The Sun.
London, England, 1834-04-01 00:00:00

TAIT'S MAGAZINE.

There is a very agreeable, well-intentioned
article in this number from the pen of Miss
Martineau, which is entitled " A Letter to the
Deaf." Those who do not labour under this
infirmity will of course pass it by as matter of no
account ; those who do (and we must rank
ourself among the number) will devour it with
avidity, so important is anything that touches
self—that great point on which all interes
turns. Swift has described this with his usua
shrewd and caustic felicity :
" But should some neighbour feel a pain
Just in the part where I complain,
How many a message will he send,
What careful prayers that I should mend!
Inquire what regimen I kept,
And how I walked, and how I slept!
And more lament when I am dead
Than all the snivellers round my bed."
The notice of " Crabbe" throws no new light
on a subject hackneyed beyond redemption.
-" Autobiography of an English Opium Eater"
is heavy ; but contains a graphic sketch of the
last sitting of the last Irish Parliament
" Gradually the house filled : beautiful women sate
intermingled amongst the peers ; and, in one party of
these, surrounded by a bevy of admirers, we saw our
fair but frail enchantress of the packet. Then came a
stir within the house, and an uproar resounding from
without, which announced the arrival of his Excellency.
Entering the house, he also, like the other peers
wheeled round to the throne, and made to the vacant

seat a profound homage. Then commenced the public
business, in which, if I recollect, the Chancellor played
the most conspicuous part,—that Chancellor, of whom
it was affirmed in those days by a political opponent,
that he might swim in the innocent blood which he had
caused to be shed. Then were summoned to the bar
-summoned for the last time—the gentlemen of the
House of Commons ; in the van of whom, and drawing
all eyes upon himself, stood Lord Castlereagh. Then
came the recitation of many acts passed during the ses-
sion. At which point in the order of succession came
the royal assent to the Union Bill, I do not distinctly
recollect. But this Ido recollect--that no audible ex-
pression, no buzz even, testified the feelings which,
doubtless, lay concealed and rankling in many bosoms.
Setting apart all public or patriotic considerations, even
then I said to myself, as I surveyed the whole assem-
blage of ermined peers—How is it, and by what unac-
countable magic, that William Pitt can have prevailed
on all these hereditary legislators and heads of patri-
cian houses, to renounce so easily, with nothing worth
the name of a struggle, and with no indemnification,
the very brightest jewel in their coronets ? This morn-
ing they all rose from their couches peers of parlia-
ment, individual pillars of the realm, indispensable
' parties to every law that is passed. To-morrow they
will be nobody—men of straw—terrce filii. What
madness has persuaded them to part with their birth-
right, and to cashier themselves and their children for
ever into mere titular lords ? Thus much lam sure
of,—that had such a measure been proposed by a poli-
tical speculator previous to Queen Anne's reign, he
would have been scouted as a dreamer and a visionary,
who calculated upon men being generally somewhat
worse than Esau, viz., giving up their birthrights, and
without the mess of pottage. However, on this me-
morable day, the Union was ratified ; the bill received
the royal assent, without a murmur or a whisper one
way or other. Perhaps there might be a little pause,
—a silence like that which follows an earthquake ; but
there was no plain-spoken Lord Belhaven, as on the
corresponding occasion in Edinburgh, to fill up the
silence with, " So, there's an end of an auld sang !"
All was, or looked courtly, and free from vulgar emo-
tion. One person only I remarked whose features
were suddenly illuminated by a smile, a sarcastic smile,
as I felt it. It was Lord Castlereagh; who, at the
moment when the irrevocable words were pronounced,
looked earnestly, and with a penetrating glance among
a party of ladies. His own wife was one of the party ;
but I did not discover the particular object on whom
his smile had settled. After this I had no leisure to
be interested in any thing which followed. " You
are all," thought I to myself, " a pack of vagabonds
henceforward, and interlopers, with no more right to
be here than myself." Apparently they thought so
themselves ; for soon after this solemn fiat of Jove had
gone forth, their lordships, having no further title to
their robes, (for which I could not help wishing that a
party of Jewish old clothesmen would at this moment
have appeared, to bid a shum of moneysh,) made what
haste they could to lay them aside for ever. The house
dispersed much more rapidly than it had assembled."