The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-01 00:00:00

The Westminster _Review. N 0.185. Trubner.

The place of honour is accorded, among the seven con-
tributions making up the bulk of this new number of the
Westminster, to a second instalment of the " Unpublished
Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1815 and 1816,'
with running commentaries thereupon. Many interesting
particulars will be found, both in the letters themselves
and in the running commentaries. Incidentally, for
example, an excerpt is given from one of the former, dated
10th April, 1816, in which Lord Byron's portrait is
sketched not unlovingly by the pen of his illustrious con-
temporary. "If you had seen Lord Byron," writes Cole-
ridge to his corespondent, " you could scarcely disbelieve
him." Adding, as if in explanation of this—" So
beautiful a countenance I scarcely ever saw ;
his teeth so many stationary smiles ; his eyes the
open portal of the soul, things of light and for light; and
his forehead so ample and yet so flexible, passing from
marble smoothness into a hundred wreathes and lines, and
correspondent to the feelings and sentiments he is utter-
ing." Better than any photograph that sentence, because
the limning here gives the play of light and shade, and of
expression. A glimpse in a later portion of this
paper is given of the acerbity with which Hazlitt
depreciated " Christabel "—in acknowledgement, as we
are told, of an obligation under which circumstances had
placed the reviewer to the author of "Christabel." Re-
minding one of that sardonic and Rochefoucault remark
of Sir Walter Scott's, to the effect that there is one thing
some mortals can never forgive—being placed under an
obligation ! An article on " Indian Taxation," with spe-
cial reference in it to " Lord Corwallis's Land Settle-
ment," follows, and is succeeded, in its turn, by a
scarcely a propos political essay on "The Nationality
Question in Austria." Had the reviewer, by preference,
directed his attention to a consideration of the Nationa-
lity Question in Prussia, his labours just now would
have been a trifle more acceptable to the gene-
rality of readers. Scarcely any power in Eurrpe
admits less of a distinct question of nationality
at all of any individualised oharacter than
Austria that accumulation or ganglionic agglomoration of
distinct and antagonistic and antipathetic nationalities.
" The Future of the British Empire," the title of the
next article has, on the contrary,,an ever present interest
for every thoughtful subject of the Crown, no matter
what externally may be the fortuitous concurrence of
circumstances. When projects are 'seriously afloat for the
systematic disintegration of the Empire, when men like
Professor Goldwin Smith are at large with their wildly
unpatriotic schemes for the loosening of the colonists rods
of empire clustered round the imperial axe of English
sovereignty, it becomes us, one and all, to give serious
thought to the daring, and, as we ourselves, cannot
but conceive incidious and sinister designs now
meditated. The article on this vitally important
theme contributed to the current number of the
Westminster by one of its many able contributors, is a
masterly and a most impressive exposition of the whole
subject. We can heartily commend it to the considera-
tion of our readers. The cogency of its reasoning ap-
pears to us to be all but conclusive. The writer re-
probates in the strongest terms the suicidal notion of
England voluntarily, wilfully, wantonly breaking up her
colonial system. Some twenty of the probable, many of
them inevitable, and all of them disastrous consequences
likely to result from an abandonment of her claims by
the mother country, are at pages 65 and 66 enumerated.
A superficial paper on Shelley, a striking chapter on
Colonial and American pauperism, and a final contribu-
tion in reference to the Papacy, complete, a varied and
readable number of the Westminster,

The Dublin Review. No. 133. Burns, Oates and Co.
What is chiefly remarkable in regard to the current
number of the Dublin, is the extraordinary variety of the
themes descanted upon by the group of contributors.
Besides the comprehensive notices of books,anda collection
of Roman documents, and a Papal Brief address to Dr.
Ward, Dilecto Filio Georgio Ward, by Pope Pius IX.,
the number of the Dublin Review, now just pub-
lished, contains nine exceedingly diversified articles,
some of considerable pretentions, and all of them
of more or less elaboration. Of these "The
Council" is the theme of the last, with an especial regard
to the Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith.
The opening paper—suggested by a very sensationally
entitled book by the Amateur Casual of the Pall Mall
Gazette, James Greenwood, " The Seven Curses of Lon-
don"—undertakes to weigh Protestant London in the
balance, and to find it wanting—in many things I Inter-
mediately, subjects as widely contrasting as the following
are handled with varying ability by the reviewers—the
" Education Bill" in the Commons, and the " Land
Bill in the Lords"—the Chronicle of Eversham Abbey,"
and " Dr. Lee on Anglican Orders" Madame
de Lafayette and Madame de Montagu" the
" Authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews" and
" Lothair I" One curious fact we notice in regard to
" Lothair" and the Quarterly Reviwers, that whereas the
Dublin undertakes to show (vide pp. 165-171) that Mr.
Disraeli's last novel is a monstrous plagiarism from Miss
Amelia Edwards's " Half a Million of Money," the
Edinburgh, on the contrary, (vide p. 286, in a footnote),
declares, in regard to the very same charge, that, " with
the exception of a young English lord following to Italy
the daughter of a Garibaldian chieftain, there is no re-
semblance in the circumstances of the narratives or in the
personal delineations." The juxtaposed passages, how-
ever, given by the Dublin, cheek by jowl, are certainly, to
say the least of them, very remarkable—they betray, at
any rate, a strong family likeness.

His Royal Highness Lieutenant Prince Arthur
will not rejoin the Woolwich garrison for three months.
Before resuming his military duties the Prince will enjoy
a few weeks' shooting in Scotland.
The Prince and Princess Christian visited Worces-
ter on Friday, arriving from Malvern at noon. They
went over the cathedral and the Royal Porcelain Manu-
factory, and returned to Malvern about four o'clock.

It is stated that a marriage has been arranged
between Mr. Henry Crompton, a son of the late
Mr. Justice Crompton, and the youngest daughter of
Lord Romilly.