The Sun.
London, England, 1835-09-17 00:00:00

LORD BROUGHAM and MR. BULWER.

In a late ntimber of the The 'British and Foreign Review,
a publication of considerable merit, there appeared an article
on the " State of English Literature," containing a notice of
Mr. Edward Lytton Bulwer's novels. Mr. Bulwer has re-
plied to that notice in his preface to a new edition of " The
Disowned," and certainly, for modesty and forbearance, the
reply of Mr. Edward Lytton Bulwer is without a parallel.
We cannot withhold fromi:our readers this retort of Mr.
Bulwer, attd in cider that it may be more intelligible, we
prefix to it the passage in the Review which has provoked him
to put this extinguisher on Lord Brougham :
" One writer of fashionable novels (says the Reviewer) has
survived, and is distinguished from the class by a certain supre-
macy—which, by the way, he assumes, with no ordinary degree
of self-complacent exaggeration. Mr. Bulwer chooses, we
know not why, to be designated as the author of Pelham.'
This is, we think, by no means the best of his novels. It is assu-
redly a clever work ; but the general design, the incidents, the
characters, and the ethical remarks, which the author may be
supposed to put forth in his own person, are uncommon, or
out of the way, rather than original. A certain sort of talent
produces the uncommon—the recherchj—but to be original and
spontaneous requires capacity of another kind. He employs
his fancy and ingenuity upon a world of his own imagining, and
composes from it in laborious detail, instead of painting from
nature and society. There is nothing natural and simple—
there are no felicities of observation, humour, or character—
none of those pointed and portable apophthegms, which arc
easily remembered and often repeated. The author offends,
not only by a constant tone ofieffectation and nonchalance, but
by a more offensive mixture orpretension and solecism.
" Eugene Aram,' appears to us a work greatly superior :
it is altogether in a different strain of intellectual power and
feeling. There is, as usual in Mr. Bulwer's books, something
forced, exaggerated, and pretending ; but there is a deep and
curious sounding of human motives, and an able exposition of
human nature and character. He sought inspiration—or his
materials--among the ruins of Pompeii, in a fortunate hour.
This novel is not quite the splendid production which it ap.
(ears to the author's friends, and, doubtless, also to himself

P'
but it is gotgeous, imposing, and eloquent—in its way—with
an advantage precious and peculiar in the author's case,
viz., exemption from the inconvenient criterion of real life.
Had he laid his scene at the same period in ancient Rome, he
would be judged, and judged severely, by the abundant re-
cords of Roman life, manners, and character. It does not
occur to the reader—or it occurs only to the thinking few—to
apply the standard of Rome to his dramatic representation of
the inhabitants of Pompeii, and the eye goes over--page after
page—without being shocked by anything unfaithful, mistaken,
or absurd.
" Mr. Bulwer *has alio appeared as a professed essayist.
There are the same efforts as in his novels, to impose some-
thing out of the way, or some forced combination of hetero-
geneous truisms, for novelty and depth, or to conceal penury
of ideas by the glitter of words. His recent book, de omnibus
:rebus, entitled The Student,' consists, we have understood,
partly of reprints of his fugitive contributions to the Maga-
zines—partly of rejected miscellanies of which he wished to
empty his portfolio. The publication bears decisive marks of
crudeness, conceit, and rashness ; we have seldom looked into
a book containiog so little that a reader of ordinary informa-
tion, correct taste, and sober mind, could assent to, or indeed
comprehend. lie has treated of all imaginable, and, we bad
almost said, of some unimaginable things—
' Quicquid agunt homines—
nostri est farrago libelli—'
and renounces upon all, ex cathedra% We will not attempt
to divine the probable reception which would be given by those
who know an% thief; of the matter to such writing as the fol-
lowing upon the character of Tacitus Every slave that
fell graved in his (Tacitus's) heart a warning—every horror
lie experienced, animated and armed his genius—saturate with
%the spirit of his age. he has made that age incarnate to pos-
terity—actual, vivified, consummate, and entire—if, indeed,
it be dread and ghastly, it is the dread and ghastliness of un-
natural life.'"
Upon this Mr. Bulwer modestly remarks :
" In a Review, recently set up, if report be true, by Lord
Brougham and Mr. Beaumont (Arcades ambo), the writer of
an article on the Present State of Literature has been pleased
to speak slig':tingly -of my works. Let him—l can afford
.nis censure.; but why should he mis-state as wall as cen-
sure He attributes to me phrases and expressions in ' Pel-
ham' which are never used in that work. 'ro be taught man-
nerr by Messrs. BroUgham. Beaumont, and Co., is a little toe
good ! Th-y will be teaching me the classics next !—as they
opviti• to be half inclined to do when they refer to the Last
Days of Pompeii.' By the bye, what do the mean by talking of
novels as ephemeral? Allowing mine to be so, dues not
every one know that that there are novels, of this day, that
will outlive all the latinizcd balderdash Lord Brougham ever
wrote or spoke ? I should not be surprised if even " Eugene
Aram' were remembered when the pamphlets of Mr. Tern-
kins, and the speech on Law Reform, are as things that were
not. 'Splenetic pamphlets. long-winded speeches—and essays
on Natural Theology ; these are the true ephemerals of litera-
ture ! The object of the Review is capital. Its prospectus
declares it set up because " Literature is in a very low state :"
(so one would think by such at proof): Mr. Beaallmont is to
elevate and redeem it : good r. Beaumont I Fancy at fu-
tuture Schlegel arriving at the Intellectual History of 1835
--would he not write thus? "The English literatui-e, de-
graded by the teeming productions of Moore and Words
worth, and Southey and Hallam, was, in this propitious year,
suddenly restored to its pristine glory by the learning and
genions of the immortal Beaumont, Esq., M. P., for the
county of Northumberland !"—Ohserver.

SI►_IPPING.-(THIS DAY.)

FTIOM LLOYD'S.

DEAL, SEPT. 16 —Wind S.W., moderate.—Arrived the
Clarence, Ross, from Jamaica ; Two Sisters, Dyer, from Dub-
lin ; Zephyr, Spicer, from Exeter.—Arrived from the River
and sailed, the Iris, Cuddy, for Belfast ; Fanny, Lewis, for
Liverpool ; Martba, Dyer, for Waterford ; Porcupine, bong,
for Rio Janeiro.—Put back and remain, the Don Giovanni,
Wilson, for St. John's.
PORTSMOUTH, SEPT. 16.—Wind E. to S. S.W., fine.--
Sailed the Belle Alliance, Arklow, for Madras and Bengal ;
Mary Anr, Tarbett, for Calcutta.
PLYMOUTH, SEPT. 15.—Wind W., fresh breezes.—The
repßrt of ti.e Fly, IS, Commander P. M`Quhae, having ar-
rived here last night from Portsmouth is not correct; she put
into Torbay on Saturday last, owing to the tempestuous state of
the weather, where she still is. The London Merchant (stea-
mer), on her way with Colonel Evans and troops from London
to St. Sebastian, last from Portsmouth, which put back here
last night owing to contrary winds, is still detained by the
state of the weather.
FALMOUTH, SEPT. 15.—Wind S.W. to N.W., strong and
squally.—Arrived the Lord Melville Packet, from Rio Ja-
neiro—sailed 14th July ; Bahia, 30th ; and Pernambuco,'
sth ult, ; Goldfinch Packet, from the West Indies—sailed from
St. Thomas's 17th ult. ; Blazer steamer, from the Mediterra-
nean—left Malta 31st ut., and Gibraltar 7th inst.
MARGATE, SEPT. 16.—Arrived off, the Margaret, Wallace,
from the River Gambia.
CLYDE, SEPT. 14.—Arrived the William, Hamlin, and
Corsair, Campbell, from Jamaica.
LONDONDERRY, SEPT. 14.—Arrived the Aisthorpe, Liven-
ban, from Quebec.
DifBLIN, SEPT. 14.—Arrived the Eleanor, Potts, from
Quebec ; Argus, Kirkaugh, and Maria, Blake, from Bathurst.
Coax, SEPT. 14.—Arrived the Amity, Shaxen, from St.
Andrew's, New Brunswick.
PORTLAND, SEPT. 15.—Arrived off, the Maria, Rawdon,
from the Cape of Good Hope.
LIVERPOOL, SEPT. 15.—Arrived the Brenda, Aird, from
Laguna; Good Intent, Silk, from Aveiro.—Off port, the
Jamaica, Wells, from Laguna ; Combatant, —, from Pictou.
ST. THOMAS'S, Auo. 16.—The Alice, Bigg, from Grenada
to London, put into this port in distress on the 6th inst., hav-
ing had her top-masts, &c., in a gust of wind off St. Eustatia
on the morning of the 4th, carried away • in every other re-
spect the vessel is tight; she proceeded after undergoing the
necessary repairs.

The Martha, Doyle, for Dublin ; Paragon, Smith, for
Whitehaven ; and Mercator, Crab, for Halifax, were driven
on shore during a gale, 12th ult.
The Aimwell, Scall, for St. John's, New Brunswick, was
driven on shore at Culdaff Bay, 12th inst.
Extract of a letter, dated Port Antonio, Jamaica, Aug. 4:—
We have had very unfavourable weather, but not attended
with damage to the shipping, excepting the Alexander
shallop, which was struck by lightning on the 25th ult. ; the
mast is splintered, and she is laid up for the season. The
schooner Courier, belonging to Kingston, was lost going out
of Innis Bay about three weeks ago, heavily laden with sugar
and rum from Hector's River Estate, Manchioneal. I have
great pleasure in stating that all the apprentices in this district
turned out to their work as usual yesterday morning, though
strong apprehensions were entertained that such would not be
the case."
The Shannon (mail boat) was lost near Annecada Reef on
the 19th ult.—crew saved.
Extract of a letter from the Agent, at Antigua, dated 13th
Aug. :—" This Island was visited with a very severe hurri-
cane. The shipping have suffered but comparatively little.
The gale commenced at three P. M. from N. W., and continued
from that quarter till eight, when it veered to S.E., and blew
with unabated violence till ten, when it gradually moderated,
and was quite lulled by two. The Grace Jones, of Liverpool,
dragged over the bar, with both anchors down, wind at S W.,
and dragged back again when it veered; her masts were then
cut away. She is now safe at anchor. The Codrington, for
London, rode out the gale outside Parham, and sailed to-day.
The Harmony, M'Donald, for the Clyde, rode out the gale,
but sprung her bowsprit, and lost her main-top gallant mast.
The Commerce, for London, and Manley, for Liverpool, rode
out the gale.
" The following vessels were driven ashore, but were ex-
pected to be got off with trifling damage :—Schooners—
Eleanor, lost fore-mast ; Portess, Sarah, Mentor, Pysche, all
of this island ; Phoenix, and Mary James, of Barbadoes.
,Sloops—The Never Despair, Brisk, Comptroller, and Wil-
liam Hannan.

PRESENT OF CUTLERY TO THE PRINCESS VIC-
TORIA.—We had the pleasure yesterday of examining a
splendid morocco case, with a large gold shield, with the
coronet and the lAter V. engraved on it, intended as a pre=
sent from .Lady Milton to the Princess Victoria, and which
was to be presented this morning (Tuesday) previous to the
Royal party proceeding from Wentworth House to Don-
caster races. The case contains a variety of specimens of
the different articles of cutlery made by Messrs. J. Rogers
and Sons.—Sheffield Iris.