The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-19 00:00:00

LITERATURE.
THE COMIC ANNUAL for 1846. By Thomas Hood.
Poor Tom Hood's capacity—his extraordinary
capacity—for compositions of the very highest poetical
merit, has recently been commemorated by ourselves,
in reviewing the late republication of his poems.
Now, by the reprint of his renowned " Whimsicali-
ties," at this moment lying on our escritoire, we are
enabled, with some degree of plausibility, to parti-
cularise the exuberance, the sun-heartedness, and
the irresistible breadth of his humour. Almost
everybody has revelled in the facetiousness which is
squandered with such lavish pleasantry over this
volume; the contents alternately insinuating a moral
or pointing an eccentricity. A more genial, hearty,
or unaffected exhibition of drollery can scarcely be
discovered anywhere, and gloriously has Leech em-
bodied several of Hood's happiest creations. His il-
lustration to that illustrious conceit ending—
"No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member,
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flow'rs, no leaves, no birds—November!"
is rich to an extreme ; the frostbitten smear of a
man's figure just discernable through the fog, his
(literally) frieze coat muffled up to his nose, the
canal water at his feet too thickly encrusted with ice
to permit of suicide—all these concomitants, produced
simply with parallel lines, bring that most miserable
and blue-devillish month before one palpably and
visibly. Then Miss Crane—the Miss Crane—with
her button nose and her starched mittens—there,
from the pencil of Leech, you can almost distinguish
her shrill, scrooping voice, as she utters the grace
before meat :—" For what we are going to receive—
elbows, elbows l—the Lord make us—backs in and
shoulders down—triiily thankful— and no chattering !
Amen." Then Mr. 'Pryme, the famous Mr. Pryme,
with his bald head as " scarlet as a love-apple"—
there he is to the very life; and Mrs. Gardiner, too, as
she appeared when chasing away that incorrigible
pig, who derived such exquisite gratification from
wallowing in a bed of tulips; and James Hockin,
and Mr. Crumpler, there they are all together
finished to a hair or a wrinkle—sheer callotypes.
Nevertheless, capital as are these productions of
Leech, grotesquely as &hey are conceived and excel-
lently as they are reduced to form—they still lag far
behind those rough, inartistic, malformed pictorial
jokes, which only Hood could accomplish or invent,
for comicality and point; from "II unah-baloo,"
as a chorus of singers shouting in concert, after the
system of Mainzer and his fellow-labourer, to "Does
your mother know you're out ?" as uttered by the
fa un•yard cock to the chicken just popped from its
shell. And as to the extravagant jocoseness of the
literature, nothing need be insisted upon that question ;
almost every one being familiar with its amazing and
preposterous humour. Surely there is nobody but
remembers the " Sea-Totaller," and that scrap of in-
corrigible fun christened "An Extraordinary Ope-
ration." And surely everybody recollects " The
Longest Hour in my Life," and " The Camberwell
Beauty." And surely—and surely a remembrance of
"The Grimsby Ghost" can never have evaporated
from the memory of any one who has once travelled
over those thirteen mortal chapters, all athirst
to discover the important secret which troubles the
phantom of the late widow Mullins, the chand-
leress, and causes it to haunt the shop in
her favourite post " between the coffee-mill and
the barrel of red herrings," until the goblin
at last divulges the secret to her daughter,
in those remarkable anti memorable words—" Mary,
it arn't booked, but there's tuppence for sandpaper at
number nine!" From all subjects, even the most un-
aluring, the ready fancy and spontaneous wit of Hood
extracted materials for our merriment, sunning them
at the same moment with the glow of philanthropy.
The summer air, with its green " luxury of
boughs," the vernal glory of the dingle,
or the gleam of water in a midnight valley,
stirred up his heart with a mysterious, but
potent gladness ; he wandered through the natural
cloisters of the forest with his whole soul brimming
up with a love for Nature and Nature's God. In those
moments he was a poet of the loftiest order; his mind
was attuned to the subtlest presence of beauty ; ex-
trinsic loveliness, however, partial or minute, found a
ready response in his bosom. His thoughts were
then purified to an exceeding delicacy, and his words
were musical and modulated in proportion. But in
his gayer moments, when the wine of Anacreon
seemed to stain his lips, and the heart flashed up
through the eye in sparkles of merriment, none could
vie with him in the wonderful richness of his drollery ;
his quips hail the gold of originality, and shone with
the lustre of their absurdity. As a collection of this
true and legitimate species of humour, this reprint of
" Hood's Whimsicalities" is without a parallel.

7. STATE OF TRADE.
FOREIGN WOOL TRADE, LEEDS, JAN. 16.—The improved
demand noticed in our last report has continued throughout
the present week, and prices have also been more firmly sup-
ported.

ENGLISH WOOL MARKET, LEEDS, JAN. IG.—There is a
feeling of greater confidence in these markets, and therefore
the sales have been rather more extensive, and prices are
firm at last week's quotations.
WAKEFIELD WOOL MARKET, JAN. 16.—We have had
rather more doing in both long and short wool this week,
than for several previous ones, and rather improved rates;
but the difficult position of consumers to make a profit, even
at the late reduced rates, prevents them operating so largely
as might have been expected after so long a holding off.
LEEDS.—The markets at our Cloth Halls have not been so
brisk, either on Saturday or Tuesday, as during the week
previous. There was, nevertheless, a pretty good market for
low goods, but the fine and middling qualities are not in much
demand. Prices are firm, and from the great caution exer-
cised by the manufacturers siace October, there is less than
the usual quantity of goods in their hands at this period,
compared with former seasons. There has been a little im-
provement in business in the warehouses during the week.
BRADFORD MARKET, THURSDAY.—The demand for wool
is somewhat retarded by the prices sought by the stapler, and
as no corresponding advance can be realised on yarns, it will
tend to check the present consumption. Noils and brokes
are eagerly sought after, and, owing to the small quantity
making, the price has an upward tendency. There is more
confidence manifested among the buyers of yarns, and an in-
creased business has been done, yet there is no im-
provement in price to induce the spinners to increase the pro-
duction. There is an average business doing in both heavy
and dress goods ; and the cheap rate at which they have been
produced appears to have told favourably at Leipsic fair,
where the demand has been rather animated.
MANCHESTER, THURSDAY EVENING.—The increasing un-
certainty as to the policy to be pursued by Sir Robert Peel
has had the effect since Tuesday, of checking the healthful
state of the cloth market on that day, and all kinds of goods
are to he had lower to-day than on Tuesday. All parties
seem disposed to wait the development of the plans of the
Premier befbre again commencing extensive operations.
Yarns have not partaken of a similar reaction : they are
not, perhaps, quite such ready sale, but they are lower, and
the demand is extensive.

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE NEAR HEMEL HEMPSTEAD.—
On Friday morning, between one and two o'clock, an exten-
sive fire was discovered to have broken out in the farm of'
Thomas Younger, Esq., residing near Hemel Hempstead,
Hertfordshire, which broke out in the rick-yard. Immedi-
ately that the fire was discovered, the peasantry hrmiedtltie•
the scene of conflagration, a good supply ofwaterthreounited
adjacent ponds supplied the tire engine!, and b.)
fire by five o'clock ; but not, however,b
were entirely eon-
valuable ricks of hay, with one of corn,
damaged. The farm-house,
exertions of the men, they succeeded inefoerextitnwgo'uilsahrigneganthde
It is unknown in
ASSOCIATION.--A public
stabling, au
hat manner the fire originated,
OtldiersouAt!hroe
fLthitiesraArssynicniasttiitnuntiownas,
fohretlhdeQpnurpoFrL-
sße
wereAifrhEt ys
ABas,s.
eared.
the
eC.H Association. presided,
1\ and,r.ua madeli ana
followed
dt
baypf ;far!
aidingof the movement now in progress fur raising fund of
s
w METROPOLITAN Du
y
e, and other gentlemen. The meeting was very
maeetai nt gt ofbe tchre.
sfrt!)e,
Hallo
pposon,*(o)orb\loVeylh.aal‘!Vrtoeirfr.nded, and the subscriptions appeared to come in
very slowly.
THE LAST OF THE COACHES.—The last of the
coaches running from this town to the metropolis, driven for
the last sixteen or seventeen years by George Bird, than
whom a more obliging and respected coachman never sat
upon a box, has struck its colours to " all potent steam."
The railway, with but a single exception—for one coach still
passes throtigh to remind one of the days of "the stage," and
is too, apparently in vigorous existence—is now the great
monopolist of the, road from Chelmsford to the emporium of
commerce.—Essex Standard.
PRESENT STATE or THE WESTMINSTER SEWERS.
—About seven years ago 160 feet of second size sewer
were built in the New-road, by the trustees of the Pa-
rochial Schools, communicating with the sewer into De-
vonshire. place. Mr. John White's house-drains, Devon-
shire-place House, New-road, haling become stopped, he
entered a complaint on the 28th November last. Since
the complaint had been entered, out of the length of
about eighty feet, sixty-five loads of silt, said to be mac-
adamised road-stuff, had been lifted up and carted away,
and then about three feet in depth of the looser soil was
washed down the Devonshire-place sewer ; the stuff ap-
peared like putty, it was so tenacious.— The Builder.
HIGHWAY ROBBERY.—On Saturday last, between
one and two o'clock, P.M., as Robert Warren, Bristol Mercury
news-carrier, was on his way from Midromer Norton to
Chilcompton, Somerset, he was stopped in a field by three
men, who assaulted and robbed him of between 9s. and
12s. in cash, and two newspapers.—Sherborne JournaL
ARCHITECTURAL RUINS IN THE CAROLINEISLANDS.

—Among the Caroline Islands is Ascensio, about
11 degrees north latitude, discovered some years laidnqc:
by her Majesty's ship Raven, and not yet properlyetstayed
down in maps. A gentleman who subs_e_ccue..ng!,
~0::
there for several months, reports the folio 1
language of the aborigines is more
s ending
this island, perhaps on others of
ethhears,
many word
other islands of the Pacific, a greatm called Tamen, ruins
with vowels. There are, at aepeeassib_e
1 by boats, the
of a town, now only a
the steps of the houses
water reaching up to axi
egesrom, thei.in
overgrown with bread
The huge walls areancient trets, and the ruins
cocoa-nut, and t
spaceofhseerveral miles. The stones of these
occupy
bed and quoin, exhibiting a considerable
of the hewn stones are 20 feet,
byht:Lfeet 5 inches, and no cement or mortar
degree o
was observed. The walls have door and
places, and the materi
is
window
a m
mountain edificesthe aafrroea c rkt a.
ii i dnn Somet,thh
ce
island,
which toneighbourhood.b be
is d
covered
Thereffe r e n t
unite long,
~4 t
with symbolic figures ; and more extensive ruins than
the above are said to exist in the interior. The habits
of these islanders exhibit traces of a different social
system, water being carried about after meals for wash-
ing hands. &c. When asked about the origin of these
buildings, they say that " they were built by men now
liboyes'....Thc Builder.