The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-01 00:00:00

THE MAGAZINES.

Blackwood.

There is a very entertaining article called
" Americanisms?, It brings before us in a striking
manner some of the peculiarities that distinguish
that race beyond the broad Atlantic which styles
itself "the smartest nation in all creation." Really
we can hardly believe at first sight some of the ex-
traordinary anecdotes here cited, and one has to
remember that the authority is reliable before
entering fully into the details. The work here
noticed is a glossary of words and phrases usually
regarded as peculiar to the United States ; and in
introducing the subject an amusing instance is
mentioned of a dull man who had Johnson's Dic-
tionary lent him by a friend, and he read it through,
observing, when he had finished, that the author
was a person of great information, but his style
was unconnected. In perusing the theme of these
words we meet with a great variety of information.
The following quotations furnish proofs of the dif-
ferent plans adopted by judges according to the
different positions in which they are placed. In
a case at Baltimore a juror was supposed to be in-
toxicated :
"The judge, addressing the man alluded to, said—' Sir,
are you drunk ?"
"The juror, straightening himself up, in a bold half-
defiant tone, replied, No, strive bob !'
"'Well,' said the judge, I fine you five dollars for the
ree, and 10 for the bob.' "—Baltimore Sun, March, 30,
1857.
In the other case the counsel for the plaintiff was
engaged in an affair more profitable than honourable,
and his friend made the following excuse for
him :
" Who's for the plaintiff ?' inquired the judge, im-
patiently.
" ' May it please the court,' said a rising member of the
legal fraternity, 'Pilkins is for the plaintiff; but I left,
him just now in the tavern playing a game at poker. He's
got a sucker there, and he's sure to skin him if he only has
time. He's got the thing all set to ring a cold deck, in
which case he'll deal himself four aces and his opponent
four queens ; so that your honour will perceive he must
rake the persimmons.'
' Dear me said the judge, with a sigh, 'that's too
hod I It happens at a very unfortunate time; I'm very
amxious to get on with these cases.'
A brown study followed, and at length a happy idea
struck the judge. ' Bill,' said he, addressing the friend of
the absent Pilkins, who had spoken, you understand
poker about as well as Pilkins. Suppose you go over and
play his hand ?' "
Again, can anything be conceived more absurd or
exaggerated than the subjoined illustrations of
what creates propriety or impropriety in conversa-
tion :
" The euphemistic shifts to which delicacy is compelled to
resort in American society are too notorious to require
much illustration. All our readers have heard of, and ad-
k mired the scrupulous modesty which speaks of the limb'
of the piano, and even, as we have been assured, insists in
Elora° cases upon putting little frilled trousers upon it.
Some allowance is to be made, no doubt, for travellers'
stories ; but what is to be said of Mr. Bartlett's evidence,
given with all the stern impartiality of a philologer ?
' Stockings,' he assures us, are considered unmentionable in
the west; long socks' being as far as anyrefined mind can go
with safety. The Washington Union—whose subscribers are
no doubt very select—dares not for its life advertise such
necessary articles as shirts and drawers under any bolder
heading than gentlemen's belongings.' A bull is called
a cow-creature)' or a gentleman-cow'—which latter is
' a bull in a double sense, certainly."
The most amusing sketch of this strange state of
society is here chronicled in the description of a
peculiar style of entertainment, which is thus
humorously commented on :-
1 "But what degree of social perfection may not be expected
in a land where such a feast of reason as the following is
possible ?
"." SauAYrum.:—The name of a species of fun known to
; the Nantucket folks, which is thus described by the Hew
York Mirror: A party of ladies and gentlemen go to one
of the famous watering-places of resort, where they fish,
dig clams, talk, laugh, sing, dance, play, bathe, sail, eat,
and have a general good time.' The food generally con-
sists of chowder, baked clams, and fun. No one is ad-
mitted to the sacred circle who will take offence at a joke;
and every one is expected to do his and her part towards
creating a general laugh. Any man who speaks of busi-
ness affairs (except matrimony) is immediately reproved,
and ou a second offence publicly chastised. Care is thrown
to the wind, politics discarded, war ignored, pride hum-
bled, stations levelled, wealth scorned, virtue exalted, and
—this is 4uantum."'
" Hodes cceneerue Deum ! 'lf there be an Elysium on
earth,' it lies in Nantucket, which Tom Moore did not
know. The lost Atlantis, the fabled Islands of the Blest,
the vanished Golden Age, the good time coming,' are
but shadows of this. To think that the ideal of happiness,
which philosophers of all ages have so long vainly sought,
should be found at last—and that its name should be
Squantum 1"
Those who would meet with. information, blended
with much amusement, cannot do better than per-
nse this paper. An interesting article is that on
" General Patrick Gordon, the Russian Scot."
Many may not have heard of this man, but it is
well worth while to become acquainted with his
fitful career. He carried with him to the far North
that energy for which his country has been so dis
tinguished, and which has written in imperishable
letters the name of her sons on many a splendid
page of history, in many a record of wonderful
achievements, and on many an heroic scroll. Gene-
ral Gordon was of signal service to the Czar Peter
the Great, and that distinguished man was not un-
glindful of his services at a period when they could
profit him no longer. " Patrick Gordon died
on the 29th November, 1699, and we are briefly
but effectively told by the editor of the diary that
the " Czar, who had visited him five times in his
illness, and had been twice with him during the
night, stood weeping by his bed, as he drew his
last breath, and the eyes of him who had left Scot-
land a poor, unfriended wanderer, were closed by
the hand of an emperor." An extract is given in
this account which furnishes a very peculiar mode
of operations suggested by Gordon to take a be-
sieged city. His plan was to bury the fortress.
This original idea proved successful, and the mag-
nitude of the attempt may be imagined from the
fact that twelve thousand men were constantly
working night and day to raise a circumvallation
of earth. This attempt was successful, and safe,
it is stated, as not more than three hundred men
were lost during the siege. " Italy; by Marc
Monnier," :refers to a work recently published by a
French gent3eman on the important and suggestive
subject of the state of Italy. An analysis is
entered upon concerning the principal topics
mentioned in the book, and it attracts
attention alike from the characters brought
before us, and the interesting nature of the theme
itself. Mr. Monnier mentions some of those whom
he considers to have produced a great effect on the
feelings of society, and it is said " his thesis was
the life of Italy, as proved by the intellect of its
educated class, not by the courage of its soldiers,
or the assistance of its powerful allies." It is stated
further on, very truly, that too much importance
is attached to this by the French author, and that
" the whole influence is attributed to dramas of
the loftiest order, and disquisitions on government
composed in philosophic language. Smith's
Wealth of Nations' never could overthrow a
dynasty, nor Cato, in five acts, make us long for a
republic. The literature with which we are made
acquainted by our author is too high for the success
he attributes to it." " Norman Sinclair," in this
instalment, presents the reader with the most
exciting chapters that have yet appeared in this
story. A lucky chance reveals the object of the
search that had been so vigorously undertaken,
land Speedwell is caught in the act of administering
poison to his unhappy dupe, Littlewoo. The
various events are narrated in a very exciting
style, and this portion of the tale is quite dramatic
in its strange and startling incidents. "The
World of Weimar," in the form of a letter, relates
some of the wonders of that place. It is instruc-
tive in its way, and may tempt some to exchange a
busy life here for a quiet existence there, in the
capital of Central Germany, which is described as
" on the skirts of the mountain district called the
Thuringian Wood, on the banks of the classic Ilm,
haunted by the shades, or at least by the associa-
tions, of the Dioscuri of German literature,
Schiller and Goethe." There are two articles on
new works of interest and importance, called
" Lsfe in Central Africa," and "The Puojaub in
1857." There are outlines sketched of these
volumes which serve to exemplify their plan and
purpose, and may probably induce soometoiperuosef
them in their entirety. The book
especial importance, as it is "a narrative of the
Measures by which the Punjaub was saved,
and Delhi recovered during the Indian Mutiny."

Dublin University Magazine.
_ _

The first article is entitled " Remorseless Criti-
cism," and refers to the " Essays and Reviews"
which have so recently occupied so large a share of
:public attention. The present paper specially con-
siders :the contribution of Dr. Williams to that
•volume. The writer of this article has executed
:his difficult task with considerable success, and de-
monstrated forcibly, in many instances, the falsity
I3f the arguments that are so speciously employed,
1 tnd made manifest the danger of the doctrines in-
I allcated in the brilliant essay alluded to. Nothing
i s more calculated to lead the mind astray than to
iperuse a work in which some truth is mingled with
:much error, and where, with an apparently frank and
fearless display of knowledge, the vital truths of
religion are one by one gradually denied, and the
very foundations of the faith of Christianity are
mapped and undermined. In no instance does the
•writer express himself more forcibly than where he '
alludes to Dr. Williams's definition of the Scripture.
t" The Bible is, before all things, the written voice
i)f the congregation." It is most truly stated here
Ithat "the notion is one absolutely destructive of
1 all fixed objective faith." It would be supposed by
many that such an expression► of opinion of itsett
'would be sufficient to evidence the nature of the
new doctrines, but there are some who are not likely
to find out at once the full meaning of the ideas ,
that are thus presented to them. It is said here,