The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-02 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

neverelar. commenced a work with so much of
DOMBEY and SON. No. I. By Charles Dichens.
of
glorious promise as the present. Even the illustrious
~Pbiecfkowreiell-icimgawzainsgGorsrowmell-hsitsreel°t,digfinhge
Ipwoliaen‘kt‘dueßorde:zi h
o the right there was Doswell-street, if he
looked to the left there was. Goswell-street," is
nothing in comparison. The deathbed in the work-
house depicted in the opening pages of "Oliver
Twist;" the eccentric genealogy with which " Ni-
cholas Nicklehy" is begun ; the first visit to the Old
Curiosity Shop; the preliminary evening at the
Maypole, in " Barnaby Rudge ;" and the famous
chase of the dead leaves, with which "Martin
Chuzzlewit" is commenced, and with which Seth
Peckst iff is introduced, possessed nothing comparable
to the promise given by this inimitable introduction to
"Dealings with the Film of Dombey and Son,
Wholesale, Retail, and gr Exportation." The story
is written in that same style of simplicity and natural.
ness which has acquired for Mr. Dickens a celebrity
such as, in the hack but expressive phrase, "the world
will not willingly let die.' Again, there is the same
combination of the most subtle and moving pathos
with the most fantastic and sunny wit, which has
rendered the works of this admirable writer such
universal favourites. Charles Dickens, as an Irish-
man would say, always writes " with a heart and a
half." This single number of ‘• Dombey and Son"
would be alone sufficient to explain our meaning, from
that touching death scene in the first 'chapter,
where Mrs. Dombey expires while clasping her young
child to her bosom, and "thus, clinging to that slight
spar within her arms, the mother drifted out upon
the dark and unknown sea that rolls round all the
world," to that beautiful scene between the nurse and
Florence. Beyond this, "Boz" has a noble habit of
availing himself of any and every opportunity of in-
veighing against abuses, whether public or private.
How cutting is that side-sarcasm at the dispro-
portionate promotions in the sea service, where he
describes a certain elderly gentleman as having paid
" house-rent, taxes, rates, and dues for more years
than many a full-grown midshipman; and midship-
men who have attained a pretty green old age have
not been wanting in the English navy !" Many
"characters" of singular originality are already in-
troduced in 'these four chapters; foremost among
which are Dombey himself and his newly-born son;
the latter of whom is placed close to the fire, " as if
his constitution were analogous to that of a muffin,
and it was essential to toast him brown, while he was
very "new." Miss Tox promises to be the best
maiden lady of an unknown age ever portrayed by
Boz. From the furry articles which she wore in
winter, "as tippits, boas, and muffs, which stood
upon end in a rampant manner, and were not at all
sleek," to the "small bags with snaps to them, that
went off like little pistols when they were shut up,"
and which bags the said Miss Tox was accustomed to
carry, the likeness is drawn to the very life, to the
very hair indeed. From Mr. Chick, again, " a stout
bald gentleman, with a very large face, and his hands
continually in his pockets," who has acquired such a
habit of whistling and humming to himself, that on
the most melancholy occasions he is constantly burst-
ing in with a "Right tol loor rul," or a "Rump te-
iddity, bow-wow-wow!" we may expect intolerable
amusement. The " apple-faced family," otherwise
called the Toodles, is richly described, even to the
smallest Toodle, who on the flight of his mother
"immediately began swarming up stairs after_ her on
his arms and legs." Miss Nipper is an improvement
on Tilly Slowboy of illustrious memory ; she is spoken
of as "so desperately sharp and biting that she
seemed to make one's eyes water." Here, however,
is a description of a nondescript nautical character,
named Captain Cuttle—and an exquisitely ridiculous
description it is too.
" But an addition to the little party now made its ap-
pearance, in the shape of a gentleman in a wide suit of
blue, with a hook instead of a hand attached to his right
wrist ; very bushy black eyebrows ; and a thick sticlein
his left hand, covered all over (like his nose) with knobs.
He wore a loose black silk handkerchief round his neck,
and such a very large coarse shirt collar, that it looked
like a small sail. He was evidently the person for whom
the spare wine-glass was intended, and evidently knew
it ; for having taken off his rough outer coat, and hung
up, on a particular peg behind the door, such a hard
glazed hat as a sympathetic person's head might ache at
the sight of, and which left a red rim round his forehead
as if he had been wearing a tight basin, he brought a
chair to where the clean glass was, and sat himself down
behind it. He was usually addressed as Captain, this
visitor ; and had been a pilot, or a skipper, cr a pri-
vateers. man, or all three perhaps; and was a very salt-
looking man indeed."
Here, by way of a companion quotation, is one of
those pictures of a London locality in which Mr.
Dickens is so wonderfully successful.
" Mr. Dombey's house was a large one, on the shady
side of a tall, dark, dreadfully genteel street in the re-
gion between Portland-place and Bryanstone-square.
It was a corner house, with great wide areas containing
cellars frowned upon by barred windows, and leered at
by crooked-eyed doors leading to dustbins. It was a
house of dismal state, with a circular back to it, contain.
ing a whole suit of drawing-rooms looking upon a gra-
velled yard, where two gaunt trees, with blackened
trunks and branches, rattled rather than rustled, their
leaves were so smoke-dried. The summer sun was never
on the street, but in the morning about breakfast time,
when it came with the water-carts and the old clothes-
men, and the people with geraniums, and the umbrella-
mender, and the man who trilled the little bell of the
Dutch clock as he went along. It was soon gone again
to return no more that day ; and the bands of music
and the straggling Punch's shows going after it, left it a
prey to the most dismal of organs, and white mice ; with
now and then a porcupine, to vary the entertainments ;
until the butlers whose families were dining out, began
to stand at the house doors in the twilight, and the
lamplighter made his nightly failure in attempting to
brighten up the street with gas.
"It was as blank a house inside as outside. When
the funeral was over, Mr. Dombey ordered the furniture
to be covered up—perhaps to preserve it for the son with
whom his plans were all associated—and the rooms to
be ungarnished, saving such as he retained for himself
on the ground-floor. Accordingly mysterious shapes
were made of tables and chairs, heaped together in the
middle of rooms, and covered over with great winding-
sheets. Bell-handles, window-blinds, and looking-
glasses, being papered up in journals, daily and weekly,
obtruded fragmentary accounts of deaths and dreadful
murders. Every chandelier or lustre, muffled in hol-
land, looked like a monstrous tear depending from the
ceiling's eye. Odours, as from vaults and damp places,
came out of the chimneys. The dead and buried ls..dy
was awful in a Tlicture-frame of ghastly bandages.
Every infgragromuenndtsthoef
corner
gust of
th
e windne g
h thatbon rose,rn i
ng broughtmews,
seodmje,
the straw that had been strewn before the house, when
she was il!, mildewed remains of which were still cleav-
ing to the neighbourhood ; and these, being always
drawn by some invisible attraction to the threshold of
the dirty house to let immediately opposite, addressed a
dismal eloquence to Mr. Dombey's windows."
Phiz is the illustrator, and admirably does he embody
the limnings of Boz; the two etchings in the present
number are capital. We are rejoiced to see Phiz
still retained as the draughtsman to Dickens; we are
rejoiced to see a new work by Boz appearing from
month to month in the old green covers and heartily
join with the nephew of old Solomon Gills in wishing
" Success to Dombey—and Son—and Daughter !"

---
I been a thousand times described. She enters a field
which has already been traversed by a horde of
lindustrious gleaners. Notwithstanding all this, how-
ever, the volume before us is eminently successful.
By its production the authoress has enhanced the name
which she had previously acquired in litera-
ture ; and has entitled herself to the gratitude
of her readers. The pages sparkle with a most
delightful animation, the narrative is peculiar
for its picturesque elegance, historical remi-
nicenses are introduced without effort and always to
the embellishment of the text, appropriate anecdotes
and sentiments are scattered through the chapters,
and the whole work bears the aspect of a panorama
skilfully arranged and delicately coloured. Miss
Costello 's volume on Venice is, altogether, a charming
and clever• performance.

THE WORKS Of- G. P. JAMES: Vol. IX.
DARNLEY.
.So remarkable is the popularity of this historical
romance about " The Field of the Cloth of Gold,"
and so gerierally are its excellencies appreciated, that
we need scarcely adventure upon any investigation
of its literary merits. The admirers of Mr. James will
rejoice at such a republication of one of his very best
productions, especially as the typography, the embel-
lishment, the binding, and the compactness of the
whole volume, are so excellent.
PAUL FITZ-HEI Vl?l'._ A Narrative.

By Henry

John Thornton.

Three volumes octavo have become so much the
habitual dimensions of a fiction now-a-days, that we
are almost grateful to any one who has the audacity
to break through the general habit. Variety is
pleasing in literature as elsewhere, and hence it
is possible that we derive any satisfaction whatever
from so small an innovation. We recur, hoWever to
the times when a tale in a single volume was not un -
fashionable; when "Rasselas" was not unacceptable,
when the " Vicar of Wakefield" was admitted into
society, whether hot•pressed or not, and when it
mattered little that " Robinson Crusoe" had -no
twin volume. The present story is the con-
densation of what might have been extended
threefold without any marvellous diminution of
interest. Of its general character and scene
some more adequate conception may be formed
from its second title—" A few weeks in Paris." Al-
though the outline of the plot is not remarkable for
novelty, Mr. Thornton has yet arranged his mate-
rials so skilfully as to have written a very pleasant
and agreeable "Narrative."

KNIGHT'S WEEKLY VOLUME—Nos. CV.I.
and CVII. BACON AND Ills WRITINGS—
Vol. 11. CABINET PORTM•IIT GALLERY
—Vol. IX.
In publishing works of this solid and instructive
character in so portable a form, and at so moderate a
price, Mr. Charles Knight is increasing the debt of
gratitude already owing to him by the public. As a
caterer to the intellect of the people, no publisher hiss
evinced more sagacity in discrimination, or more en-
terprise in the development of his literary projects.
The little volumes of which the present form the con-
tinuation are a sufficient testimony of this fact.
Anything that can tend to the dissemination of the
knowledge of such a vast genius as that of Load
Bacon among the multitude must be welcomed as a
boon to humanity. The wisdom of that great sage
is calculated so wonderfully to expand the mind of
its reader that it is lamentable to reflect upon
the circumstance that the writings of Bacon
are published only in such a costly manner
as to render them almost inaccessible to a large
proportion of the population. The volumes of
this series may be regarded as the first step towards
the supplying of this deficiency. Shakspere s dramas
are printed and vended at a price which is reasonable
to the most moderate incomes, and the speculation
is found to be remunerative. 'Why should not
some similar movement be made to popularise
our philosophers as well as our poets ?
Lord Foppington, in " The Trip to Scarborough,"
prized his library, like a true numskull, because of
its handsome bindings and elegant typography. The
humble classes, however, are ready to look more to
the oyster than to the shell: they would prize a
standard work, covered with brown paper, more than
a silly one in gilding and morocco. Publishers
should ponder these things. Among the biographies I
contained in this number of the "Cabinet Portrait
Gallery" are many of eminence. Algernon Sidney, 1
the patriot, who inscribed himself, in an album at
Copenhagen, inimica tyrannis : Thomas Sydenham,
the most memorable of English physicians; Robert
Boyle, one of our noblest philosophers, both by birth
and intellect; Henry Purcell, the most wonderful,
possibly, of all our native musicians, and others of
lesser greatness. The letter-press is illustrated by
characteristic engravings. •

THE SQUIRE'S DAUGHTER. A Tragedy. By
Andrew Park.
This is the most hazardous adventure ever utpler-
taken by Mr. Park. Hitherto he had contented himself
with the production of an opera, " the Mariners ;" a
didactic poem, " Blindness ;" and a variety of
lyrical and fugitive pieces. In this he has boldly
attempted a five• act tragedy, than which, as he
well observes in his preface, " there is not anything
in literature so difficult of accomplislament: We
cannot think that the endeavour has proved trium-
phant. There are, undoubtedly, passages of consi-
derable energy, and others of no little elegance ; but,
on the whole, there is a want of that sustained dignity
and pathos which can alone constitute a successful
tragedy. Many low characters and mean sentiments
are introduced, which entirely mar the effect of the
plot, and jar in upon the interest. Whenever Shak-
spere interpolates a comic character or incident in his
tragedies, he does so with such consummate art that
the grandeur of the principal characters and incidents
is actually enhanced thereby. The .gravediggers in
Panda render the mournfulness of the Danish
Prince's meditations in the churchyard still more
affecting by contrast. Osric, again, elicits a new
phase of the mind of Hamlet. The jests of the fool
in Lear impart a more solemn air of desolation to the '
miseries of that " old, mad king." This, however,
results from a peculiar genius for the drama, which
genius Mr. Park does not possess.

FATAL AFFRAY AT HAREFIELD,
MIDDLESEX.
On Wednesday two young men of the names of' James
Carpenter and George Norman, boatmen, were brought
up before Messve T. Dagnall and G. Greville, the sittiug
magistrates of Uxbridge, for examination, the former
charged with having caused the death of William Nor-
man, aged 23 years, and the latter with having aided and
abetted in causing the same. Samuel Jordan cieposed
that he was the keeper of the Harefield leek, on the
Grand Junction Canal. On the morning of Saturday
last, between seven and eight o'clock, the prisoner James
Carpenter came to witness and said he wanted to fill the
lock for two boats to go through, but he had not got the
lock ready when the boats came up to the lock. William
Norman, the deceased, was steering the first boat which
came up to the lock, and some very high words took
place between the deceased and the prisoner Car-
penter because the lock was not ready. The de-
ceased then got out of his boat, and used some
very aggravating expressions towards Carpenter,
upon which Carpenter asked deceased if he
could make him what he had called him, and deceased
said he either could or would, witness could not tell
which. Deceased then immediately threw off his cap,
and began fencing at the prisoner Carpenter. Both
Carpenter and the deceased then walked on to the road
which crosses the bridge at the locks, and began fighting,
and fought for some time. Witness did not see who
struck the first blow. After they had fought for about
ten minutes, witness went on to the bridge, which was
about ten yards off from them, and called to them to
leave off, saying that they had had quite fighting enough,
and they had better attend to their boats. The pri-
soner, George Norman, is a brother of the deceased,
and was then there present, as he had been from the
first of the affray. He likewise begged his brother
(the deceased) to give over fighting, and go about his
business. The prisoner Carpenter made the reply.
" That's just as he likes," meaning deceased Loth
then went into Mr. Goodinan's field, whit% adjoins
the canal, and raiewed the fight. About five minutes
afterwards witness went into the field, and then
saw the deceased down on the grass in a sitting position,
and his brother (the prisoner Norman) behind him, ap-
parently trying to lift him up. The prisoner Norman,
on seeing witness, called out for a jug of water, which
witness instantly fetched ; and, as he gave it to
George Norman, witness stooped ,and looked in de-
ceased's face, and immediately said he was a corpse.
The prisoner Norman instantly asked witness if any
doctor was at hand. Witness told him one lived about a
mile off; and sent off for him directly. The prisoner
Norman cried very much when witness said he was a
corpse. Mr. Kyd, the surgeon, came, as did also Fil-
king, a Harefield constable. Mr. Kyd said that de-
ceased had been dead about half an hour. Witness
pointed Carpenter out to the police as the person who
had killed the deceased. Carpenter was standing
crying on the bridge when he did so. The body was j
afterwards removed to the King's Arms Inn, Barotteld.
to await the inquest, The Bench upon that evidence
discharged the prisoner Norman, and admitted him
as a witness. George Norman then corrotairafed the
evidence of the first witness. Deeee,.;eci struck the first
blow, Mr, ITayes Kyd, surw-on, of Harefield, deposed
to having been called to attend deceased, whom he found
as described, He opened a vein, but very little blood
flowed. Considered death resulted from a violent con-
cussion of the brain. T. e; deposed to taking Carpenter
into cestpdy, tied on asking him if he had not been
fighting, he said he was sorry to say that he had, and
that the man that he bed been fighting with was
dead, He then said he wanted his breakfast. The pri-
soner, in answer to the charge, said he (V, pot follow the
deceased into the kW for twAQT three minutes, and th- •
140 WP 1114 haye tgis olf lighting before if the.
tleCe2Seu
V Q ild have let him. The Bench --• " •
to commit him. Tb 2 , it was their duty
prisoner was shortly afterwards
to Newgate by the Uxbridge coach.

Dispatches from the Governor of Callada were re-
ceived yesterday at the Colonial-office.
Dispatches were sent off last evening from the

c__ .t__ ..