The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-06 00:00:00

By G. W. 2 'hor latury,

Saunders and Oiley.

There is something gallant in the !merle g of the
young adventurer in search of fame who, in t he person
of Mr. G. W. Thornbury, has just entered th e lists of
literature. Like the more dauntless am ang the
knights of old, he scorns the shelter of cone* alment,
and advances to the tourney with a raised vim r. He
scorns the protection of the anonymous, and both in
his preface and introductory chapters, assumes an atti-
tude towards his critics such as must corm= id their
respect, if it does not actually propitiate their admira-
tion. Speaking to them, not in the language of poor
John Keats, "There is no fiercer hell tt an the
failure in a great object," he says, ,cheerily
enough, in his own blunt, homel y way,
" Repulse is not a rout, and a ba book
I may replace by a Letter." We like this spirit of
candour and confidence, it breathes the vita li.ty of an
elastic temperament, and promises larg e future
meed of success to its possessor. Yet, o at young
author is not without great hopes in reg led to his
present, and, we conceive, maiden effusion ; other-
wise, of course, he would never have evin e scl teme-
rity enough to superintend their pu bi'ications.
Conscious of more than ordinary power within
himself, he flings the gauntlet of defiance e not so
much at the feet of the surlier class of res ie.wers es
in the very teeth of those generally dreaded ,curmud-
geons. With a fine and solemn dignity he . reminds
them of the famous words of Milton- —"Unless
wariness be used, as good almost kill a ma n as kill a
good book ; who kills a man kills a reasonabl e creature
—God's image ; but he who destroys a g pod book
kills reason itself, the image of God, as it were, in
the eye." Then, changing his manner froi nthat of
mejestic warning, Mr. Thornbury turns from the
frowns of his imagined antagonists with a gay
laugh
of contempt such as cannot fail to disarm tlai ir malice,
while it infuriates their indignation. 01 LC author
claims for himself, at the very outset of his perform-
ance, the merit at least of originality,
insi: ling that
he is the " first opener of the entrenchment e the first
digger in this mental California"—for tl e second
title of his volume, " Ballads of the New V Told," has
already indicated its purport. Without quest 'toning the
accuracy of his asserted priority, it must be admitted
at onc, that if not exactly the very first i 11. point of
time, he is unquestionably the very first in :regard to
the magnitude and daring of his enterprise. Within
the present volume he has comprited " lays and
legends," illustrative of the history of the
conquest of the western hemisphere, from the
earliest voyage of Columbus down to the
assassination of Pizarro, selecting with the true
appreciation of a poet those incidents w'ti ich most
forcibly appeal to the popular sensibiliti.e s and the
popular imagination. What, for example, could be
more singularly calculated to arrest the a a ention of
the reader, or to influence his emotions, b: r their pa-
thetic significance, than the subjects chosen i n the bal-
lads relating reapectively to "Columbus in C ;pains," to
the " Tears of Cortes," and to the " Desc ,nt of the
Volcano," the first a terrible example of tiai 3 ingrati-
tude of the Spanisheagorernment towards the dis-
coverer of a fourth' continent; the eecond a thrilling
account of the sensibility displayed by the set Lnquisher
of Mexico when he looked down for the ,first time
upon the golden city of the Montezumas ; and the
third an appalling illustration of the ind omitable
valour revealed by the followers of Cortes „ men so
hardy and dauntless as to descend like Francisco
Montano into the flaming crater of a volcan a, lowered
down 400 feet in a basket for the purpose of collecting
a quantity of sulphur sufficient for the manufacture of
the necessary amount of gunpowder ! Havin .g selected
his subjects thus admirably, Mr. Thorn bury has
next endeavoured to treat them in a proper strain of
enthusiasm, arriving at that Tyrtean passion which is
alone befitting the lofty office of a ballad wi:iter. In
this endeavour, moreover, it must be avow e d forth-
with that in several instances he has achieved a ge-
nuine success. Unluckily for him, it is true he had been
preceded by Mr. Macaulay, and Mr. Macaulay again
had already been followed by Mr. Aytoun, :e circum-
stance which we are induced to regret some what in
the same way that, as admirers of Emerso a., we are
almost sorry that his works had been pre ceded by
the ;works of Thomas Carlyle. With et cur-
sory resemblance, however, here and there to
the " Lays of Ancient Rome," the " Lays and
Legends" of Mr. Thornbury possess elsewh are a ma-
fest originality. For our own part, as liking him,
we should much have preferred his being somewhat
less of a plagiarist, though his plagiarisms are can-
didly and courageously indicated by himself in foot-.
notes. We would rather, for instance, have listened
to phrases of his own than to one of Keats at page
29, or to one of Macaulay at page 48. Especially
when it is remembered that he can write himself as
admirably as he has .written in the first lay, that
descriptive of the voyage of Columbus. Occasionally
the epithets are false, as value (p. 14) " the brown
sea beach" is spoken of ; Coleridge, advised by
Wordsworth, having already, in his " Anciente
Marinere," talked more truly about the " yellow " of
" the ribbed sea sand." Again, also, we encounter
such common-places of language AS that occurring in
the line—

" Down went the sun in the fiery west with just such
frantic glee."
It is unfortunate likewise to meet with such a phrase
as " the grey old sun." But finer verses repay us
abundantly for all this, such verses as those wherein,
alluding to the infuriated sailors in the expedition of
discovery, Mr. Thornbury exclaims simply but aw-
fully—
_ _ _

" Lust in the flood of deep despair, those weak and
coward men
Bad heeded not if the mighty God from the sky had
spoken then."
The subjoined passage, moreover, is really admirable
of its kind, as an enumeration of the signs of ap-
proaching success and felicity which were strewn over
the deep as Columbus advanced farther and further
across the Atlantic :

" Still from the prow Columbus gazed at the cross in the
pale, clear sky,
And smiles as he points to the gathering weed that
slowly drifteth by.

And many a dolphin swirometh past, king of the western
sea,
Whose robe is rich with the sparkling dyes, a rich-clad
prince is he.
And the flying fish, that like a bird soars from bis coral
bough,
Who dives as deep as ho can fly, beneath the white reef's
brow.

And with the morn the wind sinks down, and birds on
the rigging rest,
They seem belated wanderers from some land in the dis-
tant west.

For these resting-birds are no white-winged mews, no
flitterers o'er the main,
But such as follows the husbandman, that sows the
golden grain."

Sometimes he contrives to throw an astonishing vigour
into a plain and homely phrase enough, as where
speaking of the amazement with which the mariners
saw the land before them at daybreak, he likens
them to

" Men awaken'd from a dream by the shake of a hasty
hand."
In the " Battle of Tobasco," he has celebrated that
first triumph of the arms of Cortes which seemed to
foreshadow the glory of all his subsequent achieve-
ments. Very different, of course, in its tone, is the
ballad dedicated to the memorable Nocte Triste, or
" Sorrowful Night," when the Spanish army pre-
pared to leave the golden city of the west, as it ap-
peared to them, at the moment, for ever—the step
looking altogether irretrievable. As is very forcibly
observed in the note prefixed to the ballad,
the event just alluded to was only retrieved by the
"wonderful resources of the mind" of Cortes, "by
his constancy and his indomitable genius." Alluding
afterwards to the dreadful vengeance ultimately
wreaked by the re-conquering Spaniards on their an-
tagonists, it is remarked with no less emphasis of
ai l to
no
secureterr
r
language—" It was a day of terrible retribution—of
' garments rolled in blood'—of confused sound of the
battle, and the empire of Mexico fell like a Colossus
—never to rise again. There is a mingling of horror
and grandeur in the lay devoted to the account of the
" Murder of Pizarro" such
as cannotthe breathless regard, and after perusal to
and elicit the
earnest admiration of the reader. Here is the close
of the tragic incident, nobly depicted :--
" Aghast
in stlodoikunPaizyarro's feasting friends, f
They left the half-drained wine-cup, and hurried them
away.
' Bar the door, good Garoia, bar out the rogues' array,
Like two chafed lions in our den, we'll keep the knaves
AT Too altatht
oe—bay.'
nme
tumble
n heartth bloodeb lbleeding
drinkinging h
ody thrust,marbleone
hmaei tl
cleaving blow,
below.Theyrus
h up stairs with pike and
osoutchh,
words of scorn
As hod greeted their ears from the viceroy's
ay! but that very morn.

But their shout of joy is turned to rage, for throe men
keep the door,',
They stood like the eager hunters that would spear the
foaming boar.
Then Pizarro rushed to aid the guard, in their face his
helm he hurled:
What ho!' he cried, ' ye atabbers, scum of the new-
found world.
Then by his side old Sanchez fell, but no time was that
to weep;
No time for thoughts of anguish, no place for sorrow
deep.
But still was left fair Pedro, the youngest of the three;
A thrust from the blade of a partisan has brought him
to his knee.

And the blood that welled from Sanchez' wound fell on
the dying child;
Then fierce glared old Pizarro, and his fiery eye glared
wild,

And his sword cleaved helm and co ralet, and his sword
cleaved mail and targo—
In vain on his breast the arrows splint, in vain the
rebels charge.
And bravely fought Pizarro, though his liatbs were stiff
with age,
As well as when in the pride of years he fought by the
fair Adage."
And he struggled on, that grey haired man, though the
blows fell thick as rain,
As well as he did when he bore the Cross on Cusco's
golden plain. •
Down with the savage,' Reda cries, ' shall a greybeard
drive us off ?
Oh! that, indeed, for the Chili men, were a sharp and
biting scoff.'
Then, with a howl of baffled rage, he grasps Alverrez
round,
And hurls him at Pizarro, and brings him to the
ground.

Like a stone from the sling of a peasant boy, half-
stunned, Alverrez flier,
In vain, Pizarro strikes him down; in vain, the rebel
dies.
' He dies too late,' cries Reda, and drives through his
heart the sword,
Ere Pizarro sank a dozen blades drank the life-blood of
their lord.

Jesu,' he groans, and makes a cross on the blood be-
dabbled floor;
He bends to kiss the holy sign—one groan, and all is
o'er.
Shout, for the tyrant's fallen—Pizarro, the lord, is
dead,
And now the Viceroy's jewelled badge shall deck Al-
magro's head.'
They sheath their swords, but ere they part, one glance
they give again
At the body of him who's fallen, at the mighty one
they've slain.
And now the robbers pillage the casket and the shrine,
And bear away the Inca's gold from many a treasure
mine."

Another excellent example of the power of Mr.
Thornbury is furnished in his ballad of " The death
of Carbajal," a ballad preceded by this very curious
note :

"Francisco de Carbajal, a brave but cruel old warrior,
84 years of age, was executed at the same time with
Gonzalo Pizarro, with whom he,had conspired to change
Peru from a viceroyalty to a monarchy independent of
Spain. In the decline of their fortunes this stern, iron-
hearted man, said nothing, but bummed the words of a
Spanish song:—
"' The wind blows the hairs off my head, mother.'
When they told him of his doom, he said, calmly,
Basta mater'—' They can but kill me.' In prison
he bantered those who came to mock at the Samson
in bonds. To a cavalier, who offered him assistance,
he replied, What service can you do me ?
Nothing is of use, if you can't set me free, If I spared
your life, as you say, I did it because I thought it not
worth taking.' To the priests who came to absolve his
soul, blackened and encrusted with sin, ho said, ' I have
nothing on my conscience but a debt of half a real to a
shopkeeper of Seville.' He was drawn to the scaffold in
a basket drawn by mules. As they forced his pinioned
body in, be exclaimed, Cradles for the young and cra-
dles for the old!' When the priest implored him to re-
peat the Ave Maria and Pater nester,' he merely re-
peated the words, Ave Maria, Pater nester.' He
died,' says Prascott, with a scoff on his lips.' Of such
metal were the conquerors of Peru."
As a second portion of "Lays and Legends" we have,
towards the close of the volume, a variety of ballads,
occasional poems, and translations of a very miscel-
laneous character. Foremost among these is the
famous "Diver" of Schiller, which our author has
not been daunted from attempting even after the
brilliant version from the hand of Sir Bulwer Lytton.
Beautiful, very beauiful, indeed, is the charming little
" Ritornel," from the German of Riiekert, that
ritornel in which occurs the following :
" 0, Lily, fair and white,
The garden flowers are lauding their Creator;
Thou art their priest clothed in thy robe of light.
Thy stalk is like a wand:
Thou hast a name among thy sister flowers,
God's angels bear thee in their hand."
Spirited, too, as the sound of the old mill, to the
music of which it seems written, is the " Miller's
Song," beginning—
" Hey! for the stone that crushes,
Ho! for the whirling sail,
When the old mill shakes in every plank
Like a vessel in a gale.
Hey 1 for the blast that driveth
The ponderous mill-wheel round,
When of the snow-storm showering,
We hear the mellow sound."
"The Woodman's Song," which follows, com-
mencing—
" In the bright May time, in the youug spring's prime,
The axe he layeth by;
When the birds sing gay the livelong day,
To hail the summer nigh;
But the woods ring out to his merry shout
When the leaf is off the tree,
When the tempest clouds the forests shroud,
A merry man is he,"
would be more acceptable if it bore not so striking a
resemblance, both in manner, rhythm, and versifica-
tion, to that song of Bailey's occurring in his
" Festus"—
" Oh! the wee green neuk, the sly green neuk,
The wee sly neuk for me!
Where the wheat is wavin' bright and brown,
And the wind is fresh and free.
Whare I weave wild weeds, and out o' reeds
Kerve whissles as I lay;
And a deuce low voice is marmurin' by
Through the lee-lang simmer day.
Oh! the wee green neuk, &c."
Enough has already been said by us, however, in
evidence of the distinguished merit apparent in the
volume of poetry just given to the world by Mr.
Thornbury, a volume which we can venture to com-
mend in spite of the blemishes we have alluded to,
above all, in defiance of a rather ill-considered scrap
of eccentricity and vulgarity prefixed in italics to the
" Introductory chapter." We have recognised in the
young author, who has here stepped into the arena of
letters, capacities sufficiently large and comprehen -
swe to secure for himself by their development a very
general admiration.

• Pizarro served in Italy in his youth.

ZADKIEL'S ALMANAC for 1852.
The indefatigable seer, Zadkiel, has issued thus
early his almanac for the ensuing year, in which
there is of course a considerable amount
of vaticina-
tion. Thus we find inter alia—"lu France this
great eclipse (of the 28th July last) will bring about
great changes in the Government and laws ; and I
look for the entire overthrow of the present state of
things in that country so soon as this eclipse begins
to operate next spring. Indeed, some serious affrays
may there be looked for early in November this year,
1851. and again the latter part of January, 1852.
But April and May, 1852, will be a period of fearful
excitement, and turmoil and slaughter in that devoted
land," coupled with which occur the following under
the heads of April and July, 1852 :—" A lamentable
scene may be expected—a struggle to the death for
dominion at the election for President, and Louis
Napoleon may now say, Adieu to all my great-
ness ;' " and " some singular changes are now
(July) taking place in France, where the
people wheel round more suddenly than is even usual
in that fickle nation. I judge they get the state
car into the old track of monarchy once more."
Well, nous verrons. It is singular that several of
Zadkiel's important predictions have been verified in
the present year; for instance, the ravages of cholera
in the West Indies, the civil war in China, the home
political troubles arising out of " a Church Ques-
tion," the military insurrection in Portugal, the re-
newal of hostilities at the Cape, &c. What are we
to think of all this ? " The Magic Crystal," for his
former revelations concerning which Zadkiel was
some time since coarsely and clumsily abused in a
certain celebrated weekly periodical, is again brought
on the lapis. All we can say on the subject is, that
he certainly is no impostor, for he manifestly has full
faith in this extraordinary species of divination.
There is also a learned paper on Egyptian and Orien-
tal Astronomy, and some observations on Astro-
Meteorology, well worthy consideration. He holds
the temperature to be mainly affected by the aspects
(principally, we take it, the solar ones) of the supe-
rior planets, viz., Mars and Jupiter for the rise, and
Saturn and Uranus for the fall. There is altogether
a aixpennyworth of very curious matter in this alma-
nac, which, moreover, contains a carefully prepared
calendar and the usual tables.

PENNY MAPS. Chapman and Hall.
The fifteenth part of this most useful and cheap
publication lies before us, comprising the World on
Mercator's Projection, and the Perspective Projection
of the World on the Horizon of London, in two maps,
one of either hemisphere.

THE 0 WENS' COLLEGE, MANCHESTER.—Professor
A. J. Scott, M.A., Principal of Owens' College, Manchester
(and late of University College, London), delivered his in-
augural address upon entering upon his duties at the new
institution on Friday. Mr. Scott was prevented by illness
from being present at the opening of the preliminary session
of the college in May, and his address was postponed in con-
sequence till the opening, of the present, first regular, session
of the institution. The proceedings on this occasion took
place in the town-hall, the mayor presiding, and amongst
the principal persons present were—the Lord Bishop of Man-
chester, Mr. J. Heywood, M.P. ; the Rev. Hugh Stowell,
Dr. Vaughan, Principal of the Lancashire Independent Col-
lege ; Dr. Halley, Independent minister ; the Rev. J. J.
Tayler, M.A., Unitarian minister; and some of the leading
merchants of the town. It will be known by some of our
readers, though, perhaps, not to all, that the college was
founded by the late Mr. John Owens, a Manchester mer-
chant, who, after providing for his relatives, left the residue
of his estate (100,0001.) to establish a college on the prin-
ciple of the national universities in Manchester, but without
any religious test of admission. Professor Scott having been
called upon by the chairman, delivered an eloquent and
lengthy address, which was loudly applauded. The Bishop
of Manchester, Dr. Vaughan, and other gentlemen after-
wards addressed the meeting, and it closed with a vote of
thanks to the chairman.