The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-04 00:00:00

L 0 N ON, MONDAY

THE QUARTERLIES.
THE BRITISH QUARTERLY. .No.
Intellig9nce and variety have all along proved
themselves perhaps the most prominent characteris-
tics of this now firmly establisned periodical. Its
reputation in regard to these merits cannot be in any
degree diminished by the current number just issued
from the press, a number which displays a singular
diversity in the materials selected for criticism, and
an equally noticeable ability in the style of the prin-
cipal contributions. In the opening article the
reader is instructed as to certain remarkable theories
in reference to the cause of " Human Progression,"
and the reviewer takes occasion to explain from
these the nature of the development of civilization.
After this brilliant paper comes a delightful criticism
on "Dramatic Poetry in the Age of Elizabeth," a
chapter very curious of its kind, having
reference to such writers as George Peele,
as Robert Greene, as Christopher Marlow,
as Philip Henslowe, and as John Lyley, with
especial allusion also to such plays as " Ferrex
and Porrex," as "Appins and Virginia," as "Garnmer
Gurton's Needle," as " Tancred and Gismunde," or
as " Alexander, Campaspe, and Diogenes." From
the subsequent attempts of Thomson and Sheridan
Knowles two of these dramas possess a peculiar in-
terest for the reviewers of English literature.
" Thoughts on the Labour Question" is the indefinite
but suggestive title of the next contribution, and this
again is followed by a very readable review of " Wil-
helm Hauff" and the German Romancists. Besides
these papers the British Quarterly contains others of
various tendency, some, of them marked by very nar-
row views and prejudices, others conspicuous for
their evidences of enlightenment. Possibly the most
interesting of these to the philosophic inquirer will
be the one on "The Correlation of the Physical
Forces," and to the provincial reader the one relating
to the condition of the great shires of York and Lan-
caster.

LITERATURE.
MELB URN : a Vision. Hope and Co.
Happily for the writer of this little volume it has
come forth anonymously. It cannot, consequently,
reflect upon herself personally the ridicule which
would be inevitable on the part of that jolter•headed
critic, the public. We say " herself " advisedly, be-
cause the effusion is evidently from a mind by no
means whatever masculine. We speak of the public
(and we include ourself amongst the number) thus
disparagingly, because, on the part of the authoress,
we are indignant that nowhere can be discerned the
genius she evidently fancied would be, at little more
than a glance, recognised. On the contrary, it must
be confessed by the majority of those who find cou-
rage enough to read a dozen or so of these closely-
printed pages, that they would more reasonably ex-
pect to find the Preface dated from the vicinity
of Bedlam than from the precincts of Par-
nassus. " Melburn" is called " a Vision," and
yet more boldly, a little lower down on
the title-page, " a poem." If it does not begin like
" The Doctor " at the seventh chapter, it commences
with the conclusion, for the—a-hem--" poem " be-
fore us is announced at its very outset to be the sequel
to a larger work, of which it is the avowed precursor.
It reminds us of Mrs. Malaprop's direction to David
in the last act of The Rivals,—" You lead the way,
and we'll precede !" Fancy, at the very opening of
the book a description of the northern regions of frost,
where certain outlandish trees are said to—
" Bend 'neath the weight of icicles and snow,
Thro' which prismatic lamps of lightning glow;
Where lucent ice-drops in long crystals clear,
Droop all around a lustrous chandelier!"
Why, Martinus Scribblerus never gave a more dia-
bolical example of bathos than this. A " chandelier"
at the North Pole—and " lamps" of lightning—and
lightning that " glows;" it smells of midnight oil,
and goosequills soddened in ink, and not one jot, we
can assure the writer of genius or of inspiration. Then
imagine anyone presuming to aim at poetry, with such
a worse than cockney, with such an absolutely cruel
and excruciating rhyme as this, in the third page--
"All thickly laden with bright silvery crust,
Like gems embedded, seem with light to burst."
The sound of it sets our teeth on edge like the
sharpening of a rusty saw. Poetry ! Pshaw, the
book is rather the saddest outpouring of the most me-
lancholy evidence of delirium.

SUDDEN DEATH.—On Saturday night an inquest
was held at the Red Lion, Strand, on the body of Thomas
Gill, whose real name is E isforth, machinist at the Strand
Theatre, now known as Punch's Playhouse. The deceased
was thirty-nine years of age, and was well known by country
managers as an ingenious and clever machinist. He was
found dead in his bed. Evidence was given to show that he
had died of a disease of the heart, and the jury returned a
verdict of " Natural Death."

AMERICAN NEWS.

ARRIVAL OF THE CANADA.

LIVERPOOL, AUG. 2.—Tae Royal Mail steam-s!-Ip
Canada, Captain Lang, urrised here today, at one
o'clock, from Boston and Halifax, having on hoard
72 passengers, and 185,000 dollars in specie on freight.
The Canada left Boston at noon on the 231 ult., and
Halifax er.rly in the morning. of the 25th, bringing
direct advices from New York to the 22d, and per
telegraph to Halifax, commercial reports from the
same place to the 24th July inclusive.
The R3yal Mail steam-ship America arrived out
at Halifax on the 22d ult., at half-past six P.M.
The United States steam-ship Pacific arrived on
Monday night, July 21, about nine o'clock. On the
17th, when she was eight days out, she broke a part
of one of her engines, which rendered it necessary to
stop and disconnect the two, causing a delay of three
hours. The rest of the passage was done with a single
engine.

The United States steam-ship Crescent City ar-
rived at New York on Sunday morning, July 20,
with 143 passengers and upwards of 1,000,000 dolls.
worth of gold dust.
The steamer Cherokee, from New Orleans, with
Havannah dates to the 17th ult., arrived at New
York on the evening of the 21st.
There was no later news at New York from the
gold districts, and the political intelligence by the
Canada is comparatively meagre.
The cholera is prevailing to a considerable extent
in several of the western states. A number of fatal
cases have occurred in various towns of Illinois, In-
diana, Missouri, and Ohio, and the pestilence appears
to be spreading with alarming rapidity.
The city of New York was visited on the night of
Saturday, the 19th ult., with a very severe thunder-
storm, which did consierable damage. Many deaths
from sun-stroke are also recorded in the papers.
REPEATED INSURRECTION IN CUBA.--The report
is that there has been a conflict between five or six
hundred of the people of that place and the troops, in
which the latter were defeated. Troops were sent to
disperse them, but they were repulsed with the loss of
their commander, and 28 killed and wounded. The
insurgents had retired to the mountains and fortified
themselves. Other towns followed the lead, and in a
few days the whole eastern part of the island will be
in a state of revolution. The Government have been
sending troops to Matanzas the past week, but it
seems they did not call there, as something more ur-
gent pressed them eastward. The Havannah papers
say little on the subject, and it is understood the Go-
vernment are doing all in their power to prevent the
true state of things becoming known.
Our private letters state that the newspaper reports
are somewhat exaggerated.
In the Canadian Legislature the Church of Eng-
land University Bill has been so far modified that
the clause allowing the establishment of separate
common schools at the public cost for that denomina-
tion has been struck out. An unsuccessful motion
was made by Mr. Mackenzie to strike out the portion
repealing the statutes of mortmain in favour of the
Church of England. The Bill to abolish the right of
primogeniture in the succession to real estate has
passed to a second reading in the Assembly by a large
majority. The crops in Upper Canada are said to be
unusually good.
We have dates from Central America to July 4.
The state of affairs in San Juan de Nicaragua re-
mains unchanged, the new administration acting har-
moniously, and giving satisfaction to the inhabitants.
Our latest advices from Rio Janeiro are to June 11.
There is no news of importance. A steam tow-boat
had been seized by the British steamer Cormorant on
suspicion of having furnished supplies to vessels en-
gaged in the slave trade. She was taken outside the
harbour and blown up.
Major Hobbie, the Commissioner from the United
States Government, and late assistant postmaster-
general, who has been engaged for some time past in
effecting improved postal arrangements on the route '
to California, returned home in the Crescent City.
Previous to the negotiation by Mr. Hobbie no ar-
rangement has been made to enable letters mailed
either in this country, or in England, to pass through
Havannah without the intervention of a correspon-
dent at that place, and the same state of things
existed on the Isthmus. The party must write to a
correspondent at Havannah or at Panama, to get his
letter sent thence to its ultimate destination. The
Captain-General of Cuba declined to enter into any
agreement on the subject, but Mr. Hobbie succeeded
in effecting an understanding with the British Consul
at Havannah, by whom the American Consul there
is constituted a postal agent, and under certain regu-
lations for paying over the postage to the country
which may be entitled to it, letters can now pass
through Havannah as readily as from one state to
another.