The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-25 00:00:00

To an average reader the Edinburgh Review for
the current quarter will appear doubtless to offer
at the first blush but small attraction, if any, even
among the ten very miscellaneous articles enu-
merated in its table of contents by advertisement.
Yet there is scarcely one out of all these ten con-
tributions which will fail, in some way or another,
to interest the discerning upon a distinct and se-
parate examination. This may be observed with
truth even in reference to.the criticism upon "The
Himalayan Journals," kept during the course of
their Asiatic travels by Dr. Hooker and Dr.
Thomson; as well as in regard to the ingenious
comparison of "The Rural Economy of France
and Britain," suggested by certain recent essays
from the pen of M. Leone Lavergne. The histori-
cal paper upon " The Civil Wars and Cromwell,"
with which the number leads off very cleverly,
will of course arrest the attention of every intelli-
gent student of our national annals, whose interest
in their regard is not altogether absorbed by the
two last volumes from the hand of Mr. Macaulay.
While as to the concluding article of this same cur-
rent number of the Edinburgh, the article descrip-
tive of the " Russian Campaigns in Asia," who can
remain altogether incurious in its regard so seen
after the lamentable capitulation of Kars, fol-
lowed as that capitulation has been so very speedily
by the still more lamentable indications of a has-
tily pached-up Peace, a Peace partaking in the cha-
racter, in every way, of a disgraceful and disastrous
compromise ? It constitutes in another respect
one of the most surprising coincidences in the his-
tory of modern engineering that the more enter-
prising of the scientific adventurers of the present
age are simultaneously occupied in speculative
theories as to the practicability of cutting a canal
yonder to the east through the Isthmus of Suez,
and yonder to the west through the Isthmus of
Panama, opening up in the old world a direct water
communication between the Red Sea and the Me-
diterranean, and in the new world between the
Atlantic and the Pacific. To one of these two as-
tonishing enterprises, namely, to the long-cherished
scheme of " The Suez Canal," a reviewer in the
Edinburgh takes occasion to revert with consider-
able gusto, in. consequence of the apposite lucubra-
tions upon the subject recently given to the world.
by M. Ferdinand Lesseps, French Minister Pleni-
potentiary. According to the reasonable view of
the Whig quarterly tie engineering difficulties
presented by the Isthmus of Suez to the projectors
of the intended canal are much less formidable in
every respect than those which appear as yet to
render altogether futile the efforts of our more ad-
venturous speculators to dig a navigable canal
across the lofty and rocky ridge forming the Darien
bond of union between the Siamese continents of
America. Nor can this same decided recognition
of the superior practicability of the Suez scheme
be considered as otherwise than most rational un-
der the circumstances when it is borne in mind
that, although the European isthmus extends even
in its narrowest portion to a distance of 90 miles
from sea to sea, while the Transatlantic isthmus
is little more from ocean to ocean than some forty
miles in all—the summit level of the latter is so
high, and the soil is so stubborn throughout, that
those two difficulties united have presented hitherto
insurmountable barriers to the combined energies
at once of British and American engineers. In
glaring contrast to which the Isthmus of Suez, even
in its ample breadth of ninety miles, actually more
than double the distance occupied by the loss prac-
ticable isthmus of Panama, presents but two ridges
between the shores of the Red Sea and those of the
Mediterranean, one ridge but fifty, and the other
but fifty-five feet above the same point—the whole
land from sea to sea being at once low and sandy,
and a considerable part of it indeed actually below
high-water mark ! Nevertheless, even while con-
trasting thus strikingly to the advantage of the
Suez Scheme, the great rival projects of these mon-
ster canals in the eastern and western hemispheres,
the reviewer declares positively, in so many words,
of the day-dream of the Darien Ship-Canal, that,
after all, " there can be little doubt but that it is
only a question of expense," and that "if railroads
will not suffice for the traffic between the two
oceans, a canal must and will be cut ! " A dic-
tum as majestically authoritative in its way as the
old Roman Augur's "cut boldly" addressed to the
king, razor in hand, with the strop before him, in-
tent upon its severance. Yet it must be confessed
that the Edinburgh Reviewer, somewhat tempers
the fervour of his assertion as to the certainty of
the Darien scheme being ultimately accomplished
by adding that, "as the question at pre-
sent stands, it seems more than probable
that railroads will be found sufficient," and
that "thus the expensive and uncertain project of
a ship canal will be indefinitely postponed." Not
so does he by any means deem it to be with
regard to the project of the navigable canal
across the Suez Isthmus. TWA project he con-
ceives to be much more practicable in every
way—reserving his doubts, almost exclusively,
for the matter of its ulterior utility. Inso-
much that he closes his remarks upon the whole
enterprise with the virtual shrug of the shoulders
implied in his concluding words, that " the Suez
Canal Question may fairly be relegated among the
questions oiseuses which may interest and amuse,
but can hardly ever' benefit mankind." The criti-
cal and biographical paper relating to " The Minis-
ter Vom Stein " possesses an interest of its own,
illustrating as it does whatever there is of import-
ance in the career of Henry Frederick Charles,
Baron Stein of Stein (Von and Zuni, Stein), o
who took no unimportant part in the final coalition
against Napoleon the Great, the coalition whose
labours were crowned so very memorably by the
famous Congress of Vienna. It was Stein, the
passionate and impulsive Stein, who so amusingly
enforced his precept of placability to Niebuhr, the
Roman historian, when having observed—" You
know we must forgive our enemies," and Niebuhr
having urged thereupon—" Why, your Excellency
hates Count A.," his Excellency replied—" Hate
him ? No—but if I met him in the street, I would
spit in his face." A worthy representative, that,
of the moderation presiding over the councils
of the plenipotentiaries assembled together
in the Congress of Vienna, the Congress
holden in 1815, to decide so magnanimously,
generously, humanely, upon the fate of a
greater than Sesostris or Charlemagne. The brief
criticism which follows immediately afterwards
upon "Lectures to Ladies on Practical Subjects,"
is the most strangely incongruous sequel imagin-
able to the memoir of the astute and worldly-wise
diplomatist Vom Stein—brimming over as it does
with the evidences of a very amiable tenderness
for one of the most charming of the recent phases
of practical philanthropy. We earnestly commend
the brief but sufficient argument of the Edinburgh
Reviewer upon the subject of these Lectures to all
the lady viaitors of the poor, who are animated by
a more genii], and a less pragmatical spirit than that
manifested in the brickmaker's cabin by the re-
nowned Mrs. Pardiggle. Frightful beyond all
exaggeration are the revelations made through the
article upon
" The Use of Torture in India."
Wonderful in its way is the succinct and enthral-
lingstto M'Clure's Discovery of
record of the last Arctic Voyage, that which
witnessedan ddelightful
"Sir Robert
the North-west Passage." Amusing, and sparkling,
from fir
last is, the memorial of
" Henri Beyle," given in the form of a half-respect-
ful, half-depreciatory criticism upon the Life and
Writings of Henri Beyle's alter ego, his pseudonym,
his nom de plume, M. de Stendbal. So much, in
brief, for the ten articles in the new number of
the Edinburgh.

The Westminster Review

Opens with an interesting article on " German
Wit and Heinrich Heine," who, to Tentonic ima-
gination, sensibility, and humour—is said to add
an amount of esprit that would make him brilliant
among the most brilliant of Frenchmen, a combi-
nation quite unique in a German. Heine, however,
is half a Hebrew, and that accounts for it. A
paper on " The Limited Liability Act of 1855"
contains some weighty arguments for the removal
of all existing restrictions on the liberty of com-
mercial association. Among other things the
writer urges that such removal would not merely
extend and foster among the lower classes habits
of prudent saving, and wean them from the de-
praving taste for betting and gambling, but would
also tend to bring them in contact with those who
rank above them in the social scale--to their im-
provement and elevation and the prevention of
those ruinous strikes, the occurrence of which is
so much to be deplored. The " History of the
House of Savoy" supplies the materials for an in-
teresting paper on which the leading events in the
history of that illustrious house are nervously
narrated, and justice is done in some mea-
sure to its present distinguished head, Vic-
tor Emmanuel 11. " The Sardinian Govern-
ment," it is justly remarked, " amid all
the difficulties thrown in its way by other powers,
has maintained its position with a calm dignity
which has confounded its enemies and exceeded the
expectation of its well-wishers." The difficulties
it has to encounter are pointed out, and well-
grounded hope is expressed that it will triumph-
antly surmount them, and vindicate in the future
the character of a nation distinguished for
a singular degree of good sense as well as good
faith. A remarkable increase of prosperity has
taken place during the reign of the present king,uu-
der whose constitutional sway the condition of the
people presents a striking contrast to that of the
subjects of the remaining Italian States—a contrast
which cannot be without important remits to the