The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-24 00:00:00

TIITJRSDAY

mill, and by the diabolloal callousness and villany
of Cecil, the cousin of Walter Livingstone. E is sa-
tisfactory to turn from the contemplation of wretches
like these to beinas as charming as "dear Aunt Katie,"
saddened though' her history is by her ill-assorted
marriage with Richard Kerr; as the fascinating little
Mrs. Cloward, darkened as her life is by the tem-
porary faithlessness of her husband; or as the excellent
Mr. March, doomed though he be to see his most
cherished hops unrealized until after many severe
and poignant disappointments. Pleasant faces are all
those grouped together in the ilelme Glen, and ulti-
mately too within the long-deserted walls of Greenfel.
A delightful episode to the main narrative is the ac-
count of the love passages between " Beauty and the
Beast," between the graceful Plosay and her, " great
ugly giant," Harry Crawford. Here and there
throughout the volumes we come upon dainty little
vignettes of English scenery such as the following,
where, immediately before the first melancholy cala-
mity in the work, it is said—" The evening was one
of delicate and poetic beauty. There was a balmy
freshness in the soft air,•—a shadow, where clouds had
melted on the soft sky,--a fading hue of rose where
the sun had set between the elms, contrasting exqui-
sitely with their tender green foliage, not yet fully
opened,—a purple haze hung upon the old castle ruins,
and the varied shadows of the cliff ; and gloriously
majestic rolled the blue sea below, uttering a deep
murmur as if secretly troubled, in that low but pecu-
liar key which reaches the ear at a distance, and in
which I have often heard it from that very hill, mourn,
as it were, before a coming storm." Sweet though
the description is, it is but the prelude to an assassi-
nation. Elsewhere speaking of the manner in
which the sunset is celebrated at sea, the Day
God's "nightly abdication of empire" being acknow-
ledged by the salute of a cannon discharged from
the guardships and batteries, and by the universal
sinking of the flags, the authoress says, very thought-
fully, " I think there is something very poetical in
life on the sea ; such homage is paid to Nature—
such a profound tense of the existence of another and
spiritual creation is manifest in those who live thus
amongst the variable and mighty elements, that they
appear another race from our peasantry, who know few
changes but those enacted by the yearly seasons."
Throughout the entire of the three volumes we re-
cognise the graces of a fluent and bewitching style,
so that the stcry itself is clothed in the most agreeable
adornment. From what we have already observed
it must be evident that we regard "The Cup and the
Lip" as a seasonable offering to the novel-readers of
England, if it does not actually appear to us indica-
tive of an improvement in the powers of Miss Jewry,
as a writer of imagination.

THE QUARTERLIES.
THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. No. CXCI.
Curiosities of literature are again admitted into the
pages of the Edinburgh, curiosities gratifying both
to the philologist and the topographer. Disraeli the
elder might have perused two of the contributions in
the current number not without instruction, and cer -
tainly not without interest. One relates to various
recent editions of " The Greek Text of the New
Testament," published severally in Prussia, at
Leipsic, and at London. Another refers to the relics
still remaining of the residence of the "Romans in
Britain," a study recently illustrated by discoveries
of the ancient wall running from the Tyne to the
Solway, as well as by the antiquities found at Rich-
borough, Reculver, Lymme, Caerleon, and Ciren-
cester. Together with these singular chapters on
architecture and bibliography, we perceive in the
July quarter of the Edinburgh elucidative comments
on the annals of a past race, as suggested Ly " Grote's
History of Greece," and others on the achievements
of a great nation still living and flourishing, as sug-
gested by " Johnston's Notes on North America."
Besides an enthralling paper on the progress and ex-
tent of "Modern Chemistry," there are remarks,
moreover, of a peculiarly suggestive nature on the
subject of railway management, in regard to "Fatal
Accidents," and how far they may be regarded as
preventible. A foreign politician has contrived to
elicit from the critic some allusion to his country 's
stores of romance, as may be seen by reference to the
review on " Pulsky's Tales and Traditions of Hun-
gary": and, as may be observed from the notice of
" Sir E. L. Bulwer Lytton's Letters to John Bull,"
an illustrious novelist of our own land has provoked
an argument from the chief of the quarterlies upon a
political quarrel of no less interest than that carried
on between the Free-traders and Protectionists. Be-
sides these articles there are two others of a bio-
graphical character, possessing very considerable
though very opposite attractions, one recounting the
career of " William Penn," and the other that of
" Hartley Coleridge." The last-mentioned we can-
not but view as somewhat melancholy in its tone,
'lnd as one calculated to leave a regretful feeling on
the remembrance. Born at Clevedon on the 19th
of September, 1796, the son of that gifted poet who
had chaunted the lay of the " Ancient Mariner,"
told the weird story of " Christabel," and sung the
exquisite love ditty of " Genevieve," Hartley was
nurtured as the pet of his uncle Southey, and of his
father's companion Wordsworth, besides enjoying the
friendship in his early years of such men as Sir George
Beaumont, of Professor Wilson, of Basil Montague, of
Lloyd, and of De Quincey. Underthe survey of Intel-
lects like those he passed from childhood to boyhood,
from boyhood to manhood, and from manhood on to that
period when, in the same familiar haunts of his in-
fancy, be still up to the last paced irregularly about,
" with a vague grace caught in some stream of
thought, with feet that seemed almost unable to keep
their hold of the ground, extended arms, a glowi▪
ng
cheek, and an eye still youthful, flashing beneath long
white locks that floated on the air." The description
is apparently as faithful as it is unquestionably pic▪ •
turesque. In the course of certain disquisitions on
the theme that day-dreaming is injurious to poetry,
the reviewer says very ingeniously "the knowledge
of what is and of what ought to be are the two opposed
wings upon which the poetic mind rises; and the
breadth of pinion at each side must be equal if the flight
is to be sustained." These remarks, we may observe,
are elicited by reference to Hartley Coleridge's
wondrous and fantastic day-dreams anent " Ejuxria.
The poet, and the son of a poet, here celebrated,
breathed his last on the 6th of January, 1849, his
departure being thus beautifully recorded by the re-
viewer

"Ills death, like his life, was an evil conquered by
good. Falling upon him as it were accidentally, it
seems not more suddenly to have brought to nought his
intellectual designs than it brought to bear the fruits of
the spirit. It was also attended by the external conso-
lations, which neither high station nor intellectual pros-
perity can command. Among the anecdotes of states-
men few are more interesting than that which records
the death of Pitt. The hand, which had so long sus-
tained the sceptre of his country, found no hand to
clasp it in death. By friends and by servants he was
alike deserted; and a stranger wandering oa from room
to room of a deserted house, came at last by chance to a
chamber, untended but not unquiet, in which the great
minister lay, alone and dead. It was otherwise with the
' luckless,' but' well-loved, man of genius. For miles
round in the valleys, as he lay dying, there was not one
who had not time to think of him. Four physicians
sat round a poor man's bed; and strangers contended
with kinsfolk for the privilege of nursing him."
Among the admirable powers of Hartley Coleridge
the curiosa felicitas verborum is shown to be conspi-
cuous by quoting his inimitable definition of Donne's
poetry, where he says—
" Thus Donne, not first, but greatest of the line,"
Of stubborn thoughts a garland thought to twine;
To his fair maid brought cabalistic posies,
And sung quaint ditties of metempsychosis,
Twists iron pokers into true-love knots,

Coining hard words not found in polyglots."
Speaking of the unquestionable disappointment which
the hope of Ilartley's friends experienced, the Edin-
burgh remarks very truthfully, "He would have
doubtless been a greater poet if he had been less ex•
elusively a poet; for the stronger, and therefore the
loftier the stem, the higher will its blossom and fruit-
age wave in the air." Commenting upon the Pro-
tectionist arguments recently advanced by Sir Ed-
ward Bulwer Lytton, another of the Edinburgh re-
viewers observes rather strangely as follows. He has
spoken already uf certain candidates for the suffrages
of the electors belonging to the country party, and
thus continues :
_ _

" Among these anglers for agriculturel votes is to be
found one who was once counted on the side of the Frce-
Traders. Sir Edward Balwer Lytton is a gentleman
who has undeniable pretensions to take his seat among
our legislators. Since he last enjoyed that honour, he
has become a considerable landowner, and it is under-
stood to be his present ambition—a very natural one--
to represent in Parliament the county in which his pro-
perty is situated, comprising a constituency whose inte-
rests are thought to be bound up with those of the
order to which he now belongs. The conversion to their
ranks of a man of note, such as Sir Edward Lytton, is
an event of some importance to the advocates of Pro-
tection, who may fairly expect that it will be followed by
further accessions to their numbers."

The fact is here altogether overlooked, that the Pro-
tectionists have no reason whatever to entertain these
very illusory and extravagant hopes, seeing that Sir
Edward BuiWer Lytton is, in truth, no convert at all
to their ideaa!of political economy, having throughout
the whole of )iis political career entertained the same
notion in regard to native agriculture as those re-
cently expressed by him in his " Letters to John
Bull." Of this the votes of the House of Com-
mons, during the time he continued to enjoy the pri-
vileges of a representative of the people, may be
regarded as affording sufficient and conclusive testi-
mony. The review of "Dixon's Life of Penn" is
worth turning to, andwill amply repay curiosity,
seeing that in it the critic steps forward as the advo-
cate of the views advancedin regard to this same so-
called mythical personage. by Mr. Macaulay, in the
second volume of his "History of England." Upon
this subject the arguments of the Edihburgh appear
to us to be somewhat tinged with a colour of special-
pleading.. Altogether, nevertheless, the current
number of this chieftain among the Quarterlies is