The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-27 00:00:00

INITIA LATINA.

This is a very useful guide to Latin for begin-
ners, edited by the Rev. I. Edwards, M.A.,Se-
cond Master of King's College School, and Wil-
liam Cross, of Trinity College, Cambridge. Its
peculiarity consists in the threefold division of
the Syntax, forming three successive courses of
study. Nothing is anticipated in construction,
Jut an outline of the subject is presented to the
pupil in the first part, which is the object of the
remaining parts to fill up. A vocabulary is pre-
fixed to the first and second parts, and the Eton
Syntax forms the basis of the rules. which are so
simple and intelligible that a learner with a slight
knowledge of the grammar may study the work
to great advantage without the assistance of a
master.

A DICTIONARY OF SCIENCE, LITERA-
TURE, AND ART.

The Second Number of this work, which is to
be completed in Twelve Parts, has just appeared,
and contains all the articles under the letter B
to those under Cup to " Chivalry." We have
already described the nature of the work, and are
glad to find that this Part confirms the favour-
able opinion we formed of it at the commence-
ment. The article on " Banks," by Mr. M'Cul-
loch, will be read with interest at the present
moment. It gives a concise history of banking
in general, pointing out the defects of the pre-
sent system, with suggestions for its improve-
ment, a statement of the affairs of the Bank of
England, an account of the circulation of pri-
vate banks in England • and Wales, and an
outline of the system of banking in Scotland
since the establishment of the Bank of Scotland

in 1695, one year after the Bank of England was
founded. In describing the panic among
bankers, farmers, and others, after the general
peace and the panic of 1825, the writer gives the
following distressing account of the vast destruc-
tion of property : •
" The country banks (in 1815) being generally
without the means of meeting any emergency
no fewer than 240 of these establishments
stopped payment. There is, in fact, believed to
have been in 1814-15-16 a greater destruction of
bank-paper in this country, and a wider range of
bankruptcy than had ever previously taken place
any where else, except, perhaps in France, at
the breaking up of the Mississippi scheme, and
so rapid and sweeping. was the destruction in
1825, that, in less than six weeks, above severity
banking establishments were swept off; and a
vacuum created in the currency that absorbed
from eight to ten millions of additional issues by
the Bank of England?
Among the other articles of interest are " Ba-
rometer" (an ample account), " Bridge Canal,"
and a " Capillary Action and Chemistry."

FOX'S BOOK OF MARTYRS. PART 1.

- Virtue, London.

1841.

A republication, in Monthly Parts, of a book
once exceedingly popular, but which has now, in
a great measure, fallen into oblivion, tile age
having outgrown that taste for physical horrors
in which it unsparingly deals. The Part is
printed in a clear, and even elegant type, and on
very excellent paper. We cannot, however, pre-
dict for the work any extensive circulation,
though its cheapness and beauty are certainly
strong arguments in its favour.

MEMOIRS OF TAE COLMAN FAMILY.
2 Vols. Bentley, London, 1841.
Much of the matter contained in these volumes
has already appeared in George Colman's " Ran-
dom Records," but as the Editor, as in duty
bound, has mentioned this fact, we know not that
we have any great cause to complain, especially
as the extracts are all of an entertaining nature,
and many of them, no doubt, new to our readers,
the work from which they are taken, having
had, we believe, but a limited circulation. As
the Colmans, father and son, passed their whole
lives amid the stir and bustle of society, and
were both of them distinguished by ability
—the father being the better scholar, the
son, the greater wit—they came in contact with
nearly all the celebrated personages of their day ;
and in the ze volumes we have cursory remini-
scences of many of the most eminent among
their contemporaries. As a matter of course,
Dr. Johnson figures prominently among
them, but is drawn by the, younger Colman
in no favourable 'light, while Gibbon is kindly
and respectfully spoken of, and Goldsmith' ex-
tolled to the skies for that very Onhommie and
simplicity which so highly excited the pity
and contempt of Boswell. Of Garrick also,
and Foote, and Sheridan, we have several
diverting recollections; but the former, with
his insatiable egotism, vanity, and fussiness of
nature, cuts but a sorry figure ; and after reading
the biographer's . account of the great actor's en-
deavours to puff himself off through the medium
of a friend, while residing in Paris, we are more
than ever disposed to acquiesce in the justice of
Johnson's estimate of him. Hannah More appears
but once on the stage,but this once is quite enough,
for never was author more extravagantly overrated
than the sainted Hannah. As a poet and a dra-
matist, her abilities were beneath contempt;
as a novelist, she was merely of a fourth-rate
order; and as a theological writer, her prosi-
ness is at least as remarkable as • her piety.
She had, however, consummate knowledge
of the world, and by flattering all the great
people of her day—more particularly Johnson,
whom, on one occasion, she absolutely sickened
by her fulsome compliments—she managed to se-
cure for herself a reputation which is only just
now beginning to find its level. At the close of
the volumes we find a character of the younger
Colman pourtrayed by Mr. Arnold, in what
we are willing to believe is a just, though
it is assuredly not a flattering, spirit. This
gentleman gives more the praise to the con-
versational wit of Sheridan than to that of
Colman, in which he differs from Lord
Byron, who had met both in society, and has
recorded in his diary—vide Moore's Life—
that he thought the latter by far the most
acceptable companion of the two. " Who shall
decide when doctors disagree ?" We subjoin a
whimsical anecdote of Colman when invited to
dine at Carlton House, which has this rare re-
commendation, that it has never till now appeared
in print :
Ab-ut this time his Royal Highness the Duke of York
obtained leave (from the King's Bench) for Colman to
dine at Carlton House. He accompanied the Duke
thither. On his walking through the apartments with
him, Colman remarked, " What excellent lodgings !
have nothing like them in the King's Bench I" After
dinner, be exclaimed,—" Eb 1 why this is wine ; key, do
tell me, who that fine looking fellow is at the head of the
table ?" The good-natured Duke, said. " Hush, George,
you'll get into a scrape." " No, no," said Colman, in a louder
voice, " I am come out to enjoy myself; I want to know who
that fine, square-shouldered, magnificent-looking, agree-
able fellow is at the head of the table ?" "Be quiet,
George," interrupted the Duke, " You know it is the
Prince." " Why then," continued Colman, still
louder, " He is your elder brother. I declare be don't
look look half your age. Well I remember the time
when he sung a good rong I and as I am come out for a
IF rk, for only one day, if he is the same good fellow that
he used to be, be would not refuse an old play-fallow."
The Plince laughed. and sang. " What a magnificent
voice," exclaimed Colman. " I have heard nothing to be
compared to it fur years. Such expression too ! I'll be
eamr.cd if I don't engage him for my theatre." It would
appear thbt this freak gave no offence to the Royal host;
for Colman was ever treated. with kindness by George the
Fourth.

PORTS, ARSENALS, AND DOCKYARDS,

OF FRANCE.
J. Fraser, London.

This is a collection of letters originally pub-
lished in a Morning Paper, giving a hasty, though
occasionally interesting account of the principal
naval establishments in France. It is to be re-
gretted, however, that the writer, by fulsome
flattery of one party, rancorous abuse of another,
and a wanton attack upon an individual long em-
ployed by the Government, should raise some-