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

BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY.

Novelty and originality are the principal requisites
in a monthly periodical, and in this particular the pre-
sent number of Bentley is remarkably deficient. Some
eight or nine years since, when Boz was the editor of
this Miscellany a biography, under the supervision
of that illustrious humourist—a biography of Joe Gri-
maldi, appeared in two volumes, with a portrait of that
great droll—as mere imagination never could have pic-
tured him—namely, in the sobriety of common-place
apparel. Every reader of Dickens, and therefore every
living creature who could at all appreciate the literature
of fun, devoured that biography (much as it felt short of
the general anticipation), and looked into the astounding
seriousness of that portrait—possibly with the hope of
detecting the lurking place of gaiety among the work-
ings of the " graver"—of discovering the curve of a
grin on the cross-hatching of a laugh. Yet out comes
Bentley for the February of 1846, with this same worn-
out, used-up, and most terribly hacknied likeness of
Joey—actually as a newness; as though a capital idea
had just struck the entrepreneur of this Miscellany with
which to stagger the public with something wonderfully
original. And then the impudent context of a memoir !
a kind of royal salute with a pea-shooter ! one page
and a quarter of flippant audacity, filled with stale
fribbles I Really the conductor of this publication be,
tokens either very extraordinary carelessness or the most
consummate insufficiency for the trifling duty he has to
discharge; and we would recommend the proprietor to
be somewhat more circumspect in his future ar-
rangements. Brien O'Linn" is continued with more
vivacity than heretofore, though its interest is marred
by a very inferior etching by Lerch, the first specimen
of pictorial poverty we have yet witnessed in the sketches
of that clever artist. Then follows a chapter by Robert
Postans on the " Guinea Trade "—feeble, but startling,
like the dim and wierd shapes that glimmer along the
spectrum of a magic lantern. " Gaming, Gaming-
houses, and Gamesters." are severally pursued this
month with the same evidences of research and perse•
verance on the part of the writer, whose knowledge upon
his subject appears neither second-band nor meagre.
His disclosures are frequently strange, and deserve a
very general perusal. Arthur Dudley obliges us with
one of those prurient and ephemeral somethings, which
consist principally of gauze and rose-leaves, and simpers,
and mazurkas, and everything that is faintest and sick-
liest in the fancies of the love-sick ; things which we
fondly but rashly imagined were becoming thoroughly
forgotten. Tho particular species of composition to
which we allude will be instantly comprehended when
we cull the commencement of the several sections of this
frivolous nullity, which is appropriately christened " The
Two Bouquets." First, " The mists of evening were
falling, and I was about pursuing my course homeward."
Secondly, " It was a May morning ; the birds were
singing from every bush and tree." Thirdly, " Under
the lime-trees of the Schloss-Platz of C—, in the middle
of the sweet-scented, sunny month of June." Fourthly,
" The most perfectly organised orchestra imaginable was
just in the middle of its execution of Strauss's immortal
Schusuchts Walzer.' " Fifthly, " I had arrived in the
middle of a fine October night at V—." Sixthly, "It
was one night, in the middle of January, between ten
and eleven o'olock." If this is not the most
stilted balderdash, the words we have quoted
are not in Bentley ; it is out-annualling the annuals, and
out keepsaking the keepsakes. Mrs. Gore has a smart,
Laman-Blanchard-like paper on " Travelled Men ;"
and the Irish Whiskey Drinker—a famous fellow in his
particular walk—has the atrocity to encroach upon a
literary territory, sanctified with the footsteps of Chris-
topher North, by commencing a conversational club at
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butions in this number are, first, a superb lit-We bit of
extravagant fun by Albert Smith, called " Mr. Tonks
and his great Christmas failure," filled with such pre-
posterous and spontaneous drolleries as that of the
" small children in their quaint, strait dresses, who
looked as if they might have been taken up and rung
like so many hand bells:" and, secondly, another libation
from D. Canter, commemorative of such actors as Mun-
den, and Blanchard, and Fawcett; the anecdote about
Gattie in particular, is richly told. Saving, however,
these two exceptions, the present mouth of Bentley
is extremely indifferent.

ERASER.
The present number contains several articles of supe
rior merit, and among these we prefer " Contemporary
Orators—Sir James Graham," and " Latin Pamphleteers
—Sallust." The "Principal Campaigns in the Rise of
Napoleon," even though so often described and supposed
to lee well understood, have furnished matter for an in-
teresting paper, which, chiefly from documents, and
furnished by Col. Mitchell, proves that there are great
exaggerations and falsehoods respecting the more strik -
ing events in the memoirs of Napoleon. Effect at that
time was a matter of the first consequence ; it was neces-
sary to electrify France by the continued announcement
of great deeds of arms ; and historical truth was the
last consideration in framing the dispatches sent to
Paris. The success and superior abilities of Bonaparte
were, however, so manifest, that scarcely any one took
the trouble to ascertain whether results and their causes
were correctly described. As matters of history, however,
these assume more importance, and require to be stated
with care. Someof the exaggerations in the memoirs are
certainly very glaring. For instance, it is now well
known that at the battle of St. George, which ended the
third act of the Italian campaign, the Austrians lost
somewhat less than 12,000 men, killed, wounded, or cap-
tured; while the dispatches state that they lost 30,000
men, killed and wounded, and that 14,000 were driven
into Mantua. This would give about 4,000 men more
than the whole of the Austrian force at the commence-
ment of operations, and many similar instances of the
same kind are given. " The Position of Ministers" is a
great failure; the writer does not appear to have made
up his mind on any question connected with it, if we
except perhaps his resolution " never to consent to the
eradication of the aristocratic principle from the English
constitution, nor sanction any measures which have
a tendency in that dire 2tion." The corn-laws
he seems to consider necessary to the aristo-
cratic principle ; and, therefore, Fraser might as
well have said, " We abjure Peel ;" but, nevertheless, he
wavers in a most ambiguous manner, and protests that
"he will take his place where truth, and honour, and
good policy seem to dictate." It is refreshing to turn
from such a subject to the beautiful and correct
charac-
ter drawn of Sallust, and to the apt and learned illustra-
tions with which it is interspersed. The writer is master
of his subject, familiar with the authors who have
commented on this celebrated biographer; (for the lives
of Cataline and Jugurtha are the only works of his that
have survived the ravages of time, and the hands of bar-
barians) throws in occasionally interesting remarks on
, Livy and Tacitus, as well as Herodotus, Thucydides, and
Xenophon, and draws an interesting comparison between
the wars carried on in Africa by the Romans, and those
by the Rauch at the present time. One extract will