The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-30 00:00:00

NOBTVICH ELBCTION.

NORWICH, MA nen 29, G
The polling took place to-day, amid considerable excite-
ment. The result was as follows :
Warner
Russell. 2,067
Forlonge
Lewis 1,631
The result is hailed as a great triumph by the Liberals.

The Times correspondence from Paris tends to
confirm the surmise that the Bourse is being buoyed
up by Government purchases, to show that the
recent comments in England on the policy of the
Emperor have not produced any impression. The
scheme, however, as is frequently the case in such
matters, has been overdone, since it is impossible
that the present turn of affairs could naturally have
created great buoyancy and a considerable rise.
Some of the advises this morning in explanation of
a further advance affirm that negotiations are on
foot for a congress on the Swiss part of the Savoy
question ; that Russia, Austria, and Prussia, are in
favour of it ; and that the Emperor will positively
submit to its decision.—limes' City Article.
THE PRINCESS FREDERICK WILLIAM.--" I am
enabled," sap. the correspondent of the
_Leeds Mercury,
" front private and an undoubted source, to put you in pos.
session of a piece of news which will interest many; it is
that the Princess Frederick William (our Princess Royal)
expects an increase of family in two or three months."

LITERATURE.

Transformation ; or, the _Romance of Monte Beni.
By Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of " The Soar•
let Letter." 3 vols. Smith and Elder.

This is a work in every way out of the common,
and the reader who wishes for something striking,
will do well to peruse its brilliant pages. It can-
not be called a pleasing story, for it :is in many
parts of a painful nature, but it is throughout nar-
rated in a very effective style, and the language is
terse and vigorous. The author has not only pre-
served unsullied the lustre of his previous reputa-
tion, but in a great measure added to it by the pro-
duction of this superior novel. The secondary
heroes are the most attractive, as so frequently
occurs. Hilda, with her grace and gentleness, yet
so strong in the force of her virtue and spotless life,
" serene in youthful majesty," is a delightful study
to contemplate. She seems pure as the doves who
wing their flight around her dwelling, and holy
as the most saintly devotee of the shrine of the
Virgin, whose lamp she tends. Kenyon, the
sculptor, is a fine character, and the little that is
seen of him is one of the most pleasing portions of
the volumes. He is married to Hilda at the con-
clusion, and they return to their native land, Ame-
rica, of which they are specimens suoh as any
country might be proud to claim. Miriam is a
strange person. Stie is drawn with consummate
skill, but she :is pre-eminently of that sort which
is always a masterpiece of the author's skill if
well described, but an equally painful subject for the
reader to dwell upon. She is mixed up with some
mysterious crime that is never very clearly ex-
plained, which is better for the purpose of keeping
the awful gloom of doubt and darkness that
enshrouds her. She is unhappy in meeting with
the man who was the sharer in her Grime, and he
follows her about everywhere till her fate is
wretched. The circumstances of the tragic end of
this wretch are most ingeniously detailed, and the
crowning stroke is put by the murderers discover-
ing their outlawed victim, as they supposed him,
lying in state in the chapel of the Capuchines,
as a zealous brother of that pious band who is
about to be interred in all the formulas of his
faith, and in the confident expectation of his
brother monks that he has earned by his holy life
a glorious immortality among the blessed. It is
not the first case in which an over zeal has
concealed crimes of the deadliest dye, instead of
unfolding virtues of radiant light and loveliness.
The account of Donatelo is most remarkable, and
partakes of the style of legendary lore more than
the reminiscences of old romance or the records of
historical fiction. He was in some way connected
with the awful story of Miriam, not in its darkest
days, but he was so entangled with her entraining
fate that his life became overcast, and the joyous-
nesss of his soul was for ever blighted. There is
something quaint in its simplicity, yet holy in its
spirit, in the passage which tells of the meeting of
this guilty pair in the old market place of Perugia.
Under the kindly influence of Kenyon,who was their
strict judge, yet their herald of mercy, and their
devoted friend, they formed a compact in which
they were to renounce all dreams of mortal love,
and thoughts of earthly happiness, but to endea-
vour to assist each other in working out, as far as
possible, what reparation could be effected, and
what good might be achieved. As they made this
contract, and ratified this vow, the bronze pontiff,
at the base of whose statue they were standing,
seemed to stretch out his hands, and give them his
benediction. He, whom the simple peasants around
had thought to be their guardian for so many gene-
rations, could have bestowed his blessing on no
better objects than sinners who repented ; and this ,
brief episode, simple though it be, is one of the
most satisfying in the story. If it breathes of
superstition, still it tells of penitence; and it is not
only of remorse that it speaks, but of reparation.
The most romantic part of the volumes is that
which relates to the Tower among the Appenines,
and many will be much pleased with the legends
of the pedigree of Monte Beni, that are graphically
told by the old relative of the family. The statue
of the Faun of Praxiteles is ingeniously introduced
at the commencement of the story, and the curious
resemblance which the unhappy Donatelo bore to
that renowned specimen of art is a fact now ac-
counted for in the revelations and recitals of Monte
Beni. This work has already reached a second
edition, which no analysing critic will be asto-
nished to find, since few of the fictions now issuing ,
from the press, in such vastness and variety, bear '
evidence of such depth of thought, vigorous con-
ception, and eloquence of expression. " Transfor-
mation" must take its place in the foremost ranks
in point of ability, whatever may be objected to in
its arrangements by cavillers. It is therefore to be
considered one of those publications of mark and
merit that all must hasten to become acquainted
with.

The _Life and Times of George Villiers, Duke of
Buckingham. By Mrs. Thomson, author of
" Memoirs of the Court of Henry- the Eighth,"
Sze., &c. 3 vols. Hurst and Blackett.
A record of the life and times of one who filled
so prominent a part in the history of his era, whose
rare fortune it was to be the favourite of two suc-
cessive kings, and whose rash and reckless policy
was supposed to have laid the foundation of the
Civil War, can scarcely fail to supply matter of
interest. Mrs. Thomson is an authoress of some
repute and experience, having formerly given us
chronicles of the turbulent career of Sarah, Duchess
of Marlborough, the eventful life of Sir Walter
Raleigh, the Court of Henry the Eighth, and other
works of historical importance. Her present task
is not a light one, since so much of the politics of
the time is necessarily mixed up with her memoirs.
She has, however, avoided all irrelevant discussion,
and has preferred to keep as much as possible to
the biographical style. She confesses to a strong
interest in her hero, though readily admitting,
what, indeed, it would be difficult to disavow, the
serious evils he brought upon himself, his monarchs,
and his country. However, the following passage
contains some truth :
" The blunders which James committed in his civil go-
vernment began before the subject of this memoir was in-
troduced to royal notice ; yet soon George Villiers, Duke
of Buckingham, figured prominently in that period which
is supposed to have been the commencement of decay—the
origin of the great rebellion has been attributed to his mal-
administration."

Some extenuation for his errors may doubtless be
found in his circumstances. Brought up by a
worldly mother with the sole aim of succeeding at
court, his education was merely superficial, and
while still very young he attracted the notice of
James, from which moment his rise was rapid
enough to have bewildered a steadier brain and
better disciplined nature. At first, his biographer
asserts that the eagerness for place and rapacity for
power and emolument of which he was afterwards
accused were not perceptible. The affair of Sir
Edward Coke, the great legal authority, she admits,
however, to have been most degrading. That her
admiration for her faulty hero does not render her
a partial judge, the following passage will prove.
She has been referring to the celebrated letters of
advice written by Bacon to Villiers :
"Notwithstanding these admirable precepts, the years
during which Lord Bacon held the Great Seal, and Villiers
ruled predominant, were, as it has been justly observed,
the darkest and most shameful in English history. The
domestic government ofJames and his favourite, in weakness
and want of high principle corresponded too mourn-
fully with their foreign policy; with their indifference to
tke great struggle for the interests of liberty and of Pro-
testantism in Germany; with their vacillating and
oswardly counsels. 'Whilst the continental nations were
their surpise and indignation in sallies of ridicule
directed against England, the King, who had nothing to
bestow in aid of a loyal cause in which the welfare of his
own child was bound up, resorted to the most disgraceful
expedients in order to exalt his favourites."
His coldness towards to the Lord Keeper, -Williams,
because he ventured to remonstrate with the
haughty Favourite respecting his conduct with re-
gard to the Spanish alliance is also cited as ex-
tremely discreditable to him. Buckingham, like his
royal patrons, could not believe that any one who
dared to differ from him in opinion could wish him
well. There is little cause to wonder at his immo-
derate presumption when we remember the unpa-
ralleled favour with which he was regarded at
court. " Villiers had witnessed the disgrace
of Somerset, the degradation of Bacon, the
execution of R
Raleigh, and the fall of Coke, with-
out experiencing in his own fortunes any
symptom of decline." In one important point the
authoress considers he has not been done justice to—
his efforts in restoring the navy. When Bucking-
ham was appointed Lord High Admiral he
acquitted himself of the duties pertaining to that
post better than any other of his numerous State
offices. Some years before Raleigh had written
many treatises on maritime affairs, reproving the
lavish expenditure with so little result, the neglect
of commerce, the want of an efficient fleet as a
national defence, and the general decay of, the navy.
No attention was paid to it by the King, although
Prince Henry was attracted by the subject, and
would probably have interfered actively had his
life been prolonged. When Buckingham assumed
the power he immediately went to work with great
energy, appointing commissioners to superintend
the construction of new vessels and the repairs of
old ones. As a war with Spain was anticipated
he went further :
" Buckingham then ilrew up a plan of assault as well as of
defence, in order to lower the pride of the enemy. A com-
pany was, he proposed, to bo incorporated for the West, as
well as the East Indies. A fleet consisting of two ships of
the line, 18 ships and two pinnaces of the merchant adven-
turers, was to be equipped, and to this force were to be
added two Newcastle ships, for the nautical skill and gallant
characteristics of the collier crews were wisely resorted to
in this emergency by the Lord Admiral. To meet the ex-
ponces of the fleet, a general subscription of all estates of
men was proposed. The nobility were each to contribute a

hundred pounds ; the gentlemen and yeomen were to be
taxed to a certain amount; cities andcorporate bodies were
to give a sum of £24,000. The merchants and the East
India ComDany were not to escape the general infliction•
Thus to man and furnish the first great fleet that England
had sent forth, was the principle of arbitrary taxation com-
menced in this country."

-----:-
The project of erecting a lighthouse upon the
Goodwin Sands was first suggested to Buckingham
by Sir Thomas Wildrake and adopted by the duke,
who made great efforts to guard the narrow seas
and clear them of the numerous pirates who infested
them in those days. One of the most interesting
portions of the work is found in the concluding
chapters, which, in describing the state of art and
letters at that time, gives us brief but comprehen-
sive sketches of the celebrities of that brilliant
epoch. The Duke of Buckingham was a liberal
patron of art, if not of letters. His splendid col-
lection of paintings was afterwards sold, and many
of them destroyed by the narrow-minded bigotry of
the Puritans.

The lives of Messinger and Ford, of Beaumont
and Fletcher, and their great contemporary Ben
Janson, are ably drawn, with those of many minor
celebrities. Their chequered careers, for the most
part, afford reason for thankfulness to the modern
author, that he has exchanged a capricious or su-
percilious nation for the support of the public. The
concluding passage of Mrs. Thomson's work ex-
presses her sentiments fairly :
;4," The popular error of many historians, who depict him
as an arrogant favourite, a remorseless extortioner, a reek-
less invader of liberty, the minion of his own King, and the
instrument of foreign Courts, yields before the more inti-
mate view of Buckingham's character which has been un-
folded in the collections now laid open to all readers of
history. That he was impetuous, but kind in nature
careless of forms, but courteous in spirit—led widely astral
by mad passions, yet returning in love and penitence to his
home—is now confessed. No instances have been found to
substantiate against him charges of corruption, such as that
which was commonly practised in those days ; he was
loaded with presents of land, of money—he spent freely
what had been thus bestowed—and the affection borne to
him by his dependants is the best earnest of his many good
qualities as a master and a patron.
" Of all the imputations which were fixed on Bucking-
ham, that of a desire to enrich himself, from motives of •
avarice, is the most completely refuted by facts. During
the four years that he enjoyed the unbounded confidence of
Charles I. he became every day poorer. His affairs were
investigated, and the result e'as proved. It is, indeed, a
question, and a very serious one—how far any man is jus-
tified in spending, even on noble purposes, and certainly
not in mere show, largely beyond his income, as Bucking-
ham did ; but his conduct is, at all events, more pardonable
than the mere desire to collect a great fortune, from soArces
which he seems to have considered should be expended
either in doing honour to his Sovereign abroad in his em-
bassies—a notion paramount in those days, though out of
date in ours—or by the encouragement of arts and sciences,
and the duties of hospitality at home.
" When we recapitulate the errors of this celebrated man
—his omissions, his sins, his want of gool faith, his over-
looking the benefits he might have conferred on his coun-
try,. until it was almost too late for repentence, his sacrifice
of his Sovereign's best interests to his own will—we must,
at the same time, admit great extenuation. No mercy was
shown to his faults by the historians of his time, nor of the
age succeeding ; they wrote under a sense of the deep in-
juries from which the Rebellion received its first impulse.
We must not look for fairness in such a ferment. Even
after the tomb had long been closed over his remains, it was
scarcely safe, certainly scarcely prudent, to palliate the
faults, or place the virtues of Buckingham in a fair light.
We have now, however, the satisfactory assurance that
Buckingham was conscious of his faults, contrite for his
misdeeds, and earnest in his resolution to repair them, had.
his life been spared."
Mrs. Thomson has succeeded in producing a work
of great moderation and candour, if somewhat de-
ficient in the vivid interest we should look for •
in the record of a career so brilliant
and romantic. It is excellently adapted for the
study of the young, and will serve to correct many
erroneous and extravagant notions respecting the
Favourite. When we consider, however, the vast
opportunities which Buckingham possessed, through
his paramount influence over two successive kings,
and the little good that resulted from it to any one
but himself and his belongings ; the discreditable
affair of the Spanish alliance; the rashness with
which he plunged the country into two wars to
gratify his own private resentment ; we can hardly
regret that to this singular and gifted man belongs
the distinction of being the last of our Royal
Favourites.

The True Theory of Representation in a State : or,
The leading interests of the nation, not the mere
predominance of numbers, proved to be its pro-
per basis. By George Harris, of the Middle
Temple, Barrister-at-law. London, Longman
and Co.

At this time, when the attention of the House of
Commons and the public generally is so much ex-
cited on the subject of a further reform in our re-
presentative system, Mr. Harris's comprehensive
and well-written little volume will be read alike
with interest and advantage.
After a very able summary of the principles laid
down by the most important authorities of ancient
and modern times on the theory of represen-
tation, he reviews at considerable length
the several questions that arise on the nu-
merical theory of representation ; taxation as a
representative test ; the right of every individual to
representation, and the essence of the representa-
tive element. These being thoroughly investi-
gated, Mr. Harris proceeds n ext to the considera-
tion of the State Interests demanding full repre-
sentation, which he classifies under six heads,
viz. :—I. Interest of Virtue. 11. Interest of
Intelligence. 111. Interest of Order. IV. In-
terest of Property. V. Professional Interest.
VI. Popular Interests. Those State interests which
are independent of representation are not forgotten,
nor are they dismissed without full weight being
given to their importance in the balance
of political power. After offering a very in-
genious theory for the harmonious adjust-
ment of different interests, Mr. Harris
shows what the various representative results
of the last Reform Act have been, and
then contrasts them with those that he believes
would follow if his professed adjustment of
the suffragal qualification and the theory of
representation now advocated by him were carried
into effect.
We are bound to say that all Mr. Harris's pro-
positions are stated clearly and temperately, and
are argued throughout with logical skill, judgment,
and discretion ; and to those who hold that the
leading interests of a nation, and not predominance
of numbers only, should be the true and sound
basis of representation, we heartily recommend
Mr. Harris's able and timely volume.

Conquest and Colonisation in North Africa. By
G. Wingrove Cooke, author of " China in 1867,"
&c. Blackwood.
This volume contains the substance of the
author's letters to the Times newspaper descriptive
of Algeria and its French conquerors. The writer
states in his prefaee that he went to Algiers to
find out what the French were doing there ; to
ascertain if they were likely to restore that part
of the world to its old importance; whether any-
thing new could be learnt from them in the matter
of colonisation ; and to guess what was likely to
be the effect on English interests of their thirty
years' tenure of African soil. The results of all
these inquiries have been made familiar to the
English public through the columns of the Times.
The author has done wisely in collecting and re-
publishing his letters, as at the present time many
may be glad to refer to them. Since the recent events,
a vivid interest has been awakened with respect to
that part of the globe, and as the political aspect
of affairs in northern Africa is just now more im-
portant than any other, a work from the pen of a
writer who has devoted so much attention to poli-
tical subjects has an especial value. He -gives us
chapters on the degree of cultivation he found ex-
isting, on Arab life, on the products of Algeria, and
its civil government. The concluding chapters
discuss the position and prospects of Morocco, its
natural defences, its relations with Europe, its trade
with England, &c. We commend this work to
those who wish to form an idea of the aspect of
Algerian and North African affairs, as giving a
succinct and sensible account of the author's un-
pressions.

34i life and Adventures : an Autobiography. By
the author of " The New El Dorado,' &c., &c.
Two Vols. Hall, Virtue, and Co.
The author of this work has contributed many
volumes to popular literature. His style is bold
and careless, and inclines rather to the errors
of abruptness and eccentricity than to the more
common failings of diffuseness and tedium. The
first volume is occupied with an outline of the hero's
adventures while roving over the world. A ship
on fire, an attack by a lion, and an American slave
sale are among the most prominent events. We
have a sketch of his travels to the Cape, to Brazil,
Manilla, Ceylon, Egypt, Australia, and America.
The second volume contains the narrative of his
personal history, which is somewhat unfortunate.
The catastrophes introduced are startling, and are
told with singular abruptness; thus we hear nothing
of the hero's being involved in debt until he is swept
off to a sponging-house. We are given no 2 eas)n
for the mysteriously sudden death of M. Levizar,
and the crime and suicide of Arabella. are intro-
duced with startling suddenness. It is a singular
work, but will probably interest and amuse those
readers who are not disposed to be very critical
when they have stirring events told in a gay and
dashing style.

BREACH OF PROMISE.—In the Sheriffs' Court
yesterday the jury assessed the damages sustained by Miss.
Paxton, a niece of Sir Joseph Paxton, at £3OO, in cower
quence of a breach of promise of marriage by the Rev.
Henry Robinson, chaplain to the forces at Warner.
CRUELTY TO A HORSE.—At the Thames Police
court, this morning, a boy named Hall, in the service of
tradesman in Stepney, was sent to prison for fourteen day/
for wanton cruelty to his master's cart-horse.

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