The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-12 00:00:00

EVivN I-N(4l tIEBRUARY 11 ;857.

OUNDLE RACES.—(This Day).

LrI'ERATURt.

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)
SELLING STEEPLECHASE.

VIA.SSON'S ESSAYS,

Honeycomb..
The Squire..

Essays, Biographical and Ciitriccel chiefly on
English Poets. By David Masson, A.M. Cam-
,bridge t IVlaemillan and Company.
A collection of ten charining and remarkable
papers- illustrative 'of our national literature. Illus-
trative of the literature bf this country—from the
age of Queen Victoria to that of, QUECII Elizabeth.
It is consequently a group of biographical •and
critical essays, , having a pert n symmetry and
compl( tenesa of slesignin the midSt of its apparently
'straggling, diversified, and miscellaneous charae-z
teristics Severalbf these little-treatises upon poets
and poetry will 2-be recognised by the reader as
effusions living pleasantly enough in his recollec-
tion froth their original and "rarely anonymous ap-
pearance. For Mr: Masson's work, after all, is
_nothing more nor less than a Selection from writ-
ingS contributed •by him dining. the last dozen
years orso to one or other of our leading monthly
and quarterly periodicals. The elab rate analy-
tical criticism upon " Shakspere and Gathe, '
for example, came before the world in 1852 as an
article in the British Quarterly Ifeview for Novem-
ber. The singularly graceful descriptive chap ter
relating to " Milton's Youth" appeared during the
same year in the North British Review for
February. The "Three Devils"—meaning Lu-
ther's Evil Spirit, Milton's Satin, and Goethe's
Mephistopheles—made their first startling appa-
rition together in Fraser's -1111gazine. ."Drs-
den and the Literature of the Restoration"
formed the theme of another of cur author's
brilliant and ornate British Quarterly cri-
ticisms. " Dean •Swift" another suggest-
ed by a reprint of Scott's "Life" and the first
:issue of Thackeray's "Lectures," The next Essay
iu the series, by far the most noticeable of theca all,
we shall revert to, presently. Let us spesk of it
simply now as an enthralling " Story of 'the Year
1770," originally printed in three pic!uresque in-
stalments in the pages of. the Dublin University
Magazine. Subsequently we "come upon another
notable excerpt from the North British Review, in
the form of an article upon the poetry of" Words-
worth." Upon another explanatory of " Scottish.
Influence in British Literature." Upon another—
curiously remarkable for_ its evidence at once of
taste and acumendelineative of certaiu ":Theories
of Poetry." And, lastly, upon a third reprint from
the British Quarterly, -relating to the genius d's-
played in the prose and verse of "De Quincey,"
the eloquent, eccentric, and far-famed Opium-Ester.
Such in brief are the constituent portions of this
very readable volume from the pen of David Mae-
son, A.M., the learned and accomplished Professor
of English Literature as;University College, Landon
In the course of his succinct but sufficient Prefatory
Note, our author remarks that " had the selection
been large enough to represent the- entire_ series of
compositions from wbich.it is taken," he would have
preferred arranging the papers in the exact order
of time in which they made their appearance. As
it is, he adds—" The Essays chosen having been
such as from their character might most aptly, go
together in:the same volume, it has been deemed
best to arrange them in the historical order of the ,
matters "to` which they refer." And so it falls out,
as already intimated, that the-work—such as it is
=constitutes in a manner a sort of a critical survey
_of English Literature from the Elizabethan epoch
downwards to the present generation. A compre-
hensive series of views illustrative of the literary
annals. of Great Britain—beginning with the times
of Shakspere, and so passing down the Stream of
-Years through the days of Milton, and Dryden,
and Swift, and Chatterton, and ordsworth, to
those of our own immediate contsinporaries.
-Chatterton ! That is the one conspicuous featur a
of the work under notice," to which we have as yet
only alluded incidentally. That is the Essay, Bio-
graphical and Critical, of which we have only
spoken, according to its second title, as the " Story
of the Year 1770," originally published in the
pages of the Dublin University. Published
in those pages, in three parts, subdivided into chap-
ters, in the July, August, and October numbers of
1851, the year of the memorable Hyde-park Exhi-
bition. A considerable portion of this Ws:ly, Mr.
Masson tells us in his Prefatory Notr, "is now
published for the first time ;" and •he adds, " A
certain difference will be observed between this
paper and the others, both as regards the extent of
space allotted to it—[the article in ques' ion spread-
ing over no less than 168 pages, from p. 178 to p:
345]—and as regards the manner of the literary
treatment." Observing very justly in regard to it
by way of conclusion, that ". iu some respects this
portion of the VOlume- departs from the typical cha-
racter of the Essay, and approaches, that of a minia:
tune. Biography." Observing this, we repeat, very
justly. -For the rather elaborated memorial paper
up,on Chatterton into which the " Story of 1770"
has been expanded would be defined much less ac-
curately, if, spoken of merely as a critical essay, than
as what it actually is, a species (if we may so term it)
of foreshortettedbiography. It is very charming, very:
readable, very graceful as a memoir of the Boy-
Poet. But after all, if viewed as a biography, if
viewed as a mere " miniature biography" of Chat-
terton, it cannot be regarded, we conceive, as in
any way satisfactory. Any more than Dix's ac-
count of the same woful tale (beginning with Genius
and ending with Suicide) can be regarded as satis-
factory. , Any more, for that matter, than Gre-
gory's all but stereotyped "Life of Chatterton"—
written
_originally for the Biographia Britannica
reprinted soon afterwards in a separate form, and
prefixed' without a single emendation, how-
ever trivial, to Southey and Cottle's 3 vol. edition,
Bvo., of the Works of the " marvellous boy—the
sleepless soul that perished in his pride," published
in 1803 by the Messrs. Longmans and Company.
Abbreviated though this most affecting story of the
Life and Death of the Boy-Bard has been under
the hand of Mr. Masson, it may yet take rank, we
conceive, with the ampler and more pretentious
memoirs of the_same career by John Dix and George
Gregory. Certainly it is far above the miserable
little catch-penny " Life," by one Davis—occa-
sionally to be picked up for a few pence upon the
London Book-stalls, having on its frontispiece
an odious caricature of some imaginary face of
Chatterton, with, literally, a white " choker" ga-
rotted about the throat, and the eyes goggling
',over the check-bones like those of an idiot under-
going the process of strangulation. Mr. Masson's
Essay, we repeat, is as far beyond this miserable
thing of a " Life" by one John Davis, as the eru-
dition of old Jacob Bryant is above the ignorance
of the Rev.. Dr. Maitland ! This last-mentioned
personage being, we must inform our readers, the
author, of a very slashing three-and-sixpenny pamph-
let, issued from the press a week or two back at
Rivingtons. • "Chatterton : an Essay" —it is
entitled. -And it isa production avowedly given to
the world just now, because of the recent appear:-
ance in a new and more elaborated form of Mr.
Masson's scholarly and picturesque Essay, entitled
" A story of the year 1770." How any, one in-
spired with any sentiment of Christian charitable-
ness how aboveSll an ecclesiastic like the Rev. S.
R. Maitland, D.D.,. F.R.S., and F.S. A., could
'deliberately pen an.,Essay such as this one upon
Chatterton, we must protest at once altogether
passes our comprehension. Consider, for a mo-
ment, what it literally is. It is.a harsh, a cruel,
and even; let us say at once,- in one.word—a brutal
attack upon the memory.of a poor boy who died.
nearly eighty-seven years ago in London, notori-
ously and undeniably by an act of self-murder, to
which. he was driven by the pbrenzy .of despair and
the pangs of absolute starvation I And it is the
memory of this poor boy that Dr. Maitland now
deliberately holds up (after all these eighty-seven
years have gone' by) to public scorn, ridicule, eta
reprobation 1 Why ? Because of any new facts he
can adduce—because of any grand discoveries he
has made—because of any fresh light he can throw
upon the philological problem involved in the once
stormy contest about Rowley and Chatterton ?
Nothing of the sort I Simply, literally, actually
for this one very insufficient reason that Dr. Mait-
land has somehow got into his head the whimsical
old crotchet that Rowley was the real Simon Pure
after all, and that Chatterton had little or nothing
whatever to do with the authorship of the poems
attributed to Rowley. Dr. Maitland swallows with-
out the smallest hesitation whatever the whole of
that nonsensical farrago of absurdity—purporting
to be a copy from an unauthenticattd pencilled
report of the Coroner's Inquest upon the body of
Chatterton--contributed to "Notes and Queries"
on the sth of February, 1853, by Mr. Gutch, the
possessor of "the innumerable (sic !) newspaper
and magazine cuttings which belonged to
Mr. Hazlewood." An unauthenticated pen-
cilled report of the _ inquest,, crammed with
the most . egregious blunders proving to
our mired, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the
glaring fact of its being altogether a monstrous fa-
brication. Stating, for example, that the inquest
was held on " Friday, the 27th of August, irro,"
when the 27th of August in that year fell on a
Monday ! Calling the house -where Chatterton
died, in Brooke-street,, " No. 17,'",when it was,- on
the contrary, " No. 4p' Omitting all mention of -
either Mary Foster or William Hamsley as wit-
nesses giving evidence upon the occasion before the
coroner—when the fact that those witnesses did
give such evidence (as well as the other fact
that the house was No. 4) was "proved" by the
inquiries made as to the whole of those occurrences
as near to the actual time when they transpired as
the year 1789—inquiries then instituted personally
by the Rev. Sir Herbert Croft, Bart., the author
of "Loie and Madness." But while Dr. Maitlan d;
be it observed, can listen with respectful creduliay
to the cook-and-bull story put forward in Notes

Five ran.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.—(This Day.)

BANKRUPTCY COURT.
(Before Mr. Commissioner Fonblanque.)

IN RE WEBB.

Adjournment sine die without protection. Thia bank-
rupt was described as of Pods wood, timber merchant,
and to-day was appointed for his last examination, which
bad been adjourned in consequence of the accounts being
unsatisfactory.

Mr. Bagley, for the assignees, opposed the bankiupt's
Passing. He said that the first balance-sheet was so
unsatisfactory that the bankrupt was ordere 1 to file an
amended balance-sheet, together with an account of
certain bill transactions of a very suspicious nature.
An amended balance-sheet had been filed, but the two
accounts were so greatly at variance that no dependence
could be placed on either, but the bankrupt had not kept
any books to enable the assignees to investigate them, and
as there was no estates they were unwilling to incur any
further expense ; the bankrupt had not furnished any
account of the bills. There was also another very suspici-
ous circumstance; the bankrupt alleged that he had made
a settlement on his wife, but t're solicitor who was
the attesting witness had since died, and his so❑ and the
managing clerk denied that it had ever been drawn in
their aim, and both believed that the signature was not
that of the deceased. Under the circumstances he (Ur.
Bagley) applied for an adjournment sine die.
The Bankrupt persisted that the signature was genuine.
His Honour said that any other accounts would be
mere moonshine. He should therefore adjourn the case
sine die without protection.

LONDON AND SOUTH-WESTERN
RAILWAY.

MEETING THIS DAY.

The half-yearly ordinary meeting of the shareholders
in this undertaking was held this afternoon, at the
Waterloo Station, Waterloo-road. Mr. W._J. Chaplin,
M.P., in the chair.

The report and statement of accounts, which have
already appeared in The Sun, were taken as read.

The CHAIRMAN congratulated the meetingon the agree-
able change of figures relative to the dividend since
June 30, 1850. Then he had to propose a dividend of
3 per cent., and now 3, making 6 per cent, on the
year. The passenger traffic was very satisfactory, and
out of 76 stations only 6 had experienced any diminution
of receipts, and that only to the aggregate amount
of 1661. He then referred to the auticable state of fed-
ing existing with this and the other railways except the
South-Eastern Railway, respecting their branch from
Reigate to Reading. The returns showed that the traffic
on the line would be satisfactory, whether in peace or
war, and congratulated the shareholders on their work-
ing expenses being as low as that of any company. He
called attention to the present mode of assessing rail-
ways to local rates, and said that those rates amounted
to about 10 per cent, on the profits, which, with
7 per cent. income tax, and a sum of 8,5001. paid
in stamps for transfers, &C., made a deduction
from the profits of 27 per cent. The hon. gentleman
then called attention to the ten schemes of railways
before Parliament likely to affect this company.
He had much pleasure in informing them that
the Great Western Railway Company had nothing
to do with the Southampton and Salisbury scheme.
He made that statemhnt on a communication made
by Lord Barrington, the chairman of the South
Western Cem
by moving the adoption of
Company, to some of the Directors
of R
line,ai Railway
concludedthe report. (Hear, hear.)
this
Mr. TITE, M.P., seconded the motion, and said that
he regretted they were again compelled to fight the
battle of the gauges, and considered that the opposition
should be entrusted confidently to the directors.
They had arrived at a time of prosperity when some-
thing might be done to benefit the porters and
railway guards by increasing their income.
He thought they should begin at the top,
for the directors were not properly paid, and descend in
the scale, increasing each of their officers' and servants'
salaries. They only gave the porters 16s. a week, and
took from them every other Sunday. Their wages were
reduced is. in 1848, and as the times had changed, to
the prejudice of the poor man, at least the is. should be
restored. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. ASHMORE called the attention of the meeting to
the large sums paid fur law charges. For the last three
and a half years the company had, paid—in Dec., 1853,
the sum of 25,7411. ; in 1854, 10,625/. ; in 1855, 6,9631.;
and In the last half-year, 7,0751. He would rather give
the solicitor 1,5001. a-year, and allow him to practise,
than pay him according to the present mode. (Hear.)
He would move a resolution, after the adoption of the
report, to the above effect, the salary to include every-
thing except charges out of pocket. and Parliamentary
agencies, Mr. Bircham to pay his own clerks out of that
sum.

Mr. Sergeant GAZELEE said that the servants were
now receiving adequate salaries ; he had lately been
gradually increasing their salaries. The porters com-
menced with 165., and advanced yearly, with clothes in
addition, and as a proof` of the porters being well paid,
the directors were pestered out of their lives for applica-
tions to fill such situations, and woe betide the director
who belonged to a borough.(Laughter.)
Mr. PUN HARD said that with the exception of the
dividend there was nothing in the report for congratu-
lation. This report, he thought, would have a serious
,
effect on the market. He asked to be informed what
was the actual liability of the company to capital.
Mr. CLOSE (A.uditor) said that the accounts showed
-it, with the exception of 9,0001.
Mr. PUNCHARD said that the accounts did not show
the actual amount of the capital by 200,0001.

Mr. HOYES (auditor) said that Mr. Punchard was in
error, and nothing could be put forward more plain than
the capital account in the statements of accounts. The
auditors would have much pleasure in going through the
account with any shareholder. The capital account
was exceedingly clear ; and the books were kept with
perfect accuracy.

Mr. UzIEL LI explained that a discrepancy appeared to
exist in the capital account of 65,0001., owing to the
abandonment of certain land and lines that had caused
their power to call up capital to lapse.
[We shall give the continuation in our last edition.]

cold Quotes by Mr. Gutch, of Worcester, a cock- -and those of Venice, by land wide e-the great
and-hull story taken from the pencilled rub- General Carlo Zeno,, and by water,under the great
'Ash of the Lord-Knows-Who-.this same inge- ' Admiral Vittorio Pisani. At firaevirrything ap-
t:lir:MS Dr.. Maitland, who is all the while so j peared to threaten the latter (Venice) with destruc-
very scurrilous in his abuse of the dead boy Chat- tion ; but, as' our author says most strikingly in
terton,_ :virtually acknowledges his ignorance in the very preamble of his narrative, "The hour of
regard .: to the;credibility and, in point of fact; i her desperation was the dawn of her deliverance."
also in regard to the very origin of Sir Herbert How it proved to be so " The Dead Bridal"
Croft's." Love and Madness:" which he nevertheless relates—and relates, to our mind, ranch 'more
quotes from abundantly, and at one part flippantly I attractively than it does the loves and lives
stigmhtises (p. 96) as "a silly and discreditable of Bianca the heroine and Giulio the hero,
book." , -Aca significant token, ,however, of the ;of Hodge of the Hill, or of that my-ate--
profound knowledge of the. Chatterton Question ! rious personage who, much more' than Giulio,
which this very sensible and sagacious Dr. Maitland ; appears to be the real-hero of the story—proving,
Malaprop says,
brings to bear upon it, with & view to its clucida- in. the end, " three gentlemen at once," as Mrs.
tion—take: Lis reference, in "Note 7," -p. 97; to " like Cerberus" ;—:24sser Giro-
that incidental remark made by Robert Southey lir lamo Mole, otherwise the Sien' Jaakues de la
his letter to John May, Nov. 23d 1802—" I have Mole, otherwise the Greek Doctor Demetrius ;
taken no notice of Croft." To which Dr. Maitland the attraction of the "Dead Bridal" being its
itetiNely appends this confession of ignorance on his revival of certain grand hiStorical recollections.
own part, saying "I should like to know what
Southey meant by that little parenthetical notice
of
_Sir Herbert Croft." Indeed ? With such
flagrant ignorance, anent the mere outlines of the
Chattettun Controversy, as this innocent avowal

testifies—perhaps it 'night have been as well, Dr.
Maitland, had you been a little less dogmatical
upon the question at issue, had you bien a little
lees arrogant in tone,. a little less insolent in the
depreciation of the moral and intellectual powers of
one, in r-gard to whom you only know things—
obviously—by , halves I Southey's reference to
Croft, in that letter written on the 23d of Nov.,
1802, to Mr. May, we can very easily explain to
The bewildercd mind of Dr. Maitland. Shortly
after the beginning of the present century, Southey
designed to aid Chatterton 's sister (Mrs. Newton)
and her daughter, by editing a collected edition
of the Boy-Poet's writings. To which end
he publiehtrd certain " Proposals, &e.," iu
the pages of the Monthly Magazine ; iu these pro •
posals expitining sundry proceedings on the part
of Sir Herbert Croft, not very creditable to that Rev.
BarObet. Croft was at the time resident in Copen-
hagen. Nevertheless he heard of this in due course,
through the kind offices, no doubt, of some of those
" d—d good-natured friends" Sheridan describes
as ever ready to make us all acquainted with
something said or done to our disadvantage. Where-
fore, in " rage and resentment untameable," be
issued a pamphlet in defence of himself against th•
accusations contained in the " Proposals, &c." in
a then recent number of the Monthly Magazine.
Croft exclaiming -in this pamphlet, among other
similar things-7" I cannot be expected by any man
of honour or feeling to descend to answer a scurri-
lous person, signing himself Robsit Southey !"
Upon . which,. Joseph Cottle has remarked
rather humorously—" yet he is answering
him I" ' That—we take it—is the meaning
of Southey's writing to May, 23d November,
1802, "I have taken no notice of Croft"—signify-
ing to his friend that he has taken no notice of
this pamphlet, written by Croft at Copenhagen,
in reply to the " Proposals, &c.," in the Monthly
Magazine. If Dr. Maitland cares to, examine
the • matter more in detail, he will find his
curiosity' may be readily satisfied by turning
to Southey's " Life and Correspondence,"
vol. ii., p. 186, and to Cottle's " Recollections
of Coleridge, lac.,"p. 266. Enough,
however he whole of this most illogical
and bungling argument, put forward by Dr. Mait-
land in his egregiously preposterous pamphlet
about Chttterton,*, says as much for the ascerbity of
the author of that pamphlet, and as little for his
astuteness, as the "Story of 1770" speaks well for
the clear mind and the gentle heart of Mr. Masson.
Shame to the one ! Honour to the other !
Chatterton —could he note either—might laugh
to scorn the perverse vituperation of his assailant,
and exult in the genial sympathies of one of the
latest and one of the ablest of his appreciators.

THE POPE AND HIS CHAPLAIN-MAJOR.

• ROME, Feb. 5 .—lt is rare for any long period to
go by without affording some fresh example-of the
Pope's benevolence and generosity towards the in-
digent classes of his subjects. An amusing instance
of his Holiness's accessibility took place at the. Vati-
can a few days ago, when a little boy presented him-
self in the outer ante-chamber of the apostoliwapart-
ment and begged to be admitted to the presence of
the Pontiff. It may be imagined with what surprise
this request was received by the palace servants, and
how they endeavoured to make the child understand
the incongruity of his demand. Whilst the affair was
under discussion, a cameriere segreto of his Holiness
passed through the ante-chamber, and having the
curiosity to learn what was the matter, referiedit, as a
good joke, to the Pope himself. Pio None, how-
ever, gave orders for the child to be admitted.to his
presence, and having questioned him as to the
reason of his wishing for an audience, heard that
the boy had an earnest desire to study, but that his
parents, unable to procure him the necessary books,
always put him off with an assurance that the Pope
would buy them for him. To effect the realisation
of this promise the boy had made thebest of his
way to the Vatican, and promptly informed his
Holiness that the works indispensable for the pro-
secution of his studies would cost fif. ysthree pauls.
The Pope directed the cameriere segreto to
give him two dollars (twenty pauls,, but the
boy said that he could not buy. his books
with that, so his Holiness benevolently took
out two gold coins of fire dollars each acid pre-
sented them to the enraptured child,' who
forthwith made off towards the bookseller's shop,
followed by an officer of the Pope's household, who
had orders to observe his movement 4. Being in-
formed tdat the boy bad really appropriated the re-
quired money to the purchase of books, and that
he had consigned the remainder to his mother, the
Pope took an interest in him and allotted a monthly
sum for his education in the career of letters to
which he seemed so much attached. Another less
edifying but not less amusing anecdote has been
current in Rome for the last few days, at the ex-
pense of the chaplain-major of the Pope's army. It
-
appears that this prelate, being dissatisied with the
conduct of an officer in the foreignre.gimeut, threat-
ened to have him cashiered, unlesve3rtain relations
he maintained were discontinued. The resentment of
the officer, however, whether real orimaginary, gave
rise to some subsequent misgivings in the pre-
late's breast, which the recent attacks upon eccle-
siastical dignitaries were by no means calculated to
soothe. Meanwhile the officer, having become ac-
quainted at Forli with a nobleman of that town,
Count Gaddi, a relation of the Pope, who is now
in Rome and enjoys a certain degree of influence,
begged his good offices to appease the wrath of
Monsignor Tizzani, the chaplain-major. The count,
although unacquainted with the prelate, promised
to call upon him for the desired purpose, but re-
quested to be informed at what hoar he was most
likely to find him disengaged.
This the officer undertook to d'scover, and going
to the chaplain's residence for that purpose, gave
five pauls to one of the servants, requesting him to
give admittance to a gentleman who would call
about two o'clock, and who wished to speak with
the prelate on urgent business,
Monsignor Tizzani, being informed of this cir-
cumstance by his zealous servant, conceived great
alarm, and felt sure that some emissary of the
officer's vengeance, or some ferocious follower of
Verger's example, was seeking au audience for
homicidal purposes. He therefore prudently sum-
moned to his aid a sergeant of gendarmes, who pro-
posed to lie iu wait with some of his men during
the visit to prevent any aggressive act on the part
of the visitor ; but the cautious prelate sagaciously
supposing that a blow with a poignard would be
sooner received than prevented, declined
adopting that plan, and. intimated, that the
sergeant himself had better assume the prelatical
gown for the nonce, and give audience in
his name. to the mysterious visitor. The valorous
gendarme philosophically complied—" cedant arena
togce," was the motto acted upon ; his uniform
disappeared under the purple robe, his moustaches
were hidden in an ample wrapper, under pretence
of suffering from a violent toothache • and the room
being darkened with curtains, the unconscious
Count Gaddi was admitted. Having exposed the
requestedhe eoii tnt wh ea
ipterde aftoer's a indulge
reply nwc
he i feohr,
ei
raieesn his
da,n dt
of
course, the gendarme, who expe3ted an assault
rather than a petition, was not prepared to give in
a very explicit form, and the prelate, who was
anxiously listening to the conversation from an
adjoining door, cut matters short by sending a ser-
vant to say that dinner was .ready, at which an-
nouncement the sham monsignor started up, and
the count withdrew, much surprised at his
mumbling voice and strange uncertainty of
manner. It was only on his complaining to Car-
dinal Bofondi of his want of success that the meta-
morphosis was discovered, for the cardinal sent his
own secretary to intercede with monsignor, who at
once confessed his own alarm and the stratagem he
had used to avoid the supposed dangerous inter-
view. All Rome is laughing at this adventure,
and Monsignor Tizzani amongst the rest ; but the
Pope is said to be doubly displeased—first, at his
relation being considered a perilous visitor; and
next, at a gendarme being so unceremoniously in-
ducted into prelatical garb.
On Monday morning the customary solemnity of
Candlemas took place at St. Peter's, when his
Holiness blessed the splendidly adorned tapers,
and distributed them to the members of the Sacred.
College, the civil, military, and ecclesiastical autho-
rities, and the diplomatists and foreigners whose
religion qualifies them for the reception of the pre-
sent. Queen Christina, with her family and suite,
assisted as usual in a royal box.
Piince Orsini, Marquis Ferraioli, and Signor
Jacobini have been deputed by the provincial coun-
cil of Rome and Comarca to present their grateful
thanks to his Holiness, in the name of the pro-
vince, for his generous gift of twelve thousand
scudi to alleviate the distress of the inhabitants of
the neighbouring
villages, who are still suffering
from the partial failure of the wine crop. The
money has been devoted to improving the road to
Marina, in which work the indigent labourers of
that district are judiciously employed.—Correspon-
dent of Daily News.

Whatever may be said to the contrary,' the glory
of Rowl4 is Chatterton's glory—the fabricated
" original" (so to designate them) now preserved
in the British Museum, are the certificates of his
literary fame and the testimonials of his poetical
reputation. If he has been depreciated by Dean
Mulles, and jeered at by Mr. Bryant, and (eighty-
seven years after he has been dead and buried)
scurrilously assailed in regard to his moral and
intellectual character by Dr. Maitland—Chatter-
ton has been applauded by Dr. Johnson ! He has
been eulogised by Shelley He has been lamented
by Coleridge—,commended. by Scott—respectfully
edited by Southey,-mentioned with all honour by
Canipbell, with all admiration by Byron, with all
grace by
.Wordsworth, with all tenderness of feel-
ing by James. Montgomerft, Malone, and Tyrwhitt,
and Warton, and: ooer, great, critics of the last as
well as of the present century have paid their
hoMage to" his genius. _ Sohn Keats inscribed to
'hismemory his maiden poem of `,4yperion." Al-
fred de Vigny has selected his career as the theme
of an eloquent romance and of a pathetic drama.
David Masson has tbrowi over the recollection of
his life and death, of his genius and of his sufferings,
the vivifying glow of a sympathetic imagination.

The Dead Bridal. A Venetian, Tale of the Fourteenth
Century. Ry Jonathan Freko Slingsby. Ward
and L.ck. ,
A historical romance, this is, which may be de-
scribed correctly, we believe, as a cheap reprint
from a cheap periodical. Yet a reprint though it
is, it is one entitled, we conceive, to some particu-
lar notice of this kind, if only in consideration of
the abilities displayed elsewhere by its writer, as
well as in consideration, also, in a very especial
manner; of the new field that writer has here, by
one bold venture, opened up to the English imagi-
nation. Tn Jonathan Freke Slingsby will be re-
cognised at once the gay and sparkling writer,
until" very recently the assiduous and accomplished
editor, of the Dublin University Magazine. An
editor who oectipied in that position, with honour
to himself and credit to his organ, the post once
held by the vivacious .and vigorous baud of our
delightful friend Harry Lorrequer ! A writer,
moreover (J. F..Blingsby, to wit), who has for a
long, while past shone refulgently among the con-
tributors to the Dublin Universtty Magazine as a
sort of a North-Ingoldsby-Fettilletonist I Equally
clever in prose and verse, in mingled lyrics and
criticisms—riani and sunshiny throughout. Here
is this Venetian romance of the 14th Century,
called " The Dead Bridal" a glaringly mis-
nomer, by the way, as the story proves—
the quondam editor, the perennial contri-
butor to the Dublin University Magazine, comes
before iv, as it were, under the light of a new
phase of his manifold and multifarious intellectual
accomplishments. He evidences, in the tale before
us, a reinsrkable familiarity with the old Italian
Chronicles. He shows himself to be eminently
well read in a somewhat recondite branch of Eu-
ropean. literature. He evinces a ready sympathy,
for the times of which he writes, and an intimate
acquaintance with its customs and costumes, its
plcturesque aspect, and its peculiarly mediaeval
associations. Yet, as a romancist, we cannot induce
ourselves to believe that, in this, his Venetian story
of the "Dead Bridal," its author has in any
*ay done himself justice. As a historical romancist
—as a Creator of Life under the ribs of Death—
we cannot but feel that the writer of these twenty-
one chapters, has been somehow ibraramelled,
that his fancy has, in its• restricted compass,
-been, in a measure, " cabined, cribbed, con-
fined." We prefer to regard the tale less as a
work done, than as the forerunner of a much
-better work to be done. An historical romance
.7--(let us suppose, relating to the same epoch,
an epoch to English Story Tellers perfectly ..new
and unhackneyed)—a novel born from the Italian
annals, having an ampler scope and a wider signifi-
cance. We cannot for.an instant accept the " Dead
Bridal" as a token of all that the gay and. gifted
Slingsby can do in the way of historically romanc-
ng. We are fain to look upon it, now that we
have carefully read it through from Preface to Con-
clusion, as the predecessor of some other production
(kindred in design), evidencing more ripened powers
and a more mellowed imagination. Scattered up
and down the work, here immediately under oournotiee, are various descriptions, however, entitle d o
considerable praise, if only by reason of theme
1 vtehe
animatel completeness. Take, "ai
of the
following passage, picturesquely delineative
Condottieri like the other
"The Venet'ans did not
oflil thet. secure,Condottieri, one band
states of Italy, the services
hun-
dred infantry, were cowl] b
of which, consisting ofahaurindtedblyanitc/ratnod four
t
English, yan Engl.ish knight of
with their
Groups of these soldiers were now
the
ed
naanmeethoefr,Chcohkieefl.y
atorobbeers7ewnithfrotieheierveloryngqhuoarwteer; of Europe
ponderous and unwieldy arblasts and bolts tipped with
heads of square steel ; and with them were men with the
huge shield called the pavison, which was held before
the archer to protect him while he discharged his die.
sale ; there, too, were the men-at-arms, with the lance
whiling
supersedingng a w ay
the
thee ttediousness
chainieus
evmee
neometriolae; snail. and the sword, clothed partially in plate armour, which
oothienragcatimones,boyrpelhayatintigngaotvdericteheanj tnohafi Most
twhagesejuwsetreth;
in ,Which they had been engaged, with all the gay noL•
chalance of men whose trade is arms, and
ehieoesee:!tountry
is
Thethe land
particular that
eforristihse
otfi mveehnierte
Venetian
enir. set
History
in "The Dead Bridal" is that is
known to the readers
vhopaesrewtiroiaouoidiss
of Italian History the described
as period of the War of the
Chioggia. The belligerents being the Genoese and
the Venetians. The Doge of the Hour being old
Andrea Contarini. The warriors of Genoa fighting
successively under Luciano Doria alld Pietro Dona

* Chatterton : an Essay. By the Rev. S. R• Maitland'
D.D., F.R.S. and F.S.A. Pp. 110. London :
tons: 1857.