The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-03 00:00:00

MAGAZINES-(CONTINUED)
BENTLEY

The present number of Bentley opens with a continua-
tion of "Brian O'Linn," to wit, chap. xii., which is some-
; what heavy ; but
"Aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus,"
and when a three-volume novel is published bit by bit in
a miscellany, it is impossible that all the fragments
should be equally amusing. This is followed by an ex-
cellent magazine tale, entitled "Jeff Linton's Oak, or May
Day," being a May-day legend of 1738, and then the
arcana of " the Corner" are opened to us in a paper en-
titled " Tattersall and Tattersall's, with a glance at the
Lions and Legs of the Betting Ring." Albert Smith
follows with his glorious " Popular Zoology," the
subject of the present month's demonstration
being " The Boys in the Street," and admirably
does he dissect those said boys, and most learnedly
and scientifically does he demonstrate their
peculiar idiosyncracies, training them up from the tad-
pole state—" which reptile, " as he sagely observes,
"they somewhat resemble in their active wriggling and
love of water"—to their final destination, when "they
become grave and dull, and you would not " recogni::e
in the porter, the journeyman, or the carman any of the
eccentricities that marked their earlier career." Miss
Costello continues her series of "Legendary Cities and
Towns," the subject of her present illustration being
the interesting old town of Lewes. A. Fibb
givesi us a most amusing - paper on social
I omancing, and Dr. W. C. Taylor contributes
a learned article on the Albigenses and Troubadours.
Then we have a quaint treatise on the " Pump " from
the practised pen of Peter Prendergast; and then 'follows
a paper of a higher order than those we are accustomed to
meet with in Bentley ; it is from the
pen of his G
r
the Archbishop of Dublin, and is entitled " The Dan
g 'lee
e
of Debating Societies to Young Men." It appears
there
r
exists among the students of Trinity College, Dublin, a
debating society entitled " The Historical Society,"
and
the Archbishop thus describes the occasion which led
him to devote his attention to this subject.
"The occasion of my offering these remarks was a letter
addressed to the Provost by a member of the Colleges (of
which the writer sent me a copy, as one of the Visitors),
in reference to one of the questions proposed for debate, and
announced as such in the newspapers —% Whether a Member.
of Parliament should vote in accordance with the expressed
opinions of a majority of his constituents when they differ
from his own ?' And the writer deprecates the discussion
of such deep political questions by persons who cannot be ex-
pected to possess the requisite knowledge. This he considers
as likely to generate a habit of talking without thinking,
and to weaken the action of the mind while improving the
volubility of the tongue.' "

The Archbishop enters freely into the subject, and al-
lows that thepractice of debating may confer upon those
engaged in it a readiness and a fluency which they could
not otherwise acquire. He thus meets that portion of
the argument

" But a premature readiness is more likely than the oppo-
site extreme to lead to incurable faults. And all the dangers
that attend this kind of exercise, the learner who is engaged
in it should frequently recall to his mind and reflect on,
that he may the better guard against them ; never allowing
himself, in one of these mock debates, to maintain anything
which he himself believes to be untrue, or to use an argu-
ment which he perceives to be fallacious.
" The temptation to transgress this rule will often be very
strong; because, to such persons as usually form the majority
in one of those societies (youths of immature judgment,
superficial, and half-educated ), specious falsehood and
sophistry will often appear superior to truth and sound
reasoning, and will call forth louder plaudits ; and the wrong
side of a question will often afford room for such a
capti-
vating show of ingenuity as to be, to
.them, more ly
maintained than the right; and scruples of conscience, re-
lative to veracity and fairness, are not unlikely to be silenced
by the consideration that, after all, it is no real battle but
a tournament; there being no real and important measure to
be actually decided on, bat only a debate carried on for
practice-sake.
" But, unreal as is the occasion, and insignificant as may
be the particular point, a habit may be formed which will
not easily be unlearnt afterwards, of disregarding right
reason, and truth, and fair argument. And such a habit is
not merely debasing to the moral character, but also in a
rhetorical point of view, if I may so speak, often proves hurt-
ful. It has often weakened the effect, to a far greater degree
than most persons suppose, of what has been written and
said by men of great ability : by depriving it of that air of
simple truthfulness which has so winning a force, and which
it is so impossible completely to feign."
The views of the Archbishop are in every respect new,
but they seem founded in truth, and at all events his
letter (which is addressed to Dr. Cooke Taylor) is
well worthy the attentive consideration of all
heads of colleges and other academical institutions.
" Tipperary Hall" is continued with as much fun and
fancy as ever. Verily, the mantle of Maginn has fallen
upon the shoulders of him of Tipperary Hall, and long
may this " broth of a boy," be he who he may, live to
wear it, for wo are sure he will wear it worthily.
The pictorial illustrations of this number are, a scene
from "Brian O'Linn," by John Leech, and an admi-
rably engraved and life-like portrait of Washington
Irving, accompanied by a short biographical memoir.

DOUGLAS JERROLD'S SHILLING
MAGAZINE.

We have two additional chapters of " St. Giles and St.
James" in the present nnmber, in which the plot thickens.
Snipeton has removed Clarissa from Dovesnest, and
has taken a cottage for her at Hampstead.
Old Crossbone visits them there, and in pursuance of his
plan to raise himself in the world by aiding in the de-
signs of St. James or Clarissa, he persuades old
Snipeton that' it is absolutely necessary for her
health that she should take horse exercise, and
induces him to take St. Giles into his service as groom.
Crossbone takes St. Giles with him to the inn, at Hemp-
stead, to give him instructions, and while there a man,
who has fallen from his horse, is brought in senseless.
Among the crowd assembled is Tom Blast, who under pre.
tence of assisticg the wounded man picks his pocket, and
offers a portion of the plunder to St. Giles, who indig-
nantly rejects the offer. Just at that moment they
learn that the man has recovered and Blust goes off,
not however without reminding poor St. Giles that " he
shall always know where to come upon him,"
and poor St. Giles feels that he is in the vil-
lain's power, and seems to exist only by suffer-
ance. Juniper Hedgehog this moath addresses
his epistle to Lord Nugent. The eccentric cabman is
eloquent in his denunciations of death punishment.
Nothing will satisfy him but the total and immediate
abolition of the gallows. "Benjamin's Mess," by Paul
Bell, is a withering piece of sarcasm on the mock
philanthropists—the quack humanitarians, who make a
trade of their pretended love for the poor, by selling it,
diluted into a three-volume mawkish novel, at the rate
of 1/. lls. 6d. a lot. The " Researches in Belgravia"
a.". 3 amusing; while the paper, entitled " The Present
and the Future," furnishes matter for deep thought. As
a sample of the poetry, we quote the following sonnet
by E. M. Collins :

JUNE.
Summer, and stillness; ev'ry joyous bird
Pours a half-wearied song; the leafy glade,
Panting with flowery fragrance, to its shade,
Invites the wayside wanderer : there is heard
No sound amid the forest depths, save when
The rushing streamlet by the breeze is stirred;
Or the bee murmurs in the meadows, furred
With mess and starry flowers ; or, from some glen
The tired cuckoo lifts a pleasant voice;
Or the lone woodlark sings his hidden strain.
Oh 1 bid the poor, the lowly one rejoice,—
Upraise him from his penury and pain;
That from the choking courts and alleys dim
He may come forth, and join the universal hymn !
In addition we have two very interesting tales,
" Mrs. Edens's Sixpence," and the " Star in the Dark,'
besides a goodly collection of criticisms on new books

TL!E DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE.
We are surprised that just such another article as the
one• .entitled "Forest Dreams," the first contribution in
this number of the Dublin University, has not been
written long since ; possibly it has, though, supposing
that; to be the case, we have never previously encountered
so much of amusing tittle-tattle anent forest scenery
and: its associations grouped together in a single paper.
The writer has evidently entered into the subject with
ge,lmine gusto, and assuredly would never behold one of
Ga spur I.3oussin's sylvan landscapes unmoved. There is
not to us a more glorious spectacle in inanimate nature
tha a that of a woodland : whether it be in undulation
wit a all its " storm of boughs" iu a hurricane, or glow-
ing with a lustrous purple-green in the sunset, or when
• the tinkling show'rs of autumwn. leaves,"
rnetleyr
entered T e
itshee n"fFoirtesst nDakreedamnes's's haisn entil
sentiments, and poured his whole soul
give
into
surerhpereooemf
out in a panegyric on the world of boughs. Cousin-
germain to him in feeling is the contributor of "A
Day's Deer-stalking with the Markgraf of Baden ;" a
smart, rattling, cheerful scribe is he ; and as good a
trencherman as a rifleman we would wager. He has a
faculty for seeing everything through a bright medium,
and gladly would we enlist him as a companion on one
of those husky, yellow, flannelly nights in November,
when. Englishmen, and especially dwellers in Cockaigne,
are presumed to have a predisposition to the commission
oue/o-de-se. But that we cordially
believe such to be
superfluous, we would recommend to his consideration
as an incentive to good humour, and as a volume likely
to put the surliest amongst na on better terms with
each other and with existence, that most comical
of all comical co •
needs, the " Miseries of Human
Boz tells us, in his " Christmas Carol,"
—that most exquisite of his works !—that Scrooge's
neice's husband HAD a laugh, he had and that he some-
times indulged in it to such an extent " that he was
obliged to get up off the sofa and stamp !" Just such
another votary of jocoseness we take our Dublin Uni.
versity Sportsman to be • everything ludicrous appears
to him to be suggestive Of something yet more ludicrous,
insomuch that he is compelled every now and then to
forsake the regular drift of his narrative for the purpose
of obliging us with adventitious jokes and excrescent face-
tiousness. We are puzzled whether to regard this very
peculiarity as a blemish or an embellishment; but, seeing
that the article has altogether afforded us a pleasant
glimpse of Continental sport, we can readily afford to
make allowances for over-discursiveness, on account
of the actual discursiveness of the circumstances
described. William Carleton, some of whose books will
accompany those of Banim and Gerald Griffin in the li-
brary of Irish fiction, pursues the " uneven tenour of his
way" as the teller of a tale of Irish famine, yclept " The
Black Prophet." It promises to thrill with interest and
to freeze with horror, and altogether is destined to find
a numerous party of admirers among those who revel
in the perusal of Mrs. Radcliffe, M. G. Lewis, Harrison
Ainsworth, Eugene Sue, and Mrs. Shelly. Towards
the conclusion of a rather invidious criticism of " Russia
under the Autocrat," a remarkable brace of volumes,
..enne:l by
a noble Russian, named Ivan Golovine, the
evi
avails himself of the opportunity for panege-
rrysinewge: th,:t most questionable of Autocrats, the Em-
peror
natural olas. As well might an innovator in
history attempt to convince us that
the hungry ,volf is compassionate, the ser-
pent - guileless, or Pe carrion crow of the gran3iai-