The Sun.
London, England, 1833-02-11 00:00:00

EDINBURGH REVIEW, No. CXII.

The following striking description of the
famous Earl of Peterborough is from an excel-
lent article in the last Edinburgh Review on
the " War of the Succession ":
" This man was, if not the greatest, yet assuredly the
most extraordinary character of that age ; the King of
Sweden himself not excepted. Indeed, Peterborough
may be described as a polite, learned, and amorous Charles
the Twelfth. His courage had all the French impetuosity.
and all the English steadiness. His fertility and activity
of mind were almost beyond belief. They appeared in
everything that he did—in his campaigns, in his negotia.
tions, in his familiar correspondence, in his lightest and
most unstudied conversation. He was a kind friend, a
generous enemy, and a thorough gentleman. But his
splendid talents and virtues were rendered almost useless to
his country, by his levity, his restlessness, his irritability,
his morbid craving for novelty and for excitement. He
loved to fly round Europe faster than a travelling courier.
He was at the Hague one week, at Vienna the next.
Then he took a fancy to see Madrid ; and he had scarcely
reached Madrid, when he ordered horses and set off for
Copenhagen. No attendants could keep up with his
speed. No bodily infirmities could confine him. Old
age, disease, imminent death, produced scarcely any effect
on his intrepid spirit. Just before he underwent the most
horrible of surgical operations, his conversation was as
sprightly as that of a young man in the full vigour of
health, On the day after the operation, in spite of the
entreaties of his medical advisers, he would set out on a
journey. His figure was that of a skeleton. But la's
elastic mind supported him under fatigues and sufferings
which seemed sufficient to bring the most robust man to
the grave."

The character of the indolent Charles, whose
death gave rise to the war, shows equally the
hand of a master :
" The evils produced by a bad government and a bad
religion, seemed to have attained their greatest height
during the last years of the seventeenth century. While
the kingdom was in this deplorable st ite, the King was
hastening to an early grave. His days bad been few and
evil. He bad been unfortunate in all his wars, in every
part of his internal administration, and in all his domestic
relations. His first wife, whom he tenderly loved, died
very young. His second wife exercised great influence
over him, but seems to have been regarded by him rather
with fear than with love. He was childless; and his
constitution was so completely shattered, that at little more
than thirty years of age, he had given up all hopes of pos•
terity. Hitt mind was even more distempered than his
body. He was sometimes sunk in listless melancholy,
and sometimes harassed by the wildest and most extra-
vagant fancies. " * Like his ancestor, Charles the
Fifth, be was haunted by a strange curiosity to pry into
the secrets of that grave, to which he was hastening. In
the cemetery which Philip the Second had formed beneath
the pavement of the church of St. Lawrence, reposed
three generations of Castilian Princes. Into these dark
vaults the unhappy Monarch descended by torch-light, and
penetrated to that superb and gloomy chamber, where,
round the great black crucifix, are ranged the coffins of
the Kings and Queens of Spain. There he commanded his
attendants to open the massy chests of bronze in which
the relics of his predecessors decayed. He looked on the
ghastly spectacle with little emotion till the coffin of his
first wife was unclosed, and she appeared before him,—
such was the skill of the embalmer,—in all her well-re-
membered beauty. He cast one glance on those beloved
features unseen for eighteen years,—those features over
which corruption seemed to have no power,—and rushed
from the vault, exclaiming, She is with God ; and I
shall soon be with her.' The awful sight completed the
ruin of his body and mind. The Escurial became hateful
to him ; and he hastened to Aranjuez. But the shades
and waters of that delicious island-garden, so fondly cele-
brated in the sparkling verse of Calderon, brought no
solace to their unfortunate master. Having tried me-
dicine, exercise, and amusement in vain, he returned to
Madrid to die."

THE FUNDS.-(THIS DAY.)

CITY, TWELVE O'CLOCK.

The only arrival we have this morning is from Canton,
by which we have received papers at the North and South
American Coffee-house to the Sth July.
(COMMERCIAL REMARKS.)

COTTON.—TiIe sales that have been made within the
month have not amounted to above 2,000 or 3,000 bales,
but the few effected have been on terms exceeding the
former prices. The holders are firm, and present prices
are maintained.

OPIUM.—The recent accounts received from Bombay,
confirming the reports previously circulates, of the year's
supply of Alaliva amounting to 13,000 chests, have created
a panic, and have had the effect of reducing the prices;
the last sales were at 480 dollars per chest. In Patti,'
little has been done ; the prices have declined to 780
Spanish dollars per chest. Benares still out of demand.
Considerable importations at Singapore of piece-goods
and cotton yarn are reported to have been received, which
affected the prices very materially.
Exchange on London, 44 to 4i per dollar.