The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-02 00:00:00

THE

TNES.

Blackwood's Magazine.

There is an article on " Th'e Ministry and the
Budget," which is very admirably done, and ex-
poses in a very striking manner the many blunders
that are made by the bright and particular star
who now irradiates the financial horizon, and is
supposed by his admirers to be a heaven-sent
Minister born to suit the special occasion. The
following remarks on his abilities are very accurate,
and demonstrate the difference between theoretical
and practical talent :
" The bent of his mind is speculative and theoretical.
Like other fine scholars, his capacity for the discharge of
ordinary business is limited ; but distrust of his own powers
is a sensation which he never felt, and his ambition, fos-
tered by vanity, has become so exorbitant, that he consi-
ders himself eminently well fitted to perform the duties of
any office within the wide range of administration.
' We must, however, be allowed to distinguish between
the qualities which make a man a dexterous, keen, and
fluent debater, and those which recommend him to the
public trust and confidence as a wise and provident steward.
Beyond all question, Mr. Gladstone is in possession of the
one ; but that he can lay claim to the other we broadly and
unhesitatingly deny."

After a masterly exposition of the discrepancies
that exist in his statements in many cases, and the
one-sided view he persists in taking of important
questions, it is said in summing up the various
points of the argument, "It means simply this,
Mr. Gladstone, admitting all his brilliant qualities,
is the wrong man in the wrong place. An experi-
enced clerk from any mercantile house would be a
much better and safer Chancellor of the E xchequer."
After alluding to the danger that threatens if Mr.
Gladstone will institute a sweeping reduction of
the national expenditure by striking at the
army and navy estimates to suit the views of
the Peace party he has lately done his best
to propitiate, this excellent article concludes
thus :

" Well, then, if we cannot reduce the expenditure, what
is in store for us next year, if we lop away the paper duty,
but an augmentation of the income-tax ? Money cannot
be raised now from any other source, though Mr. Glad •
stone, emulous of distinguishing himself in every line of
character, has come out as a ehiffionier or rag-picker, and
improves his leisure moments by groping in the kennel for
casual pence. Many years ago he was impressed by a say-
ing of the late Dr. Chalmers regarding the power of the
penny ; but he totally misunderstood the application, for
in his view a million of pence are equivalent to the pence of
the million. So, last year, he inflicted a small Egyptian
lice-plague upon merchants, in the shape of infinitesimal
stamps, which really added nothing appreciable to the re-
venue, while it materially obstructed trade ; and this year,
he smites at chicory, renders it an unlawful thing to light
a cigar in a tobacconist's shop unless the owner pays an
additional duty, and follows the pharasaical method of tak-
ing tithes of mint and cumin, while neglecting the
weightier matters of the law. After having deliberately-
and most attentively perused the Budget speech, and con-
sidered it in all its bearings, we have no other•advice to
give to the ratepayers of Britain than the wholesome but
often-neglected warning of the police—' Gentlemen, look to
your pockets 1' "

" Mrs. Beauchamp's Vengeance " is a very smart
little tale, which exemplifies the mistakes that
vanity will lead folks to commit. The plot is very
ingenuously contrived, and the reader is kept in
the dark till quite the end. It is not often that one
finds a denouement so skilfully brought in. " The
Executor" is another story that is clever in its way,
it relates the troubles that befell many parties in
consequence of a certain lady being possessed of
more money at her death than had been supposed
likely by her connections. There is a paper on
" Motley's History of the Netherlands," which is
worthy of perusal, and it is said that " The value
of Mr. Motley's additions may be, and already has
been exaggerated, but that the materials which he
has brought to light fully justify the great literary
enterprise he has undertaken, there can be no doubt."
" The Euthanasia of the Ottoman -Empire" is an
elaborate treatise that deserves careful study from
those who have leisure to devote to abstract ques-
tions. The consideration of the Life of the Right
Hon. William Pitt, by Earl Stanhope, is another
valuable addition to this month's number, and
claims that attention that an important subject
ably treated always deserves from persons of all
shades of opinion, and the reader may say of the
writer of this criticism what he himself says, in his
concluding,words, of the author—" We thank him
for the large measure both of instruction and amuse-
ment which he has afforded us."

Dublin University Magazine.
The story of "An Only Son" is continued a
some length, and improves on acquaintance. Ned
Locksley is a fine spirited young man, who attracts
our interest by his fearless bearing, and impresses
all around him by his bold determination. The
account of his baffling the bullying set among
whom he was thrown is very exciting and enter-
taining. There are other events described in the
last chapter which are peculiar, and also are ably
narrated: The circumstance of the idiot boy
coming
forward to give evidence at a critical junc-
ture, and thus turning the course of affairs is a
remarkable incident. There is a very interesting
article on " Sir William Napier," which is on a
subject that can hardly fail to arrest respectful
attention and to meet with sympathising readers.
All must agree in the merits of that distinguished
man, who is here appropriately spoken of as " Our
English Taeitus," as I love to call him, and as such,
without doubt, as the greatest of all our military
historians, his brave bright name will survive
perennially in the national remembrance. There
are many who have dwelt on his stirring descrip-
tion and brilliant eloquence who will subscribe to
the truth of this assertion, and it was in reference to
these triumphs that Mr. Disraeli forcibly remarked
that "Fortunate in everything, Wellington was
fortunate in having found an historian whose im-
mortal page no% ranks with the classic of the
land that Wellesley saved." There is here given a
brief account of the family of Sir William, which
is worthy of notice.
4, It is scarcely probable that the world will soon, if ever,
again witness so singular a combination of hereditary pecu-
liarities as that which distinguished the five sons of Colonel
the Hon. George Napier, of Celbridge, in the county of
Dublin. Their ancestry seems, in truth, like a famous
Parliamentary majority recorded in one of the later volumes
of Hansard,' to be nothing less than a fortuitous con-
currence.' . . . Into the main current of the historic
lineage of the Napiers, it is curious to note how many and
how important were those tributaries. They secured to it
whatever ambidexterous advantages might be supposed to
result from the infusion into the blood of the Napiers, of
the divine ichor' of two royal houses—those of Henry IV.
of France, and of Charles 11. of England. They rendered
kindred to that same heroic blood, the blood of two chival-
rous but tainted traitors to the Crown—the great Montrose
and Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Through the maternal line
they enabled these five brothers, already mentioned, collec-
tively, to claim the sympathies of relationship with Charles
Fox, the orator of the Liberal Opposition; and through the
paternal line, farther back by one or two generations, and
higher in the intellectual atmosphere, in the very empyrean
of abstract philosophy, to trace their descent directly from
the renowned inventor of logarithms, the immortal John
Napier, of Merchistoun."
At the conclusion of this most interesting sketch
we meet with the following passage that records
some of the public achievements and private cha-
racteristics of this departed worthy:—
"With a nature thrilling in its every fibre with sensi-
bility, and a temperament singularly impulsive and impas-
sioned, he combined in a wonderful degree, a judgment pre-
eminently judicial and dispassionate. In testimony of this,
it is only requisite to glance for a moment at that majestic
Plutarchian contrast or comparison with which he closes
the last chapter of the twenty-fourth book, completing his
great historic masterpiece. The celebrated peroration of
that oratorical history, in which Napier contrasts N apoleon
(whom the English annalist here designates magnani-
mously and magnificently 'the greatest man of whom his-
tory makes mention, the most wonderful commander, the
most sagacious politician, the most profound statesman),'
contrasts the groat Napoleon and Wellington. Comparing
the battle of Wellington to the stroke of the battering ram
—' down went the wall in ruins The battle of Napoleon
to the swell and dash of the mighty wave, before which
the barrier yielded and the roaring flood poured onwards,
covering all 1' As thus, in these profoundly deliberated
and crowning passages, in his record of the wars of the
Peninsula, so equally judicial and dispassionate shone the
judgment of Sir William Napier in the heat and vivacity of
conversation. It was significant of the English soldier's
impartiality, and of the English historian's magnanimous
regard of the arch foe, that in his principal room at Scirde
House (the dining-room) the only picture visible upon its
walls, a picture hung, too, in the place of honour over the
mantel-piece, was a portrait, not of Wellington, but of
Wellington's glorious antagonist. An engraving ft om
Paul de la Roche's exquisite sidelong portraiture of Napo-
leon, the King and Emperor. As the other' principal
decoration of the soldier-author's salle -a-manger, there was
displayed a noble trophy of arms upon the waste of wall
opposite the windows of the apartment—sabres and muskets
disposed in grim geometric arrangement, having as its cen-
tral feature (a gracious and grateful gt from the Sove-
reign, to be thenceforth treasured in the if
family of its reci-
pient as a priceless heirloom) the heraldic banner borne by
the hand of General Sir William Francis Patrick Napier
in the ever-memorable pageant of the great Duke's fune -
ral, In St. Paul's Cathedral."
"Minor
contains some criticisms
onsmall
hich is worth perusal,- as
poems Minstrelsy"
it exhibits for the most part an impar-
tial spirit, an d displays good taste and
However, many readers may ques-
i'dlty of the statement that it requires
a much smaller .stock of industry, talent, and
taipopnretchieatvloain
general knowledge to write two-thirds of the
novels, tales, sermons, reviews, and books.of travel,
that make their yearly appeals to public sym-
pa.thy, than to write an average volume of the
poetry that reviewers care to notice very briefly,
or in the lump." "Mina, a Modern Patriot," is
another of those sketches that have before appeared
of historical celebrities, not often thought of per-
haps, but who are, nevertheless, worthy of being
' brought prominently forward. Espozy Mina is
described as one of thoso who won enduring repu-
' tation by their exploits as guerilla leaders. His
. exciting and eventful career presents us with some
very entertaining pages. " The Prince's Drives"
is a peculiar poem, called " A Legend of the
Bouddha,". ft is written in a graceful style, and
some of the lines are very elegantly expressed.
There is a pleasing description of the garden qty