The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-06 00:00:00

ECLECTIC REVIEW.

Schllsser's " History of the Eighteenth Century" is
reviewed in the Eclectic, and although the dissertation
which grows out of this review is a very scrambling cata-
loeue of the literary characters of that eventful age, it is
nevertheless the most striking article in the number ;
and this from the momentous naotre of the subj
A cheap and popular edition of this really remarkable
work would be a most useful publication, and we corn-
mer d this fact to the consideration of those adven-
turous publishers, who have followed the example of
that celebrated society, of which the Ex-Chsn-
cellor Lord Brougham was the originator and
chairman. Ancient History, like the dead
languages, is taught with infinitely more assiduity than
those histories which pertains to modern times, and
those vernaculars, the knwladge of which w0i.14 be of
such immeasurable efficacy in spreading civilisation and
brotherly love throughout the various nations of the
globe. From this preposterous disregard to the develop.
went of the p pular mind, of rendering the mas,
f :miller with the occurrences in which they are in reality
more interested than in all the achievements of antiquity.
a monster ignorance still hangs over the population.
Thousands are intimately versed in the half-heroic
and half-voluptuous career of Alciabiades, who
have but a feeble notion (if any notion what.
ever) of the hlnndering policy of M. Necker : and
yet the life of Aleiahiade- is little better to them
than a fascinating fiction ; while upon the mistaken
political economy of M. Necker depended the social
emancipation of millions. Thousands again are intimately
acquainted with the mellifluous odes of Horace, to whom
the writings of Hobbes ere as a book never written; and
yet the Roman poet is nothing better than a minister
to our intellectual luxury, while the pen of the old
Malmesbury philosopher burst asunder many of the ma
naeles which bound the continental populace in a general
serfdom, and inspir .d his suecessors, Le Clere,Bolingbroke.
Montesquieu, Voltaire, Boyle, and Rousseau, to the
production of such a system, or rather of such systems
of philosophy as shook kings upon their thrones,
and have totally changed the character and position
of mankind. Schlosser, therefore, to our thinking
performs, with regard to modern times, what
Plutarch performed with regard to ancient. He divulges
the progressive advance of those illustrious men who
were destined ultimately to dissipate the political dark-
ness of many centuries, to arouse the people from
ages of political stagnation and of subjection to
the present state of enlightenment and freedom.
Hence it is that the mere criticism of his singular
work upon the eighteenth century—that century of
change!—is invested with a charm and an importance
quite irrespective of its literary merits. Other papers,
such as one on " The Lancashire Operatives," another
on Mackenzie's Memoirs, and a third upon the writings
of Mackintosh, render the Review of this quarter attrac
tha.

THE FARMERS' MAGAZINE.
A very sensible course is taken by the conductors of this
publication, as regards the great question of the past five
months. Seeing that so many of their countrymen have
declared themselves opposed to the so-called protection
to native industry (which was about as much protection
as a Chinese shoe—cratnping and crippling the national
resources instead of placing them upon a souni and
healthy footing) ; finding moreover that the
vast majority of Legislators in both Houses of
Parliament have declared themselves in favour
of the free trade measures ; and knowing, in fine.
that complaint is now altogether useless, since the
Corn and Customs Bill has become the law of the
land, the Farmers' Magazine determines henceforth
to drop all political considerations upon the subject, and
"not to wage a war against what they have
no power to avert." From the " Review of
the Corn Trade during June," it would appear
that the prospects of a wheat harvest throughout the
country are rather favourable than otherwise, though
the spring-sown corn has suffered materially from
drought. The erroneous statement of the Protectionists
we pPrceive is still persisted in in the pages of this m
namely, that nearly a million and a half quarters of
wheat have been waiting in bond to he produced in the
market immediately after the Ministerial measures
were passed. The Earl of Dalhousie stated in the
[louse of Peers that there were merely 900,000 quarters
of wheat in bond ; not a million and a half.
therefore, farmers of England! but nine hundred thou-
sand! Th's is, nevertheless, of little importance to
our corn growers, for the supplies of home grain have
been very scanty during June ; and the Farmers' Maga-
zine comes to this conclusion, " that there is less
wheat of home growth remaining in the country than
many supposed." The fears of the agriculturists will in
time wholly evaporate.

MONTHLY l'1?IZE ESSAYS.
Though the first number of an entirely new descrip-
tion of periodical, the present bears a rather substantial
appearance. Whether it can take a permanent stand,
where so many promising publications have failed.
is a question which time alone can testify, and
which it is also in the power of the editor
to assure. " Reasons for a Nev Edition of Shak-
spere," is the most ea'. borate article in the collection,
and will somewhat astonish Mr. Payne Collier. It is
remarkable enough that no edition has yet appeared in
any degree worthy of the Napoleon of Poets. If we
could have an accurately collated text, printed in full
lines (not those detestable " double columns to a-
page"), interspersed with the dainty devices of
Kenny Meadows ; embellished with the choicest
notes culled from Knight, Johnson, Malone,
Collier, Ayscough, and the rr et ; prefaced with
that masterly prefaco of the lexicographer, an entirely
new memoir of the dramatist and an antiquarian disser-
tation upon the dresses and appurtenances of the
various plays ; if to this were subjoined an appendix of
fragments from Hazli: t, Charles L,lnah, and the like, toge-
ther" with certain chaptt rs from chleizel's History of
Dramatic Literature," and others from Mrs. Jamiesot's
" Female Characters of Shakspere, ' we almost think
we should be contented. The attempt may possibly
be made in times and we realli believe would