The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-03 00:00:00

THE MISERIES OF WAR.

" It seems but a trite subject to dwell upon the miseries
of war and conquest ; but really the extent of woe which
history discloses is something portentous, and should occa-
sionally be brought back to our minds. A single page
which you read coldly and calmly through—a dull one per-
haps, hurried over and soon forgotton—often contains the
record of an amount of misery which must have touched a
hundred thousand hearts, and an amount of destruction
which must have called for the labour of a generation of
hardworking men in replacement and reconstruction. The
more tve extend our researches the more we are impressed
by the extent and penetrating nature of this misery and
destruction. Ofttiiiies, after following the regular blood-
stained tramp of history, Babylonian, Assyrian, Median,
Persian—the wars of those bitter little Greek states—the
formation of the Macedonian empire—the dissolution of that
empire—the overwhelming movement of the remorseless
Roman crushing down all nations under his feet—the
irruption of countless hordes of barbarians, with their
Attilas, and afterwards their Timours and Ghengis Khans.
—the endless small bickerings, bathed in blood, of counts
and dukes and roitelets, Merovingian, Carlovingian, and
Capetian—the grand and foolish and pre-eminently blood-
thirsty Crusades—the fierce disputes of pope and emperor
and antipope—desolating religious wars, perhaps of thirty
years' endurance—the hideous conquest of the New
World, and the steady businesslike wars of aggression
and succession and annexation—the student thinks he
knows something about the wreck and ruin which the
troublesomeness of mankind has produced upon earth.
But then, deviating some day from the usual course
of history, he comes upon the records of some corner
of the world, which he supposed to have been neglected by
the demon of discord, and finds that there, too, there have
been immense, continuous, and bloodthirsty wars; and what
they call splendid achievments of all kinds, and hitherto
much written about because the names arehard and the
provinces obscure, but which have not been neglected from
any deficiency of atrocity—until at last the wearied stu-
dent begins to think that the surface of the earth, it
rightly analysed, would prove one ensanguined mass of
buried ruin.

" Now, I. ask, has nothing been gained by the study of
all these records It sometimes seems as if there had not,
and as if mankind were ready, now as over, to rush, upon
the smallest provocation, into the accustomed track of de-
liberative carnage and certain desolation.
" A more instructive course of reading could hardly be
laid down for a student of 'history than his taking the re-
cords of some considerable town, and seeing the evils it had
suffered from its foundation to the present day by wars and
sieges. A good town to choose would be the most ancient
town in Europe, Padua. Let the student see and consider
the injuries that Padua has received from the bellicose dis-
poSition of the world. It is not taking an extreme case ;
for there is Padua, visible on the face of the earth, after all
that it has suffered; whereas, of how many once flourishing
towns may it be said that they now only furnish disputes
to rival antiquaries, who do battle about the sites of these
towns, which, in their utter destruction, afford a grand field
for learned argument—and final doubt."

It must not be supposed, however, that the author
would recommend any quixotic abandonment of
our means of defence, or looks for a general
European disarmament. He only hopes for the
gradual advance of public opinion, and trusts that
its voice will, by degrees, make itself heard and
influence the makers of wars. We fear that till
that millenium is reached, which we have little cause
to expect in our days, military preparations
and struggles must be reckoned among inevitable
necessities. Here are the author's sentiments as to

" UNAVOIDABLE WARS.

" It is most unfair to represent as advocates of a creeping
or unjust peacefulness those who, anxiously foreseeing
many of the evil consequences of war, are strenuous in pro-
ducing facts and arguments that tend to dissuade from it.
A gift is not the less a gift because the giver knows full
Well the value of what he is giving : and the people who go
to war without reluctance do not prove their valour or
their magnanimity by so doing. We all know that there
are occasions when, as on the threat of foreign invasion, a
nation gathers itself up in all its strength, when selfish aims
are thrown aside, when ordinary life is felt tp be tame, and
buying and selling are not much thought of, when even
great griefs, that are but private, fal llightly on us, and
when the bonds of society are knit together so closely, that
the whole nation tiroduces and presents its full power of
resistance. Then it is that the ambitious man forgets his
ambition, the covetous man, if possible, his money; the
civic crown with its glorious motto, 'ob elves servatos,'
becomes the chief desire of all brave men, and tender
mothers feel like the Spartan matron of old, who, as she
adjusted the budder on her young warrior's arm, could
exclaim, Come-back, either with it, or upon it.'
"And a still nobler occasion is that when, without one
thought of self-aggrandisement, one aspiration after mere
glory, or any of the pride of strength, a nation quietly re-
solves that It is its duty, for the interests of the world, or
for the defence of the oppressed, to come out to battle; and
it does come out sternly and sadly.
" But these are rare occasions ; and the men and other
resources of a great country are not to be played away in
paltry vain wars Arising from stupid complications, which
diplomacy ought to settle, or indeed in any contests that
are not grounded upon dire necessity or absolute duty.
"If statesmen are heedlessly inclined to imperil that
national strength which they are especially bound to pre-
serve intact if they can, we must bid them think of their
own poor people at home, of their daily wants and priva-
tions alreadymuch aggravated by previous wars, many of
which cannot be justified ; and we may venture to remind
these statesmen that in the long catalogue of human crimes
there is none more deadly to others than giving provoca-
tion to a war, which might, by just forbearance, have been
avoided.

"11appily, however, it is not our own statesmen who
need the most, or who, perhaps, need at all, to have such
admOnitions addressed to them."

Following this interesting essay we meet another
of the zoological series of papers. It is devoted to
the description of the capacities and habits of a
creature more remarkable than agreeable, and who
is better encountered in the pages of Fraser than
in the blue waves of the Mediterranean. Several
very curious and interesting anecdotes of the, shark
are given, and the writer's varied knowledge en-
ables him to enliven the more scientific portion:
He remarks, in allusion to the history of the
prophet Jonah, that a shark was probably the fish
that swallowed the prophet. The immense size of
some of these fish is not, perhaps, generally
known :

" A white shark of full size will easily swallow a man
whole without breaking his skin. His maw and gulf are
sufficiently capacious to take in without injury animals of
even a larger size. The terrible rows of trenchant teeth
are only erected and brought into action when it is neces-
sary to cripple a prey, cut it in half, or bite out a portion
of it. When anything is swallowed whole, they are all
sessile, as it were; and as in this quiescent state they lie
flat against the internal surface of the jaws, with their
points directed maw-ward, they facilitate instead of imped-
ing deglutition. We have had the dried open jaws of one
of these 'man-eaters' passed over our head and shoulders
as we stood upright, down to the feet, without its touching
the person, though enveloped in a great-coat. These jaws
were indurated and shrunk in drying ; what must have
been their capacity when aided by the elastic ligaments and
stretching muscles of the living animal. This monster was
said to have measured twenty feet in length when alive ;
but, as we shall presently see, individuals of the species
often exceed such dimensions. Gillius, who asserts that
they have been known to weigh four thousand pounds,
declares that a human corpse was found entire in the belly
of one of them ; and Rondeletius saw one whose gape and
gullet would ingulf an obese man."
_ _

Major Whyte Melville's story of " Holmby House"
is continued, and gives us a picture of the court
held by Henrietta Maria, at Oxford, in 1643.
James Watt forms the subject of an article which
censures with much severity- Mr. Muirhead's recent
life of the great inventor. " Schloss-Eishausen,"
a very aggravating " mystery," is brought to a
conclusion; but the reader who has been patiently
waiting a grand denouement, finds himself in the
position of him who anticipated the story of the
" Knife-grinder," of famous memory. There is
positively nothing to explain the retreat of the
Count, or identify the mysterious lady. Muller and
Donaldson's "History of Greek Literature" receives
a lengthened and favourable criticism. A brief I
sketch of the career of the late lamented historian,
William Prescott, gives us an account of the for-
midable difficulties under which he laboured in the
composition of his works. Historical literature,
more almost than any other, requires research and
study, and it was only through the eyes of another,

reading to him obsolete works in foreign tongues,
that he was able to compile the materials for his
great undertakings. He dictated copious notes as
the reader went on, and when his memoranda had
accumulated he had them read over to him. He
then ran over in his mind the arrangement of :his
chapters, and by the aid of a blind man's writing
machine he wrote his pages, which were afterwards
read to him and transcribed for the press. Those
who have admired the clear and easy style of Mr.
Prescott's histories may well agree to the truth of
the old motto—" Labor onznia vincit." Though
twice visiting Europe he never went to Spain. "It
is remarkable that he did not visit the country
with which his name will be inseparably connected,
and that the bodily eye of the historian of Ferdi-
nand and Isabella and of Philip 11. never looked
upon those fascinating and inspiring scenes which
he has painted with so much graphic art—the
snowy peaks and sunny dales which smile around
the Alhambra, the grey hills and tawny plains
whose landmark is the solemn Escorial." This
memoir of the departed historian concludes an in-
teresting number.

Bentley's. —The usual summary of the state of
affairs, political and literary-, opens this number.
It is followed by the first instalment of a new
story, by Dudley Costello, entitled " The History
of Mr. Miranda. Monkshood contributes a paper
on " Old Women," and selects numerous passages
from authors, ancient and modern. The memoirs
of the late lamented Duchess of Orleans furnish
the subject of an interesting paper, commemorative
of her virtues and her misfortunes. Owen Mere-
dith's new work receives a favourable criticism, and
the last journals of Horace Walpole are also noticed.
" Up among the Pandies" relates the personal ad-
ventures of a Feringhee in India. It has reached
the fourth part, and is written sensibly. " The
Recollections of Charles Strange" are continued
with spirit, and tell the story of another loss, which,
however, is not so mysterious as the last. It is to
be hoped that the author will gratify the reader's
curiosity respecting the missing bag of gold. " A
Day in the House of Commons" relates the confu-
sion incidental to the opening of Parliament.
" Alexander Dumas in St. Petersburg" is the title
of a paper that gives some interesting extracts
from that lively writer's impressions of northern
life. " The Old Soldier's Story," which is one of
them is well suited to the lovers of terrible and
thrilling tales.

Colburn's New Monthly.—A paper on the much-
vexed Italian question is the first to meet the reader
in this number. The author of "Ashley" continues
his interesting but melancholy story of the fortunes
of Henry Arkell. The present instalment is
entitled ' The Gravestone ,in the Cloisters," and
records the untimely death of the hero of the story.
It is to be hoped that the heartless Georgina Beau-
clerc will meet a just recompense. The second
number of " Stereoscopic Glimpses," by W. C.
Kent, shows us Shenstone at Leasowes, amid the
beauties of nature and curiosities of art, weighed
down by debt, and depressed by care. It is a
happy thought to give, as it were, one scene from ,
each poet's life, that scene being especially expres-
sive of his character and circumstances. Madame
du Barry's eventful and changeful life is discussed
in a review of M. Capefigue's late work. A sum-
mary of the vicissitudes of her career, adds another
to the many historical proofs of the caprices of
fortune. " Craig Dice Castle," by. Mrs. Bushby, is
concluded, and we regret that a lady., whose pen has
so often enlivened these pages with her pleasant
translations, should have written such a painful
and gloomy narrative. It is a dreary picture of
vice and crime without a single redeeming feature.
" My Friend Pickles" complains of a few more
social grievances. " The Canal of Nicaragua" is
treated of, and its probabilities discussed at length.
The stories of " Evalla" and of " Herr Ernst Mit-
terskamp" are continued, and an article on the ex-
isting state of continental politics concludes the
number.

Colburn's United Service.—Some of the subjects
under discussion in the present number of the
United Service are especially deserving of consi-
deration. The opening paper is entitled "Remarks
upon the Militia," and strongly censures the defec-
tive management of that body, its expense, and
inefficiency. The statement of the case deserves
the attention of the authorities. Another important
article is on the rival service—" The Screw and
Sail." It is remarked, with truth, that "it is
surprising, in a country like England, where the
people pride themselves upon being practical, that
the protecting arm of the State should alternate
between strength and weakness. The war admi-
nistration of the navy has never been up to its
work since the peace of 1815. Since that period
we have been making convulsive efforts between
economy and efficiency." We may hope the exist-
ing deficiency will shortly be remedied by the
energetic plans of the Admiralty. Tlie necessity
of increasing the pay of sailors and considering
their advantage is strongly insisted upon. Sir
I•lugh Rose's campasign in India is sketched in an
interesting paper; and the review of the Indian -
rebellion is continued, but not yet brought to a
conclusion. "The Defence of our Coasts," and
the "Present. State of the Principalities," are two
papers on the questions of the day ; while the " Re-
miniscences of a Veteran," and an essay on the
Tower of London, furnish some lighter reading.

The Universal _Review of Polities, Literature, and

Social Science: Allen and Co.
This is the first number of a new candidate for
popular favour. It partakes more of the nature of
a Quarterly than of the ordinary magazines. Its
title is sufficiently comprehensive to include a wide
range of subjects, and to judge from its preparatory
announcement, it will address itself to a large body
of readers. In politics it ranges itself among the
Liberal Conservatives, and undertakes to support
the principles of the present Government. In
literature it proposes to adopt the style of the
Quarterlies. It claims to be distinguished from
the rest of the monthly serials, "by the fact of
being primarily intended for critical purposes, and
Pot—except in very rare instances—as a repository
of the lighter class of articles that form the subject
of most monthly periodicals." A summary of the
parliamentary proceedings of eadlimonth will also
distinguish it from its contemporaries, and it seems
to be intended to be a more solid and graver pub-
lication than the rest of the magazines. It would
be invidious to criticise severely the first number,
and though, perhaps, too weighty in its character,
it promises well. The opening article, on " Litera-
ture and Life," discusses a few of the peculiarities
of the literary character, and its position in society.
Another article of general interest will be found in
the memoir of Henry Hallam. " The Homeless
Poor" enters into a discussion of the statistics of
the night Refuges, and arrives at the conclusion
that the number of those who are necessarily
vagrants has been exaggerated. The writer re-
commends the, union of the three Refuges, though
he would regret to see them removed from the
management of their present experienced conduc-
tors. An attack on the puns of Christmas pieces,
is certainly not undeserved, and we are not sorry to
see the travesties of great authors, which arti
now so common, meet with a little well-
merited Censure. The political articles of course
represent the principles of the magazine ; the
literary ones are more generally attractive, and
a criticism on " The Wanderer" will repay perusal.
We shall expect to see this Review assume a re-
spectable position in the world of serial literature,
where there is- doubtless a place for it by tho
side of its lighter contemporaries.

Titan. Titan contains its usual agreeable
variety of tales and sketches. " Homeward
Bound" is a series of pleasant pictures of
the passengers of a ship from Calcutta. " Some
Chat about the Law and the Limbs of it" is amusing
enough. Its anecdotes do not always redound to
the ,credit of legal worthies. " Two Studies in
History" is the title of an ably written paper
showing us portraits of Brother John of Vicenza,
an eloquent Italian monk, and Gustavus Vasa, the
deliverer of Sweden. " All the Biters Bit" is
a story which is the mere record of the dis-
comfiture of a party of vulgar tricksters, and is
consequently not very attractive. " Between
Heaven and Earth" is the name of a vivid and
original story taken from the German. A review
of the late Bev. Mr. Polehampton's memoirs, and
a sketch of the life of St. Cyprian, are among the
remaining papers. Extracts from new books are,
as usual, added, and form an interesting feature in
this magazine.

We regret to hear of the death, on Sunday last,
of Wm. John Broderip, Esq., F.R.S., one of the benchers
of the Hon. Society of Gray's-inn, and formerly a magis-
trate'of the Westminster Police-court. The deceased gen-
tleman was in his 71st year:
TEWRESDURY ELECTION.—A writ issued on
Tuesday night for a fresh election fOr this borough, conse-
quent upon the appointment of the Hon. Frederick Lygon
as one, of the Lords of the Admiralty, was received at
Tewkesbury yesterday, and at 2 o'clock proclaimed by the
mayor, who has fixed Monday next for the nomination.
CARRIAGES FOR TILE KING OF PRIISSIA.—The
Messrs. Hooper, of the Haymarket, may be fairly termed
the carriage builders to European Royalty. No sooner
does one set of vehicles leave our shores for the necessity
and luxury of a Crowned Head, than another is preparing
to follow. The private view, last week, of the carriages for
the King of Prussia, fully sustained the high reputation of
this house ; and we were glad to find that every portion of
the material employed in their construction was of British
manufacture. Even, indeed, the novelties introduced into
the fOrm of the state and private equipages, together with
the several patents applied in their construction, owe their
inspirtitiott to Englith. mocitifticw.