The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-06 00:00:00

799,344

prove successful. The fellow-burghers of the re-
nowned Flemish painter have erected, in a conspi-
cuous part of their city, an effigy of Sir Peter Paul
Rubens ; the Parisians not long since raised a similar
monument to the memory of Moliere ; everybody re-
members how last year a colossal statue of Beethoven
was uncovered in Germany in the presence of sovereigns;
the Scott testimonial is already a famous stru?ture in
Edinburgh, and the Burns mausoleum is equally
celebrated ; how is it that no national memento
has ever been adventured in any quarter of Great Bri-
tain to demonstrate the reverence of the English nation
to the genius of William Shakspere ? Thousands
of pounds are collected as a gift to a man who
has been successful in huckstering railway
scrip :—what a profligate instance of mammon-
worshipping is this ! And twopence has never been
subscribed as a gift of gratitude to the memory of the
most wonderful poet who ever breathed the breath of
life. We are proverbially the wealthiest nation on
the earth ; and we have never raised even a plaster-
of-Paris bust to him in any public place of
any of our towns or cities. 'We speak thus
not because such a monument would add one
spark of glory to his fame, but because it would show
we were not altogether unworthy of being his fellow-
countrymen. Poets are the truest regenerators of man-
kind, and that is why they deserve honour. And
the French have afforded us an example of
doing this economically, and yet beautifully : they
christen their streets after the most illustrious
men of France, and, by so doing, associate glorious
thoughts with their very household. Nor are they de-
terred from so doing by the most lengthy titles, one of
the thoroughfares in Paris being designated Rue
de Jean Jacque Rousseau. Hew much better than Tom-
kins's-plaee, Snooks's-terrace, and Jackson-villas, would
Dryden.street, Cromwell-street, Coleridge-street,Hamp-
den-street, and the like, be ! The notion is not un-
worthy the attention of the Commissioners of Metropo-
litan Improvements.

OUR OWN TIMES. Illustrated by G. Cruikshank.
A glorious etching of " Almack's over the water,"
where " no gentleman is allowed to smoke except at re-
freshment time," and " no gentleman is allowed to dance
with his hat on," is the frontispiece to the present num-
ber. Then we have a most original sketch of railway
deposits—to wit, the hats and bonnets left in the first,
second, and third-class carriages, arranged on shelves as
they are to be seen at the station; and under the
title of the " Moderns in Beards and the Ancients in
Spectacles," we have an admirable quiz upon those white
vested gentlemen who insist upon wearing beards and
naoustachios, and, sticking the head of a Venetian
senator on the body of a Bond-street lounger, fancy they
look artistica' and aristocratic. As appendant, George
Cruikshank claps a pair of spectacles on a ferocious
Baron " of the good old times," who, dagger in hand,
is about to strike! and the whole countenance reminds
you

"Instead of Fitz-Walter, or of Guy of Warwick, or blood-
spilling Bagniolles—of a grinning hyena, in a fancy dress.
"That being the case, my grotesque young artist, all cf
the modern school, be kind enough to turn to your mirror,
and tell me if your shoulder-sweeping masses of hair, ,and
your Spitalfields figured waistcoat, your renaissance mousta-
chios, and square-cut coat, your curled whiskers, and your
star-bespangled satin stock, are not equally as incongruous
companions as a feudal baron in spectacles. And does not
the suspicion creep over you that you aro nearly as fertile an
object of merriment ? Von don't think so. Very well :we
will go a little further, and try back as far as the classic ages,
and if that does not convince you we shall hand you over to
Trufit and to Stultz, to do their worst upon you.
"The incongruity which a mixture of modern with bygone
costume produces is, of course, increased in proportion as we
dive into antiquity. We have heard of an ingenious artist,
moving in no elevated sphere, who obtained his livelihood by
painting pictures for peep-shows. His drawing was always
vigorous, and his colouring uncommonly bright, but for want
of a knowledge of ancient history, his composition and ac-
cessories were somewhat incorrect, inasmuch as he clothed
all his figures in modern costumes, and attributed to them
habits of life peculiar to the class of society in which he him-
self moved. He was also a severe moralist, who, wishing
to combine instruction with amusement, invariably treated
his juvenile patrons with pieces, in imitation of the early
dramatists, whose equally grotesque mysteries were—in the
best faith, and with a really pious purpose--representations
•if passages from biblical history, only that our friend mixed
up sacred with profane history, with the mast anachronistic
miscellaneousness. His master-piece was a family group of
King Solomon, and when he exhibited this composition be-
hind the glazed peep-hole, his description of it ran somewhat
as follows :

The next piece in this ere show, is King Solomon—King
Solomon on his golden throne. Look to the right, and you'll
see Nimrod a standing with his back to the fire. in top-boots,
Juskins, and red upper Benjamin, just come in from hunting.
He is a talking to King Solomon, who is smoking his pipe
and a reading the Times newspaper. A sitting on the steps
of the golden throne is the queen of Sheba untwisting a pair
of stockings as fast as Mrs. Penelope—(there you see her, in
the arm-chair in the cotton gown)—has knitted them. Look
to the left, out of the open window, and you behold Nebu-
chadnezzar sitting down on all-fours, and waiting for Mer-
cury to bring him a cold salad.'
"The extravagant absurdities of the showman are easily
wrought, in actual life, by inattention to propriety in cos-
tume. The figure of Diana, for example, carved with its
far from ample drapery, by hands said (scarcely with pro-
fanity) to be immortal—so exquisite is their work—excites
no feeling but that of the purest pleasure—that pleasure
which the chaste and beautiful are calculated to call up.
But place a Bond-street bonnet on the headof the sculptured
goddess, and she is immodest ; add a pair of spectacles, and
the statue becomes a ridicule."

There is much sound Sense in this good-humoured
satire.

THE LIFE ASSURAA CE CHRONICLE.
This is the second number of a new periodical devoted
to the subject of Life Assurance. It contains muct
valuable information.

THE MUSICAL TREASURY. Pale LXI.
This is a marvel of cheapness. The present number
c.,ntains all the best of the vocal music of Flotow's new
opera of " Stradella," with English words by Mr. G.
Soane.

BANKER s' MAGAZINE.
In an article on Post-office money orders, the follow-
ing suggestion is thrown out which will, we hope, be
uteri on by bankers generally:—
" But without entering fully into a discussion of all the
questions which may be raised either for or against the pre-
sent system, it is certainly deserving the considerrtion of
bankers in large commercial districts, whether they might
not add considerably to the profits of their business by grant-
ing letters of credit on London and on their correspondents
generally, on the same terms for commission as are now
charged for Post-office orders. The charge might be propor-
tionally increased for sums above 51.; that being the highest
amount the Post-office will remit by a single order. We
think that a trial of the plan, on an extensive scale, would
show it to be worth continuing."
The carr3ing out this plan would be a great public
convenience.

RAILWAY REGISTER.
In the opening article of the present number, on the
contest of the gauges, the writer, who confesses that his
sympathies are with the broad gauge, after going through
the whole of the evidence adduced before the Commis•
sioners, comes to the conclusion that the inconveniences
of a break of gauge have been greatly exaggerated—
that they are more than counterbalanced by the benefits
arising from the existence of the broad gauge—that the
report of the Commissioners " is a very creditable docu-
ment for honest men, who were appointed to report upon
a subject, the correct mode of investigating which they
did not understand, and who possessed among them
every qualification except that of being men of business,"
and that the Board of Trade did right in setting the
report aside. The article thus concludes:—
" For our own parts, we see no occasion for any decision at
all ; we think it would have been better for both parties to
have been left alone to fight it out; but if any decision was
to be come to, that of the Board of Trade seems to be more
consistent with equity than any other."
Atter an article on Indian Railways, we have a
minute account of the working of the Leviathan loco-
motive Great Western on the Journey to Bristol on the
memorable 13th June, 1846. In an article on the deci-
sion in Walstob and Spottiswoode, the writer pleads
the cause of the provisional committee as against the
allottees, and considers that the former have in many
instances been rather hardly dealt by. The "Railway
Portfolio." which is now incorporated in the Register,
is intended to furnish a complete record of the prospec-
tuses and other documents of railway and other joint-
stock companies, and preserte them in an acßessibla