The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-30 00:00:00

EVENING, DECEMBER 30 1856

LAW INTELLIGENCE.—(This Day.)

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY.

Mr. Commissioner Evans and Mr. Commissioner
Efolroyd were the sitting Commissioners, but were occu-
pied—the former up to half-past 12, and the latter till
1 o'clock—at private meetings upstairs.
(Before Mr. Commissioner Evans.)
IN RE WREN AND WREN.

These bankrupts were described as of Charlotte-mews,
Fitzroy-square, iron bedstead manufacturers, and to-day
was appointed for their last examination, which was ad-
journed, no accounts having been filed.

CHRISTMAS BOOKS.

Pictures of Life and Character. By John Leech.
Second Series. Bradbury and Evans.
Glorious John Leech has here rejoiced our hearts
by giving us a Second Series of his inimitable
" Pictures of Life and Character.' And what
pictures they are, to be sure ! The very chefs-
d'oeuvre from Mr. Punch's Portfolio—the treasures
from the Collection of our art-loving, fun-poking,
pun joking, English Charivari ! Wh it " Life"
sparkles in them—what " Characters" flit in gro-
tesque procession across the pages ! Life enough
to suit the taste of the "fastest" man amongst us—
Characters suffizient to set up a whole century of
Twelfth Night anniversaries ! What pretty girls
are introduced to us by this delightful Master of
the Ceremonies ! Just precisely the young ladies
one would like, of all things, to glide off into the
waltz with, or even audaciously conduct under
the shadow of the pendant mistletoe ! Charming
damsels, many of them having a marvellous family
likeness to that sweetest picture of prettiness we
well know of, drawn in a few wonderful lines of
pen-and-ink, by a much greater artist, by the way,
in pen-and ink drawings, than even the ingenious M.
Minasi, we mean Mr. Charles Dickens—the por-
trait sketched for us, one fine Christmas season, to
the very T, to the very life, to the very letter
—the dainty, delectable, delicious likeness
! how dearly we treasure up in our
memory its every lineament)the portrait of
Scrooge's nephew's wife—his own sweet wife at
home ! How does it run ?—the passage containing
that most exquisite description: —" She was very
pretty : exceedingly pretty. With a dimpled
surprised-looking capital face ; a ripe little mouth
that seemed made to be kissed—as no doubt it
was ; all kinds of good little dots about her chin,
that melted into one another when she laughed ;
and the sunniest pair of eyes you ever saw in any
little creature's head. Altogether she was what
you would have called provoking, you know ; but
satisfactory too. Oh, perfectly satisfactory." Well
—that is somehow precisely the very kind of
face John Leech's pencil loves to multiply.
" What you would call provoking, you know :
but satisfactory—Oh, perfectly satisfactory And
the children—John Leech's children ! What a
family he has ! Boys and girls—old-fashioned and
young-fashioned—little prigs in tail-coats and white
chokers, and Master Hopefulls up to every sort of
boyish lark, and freak, and absurdity you can think
of ! Little Pickles and Meddlesome Motties ! Jacks
and Jills—tiniest of Gammers and tiniest of Gaffers
—chubby-cheeked, laughing-eyed, pert, prepos
terous, shy, laughable, loveable, kissable, little
imps of mischief ! Just the very children one
would like to take to a large middle box at Old
Drury to see Blanchard's new Christmas
Pantomime. The very audience for Hot
Cedlins and Tipitiwitchit ! Precisely the
kind of little people for a romping game of
blindman's buff—or a screaming struggle of fun
over a dish of snap-dragon—or for sitting in
shrill rows of wonder opposite the white sheet of a
magic lantern ! Children almost all of them—
thoroughly and intensely children ! Not like the
two boys in the famous classic group of the Lao-
coon—capitally described by Tom Moore in his
" Memoirs," where he speaks of them not as boys
so much as " little men 1" 0, the rabble
rout of the young rogues trooping over these
pages of fun from merry old Mr. Punch's plea-
sant Collection ! And charmingly interspersed
with these boys and girls and " faire ladyes "
what a medley of other and most miscellaneous
characters. "Paterfamilias," portly and bow-win-
dowed ! "Materfamilias," plump and rubicund
" Flunkeyana," putting us still on the broad grin.
And " Servant Gallism," almost moving us to tears
with intense laughter. Ridiculous "Old Briggs"
tumbling continually into more and more ludic-
rously improbable predicaments. Nonsensical
"Tom Noddy" going it, at a devil of a pace,
up hill and down dale, across country, neck-
or-nothing, heels over-head :as Jack Brag
would say, "Right up, straight down, and
uo mistake !" And all the follies of the day
iu Dress—how Mr. Leech embalms them in the
amber of his ridicule ! Like the memorable straws
and flies that, once upon a time, puzzled the late
Mr. Pope of Twickenham ! The long skirted frock
coats, for all the world (as one of these delighful
Pictures saith) like those of the Funny Little
Men in the Noah's Ark of the nursery.
The next-to-nothing bonnets that another of
these Pictures reveals to us, at last so much
"off the head," in the wearing, that they are
borne behind the young ladies (as they walk through
the streets) upon silver salvers iu the hands of
Footmen ! Then look at the " Cabbies" again, as
drawn " from the life," by John Leech—almost,
if that be within the bounds of possibility, more
insolent than the genuine live real originals ! And
the Ticket-of-Leavers—what amiable young inno-
cents they appear in these Pictures, don't they ?
Precisely the bodyguard one would like to have in
attendance down a dark lane at three o'clock in the
morning. With belchers conveniently loose about
their own throats—the very thing to be whisked off
for a sudden freak of garotting. And ancle-jacks,
or high-lows, or whatever these abominable foot
gear are called—the aptest pumps imaginable, one
would think to look at them, for a professional
"merchant of capers gay"—born to dance a fan-
dago upon nothing outside the great gate of
Newgate, to the tune of the passing bell
of St. Sepulchre's ! Ah, well there is a
moral, too (discoverable whenever you care to look
tor it), underlying all the fun and frolic of these
"Pictures of Life aud Character." The laughter John
Leech suns us with is very wise and very genial
laughter. It is always well-tempered. It is
always—what Gillray's and Rowlandson's used not
o be—decent. It is chiefly directed against those
especial bugbears of Mr. Thomas Carlyle of Chelsea
and of Teufelsdrochet—shams, and flatus, and
flunkies. Leech proves himself in this way,
morally speaking—a true Leech by nature as well
as by name. He may be designated, moreover,
with perfect accuracy, the veritable Spirit of Punch
—as Lemon gives to it its pleasantly acidulated
flavour—and Jerrold imparts to it a wholesome
relish of tonic bitterness ! As this Spirit of Punch,
as the Great Presiding Genius of the London
Charivari, John Leech is sure to receive at all
times, and at all hands, the heartiest welcome
friend could have. A welcome thrice-told, when
he comes flashing up through this Second Series,
like the Spirit of Fun through the stage-trap in the
fairy opening of the Christmas Pantomime ! That
is the exhilarating aspect of his apparition upon
the title-paga—the rest of the book, all the glorious
ninety-six pages as we turn them over, being to us,
for all the world, like the gay, roystering bustle of
the laughter-moving harlequinade !

The Eighteenth Century ; or, Illustrations of the
Manners and Customs of our Grandfathers. By
Alexander Andrews. Chapman and Hall, Pic-
cadilly.
Mr. Andrews commences his preface to this in-
teresting volume by saying—" if it were possible
for to retrace but three steps down the ladder
of Time, we should alight into a world which we,
should not recognise as our own—as rich in curiosi-
ties as the buried cities of Italy, and of which, in
the course of another generation, we shall know
as little about the domestic customs as we do
about the every-day life of Etruria." He further
declares that "England in the present century no
more resembles England in the last than the native
inhabitants of Australia resemble those of Africa."
This is doubtless partially true. Modes, habits,
and customs, the conduct of criminal codes, public
affairs, commercial transactions, and the whole
bearing of the social and ministerial community of
old England are wonderfully changed from what
they were a hundred years ago. A century since
the "aristocracy" issued with their sedans and
torch-.bearers from the elite portals of Holborn and
Bloomsbury. Then there were daily fairs in
" merrie Islington," and matches of football and
cricket in Covent-garden. Then the gentlemen
sported bob-wigs, pig-tails, plush breeches, cocked
hats, and lace ruffles. Then the ladies wore dia-
mond stomachers, piebald plaster spots, and head-
dresses two feet high. Then " bucks" and " bloods'
made gallant onslaught against ricketty watch-
boxes, and still more ricketty " Charlies. Then
duels were fou,ht by dozens in the fields of Isling-
ton and Pancras. Then men were gibbetted and
quartered for stealing a few shillings, and women
were roasted alive for counterfeiting the same
coins. Then it took nine days to go to Edinburgh,
and passengers by Greenwich stages were robbed
in Kent street by single footpads. Then bulls and
bears were baited, and ancient dames drowned by
" ducking." Then Fleet Ditch had its drawbridges,
Temple-bar its row of bleeding human heads, and
Piccadilly its renowned highwaymen- Then
we had the Lady Bountiful of country man-
sions, in stiff starched cap and hood, large
flowered damask gown and hoop, with ivory-
headed crutch-stick, and fat pug clog as
an attendant favourite. A goodly bunch o f keys
jingled at her waist, indicating corner cupboards,
and sacred oaken closets, with stores
.of rich co
r
dial waters, cherry brandy, complexion wa shes,
Duffy's Elixir, juleps, salves, and electwuries.
Then there was the legitimate country squire with
his breeches, boots, and jockey cap, who sat in his
great arm-chair in his great hall, amid chines and
flitches, fishing-rods, guns, stags, antlers, and rusty
swords, and entertained his tenants by the Christ-
mas log fire, with jorams of ale, bowls of punch,
and jolly and wonderful stories of his youth and
ancestry.
Mr. Andrews has taken us back to those olden
times, and presented us with genuine sketqh/s from

contemporary authorities, in a well-arranged focus,
which serve well to elicit comparison of the present
and the past, and afford an agreeable glimpse of
dust-covered " bygones" to the gaze of the exist•
ing generation. Those who have any curiosity
respecting the living, doing, and saying of our
grandfathers and grandmothers cannot do better
than procure " England in the Eighteenth Cen-
tury." They will meet with elucidation on all
chief and popular points, from " Black Boys and
Running Footmen" to War Taxes and Newspaper
Literature ; from Fleet Marriages and Funeral
Ceremonies to Pressgangs and the South Sea
Bubble.

The Family Friend for 1856. Ward and Lock,

Fleet-street.

This volume contains its accustomed variety of
matter, iußtructive and entertaining. Tales and
Sketches, Domestic Hints, Poems, Puzzles, Enig-
mas, and miscellaneous pleasantries abound in its
pages, recommending themselves to general readers.
Among the " Definitions of Common Words " the
following are gcol :
" Authority"—A Becephalus which few can rein with
the judgment of an Alexander.
" Enthusiast"—A runaway steam-engine.
" Poetry"—Truth in holiday attire.
"Promise"—The green branch on which the dove of
Faith rests.

" DeTair"—lnsolvency of the heart.
" Tact"—Graspiug a nettle to prevent the sting.

Sidney Grey ; a Tale of School. Life, By the
author of " Mia and Charlie." Bogue.
This is one of the most pleasing tales offered to
the young at this season, and it is also likely to
be among the most profitable. It shows a circle of
young people in their daily life, during a most im-
portant and critical period, a year of trial and
temptation, such as is not often met with for a con-
tinuance, but which may be observed occasionally in
the course of earthly careers. The hero, Sidney
Grey, is a noble character. In consequence of an
accident met with in childhood he was much
afflicted, and could not move without the aid of
crutches ; but the spiritual had triumphed over
the material in his nature. He was always ready
to assist and sympathise with his more favoured
brothers and sisters, and by constant care, by
unvarying kindness, and by the steady course of
good example which he set them, he produced a
great improvement in all their habits. They had
to leave their early home and part from their father,
to dwell among strangers, besides many more
troubles. During all these troubles they were not
separated, and a more attached household could
not have been found. The differing tempers of the
various members are well described—the gentle
Amy, who was apt to become indolent, the ener-
getic Charlotte, wilful and self-opinionated at times,
the bold Edward, who was as brave as a lion in
defence of his brother Sidney, to whom he looked
up with a sort of reverence. The adventures of
their school life are also ably sketched, and display
a vigour and vivacity that insures their meeting
with regard. The head boy of the school, Lyon,
is a fine high-spirited youth, in whom the genius
of good and evil seemed struggling for the mastery.
It was through the influence of Sidney that the
better part prevailed, although many times clouds
of doubt and mistrust came over their intercourse.
It is shown, however, that the good seed was not
to die in the heart, although for a time nothing but
sorrow and trouble came upon the hero. He was
falsely accused, and suspicion was verified by many
strange circumstances. -linable to prove his inno-
cence, Sidney had to bear the consequences of
guilt. His schoolfellows avoided and shunned
him ; only his brother E award, with one friend,
stood by him. After many confusions had arisen
the truth was discovered, and all hastened to tes-
tify their admiration and approval of Sidney. With
this triumphant vindication of his innocence and
integrity the Greys' school career was closed, for
their father returned from India, and, to their great
delight, proposed to take them with him to Italy.
After a year of misfortunes they confessed them-
selves happier, for they had learned what could not
be taken from them with the fluctuations of for-
tune—the art of governing themselves. It is true
that amid the rejoicings and mirth Sidney's
thoughts seemed directed to a more ultimate des-
tination—tbe land where the crooked shall be made
straight ; but that was in accordance with his life
throughout. It is impossible to be otherwise than
charmed with the home circle of the young adven-
turers, so much of life in its young morning of hope
and gay spirits is there apparent. Sidney Grey is
likely to become a favourite from its attractive
qualities, while it inspires respect from the tone
that is infused into its pages.

Saxelford ; a Story for the Young. By E. J.
May, author of " Louis's School Days," ch.
Routledge and Co.
- -

The writer of this little story is one of the many
clever and agreeable authors to whom juvenile
readers have good cause to be thankful. Her for-
mer works, "Louis's School Days," and "The Sun-
shine of Cireystune," have already gained her many
friends, and the pleasantly written We before us
will assuredly add to their number. A cheerful
tone pervades the story, which impresses a strict
and conscientous morality. The evil consequences
of littlefaults indulged, and bad tempers unchecked,
are closely shown, and the opposite side of the pic-
ture is painted in equally striking colours. Little
Lucy, the heroine, from being an over-indulged
and passionate chili, under the good influence of
her governess, becomes gentle and unselfish, and
her good example is highly beneficial to her com-
panions. On the contrary, her cousin Constance,
though much older and better brought up, through
yielding to her habits of deceit and false excuses,
ends by becoming involved in petty theft and deli-
berate falsehood. There are, perhaps, I too many
textsintroduced for the general reader, but the
interest of the story may make the most indifferent
overlook the prominence of the moral. It is prettily
bound and illustrated, and forms a very suitable
gift book for young persons.

The Ocean Child; or, " showers and Sunshine."
By Mrs. Harriet Myrtle, authoress of " The

Little Sister," dsc. Addey.
This is an interesting little tale ; the plot is a
very romantic one, but naturally narrated. The
heroine, Blanche, is a peculiar child, whose adven-
tures are as strange as her own character is un-
usual. She was of Indian birth, and the vessel in
vvhich'she came over to England was shipwrecked,
she was washed ashore, and by a series of mistakes
and misconceptions was looked upon as the child
of a servant, while she was in reality the daughter
of Mrs. Howard's brother. This lady adopted her,
however, and her sweet daughter Christie did all
that kindness could suggest to alleviate the suffer-
ings of her lot. It was not for many years that
the mystery was solved, and the young Blanche
had many trials to undergo, some of which were
occasioned by her own wilful and impetuous dis-
position. She at last leaves her peaceful home
with her adopted brother and sister, to comfort
and support her grandfather, as she believes Mr.
Wilson to be. She passes some time there, when
unexpected visitors arrive, in the person of Bar-
bara, the real granddaughter, and her father John.
As may be supposed Blanche was not sorry to
leave the cottage for her early home. She was dis-
covered to be the niece of her whom she regarded as
a mother. She is left a rich heiress, and her dearest
work is to erect a house for "children who have
no other safe home here on earth." Christie is an
engaging child, whose manners are delightful, but
inferior in ability to Blanche. Captain Howard is
a noble specimen of an English sailor, and his
genuine kindness was the greatest benefit to the
lonely orphan in her early years of trouble, when
even Mrs. Howard misunderstood her character,
and was unfavourably inclined to her in conse-
quence of unkind suggestions made by
.others. The
ocean child's early struggle with the raging waters
was emblematical of her life, singularly stormy and
tempestuous. Yet often as she was drifting amid
the breakers she was as often saved by the inter-
position of some kind friend, some thought of good.
The conflict and the victory here represented may
teach the young how to pass the waves of this
troublesome world to their present happiness and
future welfare. Many scenes and incidents corn_
bine to render this altogether au agreeable story,
and it has the claim of novelty in Soule of it's
arrangements.

Halloran.l 3
Hall. 's.
Twelve Months with the Bashi-Bazouk
Ed-
ward Money. Chapman and By
Eight Months' Journal of Fris.t
Japan, &c. By A. L.to Loochoo,
a ainineut
The Spirit of Travel. By Charles
These are three unpretendin Longman-
man and Hall. Packe. Chap'
from which much en tet t • works of travel,
by the reader, and
ing some very different variety of information respect-
ing
and their
the Bashi-Bazouks, ' places. The first work,
about
may be derivetd_
the now familiarls, as its none implies,
and late a
he must have
ne'gbbourhood. The writer is a
:places of Sebastopol, Constanti-
nople,.lieutenant-colonel of the I perial Ottoman army,
captain of theraßaahi-Bazouks, conse-
quentlyhad opportunities of beemi-
ing acquainted
with their charlcteristics. This
work affords some amusing glimpses of oriental
life, and is embellished by some coloured lithogra-
Phi" The cg Eight Monofths'
ar, Joduring urnal" was kept
to
on board of a sloop w visits
Loochoo, Japan, and Pootoo, by the author, a
master in the Royal Navy. From the remote and
secluded character of the Japanese Empire, the
reader will find some novelty in this little work,
which, though not describing any startling or won•
derful occurrences, is pleasantly and simply writ-
ten. ' ' The Spirit of Travel" is from the pea of a

member of the Inner Temple. The author admits
that it is a somewhat pretentious title for so small
a volume, and he did not aim so much at a de-
scription of the country through which he passed,
as to convoy an idea of the impressions it produced
ou his mind, Switzerland was the scelie of his
travels ; but he favours us with his opinions and
experiences in England, France, and America.
There is a slightly didactic tone in his work, of
which he seems to be aware, and be disclaims any
intention of dogmatising or of wishing to bring
others to his way of thinking. The work will not
be without attractions for travellers, who will be
compare the experiences and impressions of
aanbleobtsoery
observant and intelligent tourist with their own
recollections.

The Girlhood of Catharine de Medici. By J. A.
Trollope. Chapman and Hall.
This interesting volume is not so much a memoir
of Catharine de Medici, as a picture of the state of
Italy in those troubled and stormy times. It traces
the fortunes of Catharine from her birth to her
marriage, and shows the evil influences that con-
stantly surrounded ker. The state of affairs in
Florence, from the Revolution which immediately
succeeded the news of the sack of Rome, down to
its miserable condition under the tyranny of Ales-
sandro, occupies a considerable portion of the
work. The chief events of the life of Clement the
Seventh, his treaties and dealings with the rival
monarchs, Francis the First and Charles the Fifth,
are full of interest to the students of history.
Though, of course, the author's views may be ob-
jected to, few of his readers will deny that he has
written his work with care and moderation. He
has certainly drawn the picture in its darkest
colours, and the result is not very flattering to
human nature ; but he has evidently studied his
subject deeply, and appears to have been at least
an unprejudiced writer. This work forms a very
useful accompaniment to larger and more ambi-
tious histories. His heroine, whose name has been
notorious for her cruelty, he regards as the natural
result of her age, " a penetrating intelligence,
wholly devoid of moral ideas:, In his concluding
chapter he remarks :--" All her educating influ-
enc3s pointed steadily and consistently in one di-
rection, and their result was to leave her active
and acute intellect wholly uninformed by any
moral ideas whatever. }light and wrong were
practically words devoid of sense for her. Expe-
dient, inexpedient ; prudent, imprudent ; wise,
foolish ; successful, unsuccessful ; these, and such
like qualities, she understood ; and they were the
only epithets she had learned to apply to human
conduct." He does not consider her persecution
of the Huguenots to have been the result of bigotry
or intolerance, but, that placed in a difficult po-
sition, she extricated herself by heading tine
strongest side, and the result was the massacre of
St. Bartholomew. The Appendix and the Notes
contain some curious information, and the work
forms an interesting introduction to the history of
the mother of three kings.

Round the Fire. Six Stories by the Author of
" The Day of a Baby-Boy." Smith, Elder, and
Co.
Round the fire on a holiday evening at Christmas
time six little damsels assemble and relate to each
other the events of their youthful experience. Six
charming little stories are the result. Very fortu-
nately it happens that these six little girls, though
very similar in age and present circumstances, come
from various countries, or have been familiar with
very different scenes during the previous years of
their brief existence. There is Katie, the little
English girl, who relates the story of "Our Nurse,"
one of the prettiest and homeliest little tales in the
collection, told in the most delightful and natural
manner possible. There is Cecile, the little girl
from Switzerland, who tells the story of " Baby's
Blue Shoes," giving her little hearers, by her en-
thralling narrative, a better idea of the land of
snows than could be gleaned from many
dull hours spent in poring over geographies,
maps, histories, and books of travel. For
example and it is only an illustration
of the
is vivid interest of these homely histories—
Cecilelift one day in charge of Baby, sleeping in
his cradle in the gallery or verandah of the St.
Chatel, iniSwitzerland. By her side is her faithful
companion, Bon, a St. Bernard dog--" not a com-
mon dog," she tells her little hearers, " but a dear
and clever dog, with a wonderfully kind disposition."
Cecile goes into the house on some errand, and on
her return the cradle is empty, and both Bon and
Baby have vanished, only one of Baby's " blue
shoes" is left as a token of his disappearance. Full
of dismay Cecile rushes in-doors to give the alarm to
mamma and nurse, and while they are questioning
her in anxiety and alarm, the air is suddenly
darkened, and the house is buried in a falling ava-
lanche of snow. Cecile, and the others, being in-
side the house, are safe, and are ultimately dug
out; but Baby, in the cradle outside, would inevit-
ably have perished. As it is, he is discovered safe
in a cottage up the mountain, having been tenderly
carried there by Bon, whose instinct had told him
of the coming danger, and whose sagacity had sug-
gested its escape. This little story, as Cecile tells
it, will delight every reader of this charming little
book. Besides Katie and Cecile, there is Norah,
the little Irish girl, and Effie, the little Scottish
girl, and Mary, wbo was nearly drowned in the
Miser's Cave when the tide came in, and Ruth, the
little wandering orphan, who finds a home among
strangers on Christmas-day. These are the little
heroines of the fireside, and very cordially do
we commend their histories to our readers. A
prettier Christmas book for little girls we have not
many pleasantlya homely learned
from itsM andaamnyusainglespsoangesw,illbe
ad-
monition will be impressed on the youthful
memory by
the examples of the dear good little
lasses telling tales at tile Christmas fireside.