The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-23 00:00:00

~f

Inglis had lost his living for persisting in making
it for George the Third. One of the most impres •
sive and interesting descriptions is that given of
the visit to Washington's Tomb :
" At last, through the trees, you come upon what seems
to be the ruins of a cemetery, where, in front of a red
brick wall, a few white marble columns, hemmed in by
rusty iron railings, stand like sentries of the dead. Move
round to the front of this walljand before you is a hollow
arched gateway, shut in by double iron gates. Within this
gloomy recess are two white marble coffin-shaped sarco-
phagi, which reflect a wan and ghastly lighkover the little
vault. That to the left bears the inscription, Martha,
consort of Washington ;' on the other is simply cut, in
massive heavy letters, the one word ' Washington. Beyond
this there is nothing ; and nothing else is needed, for the
history of a world is carved in those ten deep letters. There
is no pomp of woe about the spot. I almost wish there
were, for now the tomb has the plainness that sprirfgs from
neglect, and from neglect a fast decay will rise in time.
Over the bricks creep wild and tangled shrubs—weeds,
rubbish, and mortar are littered in front, while all around
it is a dirty, thriftless waste, like the remains of a shrub-
bery in which a building once stood. No pious care seems
to have ever tended this neglected grave, none by to shield
it from the desecration of idle profanity. It is here alone
in its glory, uncared for, unvisited, unwatched, with the
night-wind for its only mourner sighing through the waste
of trees, and strewing the dead brown leaves like ashes
before the tomb. Such is the grave of Washington !
" Where may the wearied eye repose
While gazing on the Great,
Where neither guilty glory glows
Nor despicable state ?
Yet one, the greatest, last, and best,
Thke Cincinnatus of the West,
Whom envy dared not hate,
Bequeathed the name of Washington,
To make man blush there was but one."
" Before this humble tomb, the Prince, the President,
and all the pasty stood uncovered. It is easy moralising
en his visit, for there is something grandly suggestive of
historical retribution in the reverential awe of the Prince
of Wales, the great-grandson of George 111., standing
bareheaded at the foot of the coffin of Washington. What
may not history bring forth ? The descendants of a rege-
nerated line of Hapsburgs may yet do honour at the tomb
of Garibaldi. For a few moments the party stood mute
and motionless, and the Prince then proceeded to plant a
Chesnut by the side of the tomb. It seemed when the royal
youth closed in the earth around the little germ, that he
was burying the last faint trace of discord between us and
our great brethren in the West. May it be so, and may
no American in times hereafter think of the tomb of Wash-
ington without remembering the friendly visitor who
planted the tree in whose grateful shadow it reposes. May
the act live in the 'memories of both nations, green as the
offering that records it, and Britons recollect that in this
graceful rite of homage to the memory of one whom we
must now strive to claim as our descendant, the Prince did
honour to himself and his nation."
When the exciting events that daily occur, and the
stealing lapse of time shall have dimmed the vivid
recollection of this momentous visit, some may be
glad to refresh their memories by dwelling on the
pages of this volume, which has chronicled in an
attractive form, and narrated in eloquent language
the occurrences of the Royal visit to the Republic.
" A chiel's among ye takin' notes
And faith he'll prent it," ,
which was held out as a threat by the poet, is cer-
tainly one of the great advantages of the increased
spread of knowledge, and enables us now to know the
minutiae of passing events of importance, and here-
after to recall their chief points of significance.

Political Ballads of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth
Centuries, Annotated. By W. Walker Wilkins.
2 vols. Longman.
The motto on the title page aptly illustrates this
work. " More solid things do not show the com-
plexion of the times so well as ballads and libels."
The publication of these volumes is matter of con-
gratulation to those desirous of acquainting them-
selves with these verses of a past age, which are
of great significance in regard to their utterance of
prevalent sentiments, and if they have now lost the
vest which actual events gave, and the piquancy
with which personality endued them, as the
satirists and satirized have alike passed away; they
are still replete with interest. They speak through
the medium of absurd jokes in some instances, and
coarse allusions in many cases, but they are nerved
with a power that more important writers could
not always put into more solid compositions, that
were to stand the test of critics high in authority,
and yet fearful of being arraigned before the bar of
public opinion. The immense influence that these
songs exercise over social opinion is forcibly expressed
in the well-known adage "If I were permitted to make the ballads of a nation I should not care who
made its laws." In the preface there is an enter-
taining account of the various collections of ballads, and the scheme that the editor has generally
adopted in the difficult task he has undertaken. It
is said that "while every other department of
literature has. been thoroughly explored, amplified,
and variously illustrated, our modern political
songs and ballads, the best popular illustrations of
history constitute the solitary exception to the
general rule," and it is argued further on in the
remarks, "There are, however, few compositions,
more interesting in themselves, or that offer
more valuable material to the historical in-
quirer than these ephemeral produtcions,
in the absence of these artless expressions
our social history would be incomplete. They
exhibit as well the manners and the feelings of
past generations. The student, by looking nar-
rowly into them, may oftentimes be enabled to
deduce most important conclusions respecting the
origin and issue of former insurrections and fac-
tions, just in the same manner as the geologist
Who, detecting on the surface of the sedimentary
rock the latest impression of some primeval storm,
or the footpaths of races long extinct determines
the course of the one and the character of the other."
After quoting some pertinent observations of a
writer on political literature, concerning the pri-
vileges dud immunities of song writers, and hence
the vast importance of their compositions during a
Period when tyranny represses the free expression
of public opinion, the editor proceeds to remark on
the attention paid to this sort of composition by
a bright and shining star of literature. "The real
value and importance of such ephemeral produc-
tions may be best discerned in the volumes of the
late Lord Macaulay, the only native historian who
has thought them worthy of his particular study
and use. It is no disparagement to the literary
fame of that distinguished writer to affirm that
they have imparted to his pages a vitality which
the profoundest knowledge of the principles of
human action, combined with the greatest erudie
tion and the highest descriptive powers could never
have effected without them. It was from these
long neglected picture-writings of great historical
scenes, and of the celebrated individuals who are
crowded in them, "in their habit as they lived,"
that he derived so much of all that related to the
stirring times of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. To these despised and inexhaustible
sources of information he was principally indebted
for his life-like delineations of character, for his
descriptions of popular commotions, and not unfre-
quently for his knowledge of the motives by which
public men were actuated, at particular conjunc-
tures, in their conduct." In conclusion, it is stated
that it was the intention to include the political
ballads of note in the reigns of the last two Georges,
had not space prevented; but that should the
present series meet with public approval, the re-
mainder will be forthcoming at a future period. It
is to be hoped that this will be the case, and con-
sidering the interest and importance of the contents
of these volumes, and the skill with which their
arrangements have been executed, there is every
reason to entertain the confident epectation that
such will be the result. After an elaborate inves-
tigation into the musty folios of an earlier genera-
tion, it is but fair and just that the explorer should
be rewarded by the meed of approving testimony
fromthosefor whom he has opened " the treasures of
antiquity laid up in old historic scrolls." Some
of the most striking or noticeable verses in the col-
lection are here quoted, and, at all events, they
may serve to illustrate the mode then in vogue of
expressing approval or declaiming censure by the
pa nsters and rhymesters of the day :
TUB ANAROHIE, OR THE BLESSED REFORMATION
tiriv-cE 1640.
Now that, thanks to the Powers •
below,
We have e'en done our do,
The mitre is down,
nc
ACome
ews oci
ltiohswttnhhsee,
mcarntodhwen come coronetboytso, o ;
Come hober-de-hoys,
Come females of each degree •
' Stretch your throats, bring in Your votes,7
And make good the Anarehie.
And thus it shall go, says Alice,
Nay, thus it shall go, says Amy ;
Nay, thus it shall go, says Taffy, I trove,
Nay, thus it shall go, says janay.
Ah I but the truth, good people all,
The truth is such a thing,
For it would undo, both Church and State too,
And cut the throat of our king ;
Yet not the Spirit, nor the new light,
Can make this point so clear;
But thou must bring out, thou deified rout,
What thing the truth is, and where.
Speak Abraham, speak Koster, speak Judith, speak
Hester,
Speak tag and rag, short coat and long ;
Truth's the spell made us rebel,
And murder and plunder, ding-dong.
Sure I have the truth, says Numph ;
Nay, I ha' the truth, says Clemme ;
Nay, I ha' the truth, says Reverend Ruth ;
Nay, I ha' the truth, says Nem.

TILE NEW LITANY.
Prom an extempore prayer and a godly ditty,
From the churlish pvernment of a city,
Fro the power of a country committee
Fr t _
Turk, the Pope, and the ScoLttlibsehranantiosn' D,
°mine'
.rem being governed by proclamation,
Aml from art old Protestant, quite out of fashion,
Libera,
tora meddling with those that are out of our reaches,
Froy.nin a fighting priest, and
it
soldier that preaches,
-4 inorautus that writes, and a woman that teaches,
14ibera, &c,