The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-03 00:00:00

scientific technicalities or recondite theories.
" Wheat and Tares" is continued with spirit ; we
fear that Rex will not long remain faithful to his
allegiance to the absent Ella. A paper on the late
Prize-Fight censures the barbarous and inhuman
nature of such proceedings, but remarks that were
the certainty of personal injury equally great to
every soldier on entering a battle, many red-coated
heroes would be less anxious to encounter a cam-
paign. Moreover, it is observed that a bull-fight,
still the national pastime and fashionable amuse-
ment of Spain, is more cruel, more unjust in its
character, since the unfortunate beasts are forced
to be the sufferers. Another paper continues the
Collier controversy, and brings to a conclusion a
very able and interesting number:

Bentley's Miscellany.
" Ovingdean Grange" is still, of course, the pro-
minent feature in this magazine. The present in-
stalment is full of stirring incident, and recounts
the rescue of Colonel Gunter from the hands of the
Roundheads through the ingenious strategem and
energetic assistance of a band of Cavaliers headed.
by Lord Wilmot. " The Outremanche Correspon-
dence" is continued in its accustomed lively strain,
and discusses the aspect of art and literature. The
indefatigable pen of Mr. Dudley Costello continues
the narrative of " Gurney, or Two Fortunes," and
Monkshood contributes another of his agreeable
papers of Mingle-Mangle. The second part of the
Essay on " Stream Sounds" fills the present por-
tion, and is enriched with numerous quotations and
illustrations from the poets. For graver articles we
have papers on " The French Embassy in China,"
and " The Duke of Orleans and the Chancellor
Dagnesseau," the latter being founded on the recent
historical work of Oscar Devallee. " Oiuda" con-
cludes his characteristic love story to the reader's
great satisfaction, by making his hero and heroine
happy.

Colburn's New Monthly Magazine.
A full and complete description of the fortifica-
tions of Toulon opens this number, and will pro-
bably attract the attention of those political readers
who look with some suspicion on the proceedings of
our Imperial ally. The author takes a view of the
history of the town, the arsenal, which is one of the
largest in the world, the Bagne, and the fortifica-
tions, and arrives at the' following conclusion :
" From Toulon we have nothing to fear so long as
Malta and Gibraltar are kept in a proper state
of efficiency ; to disarm Cherbourg we must press
on the fortification and harbour works of Dover.
Till these are completed, the safety of England
against French invasion depends on our Channel
fleet, and our close attention to the movements
of Louis Napoleon." A paper on Life Assurance
has some sensible remarks on the excellence of
the system. The author observes that it is very
satisfactory to see that the assurance of lives is now
generally regarded as one of the most beneficial in-
stitutions of the age, and justly says that but for
the evils attendant on unsound and reckless com-
petitions, the good would have been unalloyed.
He compares the present extensive development of
life assurance with its insignificant commence..
ment in the reign of Queen Anne, and says hu-
morously, in allusion to Dr. Letheby's remarks
on the strain on a city life : " Life Assurance is
becoming daily of more vital importance to a large
proportion of the people, and it seems as if the in-
creased facilities for it were a compensation due to
mankind, when so many special agencies recog-
nised by physicians as tending to increase the
uncertainty of life are in operation, not to mention
revivalism and Dr. Cumming, long sermons, and the
activity of unpaid lecturers, the weariness of the
British Museum galleries, the Civil Service exa-
minations, the income-tax, bad cookery, and the
speeches of Mr. Bright, as evils of the day tend-
ing to shorten life." A notice of M. Freytag's
work on the " Thirty Years' War," gives some ac-
count of the miseries endured by the.German:pea-
santry during that protracted:struggle. Mrs. Bushby
continues her story of the " Belles of the Island"
and gives us some animated sketches of West In-
dian life. " A Holiday Tour in Spain" is also ad-
vancing, and supplies us in this month with a de-
scription of Granada and its Alhambra, the theme
of old romance and Moorish ballads. " The Jews
on the Continent" is the title of a paper, which
traces the troubled and eventful history of the per-
secuted Israelites, and recounts some of their suf-
ferings from the cruelty and intolerance of peoples
and their rulers. Sir Nathaniel has this month
varied his contribution, and furnished some" Night-
ingale Notes," not referring in any way to the ac-
complished lady of that name, but to the veritable
songster. He finds, of course, plenty of poetical
allusions to Philomela, though, among his nume-
rous quotations from our poets, we do not find any
citations from Keats' celebrated ode. We are pro-
mised another instalment of this paper. The inte-
resting story of " East Lynne" is continued, and
chronicles the important and unexpected event of
Lady Isabel'S marriage with Mr. Carlyle. It is
hastily arranged to secure her removal from her
miserable home with Lady Mount Severn, but we
fear that Captain Levison and Miss Corny will
trouble the future. Barbara Hare, notwithstanding
her disappointment, does not secure so much of the
reader's interest as her fair rival, Lady Isabel. W.
C. Kent contributes some impressive verses on
" Infinitude," adapted from Schiller ; and there are
also papers on General Wilson's Russian Journal
and the Policy of Annexation.

United Service Magazine.
The most interesting article in this number is on
the negleeted subject of the "Medical Service."
It really is disgraceful that gentlemen belonging
to a profession that requires years of study should
be set down as inferior to lieutenants and captains.
We would ask those who have studied the accounts
of the Peninsular war how, in spite of all obstacles,
the Iron Duke kept his troops in an efficient state ?
The position of the medical officers was lower in
those days than it is at present, but he caused it to
be respected. The examination for the service
should be severe, but when a surgeon has passed it
he should have the standing which his merit de-
serves. Steps have been taken in the navy in the
right direction, and we trust that justice will be
done to the regimental surgeon in future. The
article on the " Armstrong and Whitworth Gene"
is written in a fair and unbiased style; and to those
who have read our perhaps overdrawn accounts of
the Crimean campaign, the "Russian Account of
the Battle of Balaklava" will be instructive.

Macmillan's Magazine.

Illacmillan continues with spirit, and shows no
flagging of its energies. A very able paper, by the
editor, is one of the prominent features in this
number. It is entitled " Three Vices of Current
Literature," and exhibits some very prevalent faults
of style in a strong light. The three chief vices of
the present day, in the writer's opinion, are the
slipshod or slovenly style, the Trite, and the Blasd.
Under the former head he classes imperfect and
inverted syntax, mixed and confused metaphor,
"stuffing out sentences with certain tags and
shreds of phraseology," and he tells us that " all
forms of the slipshod are to be referred to deficiency
of precision in the conduct of thought." Next he
attacks the Trite. Unfortunately few who are in the
habit of glancing over periodical and current lite-
rature can deny his assertion of its übiquity. "We
are overrun with the Trite. There is Trite to the
right hand, and Trite to the left ; Trite before, and
Trite behind. The view is of vast leagues 'of the
Trite, inclosing little oases of true literature as far
as the eye can reach." He proceeds to give the
following description of the enemy :

"By the Trite is meant only matter which may be true
enough, but which has been so familiarised already that it
can benefit neither Jean nor beast to hear or read it any
more. Man is a microcosm,' may have been a very re-
spectable bit of speech once; and, if there is yet any poor
creature on the earth to whom it would be news, by all
means let it be brought to his door. But does such a crea-
ture exist among those who are addressed by anything call-
ing itself literature ? And so with a thousand other such
sayings and references—' Extremes meet, sir;' You mustn't
argue against the use of a thing from the abuse of it ;'
' The exception proves the rule;' Talleyrand's remark about
the use of speech ; Newton gathering pebbles on the sea-
shore : and, worst of all, Newton's apple. The next writer
or lecturer that brings forward Newton's apple, unless with
very particular accompaniments, ought to be made to swal-
low it, pips and all, that there may be an end of it. Let
the reader think how much of our current writing is but a
repeated solution of such phrases and allusions, and let him
extend his view from such short speoimens of the Trite, to
facts, doctrines, modes of thought, and tissues of fiction,
characterised by the same quality, and yet occupying reams
of our literature year after year, and he will understand the
nature of the grievance. What we aver is that there are
numberless writers who are not at all slip-shod, who are
correct and careful, who may even be said to write well, but
respecting whom, if we consider the substance of what they
write, the report must be that they are drowning us with a
deluge of the Trite."

The third evil which he denounces is what he terms
the Blasé style ; that is the half sceptical, half
scornful manner, restricting its votaries "to a petty
service in the sarcastic and the small, and mak-
ing them the enemies of everything within
their range that manifests the height or the
depth of the unjaded human spirit." There
is much in this article to attract the
reader and instruct the professional writer if he
choose to profit by its warnings. The Dean of
Ely furnivhes a very interesting account of an in-
dustrial school in Cambridge, and all to whom the
welfare of our unaided, uninstructed youth is not a
matter of complete indifference, will peruse these
annals of its success with great satisfaction. It is
much to be regretted that some similar institutions
c .snot be established for girls. Cases are continu-
ally brought before the magistrates, which they
themselves say should be sent to reformatories
rather than to prisons, and how many must there
be who, without being positively trained to vice