The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-05 00:00:00

LETRATUII,E.

The Course of Time. A Poem. By Robert Pollok,
A.M. Illustrated Elition. Blackwood and
Sous, Edinburgh and London.

The well-known poem of " The Course of Time"
is far beyond the need of critical eulogy, and we
can only yield our complimentary thanks to Messrs.
Blackwood for selecting such a sound work for the
subject of exquisite pictorial art and superior mani-
pulative production. The illustrations, 50 in num-
ber, are after designs by Foster, Tenniel, and Clay-
ton, and many of them from the hand of the first-
named artist are not excelled by any his clever
pencil has ever given to the public. The paper,
printing, and binding aid in rendering the volume
fit to attract the admiration of all who look on it.
A more externally elegant and intrinsically valu-
able gift-book has not often come under our notice.

Greal World of London. By Henry Mayhew.
Part Li. Bogue, Fleet-street.
Mr. Mayhew is carrying on this useful work
with unremitting labour and spirit. He is still
dedicating
his investigations to the "Prison" por-
tion of his undertaking, and performs his task in a
very competent manner. He gives the fullest de-
tails of criminal statistics, disciplines, and employ-
ments, worked up with analytical and reflective
power, which proves that the author bestows his
best energies on the subject. Mr. Mayhew shows
by elaborate tables that " females, taken in the
aggregate, are considerably less criminal than
males ; the entire female prisoners of the country
constituting but little more than 20 per cent., and
the males as much as 80 per cent., of the gross
prison populations of England and Wales." Mr.
Mayhew goes on to state that, though in the female
portion of our criminals we see a picture of the
most frightful depravity and weakness, some rays
of human right are yet visible on the dark canvas.
He say: p—
" They who have studied the idiosyncrasy of these de-
graded women know that they aro capable, even in their
degradation, of the very highest sacrifices for those they
love. The majority of the habitual female criminals are
connected with some low brute of a man who is either a
prize-fighter, or cab-driver, or private soldier, or pick-
pocket, or coiner, or costermonger, or, indeed, some such
character. And for this lazy and ruffian fellow, there is
no indignity nor cruelty they will not suffer, no atrocity
that they are not ready to commit, and no infamythat
they will hesitate to perform, in order that he may con-
tinue to live half-luxuriously with them in their shame.
A virtuous woman's love is never of the same intensely
passionate and self-denying character as marks the affection
of her most abject sister. To comprehend this, we must
conceive the wretched woman shunned by almost all the
world for her vice—we must remember that, in many in-
stances, she has lost every relative and friend, and that
even her parents (whose love and care is the last of all to
cease) have cast her from them, and that she is alone in
the great wilderness of life and care —friendless at the very
time when she needs and longs most for a friend to protect
and console her. We must endeavour, too, to conceive
what must be the feelings of such a woman for the one
person, amid all mankind, who seems to sympathise with
her, and who is ready to shield her from the taunts and
cuffs of the world ; for most strange indeed it is, that those
who seem to be the least like women of ail, and appear to
be the least loving and self-denying in their natures, should
be characterised even in their debasement by the tenderest
attribute of the female constitution, and remarkable for a
lova that is more generous, more devoted, more patient,
and more indomitable than any other."

Aldershottana ; or, Chinks in my Hut. Ward and

Lock, Fleet-street.

This volume is a melange of goesip, introducing
courts and camps in a light and, occasionally,
rather flippant tone. The author gives a variety
of characteristics and incidents of the Crimean
Wax ; jumping from feasting revels to fighting
realities, and from hospital horrors to horse-racing
"larks," with the pen of a ready writer. He jots
down the rapid occurrences of military life and
duty very amusingly ; but appears to entertain a
well justified notion that the general management
of the late campaign was anything but creditable
to our high authorities, whether they held the key
of the commissariat cupboards or the command of
cavalry charges. Here is another instance of
printed evidence, tending to confirm the universal
opinion :

"A staff-officer who was on the ground when the dead were
collected aid buried, told me that he hail some conversa-
tion with a Russian general, who ridiculed the idea of at-
tacking the Redan with poignee (handful) of men. He
said, Why did you not send a column of twenty thousand
men to push one another into it ?' And when we came to
the pit in which they were burying the Blue Jackets, this
Russian officer ejaculated, What splendid lions, led by
jackasses !' "

The description of " A Drawing-room" at St.
James's leads one to imagine that the method of
conducting our courtly ceremonies is as much to be
commended as our arrangements for carrying on
foreign hostilities, We are induced to present it
to our readers, if only for the sake of the few
words uttered by the late " Iron Duke"—words
not yet to be considered as falsely prophetic :

" The old Palace looked as ugly as ever ; for more than
a century and a half little had been done by its royal
owners to improve its appearance. One almost regrets
that William the Third did not follow the advice given
him by k-'eter the Great, Czar of Muscovy—viz., " To re-
move his court to Greenwich, and turn St. James's Palace
once more into an hospital.
a

"The visitors began to arrive, slowly enough at first ;
then, pauring in in shoals, they ascended the grand stair-
case uneasily, holding up trains and cards, dissatisfied al-
ready at being rubbed against, or being compelled to rub
their skirts against the picturesque dresses of the Yeomen
Guard, posted upon the lobbies as in days of yore. Wea-
pons of state—partisans and battle axes —which once upon
a time had hedged in' the royal person of Henry VIII.
at tilts and tournaments, and at the Field of the Cloth
of Gold, now gleamed above plumed heads and jewelled
brows in the Armoury.
" It was in the Tapestry Chamber that the progressive
movement of the `glittering throng' was seriously im-
peded ; a lady could not flirt her fan, or a deputy-lieutenant
find room enough to go to the right about without tearing
off or injuring his epaulettes. When the gentlemen of the
Queen's body-guard closed the barriers, Queen Anne's
room was already filled with ' fair women and brave
men,' dowagers and debutantes, rustling in silks and satins
rare ; officers, knights, and esquires tricked out in splendid
uniforms, court dresses, Highland garb, and gala costume
jewellery, plumes, and arms, barbaric gold and pearl,'
wero mingled together in a magnificent crush,. Gilded
spurs got entangled in sweeping trains, dress-swords
hitched into lace, ribands, and embroidery; here the clasp
of a necklace gave way, and an avalanche of pearls rushed
from a swan-like neck to the richly-carpeted floor ; there,
a gay, deceptive wig was seen to turn awry ; and ever and
anon, above the conventional hum of general conversation
murmurs arose, and querulous voices were heard complain-
ing of the heat, or insisting that doors and windows should
be opened and the barriers drawn.
" Then the authoritative voices of the Queen's Gentle-
men at Arms were heard, expostulating, entreating, com-
manding the Queen's visitors to bide their time and wait
with patience and resignation words of weight, but
lightly received by the happy individuals well placed in
the front, and treated with scorn and derision by the un-
happy people in the rear ranks, who considered themselves
though last, not least' in that goodly company, and justly
entitled as true Britons to push and elbow their way in the
world—even into the very presence of their Sovereign.
"It is neither desirable nor agreeable to ' go to the
wall' in a crowd or crush ; nevertheless, it must have been
a small gratification to those who were squeezed against
the brass railing in Queen Anne's Room to be enabled to
cast a longing glance into the cool and cheerful gallery
through which those highly-favoured personages who had
the entree lounged leisurely towards the Ambassador's
Room.

" It was indeed a truly refreshing sight to see a peer or
a peeress in her own right, a bishop in lawn sleeves, a
chancellor or judge in his robes and wig, an Indian prince,
or Hungarian magnate or ambassador, shaking out their
feathers and finery, putting their best legs forward' be-
fore they were summoned by the lord with the white rod
to form up' in that segment of the inner cirole nearest
the throne. Better still to be enabled to look upon the
well-known figure of a venerable officer, who slowly ad-
vanced, and when half way up the gallery halted for a
minute at the small table upon which the visitors deposit
cards or write their names. "
Then, while every one in Queen Anne's Room was
on tip toe, the words, the Duke ! the Duke 1' passed like
a watch-word from lip to hp, sinking into whispers as the
great chief slowly approached. He walked like a man in
a dream, wrapped up in the glories of the past; a quiet
yet triumphant smile lighted up his countenance as his eye
rested upon the pedals upon the breasts of some old war-
riors leaning against the rails. He looked round from face
to face for a second, recognised an officer of rank, upon
whose left breast several medals and decorations glittered.
" Is Lord de Roos here ?' inquired the Duke, some-
what abruptly.
" ' I have not seen him, sir," responded the old militaire.
" Some one volunteered to look for the nobleman who
was wanted, bat the Duke slowly walked away, and
entered the Ambassador's Room, where ho was addressed
by a diplomatist wearing the gold embroidered blue costae
of the civil service. The Duke seemed to listen attentively
to the communications of the Minister of State ; a cloud
passed over his brow as he raised up his eyes, and contem-
plated the upper part of the tall windows, through which
a beam of summer sun streamed into the room, and threw
a sort cf hale around that venerable head, and in a sad and
solemn voice he uttered these momentous words—
" A war with Russia ! if we have a war with Russia,
God knows where it will end !'—then, after a pause, he re-
peated, ' God knows where !'
"The Duke was not two paces from me when those words
were spoken. He looked like some prophetic seer pro-
nouncing the doom and destiny of nations.
" A burst of martial music from the Park echoed around
the courts and the gardei.s. It was the full band of the
Life Guards playing the national anthem, God save the
Queen.' There was a shout and cheers without—a clatter•
big of swords and scabbards, and the sound of carriage•
wheels on the gravel walks under the windows announced
that the Sovereign had arrived within the precincts of st.
James's Palace."

NEW YEAR'S DAT IN SCOTLAND.—The police-cells in
Glasgow, on New Year's Day, were glutted, and the
officers on in-door duty were driven to watch for the
returning sobriety of the earliest corners that they might
be discharged to make room for fresh arrivals.
the cause of this unexpected return to former bad habits
may be, it is hard to determine. The simplest explana-
tion is probably nearest the truth—Glasgow's drouth i. s
not to be satified with teipperance beverages.--Scota-
nian. The shops in Greenock- being generally closed,
the streets had a dull appearance, and were quite dismal
by the number of staggering filtby drunkards, to whom
respectable pedestrians had to give way. Numeroua
fights took place during the day, some of them of a
serious character.—Greenock Advertiser.