The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-01 00:00:00

BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.

Mr. Jesse's late amusing work on "George Selwyn
and his Contemporaries " furnishes the subject of an
intelligent critical notice in this month's Number of
Blackwood. The Reviewer pourtrays Selwyn's cha-
racter with much accuracy, but makes no mention
of the fact that, with all 4 his acknowledged readi-
ness at repartee, he was •
in apt at times to be a
prodigious bore, and his old age was as
much avoided, as he had once been courted
by the mercurial spirits of his day. We do not at
all wonder at this, for many of George's best jokes
were studied, and he had a trick of drawling them
out in a very prosy fashion. Moreover, he was
nothing but a wit, and was limited to a degree
in the range of his conversational powers.
The Reviewer asserts that one •of Selwyn's chosen
friends was Sheridan, but this is not the case, for, in
the first place, he regarded him as a parvenu, and,
secondly, he was jealous of his wit and drollery, the
fame of which was fast eclipsing his own. We ex-
tract from this sketchy criticism a passing notice of
the Miss Gunnings—the celebrated beauties of the
days of George the Second
To the astonishment, and perhaps to the envy, of the
fashionable world, those two unportioned young women made
the most splendid matches of the season. The Duke of
Hamilton Tell in love with the younger at a masquerade, and
made proposali to her. The marriage was to take place
within some months ; but his passion was so vehement, that
in two nights •after he insisted on marrying her at the
moment. Walpole tells us that he sent for a clergyman,
who however refused to marry them without license or ring.
At this 'period marriages were frequently performed in a
very unceremonious and unbecoming manner. From the
laxity of the law, they were performed at all hours, fre-
quently in private houses, and sometimes even in gaols, by
pretended clergymen. The law, however, was subsequently
and properly reformed. The Duke and Duchess are said to
have been married with a curtain-ring, at half-past twelve at
night, at May-fair Chapel. This precipitated the marriage
of Lord Coventry, a personage of a grave stamp, but who had
long paid attention to the elder sister Maria. He married
her about three weeks after. Except that we are accus-
tomed to hear of the frenzy which seizes people in the name
of fashion, we should scarcely believe the effect which
those two women, handsome as they were, continued to pro-
duce. On the Duchess of Hamilton's presentation at Court
on her marriage, the crowd was immense; and so great was
the curiosity, that the courtly multitude got on the chairs
' and tables to look at her. Mobs gathered round their doors
to see them get into their chairs ; people crowded early to
the theatres when they heard they were to be there. Lady
Coventry's shoemaker is said to have made a fortune by sell-
ing patterns of her shoe ; and en the Duchess's going to
Scotland, several 'hundred people walked about all night
round the inn where she slept, on the Yorkshire road, that
they might have a View of her as she went otf next morning.
Yet they appear to have been strangely neglected in their edu-
cation ; good-humoured and good-natured undoubtedly, but
little better than hoydans after all. Lord Down met Lord
and Lady Coventry at Calais, and offered to send her Lady-
ship a tent-bed, for fear of bugs at the inn. "Oh dear!"
said she, " I had rather be bit to death than lie one night
from my dear Coy." She is, however, memorable for one
etourderie, which amused the world greatly. Old George 11.,
conversing with her on the dulneis of the season, expressed
a regret that there had been no masquerades during the year,
the handsome rustic answered him, that she had seen sights
enough, and only one she wanted to see now was—" a coro-
nation." The 'King, however, had the good sense to laugh,
and repeated it good-humouredly to his circle at supper.
Lady Coventry died a few years after of consumption, at the
age of twenty-seven. It was said that her death was has-
tened by the habit of using white lead as a paint, the fashion-
able custom of the time." •

" The Heretic " i; a review of a translation of a
Russian novel of that name that has lately appeared
in print. It is carefully written, and the extracts are
numerous and well-selected. The " Prophecy' of the
Twelve Tribes" is a short poem, which evinces no in-
considerable grace and strength of versification. It
is signed " Havilah," and reminds us of Doctor Croly's
manner. " A Bewailment from Bath "is a mock-
complaint by a spinster of the superior attention paid to
married women in England, and the neglect with which
old maids are treated. " Secession from the Church
of Scotland" is as uninviting and hackneyed as its
subject, which is saying a great deal for it. Sitting
for a Portrait" is an entertaining and sensible com-
munication from the pen of a frequent con-
tributor to this Magazine, who invariably ad-
dresses himself to a fictitious friend, whom he quaintly
styles Eusebius. In the present chapters of " Mar-
ston; or, the Memoirs of a Statesman," we meet with
some graphic descriptions of the invasion of France,
in 1793, by the Duke of Brunswick—whose military
and diplomatic talents are absurdly overrated —and of
the subsequent disastrous retreat of the allied armies.
The tale improves greatly in interest as it proceeds.

• BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY.
' Mr. Murray's metropolitan sketches, under the
title of "Physiology of London Life," are happily
adapted for the perusal of country readers in the more
remote districts—if, indeed, there be such a thing as
remoteness since the institution of railroads— who
will naturally be anxious to read about that mighty,
plethoric Babylon of which they have heard such
marvels, and which they live in the hope of one
day. visiting. The author, after describing the
•quaint locality of Leicester-square, makes some
pertinent allusions to the astonishing spread of
London westward, and the incessant migration
of all would-be people of fashion in that
direction. The spread is indeed most marvellous, and
we should not wonder if, in the course of some twenty
or thirty years, the West-end of the metropolis should •
have established itself in the neighbourhood of Houns-
low. Already it is travelling with a determined stride
towards that suburbrn spot; and the march of brick
and mortar is no more likely to come to a dead halt
than the march of intellect—of quackery,of capital
—or any other popular onward movement of
the day Speaking incidentally of Clare market,
Mr. Murray tells us that it is in the immediate
vicinity of sundry hospitals and churchyards ; but he
does not add—which he might have done with per-
fect truth—that when the wind blows froin the east, that
is to say, from the cemeteries right over the market,
it must impart a fine aromato the butcher's meat there,
and greatly enhance its excellence in the eyes of epi-
cures. The present chapters of the " Scattergood
Family" are a decided improvement on the last. Mr.
Albert Smith is not very felicitous in dialogue, but his
narrative is almost uniformly interesting and
animated. He presents us not merely with the outline
of a picture, but with all its minutest details, as in his
graphic sketch of the stage and green-room of a
minor theatre, where the actors and actresses are all
in their every-day dress, and a dramatist—of the
tremendous Fitzbali school—is edifying them by the
perusal of -his :last new melo-drama. In this vivid
description there is force without exaggeration. We
should not omit to notice Leech's admirable illus-
tration of a small actor's garret, which is evidently
drawn from the life. " Dalton"—a fictitious name, we
presume—gives us a striking legend of the Lincoln Fens,
in hi's prose tale, "The Dummy," which refers to a
murder perpetrated there several years ago, under the
most revolting circumstances that it is possible to
conceive. The story is just the sort of one to be
read on a dark night in a chimney-corner, when the
clock is on the 'stroke of twelve, the candles are low
in their sockets, and the wind is howling like the
very devil up the chimney. The moral may be ex-
plained in the words of Shakspeare :
" Foul deeds will rise
Tho' all the earth o'erwhialm them in men's eyes."
The " Happy Family" has much quiet humour
and irony. The author, after duly considering the
private lives and habits of several families who are
said by their friends to pass their lives in a state of
enviable felicity, and discovering, on examination,
that the statement is without foundation, comes at
length to the conclusion that the only truly happy
family in all London is that extraordinary collection
of cats and mice, and owls and ferrets, who
may be seen dwelling amicably together in a cage
in Trafalgar-square. The author concludes by this
just remark, " The grand secret must be let out. If
you were to treat rational beings as these brutes are
treated, they would be equally quiet, easy, and com-
fortable." The " English Captives at Caubul" is full,
as might be expected, of matter of exciting interest.•
The " Northern Tower" is a poem intended to be
humourous. It is, however, dull by mistake. We quote
some pleising stanzas entitled " Our Fathers

" Our fathers! Time its record bears.
To their unblemish'd fame,
And every olden spot endears •
Some high and saintly name.
Earth teems with memories of those
Whom ages guard in deep repose.
Calmly they rest, those grey old men
We fondly love to trace,
With rev'rent mein, and sage-like ken,
And cheerful beaming face ;
With locks as white as riven snow,
And furrow'd, yet undaunted brow.
Where lonely stands the time-worn church,
The little hamlet's pride;
There, stranger, ply thy curious search,
And oftentimes beside
The crumbling edifice thou'lt see
Some rudely sculptured effigy.
Despise it not ! that fragment brings
A. moralising theme,
And o'er it, as the sunset flings
A warm and passing gleam,
It may a light to thee impart,
And wake to thought thine inmost heart.
Though nameless, yet we know that 'neath
'That cenotaph lies one
To whom we owe a wreath in death,
And not ourselves alone,
But those who can but prattle o'er
The greatness of their sires of yore!
A warrior!—Can the patriot boast
A lineage more proud?
Some patient monk !—Hath Learning's host
More wisely been endowed?
Could we at times revive the spell
Of their own day, it might be well !
Behold yon ruin !—'twas a fans
Where once, at quiet even,
Would rise-the penitential strain
Of godly men to heaven!
What hands arrests the spoiler's sway?
What heart but mocks it in decay ?
The vigils of the midnight hour,
Not idly spent, nor few, -
The struggles of the mind for pow'r
Tv thee high souls are flue ;

And we, unconscious of their might,
Derive the blessing, theirs by right.
Affection !--there was truth within,
That now we blush to name;
Art spreads an holocaust to sin,

Add scorns a virtuous fame.
The darker ages do but prove
How weakly man recedes in
Our fathers !—foremost are ye still !
We echo but the sound
Of those rich notes of ancient skill,
So joyous, yet profound !
The liglt that o'er the past is thrown
But dims the glory of our own,"

NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

The opening article in this Number, " Letters
from Hong-Kong and Macao," besides being lively
and spirited in the tone, is exceedingly well-timed,
and will be pretty sure to be read with interest,
public curiosity being just now specially directed to
everything relative to China: The author, it seems,
is but just arrived from Hong-Kong, whose popula-
tion he states to have increased in a most surprising
ration for in 1840, when it was first ceded to the
British, It contained scarcely a population of 8,000
souls; and no*, in 1843, it numbers upwards of
30,000! It is not a little curious that though the
Government-House, and other public buildings in
Hong-Kong are as yet but half-finished, the
"granite gaol" is completed, and furnished with
every requisite for the accommodation of those
who may feel disposed to qualify themselves for
admission. " Young England" institutes a good
humoured, ironical contrast between the existing
generation and its immediate predecessor, and shows
how completely the learned ehildren of the present
day put to the blush their ignorant fathers, and hints
at the expediency of the latter, being sent to infant
schools, in order to place them on a more equal footing
—in point of knowledge—with their juvenile, unbe-
wiskered offspring. " Song of the Spirit of Poverty"
is by Miss Cooke. There are some vigorous thoughts
inlit, but the subject is too repulsive for our taste. Poets
—lady-poets especially—should forswear such grim,
painful themes, which even the genius of Crabbe
hardly rendered endurable, " Narrative of a Visit to
to the Courts of Vienna," &c.' is by the Marchioness
of Londonderry, who bewails in most lugubrious
terms the sufferings she endured from dirt and ver-
min while steaming down the Danube. We can imagine
with what exquisite dismay the fair owner of Wynyard
Park must have contempTated the mercurial movements
of innumerable fleas—all in the healthiest condition
while seated in her squalid den of a cabin, and deriving
her sole consolation from the fact that the drenching,
rain which came pouring in through the roof and,
wetted her through and through, would also most
probably give her insect persecutors their death of
cold. The Marchioness writes clearly and with con-
siderable vigour, and the touches of aristocratic
fastidiousness that now and then quite unconsciously
escape her, are amusing, because characteristic. The
" Monster-Meeting" is a broad quizzical extrava-
ganza, describing a meeting of all the monsters in
creation, past and present, for the purpose of elect-
ing a president ; when, after much animated
discussion, an "honest Pennsylvanian," was elected
by general acclamation, as being the greatest monster
of all The " Good Old Plan" is a French tale of the
days of the. Grande Monarque' whose object is to
show the impolicy of subjecting high-spirited boys to
corpor:il punishment. " Behind the Scenes" con-
tains some able sketches of character. We quote the
following passage, which alludes to the conduct of
Prince Talleyrand during the memorable three days
in Paris, in the Revolution of 1830
" On the second day, the 28th, when the people were com-
bating against the king's troops for the possession of the
}Mel de Ville, while the air was tilled with the old and
dreaded sounds, the cannon's roar, the tocsin's boom, his
confidence in the success of the King's power of defence for-
Book him at once, and he then pronounced the memorabl
sentence which has since become familiar to the readers of
French literature : ' The cannon which is fired against the
people cannot but shake the sovereign's throne.'
" At the moment when the tocsin announced the triumph
of the people at the Hotel de Ville, he looked at the clock
upon the mantelpiece. It was then just' upon the stroke of
five. ' A few minutes more,' exclaimed he, ' and Charles X.
is no longer King of France.'
" One good instance of his presence of mind occurred at
this very moment, for he turned to his valet-de-chambre,
and bade him immediately collect together the men-servants
of the hotel, and take down the words ' Hotel Talleyrand,'
which flaunted in large golden characters over the gateway,
the feudal pride of other times.
" I still maintain the' perfect conviction that, even up to
the very hour of which I speak, he was undecided as to thb
course he would adopt; he was evidently waiting for the ,
issue of the struggle. Public rumour has lent him a bon
mot, which is certainly in his style, although I was with
him the whole day, and did not hear him pronounce it.
" Hark ! the tocsin ceases—we triumph!'
" We ! who, monprince?' - -

" Chut, not a word! I will tell you that to-morrow.'
"If his secret wishes were really in favour of a new order
of things, with his habitual prudence, he made it a duty to
conceal them ; and he spent the whole of the second day
fixed at the windows of the drawing-room of the hotel, which
looks into the Place Louis Quinze, sending every now and
then his emissaries into the divers quartas of Paris, to bring
hack accounts of the progress of the revolution. MM. de
Broglie, Bertin de Vaux, and Sebastiani, were with him,
and all, excepting the Prince, were of opinion that the King
would attempt, before the morning, to re-enter Paris at the
head of his troops. He knew the character of the man tdo
well either to hope or fear this decision.

"On the 29th; however, when M, de Talleyrand began to
be convinced that the cause of the revolution triumphed that
the Liberal Deputies, Casimir Perier, Lafitte, Lafayette, all,
not only pronounced themselves in its favour, but sought to
direct the insurrection, and to place themselves at its head ;
he felt at once the immense advantage that such a demon-
stration would give to the Chamber of Deputies over the
Chamber of Peers ; and his only thought during the whole
day was to collect together, at his own house, the few men
of intelligence among the Peers of the opposition, in order
to balance, in the public opinion, by some patriotic declara-
tion, the influence already gained by the Deputies, from the
position in which theyhad placed themselves—that of De-
fenders of the Charter.'
"But all the efforts of the Prince were unavailing. The
great number of his friends, such as Pasquier and Mole, heal-
tating to declare their opinions thus openly, in dread of the
return of Charles X., declined taking a part in the protesta-
tion of the Deputies. M. de Talleyrand was pained to the
quick by this want of decision, and foretold, with an accuracy
which has since become manifest, all the bad consequences
which would fall upon the Chamber of Peers from having
remained passive' uring this eventful crisis."