The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-27 00:00:00

LI l'E RAT 'ETRE.

The Quarterly Review. No. CXCVIII.
The eight articles in the new number of the
Quarterly Review, just published, may be very
eadily characterised. They are so obvious (each
of them) in design, and so definite and restricted
(all of them, without exception), in bearing. The
drst is literary, in relation to " Bacon's Essays."
The second historical, in regard to "French Al-
geria." The third ecclesiastical, in reference to.
" Church Building." The fourth biographical, in
illusion to " Montaigne." The fifth topographi-
cal, in the matter of " Ancient Rome." The sixth
physiological, and at the same time physionomical,
n regard to the " Human Form." The seventh
psychological, and in some sort controversial, in
relation ,to " The Nans of Port Royal." The
eighth at once political and lachrymose, in reference
to what is here pathetically termed the "Declin-
ing Efficiency of Parliament." A rather formid-
tble comparison might have been provoked by the
subject-matter of the introductory paper, a com-
parison of it, that is to say, with one of the most
splendid of the critical and biographical Essays
of Mr. Macaulay (originally published like the rest
of that great writer's Essays in the pages of the
Edinburgh), but that the review before us in the
Quarterly is avowedly one having relation merely
o a fractional part of the writings of the most
glorions of the Lord High Chancellors of England,
and one of the noblest of the world's philosophers.
Archbishop Whately's annotated edition of "Ba-
con's Essays" is the recently completed reissue of
those wisesaws, epigramsand apophthegms, afford-
ing to the writer a plea for his argument, a peg upon
which to hang up the garland of his admiration.
It is judiciously confessed by the reviewer that the
great phi'osophical essayist's intention in regard to
these samesketches, namely, that of rendering them
"as grains of salt, which should rather give an
Appetite than offend with satiety," has been to the
toll attained. And, even more, it is added,
hat their author's confident anticipation
of their eaduring fame and popularity has been
completely justified, the anticipation expressed by
tim when he avowed his belief that they would
•‘ last as long as books and letters endured." The
Article on " French Algeria " passes under review
the miscellaneous volumes of M. Burbrugger on
certain local " Roman Antiquities," of M. Renior
upon certain local " Roman Inscriptions," of Dr.
Shay.- in regard to his " Travels and Observations,"
of Mr. Sumner in reference to " White Slavery,"
of the Poet Campbell in the matter of his
Letters from the South," of Herr Rellstab
i
under the title of " Algier and Paris n Jahra,

1830," of Lady Duff Gordon under that of " The.
French in Algiers," of M. Poujoulat, of Dawson
Barrer, of General Daumas, of J. Barbier, of Jules
Gerard (the " Lion Killer"), and of the Count de
Castellane—not forgetting the " Scientific Explora-
tion " instituted in 1840, 1841, and 1842 by order
of Louis Philippe's Government, or a curious Latin
ffork, in nine ',rooks, delineative of Africa and
printed in 1509, or (by a very great deal the most
nteresting of all these illustrative volumes to us
Englishmen) Mr. A. Salome's Narrative (published
in 1819 at London) of the famous expedition to
Algiers made, gloriously and successfully made,
two years previously by the British Fleet, under
the command of Admiral the Right Hon. the Lord
Viscount Exmouth. Due mention, is of course,
made in this contribution, descriptive of French
Africa, of the numerous gallant Soldiers of
Gaul who have achieved a reputation for
' themselves at the point of their keen
swords in the African conquests of the armies of
the French Government. Bugeaud, who won a
Puke's coronet at Isly, and a Marshal's baton-in
Kabylia—Bedeau, who was wounded in the streets
Jf Paris in the year of 1848, two days before the
good Archbishop Denis Affre was infamously
assassinated Cavaignac, who for six months
governed France with the irresponsible power of
a Dictator—Oudinot, who in 1849 besieged and
conquered Rome then held by the "Reds" under
Alazzini and Garibaldi—Lamoriciere, who, in 1851,
upon the memorable 2d of December, was seized in
ilis bed by the Prtetorian Guards of the Prince
President, afterwards Cie Errpe:orNapoleon
changarhic:r, who suffered in the same ignomini-
ous manner the punishment due to a conspirator
—Baraguay di Billiers, who conducted 10,000 men
into the ,Baltic three years later, and gained
the highest prize within the reach of a soldier
of fortune, the bauble-baton of an Imperial
Nlarshal, at Bomarsund Saint Arnaud,
who won his baton in the daring and triumphant
coup d'etat of Louis Napoleon, and who afterwards
lied the glorious
,death of a hero two nights
after the battle of the Alma, when to the
sound of the gun and the trumpet, the
great French Marshal was held upright in
his saddle (dying) by two of his dragoons,
serenely directing the legions of Gaul upon the all-
but impregnable position occupied by the Russian
forces under Prince Menschikoff. Besides these
celebrat 3d African generals three others hardly less
renowned—Canrobert, the preux chevalier of the
late sanguinary conflict in Crim Tartary—Bosquet,
Lhe heroic leader of the indomitable corps of the
Zouaves—and lastly, the terrible Pelissier, noted
arst of all as the Arab-smoker, and secondly as the
Due do Malakhoff ! Marshals of the Empire under
Napoleon the Third all three of them, these last
tuentioned—three of the most conspicuous Captains
not merely of France, but of Christendom. The
article on Michel Montaigne" relates to the two _
latest of his biographers M. Gran, and Dr. Fayen.
That on "Ancient Rome " has been suggested by
the paper descriptive of " Roma," in Dr. William
Smith's inimitable " Classical Dictionary." The
rest of the contributions be it said are of average
ability, the most interesting of the number having
reference to the " Physiognomy of the Human
Form," chiefly in relation to the " Human Face
Divine."

Cookery for Servants of All Work. By Mrs. War-
ren. Groornbridge and Sons, Paternoster-row.
Mrs. Warren has conferred a real benefit on the
class she professes to serve in this little volume.
Cookery books, on the average, are destitute of the
most important instructions to a noviciate in the
N,rt, viz., as to whether the fish, meat, or vegetable
under manipulation is to be put into hot or cold
water, and as to the time it requires for' proper
dressing. We have often observed that the greater
the pretensions of the gastronomic volume) the
more perplexing are the directions it contains ; and
we can only say that, with two or three guinea and
half-guinea volumes at hand on this important and
vital subject, we shall turn in preference to Mrs.
Warren's cheap pamphlet whenever we are in
doubt as to the legitimate concoction of a custard
pudding, or the perfect treatment
of a. stewed
steak.