The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-13 00:00:00

TILE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY MORNING, :JANUARY 13, 1846.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

THE BROAD GAUGE.

On Saturday morning two experimental trips were
made on the broad gauge (the Western Railway) in the
presence of the Gauge Commissioners ; the weather was
rather unfavourable, the morning being dull and damp,
and very little wind stirring until the afternoon. The
Hercules was again selected for the purpose ; it is a
powerful engine, having connected wheels 5 feet in dia-
meter, cylinder 16 inches, stroke 18 inches, and weighs
22 tons. At 7h. 52m. 24g. she started from the one
mile post, Paddington, with a train of 13 trucks, coal-
laden, an additional wider, and a first-class carriage,
which was occupied by Sir F. Smith, Professor Barlow,
Mr. Watson, Mr. Saunders, Secretary to the Company ;
Air. Harmer, and Mr. Gibson ; on the engine were Mr.
Brunel, engineer of the line, and Mr. Gooch, superin-
tendent of the locomotive department. This experi-
mental train was driven from Paddington to Didcot, a
distance of 521 miles, whet, it arrived at 10h. 19m. 285.,
having made stoppages at Ealing., Southall, West Dray-
ton, Slough, Maidenhead, Twyford, and Goring. For
the exact time of arrival and departure from the several
stations the reporter has been indebted to Mr. Seymour
Clarke, the principal superintendent of the line, and
it is as follows .

Miles from
Padding- Arrival. Departure. Stoppage.
ton.
—.--
h. m. s. h. m. a. h. m. a.
Paddington - - 7 52 24
5% Ealing 8 4 53 8 7 42 0 2 49
7y Harwell -- - 8 12 36
9 Southall -- - - 8 16 52 8 20 41 0 3 49
13 West Drayton - 8 35 25 8 40 33 0 5 8
18 Sloagh -- - - 8 14 38 8 55 43 0 4 5
22% 31alcktihead - - 9 6 41 9 11 32 0 4 51
30% Tw)ford- -- - 9 2* 33 9 33 44 0 5 11
35% /Wading -- - - 9 44 42
41% Pang' ourne - - 9 54 8
444 Goring lO 0 8 10 2 0 0 1 52
47% Wallingford-road 1 ) 9 30
52% Dideot lO 19 38
Total stowage 0 26 5

Total stoppage

0 26 5

The dig am, was ticcompli.i.ed in 2h. 27m. 145., or at a
rate of 26 75 miles an 11,,ur. The weight of train pro-
pelled, exclusive of the engine, was 204 tons 18cwt. lqr.
31b. Soon after the arrival or this train at Didcot, the
Ixion, a powerful passenger engine, having driving
wheels 7 feet in diameter, came up with a train on 15
trucks, laden with coal, to be attached to the train of the
Hercules, making in ad 28 trucks and one first class
carriage. After all matters were arranged this levia-
thian train proceeded on its journey ; its weight, length,
and the time it passed the different stations, are given
from the same aut:writy as that of the down trip :
Weight,4o6 tons 3 cwt. lqr. 10Ib. ; length of train, 232
yards.

Started from Didcot - - - • -
- Wallingford-road - -
- Goring
Pangbeurne - - - -
- Reading
Twyford
3iaidenhead - - -
- Slough
West Drayton - - - -
- Southall
Hanwell
Ealing
Arriving at the 1k mile-post from]
Paddington

From
Paddington

➢files,
53
47%
44
414
344
30%
22%

h.
1 22 15
I 38 0
1 49 0
1 57 0
2 8 30
2 22 15
2 41 0
2 51 0
3 7 0
3 23 0
3 25 0
3 29 0
39 0

Perluruaing the journey in 26. 16w. 455., at an average
rate of speed of 23 miles an hour. The rate of the
gauges now stand thus :
Broad gauge train of 400 tons 23 miles per hour.
Narrow gauge ditto .
Excess of speed for broad gauge 4 miles per hour.

IRELAND.
RESIGNATION OF CHIEF JUSTICE
PENNEFATHER.

The Mercantile Advertiser published the following
yesterday afternoon:—" We are now enabled to an-
nounce that Chief Justice Pennefather has resigned.
The appointments consequent on the retirement of Mr.
Penntfather have not Set been fully arranged. If Mr
Blackburne should be transferred to the Queen's Bench,
Mr. T. B. Smith, the Attorney-General, will go to the
Rolls Court. If this arrangement should not be adopted
the Attorney-General will get the Chief Justiceship.
In any event Mr. Greene advances to the Attorney-
Grneraiship ; and it is said Mr. Sergeant Warren will
be the new Solicitor. General, For that office other
mimes are mentioned ; but on this point all at present is
mere speculation."
The most contradictory rumours are afloat as to some
of the changes rendered necessary by the resignation of
Mr. Pennetather. The latest version is that Mr. Smith,
the Attorney-General, will get the Chief Justiceship of
the Queen's Bench, the scene of his extraordinary en-
counter with Mr. Fitzgibbon during the state trials ;
that Mr. Wilson Greene advances to the Attorney-
Generalship, to he succeeded as Solicitor by Mr. Brews-
ter ; and that Mr. Corballis, a Roman Catholic Queen's
Counsel, is to take the place of Mr. Brewster as advising
counsel to the Irish Government.

The Attorne) -General being made a Judge must
vacate the pocket borough if Ripon ; and if Lord de
Grey be consenting party, Mr. Gladstone can thus find
another opening into the house of Commons. Perhaps,
after all. this was one of the cause of the well-timed
resignation of Chief Justice Pennefather.

PROSECUTION AGAINST THE " NATION"
NEWSPAPER.

The Freeman's• Journal says, " Notwithstanding all
the counsel learned in the law whose services the Crown
have an official right to command, the Attorney-Ge-
neral did nut deem himself secure in entering upon his
presecution against the Nation, without retaining Mr.
Henn, Q.C., ot.e of theprinctpal defenders of the state
traverstrs in the meinorable trials of 1844. Mr. Duffy
having been served with notice that informations had
been received against him, on the same day on which
they were sworn wrote by that night's post, through
his solicitor, to retain Mr. Henn, who was then at
Lifford, in Donegal, presiding at Quarter Sessions. Mr.
Henn's reply was, that he had been already retained by
the Crown ! This was sharp practice on Mr. Duffy, for
the retainer to that gentleman must have been given be-
tore informations had been sworn.

ETERATURE.
THE FOREIGN QUARTERLY REVIEW.

1Vo: LXXIL •
This number contains several articles of a first-rate
character. Indeed we have rarely seen the Foreign
Quarterly display so much ability, or furnish so many
papers of general and deep interest. There are two,
however, on the affairs of France that require par-
ticular notice—that on " Capefigue's Europe since
the Accession of Louis Philippe," and the other on
the " French Revolution," as described by Dahlmann
and Niebuhr. It is to be regretted that the writer of
the first has displayed so much nationality, in some
instances not very impartial, that he has occasionally
maligned the French, and that one of his great ob-
jects is to prove, what he calls " the cardinal fact,"
that Louis Philippe, both before and after the revolu-
tion of July, played the part of a consummate hypo-
crite. We are not the apologists of the King, and
are ready to admit that after he mounted the throne
the acts of his Government materially differed from
his recorded professions, both at that period and for
some short time afterwards; but still it is only fair to
incriire whether he could safely have acted otherwise,
and whether a man, on being convinced of the danger
of carrying out certain political doctrines which he
once admitted, is to be consistent at the risk, nay,
with the certainty, of committing greater faults or
crimes. One of the principal objects of Louis Phi-
lippe was the maintenance of peace in Europe, and, to
the wonder and admiration of the world, he has, for
fifteen years, been eminently successful. Some of
these professions certainly led the French to believe
that the Kh:g was favourable to democratic institu-
tions, and that his reign would exemplify all that was
implied in the epithet " Citizen King, ' but even the
accuser of this extraordinary man admits that the
French are not adapted for democratic institutions, and
that they must submit to servitude under some form or
other till they have a national religion. " The French,"
says he, " perceive no absurdity in prating from time to
time about democratic institutions as though it were
practicable to reconcile such things with the charac-
ter of a people, a moiety of whom, by their own show-
ing, live in iabitual disregard of the fundamental
duties of society, With these data before him any
one may foresee what is to be the future destiny of
France. It must submit to servitude under some
form or other until it can resolve to have a national
religion ; Catholicism, if it can discover nothing
better. There is no freedom without faith." An
impartial writer would not have allowed the oppor-
tunity to escape of doing justice to Louis Philippe on
both these points, He has done more to restore a
sense of religious duty in France than ever was done
by any monarch, and what ruler, nay what private
individual, ever showed more regard to the " funda-

mental duties of society ?" the example of a
Court has any effect in encouraging morality in
cherishing domestic affections and forming the cha-
racter of a people, Louis Philippe is surpassed by
none in that respect. It is admitted by all parties—
by even the most bitter enemies of the present dy-
nasty and of all dynasties—that his conduct in his
family is not only unexceptiont.ble, but merits the
highest praise. Religion and morality being abso-
lutely necessary, according to this writer, for the es-
tablishment of free institutions, and without which
there can be nothing but servitude, the highest praise
should have been bestowed on the Sovereign who is
thus paving the way for good government on the
very principles recommended by the person who
heaps upon him abuse. Notwithstanding these de-
fects, however, much useful information and interest-
ing details are given respecting the state of France
since the July revolution. It may be necessary,
however, to make another remark with regard to the
party who overthrew Charles X. The writer says it
was the intimate friends of Louis Philippe, men
with whom he was in daily and nightly habits of in-
tercourse, between whom and him there were no
secrets, that did it all. " Few men," he adds,
" knew exactly that the ordinances were coming,
but most persons anticipated some foolish act
of power, by which the throne would be
endangered or lost ; and the probability is, that among
the keenest haruspices in France, his present Majesty
Louis Phillippe was the chief." This only does
honour to his sagacity, if the word can be applied
in reference to events the effects of which were pal-
pable to all :careful observers. In this country,
every newspaper conducted with ordinary ability
prophecied what took place, and repeatedly warned
the Polignac party that they were taking every pos-
sible step to complete the parallel between the Eng-
lish and French Restorations. Could a clear-headed
man, like the Duke of Orleans, fail to see things in
the same light ? and is any blame to be attached to
him that he prepared for the consequences ? The
other article alluded to, that on the French
Revolution, brief though it is, contains much, and
merits the highest praise, not only for the excellent
language in which the writer expresses his sentiments,
but for the comprehensive views he takes of the great
events and the leading, men that distinguished that
remarkable event. There is nothing vague, or na-
ti or sectarian in his remarks; they are appa-
rently the candid expressions of an impartial observer,
and are entirely uninfluenced by the prevailing
opinions respecting the conduct of such men as
Robespierre, and Mirabeau, and Brissot. We only
regret that he adverts to so few of the leading cha-
racters. He does full justice to Mirabeau, and even
ventures to praise Robespierre ; and shows, in the fol-
lowing extract what alone was wanting to make the
revolution produce good fruits :
"In this univ.srsal enthusiasm of the nation was to be
found, not only the living principle of the revolution ;
but the explanation of the circumstance that few of its
leaders were great men, and that the greatest of them
accomplished but little. The multitude was, probably,
at first neither better nor worse than the mass of a popu-
lation migr.t be expected to be found, when exposed to
the effects of ignorance and poverty. li_ its excitement,
it became like an intoxicated man, more fearless and
forgetful of self, and at the same time more ferocious
and reckles . But, the leader of an infuriated mob is
almost necessarily weak or wicked. Only a blood-
thirsty maniac, like Murat, could keep pace with the
violence of the people, without a deliberate conscious-
ness of guilt. The only field for great qualities was in
resistance ; only Mirabeau was powerful enough to stem
the current for a time, and before it had reached the
height of flood, he was removed from the conflict by
death. One indispensable requisite of greatness consists
in a business-like instinct, which can discriminate be-
t seen definite practicable objects and empty systems of
words. Great men would not have wasted time like the
Constituent Assembly, and the Girondists, in discussing
the merits of constitutions,fill they had first secured the
means of enforcing
.obedience to them. They would
have provided a moving force, before they adjusted the
machinery. Robespierre, almost alone, relied on the
extreme revolutionary spirit as the support of his
power ; but, he also was filled with impracticable
dreams of a future reign of fraternity and benevolence,
in which his only instrument of government, the guillo-
tine, should be laid aside. His method could not be last-
ing, and he had provided no alternative to succeed it. It
is more possible, however, to attribute greatness to
Robespierre than to Roland or Brissot."
The history of Abelard and Heloise will be read
with interest by many, but we think too much has
been made of such a revolting subject. Neither of
the parties display one quality useful in society.
They both acted the part of hypocrites. The hero
was a hard-hearted, designing, and merciless villain,
and the fate of his victim, notwithstanding the pane-
gyrics heaped upon her by the writer, ought to be
held up as a warning to all virtuous women. Ac-
cording to her own admission, she devoted herself to
a religious life without one quality compatible with
its duties; she acted the part of a hypocrite from
some wayward fancies ; and, even in the most solemn
scenes of the cloister, seemed to forget every virtuous
sentiment. Pope's description of her is not a whit
overcharged, and he might well make her say :
" Let wealth, let honour, wait the wedded dame;
August her deed, and sacred be her fame;
Before true passion all these views remove;
Fame, wealth, and honour, what are you to love?"

itehh.haavtEe been so harassed
THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. No. CLXVIL
Already, in another department of The Sun, we
have discussed the particular merits and demerits
of decidedly the most sensible, the most valuable, and
the most sagacious review in
. this
. number of the
Edinburgh, relating to " Legislation for the Working
Classes." And we have there specified the several
thirstn for better
inaccuracies which tarnish what would otherwise
have been a very candid exposition of a very compli-
cated theme. The reviewer indeed
. tagkleuslasCtaapteaserniCseuns
things
hua
irvnvege
sy
with o f the
w hendeavoured
ich
ttho
e measures
ap s
os bpu yua
ever since the abolition of feudalism ; still there is an
raweche
ostensible obliquity in his vision—the obliquity
arising rather from the medium through which he
gazes than from any
.inherent . propensity to
misrepresent. The medium in question is evidently
a straggling, insufficient, and desultory book-reading.
It is from this blemish—this spattering about of odd
and incongruous facts—in the article particularised,
that we turn with more relish to the other topics.
A pleasant and rapid glance is taken at the gradual
insinuation of Shakspere upon French popularity in
the paper christened " Shakspere in Paris." This
insinuation of genius upon the mind. and heart of a
nation has been advancing, though in sluggish and
spasmodic jerks, ever since I, °Raise endeavoured to
disabuse his countrymen of the notion that our
mightiest of poets was a sort of literary monstrosity—
a barbarian jangling the harp of Apollo without any
knowledge of his art, with accidental chords of
melody, though more frequently with harsh and
rugged discords. sot, however, until 1821, was this
declaration publicly backed by the accordance of
any influential critic, when M. Guizot in that year
boldly asserted in the teeth of all his predecessors
1 that the glory and the gemus of Shakspere were no
longer discussed, that no one retained the hardihood
to contest the point, but that another and a greater
question hnd arisen, a question as to " whether the
dramatic system of Shakspere was not better than
that of Voltaire." Here then .the latter had dug a
" pitfall for his own footsteps, and time after time that

I pitfall has been deepened and enlarged on every hand ;
after Guizot by Victor Hugo, then by Count Alfred
de Vigny, then by Anthony Deschamps, then by
Leon de Wailly, then by Augustus Bsrbier, and
finally by the migration of a company of English
tragedians into the French capital during the winter
of 1844-5. What the influence of criticism or the
mellifluousness of translation had failed to accomplish,
was achieved by the severe, but startling mannerisms
of .Macreaoly and the tender and irresistible pathos of
Miss Helen 'aucit. Those among the Parisian
audiences who were sufficiently acquainted with the
language of the dramatist, received, through the
medium of their passions, and their idea-drinking
hearts, some glimmer of that brightness which falls,
as with a sunburst, upon all who can appreciate the
divine form and compass of our mighty bard. To
stand with Lear upon the heath and hear, amidst the
rain, the babbling of that old, mad king—to weep
with Hamlet over the, jester's skull, and catch be-
tween whiles the mocking carol of the gravedigger,
" A pick. axe and a spade, a spade,
And,o fora winding. sheet 1"
_ _

To sigh out one's whole soul from very excess of
happiness with Jessica in the moonlight showered
down among the pine-leaves in the garden—to watch
with Richard the grey dawning of his death-day
through the tent-loops at Bosworth—to stand breath-
lessly by the Vane of Cawdor, in the silent galleries
at midnight, or on the moor amidst the tempest—to
do all this, and feet the pulses of a man dead more
than two hundred years ago beating with all the
strength and glop and energy of life in every line—
was indeed something worthy of being rendered
palpable to a great and civilised nation like our
neighbours across the Channel. Still from the tem-
perament, the habits, and the whole intellectual ens
of Frenchmen, .we assert the utter impossibility of so
filling their imaginations with the copiousness and
philosophic infinitude of Shakspere as to render their
admiration eithei staunch in its duration or propor-
tionate to the merits of the subject. Before these
things can possibly come to pass, the entire fabric
and animus of Gallic thought, must undergo a per-
fect transformation ; and it is in this particular
that we dissent.so entirely from the spirit of the re-
viewer. Speaking of the various exertions of the
translator already enumerated, he exclaims, " A few
more such generous efforts, generously hailed, and
we may be spared the humiliating spectacle of science,
letters, and art,' bowing before senseless clamour."
Multiply these efforts, say we, usque ad nauseam, and
France will remain as incapable as ever of compre-
hending the daring sword- cuts and subtle allusions of
Shakspere. Among the students of foreign Mem-
ture some must always, according to the impulses of
nature, entertain for him a feeling of idolatry; but
the mob, the Boileau-loving, Racine-spirited mob can
never persuade themselves into anything like genuine
affection for the insular poet. He is essentially too
untrammelled, too vast, too universal, and too deter-
minate a thinker to arouse the sympathies or elicit
the applause of a'people notorious for the daintiness
and mincing precision of their drama. Besides this
the impossibility of rendering Shakspere into French
couplets, and at the same time sustaining his creations
in their original elevation, forms another obstacle to
his popularisation in Paris : Achilles in a " taglioni"
could never excite in us sentiments of awe or admira-
tion. W hat is there in the following version of
Hamlet's soliloquy—however elegant, or literal, or
ingenious the verson may be in itself—to fill our souls
with the solemn and pathetic reverie always roused
within us by the original ?

Etre ou ne pas etre ; oui, voill la question:—
Lequel vaut micux? S'armer de resignation
Sous les traits outrageants du sort toujours contraire;
Ou hien se revolter, et, d'un coup, s'y soustraire?
Mourir,—dormir,:—c'est tout," &c.

Surely this is the degeneration of grandeur into
prettiness ! It is a modern dandy beside Jupiter
Tonans ! Hence it is that we dissent from the re-
viewer's position, that by a repetition of such attempts
as the one just quoted, we shall be " spared the hu-
miliating spectacle of nations shuttering their eyes to
light, closing their ears to truth and knowledge, and
refusing to listen to the voice of melody, if transmitted
across a frontier llne, or a few leagues of salt water."
Until the French ,fire more approximated to us in
spirit, until their idiom possesses a closer affinity to
the idiom of Albion, they cannot entertain any
genuine, natural, unaffected regard for the mightiest
of our national genius—William Shakspere.
There is an enlightened and detailed bird's-eye
view of the "Political State of Prussia" in this num-
ber, the gist of which is condensed in the sentence—
" Royal authority is no longer an object qf reverence;
and the laws themselves, being considered in no higher
light than as the expression of the royal will, are gra-
dually losing their salutary influence." In addition
to this there are some sagacious impressions respect-
ing the " German Catholic Church," and a sensible
commentary upon'" Charles Lyell's Travels in North
America." We shall, however, content ourselves
with giving the subjoined estimates of the " Earls
Spencer and Grey:"—
"Lord Grey wag • a man of lofty integrity—of un-
blemished honour-the object of affectionate attachment
to his friends—of respect and admiration to all his
countrymen. He never swerved an instant from that
line of public duty which appeared to him the most
direct. Office accompanied by the desertion of a friend,
or the abandonment of a principle, was in his eyes in-
famy.* For years• he confronted obloquy, and defied an
adverse Court. His perceptions were too clear to allow
him to adept what was vague or obscure ; his heart was
too upright to allow him to sanction what was mean or
dastardly. lie could not stoop to flatter a prince ; he
could not play tricks to please a rabble. His public
speaking reflected the character of the man. His lan
guage was admirably adapted to convey his meaning,
neither sinking too near the ground nor rising out o:
sight—clear, genuide, unadulterated English. Although
no one could see Lord Grey without marking in him a
certain dignity of bearing and high. bred courtesy of
manner, his ordinary life was entirely without formality
or pomp."
" Lord Spencer was eighteen years younger than
Lord Grey. His diligence was indefatigable, his sagacity
quick, his judgment seldom at fault. His views were
large and comprehensive, embracing the whole compass
of improvement in our laws, our commerce, and our
constitution. His tongue was far from eloquent ; and
although his arguments were sound and comprehensive,
he was so often wanting in words as to be obscure, and
unable to convey adequately his meaning. But the
confidence of his friends, his party, and the country,
supplied all deficiedeies and gave to his few and simple
expressions as much influence over his audience as had
ever been obtained by the most admired eloquence of
our greatest orators. He was plain in manner and in
dress, but a short intercourse disclosed the scholar, the
gentleman, and the statesman.
" Men may differ about the wisdom of their Parlia-
mentary measures, Or the ability of their civil adminis-
tration ; but the noble, exalted, stainless spirit of these
two men must always be venerated as long as public
virtue is admired, and the name of England has its
place in history."
This eulogium comes with peculiar force and appo-
siteness immediately upon the close of the year (1845)
in which both these celebrated noblemen expired—
" the one full of ;years, sinking gradually into the
grave ; the other .in the full possession of bodily
vigour and mental activity, swept away by a sudden
inroad of disease,"—men with great earnestness of
purpose and great force of character.

* How far this sentence is applicable to Lord John Russell,
with reference to Lord_Palmerston and the abolition of the
corn-laws, upon the occasion of his late resignation, we leave
it to common sense to'-decide.

THE NETV TIMON. A Romance of London. Part 11.
Already, in our notice of the first portion of this
satirical poem, we have particularised the peculiar
merits of the writer,—his completeness of metre, his
terseness of idea, 11s appositeness of illustration, and
his capacity for sketching character. The present
continuation of his romance however opens in a most
ungrateful and unwelcome manner. There is an un-
pleasant egotism in the very first line, " London, I
take thee to a poet's heart!"—an anonymous audacity
which rather inclines the reader to gainsay the
author's pretensions to so lofty a title : and where he
afterwards utters the vaunting ejaculation, " Me life
hath skill'd !" our distaste is even redoubled. But
what we more peculiarly object to in this second part
of the "New Timons' is a very sickly and ungenerous
attack upon Alfred Tennyson. Alfred Tennyson l
the most true, the mpst genuine, the most, spontaneous
of the poets of the day ;—Alfred Tennyson . the
veritable and acknowledged representative of our
young bards. No more delicate or deliciousverse has
issued from the press of late years than his "Sleeping
Beauty ;" no more original conception than his " Lotos
Eaters." In venting his spleen, or possibly his yealousi,
upon a mind so sensitive and, charming.„ as Tennyson s,
the author of the "Modern Innon has acted without
either delicacy or judgment : he has acted without
delicacy in thus arrogantly raising his pretensions to
popularity, while he endeavours to crush one of the
most subtle-minded and gentle-hearted of his contem-
poraries ; he has acted without judgment in selecting
as a target for his ridicule perhaps the most excellent
of Tennyson'sproda.tions, "Mariana in the Moated
Grange. —a piece wnich for its desolate and artless
beauty is enshrined among our ballad literature. As
for his creative power, what can he more new and ex-
quisite than his " Miller's Daughter ?" As fa- his
attempts to propagate a humanizing spirit among his
fellow-men, what can tend more strongly to that pur-
pose than his picture of the "Palace of Sin," or that
noble curiosity about:" St. Simeon Stilytes," in 'which
he di-plays the dark and God-despised folly of fanati-
cism ? As to his delvings into the human heart, what
can be more truthful,or penetrant than his lamenta-
tion of " Oriana ?" Before the wiiter of this " Ro-
mance of London" descends to pen a sarcasm on the
golden intellect of Alfred Tennyson, he should show,
what he has never yet shown, that one entire canto
of his composition is of equal value with a single
stanza of Tenn \ son's. Authors, but particularly
poets, are so seldom the recipients of any pecuniary
recompense for their genius in this country, that a
direct remonstrance with the Government upon a
trifling pension to a man like the one in question, is

! ill-timed, ungenerous, and absolutely harsh. We
ourselves know Tennyson only from his books, but
for the sake of those books—few and small though
they be—we esteem him as a poet, and love him for
his soul-sympathies. He possesses capabilities for
higher flights and and loftier themes than he has
hitherto essayed—and we have only to accuse him of
not taxing those capabilities to their real bent. As
to his deserving contumely for never having as yet
" moved thousands" by his poetry, we would simply
remark that Milton failed in arousing the attention of
the mukitude in his generation ; and surely, on this
account, he is not to he regarded with indifference !
No, we honour Sir Robe:t Peel for—that gilding for
the bay-garland—the pension of two hundred pounds
hichwhas so stirred up the bile of our " New rimon"
satirist. But to return to this second portion of the
romance : its preliminary lines, when speaking of the
metropolis, are admirable :
" Let schoolboy Strephons bleat of flocks and fields,
Each street of thine a loftier Idyl yields ;
Fed by all life, and fann'd by every wind,
The, e burns tie quenchless poetry—mankind!'
Both the heroines, mentioned in our previous notice,
are in Part 11. entirely deserted, whereas a new
actor appears upon the arena of the story, in the
person of Lord Arden ; and a narrative of his vicissi-
tudes forms a very agreeable episode to the poem,
being introduced in a dialogue between himself and
the Timonic Morvale. One passage uttered by the
former contains great store of earthly wisdom ; and,
as such, we extract it for the perusal of all searchers
after the true philosopher's stone—experience :

See how the grey world "In trtruth,grafts its age on youth ;
See how we learn to prize the bullion vice,
Coin'd in all shapes, yet still but avarice ;
The stamp may vary—you the coin may call
'; Ambition,' Power," Success,'—but gold is all.
Mine is the memoir of a selfish age—
Turn every leaf—slight difference in the page—
Through each, the same fierce struggle to secure
Earth's one great end—distinction from the Poor;
All our true wealth, like alchemists of old,
Fused in the furnace—for a grain of gold."

There is much that is picturesque and touching in
the description of Lord Arden's viewing his young
bride through the cottage lattice :

" Alone!—that worn-out word,

So idly spoken, and so coldly heard;"
And also in the old man's sudden death, which comes
directly afterwards. Indeed, the whole of this nar-
rative is drawn with a delicate and tender pencil.
Several blemishes of style, however, obtrude them-
selves here and there; for instance where the principle
character exclaims, "Mine one dark deed," &c., an
affectatation in the pronoun, essentially rugged and
inelegant; and again, where he observes that " the
curse of stagnor settles on the universe," an expres-
sion for which the author appears to have a terrible
fondness. Besides these two specimens of careless-
ness, there is one of a meaner and yet more incor-
rigible nature, namely, the selection of a most inap-
propriate and inexpressive adjective—the lowest but
least excusable fault in poetry. By this single word
a very fair, though somewhat trite, metaphor is
ruined :

" 0! what delight to struggle side by side
With one loved soother!—up the steep to guide
Her faithful steps—unsbrinking from the thorn;
And front with manly breast, the biting winds of scorn!
And when stout will and gallant heart had won,
The hill-top opening to the steadfast sun." &c.
Here the epithet applied to the wind totally dispels
the illusion of its rushing down the acclivity in the
face of the one clambering to its summit. Altogether
this part of the "New Timon" is greatly inferior to
its predecessor; though it is interlarded with the same
caustic and epigramatic points which we have already
particularised as the chief merit of Part I.

IIE AGE OF PITT AND FOX. By the author
of " Ireland and its Rulers." Vol 1., Bvo.
The subject of this work is of infinite importance,
not only from its historical interest, but because it
has• intimate relation with the great science of Poli-
tics. For nearly five-and-twenty years Pitt and Fox
battled for supremacy. Theirs was no common con-
test. The noblest and the best were arrayed on one
side or on the other, for it was considered honourable
to serve under such mighty leaders. They have
passed away, but it was fitting that some memorial
of their long struggle should exist, and the time has
now arrived when the truth may be spoken of these
illustrious dead without any fear of injuring the inte-
rests or wounding the feelings of the living.
The popular and clever author of " Ireland and
its Rulers" has undertaken to write an ac-
count of what happened in this country from
the termination of the American war to the
death of Charles James Fox. In other words,
to sketch the political history of Great Britain and
Ireland, from 1782 to 1806. During the whole of
that period the Government of this country was in the
hands of Pitt or Fox. llence, a work tracing their
career must give the history of public affairs. We
may say, at once, that this design, although of great
magnitude, is neither too large nor unmanageable for
the writer before us. The first volume of his work,
embracing a history of the coalition ministry, and of
Pitt's administration to the close of 1784, exhi-
bits great industry, much eloquence considerable
skill in arranging and condensing facts, and the
highest impartiality in commenting upon them. Every
accessible source of information appears to have been
visited, and while we have greater accuracy than
Wraxall possessed, we have a philosophical exa-
mination of the springs of action which was far be-
yond him. The style is remarkably free and flowing,
reminding us of Lord Brougham's best manner.
_ _

The author commences with the downfall of Lord
North's Government, in 1782. The Rockingham
Ministry succeeded, but was personally distasteful to
George the Third, inasmuch as he believed that the
party ha office wished to make the sovereign a mere
cypher—to reduce him to the nominal power of a
doge—possessing, the highest apparent station, and
the smallest actual power. That Cabinet broke up
by the death of Lord Rockingham, its nominal head.
Then ensued a struggle between Fox and Lord Shel-
burne, which ended in the defeat of Shelburne, and the
well-known coalition between Lord North and Fox
—the sacrifice, indeed, of principle to power. The
Coalition Ministry terminated in the discomfiture
of all connected with it; Fox's India Bill being
the ostensible cause of the dismissal of the
Ministry. Then followed the Premiership of
Pitt, and the Parliamentary contest between
that able and fearless Minister and the great
Fox party. The course and tOrmination of that
strife is relatedwith force and clearness, and the con-
clusiot, of the volume is occupied with the very Vest
account we have ever seen of the great victory ‘N hich
was gained in 1782 by the Irish Parliament—a vic-
tory which obtained for that Legislature the in-
dependence it required—a victory v. hich, badly
used, became as ruinous as a defeat. Mingled with
the narrative are brief sketches, personal and charac-
teristic, of the principal Irish leaders of that time.
All are brought belore us—Grattan, Flood, Charle-
mont, Fitzgibbon, and the minor stars composing that
galaxy of ability and patriotism.
The mention of these sketches reminds us of the
peculiar merit of this author in pen-portraiture.
His sketches of eminent individuals, scattered
through the volume, and illustrated with anec-
dotes, seem to us the best things in it. He -
eels in this, and scarcely ever names a public
man without sketching him, a full length, in pen and
ink. Among the personages in this portrait gallery
are George the Third, the Prince of Wales, Lord
Chatham and William Pitt, Lord Holland and
Charles James Fox, Burke, Sheridan, Lord North,
Lord 'l'hurlow, Dundas, Lord Rockingham,
Townshend, Wilkes, Horne Tooke, Canning, Flood,
Grattan, Lord Charlemont, Lord Avonmore, the
Bishop of Derry, Lord Karnes, Adam
Smith, and
many more. These personal sketches give a great
value to the work, and their impartiality greatly
p- ble
en-
hance it. We shall look forward with pleasurable
anxiety for the other volumes.

requested l‘ MR.
i t
Ct
o°sLtua tljeßN'S NEW
that the
U l 3
newlC PUBLICATIONS.—We
workslON 5
are
justNr e p areub
lished by Mr. Colburn, of Great Marlborough-street, and
may be had of all booksellers :-1. Sketches from Life, by
the late Larnan Blanchard, Esq., with a memoir of the author,
by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart., 3 vols., with a portrait
after Maclise, and engravings from designs by G. Cruikshank,
&c., 318.6 d. bound.-2. Russia under the Autocrat Nicholas 1.,
by Ivan Golovine, a Russian subject, 2 vols., 21s. bound.-3.
Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies of Great Britain,
illustrative of the History of England, now first published
from the original MSS., with introductory notices, by Mary
Anne Everett Wood, 3 vols. small Bvo.-4. The Fifth Volume
of the Nelson Letters and Dispatches.-5. A Second Edition
of Lady Hester Stanhope's Memoirs, 3 vols.-6. Evenings at
Haddon Hall, 1 vol., wida 24 steel engravings, from designs
by George Cattermole, Esq., 31s. 6d. bound.
TIIE RIVER PLATE.—We learn that a letter from
Rio Jantiro, dated the 18th November, received by a
commercial house in this town, announces the arrival
there, on the preceding day, of the Apollo, English
troop stip, with troops on board, understood to be
bound to the River Plate, to reinforce those previously
sent to that quarter in the Resistance. No further in-
telligence had been receive d at Rio from Buenos Ayres
or Monte Video.—Manchester Guardian.

MAXFIELD (THE NORTH STAR) V. TIME FOR NU
—Maxfield is matched to run eleven miles within the
hour, on Sunbury Ctmrnon, ou the 13th of April next.
Twenty pounds is posted, to be made 100/. on the part
of the backer of time, and 801. on the part of Maxfield.
The " North Star" has also a match iu progress with
Barlow (alias Tallick), of Bolton, whose pedestrian per-
turniances in America ha's raised his fame. This latter
is for 751. a-side, and.to steno off over Doncaster race-
course, distance four miles, on the 30th March. Max-
field lr s already been oncti defeated by Barlost, over the
same course and distance ; but was, in his turn, beaten
on the last day of 1845, in a ten mile race, by Manks
(the Warwickshire antelope).
Szcrissiorr FROM THE Cuuncir.—The Rer. Spen-
cer Northcote, M.A., late Scholar of Corpus Christi
College has been received into the Roman Catholic
Church at ,Prior Park. Mr. Northcqe obtained the
highest classical honours at Oxford.--Post.