The Sun.
London, England, 1850-03-04 00:00:00

FRASER.

The publication of a series of " Letters from Gene-
ral Conway and the Countess of Aiiesbury to Horace
Walpok, Earl of OArd," is commenced in the pre-
sent number of Frain.. General Conway, whose
fame as a soldier, a statesman, and an orator, are
well known to all who are acquainted with the his-
tory of the latter half of the last century, and who,
in 1782, was raised to the rank of Field-Marshal
and Commander- in-Chief, began his political career,
like the majority (.f the great statesmen of the past
and present age, as Irish Secretary. He was ap-
pointed to this office in 1755, some time atter his
marriage with the Countess of Ailesbury. The Lord-
Lieutenant under whom he served was the Marquis
of Hartington (afterwards fourth Duke of Devon-
shire), to whom Smollett assigns the credit of having
"happily composed the intestine broils of Ireland."
Both Conway and his lady were on intimate terms
with Horace Walpole, who was Conway's cousin,
and the first of these letters, dated May 8,
1755, is addressed to him by Conway, from
Dublin Castle. Their contents are interesting
as affording- a peep behind the scenes at the manage-
ment of Irish affairs a century since. Horace Wal-
pole bequeathed these letters to the Hon. Mrs. Darner,
Conway's daughter, at whose death they came into
possession of her relative, Lady Johnstone, by
whose :permission they now appear. Fraser has
two political articles this month, the one a
review of M. Guizot's recently published
brochure on the English revolution, in the
course of which, while eulogizing Charles I. in the
highest terms, and vituperating, as Tories are wont
to vituperate, the Parliament and the Common wealth-
men, the writer, such is the force of truth, inad-
vertently blurts out an admission which stamps his
hero as the meanest and most contemptible of man-
kind, and completely justifies every proceeding
adopted by the Parliament against him. Speaking of
Charles I. the writer says, "It was his weakness and
his besetting sin that he did not know how
to keep a promise when he had made it."
How could it be expected that the Parliament
or any other body of men, or any individual man,
could trust a person of this character without receiv-
ing sufficient guarantees for his observance of the
agreements into which he had entered, and the only
guarantee that could be considered sufficient under
the circumstances was depriving him of all power
whatever, so that, according to the admissions of this
writer, all that the Parliament did with regard to
Charles I. was forced upon them by the habitual and
admitted bad faith of this most notorious promise-
breaker. The other political article of the month is
on colonial reform, in which the writer proposes, as a
panacea for all colonial grievances, the importation
into each colony of an hereditary peerage. Now,
comparing the state of England with its hereditary
aristocracy, its huge debt and enormous taxation, the
necessary consequence of that aristocracy, and that of
the United States, without an hereditary aristocracy,
and consequently without debt and almost without
taxation, it is not likely that the colonists will place
much faith in the proposed remedy. They would be
just as likely to consent to a proposition for natural-
ising in every colony an English Court of Chancery.
The story of the " Micmac's Bride" is concluded, and
we wish we could say as much for the " Peace Cam-
paigns of Ensign Faunce." The chapters in the
present number are wofully dreary. Morgan Rattler
gives a graceful translation of Horace's ode, "Ad
Lyram," and we have an elaborate critique on the
works of Beaumont and Fletcher, besides various
other papers.

ELIZA COOK'S JOURNAL. Part X.

Under the industrious editorship of Eliza Cook

this popular weekly and monthly- miscellany still
maintains its good and true reputation. Forty-three
numbers having already appeared, we cannot be con-
sidered as premature in our present commendations,
so many evidences of ability being afforded in the
ten months of the journal's existence. Tales of
various descriptions abound in its pages for the de-
light of those who love to wander through the golden
dream-lands of imagination. In the present instal-
ment of the periodical, for example, we have
"The Prestons, ' a tale, " The Walk to the
Post," a tale, " The Music in the Shadow," a tale,
and "Aunt Mabel's Love Story"—enough, surely,
of itself to secure to the miscellany an eager and
general perusal. Besides these there are essays on
sanitary and educational reforms, on the Exhibition of
Industry in 1851, and on the various subjects which
may happen to be uppermost in the public mind at
the time. Also, as usual, there is a bounteous
sprinkling of " Diamond Dust," and a few well
considered criticisms, such as those before us on
'Panthea" and on " Shirley." But, above all others,
the most conspicuous feature in the publication is
the number and variety of its lyrical contributions.
Within the compass of the tenth part now under
consideration, for example, we have first of all," The
Waves and the Lost Playmate," in which we recog-
nise the ghost of some beautiful imaginings of
E. E. M. K.—" The Worldly Man's Sorrow,"—
" Flowers"—" The People of the World," by Charles
Swain—" Song of the Poor Teacher "—" Shut not
out the Light," and " Procrastinstion." Three
other poems from the hand of Eliza Cook grace the
pages of her journal " No," with which
our readers have been already made ac-
quainted—" Oh, let us be Happy"—and " The Two
Worshippers." From the two latter effusions
we would make copious quotations, but that we
conceive we shall be doing more justice to the popu-
lar songstress by commenting upon some of the more
prominent beauties of those compositions. In the first
of these effusions, how truthful is the exclamation—
"-- he who believes every heart is unreal
Has something unsound at the core of his own."
Better to our thinking, however, than these lines " for
music" (rather too long for music by the way) are
the verses at the close of the March number, entitled
" The Two Worshippers ;" although it would be
impossible for us to assert our conviction that the two
worshippers are faithful types of a class, representa-
tives of their professions. Having depicted in the
opening of the effusion the recluse of old in his abbey,
Eliza Cook contrasts the picture with the sketch of the
poet wandering among its ruins long afterwards,—
" See another holy brother,
Bending o'er the sodded slope.
'Tis a Poet-one who lingers
Fondly where the blossoms start,
Pearls of dew upon his fingers,
Gold of knowledge in his heart;
No rough sackcloth is he wearing,
No strange mi,,sal is he bearing,
He is smiling as he gases
On the spangles at his feet;
Childlike, he is plucking daisies,
And the violets so sweet;
Peacefully he steps about,
Where blackbirds rest and cowslips glitter,
With a love that's too devout
To crush the flower or stay the twitter
By the altar :pot Le's leaning,
With his bunch of incense bloom,
And his spirit hath a meaning,
That shall ehasten and illume."
We cannot close our remarks better than with this
brief but suggestive quotation.

MR. COLBURN'S NEW WORKS OF FICTION.—To
be bad at all the Libraries—l. Pride and Irresolution,
by the author of " The Discipline of Life"-2. The
Scottish Cavalier, by James Grant, Esq., author of the
" Gordon Highlanders," &c.-3. Adventures of a Gold-
finder, written by Himself-4. The Petrel, a Tale of the
Sea, by a Naval Officer-5. The Wilmingtons, by the
author of " Emilia Wyndham"-6. Passages in the
Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland, of Sunny Side, written
by Herself, second edition-7. Leonard Normandale; or,
the Three Brothers, by the Hon. C. Stuart Savile-8.
The Fortunes of Woman, edited by Miss Lamont.
THE DUKE OF SUTHERLAND.—The following
paragraph is going the round of the journals, after
having appeared in most of the daily papers :—" It
gives us much pleasure to learn, on good authority, that
by a new system of medical treatment, the Duke of
Sutherland has been relieved from the deafness under
which his Grace has so long laboured." We hear that
the physician, through whose medical skill the Noble
Duke has been cured, is Dr. Turnbull, of Manchester-
square.—Observer.
DARING AND EXTENSIVE ROBBERY AT TEE SWAN
HOTEL, BRISTOL.—During the night of Friday a rob-
bery of s very daring and mysterious character was
committed at the Swan Hotel, Bridge-street, Bristol.
The family and domestics of the establishment retired to
bed soon atter twelve o'clock, leaving, as usual, " boots"
up to guard the premises, and await the arrival of guests
arriving by the night tittins, or otherwise. The plate
was gathered up in the customary manner, and carried
into the bed-room of an elderly lady, a connexion of the
landlord, Mr. Gray, where it was nightly deposited for
security. At about five o'clock in the morning one of
the street-doors of the hotel was observed to be open by
a policeman, and it was soon discovered that the house
had been plundered by. thieves to a very large amount.
The robbers must have secreted themselves during the
evening in an underground cellar, from which they cut
their way through a door into some wine-vaults con-
nected with the hotel. Here they possessed themselves
of all the contents of the till, and having regaled them-
selves with bread, and beef, and brandy, they forced
open a door connecting the place with the dwelling part
of the inn. Here they helped themselves to some more
refreshments, after which they found their way to the
bed-room of the lady bef 're-mentioned, where, without
alarming her, they rifled her boxes, possessed them-
selves of the plate basket, and decamped with their
bo ay. Among the property stolen were nearly three
zen silver table spoons, a number of dessert, tea, and
gravy spoons, satiee ladles, &c., some of which were
marked "Swan Hotel," others " Gra; ," and some with
initials merely. The boots, who had to stay up, sat in
a back kitchen, and states that he was awake during the
whole of the night, and heard nothing in any way to
create a suspicion that thieves were on the premises.
THE ASYLUM TOR IDIOTS.—We have the satisfac-
tioa to know that her Most Gracious Maj, sty the Queen
has been pleased to honour the Asylum for Idiots with
her patronage, and to constitute his Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales a member of the body of patrons for
life, with the privilege Of appointing to one bed in per-
petuity. •