The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-14 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

DOHA'S ILLUSTRATED LIBRA.1?1"--

Lodge's Portraits. Vof.
The third volume of this beautiful edition of
Lodge's valuable work has just appeared. Among the
notable personages of whom we have here an excel-
lently engraved portrait and a brief but very interest-
ing biography, are Queen Elizabeth, Sir Thomas
Bodley, Robert Ceci), Earl of Salisbury, Lady Ara-
bella Stuart, Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke
(" Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother"), Sir Walter
Raleigh, Francis Bacon, George Villiers, Duke of
Buckingham, and many others—the number of por-
traits and biographies in this volume being no less
than thirty. When we consider the careful execution
and delicate finish of the engravings, to say nothing of
the excellence of the letter-press, the cheapness of
this edition is very manifest. Some of the biogra-
phies in this volume are necessarily very interesting,
as fur instance that of the gay Villiers, the especial fa-
vourite of Fortune and of Kings. King James, it appears,
was "delighted almost to fiscination by a fine figure
and graceful carriage," and these were Villiers' pass-
ports to favour. The King, charmed by his appear-
ance, " imparted to Graham, with strict injunctions
of secresy, his intention to bestow on this young man
the place of favourite." Villiers' upward career was
almost unparalleled in its facility :
" James commanded that Villiers should be sworn his
servant, and gave him the office cf Cuple firer; within a
fiw w. eks a't-r, on tee twenty-third of April, 1615,
appointed him a gentleman of tho bedchamber, and
settled on him an annual pension of one thou-
sand pounds out cf the Court of Wards;
and on the f )urth of the fallowing January,
made him master of the horse, an office
before and since his time always held by one cf the
prime nobility, and which the Earl cf Worcester then
resigned, at the King's instance, to make room fir hini.
Such was the f irtune of his first year. On the 23d of
April, in the second, 1616, he was elected a Knight
of the Garter, and the next day named Justice of the
Forests north of Trent; on the 27th of August created
Baron Whaddon, at which time the King gave him the
rich lordship of that name in the county of Bucking-
ham, and very shortly after Viscount Villiers; on the
sth of January, 1617, Earl; and on the Ist of the next
January, Marquis of Buckingham. In the course of the
same month, in the succeeding year, he was appointed
Lord sigh Admiral of England, Ireland, and Wales, and
immediately after sworn of the Privy Council, and made
Chief Justice in Eyre of the Forests south of Trent,
Master cf the King's Bench-office, High Steward of
Westminster, and Constable of Windsor Castle; and
all this before he bad reached the twenty-sixth year of
his age."

Truly did Shakspere say " some men have great-
ness thrust upon them ! "

BOIEV'S STANDARD LlBRARY—Letters of
Junius, Vol. 1; Schlegel's Lectures on Modern
History.
"The Standard Library.," says the advertisement to
the letters of Junius, " would have been imperfect
had it not included among its elect the most cele-
brated of political gladiators." Accordingly the
Standard Library this month presents us with the
first volume of this remarkable work, edited by Mr.
Wade, the author of "A Compendium of British His-
tory." This first volume contains the whole of
" Woodfall's Junius," as originally published, with
illustrative notes. The second volume is to contain
an inquiry into the authorship of Junius, a question
of such intense interest to the "curious. And also we
are informed that "since the present volume
was put to press the publisher has become
possessed of some manuscripts relative to
Junius by the late Sir Harris Nicolas,
destined, it is believed, towards a new edition. This
acute scholar had devoted his mind to the subject for
years, and had drawn up an ingenious analysis,
which will be presented to the reader in the next
volume." The second volume will thus be invested
with a special interest, but this volume contains that
rare epistolary collection which has rendered the
name of Junius so celebrated. As specimens of a
terse and nervous style, rendered sublime by the elo-
quence of indignation, these letters are as attractive
now, in the reign of Queen Victoria, as they were
terrible in the days of the Duke of Grafton. There
is something magnificent in the calm audacity of
that fearless man, who hesitated not to denounce in-
quity in high places irrespective of the dignity of the
throne and undeterred by the threats of the law.
The frontispiece of this volume contains a fac-simile
of Junius's letter to Garrick. The essays of Schlegel
scarcely require comment. The volume recently
published in the Standard Library contains " Lec-
tures on Modern History ; an historical comparison
between Cresar and Alexander," and an essay on "The
Beginning of our History, and the last Revolution of
the E firth, as the probable effect cf a Comet." The
first article opens with a beautiful panegyric upon
hiltory.

SCENES OF THE CIVIL WAR IN HUN-
GARY in 1848 and 1849 ; with the Personal
Adventures of an Austrian Officer in the Army of
the Ban of Croatia.
We opened this volume anticipating little interest
from its contents, seeing that its hero is an Austrian
officer, and the translator speaks of the Hungarian
war as " a rebellion." Nevertheless, in spite of its
author's predilections, the book is interesting, and in
no slight degree. The peronal adventures of the
writer are necessarily full of vicissitude, and his feats
of arms, accidents, weary marches, etc., are detailed
with much animation and seeming fidelity. Although
the writer is an Austrian, his revelations incidentally,
and perhaps unintentionally, redound to the credit ut
the Hungarian patriots. In one place he extols their
soldier-like qualities. "It is not to be denied that
the greater part of the insurgents, and their cavalry
in particular, fight valiantly, and display a courage
and an address which are the prominent characteris-
tics of the good soldier. What are those prating,
boasting, cowardly Italians to these bold Mag-
yars and death-defying Poles ?" At another time
the narrator meets face to face old friends
who had served in his regiment before the breaking
out of the civil war—one of them calls out to him,
" Formerly you were my brave officer, and I was
attached to you ; now you are the enemy of my
country, and shoot you !" The shot, however,
missed its aim, and after the close of that same en-
gagement the generous Magyars voluntarily sent
their old officer some provisions, his troops being in
very great distress. The writer is severely wounde,i,
and tended for many weeks by an Hungarian family.
On his departure be offers the mistress of the home
payrr eat for her trouble. " She looked proudly at
me, and said, How can you, a German, offer a
Magyar money for her entertainment ? But, hold,
our country needs money just now for war; give a
ducat per week—l will send it to the military chest."
O wing to his wounds, the author retires from the
scene of war before the disastrous conclusion of the
campaign. "Whether the record of these adventures
be real or partly fictitious does not appear, but the
volume is full of adventure, and the adventures full
of interest.

EXETER HALL.—We perceive Mr. Allcroft gives
his grand monst-r conceit this evening at the above
spacious hall, and, from the great array t.f t dent he I as
brought together for this grand occasion, there can be
little doubt but that it will be one t f the most brilliant
and entertaining concerts that has been given since his
last. On these occasions (annually) he collects:togt ther:all
the available talent in London, perfectly regardless of
expense ; and the only thing that astonishes us is,
how it is possible that such an assemblage of first-rate
talent can pay the expenses of getting it together, as
we are aware of the enormous outlay attending it.
All we have to say farther on this point ir, that the
programme which is before us is the most judicious
and attractive in talent we have ever seen, and advise
our readers to secure tickets as early as possible.

' KNUTSPORD SAVINGS' BANS.—We have before us
a report, present on Tuesday but by a committee of
managers, appoint ;c1 by the annual mectlng of the trus-
tees and managers of this bank to examine and compare
the pass-books of the depositors with the accounts kept
at the bank, and we are glad to find tae result most sa-
tisractory. Each depositor's book on being presented
was examined by one of the committee, and the balance
due as it appeared in the book ascertained ; then the
balance as it stood in the ledgers of the bank was ascer-
tained by another of the committee, and the two ba-
lances were then compared together, and the result, with
the depositor's name, entered in a register. Out of 729
pass-books 659 were presented and thus compared, and
in every instance a perfect agreement was found to exist
between the pass-books of the depositors and the ac-
count-books of the institution. The total of the balance,
with interest due on the 20th of November last to the
depositors of the bank, was 28,352/. 3s. 6id. To meet
these engagements the sums in the hands of the Com-
missioners for the Reduction of the National Debt and of
the treasurer were 28,803/. 14s. 3d.; leaving a surplus,
after paying every depositor in full, of 451/. 10F. 91d.
The committee conclude their report by eulogising _
the
excellent and accurate way in which the accounts o.fs
nhg
bank have been kept by the actuary, and
byleextePrseeeuir-
their persuasion that there exist most c p
ppl7ation of their
ties fir depositors against any
funds. We may add to this pleansieniagga-iiii,
the operations of the bank h_
year sitce its forrnatior.--A oos.
Yesterday (Friday)
GREAT MATClfATßilifaLtd.lsAnwal
play,ti
in
the
Atilt_
evening, a game cf
)b lavnechste2r yCfoic:uircrEs.tsi°edr'evtehra;
billiards
of the Union Cluh, arid
=arc, between Mr. b,
I, the famous American billiard-player. The
Mr. S'ar
match eras
kago, at the ‘ Read,
Mr. Stark being the cballeng&'r, and toe stake 100/.
The priumimal adceLfietiwonasa)swere hat it should be a f -
all Americal gam', and that Mr. S:ark should give
Roberts 100 out of 1,000. The tame commenced
at half-rait five in the evening, and lasted about three
hours. In the early -portion of it the American took
tho lead, and kept it for a while, but was eventually
worsted by his advereary, a; the following return will
ahcrw:—

STARR. ROBERTS.
Hef-past six
Half-past seven. 536 Half-past seven ..., 475
Miff-past eight
After this achievement Mr. itubeits may fsirly be con-
sidered as one of the greatest billiard-players in tho
world.—illanchester Couriers