The Sun.
London, England, 1856-07-09 00:00:00

LITERATURF.

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71-te Westminster Beriew.—Contains an average
number of articles, some of them of considerable
ability. First in the order of precedence is one on
"Christian Missions," in which their principle and
practice are subjec' ed to a searching scrutiny, and
sufficient is elicited under the latter head to induce
the unbiassed reader to approve of the appeal of
the writer to subscribers to missions to look a little
closer into their management, " and substitute a
real responsibility for a sham one." " The Natural
History of Garman Life " neither elevates our con-
ception of the intellectual nor political status of the
German peasant, but, we suspect, describes both
correctly. "Smith's Latin-English Dictionary,"
affords occasion for the assurance that " with all.
drawbacks allowed for, and all deductions made,
there is still in this country, and has been for many
years, a large amount of latent scholarship of the
first quality." " Froude's History of England "is
described as " clear and effective in style, written in
a large and generous spirit, and promising when
completed to be one of those rare works, which
really rescue from oblivion a portion of the past."
A curious and very interesting pschycological paper
is devoted to the subject of " Hereditary Influ-
ence : Animal and Human." Several new and
many striking facts are brought to bear on it. Of
more immediate and vital interest is an article on
" Popular Amusements "—a subject daily forcing
itself upon governmental and legislatorial atten-
tion. The expressions of popular feeling among
different nations are passed in review, and the re•
sul is of popular amusements presented as delineated
on the pages of history. "The isolation of classes from
each other" (in this country), it is justly remarked,
" has increased with the facility of locomotion ;
and the wealthy now generally present themselves
to their humbler neighbours under the grave aspect
of founders of schools and restorers of churches,
instead of partakers in their mirth and relaxation."
To what follows we cordially subscribe—" He who
shall devise a form of popular amusement attrac-
tive to every grade of society will merit a civic
wreath as well as he who leads forth a colony, or
opens new avenues to labour." The subject of the
succeeding article has acquired a peremptory im-
portance, and may not safely be overlooked or pass
ungrappled with by the people. It is that of
" Ministerial Responsibility"—words that repre-
sent a myth when they should describe a stern
reality. A myth, faith in which has littered the
Crimea with the untimely dead, has caused many
a gallant heart to ache and many a stalwart frame
to stoop ; has enabled an aristocratic clique to steep
a people in ridicule, has burdened with heavy and
worse than useless expenditure energies sufficient
to move the world, and has baffled the righteous
retribution of a justice-loving and fearless people.
The writer takes but a gloomy view of our political
position. Looking round he sees the people lethar-
gic under constant aggression on their free action ;
administrative centralisation binding them closer
in its lethal folds • and in au enlarged suffrage,
even if accompanied by the ballot, only the pros-
pect of an increase of Governmental patronage in
like proportion to nullify its legitimate operation.
That as a free people we are sliding downward
there can be little doubt ; that Ministerial
responsibility, as the writer recommends, needs
enforcement, and should be vindicated in the jury-
box and by statute penalties, we are far from being
disposed to dispute ; but we certainly are loth to
believe that an increase of the suffrage, together with
the ballot, could be so accompanied as to prove
ineffectual to redeem the constitution from the
perils by which it is environed. If we did, we
should certainly despair, for where could we look
for succour with any ground of confidence ? The
writer's remarks on the anomalous position of
H.R.H. have our entire concurrence. State direc-
tion without constitutional responsibility • ought
not to be tolerated, and cannot be without peril to
the best interests of the nation. Contemporary
literature and art have, in the remainder of the
number, their usual share of attention.

The Linesman. By Colonel Elers Napier. Georg•

W. Hyde.

Col. Napier is favourably known as the author
of several works descriptive of scenes, sports, and
adventures in foreign climes. The object of the
present work, and the ability with which it is
penned, will certainly commend him still further
to the gratitude and admiration of his previous
readers. What that design is may partly be
gathered from the second or alter title—" The
Linesman ; or, Service in the Guards and the Line
during England's Long Peace and Litt!e Wars."
Briefly described, it amounts to this—to show
what little real ground of complaint the memo-
rialists of the Guards have had by a description of
the condition and treatment of the line, and of the
services required and performed by it, in our little
as well as in our great wars. The period selected for
illustration is during the presidency of Lord Hill
at the Horse Guards ; and in order to lend a
livelier interest to the work a fictitious hero and a
number of subordinate imaginary characters are
introduced—the said hero becoming an officer of
the line. In the story of his career are portrayed
a few ordinary events, incident to the position of
an officer of this branch of the service, the various,
stages and scenes described serving as pegs whereon
to hang complaints of the grievances entailed by
our military system, and suggestions for their re-•
moval ; corcplaints and suggestions well warranted
at the time, though the grounds of some of them
have, fortunately, nowadays, been removed. In
the fist volume the reader will find entertainment
in a number of life-like and amusing sketches,
descriptive of early reminiscences, in which a fox
hunt, a fair cousin, au examination at Sandhurst,
and a six months' residence in France, conspicu-
ously figure. During the latter, undertaken
for the purpose of prosecuting his military studies
our hero has an adventure at a salle cl'armes,
which leads to a double duel, very vividly de-
scribed ; and makes a first and last visit to the
Pala s Royal, where he is for ever cured of any ten-
dency to that too frequent vice of military men—
gambling. We next find him at Chatham barracks
—have a repulsive picture of the triangles, and
some judicious remarks on the degrading nature of ,
the punishment of flogging, and the propriety of
substituting, as far as possible, a different incen-
tive to good conduct. Much, we are told, has of
late been done in furtherance of these suggestions,
the condition of the common soldier tending as it
did to the perpetuation of .drunkenness—his chief
vice—having been improved, and an order of merit
established. The reader is next carried to Madras,
the first landing at which is graphically described,
and subsequently is induced to follow our hero to
barracks, camp, and the field, life in each of which
and on the route ((luring the monsoon) is forcibly
described. Those whose fortune it may be to serve
in India will find much u eful advice in connection
with cantonment life, which they will do well to
fasten on their memory. Our hero proceeds to
Rangoon, where he has ample experience of life on
the march and on the field, and of that system of
mismanagement to which so many thousands of our
best and bravest have recently been sacrificed. The
Burmese war and other conflicts give scope to the
author's reforming as well as descriptive pen ; and
he system of purchase and- the neglect shown
generally to merit, contrasted with the favour
shown to birth and connection, find as little
quarter at his hands as misgovernment in
India. In a word, the "Linesman" is a work in
which every lover of adventure will find sufficient
to amuse, and every Army Reformer ought to read
in order to become duly impressed with the
gravity of the reforms needed.

A T-reatise oia the Cure of Stammering. By James'
Hunt, M.R.S.L., &c. Longman, Brown, Green,
and Longmans.
A second edition of a valuable scientific work,
and containing two-thirds more matter than the
first, which was devoted mainly to a vindication
of the late Mr. Hunt's system and the presenta-
tion of a synopsis of his ideas on the subject of
stammering. In the present edition will be found
a minute detail of the different causes of defective
utterance, and an entire exposé of the plans that
have been recommended for their cure. The work
is ono which should be in the hands of all who are.
afflicted with this painful impediment of speech,
not only to inspire hope in the room of despair
and direct theta to the skilful superintendence and
mode of treatment adopted by Mr. Hunt, but to
guard them from being tampered with and plun-
dered by ignorant and unprincipled adventurers
ever on the watch for a prey. Mr. Hunt evi.
dently understands the nature of the disease, and
his mode of treatment, there can be no doubt, has
been attended by extraordinary success.

A First Trip to the German Spas. By John Ald-
ridge, M.D. Dublin : M'Glashan.
There is always a charm about first impressions
that, ceteris paribus, invests the record- of Waal"'
with pleasing interest. The purchasers of this
book have a pleasure of this sort in store for them
if they have not enjoyed it already, the writer
being an intelligent, cheerful, and unaffected guide,
and saying what he has to say as if he meant it ;..
under his direction the reader will cheerfully pass
from one German Spa to another, with the assur--
ance that much as may have been written about
them more remains to be told, while at Vichy he
will, in all probability, be introduced to a Spa he
has barely heard of before. In addition, if he is
scientifically disposed, there is an essay for him,
which, if he masters, will set him up as a learned ,
chemiat among his dyspeptic acquaintance being-
fotth and, for evermore, - •