The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-08 00:00:00

" M. Thiers is the essencernf mind; he is intellect to
the tips of his lips and points of his nails. His organi-
sation is like that of Voltaire, frail, delicate, and mobile.
He has the caprices and naughtiness of a child, with the
assumption of the gravity of a philosopher. More a
man of letters than a statesman, and more an artist than
a man of letters, he will dote upon an Etruscan vase, and
care little for liberty. As a Cabinet Minister, he con-
ceives great designs; like .a woman, he is bold in small
matters. He has courage, but it is like that of delicate
and sickly people—it comes in feverish fits, ending by
nervous attacks and fainting fits; these weaknesses are
only tolerated on a sofa ; in politics, fainting is not
suffered. . • • • • • . .
"He thinks without effort, produces without ex-
haustion, advances without fatigue, and arrays his ideas
before you with a rapidity which is inconceivable ;
former times pass in review before his memory-in their
order, and proper costumes, and nature, which others
court, comes to him uninvited in all the pomp of her
majesty, and all the graces of her smiles. Have you
ever seen in the steam 'boats which traverse our rivers,
the banks reflected in the suspended mirrors? They are
reflected while the boat advances—fair villages, churches
with tapering spires, verdant meadows, hoary mountains,
gay vessels, the flocks of the valley, the clouds of heaven,
animals and men, seem to fly past in rapid succession in
the glass. Such is M. Thiers. A sort of Parliamentary
mirror, he reflects the passions of others, and cold and
hard as the glass is, without passions himself. He weeps,
but his eyes are tearless; he pierces his breast with a
poignard, but draws no drop of blood; a mere drama all
that, it is true, but what a drama, and what an actor!
What nature, what suppleness, what powers of insinua-
tion, what inflexions of voice; what transparency and
lucidity of style ; what negligent grace of language.
Actor you deceive me, but why should I complain; you
deceive even yourself; you play your part to admiration,
but it is only a part. I know that very well, and yet I
allow myself to be ravished by your seductions. I give
myself up to you; so long as you speak I am under a
charm; and I almast prefer to listen to error from your
mouth, to hear truth from any other. . . . •
" He is more elastic than a spring of the finest steel
—he bends and unbends—he rises and falls with his
subject—he will roll himself spirally round a question
from its base to its summit—he mounts, descends, re-
mounts, hangs in the branches, hides himself in the
thickest foliage, appears, disappears, and passes a thou-
sand times in and out with the pretty agility of a
squirrel—he would extract money even from a stone—
where others glean, he reaps. He extends his plumage,
and shows, by turns, every hue of purple, gold, and
azure. He does not speak, he coos—he does not coo, he
lisps—he does not lisp, he warbles—and he is so dazzling
both to the eye and to the ear, that one does not know
which to admire most, his plumage or his song. He
will give you a speech of three hours' length on archi-
tecture, poetry, law, navigation, or war, and, yet he is
neither a poet, a lawyer, a mariner, or a soldier—all he
will require is an evening's preparation. If he describes
a battle he astonishes the oldest generals. If he speaks
of walls, roofs, stone, and mortar, you would actually
believe him to be a mason or an architect. He will
dispute with Gay-Lussac on questions of chemistry, and
teach Arago how to direct his telescope at Venus or
Jupiter.
" The fine arts, canals, roads, finances, commerce,
history, the press, politics, anecdotes of the streets,
theatres, war, literature, religion, municipalities, mo-
rality, amusements, great things, middling things, little
things—what does it matter to him, he is ready at all.
He is so, because in fact he is prepared upon nothing.
He does not speak like other orators, because he speaks
like people of the world. Other orators prepare them-
selves more or less, but he improvises ; other orators
perorate, but he' chats ; and who can be on their guard
against a man who chats like you or me ? What did I
say ? infinitely better than you, or than me, or than any
one else.

"I have one fault, however, to find with M. Thiers.
It is, that sometimes he cannot restrain his laughter
when he is descending from the tribune. Now, a good
comedian never laughs at the farce which he plays. On
this point, M. Thiers has something to learn. If M.
Thiers spoke slower, he would be less listened to ; but
his volubility is such, that the House cannot go before
him, or even follow him. Once started, he proceeds at
full gallop, from the morning to the evening. If the
Almighty had foreseen that the day would come on
which he would create a Thiere, he would undoubtedly
have made the earth turn on its axis in forty-eight hours
instead of twenty-four."

The " Scamper through the Long Vacation" is pur-
sued without any abatement of vivacity, and the con-
tributor rattles over the continent at a breakneck
speed and with a charming volubility. Buerger's
magnificent ballad of Leonora" is translated in this
number with vigour and delicacy. Of the passionate
freedom of the translation some notion may be formed
from this agonized stanza :
" Oh, mother, mother, Gone is Gone !
Departed is Departed !
Woe, woe is me !—Alone, alone,
Alone and broken-hearted I
Die out, die out, my life's lost light !
Down, down, in everlasting Night !
God spareth not nor eareth,
Woe ! woe ! my soul despaireth!"
The anguish of the unfortunate Leonora is portrayed,
even in the English, with a force that at times is
absolutely horrible—up to the catastrophe where she
is carried away, not by her lover, as she imagines,
but by the Goblin Death. The second and
concluding part of the contribution on " The
British Theatre " is in parts excellent, in
other parts extravagant. A few indifferent commen-
dations of Edmund Kean—Kean, whose acting of
Sir Giles Overreach was so sublime in its passion,
that its representation once threw Lord Byron into
an epileptic fit—is followed by several pages of the
most outré and pieposterous flattery of Miss Fanny
Kemble, now Mrs. Butler. After a somewhat im-
pious compliment to this lady—to the effect that,
supposing she were united to a congenial husband,
"it would escape the common law of humanity, and
cease to aspire after iramortality"—the writer cooly,
says that some of her sonnets will "bear a com-
parison with Gray's 'Ode to Spring,' or Hemans's
Graves of a Household,' or—(the insolence of the
thing!)—with Moore's Irish Melodies." Dr. Mad-
den's "Life of Emmet" is reviewed with some impar-
tiality, though the writer cannot sympathise with the
ardour of that young and patriotic orator. Carle-
ton's Very powerful fiction of "The Black Prophet"
is completd, and will add to his already high and
natidriaDr putation.

COL BURN'S UNITED SERVICE MAGAZINE.
The papers on ;the present war in Kafir Land are
continued, and will be read with much interest. Mr.
G. F. Herman gives us a very spiriLed account of two
episodes in the late Carlist war, viz., " The March of
Gomez round Spain," and the expedition of Don
Carlos beyond the Ebro in the summer of 1837.
The latter was within an ace of capturing Christina
and her children in the capital. The Carlist advanced
hcard, under the command &f Cabrera, were within
alf a league, and nothing but the rapid advance of
Espartero, who twice engaged and twice defeated
these Carlist troops, saved the throne of the Queen.
Mr. Herman tells the story of these adventures most
graphically. The Reminiscences of the war of Suc-
cession in Portugal are continued, and we have several
valuable papers on naval and military matters. The
following observations on the dangers of invasion and
the necessity of instructing the great mass of the
people in the use of defensive weapons, are well wor-
thy serious attention :
theliovfeyer unwilling Englishmen
may be to realise
possibility of an invasion, or even a partial violation
osofieonuoronautasiverelanndder,el is an. event which the advance of
inoprracticable, and by the course of
events may dome
for
than " It is unnecessary Probable.
to consult the four quarters
of the wind for a sign—it is before our eyes---a festering
hatred of this country, beguii,:p !kgincourt, and perfected
foltroof, however it may be
at Waterloo, supplies the
eor
gird iale.
oncealed under the silken
"witetrathe
64
aarinr.(l of .employtihneg
.2. ~, f the regular troops, and
who
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