The Sun.
London, England, 1833-11-01 00:00:00

JOHNSTONE'S MAGAZINE.

A most abundant eightpenny worth, cheaper
even than that phenomenon among periodicals
(now we fear defunct) the " Halfpenny Maga-
zine," which supplied the reader with tales,
essays, poems, and erudite tractates on political
economy for the sum of two farthings ! The very
first article " On October Ale," will arrest ge-
neral attention. It is well timed, and penned in
a sprightly, social spirit. The whole family of
the nut-browns are treated with suitable reve-
rence, and the expediency of ale being generally
substituted for tea, and the " ancestral custom of
home-brewing" being again brought into fashion
among our peasantry, stoutly insisted on. It
was to tea that we owed Swing. No ale-bibber
could ever have had the heart to burn a rick,
for how was he to have amassed the necessary
modicum of spleen ? Ale is the sworn foster-
parent of the social virtues. Off with the malt
duty, then, my Lord Althorp, and enable our
peasantry to return again to this good old Eng-
lish beverage. But above all things, set your
face against intermediate beer. Make it An
indictable offence for any man to buy or sell
such an insipid, neither-this-nor-that, :pate-
milieu tipple. It is fit only to be drank by
Louis Philip and the Doctrinaires. Well
says Mrs. Johnstone, " the change from
malt liquors either to spirits or bad tea
is one which every friend to the comforts
of the people must deplore ; the more deeply
that the conyeorts are the best supporters
of the virtues." This is a sagacious remark.
It is astonishing how many fine old English
poems, full of body and flavour, are to be met
with on the subject of ale. Even episcopacy
itself has not disdained such inspiration. To
say nothing of the well known drinking song of

Bis hop Corbet.the best and merriest prelate
that ever wore a lawn sleeve—what think you of
this jovial couplet made by some roystering
Elizabethan poet, and describing the effects of
good ale on the proboscis of some village
parson ?

" And the jolly red light of the parson's nose
Will thaw him a road through the snow."
These two lines are worth all that Cowley ever
wrote. It makes one thirsty to read them.
" Autobiography of Gait," is a highly laudatory
review ; too much so, indeed ; for Mr. Galt,
though a clever man, is no prodigy. In one of
his extracts, we perceive, he talks of " indulging
so much in his imagination." He need not
alarm himself; he has not an atom of that
" divine faculty." The character of all his
literary works is worldly shrewdness. He has
no invention—no ideality, and can sketch but
one portrait, that of the keen, dry, cautious
Scotch adventurer. His two best and most
original conceptions are, Leddy Grippy (match-
less in her way) and Sir A. Wylie. As for
the Pringles, the Provosts, the Lawrie Todds,
and the Bogle Corbets, they are mere adumbra-
tions of these two. In like manner, the Annalist
of the Parish is nothing more than an ingenious
compound of Parson Adams and the Vicar of
Wakefield. Mr. Galt also vouchsafes to tell
us that he has sometimes felt " a little shame-
faced at finding himself so much of an author."
Now really this is very sorry affectation in a
man who owes his everything to literature.
Does he mean to insinuate that he held a more
respectable grade in society as a merchant's
clerk ?—that he was an object of greater national
interest as a commercial traveller ? Why should
he be " shamefaced" at being proved a man of
intellect—at being caught with the pen in his
hand instead of the pen behind his ear ? We
had no idea that a Scotch gentleman of fifty-
eight could be so addicted to blushing. The
bump of erubescence must be most powerfully
developed on his occiput. Again, Mr. Galt is
of opinion that "it is not a very gentlemanlike
occupation for a man to write his own life."
What a horror he has of being thought un-
gentlemanlike ! Yet Sterne, Flume, Gibbon,
Rousseau, Scott, did not think it vulgar to
furnish the world with their own memoirs. Why
then should Mr. Galt be so fastidious ? We
allude to these blemishes in an otherwise de-

lightful book in no unfriendly spirit, but simply
because we think it an act of public duty to
protest against that prudish, aristocratic spirit
—the surest test of false gentility—which recog-
nizes no standard of respectability but that of
wealth and rank. " A Legend of the Cove-
nanters," is a clever tale, and trundles along
smoothly and rapidly like a steam-coach.
" Means of Preserving Health and Beauty,"
should be read by the young of both sexes.
The treatise on perspiration, however, might
have been softened down a little. The writer,
we are glad to see, is no enemy to sugar-candy
and barley-sugar, which will impart consolation

to all who have a " sweet tooth in their heads."
The following desultory hints are just and per-

inent :

" Too much cannot be said in favour of fresh air, as a
means of preserving beauty. In fact, it is as indispensa-
bly necessary as proper food is to the maintenance of health.
But by fresh air I do not mean that of the country only.
I use the expression in contradistinction to the confined
air of close apartments, and of certain situations.
" It is very customary with many to abuse the air of the
city, and to lay to its charge a large share of our diseases.
Some think it unhealthy only during the summer months,
and others consider it but little better than a slow poison
all the year round. These people forget that the habits of
the city are widely different from those of the country,
that the living is more sumptuous, the exercise less, and
every species of dissipation increased a thousand fold—and
these are not trifling differences ; their operation is far
more general than would ba at first suspected, and is much
oftener the cause of disease than the city air.
" That the atmosphere of a large and populous city is
altogether less salubrious during several months than that
of the country there can be no doubt whatever ; but in the
win•er, and a considerable part of the autumn and spring,
I believe that in airy situations it is nearly if not equally so.
" One of the most apparent effects of fresh air, is the
ruddy tint which it gives to the complexion. To seclude
a person from it invariably causes paleness.
" Frequent changes from the atmosphere of one place
to that of another have a marked influence upon the colour
of the face. It has long been observed, that no class of
men bav e a more: rush, healthy appearance than stage
coachmen, who are constantly passing from one part of the
country to another; and no doubt this depends in a great
degree upon the frequent changes of air.
" Fresh air has a powerful operation upon the skin, in-
creasing the circulation of the blood, in its minute vessels,
and giving it that vermilion hue so necessary to beauty, and
so indicative of good health.
" There is evidently a difference in the air in this re-
spect, at different periods within the twenty-four hours.
Early in the morning, it possesses a degree of purity and
freshness which is very perceptible. A morning's walk,
for this reason, gives a brighter colour to the cheek than
at any other time through the day ; hence the propriety of
those who wish to look blooming being out early, and
borrowing their rouge from Dame Nature herself. Certain
it is, if this opportunity be lost by indulgence in bed, the
looks will very soon show it.
" In no other country do females fade at so early an age
as in America, and nowhere do they shut themselves up
more the moment they are married. In their anxiety to
become domestic, they forget the injury they are doing to
themselves and offspring, and waste within doors that
health and strength which are indispensable to a proper
discharge of the duties of a mother. They evidently dreid
being seen too often abroad, lest they should be suspected
of neglecting their families ; and they measure the extent
to which they discharge their duties by the number of days
or weeks since they have been from home. Now this is
not as it should be. The greatest benefit a mother can
confero course
rs o e
imparth ne
rhe
firstt ro children hddi
themul t rev what
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is
hat ot
shepr oe sod edrovees constitution,hneo her own
opwo possess
se and s
s health, she
herself.
w can-
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hiOf
eh
she cannot do in the confined air of two or three apart-
ments, and her example should teach them the great im-
portance of duly going 'abroad, as a means of preserving
both health and beauty."