The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-31 00:00:00

CHARLES KNIGHT.

The English Cyclopeedia. Conducted by Charles
Knight. First Two Divisions. Natural His-
tory, 4 vols. Geography, 4 vols. Messrs.

Bradbury and Evans.

to estimate the probable merits or demerits of the
perfected work from this solitary and merely frag•
mentary specimen—as presumptuous as it would
have been for any one, even Hierocles himself,
.to appraise the value of the unseen house
represented by the ono brick of the immortal
Scholasticos. Robert Owen, it must be ad-
mitted, built up the scheme of an extinct
colossus of birds, from a single bit of a gigantic bone
dug up by chance at our antipodes—a scheme cor-
roborated almost miraculously by a subsequent
discovery of the entire skeleton ! But criticism
does not exactly admit of an Owen—or, if it did,
would find some difficulty in detecting his where-
abouts. So that we are perforce compelled to re-
ceive No. I. of Charles Knight's " Popular History
of England " for precisely what it pretends to be
and no more—namely, the precursor of thirty-five
other monthly instalments. Judging it from the
four preliminary chapters comprised within the
limits of this initial number, the work promises to
be a very lucid narrative of the great annals of our
mother-country—a narrative which, if only con-
tinued *ith the same ability to the end, must prove
eminently worthy of the hand to which the people
of England are already grateful for so many and
such varied masterpieces. The Popular History
of England, in other words, promises to be to the
Pictorial _History of England what the "English
Cyclopedia" is proving itself to be to the " Penny
Cyclopedia." An improved remodelling of the
old materials materials in their new form
strangely ripened, matured, and generally de-
veloped to something more nearly approximating
to absolute completeness. " The Popular History
of England," indeed, is considerably more even
than this as contrasted with its predecessor, the
memorable " Pictorial History of England"—inas-
much as the former purports to be and actually is
an entirely new work, penned by the skilled hand
of the veteran author, editor, printer, publisher—
Charles Knight. Charles Knight was the projector
of the " Pictorial History of England." He is the
writer of the " Popular History of England." His
sparkling and some of them exquisite essays, en-
titled collectively " Once upon a Time," assure us
of his capacity to pea the annals of the people of
England (and not alone of the monarchs of Eng-
land) as they ought to be penned, but as they never
have been hitherto. Honour to the " Old Printer"
for his daring and patriotic enterprise. It is one
eminentlybefitting him in his pre-eminent position
as the classic biographer of the most glorious of all
the sons of England—the biographer of Shakspere
thus not inaptly aspiring to become the popular
historian of Shakspere's Fatherland. An ambition
worthy of crowning the labours of a life to which
the people of England are already indebted, among
other things, for the priceless boon of a cheap and
wholesome literature.

Amberhill. By A. J. BArroweliffe. 2 vols. Smith,

Elder, and Co.

might one clay be crushed beneath a mountain of
gold. She feels it now ; her sin has been profit-
less, her guilt unavailing. Had she but waited
and trusted all would have come right. She hears
mocking voices in the air—" Well done, they say,
well done ! You have had your will ; you have
won a husband and his riches ; you have ransomed
your father. Poor fool, it was needless ;it was
labour utterly in vain ! You have given your life,
you have bartered your soul to do it, and Death
was waiting to forestall you at the last—to pour
into your lap a greater treasure than even your
sin has earned ! Lilian, what have you done ?
There is Cyril ; look at him—can you see his
heart ? There is Alice ; have you watched her in
her chamber ? There is Michael, he waits for the
marriage blessing ; do you think it is a curse ?
Turn from them, Lilian, look at your own soul--
you dare not ! Yet the work is done. Tear off
that deceit, it was NOT needful ; no not for that
father's sake whom you have loved before your
Lord. God's hand was ready to redoem him; the
very wealth you thirsted for was garnered up and
waiting the appointed time. It might have
blessed you, it comes to crush you. Ali !
the mountain of gold !" Overwhelmed by
these reflections her overwrought brain and
over-taxed strength give way. She falls
senseless, and when she recovers—where is she ?
She has been for a year and a half the inmate of a
lunatic asylum. She makes her escape through
the open window before she discovers the fact, and
hurries back to her native place, her beloved Am-
berhill. She passes the well-known church, she
turns to look once more at her mother's grave, and
reads her father's name upon the stone ! Yes ! he is
dead, that weak though loving parent, who had made
shipwreck of her life and Lis own—he from whom,
in her shortsightedness, she would have averted
every trial he had had to bear, the consequences
of his own sins alone. His own curate, a fierce and
unrelenting bigot, had discovered both his secrets
and proclaimed them to the world, and he had
sunk beneath the double disgrace, and his son had
fled the country. Thus Lilian was left alone to
learn how our wishes may be fulfilled and yet not
granted. She had prayed and striven for wealth
with an almost impious resistance to the will of
Heaven, and her rebellious desire came to pass, and
she stood alone in the world. But the bitter lesson
was learnt at last, and the stormy heart found rest.
She effected a reconciliation between her cousin
and Mr.Hallidon ; she discovered her brother, who
hail begun a new life in a new world, and blessings
followed her footsteps. But the friend of the
weary was at hand, she survived but to
welcome the lover of her youth once more,
and the weary spirit was at peaoe. The style
is earnest and often eloquent, the characters dis-
tinctly drawn, and the interest unflagging. Some
points in the plot are improbable, and some incon-
sistent with good taste, but the talents of the
writer are evident, and the attention of the reader
is secured. The lesson resulting from the effects
of an undisciplined mind and a perverted judgment
are clearly shown. Had Lilian, instead of striving
after unattainable wealth, persuaded her father to
surrender his benefice, and resign themselves to
comparative poverty, she would have acted wisely
and well. But we are not allowed to wait till the
most convenient opportunity to choose the right
course—to do wrong for a little while till our
worldly prospects are secure, and then forsake it.
We may rest assured, if we act thus, we shall not
go untempted. If we loiter on the brink of the
precipice, a false step will hurry us lower down
than we intended. This moral, deduced with clear-
ness and vigour, is impressed on the pages before
us. It shows the writer to be ono who has thought
and felt deeply, and we may hope to receive from
his pen another work like the present, in which
the graphic power of talent portrays the dangers
of self-deception, and the mind of the reader is
mpressed with too-often forgotten truths.

Hanso Towns.

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 31, 1856.

COURT CIRCULAR.

The Queen and Prince Albert left Windsor Castle at
half-past 11 o'clock yesterday morning, attended by the
Duchess of Sutherland, Lady Churchill, Lord Byron,
Col. the Hon. C. B. Phipps, Sir Edward Bowater, Lord
C. Fitzroy, Col. F. H. Seymour, and the Master of the
Household.
Her Hajesty and the Prince, travelled by a special
train on the Great Western Railway, and proceeded
from the Paddington terminus, escorted by a party of
the 3d Light Dragoons, to Buckingham Palace, where
the Royal party arrived at 26 minutes past 12 o'clock.
Her Majesty, attended by Lady Churchill, Lord C.
Fitzroy, and Col. Seymour, afterwards visited her Royal
Highness the Duchess of Glocester at Glocester-house.
The Queen held a Court and Privy Council in the
afternoon.
At the Court M. Musurus had an audience of her
Majesty, and delivered his new credentials as Ambassa-
dor from the Sultan of Turkey.

Mr. Alfred Rucker had his first audience of the Queen,
and delivered his credentials as Minister Resident of the

Their Excellencies were introduced by the Earl of
Clarendon. K.G., the Queen's principal Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs, and conducted by Major. Gen-
eral the Hon. Sir E. Cost, K.C.H., her Majesty's Master
of the Ceremonies.

The Right Hon. Sir Henry Bulwer, G.C.8., was pre.
seated to the Queen at an audience by the Earl of Cla-
rendon on his return from his mission to Tuscany.
Mr. Baron (George) Bramwell was presented to the
Queen at an audience by Mr. Secretary Labouchere (act-
ing for Sir G. Grey), when her Majesty was graciously
pleased to confer the honour of Knighthood upon him.
Mr. Wrn. Carpenter Rowe (Queen's Crunsel), Chief
Justice of Ceylon, was presented to her Majesty at an
audience, by Mr. Secretary Labouchere, and had the
honour of Knighthood conferred upon him.
Mr. M. R. Sausse, Puisne Judge at Bombay, was
presented by Mr. Secretary Labouchere to the Queen,
and received the honour of Knighthood.
Mr, William Edmond Logan, Director of the Geolo-
gical Survey in Canada, was presented by Mr. Secre-
tary Labouchere, when her Majesty was graciously
pleased to confer the honour of Knighthood upon him.
Mr. P. Benson Maxwell, Recorder of Prince of
Wales's Island, was presented by Mr. Secretary La-
bouchere, and received from the Queen the honour of
Knighthood.

Mi. Richard Bolton M'Causland, Recorder of Singa-
pore, was presented at an audience by Mr. Secretary
Labouchere, when her Majesty was graciously pleased
to confer the honour of Knighthood upon him.
Viscount Gough had an audience of the Queen in the
Royal closet, when her Majesty was graciously pleased
to deliver to his Lordship his gold stick of office as
Colonel of the Royal Horse Guards.
The Privy Council was attended by his Royal High-
ness Prince Albert, Earl Granville (Lord President), the
Lord Chancellor, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Earl
of Harrowby, Lord Privy Seal ; Viscount Palmerston,
First Lord of the Treasury ; the Earl of :Jlarendon,
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ; the Right Hon.
Labouchere, Secretary of State for the Colonies ;
Lord Panmure, Secretary of State for War ; Sir G.
Lewis, Chancellor of the Exchequer ; S;r C. 'Wood,
First Lord of the Admiralty; the Right Hon. R. V.
Smith, President of the Board of Control ; Lord Stan-
ley of Alderley, President of the Board of Trade ; the
Right Hon. M. T. Baines, Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster ; and the Marquis of Abercorn, Groom of the
Stole to the P;ince. .
At the Council the Queen's Speech on opening Par-
liament was sanctioned by her Majesty in Council.
The Queen pricked the list of Sheriffs for the different
counties of England and Wales for the present year.
The Hon. Win. Bathurst was the Clerk of the Council
in Waiting.

Her Majesty gave audience to Viscount Palmerston,
the Lord Chancellor, Earl Granville, and Lord
Panmure.

The Right Hon. M. T. Baines, Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster, had an audience of the Queen.
Her Majesty was attended by the Earl of Malgrave,
Treasurer of the Household ; Lord Byron, Lord in
Waiting ; and General Sir Edward Bowater, Groom in
Waiting.
Her Majesty and his Royal Highness the Prince
honoured the Haymarket Theatre with their presence
in the evening. The Royal suite consisted of Lady
Churchill, Lord Byron, Lord C. Fitzroy, and Colonel
Seymour.
The Earl and Countess of Stanhope, Lord and Lady
John Russell, Lord and Lady Stanley of Alderley, the
Right Hon. Wm. and Mrs. Cowper, the Right Hon.
T. B. Macaulay, the Right Hon. T. Pelnberton Leigh,
Admiral the Hon. R. S. Dundas, Major-General Sir
Richard Airey, and Major-General Dupuis, command.
ing the Royal Horse Artillery in the Crimea, left
Windsor Castle yesterday.
Mr.. John •Wood, Chairman of the Beard of In-
land Revenue, had an interview with the Chancellor
of the Exchequer yesterday. Sir A. Spearman had
also an interview yesterday with the Right Hon.
Baronet.

Despatches from the Governors of the West India
Colonies were received yesterday at the Colonial-
office.