The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-02 00:00:00

LITERATii P
NARRATIVE of the EXPLO G EXPEDI-
- to the RUCKY MOWN. VS in the YEAR
1842, and to GREGOIV and _', ..:';1 CALIFOR-
NIA in the YEARS 1844-5. By i evet Captain J.
C. Fremot t, of the Topocnaphical Enyineos. ti itit a
Map and Mast, ations.
This is a remarkably interesting and well-timed
work, The design of these expeditions was a military
aXamination of the country between the Mississippi
and the Pacific Ocean on the line of the Great Platte,
the South Pass, and the Columbia, with a view to the
Maintenance of American imagined rights over a
brelnote and interesting region. The military exami-
°Lott Was the first object, but science came in for a
ki-are of the commander's attention ; and sextants,
refracting circles, thermometers, and barometers, as
Well as rifles, formed a part of the young officer's
,cluipment. The result of the combined objects is an
Immense collection of geological, botanical, geogra-
phical, and meteorological information, mixed up
With the details which would enable a general to
March an army, or an emigrant to move his family to
the:regnn; and from which a statesman might judge
value of the country, and a farmer choose a resi-
dence, in it,
These expeditions have been made, the
ftrst;ia 1842, terminating at the South Pass in the
ea.Y Mountains; the other in 1844-5, extending to
the
tide-water of the Columbia, and thence south,
a vast circuit, through the unknown region
a the Alta California ; foiced forward, when
bne* involved in them, by mountains and
Inte
;.Y deserts, which carried the expedition far out of its
tided course, and exposed it to perils and suffer-
, Only to be compensated by discoveries full
_a strange and romantic interest, among people and
rmen
imtries never before described. The journals of the
ttexpeditions have been published just in the "nick"
obialet Alin the Oregon is the great hone of contention
twogreat countries. Towards this vast tract the
Ell -of emigration is now rolling, and the eyes of
of rope and America turning, and for the dominion
Which diplomacy is now weaving its webs, and
ilirar sounding its alarms. To quote from such
is Work would be almost impossible, so intimately
With portion connected with another. It is filled
d u.adventures, hair-breadth 'scapes and graphic
eller

hAiptions. The personal merits of Captain Pre•
on
e_tt In these expeditions have been great, and evince
mKu talent for command and for enterprise. With
h rage of twenty-five men, and no officer to aid
m° Ile has made ten thousand miles of march,
Bflg tribes of savages, without ever being exposed
tfsurprise or defeai. Without the aid of scientific
8 istance, he has so enriched his report with science,at
lab it seems to have been the work of professional
thea ill. His work was lacking to complete

the view- (which Lewis and Clarke commenced) of
p' .RTeat region from the Mississippi to the
• 1,111°14 Ocean, and it has come at the exact moment
• he
it was most wanted, and will be most useful.
'; kr events are impending, of which Oregon is the
thrie.et^ English rights and honour are at stake,
4" the civilised world pauses to see, perhaps, the
2 of the third great contest between the old stock
the yo-
ung shoot of the Anglo-Saxon race.
„ titti ik literary composition it would be unjust to
.(11 .118 e the report. It is evidently the transcript of
taorusrizde in the fields and is what such notes would
be--a brief and rapid delineation of all that
t^ Watt Beto, and in the order in which it was seen. No
elopt is made at fine writing. In place of that we
3114_,ve truth and vigour, and the fresh, vivid, and
amidst of
descriptions which come from a man in the
actionand who has something else to do
t,velerlitciteenstalking.' Still many passages are powsetrfulltyo
derogat and the work betrays nothing. inthe. style
elite from the novelty and importance of the
e' The whole may be read with pleasure as
'l4B benefit, and we heartily commend and re-
.: itilliend it. The volume is illustrated by a map
*5.14.4 Sotn. e fine lithographic illustrations ; and no one
1170 wishes to know anything about Oregon (and
go doEs not ?) should fail to read it.

rtiE NETT' TIMOR' : a Romance of .
d metrically op-
Perhaps two poets are not more London. Part I.
la
than are
,13osed, both in materials and
jabbe and Byron ; the one composition,as copious in imagine-
../%on •., as in language, the other formal, didactic, and
eoise. Nevertheless, the resent poem combines
writers, and that
`4e characteristics of these two 'Without, in the slightest degree, in.uring its symme-
aj es smack of that
Many of its descriptive
genuineness and truth whicahnpaasrhaegsnydgetrraedcea'h'lTe
in
ne
thßeos;
ugh', so popular, while the
tWO productions may be discerned more clearly in that
ktravagant affection antithesis which was so
humorously signalised
in the "Rejected Addresses."
„
Alike as an instance of this, the lines
"It Was not mirth, for mirth she was too still,
It was not sit, wit leaves the heart more chill ;
But that continuous sweetness, wh al with ease
~i_ Pleases all round it, from the wish to please."
to'lle resemblance the other hand, which it bears
~,, ce, on . the style of Byron is, if possible, more con-
4Picoous than the preceding; the forcefulness of its
alternate
"Pressions, the energy of its allusions,
4itteltsm andsentirnent, recalling to ourimt%mofy
Age
eVerZ page "‘ Childe Harold" and the
have A
4. Bronze." tattizeidst %i re!!re-
Surely the author must
ecx of the spirit which actuated the,
rl. h Bards and Scotch Reviewers,,
3,5. 41:::t 11: e Pennedliessubjoined allusions to St; Jame
i'loittoin,l4 that space the blood-hound crowd array'd , ;
Ilse,T,wel-thrutuod the shrine where last the Stuart pray d
T° I. k tai:esPesee the self-same blood hounds- run
e 4e, tc- 'eet of Stuart's viler son! .
°f Vans r°llo the dusk-nd towers—amidst his ring
4,nd h-e
-e
4ne'l My cheers—rode the Dutchman king;
The thn-; "id by
la ea's Goneril MI di to hear ?
the -k" that; iumpltpd o'er her crownless
.Leda,sr .
thlfrehwhere th gaslight streams on Crockfor door,
Ther enry ei; e
Bwifte, where
cu
uekled at the jests of More.
gaze upon the last 11. 8.,
.e,
~
Iti Paused 4' d muttered, ' shall I have that See
(_„newerl:aar,,lienlarising, however, these specimens of_ his
tthoerit.writi,t;:n imitator, we by no means wish to deny
411
ersarj,.
to point, in
arlY pretensions to origi.nality ;on the we shall presently hay.e.occasion . .
Sotn. Peqial manner to his originality in analyzing
-- of 'Air
As f__ •. . most remarkable
s_
~ 4r as thlS first portion of a poem
:411s:inn an opinion m will permit us
political characters..
111 itself much that' is dramatic, is likelyalso that
which it
in ueemhbodies has
to produce a humanising and generous
*ffect upon the minds of its readers. The
PllcPose of the romance, as its title indicates, main
se 18)outray a being
sated with riches and its
ticiomne-
;Tient indolence, and a being at the same y
h(l2lose affections are hardened into misanthropy
4.5 5'a lir lack of sympathy and kindliness
fellow-man. Morvale, a half-caste, (who
Li, the -hero), an offspring of unmarried love
ri'v'elv..ee_ti. an English chief and an Indian maiden, knowledgede-
of existence among those
4 his first ;114%,terrk
a'n'cthe couched Strangler"
regions where
I " the fell serpent, with
piste for his victim
41 deathful eve," sports among the,unadnedrwood.
self-willedHee
411 Qr having 'depicted the lawless .
treed
hurries
I. urn which the young alien acquired during the
la;lours of his abandonment, the author
ut..o the midst of civilisation, removing him from the
vioLigle into the drawing-rooms of London, trans-
orrillinB him from an indigent outcast to the master
(5, oPulence and grandeur. These alternations afford
uPPortunities for very striking contrasts, and o.f. thense.
.?Portunitics the author has availed himself with co
_t
fr°4l t tact.
"Itieratde Many agreeable contrasts. yesul
!Ilthese circumstances, the future Tunon being
represented as a child delighting in rambles.s
ander the shade of melancholy boughs,,' or, as it i
bohly „
of 3 n Rresed, "rocking his passions on soft waves
zbut e'sif ' " Pourtrayed as the owner of a desolate,
ioitioerkinsr;Petrue°l:),3l;lyrnfiatnfusilolyn in. the metropolis,, whose
which °` s"lc " sombre
01,154 kervale extends a sheltering
f`esatriveadl.,i,nto Joy ' by the
to
et-
Thhaendscenethine
seas, an(5l4llLeY is pencilled with an exceeding MTV std the sudde outburst of sunlight o.vsewredtihse.
covers sects at then •
t the young girl
very instant Poetry tb
Pl.c'teet°r, is one of those touches o.f true
_
toreseu, 1)t ~t stir the heart's blood with their pi
„,„4. e - eeee,.._
e, _
7L'lstle scene ...V. But the most remarkable and
e
4 IVew scene 1° that with which the first part of
valee.. • ~"n is concluded, namely, whereinAdieov;r:
()v half sister Calantha is seated at
Where°llg the
hernwt d and
flautheeauthor
seizes to spot ~ where Villiers
tie3ll sung "—an occasion which
of t.._i __sottuce
,eme very clever profile likenesses
i, ' "lost • - of the present day.
Teese corirpicuous statesmen
their
vprsonages are supposed to be passing by on
Nil
ilay to the l!
(1 tives.
arliament Houses, and as each ap•
Sir
cite
rQce'ves an appropriate cluster of adjectives.
sad r.,tP•t Peel,
bv
rill ions ..,,,
t were
the Great Riddlemeree of all sects
''',l parties, takes precedence, as i
_.
i;tly B:,„t' Qf hiS competitor._ jogging over the road
dell ycln that very sedates'-luoking cob which is so
The ;in,"'n to every lounger in Parliament-street.
May 73:` °f our author's opinions upon the Premier
traTtiOtif St
ell" summed
up in his ejaculation "And still the
,trot the cautious mind betrays." The por-
Indi:ntelytts:fetebrvluakredzfiWellington, which comes imine-
quite a daguerreotype of the
delineati far as regards his appearance, but as a
Mistake " of his
_mental character it is extremely
entipletsn and
f4141:3- with the exception of the few
and fain;
We have selected below :
lgTe,waith loose rein and careless canter view
'er a:6°r 41,n, the Prince of Waterloo;
The cra rill brow the hat as firmly prest
Within 2 shsPe rigiii in the buttoned vest;
And ye their on which the fire has proved,
Not . e close Sparta of a mind unmoved!
biv. is the wealth to some large natures lent,
,irn, ille.lY lavish, even where tnispent,
ii,isot liberal sunshine of exuberant soul,
ria:,?,l,llt, sense, affection, vvarming up the whole.
briiNA.t command his veriest pasSions halt,
p,_ .Is er,teb virtue, disciplined each fault.
gl'VTdoeiletilie er wrong, if circumscribed the sight,
uieetn thrOueaphrospect and it ne'cr is right,
the teles
copec of habit still,
ell seel4 4 Can% 411 the world-4 drill!"