The Sun.
London, England, 1850-12-04 00:00:00

FRASER.

On receiving Fraser for the present month we
turned with anxious curiosity to the table of contents
for the purpose of ascertaining in what manner this
organ of the Puseyite Tories would treat the subject
of the Papal aggressions, and were surprised to find
that not one word, good, bad, or indifferent, had the
Puseyite organ to say on the subject. Those who de-
rive their information of the current history of the
period solely from Fraser, would never, for an in-
stant, imagine that the whole English people had
been stirred up during the past month to renew the
protest which their forefathers had made against the
errors and aggressions of the Church of Rome; that
the Pope had attempted to encroach on the supremacy
of the Sovereign by assuming the right to make a
fresh territorial division of the kingdom, and that the
traitors within the camp, whose " mummeries" had en-
couraged the Pope to this act of aggression, bad re-
ceived a " heavy blow and a great discouragement"
from the denunciation of them by the Premier
in his admirable letter to the Bishop of Durham,
which denunciation had been re-echoed throughout
the length and breadth of the land. This silence on
the part of the Tractarian organ is more significant
than speech. The present number of Fraser is almost
entirely literary. With the exception of a short article
of three pages, entitled " Poland as it Is," and of a
pleasant, gossipping comparison between Paris of
1828 and Paris of 1850, which is evidently the pro-
duction of one who is intimately and personally ac-
quainted with the scenes sad with the persons he
describes, we have nothing political in the Fraser
for December. From this last article, which is entitled
the " Chronique de Paris," we extract the following
account of the Carlist, or, to speak more properly,
the Ultramontane party in Paris, and its :chiefs, to
the extreme accuracy of which we can speak from
our own personal knowledge.
"It has fallen to my lot to see much of the Carlists
of the present day, both in public and in private; and,
with a few exceptions, men more unpli asing, more dis-
agreeable to Englishmen, it is impossible to conceive.
The Carlists of the best water never liked or relished
England or her institutions. They could not conceive,
tolerate, or endure, our freedom of conscience, of speech,
and of the press, our complete liberty of thought and of
action. But the men of the old school were too polite
and polished to express openly their disrelish or dislike.
They did not give to their worst of thoughts the worst
of words, but dissembled with exquisite dexterity their
prejudices and prepossessions. But the French Carlists
of the present day base no such reserve; they blurt out
their opinions, however unpalatable, openly, without re-
gard to time, or to place, or to circumstances. In pri-
vate salons, in the reserved galleries of the Chamber, in
the Café de Paris or the Bois de Boulogne, it is all the
same. La Perfide Albion!' Co venal et remnant
Palmerston!' are always on their tongues or in their
thoughts. With them, the Pope of Rome, the politics
of the Vatican, the Capucins of Marseilles, and the
Jesuits of St. Acheuil, of Brussels, or elsewhere, are
always the first consideration. The men are, for the
most part, stupid, reserved, and proud. Some excep-
tions there are, where individuals are keen-witted and
masters of fence, and no mean debaters and dialecticians,
like Montalembert; or where, like M. de Falloux, there
is power of concentrated and vigorous expression, and a
robust tone of thought. But the exceptions are few,
and only murk the rule. Besides, the head of M. Monte-
lambert must be complimented at the expense of his
heart. He is a cold, a waspish, and a vinegar-minded
person, English on the mother's side, who has repaid
the obligations which he and his family, more especially
his father, who was in our military service, owed to
England, by the blackest ingratitude. Such however, is
the effect of religious bigotry, that this man forgets all
the obligations which he and his owed to England, in
remembering that we are not subjects and vassals of the
Pope. M. Falloux is not obnoxious to the same objec-
tions. He owes nothing to England. No English blood
flows iu his veins, and there is not in his bigotry the
acerbity and bitterness which leavens that of M. Monts-
lembert. But, withal, he loves us at bottom as little
as his fellow; and if ever one or other shall have an in-
fluence on the politics of France, such influence would
be exerted against England."

Perhaps the best article in Fraser is the kind and
genial notice of Charles Dickens and his works (more
especially " David Copperfield,") with which the num-
ber concludes. It is written in just the tone and
spirit in which a notice of" Boz" should be written, for
to quote the truthful words of this article, " most
men would as soon think of dissecting a first cousin
as of criticising Charles Dickens." The critic who
writeth touching things theatrical is evidently old
and soured, and because he remembers John Kemble
and Mrs. Siddons, can now-a-days " find nothing
worthy behind the lamps." For Macready, indeed,
he has a grain of praise in a bushel of censure, and
for that grain of praise Macready is indebted
to the fact that he is about to leave the stage ;
but all the rest, with the single exception of
Miss Helen Faucit, are in his eyes, " leather
and prunella." Our sour critic is self-sufficient
also, and rails at all mankind, from the Queen to the
journalist, because they will not " see with his eyes
and
djti imdghewsietlhf in his
sliBsdl a thegmsent." Does he intend to
exhibit model man ? " Our
Musical Autumn" is a well written notice of the
musical doings of the last three months, in which we
are glad to find that the author does justice to the
directors, conductors, and performers, at the Grand
N ational Concerts. These concerts are worthy their
name • the classical music by Beethoven, Mozart, and
the other grand masters, is performed even more con-
scientiously than it ever has been at the Philharmonic;
and, vk bile the concerts of the latter are of a peculiarly
exclusive character, the National Concerts are within
the reach of every lover of music in every station of
life. The "Naturalist" gives us some pleasant gossip
on crocodiles and alligators, whilst we have from an
astronomer an interesting account of the revelations
of Lord Rosse's Leviathan telescope. There are al,o
several interesting tales in Fraser for this month, and
an excellent lyric, entitled " The Two Ave,"s by T.
Westwood, which hath a smack of genuine poetry
about it.

THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE MAlL.—Arrangements
have been made for the Cape of Good Hope mail screw
steamers, which are to leave Plymouth on the 15th of every
month, to call at Madeira and Sierra Leone, on their passage
to the Cape, and they will doubtless take mails for those
intermediate ports of call. Her Majesty's six ships which
used to leave the West of England with mails fur Madeira
and Sierra Leone have ceased to do so for the last two
months.

A STEADY DRIVE.—Mr. James Bloxsome, the
coachman on the north mail from Gloucester to Abergar
v.enny, has been on, tnn; line of road nearly five years. I'he
distaywe between. the above-named. pjaces is 4'd miles, conse-
quently his daily drive is 8.6 miles. When . the Ave years
have expired, Mr. Bloxsorne will havecizie`ovei an'
itnendise splice -of gfeetid,' ainonnting'tO". 146;95d (six,
iftlieAtii6•Circunifereilte 6f the gitib-6), and., would ,occupy:the'
dime ef rinldn six-oyears. (less two 'days),
the' of thite:rfillts per hour perpetually wand
• what is terS, ektitabidinkiy, Bloxs6rne.hhs only misspd,
hne otiqdurftl , the'whol& tithe, and 'that' exception was by-
driving -' tar' AS Ragland' -instead of Attergavenay.--.-
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Cibucestei