The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-04 00:00:00

and from its intrinsic merits it affords an agreeable
study for all.

Fraser's.—Fraser commences the new year with
spirit. The clever author of "The Interpreter"
gives us the first instalment of a new historical tale
of the period of the great civil war. The scene is
laid in Old Northamptonshire, and already the
forms of Cavalier and Roundhead, of Lord Falk-
land. and Queen Henrietta, of old Royalist squire
and fair maiden, cast their shadows over the stage.
It is a somewhat bolder flight than Mr. Melville has
yet tried ; but we doubt not that his powers will
prove equal to the occasion. '• Concerning the Art
of Putting Things" is the singular title of an article
containing much sense and shrewd observation. It
is otherwise called, with more clearness, " Thoughts
on Representation and Misrepresentation," having
no reference, as the author eagerly assures us, with
any of the rival schemes for a Reform Bill. It refers
to the wonderful difference which is made in the

recital of an occurrence, or even the expression of
an opinion, by the way in which it is put. Most
people have had occasion to observe what a different
aspect affairs haVe when spoken of by different
people. Thus in telling the history of a dispute
each person unconsciously gives a favourable turn
to his own side of the question, from putting it in
his own point of view. The author observes, with
truth, that he is a great man who can put some of
the old hacknied truths which every one acknow•
ledges and no one feels, in such a new and striking
light that he pierces the indifference with which
these familiar facts are regarded, and makes the
reader or the hearer feel them. Hhere is an amus-
ing passage illustrating how much depends on the
way things are put-7-
"One can enter into Johnson's feeling when, on hearino•°
that Boswell intended to write his biography, he exclaimed.
in mingled terror and fury—' If I thought that he contem-
plated writing my life, I should render that impossible by
taking his 1' It was something to shudder at, the idea of
going down to posterity as represented by a Boswell I But
the great lexicographer was mistaken : the Dutch-painter-
like biography showed him exactly as he was, the great,
little, mighty, weak, manly, babyish mind and heart. And
not great men alone, historical personages, have this
reason for disquiet and apprehension. . . . .
And don't we all know some people—not bad people in the
main—who never by any chance put the thing except in
the unfavourable way ? I have heard the self-same house
called a snug little place and a miserable little hole ; the
same man called a lively talker and an absurd rattlebrain ;
the same person called a gentlemanlike man and a missy
piece of affectation ; the same income called compdtence and
starvation ; the same horse called a noble animal and an
old white cow. The entire difference, of course, lay in the
fashion in which the narrator chose, from inherent bonhomie
or inherent verjuice, to put the thing. While . Mr. Bright
probably regards it as the most ennobling. occupation of
humanity to buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest
market, Byron said, as' implying the lowest degree of de-
gradation—

' Trust not for freedom to the Franks—

They have a king who buys and sells !
And it is just the two opposite ways of putting the same
admitted fact, to say that Britain is the first mercantile com-
munity of the world, and to say that we are a nation of
shopkeepers. One way of putting the fact is the dignified,
the other is the degrading. If a boy plays truant or falls
asleep in church, it just depends on how you put it, or how
the story is told, whether you are to see in all this the natu-
ral thoughtlessness of boyhood, or a first step towards the
gallows. ' Billy Brown stole some of my apples,' says a
kind-hearted mau : ' well, poor fellow, I daresay he seldom
gets ray.' Billy Brown stole my apples,' says the severe
man : ah, the vagabond, he is born to be hanged.' Sydney
Smith put Catholic Emancipation as common justice and
common sense : Dr. M'Neile puts it as a great national sin,
and the origin of the potato disease."

Speaking subsequently of the art of putting things
in a comic light, the author censures, with just
severity, the love which now exists for treating
grave matters in a ridiculous manner. He says
that it is impossible to object to a facetious
serial like Punch ;. "but to burlesque Macbeth
or Othello, to travesty Virgil, to parody the solilo-
quy in Hamlet, though it may be putting things in
a novel and amusing way, approaches to the nature
of sacrilege." ,He admits that sometimes the ludicrous
way of putting things has served an admirable
purpose, as in Sydney Smith's description of a pos-
sible French invasion, or of Mrs. Partington sweep-
ing back the Atlantic ocean. These examples,
however, refer to the legitimate use of ridicule, and
are quite different from the dreary comic histories,
grammars, and books setting out with the inten-
tion to be funny, which are now so common. It
requires a reader of very serious purpose to get
through their humorous pages. The article con-
cludes by declaring, in opposition to the question
recently propounded by an eminent novelist, that
how will he put it ? is the greatest problem of life.
" Schloss-Eishausen" is the name of a paper, rightly
entitled a mystery. It tells how some fifty years
ago a mysterious couple took up their abode at a
large country house in Eishausen, a straggling.
village near Coburg. The Count, as the master of
the houne was' called, was rarely seen, the countess,
never. She was kept under lock and key, and
only walked in the grounds of tke place thickly
veiled, attended by a female servant, who never ex-
changed a word with her during twenty years
They had only two servants, who were forbidden.
to speak to those in the village, being watched by
a telescope from the window when they went on
errands. This state of things went on for twenty
years. It is fortunate that a second part is to come,
which we must hope will unravel the mystery.
The first of two papers on Mr. Gladstone's mission,
by the Rev. Barham Zincke, shows an intimate
acquaintance with the subject, and makes au in-
teresting investigation into the principles and con-
clu..lons of the work. " Dramatic Treasure Trove"
gives us some amusing extracts from plays of the
last generation, which go far to prove that the
decline of the British stage is of more than recent
date. &paper on " Mushrooms" elevates those
_ _

questionable vegetables to an elevated place in the
culinaryaper whichscale.
" Furniture Books" is the title of
a p makes an extravagant attack upon
modern illustrated volumes. " Hints for Vaga-
bonds" takes a poop at some of the chief places in
the Law Countries. A description of the reading
of the Proclamation at Peshawur is among the con-
cluding papers.

Bentley.—Bentley's Miscellany has a brief re-
sume of the chief literary and political events
of the year, which is on the whole decidedly
favourable to the existing state of affairs. The
editor contributes an English version of an old
Breton Lay of the Fourteenth Century, telling how
thirty valiant English knights held combat with
thirty bold Bretons in one of the feuds of the time.
" The Poston]. Door," by the author of " Moat
Grange," is the continuation, and, we presume, the
conclusion of the story of the Canterbury family
The reader will remember that,. in the last
part, Tom Canterbury, the little heir to the • large
estate, died suddenly under very mysterious cir-
cumstances. In this part his mother, Mrs. Dawkes,",
tells the story of his death to her cousin, Thomas
Kage, and reveals the secret of the murderer. She
is slowly dying of grief for the loss of her child,
and is weighed down by the knowledge of the real
culprit. The description of her will is ingeniously
arranged, and the reader rejoices over the defeat of
the Major's villanous plans. The story is told with
the writer's usual animation of style. The second
part of a paper on adventures in India, entitled,
"Up among the Pandies" is given. " The Plea.
sures of the Table" is the title of an amusing paper
founded on a French writer's details and definitions,
which certainly reverse the national axiom, "Il
faut manger pour vivre." The elaborate code of
gastronomic laws which evidently appear to this
writer the most important question of life, are
sufficiently formidable to induce Englishmen, with
much business and little leisure, to abandon any
attempt at culinary competition with their neigh-
bours as perfectly hopeless. Dudley Costello's
story of " Faint heart never won Fair Lady," pro-
ceeds vigorously. In this number, Monsieur Per-
rotin and his friend the detective succeed in tracing
the unfortunate Rachel to the madhouse, where she.

had been incarcerated. The " Wits of Paris "
furnish an entertaining paper, though their
bon mots do not exhibit much of the Attic
essence. An account of a journey from Sydney to
England via Panama will repay perusal. Monks-
hood's " Retrospective Reviewals ' chronicle the
sayings and doings of D'Urfe, whose tedious pas-
torals were the admiration of their own epoch,
though we apprehend that few novel readers of the
present day would care to wade through the five
volumes of " Astrea."

Colburn's N6w Monthly—A lengthened article
on the Empire of Japan opens this number of the
New Monthly. At the present epoch the subject
is interesting to many readers, though the details
of Japanese manners and customs are already losinrA
their novelty. " Assize Sunday," by the anthrt; of
" Ashley," is a continuation of the somewliat com
plicated story which has been proceedir.-6 for the
last two or three months. Leaving Uri mysterious
robbery of the vestry unexplained, Dlld its results
undetermined, the author returns 4.43 the quarrels of
the college boys—quarrels, hor;over, which appear
to threatn serious collaevences. Sir Nathaniel
takes Thomas Pelham, Duke of Newcastle, some
time Premier of England, for the subject of the
15th number of his " Notes on Note-Worthies." In
his opinion of this illustrious individual, he
endorses the judgment passed upon him by Lord
Macaulay, and joins in the satirical censures of
Horace -W4lpole and Smollett. "Tales of an Old
Sportsman" are not, as might be supposed, recitals
of sporting adventures, but sketches and anecdotes
mostly drawn from foreign lands, some of them of
a most gloomy character. They chiefly refer to
the Arquebusiers of France, being drawn from a
recent French volume. Alexander Andrews conti-

noes his amusing narrative of the grievances of his
friend " Pickles," in which a great deal of truth is
hidden under a jest. The practice of county courts
figures conspcuously among the troublez of Mr.
Pickles, Chatwubriand and his Commentator,