The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-14 00:00:00

mingled fear and admiration, but puzzling the most exi e-
rieneedealeulators who have attempted to predict their move-
ments.

" On the other hand, the severed tail has not been less
aimless or less erratic in its course. Abandoning or aban-
doned by its natural leaders, it was forced to sally forth
into the highways and hedges to pick up new ones. It went
into the market and bought such articles of the kind as
were for sale—mostly damaged goods of unprepossessing
appearance, which other buyers had rejected, and whose
subsequent wear has hardly made good their original cost.
It pounced upon unfortunate country gentlemen living
serenely in the complacent discharge of bucolic duties, and
designated them for positions for which neither their pre-
vious experience nor their progress in the English language
had adapted them. The collection thus made was hetero-
geneous and unpromising enough. When first this scratch
crew were set to work, their appearance was so raw that
people concluded it must be a practical joke of their noble
leader, who was known to have the capacity of taking his
diversion out of most sublunary affairs. But in the
nature of things, defects of this kind mend of themselves
by lapse of time. If a considerable party will only wait,
it is certain to gather leaders for itself, whether by develop-
ing young talent, or enticing the old to its standard ; and
as ministries go, the present Government, taking them
man for man with the last, would, with scarcely an excep-
tion, be very far from making a discreditable figure in the
world, if only somebody would give them an outfit of prin-
ciples."
The second paper is a most discriminative and
scholarly treatise upon " Mr. Gladstone's Homeric
Studies,' in which the eminent Greek scholar and
the still more eminent English statesman, receives
his due meed of cordial praise and severe reprehen-
sion. The next contribution—a loose and disjointed
survey of the " Novels of Sir Edward 'Bawer
Lytton"—appears to us as superficial as it is in the
main depreciatory. From this paper we content
ourselves with extracting one passage, in which
the reviewer comments generally upon the career
of one whom he calls (and with reason)—

THE MOST POPULAR OF OUR LIVING NOVELISTS.
" No writer of this class has laboured more earnestly in
his vocation than Sir. Edward • Bulwer Lytton ; none has
more fully recognised it as a sphere of personal duty de-
manding all his energy; no one has felt se constantly the
necessity of labour and severe study to bring to fruition the
conceptions of a lively fancy and a large and varied intelli-
gence ; none has abandoned himself with more self-devotion
to the painful and irksome research which some of his
subjects involved. Intellectually he must be regarded
as one of our most conscientious writers : he has
grudged no trouble, he has spared no pains, to bring
his work up to his own ideal. And this not from
necessity—the honest spur to many an indolent genius
—but from love and reverence for his art, and pro-
bably from a more than commonly poignant yearning
to win for himself a name—something that may last—
a renown worthy to be called fame. We say his own
ideal' as a qualification ; for there is one important study
which we cannot but feel that he has neglected—one that
has never fairly engaged his attention; but whatever he
has aimed at Sir E. B. Lytton has applied every effort to
accomplish. For more than thirty years of a life, which
without this application to the desk might yet be called a
busy one, in which he has lived before men's eyes in society,
parliament, and office, he has been one of our leading, most
prolific, most varied, and, if we estimate popularity by num-
bers of readers, most popular of our living novelists. This
deserves to be called a career. The critics must allow so
much ; those critics with whom Sir Edward has had so
many a bitter conflict; who have given and received so
many hard blows in their attempt to set the world right in
its estimate of his power and successes."
Enough will have been said for our readers in
regard to the next article in the number, when we
have observed that the writer of it comes to the
conclusion, after descanting at large upon " The
Commercial Crisis of 1857, and the Currency"—
that the Bank Charter Act of 1844 ought to be
maintained ! From the next paper, a disquisition
upon " The Prospects of Art in England," we
excerpt the following brief but most truthful sen-
tence, conveying a thought, or rather pointing a
fact as full of encouragement as it is conciliatory.
The art critic here writes :

"We have often wondered that it is not more clearly
perceived that the early election of Mr. Millais to be an
Associate of the Royal Academy is itself a proof that no
such unfair prejudice exists among the older school of
painters as would exclude conspicuous artistic merit from
its due reward."

After a politico-religious treatise upon " Indian
Conversion," we have a charming essay upon
" Horace Walpole," the most delightful of all. Eng-
lish letter-writers. From this contribution we
would gladly make copious extracts, but that our
notice has already extended beyond convenient.
limits—now when our space is more than usually
restricted by the demand upon it consequent upon
the sitting of Parliament. Briefly enumerating
the names of the three last contributions to No. I.
of Bentley's Quarterly—" Civilisation in Russia,"
and " Historical Study at Oxford," and "Austrian.
Italy"—wo would close our remarks in the spirit
with which they were commenced—with heartiest
good greeting to Bentley's Quarterly, and a cordial
wish a revederla !

TILE OCEAN MAIL SE.RVICE.

SOUTHAMPTON, March 12.—The heavy mails for
our Australian and New Zealand colonies were
despatched hence to-day by the Pera steamship,
Captain T. Jamieson, this being the first departure
under the contract recently entered into with the
Peninsular and Oriental Company. She also takes
out the fortnightly mails for Bombay. There are in
all 471 boxes and bags, of which 378 are for Aus-
tralia, the whole being under the charge of
Messrs. Casson and Fisher, of the General Post-
office, by whom the homeward mails will be
sorted on board during the voyage from Alexan-
dria to this port, ready for immediate delivery
on the steamer's arrival here. For this
purpose a post-office is fitted up with every
convenience on the Perces deck, and we
understand that this plan of sorting mails is in
future to be adopted in all the company's vessels
employed on the Mediterranean line, comprising
the India, China, and Australian mails. The Pera
has 84 first and nine second class passengers, among
whom are Commander D. Spain, R.N., Lieut. D.
Denny, for Malta; Commander L. Reynolds, for
Suez ; Captain and Mrs. Pvm, Capt. P. Phillips,
Capt. Battye, Lieut. G. S. Jackson, for Bombay;
Capt. Milne, for Kangaroo Island, &c. On freight
she has a large cargo, and 1,443 boxes of specie and
valuables—viz., £395,095 in bar silver and five franc
pieces, and jewellery worth £705, for Bombay;
jewellery, -value £BO5, for Melbourne ; and £2OO
for Sydney ; total, £396,805. A new screw steamer
of 1,800 tons and 450 horse power, named the Jeddo,
arrived here on Friday afternoon, in charge of Capt.
Black, from Liverpool, where she was built for the
Peninsular and Oriental Company by Mr. John
Laird. Before leaving Liverpool the Jeddo made
a preliminary trial trip round the Bell buoy, when
she attained a speed of over 13 knots per hour with
151 b. steam pressin 6, and the engines (which are
by Mr. J. Napier, of Glasgow) making 60 revolu-
tions per minute. The:Royal Mail Company'ssteam
ship Thames, Capt. West, having undergone a tho-
rough overhaul and refit, left here on Thursday for
intercolonial service on the West India station,
taking a mail for Mad :ira, where she will call on
the way out. The Magdalena, Capt. Bayiiton, with
the next mails from the Westlndies, California, Cen-
tral America, and the Pa2ific, is due here on the 16th
inst.; the Teviot, Capt. Abbott, with the Australian
mails, about the 16 h inst. ; but the arrival of the
Oneida at Suez is not yet telegraphed, so that the
Teviot will be several days later ; the Fulton, Cap- ,
tain Wotton, is due on the 17th, with the French *
and English mails of the sth from New York; the
Ceylon, Captain R. W. Evans, on the 20th, with
the East India and China mails ; and the Tagus,
Captain Hall, on the 21st, with the mails from .
Lisbon, Oporto. and Vigo. The Atrato, Captain
Woolley, with the West India and Pacific mails,
and the Jeddo, Captain Black, with the mails for
Vigo, Oporto, and Lisbon, are appointed to leave
this on Thursday, the 17th inst. ; the Hammonia,
Captain Schwensen, for New York, on the 18th ;
the Indus, Captain J. Weeks, with the India and
China mails, on the 20th ; the New York, Captain
Van Santen, for New York, on the 22d ; and the
Behar, Captain J. S. Field, with the Bombay mails,
on the 27th. The Peninsular and Oriental Com-
pany have given notice of a considerable reduction
in their rates of freight to Australia by the over-
land route in favour of packages of newspapers and
periodicals; the freight on packages of this nature will
be at the rate of £l5 per ton of 40 cubic feet for
newspapers, and £25 ditto for periodicals. The
Pasha of Egypt's steam yacht Faid Gihaad, which
has been lying at this port during the winter, went
out of dock yesterday afternoon, and proceeds to
Alexandria under the command of Captain A. Rel-
lock, of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's
service.