The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-04 00:00:00

BENTLEY.

We are rejoiced to find our old iriend George
Hodder once more disporting himself in the fields of
periodic literature; we had for some time missed him
from his accustomed beat, but we find him this
month as quaint and as lively as ever, leading the
van in Bentley, with the "Luck of Inigo Dobbs," a
pleasant and farcical sketch, pleasantly and farcically
illustrated, by Leech. The other illustrated article
for the present number is entitled "Italy and Ire-
land." It is a well written review, by Dr. Taylor, of
Mr. Whiteside's admirable work on Italy, and
is illustrated by a portrait of Pio Nono. The hosti-
lity of the late Pope Gregory to gas lights is well
known, and it has been generally supposed that this
hostility was merely part and parcel of his " auld
vvurld" prejudices against all innovation. It would
appear, however, from Dr. Taylor's account, that
Pope Gregory had a special and particular reason for
hostility to gas. The story is thus related by Dr.
Taylor:—
"When the chairman of a company formed for light-
ing Rome with gas, waited on the Pope to obtain the
required permission, Gregory indignantly asked how he
pres umed to desire a thing so utterly subversive of reli-
gion The astonished speculator humbly stated that he
could not see the most remote connexion between reli-
gion and carburetted hydrogen. Yes, but there is,
sir,' shouted, thel Pope, my pious subjects are in the
habit of vowing candles to be burned before the shrines
of saints, the glimmering candles would soon be rendered
ridiculous by the contrast of the glaring gas lights, and
thus a custom so essential to everlasting salvation would
fall into general contempt, if not total disuse.' No reply
could be made to this edifying argument. Silenced, if
not convinced, the speculator withdrew; the votive can-
dies still flicker, though not so numerously as heretofore,
and they just render visible the dirt and darkness to
which Rome is consigned at night."
It is to the bigoted Pope Gregory that the bigoted
and intolerant rescript on the subject of the Irish col-
leges is attributed by Dr. Taylor, who says it was
presented to Pio Nono by the Propaganda as a do-
cument which his council had unanimously agreed to,
and which would give equal satisfaction to the British
Government and to the Catholics of Ireland, and that
it was not until he saw comments that it had pro-
voked that Pio Nono became aware of its contents.
The present number of Bentley is rich in records of
travel. Independently of this notice of Mr. White-
side's books, we have a well written review of Lieut.
Forbes' recently-published work, on China; a con-
tinuation of Mr. Warren's scenes and adventures on the
banks of the Amazon, and clever sketches of Rouen,
the forest of Elbeuf, and Caen, being a continuation of
" Wayside Pictures through France, Belgium, and Ger-
many." The rapid increase of railroads in France will
soon place the old-fashioned diligence among the things
that have been. With the external appearance of this
lumbering " conveniency" every gazer at the windows
of the print shops must be well acquainted. Of its
interior life the author of " Wayside Pictures" gives
the following happy sketch :
" This is one of the penalties of travelling by dili-
gence, that you must eat with the diligence, drink with
the diligence, and put up with all the rough miscella-
neous usage of the diligence. Yet in some districts it is
nut so easy to get on without the help of this same great,
commodious, obnoxious diligence. Post-horses in re-
mote places were always scarce, and the spreading inva-
sion of the railroads has not improved the accommoda-
• But the thing to
b e
tions in this particular. Nor is the coupe so indifferent
a resource after all, with a slight exception, of which
travellers by coupes no doubt entertain a vivid recollec-
tion. The coupe is generally roomy and
airy, with a
liberal expanse of cushion, and loops for your arms by
which
reconciled you
t o
can
s iinsg theyourselfheap
are buried. The accumulation of that volatile material
on the floor of a coupe can be accounted for only on the
supposition that the vehicle, in addition to its other func-
dsluesetp
in which your feet
func-
tions, is also employed as a dust-cart. The soil depo-
sited by multifarious boots in this aristocratic division
of the diligence appears to be preserved with scrupulous
care, and forms, in some instances, a stratum of suffi-
cient capacity to grow a small carpet of grass, if the dis-
turbance to which it is exposed did not prohibit vege•
tation, Yet, with all its drawbacks, the diligence is a
conveyance of considerable merit. It opens a complete
comedy in little of French life; priests, opera-dancers,
bagmen, avocets, litterateurs, artists, farmers, and women
of all classes and conditions are found here squeezed up
in the stifling interior, or crushed into the reloads; and
when it empties its variegated contents at the door of a
roadside auberge you have only to observe and listen if
you want to pick up a few genuine traits of national
character."
We are glad to find this author doing justice to this
well abused but most commodious and most conve-
nient of vehicles, which, with all its drawbacks, is, as
he justly observes, " a conveyance of considerable
merit." The translation of "El Buscapie," the long
lost work of Cervantes, is completed, and we con-
gratulate Miss Thomasina Ross on the admirable
manner in which she has performed her task. She has
completely caught the spirit of Cervantes, and so quaint
and characteristic is her translation, that it would be
no hard matter to re-translate it into Spanish, after
such a fashion that even a Spaniard might imagine
he was reading the original. The lion. Charles
Stuart Savile, who, fearless of shot and shell, lounged
about Paris in the days of June, 1848, with the same