The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-02 00:00:00

FRASER'S MAGAZINE.

The Seikhs are now the lions of the day ; they are
,alked about in every society, their history and late
deeds have formed topics for the newspapers for several
months, and the magazines have taken up the tale, and
published long dissertations on the origin of this warlike
race. The account of them in Fraser is well drawn up,
though we could have wished to have learned a little
more about the Lion of the Punjaub, and the extraordi-
nary manner in which he, an illiterate man like Mehemet
Ali, acquired such ascendancy over a turbulent
race. In two respects these remarkable adven-
turers agree. They saw the defects of their native
system of government, but still more the mili-
tary system, cast off their national prejudices,
and employed foreigners to teach their troops the arts
of war. In Runjeet Singh's case the experiment was
completely successful. He raised, by that means, the
most powerful army ever commanded by an Indian
chief, amounting, independent of irregular troops, to
150,000 men, with 400 pieces of artillery, many of them
of large calibre, and made according to the European
principle. He thus was enabled to subdue all the
Sirdars who claimed separate jurisdiction, take Mooltan
from the Ameers of Sinde, Peshawur from the Affghans,
and include the whole of the country, being the
Punjaub or Five Rivers, under his dominion. Like
Mehemet Ali, he also showed great prudence.
He never ventured a serious contest with the
English, but remained satisfied with what he
had gained from his less warlike neighbours. Unfor-
tunately for them, his successors ',have departed
from the principles on which he ruled the country, and
the dispatches just published show the result. The
history of this people, as given in Fraser, will be read
with interest at the present moment. The history
which is continued under the title of " The Italian Cam •
paigns," is less striking, and from the great length to
which it has extended, four numbers, is beginning to be
tedious. But the writer, like Colonel Mitchell, evidently
considers it his duty to point out the extravagant praises
heaped on Bonaparte's military talents, and to reduce
them to their proper level. He brings them, however,
below that point, for though it cannot be denied that
Melas lost the battle of Marengo from sheer German
apathy, and most of the other battles were lost in con-
sequence of the sluggishness of the Aulic Council, still
it cannot be denied that the French leader generally, if
not always, knew when to seize his opportunity, and saved
himself from dangers which he probably would not have
incurred had he been pitched against more active and
skilful generals. At all events he succeeded for at least ten
or twelve years, and never was fairly defeated till over-
whelmed with numbers at Leipsic. Success, if not the
most unerring, is certainly the most palpable test of a
general's abilities. He failed, it is true, in the
Belgian campaign, but all know how speedily he
dispersed the Prussians ; and all know, too, that but for
the imperturbable firmness of the English, and the timely
relief of a Prussian division, which struck the balance,
he would have protracted his reign for at least twelve
months more. It is impossible to deprive such a distin-
guished captain of the highest honours obtained in
modern times. We have a continuation of " Contempo-
rary Orators," which include two rising statesmen—
Lord Grey and Lord Morpeth. Their characters are
impartially drawn, and with vivid effect. The writer of
these biographical sketches deserves great praise, not
only for avoiding all political bias, but for giving the
main features by which the speakers are distinguished
with great correctness ; and instead of assuming the
harsh functions of a censor, making every reasonable al-
lowance for defects or peculiarities. We give a sketch
of Lord Morpeth as a speaker in 1840 ; and it may be
necessary to state, that the writer states he has since
then much improved in his style and manner :
"He has begun to speak. He has delivered an ambitious
exordium, stilted and high-flown in language, but elevated
and generous in sentiment.. His voice is rather harshly high
in its tone, and too uniform in its sound. But there is
vigour and earnestness, and here and there a touch of
manly feeling that almost startles by its contrast with the
odd, overgrown-boyish, yet no unprepossessing, tigure and
manner. The action, also, is too formal, it has too much
of the schools; and there is altogether an artificial and
ambitious effort at eloquence, that makes one wish Lord
Morpeth would trust more to his own unfettered impulses,
and not so much to the lessons he has learned of some elo-
cution master. who has tried to teach him what never yet
was taught, and never will be. The style is too much that
of the " young gentlemen's academies" on examination-
day. But the more you hear, the more you like both the
speaker and the sentiments ; in spite of all his peculiarities
he has warmed you up. If you don't think with him, at
least you feel with him. You have forgotten, too, the little
traits of the ludicrous, in the palpable moral integrity of
the man before you, instinct with a consciousness of the deep
responsibilities of his exalted rank and station."

UNITED SERVICE MAGAZINE.
Of the eulogium upon the Emperor Nicholas we can
merely observe that it is a waste of chivalry in a most
damning cause ! Not all the most artfully balanced
" periods " in the world can obliterate the flaws, and
the rankling blains, and unsightly darkness which render
the autocracy a perfect bugbear to those who are free-
to-think and free-to-judge. Panegyrics have been writ-
ten upon Robespierre; Marat was apotheosized immedi-
ately after his assassination ; Catherine has not passed
without her admirers ; Nero was beloved, as the flowers
upon his grave attested ; and the gloomiest, fiercest,
bloodiest despots earth ever beheld, have, in turn, each
and all received commendation from some among their
fellow-mee. It is not, therefore, so utterly incompre-
hensible that a biography of this eulogistic nature
should be devoted to the present Emperor of the Rus-
sias. In endeavouring to cover foulness with tinsel,
the operator stands a tolerable chance of getting mi-
serably daubed himself. What we more particularly object
to in this instance is, that while one page of the United
Service heaps benedictions upon the fair fame of the
Imperial Majesty Nicholas, another has the audacity,
or we should rather say the ignorance, to brand
Napoleon with the guilt of crime in connexion with—
(whom does the reader think ?)—the " Due d'Enghein,
General Pichegru, Capt. Wright, cum multis aliis." Why
history has long since proved that Pichegru and Captain
Wright both committed suicide, and common sense has
proved that the First Consul, far even from desiring their
death, must have been most anxious for their evidence at
the trial, aaterior to which they expired. With regard
to the Duc d' Enghein, Hazlitt, our own English his-
torian, emphatically says, " If I had been in Napoleon's
place, and if I could possibly have done so, I would have
had him killed six times over." Humanity required it,
the peace of France and of the European Continent re
quired it, the perpetuation of a free Government required
it ; so did every feeling of justice and of law. After
these insinuations of the reviewer in the United Service,
we cannot but look upon his corollary cum multis aliis
as being tantamount simply to cum cceteris paribus—
mere visions, idle, delusive, non-existant. What
small powers of discrimination—what an inca-
pacity to appreciate the truly glorious—what
a bias towards the truly ignoble—to applaud
Nicholas and asperse Napoleon ! Hamlet's indignation
recurs to us, "Leaving this fair field to batten on this
moor." Mr. Keon continues his spirited narration of
"The late struggles of Abd-el-Kader and the Campaign
of Isly ;" the near termination of which narrative we
cannot but regret. "A Proposition for Manning the
British Navy with Volunteers" is filled with judicious
hints, some of which are exceedingly feasible. Too
much attention cannot be directed to the subject, as it
should never be forgotten that,
" England needs no bulwark,
No towers along the steep;
Her march is on the mountan wave,
Her home is on the deep."
The voice of the Delphian oracle should ever reverbe.
rate in the ears of the Legislature. " Your only de-
fence is in your wooden walls I" There are various
other papers of more than average Merit.

DOUGLAS JERROLD'S SHILLING.
Jerrold is himself again. He begins this month with
" St. Giles and St. James," and concludes with "Juni-
per Hedgehog," who discourseth in his own quaint sar•
castic way on the blasphemous absurdities of the poor
old dotard John Quincy Adams, who, as the cabman
shrewdly observeth, " somehow or other reads his Bible
upside down." To make up for recent laches, the Editor
gives us three chapters of " St. Giles and St. James,"
and capital chapters they are. Our readers will recol-
lect that some three months since we left Mr. Tangle
bereft of his box of gold, which had been stolen by Tim
Blast and Jingo, on his way to join young St. James at
the rectory. The robber and robbed, -Blast and Tangle,
met at the barber's ; and, to Tangle's horror, it is sug-
gested by the barber that the fellow that had the keep-
ing of the money was the thief. Tim Blast, who is
vastly amused at the idea, declares that there is nothing
more likely, and an admirably drawn scene follows. St.
Giles enters the shop as Tangle quits it, and recognises
and is recognised by Blast. In order to avoid this hu-
man fiend, St. Giles goes into the fields, where he meets
with Bright Jem ; and where, seeing Jingo in a tree, he
calls the boy to him (from Jingo's pocket 0 guinea fells

as he drops to the groutat which guinea he declares he
has found), intending to fesctie him from Blast and place
him at school. In the mean time it is announced that
the candidate opposed to St. James has withdrawn, and
the young noble attends at the town hall, imagining
that he is to walk over the course for the borough of
Liquorish. Not so, however, had determined Bbenezer
Snipeton the old usurer, the husband of Clarissa. lie
at the eleventh hour proposes Mathew Capstick, Esq.,
of the Tub, (our old friend the muffin-maker), as a
fit and proper person to represent the borough of
Liquorish in Parliament ; and, as Snipeton was pos-
sessed of that necessary article in borough elections—
gold—of which Blast had deprived Tangle, Capstick of
course becomes the member ter Liquorish, and just as
he was declared duly elected the Rev. Dr. Gilead
announces the lost box of guineas had been found con-
cealed in one of his fish-ponds. The present portion of
the novel concludes with the chairing of Capstick. We
have devoted so much space to our old friends St. Giles
and St. James, and Capstick, that we must content our-
selves with observing that the other papers in the pre-
sent number are good, and fully sustain she high cha-
racter of the magazine. We cannot, however, resist
quoting the following admirable apology for philan-
thropic literature. from a paper entitled " Our Village
as it ought to be :"
" He, e we may just put in a word in reply to a charge
which we have heard preferred against our modem philan-
thropic literature—that it would make social improvements
a substitute for religion. This is not true; but we would
measure the depth of religion by the extent of its benevolent
operation ; we could conceive of it as not merely a shut-up
doctrine, but as a spirit, with life and love, raising and re-
fining all life and practice. We propose social improvements
as instruments to be swayed by such a spirit, and, with re-
gard to that form of religion which refuses to employ them"
we say it may be very comfortable far an individual who is
satisfied with it; but it is not the religion required in order
to realise even Our Village as it ought to be."

THE UNION.
This is a good number of The Union. The opening
article, a " Comparative View of the Rise and Pro-
gress of Liberty in England and France," is an admir-
able specimen of the philosophy of history. We look
for its continuance with much interest. "Late for
Lectures," is a good sketch. " Young Oxford and
the Fair Maid of Meath," which is illustrated by Phiz,
is an amusing legend of the Rsibuld Ireland." The
Review, of Le•gh Hunt's Stories from the Italian
Poets" is admirably written, and we are delighted to
see the reviewer take up the cudgels in behalf of Dante,
against the namby-pamby sentimentalism of Leigh
Hunt, who,
" Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,"

would fain,

"Damn with faint praise"

the glorious old Florentine. We cannot, however, agree
with the reviewer in his depreciating estimate of the
" Gerusalemme" of Tasso. Notwithstanding the dictum
of Boileau, we cannot but confess that we prefer—

" Tout le clinquant du Tasse a tout I'or de Virgile,"

- -
seeing that this much lauded Virgilian gold is about as
genuine as German silver. The concluding article, en-
titled " The Holy Coat and German Catholicism," is a
history of the most remarkable intellectual movement of
the last two centuries—the new German reformation.
Much misapprehension exists as to the tenets of Runge
and the German Catholic Church, and as both have been
purposely misrepresented, it may not be, perhaps, out of
place to give the following short extract, showing what
those tenets really are :
" The great principle announced by the German Catholic
Church is that of 'freedom of opinion and the right of pri-
vate judgment.' The proximate cause, as has been seen, of
this announcement now, is a flagrant outrage by the Roman
Church on Common sense and common decency, from which
men, who could exercise private judgment, and whose power
of forming opinion was not annihilated, revolted so utterly
that even a tacit acquiescence in the monstrous claims
asserted by the Church could no longer be enforced.
" One great doctrine which German Anti-Romanist Theology
teachers profess, and to which the new body of noncon-
formists hold, is, that theology as a science is, like others,
subject to improvement, and must yield to change; and,
further, that religious forms are not independent of the state
of society and progress of civilisation."