The Sun.
London, England, 1851-03-03 00:00:00

THE MAGAZINES.
BLACKWOOD.

Pisistratus Caxton continues his very charming ro-
mance with unabated, or rather with increasing ability.
Trivial as the interests of the story may seem to be,
they are rendered memorable and of value by the air of
fascination by which they are invested. This, more-
over, is attributable to the exquisite manner of the
novelist, by his quiet but sunlit humour, by his genial
and delicate sensibility, by his plastic eloquence and his
matchless powers of delineating character. The heroine
is at last introduced on the stage. Violante, the young
and beautiful, as yet little inure than a child—the
daughter of cur good old friend Doctor, or Signor
lliccabocca. In Jemima the latter has found, we are
rejoiced to observe, an admirable helpmate. Lenny
Fairfield becomes an inquiring experimentalist i❑
science, and, what is more, a poet. Albeit
but a poor village labourer, Lenny has in
the latter capacity become invested with a peculiar
interest, and, so to speak, with a certain dignity. Fur,
as Sir 13ulwer Lytton himself observes—and he ought to
know something about it—" he who can view the world
as a poet is always at soul a king." The latter portion
of the present instalment of his domestic narrative is
coloured with a homely, but delicious, humour. Parson
Dale, " unaccustomed though he is" to riding on horse-
back, adventures in this wise to the town of Lansmere.
The traveller at the road side inn is capital—just one of
those little ineidentnl trifles that Bulwer Lytton ca❑
make so much of. His calling out later on the highway,
" How's the leather?" when the parson is getting tossed
up and down on the saddle rather unmercifully,
is the climax of merriment. Sesrcoly less droll
is the landlord of the Lansmere Arms, with

his preposterous definition of gumpti,us—" Bumptious
is bumptious, and gumptious is eumptious : now the
town beadle is humpiious, and Mrs. Avenel h pump-
tious." Gumptious she most unquestionably proves
to be vs hen visaed a little farther on by the good par.on.
With the commencement of this interview the portion of
the novel fur the March number terminates. A very
beautiful and intelligent criticism of Mrs. Jameson's
" Legends of the Monastic Orders" Idlows this most de-

lightiul contribution. In it the revi-ver expresses a
profound and generous admiration of some of the most
conspicuous among the saints of the Roman Catholics. St.
Theresa in particular he takes to be a most saintly as
well as sainted woman. The following account of the
origin of the superstition respecting St. Swithin, as
given by Mrs. Jameson, may not prove altogether
nut', serving a perusal :
"He had ordered that his body should be buried among
the poor, outside the church, 'under the feet of the pas-
sengers, and exposed to the droppings of the eaves from
above.' When his clergy attempted to remove the body to a
more honourable tomb inside the church, there came on such
a storm of rain as effectually stopped the procession; and
this continued for forty days without intermission, till the
project was abandoned, and his remains were suffered to
rest in the humble grave be had chosen for himself."_

The subjoined pas ;ago relating to Bt. Thomas I Becket,
the groat Ara:bishop of Canterbury, we commend to
general con, ideration :
" Lord Campbell, in his recent and admirably-written life
of Becket, as Chancellor and Minister of Henry 11., tells us
that his vituperators are to be found among bigoted Protes-
tants, and his unqualified eulogists among intolerant Catho-

lies. After stating, with the perspicuity of a judge in equity,
their respective arguments and opinions, he sums up in fa-
vour of the eulogists, and decides that, setting aside exag-
geration, miracle, and religious prejudice, the most merciful
view of the character of Becket is also the most just. And
is it not pleasant, where the imagination has been so excited
by strange vicissitudes and picturesque scenes of his various
life—the judgment so dazzled by his brilliant and generous
qualities, the sympathies so touched by the tragic circum-
stances of his death—to have our scruples set at rest, and
to be allowed to admire and to venerate with a good con-
science; and this, too, on the authority of one accustomed
to balance evidence, and not swerved by any bias to extreme
religious opinions! But it is not as statesman, chancellor, or
prelate that Becket takes his place in sacred art. It is in his
character of canonised saint and martyr that I have to speak
of him here. He was murdered or martyred because he
pertinaciously defended the spiritual against the royal au-
thority; and we must remember, in the eleventh century,
the cause of the Church was, in fact, the cause of the weak
against the strong, the cause of civilization and of the people
against barbarism and tyranny ; and that by his conteMpo-
raries he was regarded as the champion of the oppressed
Saxon race against the Norman nobility."
" Lavengro, ' the presumed autobiography of Mr.
George Barrow, is subjected to a somewhat severe,
though, at the same time, a very judicious castigation.
In the estimation of the critic in Blackwood it will not
tend very far to exalt the repute of the author. Another
paper of an artistic nature will be found among the con-
tents of the March number, namely, one relating to
" The Arts in Portugal," and considering the unfamiliar
character of the topic we doubt not it will be generally
acceptable. Southey suggests to one of the contribu-
tors an able and pleasing series of biographic articles—
the first of which is here published. Besides the paters
already particularized, we must call to the notice of the
public the first, relating to the " Internal Dangers of
the Country," and the last, referring to the important
question of the 3 Ministry and the Agricultural In-
terest." Altogether the number of Blackwood for March
is really admirable.