The Sun.
London, England, 1835-06-15 00:00:00

innate love of evil in Di Giallo come not within the
scope of human passion--it is dreaded at its birth, and
finally ends in a catastrophe which could never have
happened to such an individual. The thread of the
story may be interesting :
Count Di Giallo, the father of the hero of the tale,
is a Neapolitan Nobleman, who marries a lady of
equal rank with himself. As he is the last of a long
line of noble ancestors, he is naturally desirous of an

heir to inherit his titles and perpetuate his name. For
some years he is disappointed in his hopes, and is in a
state of mind nearly bordering on despair when he is
visited by the presumed narrator of the tale, Count
Hertzel, a German Nobleman in the prime of life,
but bearing the traces of premature age, from having
devoted his youth. to the study of Alchemy. The
noble friends agree that the lady should make a pilgri-
mage, accompanied only by her confessor and servants,
to a fructifying shrine of the Virgin ; and such is the
efficacy of her prayers, or probably of a heated ima-
gination, acting on a delicate, susceptible frame, that
conception follows, or rather dates from the clay of her
visit to the sanctuary. We pass over Count Hertzel's
relation of his improvements in the lady's oratory, to-
gether with the whole history of the picture and the
gratitude of the astonished Countess. The author's
object in writing such improbabilities is not quite
clear to us—particularly as the lady is a saint,
and a blue-stocking into the bargain. On re- ,
flection we are disposed to send Hertzell's vision
of the Snake along with the history of the Picture,
as only the commentator who discovers the hidden
meaning of the one, can unveil the mysteries of the
other. When -the fulness of time arrives, the hero is
ushered into the world ; and from maternal infirmity is
suckled in the paternal mansion by the wife of a pea-
sant. Here, again, we are obliged to pass over a phi-
losophical digression on the causes of vice in our nobi-
lity, which we recommend to the attention of the
British Peerage. In the mean time our hero commences
his career with a strong inclination for killing birds ;
raises his hand against his Lady Mamma once, when
he thinks he is unperceived by her ; over-physics, or
rather half poisons his tutor ; feigns uncommon grief
for the loss of his mother, who dies ere he has attained
his majority ; accompanies his noble father to Madrid,
and after secretly rivalling him in the affections of an
opera-dancer, contrives to assassinate a third competitor
for the lady's favour ; frequents the gaming table
without any particular regard for the affected principles
of a gambler in high life ; falls in love with his friend's
betrothed bride, and to obtain her removes that friend—
and, by accident, his own father at the same time—by
poison ; and at last is suspected, discovered, elopes
with the partner of his guilt, and drops over a preci-
pice. The Vision of the Old Woman of the Cliff
will hardly be endured by any one who has read Mel-
moth's Vision in Maturin's Tale of the Wanderer.
So much' for the main incidents of the fiction.
The political under-current of which we complained is
a more serious affair, because it has a tendency to im-
press its hue upon young and unreflecting minds.
We shall content ourselves with a single extract :

" It will easily be imagined that my German pride was in
raptures at this flight of the Countess's charity. I had seen
enough in England of that ungenerous spirit which envies
every trifle bestowed by the Sovereign on ladies by birth,
whose rank entitles and attaches them to a court, while
their narrow incomes might depress them even to servile
occupations.
" In its rage for economy, the press pursues these unfor-
tunates with unmanly rancour. Their fallen fortunes excite
no pity ; ' they prey, forsooth, on the public purse,' even
should their ancestors have taken the lead as benefactors of
the people. When the few of a higher class are thus per-
secuted by multitudes, they have no supporter but that feeble
one, a wounded pride : they seem deserted by their eqnals,
and overpowered by a confederacy of their whole species.'
" It is high time to impress upon the people, that their in-
terests have not been neglected by the higher orders. Let
them number over the public institutions for the poor, the
diseased, and the deserted—unexampled in antiquity, and
without a parallel in modern nations. Let them look at the
subscribers by whom these were instituted, and are still sup-
ported. If the great and the wealthy be, as they are styled,
but pensioners of the great mass of labour,' see what they
give back to those who can labour no more, and are abandoned
by their own classes to destitution and death."
_ _

This is the first time we have the people charged
with " envy" for denouncing as unjust a robbery of
themselves for the maintenance of ladies in the splen-
dour necessary to an attendance upon the Court.
What the press, and the people insist upon is, that one
class of the community shall not be deprived of neces-
saries which they themselves have procured by the
sweat of their brow, in order that the Honourable
Misses may occupy a box at the Italian Opera, or
fascinate noble danglers about the Court, by outshining
Peeresses at the Queen's Drawing-rooms. As to the
Royal bounty, we beg to say, that the press and the
people are alike delighted, when it is employed in be-
half of really deserving objects. If, however, their
Most Gracious Majesties are disposed to put every
lady on the Pension List who cannot afford more than
a silver chain for her lap-dog, and who has the honour
to be allied to the Nobility, we are well content—pro-
vided the pensions be paid out of the allowance which
the nation grants for the support of the Royal House-
hold. The author's allusion to alms-houses is
most unhappy ; but we shall pass it over without
comment. The public will not fail in its proper in-

terpretation.
We are of opinion that the time for such fictions
as the Doom of Giallo is passed away. However in-
teresting the astrological fables of a dark age may be,
it is the excess of folly to attempt a fancied revival of

their existence in the present day—more especially as
every dealer in the occult sciences is not gifted with
the powers of the Author of St. Leon. In his criti-
cisms on the drama and the fine arts, Mr. Boaden ex-

hibits a cultivated taste. The stage is his stronghold :
he points an opera-glass admirably ; but he loses
himself the moment he gets beyond the reflection of
the stage-lights.

G. J. HEATHCOTE, ESQ., M.P.—We feel it to
be our duty to give a hint to the Reformers of South Lincoln-
shire, that if they wish their opinions to be represented, we are
afraid they must prepare themselves to direct their eyes else-
where than to Stocken Hall. We throw out this hint with
great sorrow, and nothing would give us more pleasure than
to be called upon by Mr. Heathcote to retract it. He cannot
as a Tory, more especially as a renegade, ever again sit for
South Lincolnshire : will he assure his constituents that he is
neither the one nor the other?—Lincoln Gazette.

CHURCH RATES.—A vestry was called, a third
time, at Glastonbury, on the 4th inst., to obtain a rate of six-
pence in the pound, which, if granted, would amount to 290/.
The public will learn how unpopular church rates are in the
above town by the following statement. The majority against
the rate at the first meeting was two, at the second seven, and
at the last twenty-five. The resolution, which was supported
by a majority of 25, was, " That this meeting be adjourned to
the 4th day of June, 1836."—Sherborne Journal.
CHURCH-RATES.--.-Archdeacon Goddard has been
teaching his reverend brethren at Lincoln the law as to church-
rates, which, should Dissenters refuse to pay, they may be
handed over to the tender mercies of a mandamus in the
King's Bench, according to the Archdeacon, as well as a com-
mittal for contempt in the Ecclesiastical Courts, according to
Mr. Childs.

CHURCH RATEs.—At a meeting held a few days
ago in the parish Church of Calverton, Notts, to consider the
propriety of fixing a Church-rate, a motion for adjournment to
that day twelvemonth was almost unanimously carried.
" HORSE-SHOE RounisoN."—We are requested
to state that this pew work, by J. P. Kennedy, Esq., author
of " Swallow Barn," &c. will be published on Thursday next;
June 18, by Mr. Bentley, New Burlington-street. Orders
received by all booksellers throughout the United Kingdom.
Agents for Scotland, Messrs. Bell and Bradfute, Edinburgh;
for Ireland, Mr. John Cumming, Dublin.

DEATH BY LIGHTNING.-011 Thursday last
John Aubrey, son of Mr. Aubray, farmer, at Lantrythid, near
Cowbridge, was killed by a flash of lightning. He had taken
shelter under a tree near his father's house, and when foundhe
was so disfigured that his father scarcely knew him. His
clothes were torn off him, and some fragments of them were
carried to a distance of fifty yards. The silver he had in his
pocket was quite black. He was married about a twelve-
month ago, and has left an afflicted widow and infant to lament
his unhappy fate.—Somersetshire Gazette.