The Sun.
London, England, 1833-10-01 00:00:00

MAGAZINE DAY.

BLACKWOOD'S 211AGAZINE.—P4RT
Old Christopher this month is father of twins
—a prodigious feat for a gentleman of his years.
Each is a lusty bantling, and roars with the
lungs of a young Hercules. " Morning Mo-
nologues " is a pleasant, sketchy article, whose
chief defect is, that it has no fixed aim or
purpose. It is anything or nothing, just as the
reader pleases. " Who is born ?" contains one
or two touching passages. The episode of
" Mervyn," though the incidents are hackneyed,
is told with considerable feeling. " Edmund
Burke " is eloquent and, as usual, indis-
criminate in its praise and censure. Facts
are no stumbling-blocks in the way of the
author. He clears them at a leap with as much
indifference as a sportsman clears a five-barred
gate. Alluding to the London riots of 1780,
he observes, with infinite naivete, that they
occurred just at the proper time ; " were placed
in the exact point of usefulness." Had they
occurred ten years before, then the " recollection
would partially have faded away ;" had they
occurred ten years later, then they " would
have made a parallel revolution in England."
What a consolation, in these times of atheism,
revolution, and all enormity, to reflect that an
English mob is gifted with such a fine sense of
discrimination. That they are Utilitarians in their
very atrocities, and never kick up a row except
"in the exact point of usefulness !" Surely
nothing dangerous can ever result from the
outbreakings of such a considerate mob ! Fur-
ther on, Mr. Croly says, recurring to his fa-
vourite theme, the French Revolution, that the
storming of the Bastile fell, unexpectedly, like a
thunder-bolt on Europe. We are surprised at
his hazarding an assertion like this. So far
from its taking Europe by surprise, not a man
of the slightest discernment but was fully pre-
pared for such an event. The storm had been
brewing for months : the whole horizon was
charged with electricity ; what, then, but the
fall of the " bolt" could be looked for ? From
the moment the States General were assembled,
and Turgot had made his exposee of the state
of the national finances—an exposee which all but
distracted a people now, for the first time for
centuries, conscious of their power, and irre-
sistible in the might of their newly-awakened
energies—from that moment the Bastile, which
was connected with so many frightful associations
of lettres de cachet and other despotic enormi-
ties, was doomed to destruction. " Barbadoes''
is a delightful criticism, in which the peculiarities
of old Grainger are pointed out in a caustic vein
of ridicule. " Montgomery's (not Robert but
James) West Indies," too, are noticed en pas-
sant, and a few extracts given from that fine,
though somewhat too gaudy, poem. One pas-
sage strikes us as being worthy to vie in vigour
with the most spirited portions of Dryden's
" Theodore and Honor'a." The last line is
particularly striking :
" The Indian, as he turned his head in flight,
Beheld his cottage flaming thro' the night;
And, 'midst the shrieks of murder on the wind,
Heard the mute blood hound's death-step close behind."
The word mute " here is full of meaning.
The Sketcher " is clever, but too elaborate.
The writer has a fine eye for the picturesque,
but he is too fond of showing off' his "learned
lore" in the Fine Arts. He spoils hii best
thoughts by overlaying them with verbiage.
" Nights at Mess" furnishes us with a capital
specimen of character—and not without some
pretensions to originality—in the person of a
fat, old, sentimental quarter-master. " America,
No. 2," is distinguished by an inveterate
hostility to everything transatlantic. It is high
time Christopher should outgrow this prejudice.

.P.IBT 11.
" The Irish Union" professes to be a review
of Sir Jonah Barrington's late history of that
event, but takes leave of its subject at the
threshold, that is to say, at the close of the
first paragraph, and runs into a violent tirade
against Ireland and all its appurtenances. Still
the article is amusing, especially in that
portion where it comments on the old favourite
practice of duelling. Irish politicians once
fought their way to place, as London aldermen
now eat their way to the mayoralty.
" Perhaps the annals of the world cannot produce a
parallel to the following gazette of Irish belligerency.
" Fitzgibbon, the Attorney-General, Afterwards Chan-
cellor, and Earl of Clare, fought Curran, afterwards Master
of the Rolls, with twelve inch pistols.
"Scott, afterwards Chief Justice of the King's Bench,
and Earl of Clonmell, fought Lord Tyrawly about his
wife, and the Earl Landaff about his giver, and others,
with sword and pistol, on tniscellaneous subjects.
" Egan, Judge of the county of Dublin, fought the
Master of the Rolls, Barret, and three others, one with
the sword. Egan was a humorist, and his duel with
Barret was characteristic. On the combatants taking their
ground, Barret, though the challenger, immediately fired,
and missing his antagonist, walked away, coolly saying,
' Egan, now my honour is satisfied.' The Judge, how-
ever, who was not satisfied, called out, ' Halloo, stop,
Roger, till I take a shot at your honour.' Roger returned,
and with the same composure, said, Very well, fire
away.' Jack Egan presented, and seemed by his motions
determined to finish Roger ; at length be cried out,
' Pho, pho, I won't humour you I won't be bothered
shooting you. So now you may go to the your own
way—or shake hands, whichever you like best.' The
finale may be anticipated. The circumstance took place
on the celebrated ground of Donnybrook fair, and some
hundreds of amateurs were present.
" The Right Hon. Isaac Corry, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, fought the Right Hon. Henry Grattan, a
Privy Counsellor, and leader of the Opposition. The
Chancellor was hit. He also fought two others.
" Metge, Baron of the Exchequer, fought his brother-
in_law, and two others.
" Lord Norbury, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas,
fought Fire-eater Fitzgerald, and two others, muzzle to
muzzle, and frightened Napper Tandy, and several be-
sides. Napper was neer being hanged for running away !
Pistoling was notoriously one of Lord Norbury's talents.
It was an element of his promotion ; the wits said, allud-
ing at once to the means and the rapidity of his rise, that
be shot up into preferment.
" Duigenan, Judge of the Prerogative Court, Fellow
and Tutor of Trinity College, and the well-known ants-
gonist of the Popish claims, fought one barrister, and
came to the ground with another.
Grady, the first Counsel to the Revenge, fought
Maher and Campbell, barristers, and others—very stout
work.
" Curran, Master of the Rolls, fought Lord Bucking-
hamshire, Chief Secretary, because he would not dismiss an
obnoxious public officer.
Hutchison, Provost of Dublin College, and a Privy
Counsellor, fought Doyle, a Master in Chancery (elder
brother of the distinguished Sir John Doyle).
t oneice of
of
Thee Common mw
with
the
n s w Pleas,o r fought,
three
Patterson,
country
gentlemen,Justice
wounded all of them.
" Ogle, a Privy Counsellor, the Orange chieftain, fought
Barny Coyle, a whisky-distiller, because he was a Papist.

In this duel the remarkable good or ill luck prevailed, that
the combatants fired four brace of pistols, without stop or
say, yet without hitting each other. But the combat was
not altogether without consequence ; for one of Ogle's
seconds broke It's arm by stumbling into a potatoe trench!
Ogle was a man of great personal elegance and accomplish-
ment, but a furious fighter, remarkably high; and his
condescension in attempting to extinguish the unfortunate
whisky-distiller must have arisen entirely from his equally
furious spirit of party."
" Hymns of Life," are in Mrs. Heman's most
polished style. They are, however, somewhat
too cloying and monotonous. This lady abso-
lutely surfeits us with sweets. " British Tro-
pical Colonies" is one of Mr. M'Queen's
heaviest and most deliberate statistical inflictions.
The " fat weed that rots on Lethe's wharf"
is nothing compared with it in dulness.
" France in 1833" is evidently the production
of a keen, clear-headed, far-sighted observer.
He gives a deplorable picture of the present
condition of the King of the barricades, who, it
seems, is only kept on his throne by the shud-
dering recollections that the National Guard
still entertain of the Reign of Terror. Thus the
first French revolution is working out a striking
moral lesson. " Marshal Ney's Memoirs," is a
critical notice, chiefly interesting from its extracts,
which are well selected. " Thoughts upon
Beards," are heavy and cumbrous. From the
title, we expected a smart, flighty essay, from
the versatile pen of Professor Wilson, instead of
which we have a trite, learned dissertation, which
better suits the staid, grave dulness of the
Classical Journal than the roystering humour
of Blackwood. " English Cathedral Establish-
ments" contains some forcible writing. A bene-
ficed pen has evidently been at work upon it.