The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-07 00:00:00

.'.Oh! that we two sat dreaming
On the sward of some sheep-trimmed down,
Watching the white mist steaming
Over river and mead and town,
" Oh! that we two lay sleeping
In our nest in the churchyard sod,
With our limbs at rest on the quiet earth's breast,
And our souls at home with Gud!"
Best beautiful of all, however, is the song carolled
by the Landgravine, while carrying her new born
infant among the rocky paths leading to the chapel
on the mountain :
" Deep in the warm vale the village is sleeping,
Sleeping the firs on the bleak rock above;
Nought wakes, save grateful hearts, silently creeping
Up to their Lord in the might of their love.
" What Thou hest given to me, Lord, here I bring Thee,
Odour, and light, and the magic of gold;
Feet which must follow Thee, lips which must sing
Thee
Limbs which must ache for Thee ere they grow old.
" What Thou hest given to me, Lord, here I tender,
Life of mine own life, the fruit of my love;
Take him, yet leave him me, till I shall render
Count of the precious charge, kneeling above."
Very beautiful, too, is the passage in which Lewis
defines the meaning of " Possession," and the one in
which Walter recounts the rise of a monastery, and
the one in which Elizabeth herself describes her
wanderings among the squallid:quarters of the poverty -
stricken multitude. The dramatist comprehends in
slight manner, at least, the diverse phases of huma-
nity, having a manifest sympathy not only for those
joyous hearts who, according to his own happy
phrase, " go out a Maying all the year," but for
those also laden down with an aggregation of calami-
ties. Through the mouth of a handmaid of the
Landgravine, he tells us in noble accents that—
" Our souls are organ pipes of diverse atop
And various pitch; each with its proper notes
Thrilling beneath the self-same breath of God."
Thro.ighout the whole of the numerous speeches
uttered by Elisabeth we hear nothing from her lips
but words of wisdom, of humility, or of adoration.
The ideas to which she gives expression, moreover,
are invariably such as she would inevitably have em-
ployed—such as where she remarks with an awful
solemnity and significance—
" Each soul we pass must go to heaven or hell."
Occasionally an unpoetic metaphor jars in upon our
admiration, as where it is said—
" The bird's the sport of time, while our life's floor
Is laid upon eternity; no crack in it
But shows the underlying heaven."
The simile, that, not of a poet, but of a joiner. Yet
immediately after encountering a blemish such as
this, we are charmed anew by some such exquisite
illustration as that furnished by Guta when describ-
ing the pious raptures of her mistress :
" OM prayer, to her wrapt soul,
Is like the drunkenness of the autumn bee,
Who scent-enchanted, on the latest flower,
Heedless of cold, will linger listless on,
And freeze in odorous dreams."
Scarcely have we had time to lose a recollection of
this in the perusal, when we are again startled by
Conrad remarking to the Bishop of Bamberg—
" Tug at the kite, 'twill only soar the higher:
Give it but line, my lord, 'twill drop like slate."
The phrase of a " miching" schoolboy, rather than
that of either dramatist or ecclesiastic. Further on
we meet with a majestic thought we remember to have
exulted in before, when reading " Festus," where the
blue heaven is mentioned as " the eye of God."
Conrad we regard as the least successful portraiture
in the tragedy, verging in its unyielding harshness
somewhat too much upon the exaggeration of the
caricature. His defence of Elizabeth, however, from
the charge of selfishness redeems him to our sympa-
thies, insomuch that we view with mingled emotions the
catastrophe of his assassination. As one of the most
splendid passages in the remarkable work here under
consideration, we cannot refrain from quoting entire
the subjoined soliloquy of the Landgravine :
" Nought lives for self—All, all—from crown to foot
stool—
The Lamb, before the world's foundation slain—
The angels, ministers to God's elect—
The sun, who only shines to light a world—
The clouds, whose glory is to die in showers—
The fleeting streams who in their ocean-graves
Flee the decay of stagnant self-content—
The oak, ennobled by the shipwright's axe—
The soil, which yields its marrow to the flower—
The flower which feeds a thousand velvet worms,
Born, only to be prey for ever;., bird—
All spend themselves for others: and shall man,
Earth's rosy blossom—image of his God—
Whose twofold being is the mystic knot
Which couples earth and heaven—doubly bound
As being both worm and angel, to that service
By which both worms and angels hold their life,
Shall he, whose every breath is debt on debt,
Refuse, without some hope of further wage
Which he calls Heaven, to be what God has made
him."
That, we take it, is very beautiful indeed, whether in
regard to its poetry or its philosophy. We cannot
close our remarks upon " The Saint's Tragedy" more
aptly than by such a quotation, for within it are
comprised the gentleness and fraternal love, the
divine and humanizing principles inculcated by Mr.
Kingsley. It may be observed, by the way, that the
present edition of " The Saint's Tragedy" is prefaced
by some able comments upon it from the hand o
Professor Maurice.

COURT CIRCULAR.
WINDSOR, Nov. 6.

Her Majesty and his Royal Highness Prince Al-
bert walked in the Home-park yesterday afternoon.
The Royal dinner party yesterday evening included
her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, the Duke
of Wellington, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Lady
in Waiting to the Duchess of Kent, the Baroness de
Speth, the Earl Fitzwilliam, Lady Charlotte Fitz-
william, Lady Dorothy Fitzwilliam, and Colonel the
Honourable C. B. Phipps.
The Queen's private band attended after dinner in
the Castle, and played the following selection :

. .
Overture, "Il Direttor della
Comedia." Mozart.
Invocazione all' Armonia H.R.H. Prince Albert.
Selection, " Ein Feldlager in
Schlesien" Meyerbeer.
The Queen, with the Princesses Helena and
Louisa took a drive this morning in an open car-
riage and four. Lord Charles Fitzroy attended on
horseback.
The Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, and the
remainder of the Royal children took walking exercise.
The Prince Albert went to town this morning by
a special train of the Great Western Railway, at-
tended by Colonel Hon. C. B. Phipps and Colonel
Hon. Charles Grey.
The Marquis of Lansdowne, the Duke of Welling-
ton, the Earl Fitz williatn, and the Ladies Charlotte
and Dorothy Fitz william, left the Castle to-day.

His Royal Highness Prince Albert presided yester-
day morning at a meeting of the Surplus Committee
of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of the
Works of Industry of all Nations. His Royal High.
ness arrived at the Exhibition building, in Hyde-
park, shortly before eleven o'clock from Windsor
Castle, attended by Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. C.
B. Phipps, and Colonel the Hon. Charles Grey.
The other members of the Committee present were
Earl Granvilie, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir Charles L.
Eastlake, Sir William Cubitt, Mr. Baring, M.P., and
Mr. Bazley. Mr. Edgar Bowring, secretary to the
Committee, attended.
The meeting broke up at twelve o'clock.
A meeting of the Royal Commission for the Exhi-
bition of the Works of Industry of all Nations was
held immediately afterwards, his Royal Highness
Prince Albert presiding. The other Royal Commis-
sioners present were, Earl Granville, Lord John
Russell, Sir Richard Westmacott, Sir Charles Lyell,
Sir Charles L. Eastlake, Sir William Cubitt, Mr.
Baring, M.P., Mr. Bazley, Mr. T. F. Gibson, Mr.
Pusey, M.P., Mr. John Shepherd, and Mr. Hopkins,
president of the Zoological Society. Mr. Scott
Russell, and Mr. Edgar Bowring, secretaries of the
Royal Commission attended.
_ Dr. Lyon Playfair, and Colonel Lloyd, Special
Commissioners, were in attendance.
Mr. Henry Cole, and Mr. C. Wentworth Dilke, of
the Executive Committee, were present.
The meeting of the Royal Commission broke up
minutes
by Colonel before three
the Hon.reeo'clo C. c
o'clock, whenrey, Prince
atten
Albert,attended pro-
ceededl to the Paddington terminus of the Great
Vestern Railway, and returned,
Windsor Castle.

Mr. Robertson, of the Cape Mounted Rifles, had
an interview with Earl Grey yesterday at the Colo-
nial-office.
The Cambridge University Commission had a meet-
ing yesterday at the official residence of the First
Lord of the Treasury, in Downing-street. Present,
the Bishop of Chester, Sir John Herschel, Pro-
fessor Sedgwick, and the Rev. W. H. Bateson
(Secretary).
Mr. John Wood, chairman of the Board of Inland
Revenue, had an interview with the Chancellor of the
Exchequer on Wednesday, at his official residence in
Downing-street.

The Marquis of Lansdowne returned to his seat,
Bowood Park, Wilts, yesterday, from Windsor
Castle.
Dispatches from the Governor of the Cape of Good
Hope were received yesterday at the Colonial-office.
Dispatches were also received yesterday from the
Governor of Sierra Leone.

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE IN BELFAST.—The Belfast
Newsletter says: —" A very serious fire occurred on Tuesday
night in the extensive premises of Messrs. S. and W. John-
son, leather manufacturers, Mill -street, by which a large
range of buildings, three stories in height, and upwards of
thirty-five feet in length,lwas totally destroyed, together with
a considerable amount of property. The premises in ques-
tion were situated in the centre of a capacious tan-yard, at
the rear of the north frontage of Mill-street, and consisted of
the various departments used in the process of the manufac-
ture, drying-loits, currying-rooms, &c.