The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-13 00:00:00

MAGAZINES FOR SEPTEMBER.

Fraser's Magazine does not strike us as coming quite u
to the mark this month. " The Colonies Once More,
by the Editor, is a clever article, advocating the drawing
closer of the bonds which bind the colonies to the mother
country. The Letters of Sir George C. Lewis give us an
insight into the character of that eminently trust-
worthy statesman. A contribution entitled " Fa-
shions in Hair and Head-Dresses," contains a very good
account of the wonderful freaks of fashion
with regard to ladies headdrsses, and how they have de-
parted from that " Plain plaiting of the hair," recom-
mended in Scripture. The following passage from Addi-
son, quoted by the writer, is very much to the point :
"There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's
head-dress. Within my own memory I have known it
rise and fall above thirty degrees. About ten years ago
it shot up to a very great height, insomuch tilt t the
female part of our species were much taller than the men.
The women were of such an enormous stature that men
appeared as grasshoppers before them. At present the
whole sex is in a manner dwarfed, and shrunk into
beauties that seem almost another species. I remember
several ladies who were once very near seven
feet high, that at present want some inches of five.
For my part I do not love to be insulted by women who
are taller than myself. I admire the sex more in their
present humiliation, which has reduced them to their
natural dimensions, than when they had extended their
persons and lengthened themselves out into formidable
and gigantic figures." " East and West," a paper
from the pen of Lady Spencer, is an account
of the great work that the ladies of the West-
end are doing for their poorer sisters in the East-
" The War " being the Fraser contribution to the warlike
literature of the day, partakes very strongly of the almost
universal bias of the English press in favour of Prussia.
It is one, however, apart from the writer's amiable
weakness of continually refreshing our memory with the
exact day of the month of every important event for the
last five or six years, of considerable value. H.
adopts a view of the Danish war which will not be
very readily accepted by Englishmen, and this is
that the conduct of Austria and Prussia in reference to
Denmark in 1864 was highly meritorious. The resem-
blance which Austria and Prussia presented in 1866 to a
couple of burglars fighting over their spoil does not at all
seem to strike him.

St. Paul's Magazine is this month an exceptionally good
number. The story by Mrs. Oliphant, The Three
Brothers," concludes in the orthodox way by sundry mar-
riages. This story is one that will certainly increase Mr&
0 liphant's already well-earned reputation as a novel
writer, the concluding paragraph being' a complete vin-
dication of the ending, " And thus the story ends, being
like all stories, no history of life, but only of a bit out of
life7-the most amiable bit, the section of existence which
the world has accepted as its conventional type of life, leav-
ing all the profoundest glooms, and the higher lights
apart. As in heaven there can be no story telling of the
present, for happiness has no story, there, perhaps, for
the first time, the mouth of the minstrel may be opened
to say or sing what is untellable by the frankest voice on
earth. But till then we must be content to break off
after the fairy chapter of life's beginning, the history 01
youth."
" The Approaching Solar Eclipse " in Saint Paul's, and
" The Planet Saturn " in Fraser, are essays of deep
interest to all. The former shows the vast power which
the spectroscope has given man in astronomical investiger
tions, the author's speculations on the probability of the
prominences in the sun being caused by the reduction to
a gaseous or liquid state of those meteors which, in their
orbit when at perihelion pass very near to the sun with
very great velocity, seem to be very well founded, and
by a little extension might be made to account
for the " restitution of energy " which must evi-
dently take place to make up for the " dissipa-
tion of energy " through radiation of heat from
the sun's surface, and which is so great that but for
this " restitution of energy," would soon reduce the sup.
to a mass of matter of very low temperature, The latter
article on the Planet Saturn, contains some rather
daring speculations on the causes of Saturn's rings. That
Saturn and his satellites compose a system analogous in
some respects to the, solar system seems to be prettyplain-
Many investigators have thought that Saturn is in not,
nearly such a complete state as regards development se
the other planets, and that in Saturn we may see the
process through which our own earth, for inpftance,
has passed. Saturn seems to be in the stare when
he is manufacturing his satellites,. some of which he hag
already made, and the others are in the prose ss of forma'
tion out of his belt. The division which has bP,en found to be
taking place in this belt, which forms a kind of zone round
his equator, seems to support this We"... Whether the
planets ever formed belts round the sun, and were in the
course of time formed into spheroids by the same process
that seems to be going on now, is a platter of speculation
as yet.
As we have in Cornhill an essay by a cynic, so in St.
Paul's we have one on cynicism itself. Of the article on
cynicism we may say that wo have scarcely ever read ant'
thing in a magazine containing so much originality and
sprightliness of style. What is more true and
yet original than the following lines which
give the causes of so much of the cynicism
which is found amongst educated men :—" The course 11
which a man may arrive at the worst forms of cynicism is
very simple. Go and do something you know to be
wrong, and persist in it. In a very short time you will
find you are of opinion that " there's nothing•
new and nothing true, and that it does'nt matter ;" Or.
possibly of a still more deadly opinion than even tha
carries upon the face of it—

"Thy duty ? What is duty ? Fare thee well."

_ •
For arriving at the milder forms of the disease, it 'is 'Ott
necessary to go and,forcibly outrage your conscier,Lce.
you need do is to devote your days as much as yo 3
possibly can to your own pleasure. Then
you happen to have humour, inlc,ellect, 9,11`;',
culture, you will probably 'develop into a cynic:
Of all the current magazine articles on, the war that 10
St. Paul's strikes us as being the best possible view of the
subject as it is best understood byEnglishmen.lt is ap10°::
priately entitled " The English Aspect of the War." .
satisfactory to observe that whilst war is looked upon with
detestation by most of our writers, the Peace at any Poe'
party does sot seem to be gaining much ground. TO
writer of the article before us is particularly severe up°o
those who would make us as a nation give ourselves up to
selfish isolation, and live in the ignominious safety of
universal contempt. He, however, adopts that view 0'
the origin of the present war which has caused oar
old ally Napoleon 111. suddenly to become so unpopull.
amongst us, and that view is that he made an unprovoked
attack upon Prussia in order to preserve his dynasty,
May we not, however, look upon the Emperor in thl
matter as the instrument of public opinion in France,
which was undoubtedly for war ? The opinions which 116
expressed in his proclamation would seem to point to this.
It is difficult to see how the war was necessary to the lin
nervation of his dynasty. " The Fishermen of Auge
a story which is thoroughly French, and gives a very vim
description of lowly life in a French fishing village.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is to be prezenfea.
with the freedom a the city of Elgin.
The extension works of the Weymouth and pate
land Bailway to the Breakwater will commence on the
Ist proximo.
Mr. William Barratt, a fish merchant of Bristol,
has been fined £l2 10s. and costs for having offered for
sale a quantity of herrings, which were unfit to be used
for food.

On Saturday, the well-known swimmers, Coulter,
Morris, and Pamplin, Contended in the Thames, belel
London Bridge, in a 250 sweepstakes : distance, one rage'
Morris, who was the favourite at starting, won the race.,
It is proposed to hold a meeting of mercballn:
bankers, and others interested in the British communit'e,,,,-
in China, at the London Tavern, to•morrow, at VA'
o'clock, in relation to the massacre at Tien-tsin.
At Mullingar, on Saturday, a man named Mullig
was arrested by the police on the charge of having, °l3
Sunday week, fired at a land steward named Johnst°;
who was fortunately not injured. It is believed theh object of the attack was to intimidate the, steward. - W
man has has been committed to gaol.
All classes of French residents in London bag
established a Committee of National Defence for t3.®
purpose of strengthening, the hands of the new Govern"
ment in defending the soil of France from the inva
armies,
One of the most valuable cargoes ever landed 14
Southampton is brought over by the Tanjore, which ,91p
rived in that port on Sunday night. It was estimate o
„s
be worth £1,500,000, upwards of a milltiop, cg which
in specie.
. Notice has been given at the Post-Office -11/A
half-pennyianngd
will
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pprsoeusstpsapegdlie labelsablfef po
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paper proprietors
The German residents, preparation. .bs who re
Pancras-road. The r‘inanimino-usa
strongly on Saturday eiv en. ign tthtehemGetrotoalisisuranrotit
and newsw, ForillerOc'wratbqouebireiPriel\r°'etrsioranielli)ecreiic
was that Germany
money indemalfr
The kter,:hti
the northern y and upon the cession of Alsace,
ought to insisotpuinpioonnYmForfantchee gpaatYlnjleriocl
nelf
eighth o oann
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aronet, which occurred on the 7th inst., au,,, hi
Sir • Hanson 13°r,
ree'v.ice, 2, Castle-street, Beaumaris. The deee'-'BO
• 11
WP°.) succeeded his father, John, in 1825, was born lu f 90
ronsequently he had attained the advanced age ote for
years. He was a deputy-lieutenant and a magistra
Norfolk.
The Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette scat fij.:
Rear-Ad
that the Admiralty have determined that of 0,
Chads shall give up his post as second in command off
Channel Squadron next month, and have already.s etr,_ tor
a flag officer to take the duties, who will contin v
present staff in his retinue.