The Sun.
London, England, 1834-05-08 00:00:00

ROLLS' COURT.-(THIS DAY.)

His Honour the MASTER of the ROLLS took petitions
to-day, but nothing of any public interest came before the
Court.

VICE-CHANCERY COURT.-(THIS DAY.)

This being the last day of Term, his Honour the VICE-
CHANCELLOR took motions to-day. In the course of the
morning, his Honour intimated that he should sit at Lin-
coln's Inn to-morrow, and take motions.

The Archbishop of Dublin is in London for
a few days. His Grace returns to Ireland immediately.
We hear that the Government plan of education is
making rapid progress.
TRADES' UNIONS.—The tailors, as well as
the journeymen of other trades, are becoming dissatis-
fied with the Unions. Six, who lodged in one house,
returned to their work yesterday morning, after having
lost by their strike two pounds fifteen shillings each man.

UTERATURt.

NAPIER'S HISTORY OF Tli.c PENIN-
SULAR WAR. Vol. IV. London, 1844.

The fourth volume of this most interesting
history has just made its appearance. In point
of completeness, succinctness, and fullness of
details, we know of no military work equal to it.
In every page we trace the shrewd, scientific
perspicuity of a master iii did art df strategy.
It cannot be expected that critics, unlearned as
we are in military tactics, should be able to
canvass the accuracy, or otherwise, of Colonel
Napier's scientific calculations and reasonings ;
our acquaintance with the book necessarily lies
on the snrface ; we must confine ourselves, there-
fore, to pointing out to our readers' attention the
vigor and condensation of its descriptions ; the
exceeding aptness and beauty of the occasional
cursory reflections interspersed throughout them,
after the manner of Gibbon ; the impartial cha-
racter and continuous interest of the nar-
rative ; and the extraordinary pains that have
evidently been taken to compare conflicting
authorities, reconcile discrepancies, and insure the
utmost accuracy. Colonel Napier wields the pen
as well as he wields the sword. He combines the
soldier's energy with the scholar's tact. The result
of this rare union has been a skilful, judicious, ela-
borate history, that will hand down its author's
name with credit to future generations. " Colonel
Napier's Peninsular War" will, we doubt not, be-
come a text-book on the subject, in the same way,
and to the same extent, that " Caesar's Commenta-
ries" are the text-book on that great con-
queror's Gallic and Helvetian victories. There
is nothing in Caesar (not even his account
of the memorable siege of Alesia) superior to Col.
Napier's account of the siege of Badajoz. It wears
all the appearance of consummate accuracy ; yet
glows with all the fire and animation of Scott
The Gallant Colonel writes as if the sound
of the Iritish trumpet were in his ear—as if the
cheers of victory were ringing round him. He hur-
ries us on from trench to trench, from rampart to
rampart, with all the terrible energy of his own
brave regiment ; not a man of whom, we under-
stand, but was severely wounded in one of the most
hotly contested Peninsular battles. We would ati.
vise all young soldiers—all who aspire to fame in
their profession, to peruse this history with atten-
tion. • They will find in it invaluable materials for
study and reflection.

LARDNER'S CYCLOPEDIA.—No. 54.
London, 1834.

The present volume is exclusively practical in
character, being a treatise (or rather the continua-
tion of a treatise) on the progressive improvement
and present state of the manufactures in metal.
The subject is an important one, and the author
has brought to it all the research and novelty of
which it is susceptible. We give a curious
description of the mode of moulding and casting
statues :

" The oven in which Mr. Chantry dries his moulds is
about fourteen feet long, twelve feet high, and twelve feet
broad. When it is raised to its highest temperature, with
the doors closed, the thermometer stands at 350 deg., and
the iron floor is red hot. According to Sir D. Brewster,
the workmen often enter it at a temperature of 340 deg.,
walking over the iron floor, with wooden clogs, which are,
of course, charred on the surface. The same authority
tells us that, on one occasion, Mr. Chantrey, accompanied
by five or six of his friends, entered this furnace, and, after
remaining a few minutes, they brought out a thermometer
which stood at 320 deg. The mould being thoroughly
dried, is, whether entire or composed of several pieces,
hoisted, by means of a crane, into the casting pit, and
having been put together and properly
.placed, it is care-
fully surrounded with sand; if the subject be too big to
allow of the mould being thus lifted, then all the preceding
operations would have to be carried on in the pit. The
mould being thus placed, and gutters made from the fur-
nace to communicate with the different conduits leading to
various parts of the statue, the metal is suffered at once to
flow into and fill the mould, which it does almost instantly.
As it is difficult to obtain very large statues perfectly sound,
especially towards the feet or the part lowest in the pit,
they are sometimes cast in several pieces, which are after-
wards united by pouring metal, in a state of fusioh, along
the joints. The work, whether cast at once or in sections,
is finished by cutting off superfluous portions, and chisel-
ing the different parts, as may be necessary for correctness
and effect ; after which the surface is sometimes rendered
of uniform appearance by the aid of some composition,
according to the taste of the artist."

FAMILY LIBRARY. London, 1834.

We know of no publication of the day that is of
such general interest—that appeals to so extensive
a class of readers, as the " Family Library." It
administers equally to the taste of lovers of light
reading, and those who are addicted to more solid
food. Many of the volumes, such as the lives of
Bonaparte and Nelson, the History of the Jews,
the Sketch-book, and the Voyages of Columbus,
are of first-rate excellence ; nor must we omit to
mention " Lander's Travels in Africa," which, now
that their enterprising author is dead, will be
perused with deep interest. The present number
of the " Family Library" forms the second volume of
Lord Woodhouselee's Universal History—a work of
such well-known merit, that it would be impertinent
to venture on any critical notice of it.

CRABBE'S POEMS.—VoI. 4. London, 1834.
If the new volume of Crabbe's posthumous
poems, that we are promised by way of wind-up to
this edition, contain many such gems as the " World
of Dreams," here published for the first time, the
work will indeed be a valuable addition to our lite-
rary stores. This indeed gives us a higher idea of
Crabbe's imagination than any thing we have yet
perused of his. It is not so cold, so harsh, so lite-
ral as the majority of his village sketches, which are
in the Dutch school of painting. Our readers, we
are sure, will thank us for making them acquainted
with the following energetic stanzas. They will not
lose, by comparison, even with the sublime dream of
Sardanapalus, whom Byron represents as seated at
a festal board with the ghastly spectres of Nimrod
and Semiramis. The striking contrast, too, between
the two last stanzas, is very artfully introduced
Awake, there is no living man
Who may my fixed spirit shake ;
But, sleeping, there is one who can,
And oft does he the trial make :
Against his might resolves I take,
And him oppose with high disdain ;
But quickly all my powers forsake
My mind, and I resume my chain.
" I know not how, but I am brought
Into a large and Gothic hall,
Seated with those I never sought—
Kings, Caliphs, Kaisers,—silent all ;
Pale as the dead ; enrobed and tall,
Majestic, frozen, solemn, still ;
They wake my fears, my wits appal,
And with both scorn and terror fill.
" Now are they seated at a board
In that cold grandeur—l am there.
But what can mummied kings afford?
This is their meagre ghostly fare,
And proves what fleshless things they stare !
Yes ! I am seated with the dead :
How great, and yet how mean they are!
Yes ! I can scorn them while I dread !
" They're gone !—and in their room I see
A fairy being, form and dress
Brilliant as light ; nor can there be
On earth that heavenly loveliness;
Nor words can that sweet look express,
Or tell what living gems adorn
That wondrous beauty : who can guess
Where such celestial charms were born ?"
In addition to the " World of Dreams," the
volume contains the close of the " Borough," with the

terrific iso le of Peter trinie, and the remark-
able description of marshy, monotonous sea-
coast; which he who Las ever rend never forgets, it
being Faded cif its kind ; and also the first half of
the " Tales," originally published. in 1812.