The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-05 00:00:00

is not so successful, and her logic shows more of her
own country's eloquence and Italian enthusiasm
than of sound English common sense. All who
love the beautiful in art and nature, who prize the
reminiscences of antiquity, must ever regard Italy
as a consecrated land; all who love liberty and re-
spect independence, must feel sympathy for the
position of her people without despising the
national character. But it is too much to depre-
ciate the glorious privileges of a great and free
country, to speak with scorn of all the advances of
modern civilisation, in order to represent the
Italians as a happy and contented people, far our
superiors in all the real ends of government, and not
possessing political rights or national education,
because they do not wish for them, With all the
food they care to have cheap, with the priests to
disseminate religious knowledge among the lowest,
with brotherhoods and sisters of mercy to tend the
beggar and the sick, with the festivals of the Church
for recreation, what need they care, she asks, if ti
police inspector objects to the portrait of a man
with a beard, or a public officer openly sells justice
for a dish of stewed fruit ? Miss Kavanagh in-
dignantly says that, thanks to the religious
societies, so far above our charitable institutions,
starvation is unknown ; but she tells us, a little fur-
ther on, of a lady fainting from want while present-
ing a petition to the Queen, who, greatly affected,
ordered one of the gentlemen of her household to
give her a hundred ducats, of which the poor lady
received ten. She takes every opportunity, while
professing to decline entering on the subject, of
depreciating English laws and customs, and many
a scornful allusion to the want and ignorance among
us does she introduce. Doubtless poverty and crime
are plentiful among us,---doubtless ignorance and
vice are deadly enemies to our labouring population;
but while we own the evils existing, we endeavour
to mitigate them ; and because we make no secret of
our drawbacks and boldly face and attempt to remedy
what is wrong, we are told that the Italians are
far better cared for and more contented than our
English labouring class. To talk of a " lurking
resentment, of which the farsighted prophesy with
dread and terror the fatal outbreak" among us, and
directly after to speak of the Neapolitans as " physi-
cally happy and socially free," is simply absurd, and
Miss Kavanagh, in her anxiety to claim respect for
the land of art and classic memories, has altogether
departed from plain facts, and lost herself in a maze
of inconsistent sophistry. True lovers of Italy will
rather own the wrongs and sufferings of her people,
and wait in patience till Time brings the oppor-
tunity to help her to regain her lost independence
and departed freedom. Apart from this question,
there is much to engage and gratify the reader.
The description of the buried cities, though not
novel, is always interesting ; and though the same
associations must arise with almost every visitor,
yet the account of each one's impressions has some-
thing new and striking. With all Miss Kavanagh's
enthusiasm and knowledge, we cannot think she
has displayed her abilities to such advantage as
her former works ; and now that, as she mourn-
fully tells us, " a year of light and splendour is
over," we trust she will again turn her attention
to that department of literature in which she espe-
cially shines, and give us a companion picture t,o
the sprightly " Adele" or the heroic " Madeleine.'

111 U s I C.

Six Songs for Leisure Ho—urs. By Thos. Plumptre

Methuen. Cocks and Co.

The composer of these Six Songs is distinguish-
able at once among the average throng of his con-
temporaries by his originality and tenderness.
Turning the leaves, running our hands over the
keys, " lifting up our voice" as he bids us—we
not only hear but feel that beyond mere musical
acquirements he has great musical endowments--
that beyond his scientific and manipulative skill
he has melody and he has pathos in its expression.
Although these songs by Mr. Methuen number
only half-a-dozen altogether, they are so various in
their merits that they have taken in a wide range
of his abilities as a musical composer. As a very
diversified and harmonious collection they will be
right welcome in many a boudoir and drawing-
room ; and once welcomed in either they will
often and often be transferred from the drawer of
the canterbury to the folding stand of the piano.
However varied the tastes of the different songsters
who may search this little cluster of ballads for plea-
sure, it will be strange if any fail to find among
the six here grouped together one or two destined
long to be ranked among their especial favourites.
The first song in the collection is one that Mr.
Knight himself might feel honoured in having
attributed to him, and the words of which Mr.
Chorley might not disdain to have penned—,, The
Aged man was Sitting"—written by the Rev.
H. H. Methuen. We read it—we sing it—and it
haunts our remembrance. Dainty and aerial is the
second ballad " When the breath of English
Meadows," taken from " The Baron's Little Daugh-
ter." The third, enigmatically entitled " I would not
bring thy dial back"—(words by the composer)
chants earnestly and impressively—.

Old age is weaving for thy head
Its crown of hoary hair,
And gems of love and tenderness
Are richly studded there.
But thou hast sought a diadem
More costly in the sky,
And we will rest content below

While thou art crowned on high."
The fourth song—its theme selected from Sacred
Poetry, " Sweet Evening Hour "—is dulcet and
meditative. The fifth—who does not remember
the delicious verses ?—is an exquisite rendering in
song of those lovely lines of Tennyson—

" Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,
Thy tribute wave deliver,
But not by thee my steps shall be
For ever and for ever."
It is not the first time these beautiful stanzas have
been set to music, but they have never Wore been
set to music so gracefully, tenderly, and deliciously.
This one song alone ought to secure to Mr.
Methuen a wide and enduring popularity. The.
sixth, completing the series, " Speak ! Smile I
Sing !." written by Charles Kent, author of
Aletheia, repeats in many .. tender tone and
cadence, no less than in the simple, but dexterous
beauty of the accompaniment, the mastery of his
art by the composer. Gladly shall we welcome
from the gifted hand of Thomas Plumptre Methuen
some other group of melodious compositions.

Mr. Arthur Gordon, third son of Lord Aberdeen
will accompany Mr. Gladstone as Secretary in his mission
to Corfu. Mr. Gordon was for some timb precis writer at
the Foreign-office, and also acted as Private Secretary to
his father while Prime Minister.

Lady Lytton, says the Both Chronicle, has re-
turned from the continent, and again taken up her abode
at Clarke's Hotel, Taunton.
The Duke and Duchess d'Aumale, accompanied
by their two sons and the Princess de Salerno, arrived at
Dresden, from Vienna, on Sunday, on a visit to the ex"
Queen Marie, who resides in a villa near the city.
The Prince of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen, who
has been called by the Prince Regent of Prussia to form 3
new administration, is the father of the young Queen of
Portugal. He abdicated his petty sovereignty a few years
ago in favour of the King of Prussia, the bead of the house
of Hohenzollern, and obtained by the King's order the title
of Highness with the prerogative of a junior prince of the
royal family of Prussia. He is a lieutenant-general in the
Prussian service, and commandant of the Dusseldorf mili-
tary division. He is brother-in-law to the Marquis Pepeli
of Bologna (the grandson of Murat, King of Naples), whose
bold and clever pamphlet on the mismanagement of the-
Papal finances was lately noticed with so much commen-
dation. The Prince Hohenzollern Sigmaringen is under-
stood to be a member of the moderate liberal party.
TIIE OUTWARD AUSTRALIAN MAILS.--The Post-
master-General gave notice yesterday, that the Niagara
would take out the next overland Australian mail, and that
ship mails will be made up in the General Post-office on the
morning of the 10th inst for New York and Newfound-
land, to be forwarded from Galway in the Prince Albert
steamer.

THE MAILS, &C.—SOUTHAMPTON, Nov. 4.—The
Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamship Indus,
Capt. J. Weeks, sailed hence to-day for Gibraltar, Malta,
and Alexandria. She takes out the India and China mails,
123 first-class and 31 other passengers, a full cargo, and 877
boxes of specie, jewellery, &c., value £238,583 65., con-
signed as follows :—Bombay, silver, £42,380; jewellerft
£247 lOs ; Ceylon, jewellery, £336 ; Madras, silver, £15,000;
gold, £1,270 Ifs. ; jewellery, £1,216 15s. ; Calcutta, silver,
£30,400 ; jewellery, £2,749 10s. ; Hong Kong, silver,
£96,206 7s. 3d. ; jewellery, £603 ; Shanghai, silver, £47,960;
jewellery, £243 13s. 9d. Total, silver, £231,946 7s. 3d. ;
gold, £1,270 108. ; jewellery, £5,366 Bs. 9d. Among her
passengers are Lady F. Somerset and daughter, Deputy-
Assistant Commissary-General Mills' Mrs. and Miss Mills.
for Malta; Sir Harry Fletcher, for Alexandria ; Capt. G.
Fireman, Staff-Assistant-Surgeons Crean and Marshall,
for Madras ; Captain and Mrs. Pixley, Captain and Mrs,
Syme, Paymaster M'Donald, for Calcutta ,• Rev. W. J.
and Mrs. Smith, for Hong Kong, &c. The United States
mail steam-ship Vanderbilt, Capt. Lefevre, also left to-day
for New York, with the German, French, and English
mails, 150 passengers, and a full cargo. She has been
detained a day beyond her proper time, in eon-
ghroerkdoelin, &c.,tbe rewndeesreerd
.
nseeresesnaryce ofby thtemebirepnagirs °
ground the
The screw steamer Bavaria, Capt. Taube, arrived from
Hamburg this morning and sails early on Friday for New
York, with between 300 and 400 passengers and a large
cargo. The Royal Charlie, a small craft of 38 tons burden,
Capt. Rowley, sailed from this port yesterday, full of cargo
and stores for Trinidad, to take up her station as a " sugar
drover." She is the property of a West India planter, and
was built by Messrs. White, of Cowes. The captain is ac-
companied by his wife and a crew of three men. The
Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamship Valetta,
Capt. A. Kellock, leaves at 7 a.m. on Friday for London
to be repaired.

THE LATE ROBBERY OF 970 DOLLARS.—At the
Liverpool police court yesterday (Thursday) Timothy
Kirby, first officer of the American ship Patterson, wfts
brought up on remand, charged with having stolen97o dol-
lars from a seaman namod Harding, on board the ship
while on the voyage from New Orleans to Liverpool. The
facts of the case appeared in our paper last week, and after
the examination of an additional witness yesterday, who
-swore to seeing the prisoner with several 5 dollar gold pieces
the same evening-as the Patterson arrived in the Liverpool
docks, Mr. Mansfield sent the prisoner for trial at the
sections,