The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-05 00:00:00

LITERA T U RE.

THE OLD HALL; v OUR HEARTH AND
.),11 S IRA D. By John Mitts 3 Vols.
_ _

Mr. John Mills is well known to the lovers of the
chase, and all who take interest ir. good old English
sports. His rea.iers might embrace a yet wider
circle, for the genuine tone kindly feeling, the
homely pathos, and unaffected sincerity that pervade
his writings, are well calculated to find favour with
the multitude. Holding the rank of sporting novels,
his works atiound in admirable sketches of country
I lite, but they have another and a higher recom'men-
, dation ; they appeal to some of the deepest senti-
ments of the heart, they tend to strengthen the do-
mestic affections, and increase the happiness of home,
pourtraying it in its natural character, as the centre
of all comfort, the empire of love and kindness. The
" Old Hall," bears great resemblance to the " Old
English Gentleman ;" some of the characters are very
similar, but we are glad to see them again, and wel-
come them as old friends. We have here another
example of the old country squire—the delight of
his friends, and the father of the poor; we have the same
perfect delineations of huntsmen and whippers-in,
though we do not find an equal to Tom Bolton; the same
idea of an old country house, the scene of hospitality
and kindness ; a capital illustration of warm-hearted
simplicity, in the person of honest John Hardy ; a
very good likeness of sweet Mistress Caadle, and
numerous minor characters, all interesting from their
close adherence to nature. The whole narrative con-
tains many stirring anecdotes of the chase, and accounts
of sporting of every description, written with great
vigour and minuteness, full of variety and amusement.
To the lovers of the country this work will be
invaluable, while the inhabitants of town may find a
refreshing change in contemplating occupations so
different from their own. Before quitting this sub-
ject we must observe, Mr. Mills makes some remarks
about taking farewell of his readers : if such be his
intention, may it be like the farewell of a successful
actor, repeated over and over again, "always ending,
still beginning." We hope soon to meet him again
"in the field ;" en attendant, if he pleases, we will
wish him farewell.

THE EVENTFUL I' PO CH. A Novel, by Nicholas
Michell. 3 Vols.

This work does ample justice to its title ; it refers,
indeed, to an eventful epoch—the period of the
French Revolution : that great struggle forms the
basis of the story, but we find little concerning
France, the author's object being to pourtray the
feelings of the English during that momentous
period, and in this he has been very successful. Truly
was that an eventful epoch for England as well as
France; every breeze that crossed the Channel came
charged with the aspirations of liberty; the English
people felt the magic. of the spell, the sentiments of
freedom found an echo in their hearts ; the cruel ex-
cesses to which fury drove the French, checked their
sympathies to a great degree, yet was the lesson not
in vain—the people felt their power, and if they forbore
rrom using it, the very consciousness made them
resist oppression, and warned their rulers of
the danger of arbitrary legislation. The author of
the work before us is evidently a high Tory, an
entire enemy to the whole revolution ; anxious to
manifest hi• antipathy to the republican clubs formed
in England on the model of the French, he yet pauses
to do justice to individual partizans, and introduces
us to a very interesting character, Walter Pellew, a
youth of ardent temperament, hitherto devoted to
literature ; burning with the love of freedom, the im-
petuosity of his nature urges him to the extreme;
willing to be a martyr to the cause he loves so well,
he scorns the calmer wisdom of sober-minded friends

—his whole soul is engrossed with one idea. The
history of this patriotic rebel and his fond, devoted
wife, forms a most interesting portion of the work.
The whole story is full of variety, well calculated to
please the general reader. The hero, Archer Clive,
is a youth of noble family, and high promise ; he
enters Parliament at an early age, and excites atten-
tion by an admirable speech on the slave-trade in
support of Mr. Wilberforce, and this at a time when
such conduct was deemed insane. Being deprived of
his fortune, he proceeds to study the law with great
patience and fortitude, and when he gains "his own" he
displays extraordinary generosity towards his enemies.
Such is an outline of the "fortunes of Archer Clive,"
a brief sketch of a very interesting story, written
with a considerable degree of spirit, and interwoven
with many passages of fine feeling and tenderness. It
is enlivened by passing glimpses of the great men of
the day, more especially Edmund Burke, whom the
hero meets, without knowing, in a stage •coach, be-
ginning the acquaintance by praising his remarks on
the French Revolution, no doubt to the great delight
of the unsuspected author. Interesting as a work of
fiction, these volumes are also valuable as serving to
illustrate a period of modern English history rarely
celebrated by the pen of the novelist. The various
characters are pourtrayed with great force and vigour
—that of the heroine is of peculiar beauty.

WISE SAWS AND MODERN IZS'STANCES.
2 Vols. By Thomas Cooper.
The author of these two little volumes has already
proved himself to be a poet of no ordinary capacities,
by the publication of a prison rhyme, entitled "The
Purgatory of Suicides ;" he now, however, advances
his claim to consideration as a writer of prose fictions.
Some of the most admirable productions in our native
literature have been germinated amidst scenes which
to the unphilosophical mind were apparently of an
ungenial or dispiriting character, and men have occa-
sionally called into being works breathing purity and
dignity in every line, while they themselves have been
encompassed by debasing and degrading influences
Thus, in his dungeon, did the Earl of Surrey permit
his imagination to wanton in an idealizing and unfet-
tered liberty ; thus Burns, at the ploughshare, wove
his day-dre ams into verse, and wrought himself a
dwelling-place for ever in futurity ; thus, when a pri-
soner, did Sir Walter Raleigh chronicle the occur-
rences of bygone times; and thus, in a thousand other
instances, has the human intellect risen above the force
of circumstances scatheless and uncramped. What-
ever may be the predominating bias of a man, whether
it be for action or for thought, that bias will ever find a
means of accomplishing its purpose; once implanted
in our nature, it can never lie dormant, its course
is indomitable. The bias of Thomas Cooper is—
that he must write; it appears to be his " other
self," a kind of second nature; its commands are
imperative to him, and these commands could not
be gainsa:, ed even by the walls of Stafford gaol during
his " confinement for conspiracy." In issuing his
" Purgatory of Suicides" to the world, be acted well,
for it bears the impress of a generous heart and a
copious fancy ; in publishing his present work,
" Wise Saws and Modern Instances," we think with
all deference to himself, that he has acted somewhat
rashly and unwisely. Nature has gifted him, and
that abundantly, with all the exigencies and qualifi-
cations of a poet, hut in aiming at another sphere in
literature, as in the present instance, we conceive
he has outstepped the dictates of prudence. That he
has an observant eye, and no mean perception of the
various phases of character in his fellow man, is
evinced by several passages in the volumes before us;
for example, in the papers headed " Raven Dick, the
Poa :her; or, Who Scratched the Bull," and "The
Intellectual Lever that lacked a Fulcrum ;" but that
he possesses the capability of adequately pourtraying
these phases of society is not at all to be deduced
from their pages. In speaking of Charles Dickens,
the Quarterly Review, some years back, very justly
remarked that his delineations of low life are never
vulgar, but are, on the contrary, fraught with ex-
treme grace and elegance; this praise, however, can
not be awarded to the delineations of the humbler
classes, as given by Mr. Cooper in these three-and-
twenty sketches. They retain throughout an over-
tincture of the subject which is being described; they
clothe themselves in a palpable lowliness of metaphor,
and a strange poverty of language. Besides these
very glaring defects on the part of our author, he hss
acquired another of a far more incorrigible and in-
excusable nature : in attempting to endue his descrip-
tions with that air of " naturalness" to which in his
preface he ostensibly aspires, all the common-places
and slang phrases in vogue now-a-days among the
uneducated are interlarded with almost every other
sentence. Of this intolerable blemish we will give a
few instances :
" The company was large, well-dressed, and from the
bang-up appearance of the numerous leather port-
manteaus," &c.
" A change of neat suits was purchased (for the lad
was too sensible to be fooled into the hichshaw dandy
habits which the Cockney recommended"), &e,
" Commercial gentlem. n, even at the first-rate cora.
mercial inns, don't cut it quite so fat," &c.
Mr. Mortimer was completely flummuxed and flab-
beigasted ; or, as Jonathan would say, he was stuck al
of a heap," &c.
" li, tact, the man he could plainly see was up to
snuff," &c.
" But, lackadaisy I the young ladies thumped and
rattled till Dig," &c.
These are but a few of the obnoxious vulgarisms,
selected at random, and constitute a blemish in the
work that it would require a very considerable pro-
portion of beauties to obliterate, In all future pro-
ductions we would rec“mittend Mr. Cooper to avoid
such meretricious and mistaken efforts at " natural-
ness," seeing that they more partn•ularly, than any-
thing else, render his present work a failure. As a
poet he has already excited the admiration and regard
of his readers, but he has not as yet advanced any
sterling claims to popularity as a prose writer.

a large number of snipes visited the outskirts of the
SNIPES NEAR LONDON.---During
metropoli,, which circumstance indicates approaching frost.
the last fortnight
Stvcral of these birds have been shot in Battersea-fields and
on Wandsworth-common.

WAKEFIELD CORN MARKET, JAN. 2.—We have
very small supplies of all grain, owing to contrary winds and
heavy waters. At our market today there was a good at-
tendance of buyers, and a fair business 'was transacted in all
descriptions of wheat at fully last week's prices Good barley
sold freely, and common sorts ni tair request without altera-
tion in value. Beans in good demand and but few offering.
Oats and Shelling each rather clearer. Malt as before.

THE ROUTE FROM OREGON.

OVERLAND MAIL FROM OREGON-ARRIVAL OF DR. WHITE,
DIRECT FROM OREGON-UNPRECEDENTED DISPATCH
-THROUGH IN NINETY DAYS.
We had the pleasure, on Saturday evening last, of
taking by the hand our old friend Dr. Elijah White,
sub-agent of Indian affairs for the territory of Oregon,
who had just arrived with a party of only three men,
Messrs. Chapman, Brown, and Saxton, all claiming to
panreciviColluasrlylescSmaxatnoninhteardesatccinogmapnadniei
n al hp
iomr t or
be citizens of Willamette, two of whom, Oras Brown
seoxmpel timering
expedition, the results of which will soon come before
the public officially.
They left the beach of the Pacific on the 30th of July,
some 40 miles from the Umqua river, and arrived in the
colony about the 10th of August. They found the
Legislature in session at Oregon city, and Dr. White
being officially requested to bear a memorial and peti-
tion emanating from that body and signed unanimously
by them, also by the judge of the territory and executive
committee—to the Congress of the United States, left on
the 16th. They arrived at Fort Vancouver on the 17th,
the Danes of the Columbia on the 20th, and on the 23d
proceeded on their journey.
At the first camp, Major Moses Harri, alias " Black
Harris," his pilot and his dependence, as interpreter for
the Sioux and Pawnee lndians in passing through their
country, without any difference or explanation, withdrew
from the party and
intimidated,
to the valley. Sur-
prised, but nothing they moved forward.
They met the Wallawall Indians—so much excited
the spring before, by reason of the violent and trea-
cherous death of Elija Heading, an educated young chief
of distinction, killed by a white man in California—
and were handsomely saluted and most cordially re-
ceived—the excitement having entirely subsided. Corn,
potatoes, peas, camas, and cherries, were brought
forward for the consumption of the party, and their
plantations, with those of the Keyuse, speak well for
their advancement in agriculture and civilisation. Not
many of the Wallawallahs cultivate; they generally sub-
sist on fish. But the Keyuse and Nezperces, or Schep-
tans, under the auspices of Dr. Whitman and lady, and
Rev. H. H. Spaulding and lady, aro represented as
having made most commendable advance in agriculture,
science, arts, morals, and religion ; many of the latter
reading their own language fluently and writing well,
and in the regularity of their family devotions and ob-
servance of the Sabbath, it is believed few equal them.
On the Ist of September they met at Burnt River
Captains Barlow, Knighton, and Macdonald's companies
of emigrants, the three companies comprising some
eight hundred persons, with eighty-seven waggons,
within some three hundred and fifty miles of their desti-
nation. all in good health and fine spirits, representing
the difficulties of the route as nothing in comparison
with what they had expected. While the Doctor was
giving them an intellectual treat, to which all listened
with indescribable interest, some of the ladies
prepared a rich repast for him and his little party;
coffee, sugar, bread, biscuit, buttermilk, and honey,
with bacon, rice, and several kinds of dried fruits,
were nicely spread out ; they ate and drank, talked, and
mutually cheered each other, and parted in the happiest
tivad. At different points, for a distance of a hundred
and thirty miles, they met others—each party soliciting,
they all received a lecture on Oregon. The last party,
called the St. Joseph Company, were met on Snake
River, camped disadvantageously, being some two-
and-a-half miles from wood or water on the sandy
desert ; but they found them in good spirits, and
after advising them at sere length on Oregon, the
party was invited to dinner, and sat down to a
table in the tent of the Reverend M. Fisher, a Baptist
clergyman, spread with a white cloth, and partook of tea,
light bread, crackers, maple molasses, dried beef, and
butter, all prepared in the neatest manner. This com-
pany were mostly New England people, had emigrated ;
to lowa and thence to Oregon, and carried their virtues
and intelligence over the mountains with them. All
much hapi.ier and better for the interview, the party
took their leave of this interesting group of venerable
sires, aged matrons, and smiling 3 outh, and passed on
to Fort Hall, where they arrived on the 19th of Sep-
tember, and met a cordial reception from Captain Grant.
On the 23d they passed the romantic and interesting
soda springs. were ail drank freely.
On the 27th met Dr. Joseph Burk, botanist and mine-
ralogist, sent out by the English Government to make
collections, and return in seven years from the time of
his departure—dined with him—found him an intelligent,
unassuming gentleman. The party passed the divide on
the 4th of October, all walking over it, and on striking
the sweet water, all drank, not a little pleased to behold
the water once more running into the Atlantic. On the
13th of October, came in sight of a large Sioux village of
some 300 lodges, and containing 2,000 souls—went immedi-
ately to it—were met by several chiefs, and the party con-
ducted by them to the Soldier's-lodge, where they feasted
on the choicest buffalo meat. Dr. White exchanged a
horse with a chief, at the Indian's request, and left, after
tarrying two hours, the party being as much pleased
with their reception as the Indians appeared to be in
entertaining them. They encamped three miles below
the village, horses unmolested and nothing missed.
Next day met Smoke, a notable chief, and 200 Indians
with him, moving up to the large village which they
had passed—exchanged the usual salutations of the
day, and all went off most agreeably. On the 15th
reached Fort Laramie, where the party were hos-
pitably entertained, as at Fort Hall, by Mr. Pepin.
Left on the 16th, having purchased a sufficient supply
of dried buffalo meat and flour, with groceries,
to last to Independence, intending to accomplish the
journey with all possible expedition, and not to stop to
kill game. On the 17th met eight or nine ox teams,
heavily loaded with goods for trading with the Indians,
in charge of Captain Finch, who had a trading post
seven miles below Fort Laramie, on the Platte. On
the 18th met Mr. Spane—had also several teams loaded
with goods for trading with the Sioux ; he had buried
his partner the day previous, having died of a nervous
fever. On the 29th, met two men on an express to Fort
Laramie from the American Fur Company at St. Louis.
They told the Doctor he would probably meet the Paw nee
Indians before leaving the Platte, and if be did, that
they would rob him and his party.
On the 31st, at about eleven o'clock, the Doctor, riding
in front of the party to keep a look out for the Paw-
nees, discovered a large smoke a head, halted, adjusted
the pack animals, and then went cautiously on again ;
proceeded a few miles, when a horse was discovered
three or four miles a-head, tied, and apparently uneasy.
The patty were now convinced that the Pawnees were
not far off; halted again, and each man examined his
fire-arms. The doctor proposed to leave the road and go
into the hills, and to keep on travelling all night to
avoid coming in contact with Indians, whose character
was that of highway robbers. They did so, and pro-
ceeded four or five miles in the direction of the hills,
when three Indians were seen in front of them, advancing;
the party went on a short distance, and twelve or fifteen
came up to them. The Doctor made signs to them to keep
away, and that he was in great haste to go on, but they
all came up; when the Doctor stopped, requested Saxton
to get off his horse and open a pack, get some tobacco and
give them; he did so, and gave them all there was;
mounted his horse again, when one of the pack horses took
fright at the Indians, and ran with great violence, but was
at last caught by Chapman and Saxton, and the pack
adjusted by them, ready to go on again. But an Indian,
who had been very impudent and saucy, now came to
Chapman and asked him for p ;wder ; he refused to
give him any, when the rascally Indian cocked his gun.
At the suggestion of the Doctor, Chapman gave him
some powder and he went off ; but while the Doctor was
talking to Chapman six or seven had surrounded him,
and two had his horse by the bridle, when he asked
Brown to come to him. Brown did so, presenting his
pistol at one of them, and the Doctor motioning to them
at the same time, with his six-shooter in his hand, to
be off, they left, and the party collected their animals
and started again towards the hills, where a large Pawnee
village, of some three hundred lodges, appeared in sight,
several miles from the road.

As the Indians left the party they fired three times at
them, and the shot fell thickly around Brown—the
Indians going towards the village, and the party from
it, over the hills. When out of sight of the Indians
and the village, the party again halted, filled their
powder-horns and took a good quantity of balls in their
pouches, and went on again ; but they had scarcely
started, when two Indians were seen coming from to-
wards the village over the hills. Soon another,
and another appeared in sight, each coming from different
directions ; and in ten minutes from the time the
first two appeared in sight, the party were completely
surrounded by two or three hundred men, armed with
rifles, muskets, bows and arrows, tomahawks, and war-
clubs, while the air resounded with the awful war-whoop
as they still continued to dash upon them on their fleet
horses. Seeing that four could do nothing by firing on
such numbers, the Doctor told the party not to fire,
while the Indians were in great confusion among them-
selves. The first who came talked loud and boisterous,
and began to catch the pack-horses, when it was pro-
posed to go with them to the village.
In the meantime all was confusion, some snatching a
rifle from one, while another caught a blanket from an-
other, and ran off. Saxton first got under way, follow-
ing his packed horse, having many valuable papers, and
surrounded by some twenty Indians. They soon stripper
him of his powder-horn and his horse and saddle,
imbareis horsewhile-back,by a brave, with a large
an d
battle-axe,put h
led hthe bridle. Brown
followed Saxton in a similar manner, passed him,
and was the first to grace their fiendish triumph
as they entered their villages in full gallop. The
Doctor was next suffered to start towards the vil-
lage, but not until they had torn his coat into pieces, and
h
stripped him of his vest. One Indian then struck him a
blow with his bow on the right cheek; another hit
him two blows on the top of the head with a war club,
which nearly deprived him of his senses. With nothing
left but his flannel shirt and pantaloons, he passed Sax-
ton soon after Brown, with a brave leading his horse,
and a chief riding behind him, embracing him in his
arms. Chapman followed immediately after Brown ;
they struck him several times as he was riding; he was
hurried along and taken into the village. The Doctor I
was last on the ground, and was conducted into the
lodge of a chief, but not permitted to converse with any
of his party ; the rest of the men were conducted to
separate lodges, and treated in a similar manner.
the party were led several times during the evening
on boiled corn, at different lodges, accompanied by an
Indian, but were not permitted to be together, except
about ten minutes at a time. The first impression made
upon the Doctor and all the party on entering the lodges
was, that the chief would cause most of the property to
be given back, but before morning all were convinced to
the contrary, by having their packs opened and pillaged
of everything of value; not even letters to people in the
States were omitted. Dr. White lost many of his mostvalu-
able papers, and some twenty letters, though he mailed at
this place 541, to various persons in the Union. After rob-
bing the party of all their provisions and clothing, as well
• as horses, in the morning several squaws, true to the
• character of women, put up some corn, and the chiefs
who were at the head of the outrage brought forward

several poor, lame ponies and ;mules, and gave each
man a few old garments, scarcely enough to cover him,
much less to protect him from the inclement season. A
little after sunset they told them to be off, pointing over
the hills where they were taken prisoners.
In the lodge where Saxton stopped during the night,
while Brown was with him a few moments, an old chief
came in with a large package of papers, evidently robbed
from some individual, but he would not suffer him to read
any of them except the wrapper, which was of the kind of
paper used for envelopes in the War Department, and
directed on the envelope :—" Tangawanga, Chief of the
Otto Nation." The Indian then opened the package,
and took out a passport from the United States, and a
large paper having ten or twelve seals on it, opposite to
which were many signatures, a large paper resembling a
decd, and a French passport; he then folded them all up,
after pointing to the coat of arms on each, but would not
suffer them to be investigated; putting them all into the
envelope, laid them under his thigh, gave a con-
temptuous laugh, and soon left the lodge. The party
travelled till one o'clock at night without a drop of
water, on the day they left the village on the open
prairie, taking as their guide the north star, and going
in an easterly direction.
The Doctor was very much indisposed, owing to the
violent blows he had received. Soon after the party
were out of sight of the village, the smoke behind told
them that their enemies had fired the prairie, and all that
day the wind drove the fire hard upon the party, and at
night the flames of the tall grass were seen behind them
mingling with the horizon, giving it the appearance of an
ocean of fire. One of the party kept watch while the
others slept, or rather dozed.
Next morning, taking a bite of raw corn, they continued
theircourse north-east; the party and poor animals suffer-
ing extreme want of water. About ten o'clock they found a
stagnant pool, where all the party were once more sensible
of the watchful care of Divine Providence.Tbey continued
on in the
deep
direction till three o'clock, when the party
struck a ravine and began to follow it, but they had
only proceeded a short distance when the Doctor disco-
covered two Indians far in the distance to the south-east;
the parties stopped, concealed themselves in the ravine,
Brown crept to the bank to watch their movements—the
Indians advanced a little, then also stopped. The Doc-
tor then prepared to retreat and change the course of
travel, and the party readily complied with his sugges-
tion, went up the ravine some distance, took a southerly
direction, and travelled come six miles, when they struck
a small creek, kept their course still towards the south,
and just at dark struck the Oregon road, to the great
joy of all the party. They then encamped that night at
twelve o'clock on the Republican Fork, again eating raw
corn for supper.
On the 3d of November they considered themselves
nearly out of reach of the Pawnees, being fifty miles
from their village. They arrived at the bank of the
Big Blue on the evening of the 7th, when, on enter-
ing the tall forest trees, by the light of the moon, a
large flock of tnrkeys were heard among the branches.
All were excited with pleasing anticipations of
once more tasting something palatable, as the corn,
in whatever state it was taken, for several days
had soured on the stomach of the men, and they ate it
only to keep them from starving. The next morning
Brown's well-directed rifle brought a fat turkey to the
ground. After the turkey was dispatched, they re-
turned to the corn again, as the Indians gave them only
two rifles having percussion locks, with no more am-
munition, and the other rifle was unloaded to strike fire
with the powder.
On the evening of the 13th they ate the first meal in
the house of Mr. Charles Fish, quickly prepared by his
lady, residing among the Shawneee Indians, thirty miles
from the United States line.

The Doctor left the Willamette colony in a very flou-
rishing sate, and is of opinion that Oregon, at no dis-
tant day, will rival many of the Atlantic States in agri-
culture, science, and the arts. In this opinion all the
p; rty concur, and they intend to return again in the

A daily computation makes the distance from
Oregon City to Fort Hall BOO miles.

Furt Hail t; Green River 195 „
Green River to Fort Laramie
Fort Laramie to Independence

Total.
The St. Louis Republican of the 24th ult., says :

" Dr. White is now on his way to Washington, the
bearer of a memorial to Congress, from all classes of
citizens in Oregon—American, English, French, and
half-breeds—asking for the extension of the authority
and government of the United States over that infant
territory. The documents are sealed, addressed to the
care of the Missouri delegation, and will, of course, not
be make known until presented to Congress."
At the time of the departure of Dr. White, the printing
press and types intended for the first newspaper in
Oregon, had not arrived, but it was daily expected.—
From.the Independent Press.