, seen on the
open wharves, and through the arches, in the bluish
misty distance, when the other lights become mere
specks. Lesser lights, too, twinkle like eyes from the
heads of ships that lie in clusters on the river, which
flows on, breaking the reflection of the moon into dan-
cing flashes, and gurgling and eddying with a subdued
noise by the sides of the craft, and the piles and but
tresses that divide its course. The appearance of a
great city in the repose of night is always impressive,
but chiefly so when viewed from the water, as the feeling
of entire isolation flings an additional charm of interest
over it."

In the morning Sprouts repairs to the establishment
of the Jolly Man, who turns out to be a proprie-
tor of advertising vans, and by his interest is engaged
by an old widow, who combines the occupation of
tobacconist, librarian, and newsvendor, as her assist-
tant, and here he unexpectedly meets with Bessy
Payne and Miss Twits, who have always patronised
the establishment. The Gudges give a grand dinner
party, to which Sir Frederick Arden is invited, and
to: which Mrs. Hamper, accompanied by her nephew,
a Mr. Ellis, comes uninvited. The appearance of
Mr. Ellis produces an extraordinary effect upon Sir
Frederick and upon Gudge, who retire together fur a
few minutes' private conversation in another room,
where we leave them for the present.
RAIL TV

. AY MONTHLY MAGAZINE.
Emboldened by the success of his first number,
he proprietor has reduced the price of his magazine
to a shilling, and has stamped it so as to secure its
transmission free by post. Perhaps the most valuab!e
piece of railway intelligence in the present numbtr
is the verbatim report of the conference which took
place on the Bth of January last, between the
directors of the South-Eastern and those of the
London and Brighton and South Coast lines. Not c nly
will every shareholder in these companies peruse this
report with attention, but all those who reside along
the course of any of the projected lines, or who take
any interest whatever in Kentish railways, will
refer to this report for information on the subject.
We are glad to find the editor, in the course of an
elaborate article, doing full justice to the claims of
the South Wales line of railway, which have of late
been most unaccountably overlooked. As he justly
observes. "it is a line of great national and
local importance, and one of the most exten-
sive, if not one of the most useful, which the
country; has yet produced." The writer gives
a history of the line from its first projection up to the
period of its being leased by the Great 'Western Coin-
pany—a history illustrative of the difficulties which
the sinister interests of local authorities, and the
ignorant prejudices of official pedantry, are continu-
ally throwing in the way of the best-contiived
schemes for the public advantage.
.The present
number of the Railway Monthly Magazine is a great
improvement upon its predecessor. It is well got up,
and is a complete repertoire of railway information.

DR. ROBERTSON OF A ULTNASEIACIL—Our vene-
rable townsman, Dr. James Robertson of Aultnaskiach, died
at his residence: in the vicinity of Inverness, on the 27th
ultimo, at the ripe age of eighty-one. So early as 1787, Dr.
Robertson was established here as a medical practitioner, and
was soon after extensively employed and consulted by all the
leading families in the north. For the last twenty years he
had withdrawn from the active duties of his profession, but
he was-still called in when danger was apprehended, and his
services were always at the command of all classes without
fee or reward. For many years Dr. Robertson was Provost
of the burgh,
.and his gentlemanly manners, his active and
kindly disposition, anti the warm interest he took in all
matters relating to the town, rendered him one of our most
conspicnotis citizens. His remains were this clay (Tuesday)
accompanied to the grave by a great concourse of persons,
both of the town and country.—btacriress Courier.
NEW BLOWING MACHINE.—M. Heinrich Bein
hauer, smelting-factor, of Sonnbrau, near Elberfeld, in
Rhenish Prussia, is stated to have invented a new blowing
machine which gives a constant pressure, as indicated by
the anemometer, and requires no regulator whatever, The
blast produced by it, is snfficient to pervade a column of a
smelting furnace with equal intensity, at all points and
times. A machine of this kind, measuring 11 ft. 6 in. by
22 ft. 9 in. with a pressure of 40 oz on the square inch, and
a horse power of 70, will furnish 6028'8 cubic feet of wind
per minute, and after that rate for smaller dimensions.—
Mechanics' Magazine.
SWITZERLAND.—It will be remembered that one
of the first acts of the provisional government of Geneva,
after the late revolution, was to declare that it would hold
the members of the last council responsibe for all the damage
caused by the troops in the attempt to resist the insurrection.
The amount of damage having been estimated at 42,000 f.,
the members of the late council were ordered to pay it.
They refused, on the ground that their conduct in the insur-
rection was imposed upon them by the law for the preserva-
tion of public order; but a decree having been obtained from
the tribunal for immediate payment, they yielded to force,
and paid the money. A few days ago several. of the citizens
of Geneva heist a ui.ethig tLe purpoFc of raising a .u1)-
seription to repay the sum thus unjustly wrung frcns ths
members of the late government. The latter, however, have,
in an address to their fellow-citizens thanking them for their
sympathy, declined receiving the proposed reimbursement.

Another of Gilfillan's Literary Portraits is prefixed to
the present number. It is one of the most interesting
and not the least brilliant he has hitherto produced.
His theme is the character and writings of Thomas Hood.
As might have been anticipated, Mr. Gilfillan restricts
his critical observations principally to the serious poetry
of the deceased author. The discrimination of the
merits of that poetry, and particularly of the "homely
tragic narratives" and the " grave pathetic lyrics" is
keen and generous. Upon Eugene Aram's die am is
uttered an earnest panegyric, but not a j it more earnest
than that powerful poem deserves. On the celebrated
" Song of the Shirt," again, the strictures are forcible
enough, the writer fully appreciating the Barden of that
strange and stirring chaunt—" now shrunk down into the
whispers of weakness, now shuddering up into the
laughter of despair." One remark upon the idiosyncrasy
of Hood is well conceived and clearly worded. "If he
cannot get rid of the grim gigantic shadow of himself,
which walks ever before him as before all men, he can
at least make mouths and cut antics behind lie back."
That sentence in itself is a fine eulogium upon the genial
disposition and, we had almost said, the profound wisdom
of poor Hood. "Some will continue to follow the un
baptised terror in tame and helpless submission," con-
tinues Mr. Gilfillan, "others will pay it vain homage ;
others will make to it resistance equally vain ; and
many will seek to drown in pleasure, ur forget in busi-
ness, their impression, that it walks on before them—
silenot, perpetual, pausing with their rest, running with
their speed. growing with their growth, and strengthen-
ing with their strength, forming itself a ghastly rainbow
on the fumes of their bowl of festival, lying down with
them at night, starting up with every start that disturbs
their slumbers, rising with them in the morning, rushing
before them like a rival dealer into the market-place,
and appearing to beckon them on behind it, from the
death-bed into the land of shadows, as into its own do-
main." Was there not wisdom in that fitful laughter
and those fantastic gambols of Hood ? And did
that laughter and those gambols deteriorate in
any measure the effect of his deep and enthral-
ling pathos ? Did they not rather enhance
in a wonderful degree the emotions produced by his
impassioned verse, breaking in with a jest upon the me-
lancholy wail of the sempstress, mingling a quaint smile
with her tears, throwing " a dimple on the red waves of
hell ?" Upon this apparently rich eccentricity, Mr Gil-
fillan observes, " Hood, as well as Shakspere knew that
to deepen the deepest woe of humanity, it is the best
way to show it in the lurid light of mirth." That is part
of the secret of that chariss, half-pensive, half-jocose,
which pervades the metrical writings of Hood. He
laughs, and jokes, and puns, and exaggerates, and sets
the table in a roar, because, as Mr. Gilfillan surmises,
he felt that "if he wept at all, it were floods of terrible
and burning tears." It is with the deepest pleasure we
hear that one hundred pounds has been obtained fesm
the Royal Bounty for the pressing necessities of the
two orphan children of Thomas Hood, and that it is the
intention of the Prime Minister to ensure them a com-
petent pension in June. The nation owed some trivial
mark of honour like this to the memory of as true a
man and as gentle a heart as England ever
possessed. The " Letters and Dispatches of Napo-
leon," as well as the " Lives of the English
Chancellors," by Lord Campbell, are severally
reviewed, at some length, with copious quotations.
Thomas de Quincy contributes another article upon
" Walter Savage, Landor ;" and John O'Connell com-
mences certain " Arguments for the Repeal of the
Union." The principal excellence in the latter paper
is, that it condenses into a few pages the plea of the
Liberator, and his millions of followers. " Sketches in
Cities," beginning with Glasgow, promises to be a very
readable series, and calculated to do good ser►ice in the
way of municipal improvement. Contrast begets emu-
lation and emulation necessitates advancement. The
remainder of the magazine is of inferior importance, no
excepting the Political Register.