The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON: T

Do. Guarant. 5 per et.., 9 — .•......
Do. Pref. Con. 5 per ct. 50 ..
I Ditto. ditt0...... 1852 50
Ditto, New Si., guar.
6 per cent. ... 4 - 1.0 ...... ••••
London and Greenwich 12/15s 4d —
Ditto, Preference... 18/ 17a 2d
London and N. Western 100 llBl/2 1171/2...
Do Quarters (L. & B.) 22
Ditto, New
Ditto, Fifths ..... .. 2
Do. 40/.Shares(L. M.) 25
Do. 101. (M. & B.) A. 9
Do. 10/. (M. & B.) B. 9
Do. 101.( M.& B.) C. 1 .....
Lond. & S. Western 5O 40
Do. New 50/. ..... 421/2.. ••• •
Do. New 401. .. 34
Do. Tenths (Consul.) 50
Ditto ditto
Ditto. Thirds.. ......131. 6s. 8d dis
Do., New Scrip, 1848,
Pref. 7 per Cent. on
Deposit, and 5 per
Cent. on Calls ...U. 13s. 4d... ......
London, Salisbury, and
Yeovil
Londonderry &Coleraine 271/2

Londonderry and Ennis-
killen
Lowestoft (4 per ct.) 20
Ditto (6 per ct.)

Manzheiier,Buxton,and
Matlock 4
Manchester, Sheffield,
and Lincolnshire...loo
Do. Quarters (No. 1) 18
Ditto ditto (No. 2)... 25
Ditto ditto (No. 3) ... 10
Ditto, New 101. Pref... 10
Ditto, Gt. Grimsby ... 40
Ditto ditto . ...... 13
Ditto ditto

117

.....
9%

... 40

... VA dis.

111.•••

..- -

. ••• ....

Ditto Sheffield and
Lincolnshire l5 . ...
Do., Grimsby Dock 2O
Do. Manchester and
Lincoln Union..... 41.25.
Midland .... 100 ..... 811(
Do. Consolidated Pref.loo ••••••
Do., do., 501. Shares... 28 ... .• 10 9% 10%
Do. Birm., and Derbyloo
Do. Consol. Bristol and
Birming., 6 per ct.... 100 1131(
Ditto,Bnst. & Glocstr. 38 ......
Ditto, ditto ... l4l. 185....
Ditto,Leieest. & Swan-
nington, 8 per ct.guar.loo
Midland Great Western
Irish
Middlesbro' and Redcar.
6 per cent. guar.
ewcastieann ••••1
Do. Quarters 25
Newmarket ........ . .. 20
Do. Extension
Newport, Abergavenny,
and Hereford 6 ....•• ..... ••••
Newry and Enniskillen 7
Newry, Warrenpoint,
and Rostrevor . . 20
Norfolk ...100
Do. New 201. ... lO
Do. Guaranteed 5 p ct. 20
Do. Guaranteed 51/2 pc. 5
Do. do. Waveney Val. 2 ......
Northern Counties Union 4
N orth British ........ 25 ...... 14%
Ditto, Halves ..
Ditto,iQuarters
Ditto, Extension ...
Ditto, Thirds.. •• 81/4 4
North & South-Western 2

.• ..".

I • •••••

.. ••••••
8214

10th

~ 118%

I• .......

~.

I • MEM.

. 00 ....

North Staffordshire l5 ...... 8U.15/a.. ... ......
worth Wales ... 31/ — ......
North-Western . lO
Oxford, Worcester, and
Wolverhampton
Reading, Guildford, and
Reigate lO
Royston and Hitchin ... 2
Scottish
_Central
Scottish Midland 2s—
Ditto, New - ••...." ......
Sheffield, Rotherham, &
Goole (Nor. Div.)
Do. do (Sou. Div.) ... 4
......
.. .
Shrewsbury and,Birm... 9
Ditto ditto. Class B. 5
Shrewsbury & Chester
(Nor. W. Min.)
Ditto Halves ... ditto SUf ..... ..
Ditto Oswestry ...... 17%. -

15th
314

8~

91/3
23%

Ditto New -
Do. 8 per Cent. Pref. 10 - . ••
Shrewsbury and Herefd. 2
Shropshire Union
outh Devon
Do. Preference
•••• •••• ••••
South Statibrdshire 64 -
__..

- - -- ---
South Eastern
Do., No. 1 24
Do., N 0.2.
Do., No. 3 _ ...... 25 ......
Do., No. 4 Thirds ... 10 ...... 634%
South Wales ...... -....... 28 ......
South Yorkshire, Don-
caster, and Goole 5
Swan s. & Loughor & Ca-

23%
914

6%

meron's Stni. C0a1.... 6 . . ....
raw Vale Extension ... 8
Thames Haven Dock

LITERATURE.

RUINS OF MANY LANDS. Parts I. and 11. By

Nicholas Michell.

I Those who are affrighted by the sombre covering
and unpoetic title of this effusion—and we conjecture
there will be many such—will certainly be deprived
of a gratification which they little anticipated. The
publisher and the artist have done anything but jus-
tice to the muse of Mr. Michell, and, therefore the
less allusion that is made to the arrangements of the
letter-press and the style of the wood-engravings, the
better for all parties concerned. Although we have
said that the title of the poem is uninteresting, we are
very far from asserting that its conception and treat-
ment are in any particular deserving of the same
remark. The subject, indeed, is in the highest
respect poetical, and the treatment of that sub-,
ject by the graceful pen of Mr. Michell is,
with a few abating circumstances, eminently
entitled to our commendation. The bardic powers
of the author have certainly developed themselves in
a remarkable manner since the production of his pre-
vious works, " The Eventful Epoch" and " The
Traduced." The theme is partitioned into three
books ; the first treating of the " Ruins of the Dark
Era," such as Babylon, Nineveh, and Petra; the
second describing the " Ruins of the Classie Era,"
such as Athens, Corinth, Sparta, and Marathon ; the
third (which has not yet appeared) delineating " The
Ruins of the Miscellaneous Ages," such as Ephesus,
Tyre, Baalbec, and Palmyra. Our present purpose
will be completely satisfied by a consideration of the
opening of the poem down to a noble description of
the death of the voluptuous Sardanapalus. The
Pilgrim—a more industrious Harold—enters upon his
journey among the realms of the past on the plain of
amides, where
" small town is humming far away,
And o'er the desert dies the golden day .f"
At the very outset of his pilgrimage the poet bursts
forth into the following impassioned apostrophe to
the remnants of the Tower of Babel :--

" Far in the Western wild, begirt by sands,
A rugged pile, like some grim giant, stands:
Fragments of sculptured stone bestrew its base,
Stage after stage, the platform-lines ye trace;
High on its brow, a dark mass rears its form,
Defying ages, mockieg fire and storm:
Struck by a thousand lightnings, still 'tis there,
As proud in rain, haughty in despair.
Oh! oldest fabric reared by hands of man!
Built ere Art's dawn on Europe's shores began!
Rome's mouldering shrines, and Tadmor's columns gray,
Beside yon mass, seem things of yesterday!
In breathless awe, in musing reverence, bow;
'Tis hoary Babel glooms before you now;
The tower at which th' Almighty's shaft was hurled,
The mystery, fear, and wonder of the world!"

Some of the most effective passages, however, we must
at once observe are marred by the most inexcusable,
because the most avoidable, abbreviations; when, for
instance, it is said—

" What do'et thou there ? Thy brethren all are gone ;
A hermit now thou bloom'st and mourn'st alone ;

or, where again we have such lines as these—

" Some wreath in braids her soft tar-floating hair,
And tinge her eyes t' enhance the heaven that's there."
As compensation for ' blemishes of this slovenly cha-
racter we occasionally meet with some exquisite sen-
tence, both in regard to the euphony of the language
and the art of the composition. Take the daintily
alliterated description of the dances of the Chaldean
maidens :

" High raise their arms the soft slow strains to suit,
That breathe from Persian pipe, and Lydian lute."
Then, Peri-like, they swim in measures fleet;
Twinkle like stars their silver-sandalled feet."

At times the rhythm throbs with passion ; and in
proof of this we may allude to the pathos of the nar-
rative of the Queen when bending over the dying
form of her warrior-lover, when she—

"Catches the fluttering breath, the last faint moan,
And feels his pulseless heart, while breaks her own."

Several of the descriptive fragments are rendered
beautiful by their freshness as that of the oasis--
"The almond tree faint rustling o'er our head,
The rill that purls along its pebbly bed,
The green cicada, chirping in the grass,
The crested hoopoes singing as they pass, &c."
The author has a faculty, moreover, for changing an
old thought into the semblance of a new one by the
graces of his rhetoric : ex. gr.—
" Mind only lives for ever; amaranths bloom
And Time but breaks his scythe beyond the tomb."
He has likewise all the fascination of a novel and
suggestive phraseology. In this manner he speaks of-
-" the bird on winnowing wings,
Faint and more faint his desert anthem sings ;"
and in the same mood he describes the barrenness of
Nineveh thus—calling the city a region—
" Where coarse rank grass, and plants of poison grow,
Where scarce the hermit wild-flower deigns to blow."
In addition to the charms of the poetry, the book con-
veys in, a delightful manner a rich store of archaeolo-
gical information.