The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-04 00:00:00

___orultsnAv 4vrNnkrn,

ON 0

- _
TRE MA GA ZINEg.
BLACK:I. OOD.
Among the many thousand readers of " American
Notes for General Circulation," it cannot be for-
gotten that Mr. Dickens has occasionally evinced
no small inclination to aid in the establishment of an
international copyright, and that, in doing so, he has
often hurried into disputation, and sometimes soared
into eloquence. One letter of his, addressed to poor
Tom Hood, as editor of the New Monthly, was pub-
lished, if we recollect rightly, in that magazine,
shortly after his return from the United States, and
maintained, with considerable vehemence, the injus-
tice of that unnatural system which defrauded the
English, while it led to the destruction—because it
tended to the enervation—of the authorship of the
Americans. in Parliament, Sergeant Talfourd, the
alter ego of "Boz," has raised his rhetorical voice against
the old ruinous system, and out of Parliament agita-
tion has not been wanting to effect, if possible, its
annihilation. Hitherto the crusade against literary
pirating has been energetic, but hitherto, also, it has
been all talk. A publishing firm in Edinburgh has
at length acted, and their efforts give every promise
of being eminently successful. The attempt to which
we are alluding—made through the instrumentality,
of Blackwood' s Magazine—is altogether of so inge-
nious a character, and augurs such golden results to
writers and publishers on both sides of the Atlantic,
that we shall transcribe the account of it contained
in the number for January. It will prove, we are
satisfied, an anecdote worthy of preservation in the
History of Literature, and must (to quote the slang
dictionary) be regarded as nothing more nor less
than " a capital dodge." Here then is the amusing
incident recorded in the Note entitled " Blackwood
and Copyright in America."
" The publishers of the magazine had for many years
been aware that a cheap American reprint of the work
was in regular circulation to a very large extent,
and they were naturally desirous to put an end to such
an injustice. While they were turning their attention
to the subject, they received in the early part of the past
year a communication from an American gentleman,
suggesting, as an effectual means of redress, the insertion
in the magazine, from time to time, of an article from a
native or a naturalized citizen of the United States, who
would establish a copyright in his own person, or that
of an assignee, and thus either protect the whole work,
or compel the publishers of the pirated edition to reprint
it in an imperfect form, such as would materially
check their success, and, in either way, break up the
system.
" The tone and talent of this communication seemed
to the publishers to recommend their correspondent as
himself well qualified to lead the way in this most
righteous enterprise, and the result was, the appearance
in the October number of the article " Maga in
America," which has been highly relished on both sides
of t`ie Atlantic. Of this article a proof was dispatched
to Mr. Jay, a solicitor of eminence in New York, who,
with the utmost promptitude, registered the copyright
in his own name, and, presenting himself to Messrs.
Scott, the reprinters, inquired if they were about to
publish the magazine, as usual, that month, as he
thought it right to inform them that, by so doing, they
would be placed in a delicate position. On hearing an
explanation, Messrs. Scott were considerably taken
aback, and, although unwilling to acknowledge that the
game was up, they seemed to have a painful conscious-
ness that. such was the case. The negotiation terminated
in the mean time, in their agreeing, after various letters,
and not a little conversation, to pay a sum as copyright,
before they issued the October number, and a like
amount for each succeeding number, until a further
arrangement were made. It would have been very easy
for the proprietors to have brought the reprinters under
heavy responsibilities, by giving them no hint of their
movements, and allowing the October number to be pub-
lished as usual, when Messrs. Scott would have become
liable to a severe penalty for every copy sold. This was
not done, as no blame is attached personally to Messrs.
Scott, who have merely acted under a bad system, in
which any one publisher might think himself free to
seize an advantage which was open to all."

The credit of this clever device is attributable in
three quarters—to the ingenuity of the American
Contributor, to the decision of Mr. Jay, the solicitor,
and, in a particular manner, to the enterprise and co-
operation of the Messrs. Blackwood. We are rejoiced
that active measures like this have been adventured
upon, as they must ultimately give recompense
where recompense is especially due. Another paper
from the pen of the same trans-Atlantic correspondent
enlivens the new number of Blackwood. It is a caustic
notice of the state of "The Periodical Literature of Ame-
rica," and discloses the diseased and unhealthy condi-
tion of the reviews and magazines printed in the
United States According to this contributor, the
principle causes of this unsoundness in the tone and
quality of the periodical literature of Brother Jona-
than are—the system of gratuitous writing, the un-
certainty of payment when payment is promised, the
villanous system of partisanship, and the cheap re-
prints of the choicest of European publications. To
those who object in Coto to magazine writing as light
and superficial, he speaks thus :
" First. Do you see any prima facie improbability in
supposing that a man may write a very good essay,
who could not write two good volumes octavo; or a racy
and interesting sketch, who could not put together a
readable novel; or a few graceful poems, without having
matter enough for a volume of poetry ?
" Secondly. Is a treatise necessarily profound, because
it is long ; or superficial, because it is of practicable
dimensions?

" Thirdly. When you use the term superficial,' do
you really behave and mean to imply that periodical
writers are in the habit of discussing subjects which
they do not understand? Would you say, for instance!,
that Macaulay's reviews denote a man ignorant of his-
tory, or that Sedgwick knows less geology than the man
who wrote the Vestiges of Creation,' or that Mitchell
knew less Greek than Lord Brougham?"

Of the first and last contribution for January—the
first being a retrospect of " Thirty Years of Liberal
Legislation," and the last being a stricture
on " Ireland and the Ministerial Measures "
we may take occasion to speak elsewhere.
Their tenour can be conjectured. In the
article inscribed " Switzerland and Italy" there
are sentiments which have caused us as much sur-
prise as they have pleasure, appearing as they do on
the Conservative pages of Maga. While sympathy
is expressed for the Catholic cantons of the Sonder-
buiid, it is also expressed—and that, moreover, in
earnest language—for the popular movement in the
Roman peninsula. After alluding to the prolonged
prostration of the Italians, Blackwood observes :—" A
new spiritual chief ascends the throne at Rome, by
accident rather than by design—[shall we not rather
say by the express design of a Superior Agency ?:1,—
he pronounces a few magical words, and in an instant
the sacred fire of liberty, and the desire of resisting
foreign oppression,'pervades the whole land." At the
same time that full justice is done to the King of
Sardinia and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, for
the part they have takm in these transactions,
the writer distinctly remarks—" To Pius Is.,
and to the noble conceptions of his prudent mind, the
whole of the recent movements in Italy may be fairly
attributed." This should never be forgotten by those
who give credit to every idle rumour wafted to us
from the shores of the Papal States. if Cardinal
Ferretti has proved a brilliant promoter of the popular
cause as Secretary of State, he was made Secretary
of State in the room of Lambruschini by Pius IX.
If Gioberti can agitate in behalf of democracy, Gio-
berti was recalled to the Eternal City by Pius IX.
Whatever may be the future results of his Pontificate,
the first year of the reign of the reforming Pontiff
must ever ensure for him the goodwill and gratitude
of those who are sincere in their devotion to the cause
of civil and religious liberty—witness his famous
amnesty, witness his institution of the national guard,
witness his disbandment of the Swiss soldiery, wit-
ness his beneficent measures in reference to
the Jews of Rome, witness his emancipation
of the press, witness his establishment of re-
presentative legislation in the municipalities.
These deeds crown him ,a ith a nobler crown than
the triple diadem of the tiara. When speaking of
the civil war in Switzerland Ebony becomes jocular.
He has been alluding to the elements of tranquillity
for which the Helvetic republic is peculiar :
" And yet, of a sudden, up rises a storm; the Fede-
ration splits; and, before men can come to comprehend
what the mountaineers are quarrelling about, swords are
drawn; shots are fired, a couple of towns are captured,
and the war is declared at an end almost before it was
known to have commenced. It has been like a drama
at the opera. Scene, a rocky district, with a town in
the distance:enter a chorus of peasants, who sing about
liberty. Alarums: a band of soldiers rush in and drive
them off the stage. Grand cantata of the president—
and the curtain falls. Some connoisseurs in the boxes
call for the manager, and ask when the opera is going
to begin, as they wish to intervene: the manager enters
from the side-door, bows humbly, and intimates that
they may have their tickets returned if they please, the
I play being over. General disappointment!"

There is a charming little sketch, called " Some-
thing like a Country House," painted in the style of
Watteau. " Evenings at Sea" are continued with the
autobiography of a surgeon. " Flechier's Chronicle
of Clermont Assizes" is a deligiatful reminiscence of
the eloquent prelate, who is chit fly memorable for
his funeral oration on the Great Tu.'enne. It is fol-
lowed by a curious and most entertain,'og memoir of
"Don John of Austria," the illegitimate' son of the
Emperor Charles V.; and that again by 44 A Night's
Peril," a paper for all who can relish the m
As the commencement of a new year Blackwood is
large in promise,—and, as far as the monthly' instal-
ment is concerned, it is anything but smell in
fulfilment.

BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY-
The article in the present number of Bentley
which will be looked to with the greatest' interest is
undoubtedly the one entitled, "Government Defence of
the Country," by James Augustus St. John. Mr.
St. John is one
" Qui mores hominum multorum vid'it et urbes;"
he has not merely travelled through, like Mr. Cobden,
but he has sojourned in Prance and the various coun-
tries, European, Asiatic, and African, which are
washed by the Mediterranean, Baltic, and Oerman

Seas, and, therefore, we should 141ve ninth greater •
weight to the opinion of Mr. St. John on this subject
than to that of Mr. Cobden. In considering the
various articles which have of late appeared in diffe- I
rent journals on the possibility of a French invading
army being landed on our shores, and on the relative
military and naval strength of France and England,
Mr. St. John says—
" The best thine., however, is to state, as far as pos-
sible, the exact truth, and neither to overrate the power
of France, nor to underrate our own. Supposing our
military strength to be equal to our population, and the
extent of our territories, France would be a mere pigmy
in comparison with us. Her population does not exceed 1
thirty-five millions, while ours falls little short of two
hundred millions, that is to say, comprises one-fifth of
the population of the globe. But no idea of our mili-
tary strength can be gathered from this view of the
matter. Our empire is scattered in patches over both
hemispheres, divided by oceans, and impressed in diffe-
rent places with a different character by the combined
influences of climate, race, language, and religion.
France is one compact unity, or nearly so, for all she
possesses external to tier own shores is of comparatively
little value, and would inevitably be shorn away by the
first stroke of the sword of war. Iler military e%tablish -
inents, therefore, lie neatly all within a moderate dis-
tance of the capital, and may easily be wielded by the
central Government, whether for offensive or defensive
purposes. And what, then, is the real force of France?
It has confidently bee❑ :Anted in the newspapers that it
amounts to three hundred and fifty thousand men, in the
highest state of discipline, animated by the worst feelings
of rancour and hatred against this country, and inured
to the most merciless cruelty in the wars of Africa. This
view of the matter may suggest erroneous conclusions.
The French army nail dly consists of about 325,000
men, of which from 110 to 120,000 are required for the
pacification and defence of Algeria. Twenty or twenty-
five thousand men are distributed through the other
French colonies in Western Africa, the Antilles, and the
Pacific, so that a large reduction must be made from the
formidable round numbers with which our popular
speculators have hitherto dealt. Still the force of
France is very great, and, in the estimation of military
men, more than sufficient to invade England in her
present state of comparative defencelessness.
" Much stress has, moreover, been very properly laid
on the character of the French soldiers. They are not
what they were in former days, the representatives of the
civilization of the kingdom, but a fierce, immoral, reck-
less horde, approximating more nearly to savages than
any other troops in the world. This has been rendered
indubitable by the history of their campaigns in Algeria,
where they have been guilty of more and worse crimes
against humanity than any other army whose exploits
are on record. Burning villages, massacring the inha-
bitants, shutting men up in caves, and roasting them
there alive, with every other excess which villany can
conceive and brutality can execute, have been their
habitual achievements. And yet they had nothing to
retaliate on the Africans. Neither the Kai)) les, nor the
Arabs, nor the Moors had humiliated them at Waterloo.
Abd-el-Kader had not marched to Paris, or transported
Napoleon to St. Helena, and kept him there in imprison-
ment till his death. Consequently, what they have done
in Africa must have proceeded from the natural prompt-
ings of their character. It would be altogether different
in England. They would here hays. much to revenge,
since they could not fail to discover at every step
trophies snatched from them on the field of battle, bitter
mementos of defeat, the flags of their ships of war, mag-
nificent pieces of artillery, and statues and monuments
erected to celebrate victories over them. In our public
records they would find the proofs of a thousand other
facts and circumstances calculated to excite their fury.
What, therefore, the weak and defenceless portion of the
population of this empire might expect to meet with at
their hands, can scarcely be imagined even from reflect-
ing on the mysteries of the caves of Dara, or the infa-
mies of Otaheite. Whatever the most degraded passions,
lust, cupidity, or revenge, could conceive or perpetrate,
would unquestionably be accomplished. On this point
there can be no mistake.

" It appears to be generally admitted that France has
now at her disposal an army of one hundred thousand
men for offensive purposes, and that she possesses the
means of transporting nearly half that force by steam
from her own shores to ours in the course of a single
night. An officer of the highest rank, who visited the
camp at Compiegne, and carefully examined the condi-
tions of the French army, confirms the popular report
that it is in the completest possible state of efficiency;
that its artillery practice is most exact and admirable,
that it is familiar with all our most recent improvements
in gunnery, and that, in spite of an external varnish of
politeness, the spirit by which it is universally pervaded
is that of most deadly hatred towards this country. For
a long time the French Government has been moving up
its forces towards the north, where they are kept in for-
midable masses, almost within sight as it were of the
shores of England, at Cherbourg, St. Melo, Brest, and
other ports, where an ample supply of war steamers is in
constant readiness to transport them wherever their
services may be required.
" On the subject of the steam navies of France and
England much too little information is popularly pos-
sessed. If collected together, our steamers would no doubt
suffice
to defend our sores from the attacks of the whole
world. But, in point of fact, where are they? Scattered
over every ocean and every sea, protecting the tracks of
commerce, or overawing the pirate and the slaver. Com-
paratively few are retained at home, while those of
France, constructed and maintained purely for purposes
of aggression, are kept perpetually within call. Among
these, there are sixteen immense steamers, each capable
of serving as transport to fifteen hundred soldiers during
a short voyage. Other and smaller war steamers, acting
as the satellites of these, would divide the remainder of
the invading army between them, so that a vast flotilla,
with artillery, horses, and men on board, might be
pushed over in twelve hours from the coast of France to
our own."

The Ministers, it is said, took into their most
anxious consideration the letter of the Duke of
Wellington to Sir John Burgoyne. To his honour
be it spoken, Lord John Russell was not one of the
Ministers to whom the representations of the Duke
were made in vain. " They hesitated long before
they could determine whether it would be most de-
sirable to make a large addition to the regular
army, or to organize an immense militia, or to adopt
the middle course of relying partly on soldiers of the
line and partly on what may be strictly denominated
a domestic force. After mature deliberation they
would seem to have given the preference to the course
last mentioned." So far this is well, but it is not
enough. We should wish to see harbours of refuge
constructed on every part of our coast where they are
needed, which would be useful to our commerce
in time of peace, and which in time of war would be
our best defences against invasion—harbours in which
large fleets, whether of ships of war or of merchant
vessels, could lie in safety. Never was the time so
opportune for this construction as now. The railway
companies are everywhere suspending their opera-
tions—thousands of navvies are and will be thrown
out of labour, and will have to be maintained
out of the poor-rates until they can procure employ-
ment. Surely it would be infinitely better to employ
these men in the construction of harbours of refuge
than to maintain them in idleness in the union work -
houses. We have accumulated wealth by our industry
—it behoves then that we should by our energy de-
fend it from those who would rob us of it.
And if we are not prepared to do so, we shall
be treated like bees, and destroyed for the sake
of our stores by those who have long desired to
plunder and ruin our hives of industry and commerce.
The novel of " Captain Spike" is approaching to a
conclusion. In the present number there is a terrific
description of the escape from the Swash of Spike
and the crew of the brig, and of the chase by the boats
of the Poughkeepsie. The boat of the S wash is so
deeply lanen, that Spike and the boatswain, and three
others, agree to throw their companions overboard by
a ruse, and the two blacks, the Mexican captain, Mrs.
Budd, and poor Biddy, fall victims to this diabolical
scheme. Jack Tier swims to the boat of the
Poughkeepsie, on board which he finds Mulford and
Wallace. A struggle ensues among the miscreants
on board the Swash's boat, in the course of which all
fall overboard except Spike and the boatswain. The
men on board the Poughkeepsie fire, and kill the
boatswain, and wound Spike, and take him prisoner.
wre have two excellently-written biographical
sketches, one of Sir H. Hardinge, the other of Sir
Sydney Smith, both illustrated by well-engraved
portraits. A continuation, by Mr. Warren, of his
interesting voyage upon the River Amazon ; a most
amusing account, by Captain M'Quhae, of her Ma-
jesty s ship Daedalus of a visit to Raja Brooke, of
'
'sarawak (illus.) trated by an engraving of the Bunga-
lowthe Raja
0f ; a laughter moving story, by A.
Elder, of the rdventures of a lucky grocer, who had
60,0001. left him, which is illustrate) by Leech in his
quaintest style; and a varity of other amusing light
reaidng.Bentley begins the new year well.

FRASER.
Fraser opens with an address from the new pro-
on rietor, Mr. J. W. Parker, announcing the principles
which the magazine will henceforth be conducted.
Its earlier numbers were, he admits, disfigured occa-
sionally by an excess of bitterness and levity of tone
which have gradually disappeared, leaving its raciness
as perfect, and its force of argument as vigorous, as
ever they were. We hail this candid admission as a
uarantee that for the future the " slashing" style
will be abandoned b y Fraser. Another pledge,
which we also hail with satisfaction is, that henceforth
each separate number of the magazine, though dove-
tailing with those that come before and follow after,
will as much as possible be rendered a complete work
in iiscif—a pledge which u e believe will be rigidly
kept, as Regina has
ever been honourably distin-
guished from the great ninjority of her metropolitan
contemporaries by her comparative freedom from the
abominable nuisance of continuations. The series
now commencing, however, is distinguished by one
feature entirely new ; the last ten pages of the present
Ilirqber are devoted to a record of the principal events
whic%s hjtve occurred during the preceding month,
both at home and abroad, and judging from their con.
tents, it evident that the subscriber will, at
the end of the year, find himself in the possession of
a well-digested, admirably-condensed annual register.
This revivai of the practice of the magazines of the
olden time is worthy of commendation. The January
number opens with an article on the state of the
`manufacturing poor. ythich is well worthy the perusal