The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-17 00:00:00

MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY l7, 1851.

LITERATURE.

THE FIRST ANGEL. A Novel in Two Vo-

hones Saunders and Otley.
Whoever may have written this agreeable fiction
his, in it, displayed abilities deserving of every en-
couragement. To pretend that the work is altogether
unblemished by evidences of immaturity would be a
mere affectation of compliment. Nevertheless, these
very tokens of immaturity are the precise features
which win for the effusion the reader's interest, and
extort, however unwillingly, the reviewer's sym-
pathy. For they indicate rather clearly the absence
of that skill in composition which is alone capable of
acquisition by practice in authorcraft, that adroitness
in style which, in many instances, practice degene-
rates into mannerism, but which, when that practice
is accompanied by critical judgment, becomes ripened
to the perfection visible in the masterpieces of our
literature. Had we taken up one of the volumes hap-
hazard, and glanced through a single chapter; Ave
should have recognized with facility the hand of a
student-novelist, an adventurer upon the career of
letters, an aspirant for those intellectual honours
which in their highest manifestation crown the scho-
lar with bay-garlands in the capitol. Without as-
piring to compete thus literally with the fame of
Petrarch, the writer of now-a-days, be he poet, or
romancist, or playwright, or historian, aims at
achieving for himself a success quite equivalent to
that most illustrious of all coronations—the success
of a wide and genuine popularity. Ambition has
been called a " glorious fault," but an ambition
like this, so peculiarly innocuous of its kind, can
scarcely be regarded as a fault at all, partaking,
on the contrary, as it does, rather of the character-
istics of a virtue. Whenever; therefore, we perceive
any indication of hopes having this particular ten-
dency, our regard is enlisted at once iu the cause of
the aspirant. When coupled with these yearnings for
popularity we detect, through the unavoidable flaws
and weaknesses of a first work, the ardent spirit and
crude powers of a youthful imagination, that interest
is in a manner redoubled. But when added to all this
we find the tyro exercising his partially developed
abilities for the inculcation of a pure and evangelic
morality we instinctively turn towards him and his
efforts that genial warmth of welcome which of all
things is the best calculated to incite him to arouse
his dormant energies. Such adolescence of intellect,
such generosity of ambition, such depth and sweet-
ness of morality, we recognise in the author of the
volumes before us, the half-grown but still blooming
fruits of a mind capable, we conceive, of better and
loftier achievements. " The First Angel," taken as a
first work, is removed from the iron and inexorable
grasp of ordinary criticism. It appeals to the gentler
feelings of the reviewer, demanding at his hands for
every merit the applause which leads to larger
excellences, for every blemish the hint best
tending to prevent the possibility of their recurrence.
Fortunately not only for the writer of the story,
but for ourselves in like manner, there are of these
merits not a few in the course of the narrative. For-
tunately we say for ourselves, seeing that of all the
tasks imposed upon us in our capacity as critics that
of tomahawking a young and ambitious writer is the
most uncongenial and repulsive.
" To sit and laugh in Rabellais' easy chair,"
is delightful enough when the subjct of our annota-
tions happens to be some mature and callous book-
maker, whose sensibilities to ridicule have been
blunted by frequent disappointments, and whose self-
esteem is defended, so to speak, by an epidermis as
impenetrable as the scales of an armadillo, or the skin
of a hippopotamus. With regard to a young writer,
such as we believe the anonymous author of " The
First Angel" to be, our sentiments are altogether dif-
ferent. In his instance we acknowledge at once that
our principal anxiety is to discover, if possible—not
blots, but beauties. We open the volumes vigilant
for all that can extort our admiration. Respecting
the novel at our elbow we may say that our solici-
tude in this particular has been not unfrequently gra-
tified. We have found the tale simple in purpose,
and for the nonce sufficiently unaffected. What ap-
pears to us to be the principal merit of the production
is the structure of its machinery. The plot is
at once ingeniously complicated and naturally
elucidated. Here the romancist has shown himself to
our thinking to be especially successful. Shifting
his scenes from Africa to Europe,, from a provincial
village to the great metropolis, froth a dewy lawn at
daybreak to a London ball-room in the height of the
season, and at midnight—he has contrived to diversify,
the interest, and to bring out in broad lights and sha-
dows the principal personages introduced, by sug-
gesting appropriate yet contrasting back-grounds.
His dialogue, moreover, generally speaking is na-
tural enough, whether it be articulated in the heart
of a desert, or in the bosom of a domestic circle. Se-
veral of the imaginary characters are especially good,
as the creations of a beginner. The villain of the
book, above them all, is entitled to commendation as
a study from the Varney of Sir Bulwer Lytton.
Like the profligate in " Lucretia," Roger Conway is
an artist, but, unlike his extraordinary prototype,
Conway repents before his dissolution. In his in-
stance, the heart's blood of the reader is not curdled
with horror by a description of the earthly hell of
Norfolk Island, where felons are transformed into
devils incarnate by the hopeless prolongation of their
sufferings. Seeing that the fiction opens with the
betrothal of Helen and Harry Fernley, we are led to
imagine for a while at its outset that those are its hero
and heroine. A little progress in the narrative
assures us to the contrary. We then discover
the heroine in the person of a young girl named
Anna Morville, the daughter of a refugee from the
first French Revolution. Her father dying in the
wilderness from inanition and fatigue, Anna is res-
cued from death by Harry Fernley, who has strayed
from the army, in which, as a junior officer, he had
proceeded to Egypt under Abercrombie. Upon a
casket of jewels, containing a will, written in sympa-
thetic ink, the fortunes of the chief personages in the
romance are dependent, and this casket is saved to '
Anna Morville by her rescuer from destruction. The
hero of this story we have not yet mentioned ; and
this is about the most elaborately drawn character in
the volumes. His name is simple and plain enough
in all conscience, being nothing more euphonious or un-
common than that of Smith. Morris Smith, before we
have followed him long, contrives to secure to himself
the chief portion of our sympathies. His happiness
at the commencement of the tale has in it some-
thing terrible, from its serenity and completeness, and
is contrasted horribly with his subsequent calamities.
The rapid demise of poor Jenny, her twin sister Mary,
and their gentle-hearted mother, invests the narrative
with a strange and oppressive melancholy. After-
wards, however, the gloom is relieved by a return of
joy to the hero, though this again is dissipated by the
sudden death of his long-loved and dearly-purchased
bride. What appears to us the prominent blemish in
the work is a certain over-colouring in the sentiment.
Sometimes this is carried to such a length as to de-
generate into mere mawkishness. The badinage
between Jenny and Morris, again, is in the highest
—brother and sister
never coquetting in any such absurd manner in real
degree unnatural and ridiculous
ous for frivolity and silliness. Mr. Forland, likewise, a
life, or only doing so, we should opine,
is the veriest stick of a parson, when conspicu-
ttracting towards
himself not one momentary feeling of interest. Con-
trastHulwer Lytton's novel
in Bki himc w
of the portraiture
becomes painfully appreciable.
hz,
Notwithstanding,
.o
oi
dt toeand Mt
hre inadequacy. Dale of
however, this occasional weakness of portraiture, the
production before us is adorned with many agreeable
limnings of character. Anna Marville especially, the
First Angel, so called from her casual appearance in
childhood, is conceived [with a true and exquisite
owrrowaincleY womanly,
charm
ap-
preciation of aesthetic beauty. Her temperament
rises to the
and not
toalfs
mr oieunrgteehl
interest
yoe usf
tat n
surrounding
fantastic
srstrhi
ocouwindnde
iantl oigs
mbh.e e
rc gneh et
fortunes
height of excitement, in particular at that portion of
her history when she apparently becomes the victim of
the licentious artist Roger Conway. Of the novelist's
style of composition we can speak in terms of ap-
proval, seeing that, although unmellowed
maentc.apacity
admitting
sittyinegt
erspicuous, is
for example, is
His diction,
aole
ifyra cs
very
el
art
lyi
wv aa tyi osl na
r, e
large
eei
gt a n
tde betraysav ne do p p
at times
ll'felltlhfuall upon it
in summer evenings, turning the
ea vreino
heloquent
taincd similepi
an Eng-
lish landscape—the writer describing the house
trreesgclauredi n Hera,su set on
westerly
oa
aspect,
p felcet s Fernley at rhna
g sunbeamssituated
windows into fiery
beacons, and pouring rubies upon the large, eloping
iteY theas setting bein
lawn in front when the dew began to fall." Subjoined
is a specimen of the author's powers in didactic com-
position. His argument runs to the effect that the
divine commandment " Thou shalt not bear false wit-
ness against thy neighbour," is more frequently
broken than any other law of the Decalogue. He
says:—

" You are, perhaps, a Conservative in politics. You
think that authority is the right of the few, and obe-
dience the duty of the many. You have a reverence for
kings, and u contempt for mobs; you see that change is
dangerous. and public opinion fickle, and you sigh for
.golden days that are departed.
" Your neighbour is a ltdclical. He thinks there is no
rightful authority save the will of the people. He dis-
chtinas obedience and turns up his lip at kings. Instead
of the thnger of change, he can see nothinz but its be-
nefits. The pest is to him all misery and corruption,
and all his hone is in the good time coming.
" You dislike one another, and avoid one another.
You think him a dangerous fellow; a friend to violence
and commotion. 11 thinks you a selfish obstacle, a
lover of tyranny and a toe to human improvement.
"You convey these improvements to others while you
act on them yourselves, and the truth meanwhile is pro-
bably this—that you are two very honest and very ill-
informed men; that you ((pally desire the good of your
country and of the world, and that you diff...r chiefly became
education, and taste, and circumstance, have led each of
you to see only one side of a very difficult question.
" You would soon learn this if you took any pains to
do justice to one another, but you do nothing of the
kind. You, the Conservative, read the Mot ning Post

and the Quarterly; your neighbour, the Radical, reads
the Daily News and the Westminster. You associate
with Tories; he with Chartiste. You imbibe political
wisdom at agricultural dinners; be at demonstrations
for the ballot. That is to say, you both seek for infor-
mation just where you are sure to find your own opinions
glorified, and your neighbour's mi,representrd.
" Thu consequence is, that each of you knows Its little
as possible about the real opinions of the other, and
nothing at all of the grounds on which they have been
formed. Yet you treat each other as if you knew them
perfectly, and knew: that they were evil.
" Can you say that in this mutual distrust and dispa-
ragement you are not bearing false witness against your
neighbour?
Or again; perhaps you are a Churchman in religion.
You acknowledge the creeds and the catechism; you
have faith in the efficacy of sacraments; you bow to the
decision of councils, and respect the apostolical succes-
sion. You take much interest in the building of churches,
and von reverence time•honoured ceremonies and autho-
rized forms.

Your neighbour is a Dissenter. He accepts no creed
but the Bible, and no interpretation of it but his own.
He loves simplicity, is indifferent about architecture, and
sees the dress of antichrist in a bishop's gown. He ex-
pects no heavenly graces from the services of another,
and looks to obtain them only by the prayer and travail
of his own soul.

" You call him a schismatic, and he calls you a bigot.
You are satisfied that his opinions are the result of a
presumptuous will; he is sure that yours have sprung
from the influence of a blind prejudice. You will not
believe that any humble and devout mind could arrive at
his conclusions; he is quite as certain that honesty and
common sense are incompatible with yours.
"If you could but know each other's spiritual history.
If, with the searching eye of that God to whom yon
both appeal, you could gaze openly upon each other's
souls. how different might your judgment be!
" You would see, perhaps in each the same thirst for
truth—the same dread of error—the same consciousness
of sin. You would find that, in both cases, belief had
grown up out of many tears and prayers, many doubts
and struggles,—through the discipline of life—by the
bedside of death; with the same sense of God's presence
and of man's eternal responsibilites."
Among a variety of odd conceits scattered through
the pages, the following may be taken as the one de-
scribed with possibly the most animation. Conway
is depicting to Jenny the circumstances under which
he painted the likeness of Helen for Harry Fernley.
"It was about a year ago—a month or two before
you left the South—l was in this neighbourhood for a
short time, and was visited by a fine young follow, an
officer in the army, who declined giving me his name,
but told me he wanted a miniature likeness of a lady
who refused to At for it. It was therefore to be done
by stealth, at a concert to be given in the town next day.
I have reason enough to remember it! The day was
hot and the room was full. To screen me from observa-
tion, I was placed behind the kettle-drums. The dis-
tance was too great. I was competled to use an opera-
glass to see the features of the subject. The concert—
alas! that I should call it so—had begun before the lady
arrived. The little drummer in front of me rapped
away as if he would crack the parchment; the mouth
of a huge trombone was bellowing an inch or two
above my ear,—most men would have thrown their
pencils at the kettle-drums, and kicked the brass abomi-
nation through the window, under similar circumstances;
they affected me indifferently, however. For a minute
I was almost mad; my fingers shook with the heat and
the noise. I drew a line that was as much like a grass-
hopper as Miss Farnley's nose, or any nose in the uni-
verse. Then a sudden frenzy of enthusiasm seised me;
I shook my fist at the trombone, and defied all the drums
of Islam to interrupt me— a grand chorus, in which
every instrument joined with redoubled fury, seemed to
be the acceptance of my challange. • Ha, ha !'
shouted in the midst of it, and fell to work more fiercely
than over. It was a splendid victory. The portrait
was a masterpiece."

Once, and once only to our recollection, does the
novelist attempt anything like a humorous descrip-
tion. Here it is. He is speaking of summer in the
metropolis.

"It was morning in London—a fine, hot, dusty, sum-
mer's morning. The street a full of bright sunshine and
dreadful smells; the walkers very dry in their throats,
and very moist upon their faces; the shopmen unusually
pale, and much given to sighing; the horses standing
with lather on their necks, as if waiting to be shaved; or
trotting hopelessly over the stones, with lolling tongues,
whipping their own sides unsparingly with their dis-
contented taiis."

Such are among the principal characteristics of "The
First Angel "—a fiction which, with care and industry
on the part of its author, may prove only the pre -
cursor of many brilliant romances.

COURT CIRCULAR.

The Queen and Prince Albert walked yesterday in the
gardens of Buckingham Palace.
Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, Prince Al-
fred, the Princes; Royal, the Princses Alice, Helena, end
L,aisa, took their usual walking exercise yesterday, and his
Royal Highness Prince Arthur was taken a:i airing.
Her Majesty and his Royal Highness Prince Albert, their
Royal Highnesses the Prince of \Vales and the Princess
Royal, the Ladies and Gentlemen of the Court, and the do-
mestic household, attended Divine service yesterday, in the
private chapel of Buckingham Palace. The Hon. and Rev.
Gerald W ell esl ey officiated.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent also attended the
service.

The Countess de Neuilly and the Duke and Duchess de
Nemours visited her Majesty and Prince Albert at Bucking-
ham Palace on Saturday. His Royal Highness Prince
Albert, accompanied by the Countess de Neuilly and their
Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess de Nemours, went
to the Exhibition for the Industry of ail Nations in Hyde
Park, attended by Lieutenant-Colonel lion. Alexander
Gordon.

The illustrious party were conducted through the building,
and afterwards returned to Buckingham Palace.
The Countess de Neuilly and the Duke and Duchess de
Nemours paid a visit to her Royal Highness the Duchess of
Kent, at Clarence House, St. James's, and in the afternoon
returned to Claremont.

The Queen and Prince Albert, acconpanied by their
Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal
and the Princess Alice visited and inspected the Zoological
Gardens in the Regent's-park, on Saturday afternoon. The
Equerries in Waiting, Lord Charles Fitzroy and Lieutenant-
Colonel Hon. Alexander Gordon, were in xtendance on her
Majesty and his Royal Highness.
Her Majesty and Prince Albert honoural the Princess's
Theatre with their presence on Saturday evening. The
royal suite consisted of the Countess of Mount Edgcuinbe,
Hon. Caroline Dawson, Lord Dutferin, Lord Charles Fitzroy,
and Lieut.-Colonel Hon. Alexander Gordon.

The Queen's private band attended in Buckingham Palace
on Friday evening, and performed the folloving pieces :
Overture...
Finale 2d Act " Zatiberflote"
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kentvisited her Royal
Highness the Duchess of Gloucester on Saturday, at Glou-
cester House.

A Cabinet Council was held on Saturday afternoon, at the
Foreign-office, Downing-street. The Miniaers present were
Lord John Russell, the Lord Chancellor, the Marquis of
Lansdowne, the Earl of Minto, Sir George Grey, Viscount
Palmerston, Earl Grey, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir
Francis Baring, Sir John Hobhouse. the Ea-1 of Carlisle, the
Marquis of Clanricarde, the Right Hon. Henry Labouchere,
and the Right Hon. Fox Maule. The Council sat three
hours.

A deputation from the Royal Agricultural Society, con-
sisting of Mr. Shelley, Colonel Challoner, ani Mr. W. Brand-
reth Gibbs, had an interview with Lord Seymour, on Satur-
day, at the Office of her Majesty's Commissioners of Woods
and Forests, in Whitehall-place.
Dr. Bayford had an interview with Sir George Grey on
Saturday, at the Home-office.
The Transatlantic Packet Station Commissioners had a
meeting on Saturday at the Board of Trade. Present—Earl
Granville (chairman), Hon. William Covrper, M.P.; Sir
James Gordon, K.C.8.; Si: John J. Burgoyne, K.C.8.;
and Captain Stephenson Ellerby, Lord Hobart, Secretary to
the Commission, was in attendance.
Mr. John Wood, Chairman of the Board of Inland Re-
venue, had an interview with the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, at his official residence in Dovning-street, on
Saturday.
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Cauncil sat on Sa-
turday. Present—The Master of the Rolls, the Chancellor
of the Duchy of Cornwall, the Judge of the Admiralty
Court, and Sir Edward Ryan. " Siordera Extension of
Crawford's Patent (galvanisedi iron)," and "Austin's Ex-
tension of patent (raising sunken vessels),' were heard.
The Duke of Wellington attended esrlv service at the
Chapel Royal, St. James's, yesterday. The prayers were
read by the Rev. Dr. Wesley, and the sermon preached by
the Hon. and Rev. A. Phipps. The Marquis and Mar-
chioness of Normanby, and the Marquis oftialisburyattended
the daily service.

TO Till SECRETARY OF THE BRADFORD
REFORM ASSOCIATION.

Sir,—On Wednesday the 12th, the debate was re-
sumed ou the question of bringing in the Ecclesiastical
Titles Bill, and adjourned at Six of the clock.
On Thursday the debate was renewed on the " Dis-
tress of the Owners and Occupiers of Land." Sir
James Graham made what, without borrowing from the
hackneyed epithets used in the press till they become in-
significant, may be called a crushing speeeh. He did
the work which the Leaguers ought to do and don's.
He earnestly pointed out the fact ot a coming storm, not
the less dangerous because preceded by a deceitful calm.
He urged the palpable certainty, that the veritable
meaning of the proposed motion was, to defer the effort
to restore Protection till the dissolution of Parliament,
and in the mean time to be laying the foundations fir
the sum as of that effort. He recited the strong reasoes
for hopiiig that such an effort might not succeed ; at d
did the work the League or Leaguers ought to have
been doisig every day and every hour, of clearing and
enforcing the interest the powerful and the
numerous classes had in opposing its success. No
instance, has been seen, of such an exemplification of the
ancient fable of the Tortoise and the Hare, as has been
given the commercial and manufacturing interests in
Parliament. No system of answering the stream of fal-
lacies perpetually poured out from the Protectionist
benches. No advantage taken ot the opportunity held
out in tl:ie House of Commons, of discrediting the ope-
rations eif the adversary, by exploding every one on its
first appearance. It might almost be supposed that the
object seas to get up another contest, for the sake of the
results sit another victory. Those that might, will not;
and those that would, may not.
The iivision, which was only carried against tho Pro-
tectioni ats by 281 against 267, shows on how narrow a
base the safety of the community is allowed to rest. I
adhere to an expression in a letter to you a few days
ago, tlett the word of the Minister is all that stands be-
' tween t leo commercial interest and defeat. Should any
circumstance, a nervous headache or a sleepless night,
induce the Minister to waver, or drop an unadvised and
perhaps; misinterpreted phrase, the enemy would be upon
us and at our heels. On the night of the division, it was
not at tail certain that the Government was not de-
feated, tend there were even sinister whispers to that
effect 'passed round the lobby. If it had been
so, a!tere would have been a dissolution
of Parliament, and Hurrah fir the restoration of the
Corn-laws. There are those will shake their heads, and
' say " What then?" But this is not the way men reason
and act. in the ordinary concerns of life. No man says,
" Let in the housebreaker or the plunderer, for then
everybodyin the house, and he
there will be a rally of
will ho driven out again." Men keep him out when ho
is out. They take measures for breaking up his haunts,
and his sources of strength and encouragement. They
try the chances of amendment in himself, and they throw
before Thim the temptations of an honest industry, in the
hope of tempting him iuto the cosier way. The last
thing t'aey will think of is to invite him, in order that
they may drive him back again.
The majority of the GcVerIIMOLIt is not virtually smal-
ler thais on the last occasion, but the contrary. That is
stated to have been 21; and calling the difference 8,
more th,an half that number of Irish Members may be
considared as having avowedly voted against the Govern-
ment through pique at the interference 'pith the Pope's
movements, and a number more, English, Irish, and
Scotch. voted through confidence in the verbal arrange-
went of the motion, which may be allowed to kave been
sufficiesit to deceive even the elect. There are always a
number: of Members, who as if in emulation of that happy
disposii ion in a horse which is described as looking for
something to " shy" at, appear to be on the look-out
for anything which will present to them the opportu-
nity foe being deceived.
On li'riday the debate on the Ecclesiastical Titles As-
sumptisin was brought to a division, which will tell at
Rome :ioth on the powers military and clerical there
establie tied. A majority of 395 against 63 is some-
thing like a " great fact," and may be set off against
useuy assurances that the mass ot the English people
wanted, either the Pontiff or his Gallic body-guard to
help them to manage their affairs. The thing, though
troubletsome, will not be without its good. It will have
shown the dispositions, and the capacity, of actors of
aarioue denominations, and will be a sort of guide for
confidetace iu periods to come.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant.
AN OLD REFORMER.
London, 17 Feb., 1851.