The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-30 00:00:00

THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. No. CLXVIII

Our blue and buff philosopher concludes his eighty-
third volume with more than usual vigour and variety.
Foremost undoubtedly in importance, and possibly in
literary merit, as it actually is in position, the article on
" The Lord Chancellors of England" engages our espe
cial notice. Whether the three volumes recently issued
by Lord Campbell (and upon which this preliminary
article is funded) be regarded as the production of a
liberal ex-Chancellor, the fruits of a career of untiring
erudition, or the effusion of a purely analytical intellect,
they must be looked upon as volumes of no ordinary
character. Through the intervals of his Parliamentary
occupations, Lord Campbell has striven, with no puny
or unsuccessful effort, to erect a monument by
which he may at once ensure the per-
petuity of his fame, and throw a stream of elucidatory
light into many of the most dusky and impenetrable
quarters of history. A most splendid section of bio-
graphy was to be devoted to the romance, the dignity,
the wisdom, the grandeur, the power, and the ac-
quirements of the Lord Chancellors of Great Bri-
tain, a line of men which Mr. Addison has correctly
declared to have accumulated in itself more intellectual
and worldly capacities, and to be, in all essential parti-
culars, more truly illustrious than any other office or
profession possibly in the world. From the accession of
William the Conqueror to our own immediate genera-
tion, the seals and the royal conscience have remained in
the custody of men remarkable for some one or other, or
occasionally for a combination of all the lofty qualities
which we have just enumerated. Whether we regard
the gorgeous integrity of Becket, the protracted influ-
ence of Burnel, and the imperial magnificence and pon-
tifical supremacy of Wolsey, or descend to a considera-
tion of personages no less extraordinary who have in these
modern times presided over the High Courts of Chancery
—Eldon, and Brougham, and Cottenham, and Lyndhurst
—there was almost every accessory attraction combined
in the theme undertaken by Lord Campbell ; there were
abstruse inquiries for the scholar, incidental discoveries
for the antiquary of letters, romantic alternations of
fortune for the indolent, sagacious inferences for the mo-
ralist, texts of thought in almost every page for the
philosopher, instruction for the sedate, amusement for
the volatile. Every grade of intellectual capacity, every
shade of temperament, every bias acquired in educa-
tion was separately appealed to by the very title of tha
literary venture. " The Lives of the Lord Chancellors
of England." Attention was thus excited towards
and interest engaged in the undertaking : the
first series of the work has already appeared
and its reception has been commensurate with its pro-
mise. From the woolsack, and in the presence of the
assembled peers, the author has been complimented
for the work by the Lord Chancellor, Lyn4l-
- ; criticism has pronounced in its favour ;
even the Edinburgh Review, whose reluctance
to praise has become proverbial, says, in regard to the
labour and the labourer—"We must not wish that Lord
Campbell may be permitted to finish his Lives of the
Chancellors of England' in the uninterrupted leisure
of a man of letters ; but it is a great pleasure to us to
find that his well-earned leisure is so happily em-
ployed?! A concession that 1 drawn forth by the
greatness of the subject, and the skilfulness with
owrhicthheit
chraitsicibsemen—iarccoitmpcliasahed.he Aslamosdtestihgenaetnedti—re
in Edinburgh
orthinebruirsgehanßd Review, e
ndteov
of the
ttehde
Ctho a
a:a
el
Idorry_
ship, an account which can be gleaned from almost any
or every encyclopmdia. Two only of the renowned men
who have filled that office are selected for scrutiny by
the reviewer—both of them great men, one of them as
good as he was great, the other—we recoil even from
confessing to ourselves the ignominy which attached
to the lustrous and unfading
memory of Francis Bacon ;
as we linger over the moral beauty of Sir Thomas
More with astonishment. and rapture. The latter, so
gentle, so guileless,cswoewit.ty, so wise, so genuine in his
moralpe rf,
eo
perfection), attainments
so dignith!Ter
int ;islmost call them his me-
" homespun" simplicity,excellenTheaissSi r James
Mackintosh
ia yetto
sohf
sraaclk
pa
oe xpprroefsasseed
init.his capacity,former, a majesticflaaowedan d t
air!
hashs gheaapi
ofr
inregharisdsPrthineciPvlierstueosf morality,h but more ore espe-
eniiasiti-eydas
indepen-
dence: " dedicated by nature a higphopriieyst ofan knowledge,human and divine;" fallen to a proportionate lowliness
in the estimation of a lamenting but reverential
posterity. Whether we accumulate our information
respecting Sir Thomas More from the tender revelations
of Roper, or the precise narrative of the great Chancel-
lor's grandson ; whether we collect the materials
of his career from the correspondence of Erasmus,
the careful summary of Hoddeston, or from
that masterpiece of biography his life as writ-
ten by Sir James Mackintosh, we cannot but
revere More for the angelic purity of his heart, love him
for the exceeding and unaffected tenderness
of his nature, and entertain sentiments of the
deepest admiration for the accurate balance
and lofty capabilities of his intellect. Ad-
mirably is he christened by the historian "a martyr to
truth ;" his name, if not the proudest, is, without one
moment's question, the most unsullied in the his-
torical records of our country. For the impu-
tations of intolerance and religious persecution
cast upon the memory of More, by our re-
viewer, are, we undertake to assert, based upon his own
contorted view of passages in the " Apology," and upon
the questionable evidence of Fox For a thorough
refutation of these accusatory remarks we
refer our readers, and the reviewer himself. to the pages
of Mackintosh. which, notwithstanding the writer al-
ludes to as familiar himself. we conjecture, have not
met his perusal very recently, or in that case have la-en
consulted with random precipitation. Of Bacon our
language is too feeble to express our feelings of
admiration, and our admiration too exalted and sin-

cere to allow us to expatiate upon the demerits
—" for," as the writer of this article in the
Edinburgh .Revview exclaims, " his genius, and
for the glory of it, the world is not large enough
to contain them." An after-observation, in the same
article, is beautiful in its emphasis, in its expressions of
awe, and the mournful hopelessness of its desires. It is
this—" Our reverence for the genius of Bacon is so
great ; we have that sense of what we owe him
for the delight and profit mankind have reaped
from his immortal writings ; we feel so deeply
what it is we lose in hope and glory, and how
all that is most magnificent in the prospects.
of human nature is clouded over by that melan-
choly antithesis which holds forth Bacon as
at once the wisest and the meanest of
mankind ; that nothing can be thought of in the way
of monument or reward which ought not to be gratefully
bestowed, not only by fellow-countrymen, but by fellow-
men, for a nobler restoration of at tainted blood Than ever
fell to the office of any herald; upon the man who should

indeed remove " the blot of ignomy" from that still most
resplendent name. But, unfortunately, the facts,
and the one rational construction of them, admit
of neither gloss nor question." Such was
the contradiction of the character of this
wonderful mortal, so vast were his powers of mind and
so little his powers of self-control, so exalted his genius
and so paltry his abasement that we recur to his career,
in one and the same moment, with feelings of pride, and
exultation, and reverence, and with feelings which (but
for a certain sense of awe) would actually merge them-
selves into scorn. Of the dead, however, nil nisi bonum;
i
and the only one who can, in a relative sense,
it
So si
in rae good
n cled taog et
h. ea nd
gr ec aotset ss t nothingof
modern in
t Ipt eh
ibileuo sl
cfioolpmutipeelnre t.
sd,
pdaebitolittihese
ntoobhleir
deeds he has accomplished. We gladly recognise ins
,AwliatkheAr,raisntdott
lue'rnwewiwthoualdsolelaemven hgirsateiutui
this number of the Review a tribute paid individually
to the merits of two of our contemporary authors—one
still living, the other in a premature grave—Thomas
Hood and Walter Savage Landor. Yet, though we ac-
knowledge the general sagacity which pervades the
analysis of the poetical powers of Hood, we are sur-
prised to find one of his most delicate and chastened
poems t" The Bridge of Sighs ") carped at for what the
critic is pleased to christen its "falsetto tone." If there
be really anything like a "falsetto tone" about this
pure and generous chant, it is in the theme itself—and
surely that theme deserves a venture of this kind, even
at the risk of its merit being cavilled at by an Edin-
burgh Reviewer! What is possibly the chief charm in
the " Bridge of Sighs " is the exquisite adaptation of
words, thoughts, allusions, even of the fantastic metre
itself, to the suicide of a young female. The estima-
tion of Landor's character and position as a writer is
deserved, is honest, is just :—" perhaps no writer of the
present age is more likely to survive and make acquaint-
ance with another." It will be some satisfaction to that
venerable sage to hear this prediction of his fame from
such an organ, to taste in those words the sweets of the
reflection that his life has not been all useless—that he
has laboured his allotted labour—that he may fold his
arm.; and rest, until his hour of probation has reached
its close. Particular attention should be given to two
other articles, " The Administration of Charitable
Trusts," and the " Government of Dependencies," evi-
dencing, as they do, retentive erudition, clear observa-
tion, and cautious arrangement, though occasionally the
arguments employed arc rather more hasty than appo-
site. A survey of " Wilkes' Exploring Expedition " is
interesting ; and the notice of Duveyrier's works, as
illustrative of certain " Political Views of French Af-
fairs," is replete with important considerations. As the
leader of that regenerative spirit which is conducting
the whole European system to better days, to a more
extended consonance of religion and government, to a
greater diffusion of happiness, and consequently to a
greater diffusion of knowledge, France must ever en-
gage the sympathies of the most remote as well ,as of
the most adjacent states. She has offered up her chil-
dren, as it were, as a holocaust to the cause of universal
emancipation, and has thus acquired for herself the pre-
rogative of marshalling the world to freedom, and to
what men of ardent imaginations might be pleased to
designate the millenium.

EMILIA TVYNDHAM.

Si, the Author of "Mount

Sorel." 3 V 01.,.

This is a deeply interesting and highly entertaining
work—and something more, and something far higher
and far better. It will instruct while it entertains, will
improve while it interests. There are few who will
close the third volume, after a careful and attentive pe-
rusal of the whole, without being imperceptibly, uncon-
sciously, perhaps, a little the better, a little the wiser for
its teaching. Example has always more force, always
far more efficacy than any precept, and few learned
homilies or wise discourses could persuade so gently, or
convince so powerfully, as the simple story, of Emilia
Wyndham. Contrary to all the rules of romance, in
direct opposition to 01' avoured theories of novel
readers, it speaks of the quA, t duties of domestic life.
It would inspire the noble courage not to brave the
storms of adversity, the face of danger, the front of
battle, in which the ordinary heroine delights, but to
encounter and overcome, steadily, patiently, and calmly,
the petty cares, trials, and anxieties of every-day life.
Such an endeavour may seem insignificant, humble, un-
necessary ; but, rightly considered it is all-important,
since

" Trifles make the sum o fnuman things,
And half our misery from our foibles springs."

In the opening of the first chapter the ardent and
enthusiastic Emilia is learning true wisdom from her
gentle mother. Burning with admiration and emula-
tion for the heroic, she is surprised and pained to hear it
thus defined:—

" Heroism !—To those who consider rightly, it is a far
nobler thing now : when it is no longer a sound to mark the
glowing excitement, the lofty enthusiasm, which fights and
struggles in the brilliant mid-day, gilded by the sun, all
warm and genial ; but the slow, silent, death-struggle of the
soul in solitude, darkness, and obscurity, against the heavy,
wearying, every-day evils of every-day actual life: sacrifices
of the hourly and the small, but the sum of which is exist-
ence—not offered in the fervour of the moment, but given,
as it were, by inches ; the heroic devotion to ethers, and
those others, not even worthy ! far from grateful, too often
resentful ; combining patience, perseverance, endurance,
gentleness, and disinterestedness—that is the heroism of our
day, my dear poet !"
And such was the heroism which the listener's future
life was to exemplify and illustrate, and such is the
quality which gives the moral power to these volumes.
A tone of genuine feeling pervades the whole, sincere
and natural; and here and ;here we find some bright
thought which bids us pause, and reflect, and admire,
Many of the characters have a degree of individuality
and truthfulness, which adds greatly to the apparent
reality of the whose. There is the beautiful and
capricieuse Lisa, the friend and exact contrast of Emilia,
a striking example of the fearful struggle between a bad
education and a good heart ; and there is Mr. Danby,
the hard-working, care-worn, withered lawyer, growing
old amid his books and papers, apparently without a
kindly thought or feeling, till, touched by the invincible
hand of love, the marble is melted into man. But it is
needless to enumerate further, suffice it to say that no
book more diametrically opposed to the ordinary rules
and routine of novels, could more effectually fulfil, what
hould be their main object—to give pleasure in the
perusal and benefit in the remembrance.

THE ABBOTSFORD EDITION OF THE
WA VERLEY NOVELS. Vol. 10.
This, the Editio Princeps of tha works of our Scot-
tish A riosto, is fast tending towards a conclusion. This,
the 10th volume, contains " 'Woodstock " and the
" Chronicles of the Canongate." For the beauty of its
typography, and the profuseness and exquisiteness of its
pictorial illustrations, this volume is quite equal to any
of its predecessors.

THE PARLOUR NOVELIST, No. 2.
This, the second volume of a series of works of fic-
tion, now in the course of publication in Belfast, con-
tains the whole of Eugene Sue's admirable novel. " The
Commander of Malta," excellently translated by Mr.
Doisy, of the Belfast Royal Academical Institution. The
book is beautifully printed on good paper, and is got up
in a manner that reflects the highest credit on the book
and printing trade of Belfast.

LETTERS ON THE MORE EVIDENT
CHANGES WHICH THE BODY UNDER-
GOES, AND THE MANAGEMENT OF
HEALTH FROM INFANCY TO ADULT
AGE. By C. Black, M.D., Member of the Royal Col-
lege of Surgeons, England, 4.c.
This is a very small but a very valuable book. Dr.
Black is almost the only medical man who has not
treated the subject of diet and regimen empirically.
Like a man of true science he lays down general prin-
ciples, which, if duly observed, will be sufficient to
presetve health. He however writes under more favour-
able circumstances than his predecessors. Until within
the last ten years our experience in Dietetics has
been almost entirely of an empirical nature. Certain
descriptions of food were known from observation to
produce dyspepsia; certain other descriptions were
known to be easy of digestion, but beyond the know-
ledge of the fact we knew nothing. The splendid dis-
coveries of Liebig have, however, shown us why certain
descriptions were indigestive, and why certain other
descriptions of food were not, and why food which in
certain states of the system is most wholesome, becomes
in certain other states of the system most unwbole
some. These discoveries of Liebig have been prac-
tically applied by Dr. Black, and he has produced
the most useful, the most intelligible, and the most
scientific work on the management of health, that has
yet been published. His directions are clear and ex-
plicit, and he gives in every instance a reason for the
taith that is in him. Every nurse and every mother
should study attentively the letters on infancy and child-
hood. In fact the book should find a place in every
family, and in every village-lending library.

sTON • OR, THE
By the Rev. .'G. Crolv L L.SDO.
authorTE AND NoDf
4sal
athi STATESMAN:
~ c.
Col-
burn, and may now be haisd published this day by Mr. Col-
has also just published
at allb the Libraries. Mr. Col-
burntb e following popular new
3 vols.—The above work-' •
novels :-2. Emilia Wyndham, the author of " Two Old
Men's Tales," " Mount Sorel,"
scane,.—b4y. Miss
RPaorbdeorecse
y&c.-3. Confessions of a
authoresss of " The City of
the PrettySultan,"on their Travels, by Sirs.
Trollops.-5. Peers and Parvenus, by Mrs. Gore.-6. The
Citizen of Prague, edited by Mary II
by H. F. Chorley, Esq.—And 8. owitt.-7. Pomfret,
The Queen of Denmark
(Caroline Matilda, sister of George III.), an Historical Ro
mance, founded on the private communications of the Queue;
Chamberlain.
A letter from Rome, of the 16th, says:—" The Pope
attended at all the religions offices of the Holy Week, and according
to custom, gave the grand benediction on Iloly Thursday and Good
Friday. On the former occasion his lloliness was pieced, as in pre-
ceding years, to celebrate the ceremony of washing the feet of the
thirteen apostles. Those thirteen apostles are in general priests who
have come to Rome on pilgrimage from various countries. Frequently
also priests residing in Rome are selecteA. The Ambassadors of
France, Austria, Spain, and Portugal have the privilege of choosing
one of their countrymen. M. Rossi, this year, selected Father
Vaures, canonist to the French Embassy. There is to be a consistory
held the day after to-morrow, at which Cardinal Mario, Archbishop
of Naples, is to receive the hat. It is still a matter of doubt at what
time the Empress of Russia will come here, or indeed whether she
will come here at7all.—Galignani.
ARCILEOLoGICAL DISCOVERY AT DOVER. The
workmen, in clearing the ground for the erection of some new
houses in the Priory Grounds, have developed three of the lower
arches of a church or chapel : one only of these was perfect when
opened, but we regret to learn that it was displaced by a fall of the
earth adjoining, The whole is of the Norman style, and built of
Caen stone. The floor was paved with glazed tiles of the period,
many of which are in good preservation ; under the tiles was turned
up a structure of burnt wood, which seems to show that a chapel
standing on the same site had been destroyed by fire. Many skele-
tons have been discovered during the excavations. They appear to
have been generally interred in graves lined with squared chalk ;
nothing, however, excepting the bones has hitherto been obtained.—
Dover Telegraph.
A dub, formed for the purpose of sparrow-shooting,
aseaaermble a at Ryall's-grove, a small hamlet lu the parish of Ripple,
n
Tewkesbury. It numbers upwards of twenty members of the
neighbonning formers and
is ISO de gardeners. The number of birds destroyed
dozen within four months.—Gloucester Chronicle.
Mr. Lock had an • t erview yesterday with the Earl of

MR. W. W. SI HPSON'S SALES.
SALE OF THE NORTH COVE HALL ESTATES IN
THE LARGE ROOM AT THE NORFOLK HOTEL,
NORWICH, ON THURSDAY LAST.

The attendance was exceedingly numerous, and, to a
great extent, represented the individual and collective re-
spectability, as well as the opulence of the sister counties.
Mr. Simpson, previous to opening the sales, ventured to
address his audience at some length on the all-absorbing
subject of the contemplated (and, he opined, certain) abolition
of the corn• laws. He acknowledged that till within the last
year he had been a thoroughgoing protectionist. A three
years' test, however, of Sir Robert Peel's measures, added to
his extensive experience up to the present period in the let-
ting and sales of landed property, he was now free and proud
to confess that sliding and other seeks had fallen from his
eyes; the result of which is that he is now a thoroughgoing
ant i- prof ectionist.
Mr. Simpson observed, from an honest and firm convic-
tion, that rents, which had been set on fair and liberal prin-
ciples (within the last seven years) of " live, and let live,"
would be permanent, and he fearlessly stated that the years'
purchase on such rentals have risen within the last six
months, and, in all probability, will continue to rise on the
settlement of the great question in respect of Free Trade in
Corn, &c. For the truthfulness of these statements, Mr.
Simpson referred to recent lettings and sales, which have
been published not only by himself, but other auctioneers
and land agents of greater eminence ; consumption and de-
mand of an increasing population (in the ratio of about 1,000
per day), the capital, skill, industry-, and enterprise, in addi-
tion to the easy and inexpensive transit of the produce to
the first markets in Europe, will form such a counterpoise. as
will enable us to compete successfully with the miserably
uncultivated lands and minds of exotic growth. Instead,
therefore, of the motto of " Agitate, agitate," let us substi-
tute that of " Cultivate, cultivate ;" and let landlords assist
improving tenants by making advances (in the nature of
improvements in drainage, &c., &c.) of the additional capital
which may be required, charging for the same at the
rate of 4 per cent. on that expenditure, which shall
be judiciously laid out; hence the tenant farmer will reap
an additional benefit of at least 10 per cent., and a perma-
nent improvement of the value of the farm (quasi landlord)
will supervene.
Mr. Simpson stated that in his humble opinion, Sir Robert
Peel is (at least) one of the greatest, most talented, and
fearlessly honest Ministers that has ever lived in the tide
of times.

The following is an account of the Sales :
Lot 1. The Mansion called North Cove llall,
with 516 acres of arable, pasture, marih, and
wood land, was bought in at ... £19,000 0 0
Sold the next day, by private contract, to
Win. Everett, Esq., of Yarmouth.
2. A Freehold Farm of 122 acres, sold to
John Slipper, Esq., of Ashby, for
--3. A Freehold Farm of 122 acres, produc-
ing 4,640 0 0
(including the land in hard, 1251. 7s. 9d
per annum), was bought in at
An offer of 3,100 was made for this lot on the
following day. The selling price is now 3,2501.
4. An Estate (principally Freehold), com-
prising 180 acres of land of first-rate quality,
a gentlemanly residence and buildings, the
rental amounting to 322/. 7s. 3d. per annum,