The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-13 00:00:00

ADA ISAACS MENKEN'S POEMS.

It is not generally known that Adah Menken was a
poetess, and some may be astonished to learn that she had
a volume of semi-religious poems in the press, which will be
published in a few days under the title of " Infelicia," and
dedicated by special permission to Mr. Charles Dickens.
Miss Menken was favoured in no common degree with the
correspondence of many of our most distinguished literary
men, and it is not improbable that some of these letters
will be eventually given to the world ; in the meantime it
may not be uninteresting to quote the letter from Mr.
Dickens which is prefixed to the volume of poems we have
just alluded to :

"Gads Hill-place, Higham-by-Rochester, Kent,

Monday, October 21, 1867.
"Dear Miss Menken,—l shall have great pleasure in
accepting your dedication. I thank you for your portrait
as a highly remarkable specimen of photography. I also
thank you for the verses enclosed in your note. Many
such enclosures come to me, but few so pathetically
written, and fewer still so modestly sent. Faithfully
yours, " CHARLES DICKENS."


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HER MAJESTY.

PENSION WALLIS, LUCERNE, August 12.
The Queen, accompanied by Princess Louise,
Prince Leopold, and Princess Beatrice, has taken
walks through the neighbourhood, and has also
made excursions on the lake.

ICCOUCHEMENT OF THE PRINCESS OF

TECK.

K ENSINGTON PALACE, Aug. 13, 6 a.m.

Her Royal Highness the Princess Mary Adelaide
was safely delivered of a Prince at 4.30 a.m.
to-day.

Her Royal Highness and the infant Prince are
doing perfectly well.

ARTHUR FARRE, M.D.
EDWD. H. HILLS.

LITERATURE.

Cousin Jack. A Domestic Novel. Two Vols.
Sampson Low, Son, and Marston.

A very delightful hero is Cousin Jack—a hero
no less with his pretty cousins in the school-room
At Beechwood than with his gallant comrades in
the camp at Affghanistan. During the first chap-
ters of the tale Cousin Jack is in his element, and
his delightful spirits are most infectious. Just re-
turned from the seat of war his presence is doubly
welcome in his early home, where his gentle aunt
and the pensive little Bertha look upon. him and
love him as son and brother, and the fair Cyrilla,
Still in her early girlhood, begins timorously to en-
tertain for him a more than sisterly affection. The
peace and hAppiness of the domestic circle at the
moment of Jack's arrival are greatly disturbed by
the continual intermeddliag of another aunt, Lady
Maxwell, who is appropriately compared to Lady
Blanche in the Princess, as a tiger cat in the act
to spring." A sad change comes over the
sprightly character of the tale, the gentle mother
of Cyrilla and Bertha is taken away, and
great trouble and many perplexities befall
the fair cousins. Cousin Jack comes in for more
than his due share of anxiety and misfortune, but
all ends well ; and the story is interesting and agree-
able throughout.

He Story of a Blind Inventor. By John Plummer.

W. Tweedie.

This little volume is more interesting than many
a romance. It contains an account of the life and
labours of Dr. James Gale, the inventor of the non-
explosive gunpowder process. The description of
his early years and the first beginning of his afflic-
tion is pathetic in the extreme. As a youth he
dearly loved reading, and by his devotion helped to
hasten on his total deprivation of that delight.
When at last the sad fiat was given, and he was con-
demned, as the last chance of preserving his sight,
to give up reading entirely, he closed the book in
his hand, and his biographer tells us that ,4 the
name of Courtenay,' with which the page termi-
nated, was the last word ever beheld by the fading
eyesight of James Gale." The word became so
deeply impressed upon his mind that in after years
he bestowed the name of Courtenay upon one of his
children.

Chaucer to Wordsworth. By Thomas Arnold, M.A.

Newby.

This little book purports to give a short history
of English literature from the earliest times to the
present day. Considering the very brief limits
assigned to a work of such gigantic materials, the
author has very successfully carried out the object
he had in view. Beginning with the Anglo-Saxon
period, 449, he gives a brief summary of
literature and literary men until the death of
Wordsworth at the beginning of the present cen-
tury. We cannot say that we agree with all Mr.
Arnold's critical opinions. He tells us, for example,
that Campbell's " Mariners of England," "
linden," &c., " are rapid and spirit-stirring, but full
of faults of expression !" and that " The Last
Man " is " more ambitious in the design than satis-
factory in the execution," a criticism which, con-
sidering these opinions, we are inclined, in our turn,
to pronounce upon Mr. Arnold's " History of Eng-
lish Literature."

The Fresh and Salt Water Aquarium. By the Rev
J. G. Wood, M.A. George Roucledge.
This little book, with its eleven brightly-coloured
illustrations of the wonders of sea shore and
country side, the crabs, and sea weeds, and shells
innumerable, and with its abundant information on
all those momentous matters very pleasantly con-
veyed; will be right welcome to the amateur of the
Aquarium.

Speeches of the Earl of Shaftesbury. One Vol.

Chapman and Hall.
This volume, simple as it appears, is a monument
of more enduring worth than many a " storied urn
or animated bust." The speeches of Lord Shaftes-
bury, when Lord Ashley, in behalf of the labouring
population, produced a more momentous and
startling effect than many of the most brilliant
discussions which illumine the pages of " Hansard."
He it was, who, a member of the aristocracy bite"
self, boldly stood forward in his place in Parliamen!
to " speak of the poor—and what they endure.
" Great facts," most of which, the majority, veil,
comfortably ignored, were the main ingredients of
Lord Ashley's speeches, and great facts, happily for
the Christianity of the British Legislature, were the
results of his revelations. His' Acts" ordained that
no longer should little children and women work in
the mines, where infants of tender years had been
accustomed to pass hours alone in the darkness to
open and shut the narrow door for the miners to
pass through, and that no longer should women,
like beasts of burden, crawl, half clad, on hands
and knees, to drag the heavy load along in those
dismal abysses. We can hardly now believe that
these and a myriad other similar barbarities did exist
in this civilized land a few short years ago. That
they do not now exist is mainly due to the man
whose speeches iu that holy cause—the cause of the
poor and the oppressed—are now collected before
us.

The Lords Commissioners of the Admiraltf
having concluded their annual inspection 0
Portsmouth left yesterday morning at 4 a•ra• in
their yacht Enchantress, Staff-Commander Petlelf
for Portland.
The Highflyer, 21, screw corvette, Capt. T. S. Ai'
Pasley, arrived at Spithead yesterday afternoon'
from the China station. She came through tb°
Needles, and when off Osborne exchanged salutes
with the Victory, flag-ship of the Commander-in"
Chief, Admiral Sir T. S. Pasley.
The first section of the mounted portion of the
troop of the Royal Engineer Train arrived at Chat.
ham yesterday from Aldershott, the remainder being
under orders to reach the garrison to-day- 11
officers, men, and horses have been encamped n—
the bank of the river Medway, at Wou
where they will undergo a course of instruction nvi
several weeks duration in pontooning at the on
pontooning ground at Cuxton and Wouldhan3.
An order was yesterday issued by Alajor-Genf'
ral E. Murray, commanding the division at "be
ham, directing a detachment, selected from t d
corps comprising the3d depot battalion, to pren:
to Upnor to relieve the force of the 2d Depot Pat
talion, now doing duty at that station. Captain '
Falkner, Lieutenant J. H. Vander-Meulen, Lieu'
tenant J. E. C. Doveton, ani 65 men of all reno
,A
of the 50th Queen's Own Regiment, have proceed
e 0
the garrison for duty at Tilbury Fort, tb'e
detachment previously stationed there having
turned to Chatham.
THE AMERICAN HAR VE ST. —Accounts .. r
ro
number of localities in the State of Illinois, Wiseen:,.
lowa, and Minnesota, with two or three exceptions, anounce the crops of small grain unprecedented, botu,
quality and quantity, and the corn never looked betteest
The small grain crop and the corn crop will be the 11°6
ever gathered in the North-West.