The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-26 00:00:00

NOTES UPON LIFE ASSURANCE.

A well-written and important pamphlet has just
been issued by the Rev. John Hodgson, M.A., for-
merly Vicar of St. Peter's, in the Isle of Thanet,
and now secretary to the Clergy Mutual Life Assur-
ance Society, entitled "Notes upon Life Assurance."
The object of the work is to show what life assur-
ance really is, whence it is, and how it is ;
more especially with reference to the Clergy
Mutual Society. This society was founded
in 1829 for the purpose of affording the clergy an
opportunity of insuring upon the most beneficial
terms, and in every form suitable to their particu-
lar circumstances. That the right course was
struck Out at first is amply proved by the solid and
substantial position the society now enjoys, stand-
ing, as it does, amongst the best and safest
institutions of the present time. From the first
everything has been open and above board,
so it has continued, and the wisdom of such a policy
is shown by the fact that without the aid of a single
agent to seek out new business, or the expense of a
single shilling for what is called agency or commis-
sion, the society has now an annual income that en-
titles it to the greatest confidence. The pamphlet
now under notice is addressed more particularly
to the clergy ; and here it may be remarked how
few are thoroughly acquainted with the principles of
life assurance, or able to form a judgment as to the
comparative merits of the various schemes in rela-
tion to it; but a careful perusal of Mr. Hodgson's
pamphlet will show in the clearest possible light the
importance of the subject to those who have no
capital either in reversion or expectancy, and hav-
ing done that very few will rise from the perusal
of the little book without making a resolve to avail
themselves of the writer's advice, and at once taking
steps to join a society offering such advantages to
them as " the Clergy Mutual."

MISS BATEMAN.—Our readers will bear in mind
the fact that this gifted lady's engagement draws rapidly
to a close, and that groat as are the audiences that nightly
throng the Haymarket Theatre, " Leah " can only be
played a few nights longer, as on Monday, December 7,
Miss Bateman will appear in a new play written by the
same author (Dr. Mosenthal), entitled " Pietra."
SAC RED HARMONIC SOCIETY, EXETER-HALL.—
Handers "Israel in Egypt" will be performed, under the
direction of Mr. Costa, to-morrow evening, by special de-
sire of their Royal Highnesses the Crown Prince and
Princess of Prussia. The performance will commence at
half-past 7 o'clock.
TIIE NATIONAL CHORAL SOCIETY.—This great
institution, consisting of nearly GOO of the most efficient
choralists of London, announce the opening of a ninth
season on Wednesday next, with a performance, for the
first time in Exeter Hall, of Dr. Sterndale Bennett's new
Night," will
"r
Mendelssohn's favourite cantata, "The First Walpurgis
tsiTllhbeelpVeormfoarnmeodf,Saanndlaaria."ln addition to which
selection from Handers
" Acis and Galatea." The baud and chorus will number
nearly seven hundred performers. Mr. G. W. Martin, the
founder of the society, will occupy his usual place as con-
ductor. Miss Lucy Franklein, Mr. G. Perren, Mr. Lewis
Thomas, and other artists will take the solo parts. There
are a few vacancies in the choir; particulars of mem-
bership may be obtained at the offices, 14 and 15, Exeter-
hall.

MADAME TUSSAUD'S EXIIIBITION.--sThe annual
Smithfield Club Cattle Show is announced to take place
the early part of next month, when, we feel assured, that
the many visitors thereto will, as hitherto, patronise the
far-famed wax-work exhibition in Baker-street, where
innumerable life-size portrait-models have, since last year,
been added; and among which we may mention those of
the great African explorer Dr. Livingstone. Lord Napier,
of Magdala, the late Emperor Theodore, of Abyssinia, the
celebrated Madame Rachel, &c., &c.

PRIMARY EDUCATION (IRELAND).—The Royal
Commission on Primary Education resumed their sittings
on Tuesday, the 24th inst., at the offices of the Commis-
sion, 4d, Upper Sack ville-stroet, Dablin. There were pre-
sent—tfie Earl of Dunraven, the Bishop of Meath, Lord
Clonbrock, Sir R. Kane, Master Brooke, Rev. Dr. Wilson,
Rev. B. M. Cowie, Mr. Dense, Mr. Gibson, Mr Stokes, and
Professor Sullivan. The secretaries, Messrs. May and
Dunne, were in attendance.
The following officers at Chatham garrison have
been granted leave of absence by the Duke of Cam-
bridge until the dates named : —Lieutenant-Colonel
E. W. Ward, Royal Engineers, till the 31st of De-
cember; Lieutenant W. J. M'Cartney, Royal En-
gineers, till the 14th of December ; and Lieutenant
11. Everitt, Royal Marine Artillery, till the 20th of
December.

The reductions in the Government establish-
ments, Royal Asenal, which have been going on
for the past two months, have been suspended, the
men being put upon short time, and consequently
less pay, leaving off work at the dinner hour on Fri-
day and not resuming it again until the Monday
morning following. The amount of wages thus
reduced must form a considerable item in the
estimates voted for the manufacturing departments
for the financial year terminating on the 31st of
March next.

The two companies of the 46th Regiment, sta-
tioned for some time at Pembroke Dock, have left
for Winchester, to there joie the head-quarters of
the Regiment just returned from India.
Capt. Fraser, 14th Regiment, has assumed the
command of the troops at Landguard Fort, Har-
wich, vice Capt. Miller, 48th Regiment, who has
rejoined his depot at Colchester. Lieut. Hollings-
worth and 103 men, 6th Regiment, Lieut. Powell,
Ensign Pollard, and 41 men, 96th Regiment, have
proceeded from Colchester via Stratford for Ports-
mouth, for conveyance to India. This draught was
expected to leave Portsmouth yesterday.

LITERATURE.

The' Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Long-
fellow. Edited and Prefaced by Robert

Buchanan. Vol. I. Edward Moxon and Co.

Apropos to Professor Longfellow's recent, or
shall we say present visit (his fourth) to England,
the Messrs. Moxon are now, in their recognized
capacity as the Poets' Publishers, issuing from the
press a very charming collective reprint of the
Poetical Works of that greatest living representa-
tive of American literature. The first volume
is the only one which has yet made its appear-
ance. But, although merely a first volume of a
new edition, it justifies us in welcoming it at once
as the most compact and beautiful edition which has
yet, in this country at least, made its appear-
ance. Costlier editions there no doubt are—edi-
tions de luxe adorned with edges of gold, and
covers of morocco, and embellishments daintily
drawn and exquisitely engraved--but for an edition
intended simply for reading, and treasuring up, and
carrying about in one's pocket, or in one's valise,
commend us to this handiest and completest of them
all, published by Messrs. Moxon, and edited and
prefaced by Robert Buchanan. How " Edited" by
Mr. Buchanan we hardly know ; but, " Prefaced"
it certainly is by him, and that, too, very grace-
fully. At the same time we cannot but regard it
as wholly uncalled for that, incidentally in one por-
tion'of his brief yet sufficient Preface, the Editor of
this new Edition of Longfellow should go out of his
way to assert very invidiously that the American
poet's " Evangeline " is immeasurable supe-
rior to Goethe's " Herman and Dorothea." " Her-
man and Dorothea," says Mr. Buchanan, has the
great distinctive merit and advantage, of course, of
being the precursor or predecessor of "Evangeline :"
but otherwise, according to him, Goethe's poem is
in no way to bo named in the same breath with
Longfellow's. Now, we yield to no one in our
admiration for the exquisite grace and tenderness
of that transatlantic idyll of "Evangeline." And yet
—against this dictum so depreciatory of Goethe's
idyllic masterpiece, we must, and do protest, as at
once ungrateful and undeserved. Say whatever Mr.
Buchanan may to the contrary, " Herman and
Dorothea" commands, and will ever command, the
tears and love of all those who know what au idyll
ought to be. The foremost to assert this
would, we feel certain, be Longfellow himself.
And, for one, we could never understand,
we shall never bo able to understand, the good taste
or the wisdom of those who, to praise one man,
must needs, to that end, depreciate another. As
an idyll of perfect beauty, " Herman and Doro-
thea" has never yet been surpassed, even, pace Mr.
Buchanan, by the " Evangeline" of Professor Long-
fellow. Nominelly the first volume of this collec-
tive edition of the Poetical Works of Longfellow,
contains his narrative poems—such, for example, as
" Evangeline," and " Hiawatha," and the " Court-
ship of Miles Standish," and the " Tales from a
Wayside Inn," and minor poems, let us add, like
" Excelsior" and "The Village Blacksmith." But,
even here, we cannot understand why, among other
poems of a like character, place should not have been
found for such a complete miniature narrative
as that of " The Slave's Dream." Probably, the
Editor would reply, Because its production, apart
here, would destroy the completeness of the collec-
tion of poems, afterwards to be introduced, having
especial relation to the question of Slavery. Proof
positive, this is, however, as we regard it, that the
seb-division here hit upon for the Poetical Works of
Professor Longfellow, as a whole, is one purely ar-
bitrary in its character. Whatever may be thought
in regard to these points of detail, however, the
present Edition is, in all essential particulars, we
repeat, charming, and ought to he welcomed, as no
doubt it will be welcomed, accordingly.

The Complete Correspondence and Works of Charles
Lamb. With an Essay on his Life and (i6Dius
by George Augustus Sala. Vol. I. pp., 537.

Edward Moxon and Co.

Nothing could well be handsomer in its " get
up" and general appearance, internal and external,
than this first volume of a comprehensive and
collective reprint of Charles Lamb's Works and
Correspondence. Yet, here, upon the very thres-
hold, we cannot but feel ourselves constrained to
take exception to thevery title of the book as a whole,
and to the very lettering of that title upon the
back of it. As it appears here, in regard to the
title, the Correspondence takes precedence of the
Works, while, in regard to the lettering of that
title on the outside of the volume, the CORRES-
PONDENCE, appears in big capitals, the WonKs
iu little capitals underneath, with the insignificance
almost of an ampisand. And the peculiarity of
this disportionate arrangement is borne out by the
circumstance that Volume One, instead of being
devoted to the production of " Elia," or of "Rosamond
Gray," or of " John Woodvil," or of the " Poems"
—" Album Verses" Mr. Sala calls them deprecia-
tingly in his rather supercilious Prefatory Essay
(though for our own part we should certainly not
dub as mere Album verses such a true poem as
" Old Familiar Faces")—Volume One, we say, in-
stead of containing anything of all this, com-
prises within it Chat les Lamb's Correspondence,
and (barring Mr. Sala's Essay) nothing but
his Correspondence. It makes a goodly tome
for all that cf from 500 to 000 pages of delightful
chit-chat (prattle Thackeray would call it), in
the shape of off-hand letters from Charles Lamb
to Coleridge, to Southey, to the Wordsworths, to
Manning, to the Hazlitts, and to the Quaker Poet
Barton. With Mr. Sala's Essay we are almost dis
posed to quarrel—it is so undisguisedly and per-
versely depreciatory. Re at any rate is not in-
fected with that disease of Biographers or Biogra-
phical essayists, which Lord Macaulay happily
defined as the Lues Boswelliana. Nothing of that
sort. On the contrary—reading this essay we find
Mr. Sala grumbling, through we don't know how
many discursive pages, over the little that Charles
Lamb after all has written. Pity he did not write
more ! That is the whole drift of his argu-
ment. A lamentation that might be ap-
plied with much more force and reason
to Thomas Gray or to Horatius Flaccus. When in
point of fact it is the quality and not the quantity
that the true critic looks to. Bat, even then, Mr.
Sala, when he comes to descant upon the little that
(according to his showing) Charles Lamb did write,
tells us that after all there were only about
half-a-dozen of the Essays of Elia (he obliges us
with their names) that were really and truly so very
remarkable ! For the rest of them he says—Why,
dear me, many others have written quite as well !
Such and such an Essay of Elia, says he (naming it)
—Why, surely we all know in regard to that that
it is not a bit better than such and such a
paper (naming it too) among the " Sketches by
Boz." Such and such another Eliau Essays (nam-
ing it)—Why, Thackeray wrote quite as cleverly
in such and such a number of his Yellow-plush.
And so forth. All this, in a preliminary " Essay
on the Life and Genius of Charles Lamb !" And
that too an essay written itself in a style so
helter-skelter and at random that it speaks in one
part almost indignantly of the superlative excellence
of all (!) Defoe's writings, makes mention of Leman
Blanchard, talksof Off Alley, in the Adelphi, between
Duke-street and Buckingham-street, and outrages
the reader at page x. with such an egregious slip
of bad grammar as—" Under different circum-
stances [he is at his old work, depreciating Elia]
he might haVe been as copious and infinitely more
edifying than Horace Walpole." Again—where he is
incidentally touching up)u Thomas de Quincey (as
he touches upon almost everything and everybody
in turn apropos des bottes)—he extorts from us, by
a most astounding dictum of his in regard to the
effects, or rather the non-effects, as he would
have us believe, of opium—he extorts from us our
most positive assurance (we speak not by any
means as opium-eaters, but as having once most
effectually partaken of opium) that it, opium,
does give mental and bodily pleasure, and that,
moreover, pleasure of the most exquisite descrip-
tion. Altogether, we cannot but regard this Preli-
minary Essay on the Life and Genius of Charles
Lamb, by Mr. Sala, as a mistake. But, as for the
edition itself, judging it from the first volume, it
is one deserving a place of honour upon the book-
, shelves of any library, however fastidiously selected.