The Sun.
London, England, 1834-03-31 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Q UAR TERL Y REVIEW. No. CL
London. 1834.

This' is by no means a superior number as
regards amusement, but it is a sound one, and
of a more practical character than usual. The
first article is a notice of M. Arnault's Recol-
lections of a Sexagenarian, a work which, it
seems, has made some little stir lately at Paris,
though from the specimens the Reviewer fur-
nishes us with, it must be both a flimsy and
apochryphal performance. In this article we
are sorry to find many severe sarcasms thrown
out against Napoleon, who is described as wholly
illiterate---with what justice those will be suffi-
ciently able to judge who have perused Barry
O'Meara's " Voice from St. Helena." That
Napoleon's acquaintance with literature was far
from profound or extensive, we can readily be-
lieve ; authorship was not his vocation any
more than it is the Duke of Wellington's or the
Marquis of Londonderry's ; but the man who
could converse so well and •on such an infinite
variety of topics ; who could talk with a
German about Giiethe and Schiller, and
with an Englishman about Shakspeare and
R-ichardson, could not possibly have been
so illiterate as is here attempted to be shown.
Sir Walter Scott's own narrative of the hero
will sufficiently refute the accusations of the
Quarterly. " Translations of Pindar"

is a

very elegant and eloquent essay on the writings
of the great Greek Lyrist, whose Olympic odes
are such sore puzzles to nine out of ten school-
boys. We are glad to see the cause of classic
literature so warmly encouraged by the two first
periodicals of the day, Blackwood and the
Quarterly Review. Our readers will thank us
for this extract :

" We never knew any scholar indifferent about
Pindar. Either you love and venerate him—you carry
him, as the noble Romana did, in your pocket—or you
cannot away with him at all. There is no medium.
But we must stop. We tender our thanks to Mr. Cary
for the pleasure which the perusal of his translation has
given us, and trust he will think it worth his while to
go through his author once more with patience, and
consider no pains lost by which vagueness may be re-
moved and inaccuracies corrected. He needs not to be

told by us, that every image should be distinct in
Pindar—that every word should ring—that every
thought should be stamped in the characters of light.
To the sublimity resulting from the obscure and the
dimly-seen, Pindar has no claim ; his figures are dis-
tinguishable in member, joint, and limb ; their robes
are sun-bright, and the banners which thy seem ma-
jestically to wave are bathed in the glory of high noon.
Pindar was no David, no Eschylus, no Milton ; and
with Dante's power, he would have abhorred Dante's
subject. But such as he was, he stood, and he stands,
aloft and aloof—unsurpassable—inimitable—incompa-
rable ; not the very greatest or the most affecting of
poets, in an universal sense—but the one permitted
instance of perfection in his own arduous, although
particular, line—the absolute master of Lyric song."

" The Doctor" is an animated panegyic on a
work lately published, which is at least as re-
markable for its quaintness, conceit, and excen-
tricity as it is for its talent. The review of
Dr. Adam Clark's Memoirs is penned in a
temperate and - even kindly spirit, as re-
spects the great leader of the .Wesleyan me-
thodists, but becomes more decided and
energetic when alluding to the claims of the

issenters, which just now are engrossing pub-

lic attention in an extraordinary degree. Of
course a high Church view is taken of the ques-
tion, and we can pardon the irritability of a
losing party. " Greek and English Lexico-
graphy" is dry and technical, but this is inse-
parable from the nature of the subject, for it is
impossible to make a silk purse out of a sow's
ear. The state of the modern French drama
is analysed in a very masterly spirit, by one who
is clearly no idolater of the classic and romantic
schools of French dramatic literature, which he
not unaptly terms " the pedantic and the extra-
vagant." Lady Morgan, in her last volumes
on France, has gone at some length into this
subject ; and, if we remember rightly, has
written herself down a classicist. The article on
the Corn Laws is ingeniously and elaborately
argued ; but as Porson observed of Gibbon,
the writer has " spun the thread of his verbo-
sity finer than the staple of his argument." The
remaining articles are of average merit.

The Trades' Union of Taunton is increased
to an alarming extent, to the personal injury of the
master manufacturer and the stoppage of trade. Means
have been tried to suppress them, but hitherto without
effect. It is now in contemplation to circulate copies
of the trial and conviction of members of these unions
at Dorchester, in order to warn the mechanics of the
dangers to which they render themselves liable by
entering into such associations.—Salisbury Herald.

TRADES' UNION.—We (the Leeds Mer-
cury) stated last week, that in consequence of the dis-
turbed state of the township of Batley, caused by the
turn-out workmen belonging to the Trades' Union, the
magistrates assembled at Dewsbury had sworn in a
number of special constables. This proceeding has
been notified to his Majesty's Government, and the
following is an extract from the answer received :
" Whitehall, March 19, 1834.
am directed by Viscount Melbourne to acknowledge
your letter of the 17th inst., enclosing the memorial of the
mill owners and manufacturers of the township of Batley, and
to express, both to you and to the gentlemen who have signed
the memorial, his entire approbation of the course which they
have, at length, determined to pursue. Viscount Melbourne
sees nothing to lament, except that this decision had not been
adopted long ago, and that a system of concession has been so
long persevered in, with the usual and natural result of pro-
ducing demands still more unjust and oppressive. His
Majesty's Government will be anxious to give any assistance in
their power for the pupose of securing the property of the
masters, and the free exercise of the industry of the workmen.
" I have the honour to be your obedient servant,
" HOWICK."