The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-05 00:00:00

up and down the elegant suite of apartments, sipping-
coffee and talking of .` politics and policy." In three or
four little groups the new measures of Sir R. Peel were
di,eussed, and various opinions expressed respecting the
manner in which they would be rk:ceived and met by the
con tinmtal states, particularly by this country and Ger-

Aft ,J- the festival had been concluded, the majority ot
the company proceeded to the Casino, a private club in
porti,n of the, Hotel de Viile, the members of which
most cJairteously received the strangers who had been

invited to the entertainment. .111; exterior of the
Town Hail was ornamented with Belgian and English
flags, and numercus rows of lamps were placed along
the entire front of that building.
About six o'clock this morning, the majority of the
company who had assisted at the festival embarked in the
new steamer, the Chemin de Fer (built by the Messrs.
Ditchburn and Mare fin. the Belgian Government), for
Ostend. The quays and the various ships in port were
crowded with eager spectators ; a full guard of honour
was stationed opposite the place of embarkation, and as
the boat glided majestically on its first voyage to
Ostend the military presented arms and the assembled
croktd gave some hearty c cars. The passage was a
rough one, and the majority 'of the gentlemen (there
were no ladies), particularly the Belgians, did not ap•
pear to be quite so much at their ease as they were yes-
terday evening. The company on board had been in-
vited by the Belgian Government to make the trip, with
the privilege of returning to Ostend on Thursday or
Sunday next. The directors of the South-Eastern Rail-
way, with equal liberality, gave to each gentleman on
board a first-class free pass ticket for London, and for
the return journey to Dover, the ticket to hold good till
the 7th instant inclusively. All the foreign gentlemen
shortly after landing at Dover proceeded to London,
where they will stop till Saturday next.
The following, amongst others, have availed them-
selves of the opportunity to visit the great metropolis :
—Captain Lahure, Director of the Belgian Marine ; Cap-
tain Schohkeil, M. llauchhorn, and M. Richardson, of
Cologne ; M. Jerlache, M. de Breyre, M. de Basson-
pi-e, Intendent Militaire ; M. Parys, Lieut. Vanhae-
verke, Lieut.-Colonel Benckers, Captain Vanderpltnte,
M. Deladriere, Commandant de Place of Ostend ; M.
Van Isseghen, Dutch Consul at Ostend ; M. Bourson,
Captain 'garnet, Livut. Ablay, Baron T. Setclaes, Lieut.
Guyette, Major Lahure, M. Allard, and Count de
Buisseret.

Mr. Latham and Lieut. NVaghorn, who had been
officially invited by the Belgian Government to the
festival, also returned to Dover by the new boat.
The Captain of the Chemin de Fer is an experienced
seaman named Claes, a native of Belgium. lie speaks
English well, and gives his ord.,rs to the head engineer,
stokers, and pilot, in that language. The head en-
gineer is an Englishman named Davies, who has two
Belgians under his instruction. The lieutenant of the
vessel and the common sailors are Belgians. A Cus-
tom-house officer will always be on board, and will,
when required, examine the luggage, &c., during the
passage, in order to avoid delay at Ostend. The pas-
sagc to Dover was performed in five hours and three-
quarters. The engines are of 120-horse power. Them
will be for the future a daily communication between
the two ports.

INSTITUTION OF CIVIL
ENGINEERS.
(Sir John Rennie, President, in the Chair.)
The first paper read (on the 24th ult.) was a " De-
scription of the Dinting Vale Viaduct, on the line
of the Sheffield and Manchester Railway," by
A. S. Gee. Member I. C. E. This viaduct consists of
sixteen arcle-s, five of which are of timber, and seven of

of bricks. The whole of the large piers, wings, outside
spandrils, and parapets are built of stone, from the
quarries in the.neig,hbaurnood.
The five large arches, which are each of 125 feet span,
and twenty-five feet versed sine, are built of Memel tim-
ber; the main ribs of these arches are composed of
planking three inches thick, bent and laid longitudi
nally, and fastened together with oak trenails, and firmly
stayed by means of wrought iron tie-rods.
The smaller semicircular arches, situated at each end
of the viaduct, are built of brick, with stone quoins.
They are of fifty feet in the span and three feet in thick-
ness, and are built in a curve of forty chains radias, the
piers being wedge shaped to suit the curve, leaving the
faces parallel with each other.
The entire cost of the viaduct (which was given in its
various details in the paper) was stated to be 35,2501.
6s. 5d., its total length 484 yards, and its greatest height,
about 125 feet above the water course. It was com-
menced early in 1843, and was opened on the Bth of
August, 1844. The average cost of construction was
calculated at about 21. 14s. per superficial yard, and
6s. 9d. per cubic yard, the viaduct being eighty yards wide.
The paper by Mr. G. W. Hemans, M. Inst., C.E., de-
scribed the system invented by Sir J. Macneill, and em-
ployed on the Dublin and Drogheda Railway for pre-
paring the transverse sleepers, and fastening the rails
upon them.
The sleepers are half baulks 12 inches by 6 inches at
the junction of the rails, and intermediately half trees
of larch, with the bark on, not less than 8 inches by
4 inches, are placed, with the round side upwards,
at an average distance of 2 feet 6 inches apart.
These sleepers are prepared for bearing the rails,
by fixing twelve at a time on a sliding table,
similar to that of a planing machine ; they are moved
forward by steam power beneath two circular cutters,
set at the given distance of the gauge apart, and re-
volving very rapidly, and which pass through the whole
series of sleepers, cutting, at a given inclination, the
seats for the rails. A slight stoppage of the table takes
place as each sleeper is cut, in order to aff)rd time for
four drills to descend simultaneously, and to pierce the
holes for the pins or trenails for holding down the rails.
An engine of six-horse power suffices for working two
of there machines, by which one thousand sleepers can
be finished complete in twentrfour hours, at an expense
of about Id. each, instead of 2id each, which they
formerly cost by manual labour.
The sleepers thus prepared are used traversely be-
neath rails of the bridge, from which the side: are
slightly pinched inwards, in finishing, so as to form a
dovetail with a joint plate with a raised rib, which is laid
at each junction, and which, by using a screw pin and
plate at one end, and a collar-headed pin at the other,
holds the rail very fast, preventing lateral and vertical
motion, but permitting longitudinal action in expansion
and contraction. These rails weigh 831 b. per yard. The
total cost per mile of the double line, including rails,
sleepers, piers, spikes, joint chains, &c., laid complete,
is stated at 3,4701. 2s. Bd., when the rails cost 71. ss.
per ton.
The paper by Mr. W. Vanderkiete, Assoc. Inst, C. E.,
described a very useful arrangement of machinery for
workiug the diving-bell used in setting the masonry, at
a depth of about eight feet below the level of extraor-
dinary spring tides, in the extension of the pier at
Kilrush, in the river Shannon, unler the direction of
Mr. T. Rhodes, the chief engineer of the Shannon
Commissioners. Upon a series of piles and longi-
tudinal timbers, a railway was laid, upon which
two travelling platforms were constructed; with
winches, &c. One of them brought the stone nearly
over its intended position, and lowered it into the sea ;
the other then brought the diving-bell over it, and by
means of a cha, in and purchase, the stone was lifted and
placed properly in its place by the men in the bell. This
work was continued through all seasons, and with the
utmost regularity, and the work so constructed was as
solid as if built on dry land. The drawings accompany-

ff ;

'1 LITERATURE.
THE LAW OF RAIL WAYS. By L. Shelforii,

BarrEger at law.

Second Edition.

At this particular stage of railwa) investment and of
the Parliamentary session, a more thoroughly useful or
valuable book than the present could not have been
published. In the present digest of the enactments
which relate to railways, the editor has shown more than
mere painstaking ; he seems to have always kept in
view the convenience of its readers, insomuch that any
particular section of the subject may be referred to
with the greatest facility. The selection of illustrative
cases is likewise most appropriate and judicious. To
every one interested in railways—and to whom does this
nut in some measure apply!?—the volume here produced
from the research and industry of Mr. Shelford, will
prove a most decided boon : it will unravel to them
whatever might previously have appeared intricate ; it
will show them the bearings of any questionable point;
it will inform them when they are in need of informa-
tion, and guide them when they require guidance. This
edition is very considerably improved and extended, and
comprises, under their several heads, the powers, the
privileges, the responsibilities, and the duties which de-
volve upon railway cdmpanies after incorporation. In
one word, we would recommend all who are connected
with railways, either as shareholders or otherwise, to
provide themselves forthwith with this little volume.

MAGAZINES-(CONTINUED.)
FRASER.

In these days, when bitter reproaches, abusive epi-
thets, and calumnious charges form the arguments of
one section of the political world the Conservative

leader, if we are to place any confidence to words, is
more detested by many of his former friends than any
Whig, or Radical, or Repealer ; it is a relief to find one
writer, at least, viewing his conduct with calm impar-
tiality, and doing justice to the statesman whom the
writer considers as lost fur ever to his party. This is a
proof of good sense, and by-and-by it will have many
imitators—for many of the Tory school at present have
recourse to abuse from sheer vexation, and forget the
first principles of justice and charity in the midst of
disippointments which they never anticipated. They
will, like the writer, be convinced in time that Peel's
conversion is no selfish act—that it is rather a great
sacrifice of power, of friends, of principles long che-
rished, and of many ties which no rational being would
break asunder, but from dire necessity or pure love of
his country. This is fairly admitted.- "We give,"
says Fraser," Sir Robert Peel full eredit for a conscien-
tious change of opinion on the great question which is
now under discussion in the Legislsture. But for such
change, indeed, his conduct would be quite inexplicable.
He has become a free-trader, because he believed that
free trade would benefit his country." He then admits
that the system of free trade may be very good—that the
repeal of the corn laws and the removal of protection
from our heavily-taxed manufacturers and artisans may
be a wise thing, but then says he, measures like these
should not have been proposed by the Conservative
leader, and be should not have dragged his friends
through the mud. This "dragging of friends through
the mud" has become a favourite phrase with a certain
class—a class so obtuse that they cannot perceive the
folly of using it. Why are they dragged through the
mud? Because they will neither walk, nor drive, nor
be led. They are obstinate as the most obstinate of all
classes, and if they can be sated from ruin no other
way, what other resource is there but to lay hold of
tht in vigorously, and drag them through either mud or
ater, or whatever lies between them and a place of
safety ? It is equally preposterous to say that the Con-
servative chief should not have performed this act.
Who, then, could have done it? Neither the strength
of Lord John Russell, nor all the power of Mr. Cobden
and the League, without years of ruinous agitation, and
scenes which every friend of peace, and every sincere
patrit t would regard with deep anxiety and horror. If
any two facts connected. with these measures are more
palpable than others, they are these. Sir Robert Peel
can gain nothing personally or politically by the change,
and there is not one statesman in the country but him-
self who at the present day can carry it. HoWever, the
article altogether is very fair, and one or two portions of
it might be read by the protectionists with advantage.
We will give one as a specimen. It is well known that
the landlords boast loudly that they, and their tenants
and farm labourers, and other dependents, are the best
customers at the markets of Manchester, and Leeds, and
Birmingham. Listen, ye protectionists, to your friend:—
"In favour of a free trade the argument unquestionably
lies, that there are periods in the history of all nations when
the system of policy which reared ceases to be applicable to
their maintenance; exactly as in the individual man, the
morale nd even physical culture which most avails in youth
becomes injurious in the vigour of our days, and kills if it be
persevered in to old age. No fact, for instance, can be more
perfectly established, than that the customs and excise, and
other sources of revenue arising oat of the system of protec-
tion were stretched by the Whigs, in 1839, beyond their just
limits; that they imposed upon both dealers and consumers
inconveniences innumerable, and had ceased to be profitable.
In like manner the old assertion that the agriculturist is the
manufacturer's best customer, will not bear a moment's in-
spection. That the home market is more to the manufac-
turer than all the foreign markets into which he makes his
way, we quite believe; but the error is to suppose, that the
only buyer in this market is the agriculturist. Consider
what the articles are which the manufacturer produces. He
gives us cotton-piece goods for our shirting and our sheeting,
for the gowns of our wives and daughters ; he gives us
broad cloths and narrow, and woollen fabrics of other sorts
for our coats, trousers, waistcoats, blankets, and such like; he
supplies us with stockings, shoes, hats, cravats. Every ar-
ticle that is used in the furnishing of our houses—our win-
dow-curtains, bed-curtains, carpets, chair-covers, are the pro-
duce of his loom. Now, who are they that consume these
different articles chiefly? Does the country gentleman' with
his rental of five thousand a-year, expend half so much upon
the clothing of his own person as a spruce clerk in the Ad
iniralty, or a shopman in Howell and James's? And when
you look to the farmer, what is his every-day costume? A
shooting-jacket, which lasts him on an average five years—a
pair of corduroy breeches, leather gaiters, and high-lows, to
work his way through which will take him three years at the
least. It is only on market-days and Sunday that he arrays
himself in his green coat and yellows, and these are carefully
pulled off and fo'ded and laid away again as soon as the oc-
casion ceases. Nor is the case different if we compare the
style of dress that prevails among the operatives, and that
which suits the tastes and purses of the agricultural labourers.
We venture to say, that more money is spent upon wearing
apparel in any one thriving street in Manchester, than in
half the purely agricultural villages of Lancashire put to-
gether."
In this number, the other articles in general are respect-
able, and a few of them excellent. We may mention
among these, " The History of a Literary Man (Laman
Blanchard), by Titmarsh;" " Newman's Theories;" and
" Contemporary Orators—Lord Palmerston." The con-
cluding advice in the article on "Puseyism" ought to be
listened to with religious care by every friend of the
Reformation:— _

THE NEW TIMON. A ROMANCE OF
LONDON. Part IV.
With this fourth part concludes one of the most re-
markable poems of the present generation ; we speak
this emphatically, regarding the " New Timon " as re-
markable in a threefold degree—its conception being
strictly original, its language and imagery new, its ten-
dency eminently moral. On its appearance it was in-
troduced to the lovers of poetry with the most decided
of all passports to popularity with which any production
of real merit can possibly be accompanied—it had the
prestige of being anonymous. Many, doubtless, may
consider this a very questionable sort of advantage ;
but, for ourselves, we must ever regard it as the safest
course a literary aspirant can adopt. For one thing, if a
publication attracts attention by its intrinsic worth, while
its title-page is without any clue to the authorship,
the euriosity of its readers is excited, and, in con-
sequence, a double interest is aroused. Without this
preliminary secrecy the " Waverley Novels" would in
all likelihood have been regarded as very clever and
successful efforts on the part of Mr. Walter Scott ;
people might possibly have exclaimed "What versa•
Why !" passages in " Marmion" and " Old Mortality"
might have b,en compared, and those glorious fictions
might have subsided much sooner into the quiet immor-
tality of bookshelves. Without this incitement to in-
quiry Junius would never have achieved one moiety of
Cis present renown ; without it, the humourous writings
of" Boz" would scarcely have reached their first extraor-
ordinary circulation; without it—to come to a more recent,
a more insignificant, but nevertheless quite as appropriate
an instance—" Cecil, or the Adventures of a Coxcomb,"
would most assuredly never have extended its admirers
beyond the subscribers to the circulating libraries.
Having adduced these examples, in corroboration of our
opinion as to the peculiar benefit which redounds
to a thoroughly meritorious work, when unaccom-
panied by its author's name, we will revert, and that
eith no inconsiderable pleasure, to the anonymous writer
of the "Romance of London." To this multitude he
may still continue to be anonymous; to us the paternity
is manifest; through every couplet the peculiar bias of
the practised literateur is evident. Every description is
iinhued with his peculiar idiosyncrasy; the plot, the cha-
racters, the situations, are traceable to his imagination
alone. Unlike his illustrious predecessor of Abbotsford,
he bas thrown aside the arabesqued-garment and opium
vapours of romance, to assume instead the bay-garland
and the crystal goblet of poetry. Upon this his re-ap-
pearance in an unexpected character, and that, too, with
correspondent freshness and vigour, we congratulate the
author of the "New Timon," and we congratulate our-
selves. As a translator of the ballad-glories of Schiller,
he had already tasted the hippocrene--in the present
bold and not unsuccessful effort's he drinks
a full and refreshing draught of that celestial
beverage. Those who have not been fortunate
enough to peruse this satirical poem may conjecture
that such commendation is over-laudatory and mis-
judged : with an earnest desire to clear ourselves from
this imputation upon our character ass candid critics,
we commend those individuals to the production itself—
but especially to this fourth and concluding part, which
in every respect is so immesurably superior to its pre-
decessors. Meanwhile, as some assurance that, such
praise is fully merited, we will transcribe one descrip-
tion, a description of that very he.cknied subject
" Morning"—a description, however, which of its class
has no exact companion in the language :
" At dawn, while yet, around the Indian, lay
The dark fantastic groups—resumed the way ;
• w • • •
Behold the sun I—how stately from the 'east,
Bright from God s presence, comes the glorious Priest !
Deck'd as beseems the Mighty One to whom
Heaven gives the charge to hallow and illume !
How, as he comes—through the great temple, EARTH,
Peals the rich jubilee of grateful mirth !
The infant flowers their odour-censers swinging,
Through aisled glades Air's anthem-chorus ringing;
While, like some soul lifted aloft by love,
High and alone the skylark halts above,
High, o'er the sparkling dews, the glitter;.ng corn,
Hymns his frank happiness and hails the morn !"
The imagery employed in the opening of this passage is
most daring, but the success with which it is embodied is
most noble and most beautiful. A bolder symbol of the
great luminary was never imagined, and the manner in
which the metaphor is carried out is commensurate in all
respects. As sone additional evidence of the " true
poetry" stirring within the secret chambers of our
author's mind, as a token that his fancy aspires to very
lofty similes, turn we to one of those ambitious gleamings
of imagination which occasionally glitter in the pages of
"a dreamer of dreams." Ile is depicting a tempestuous
night, where
"At times the wild blast dies—and fair and far,
Through chasms of cloud, looks down the solemn star—
'Or the majestic moon ; as watchfires mark
Some sleeping War dim-tented in the dark;
Or as, through antique chaos and the storm
Of matter, whird'd and writhing into form
Pale angels peer'd !"
Assuredly no meagre or impoverished intellstet could
have generated a thought at once so huge and delicate
as this! No mere dabbler in the Helicon could write
with a firm iron grasp like this! We do not wish to
squeeze out a beauty where none exists: doe quotations
are their own index. Part IV. opens with a description
of Morvale's pilgrimage in search of "forgetfulness;"
and here his title to be distinguished as the New
Timon is fully demonstrated. His affe(!tions sered by
the criminality of Lucy's father; his sera' burning with
a holy thirst for vengeance (a holy thirst, we say, be.
cause originating in his reverence for his sister's fame);
his heart empty and pulseless with, desolation, the
Indian wanders through the fields, find the city ways,
and through the fields again—at dawn, at mid-
night, at evening, and at noon—without the
solace of any CREED which might console him
with the promise of future happiness. And here
we would pause to point out more clearly than by any
of our foregoing insinuations, the identity of the author-
ship of this " Romance of London," by comparing two
passages fraught with a subtle but unmistakable similarity
in thought, in language, and in illustration. To be
brief : our anonymous poet, when alluding to this incer-
titude of Morvale as to a futurity, says—in this final
portion of the " New Timon"—
" Nor when his instinct of the life afar
Soar'd from the soil and tackle the unanswering star,
Came more than Hope—that reflex-beam of faith—
That fitful moonlight on the unknown path."
Several years ago Mr. (now Sir) Edward Lytton Bul-
wer produced (his first literary production we believe it
was) a little volume, entitled " Falkland" : in it occur
the following eloquent ejaculations, and we would
have the reader compare the two fragments in spirit and
in word:—
" I would give worlds for a proof that death does net
destroy. . . . I have watched over the tomb; I have ,
called in the agony of my heart to her who slept beneath.
. . I have been, as it were, entranced with the intensity
of my own adjuration. I have gazed upon the empty air,
and worked upon my mind to fill it with imaginings. I have
called aloud unto the winds and tasked my soul to waken
their silence to reply. All was a waste—a stillness—an
infinity—without a wanderer or a voice! The dead
answered me not when I envoked them ; and in the vigils of
the still night I looked from the rank grass and mouldering
stones to the eternal heavens, as man looks from decay to
immortality ! Oh that awful magnificence of repose—thatliving sleep—that breathing, yet unrevealing divinity, spread
over those still worlds! To them also I poured my thoughts,
but in a whisper. I did not dare to breathe aloud the unhal-
Po anguish of my mind to the majesty of. the unsympa-
tthe innidds oft
t
stupendous
system of universallife—mylilthest orderofereation—m
doubt
in-
quiry were murmured forth—a voice crying in the
il'iiesin g stars
t
wilderness, and returning without an echo, unanswered
unto myself."
It is perfectly unnecessary to analyse a resemblance
which must be manifest to every one : has the " New
Timon" author borrowed from himself or from another ?
More as to the source of this poem cannot assuredly be
requisite. Our observations, however, should relate to
the writing as well as to the writer ; for that purpose
therefore the short space we have still remaining must
be allotted to the former. One evening the hero over-
hears an old man "sainted and obscure!" discoursing of
the Christian doctrines to a neophyte,—tracing out its
tenderness, its purity, its accordance with our better
reason, and its solid, hopeful truth—while he demonstrates
the depravity, obscurity, absurdity, and foolish
antagonism of the Heathen Dieties. This harangue of
the old sage is a masterly exposition of the creed of the
ONE GOD : the angelic simplicity of which creed is con-
densed into the two admirable lines—
"To reason less is to imagine more;
They most aspire who meekly most adore !"
Morvale the stern Infidel is embued with these divine
sentiments ; he is converted. With Christianity he
acquires a negative serenity ; he allays his vile yearn
inga for Lord Arden's blood ; he becomes, in the ab-
stract, passionless. As a proof of this total alteration in
his temperament, the two enemies meet by accident, in
a storm, at nightfall, upon a plank, that trembles over a
swollen and boiling stream. Lord Arden is sw(pt into
the river by a hurricane, and is saved from immediate
destruction by —the Indian, but very recently his dead-
liest foe. Subsequently, however, Lord Arden dies ; his
daughter is once more thrown penniless upon the world
through the cruel operation of the bastardy laws— but
encounters the wealthy Mory ale at the grass tomb o
her parents, where their love is assured for ever amidst
the twilight of that region of death ; and the story ter-
minates thus—
" Sudden rose up, above the funeral yews,
The moon ; her beams the funeral shades suffuse!
Thus in that light the tender accents cease,
And by the grave was Love, and o'ercreatien peace !"
Viewing this poem as a whole, it promises largely as to
the future poetical excellence of its author. It has its
blemishes, no doubt, many of which we have particu-
larised; but it. has also beauties of no ordinary lustre,

" Every bond of union with such a party ought to be reso-
lutely and immediately broken asunder. Friendship, habit,
kindness, personal advantages, what are these to an uncor-
rupted heart and a conscience void of offence? Under cover
of our own betrayers, Rome advances. Not a moment ought
to be lost. Let the separation from the Jesuitism of Pusey
and the development of Newman, be instant and complete.
Severe crises demand decided measures.
"If private sympathies still weigh down and detain the
struggling disciple,—if the anchor, encumbered by drifting
weeds, will not rise to the hand,----then one course only re-
mains, and that is to cut the cables and prepare for action at
the signal, which ought now to be making from every high
place of education throughout the kingdom,—.'Enemy at
Sea.' "

ing the paper gave all the details of the machinery.
" An ac eount of the drops used for the shipment of
coals at Middlebbro' on Tees," by G. Turnbull, Mem.
Just, C. E., was announced to be read at the meeting of
Tuesday, March 3c, 1846, when the monthly ballot for
members will take place.

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY IVIORNING, MARCH s, 1848.

.._ .
like
4. t• . , , • - - ;- ;.1 , . .
many.of *hicb, in i manner, we have carefully ex- out transcribing the table' of contents, we could not do
traeted or-referred to. The animus of the work is essen- -justice to this number of the Bankers' Magazine ; we
tinily humanising; its diction is peculiarly nervous and therefore refer every one curious as to our commercial
musical; its plot, with a few minor exceptions, is in- prosperity to its pages.
genious; and its effect altogether bold, harmonious, and
original- No poem of equal length has issued from the
English press for such a number of years as we have not
the heart to enumerate, with anything approaching to
the ability of the " New Titnon"—it augurs a resuscita-
tion of our bardic glcries. Earnestly we commend the
author to his pencil and the woodlands; with due exertion
he may carve himself a niche for posterity.

DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE.

Wonderfully silent is our political essayist of the
Dublin University at this extraordinary period of com-
mercial change; the great achievements of free trade
appear to have frightened his editorship into this un-
usual state of silence,—a silence, however, which we
cannot induce ourselves to regret. In lieu of any
lamentations at the downfall of protection, the magazine
leads off with an agreeable story of a Roman sculptor's
first-love. For one article we can exprEss our personal
obligations; we allude to a survey of" The Insurrections
and Insurgents of Italy," translated from the Revue des
Meux Mondes. In those two short chapters the reader
obtains a perfect knowledge of the different moral con
vulsions which have disturbed the Italian states during
the past century. Seeing that it has long been the
fashion to regard the domination of Italy under
Napoleon as a most vicious and baleful despotism, we
are rejoicf-d to find a correct exp,sition of that great
man's policy brought berore the English public in a con-
densed and ropuiar manner like the present. Far front
reducing everything into subserviency fur the purpose
of insuring the continuance of a tyrannic sway, and
that at all risks, at all hazards. and at the expense
of any and every subordinate portion of the kingdom,
Napoleon infused into the Government of Italy, a
healthier tone than that country had ever before acquired
What does our writer say respecting the modelling of
his Italian constitution ? This—

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isation
-e
isation of the tribunals and the administration, and
by the laws, which were highly favourable to industry
and manufactures, and to the development of the power
of the middle classes. * * * * Dating
from 1808, there was throughout all Italy but one
code, one system of judicial organisation, one financial
system, one method of public instruction ; the brigands
were rapidly disappearing; the public roads were rendered
safe to travel ; and fusion of manners and intermingling of
interests, was hurrying on the work of nationality. At the
same time, a spirit of activity was infused into every mind;
the peninsula began to be covered with new monuments ;
ancient structures were completed and repaired; vast roads
were traced out ; agriculture made astonishing progress ;
and the arts, sciences, literature, and even the Italian lan-
guage itself, never received greater encouragement, than
during the reign of Napoleon As to
that section of the aristocracy which did not side
with Napoleon, it was annihilated by the salutary
influence of that arrangement which elevated to the
highest posts in the State men whose only recom-
mendation was their talent. The democratic party had
noiselessly appeared, absorbed into the highly-popular admi-
nistration of Napoleon. The democrats saw that liberty and
equality, though not now talked about, were, notwithstanding,
realised."

These are important admissions, and show in its true
light the abstract beneficence and practical good devolving
upon the inhabitants of those classic territories through
the agency of the Emperor's sovereignty. Nor is the
subversion of that wonderful man's power in Italy attri-
butable to any fallacies or discrepancies in his code, but
rather to extraneous circumstances of a most unforeseen
description. An internal agitation was excited by the
aristocratic party, who bad been slighted by Beauhar-
nais; and this agitation was furthered still more by cer-
tain democratic factions of no principle whatever, either
moral or political. Fanaticism, in the shape of a new
sect, entitled the Carbonari, tended at the same time to
stir up the more ignorant among the population; while
a foreign interference on the part of the Austrian Go-
vernment fomented the difficulties of the Viceroy Eugene
—difficulties which were brought to their consummation
by the disasters of the Russian campaign. Thus—in
our estimation, and in the estimation of all sensible
readers of Italian history—a most benign and humanising
rule was subverted. Has the cara e Lelia Italia been a
gainer or a loser by the change of masters ? Is not its
present position a sufficient answer? " Stray Leaflets
from the Oak of German Poetry," are rugged and occa-
sionally uncouth, but rich with thought and feeling.
" Glintings of the Shannon" are picturesque ; but the
following, by that accomplished author, G. P. R. James,
is the most powerful and apropos contribution in the
Number:—

ON A WAR WITH AMERICA.
A cloud is on the western sky,
There's tempest o'er the sea,
And bankrupt States are blustering high,
But not a whit care we.
Our guns shall roar, our steel shall gleam,
Before Columbia's distant stream
shall own another's sway ;
We'll take our stand,
And draw the brand,
As in the ancient day.
They count on feuds within the isle,
They think the sword is broke,
They look to Ireland, and they smile—
But let them bide the stroke.
When rendered one in hand and heart
By robber, war, and swindler art,
Home griefs all cast away;
We'll take our stand,
And draw the brand,
As in the ancient day.
Oh, let them look to where in bonds
For help their bondsmen cry—
Oh,
let them look ere British hands
Wipe out that living lie.
Beneath the flag of Liberty
We'll sweep the wide Atlantic Sea,
And tear their chains away;
There take our stand,
And draw the brand,
Ar in the ancient day.
Veil, starry banner, veil your pride,
The blood-red cross before,
Emblem of that by Jordan's side,
Man's freedom-price that bore.
No land is strong that owns a slave,
Vain is it wealthy, crafty, brave:
Our freedom for our stay,
We'll take our stand,
And draw the brand,
As in the ancient day.
Shout, dusky millions, through the world !
Ye scourge-driven nations, shout !
The flag of liberty's unfurled,
And freedom's sword is out !
The slaver's boastful thirst of gain
Tends but to break his bondsman's chain ;
And Britain's on the way
To take her stand,
And draw the brand,
As in the ancient day.
This is a fine. stirring, and noble• spirited poem. The
number altogether for March is really excellent.