The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-02 00:00:00

mas lets loose upon us in the shape of almanacks are un-
doubtedly amongst its best exponents. Some of them are
truly ponderous tomes, containing a history of the preced-
ing year, with the .pro6,rress made by the country in art,
science, and mechanical invention. No subject is forgotten.'
There is information alike about fashions and needle-guns ;
there are pretty pictures and homely advice to young
housekeepers, characteristic anecdotes, and racy illustra-
tions. Several pages of these are given, and very interest,
ing pages they are. Closely following these is a tale of
crime, the scene whereof is laid in France, and is srad to
have been originally related by Vidoeq, the chief of the

police under Louis Philippe. The famous vnllcy of
Cashmere, the reputed birthplace of " the Shepherd
Kings," is the subject of a short but comprehensive article,
which suggests the annexation of this territory to Eritish
India with a view of checkmating Russian Policy in the
East. The argument is, that were Cashmere ganisoned and
the passes held by a European force, we should have
it in our power to debouch at any moment on the onehand
upon the plains of Central Asia, or upon the other, if
needed, to throw a force into our own provinces. The
climate of Cashmere, though somewhat warm in summer,
suits well the European constitution, exhausted by the.
heats of the low country. The third series of " Prestwood
Papers" concern dunces at school who have become prize-
men in after life. As Hazlitt has reminded us, boys who
shine at school do not make the greatest figures in after,
life ; so per contra. the early dunce has frequently turned
out to be the master mind of the future. Amongst the
more incorrigible dunces at school were Sir Walter Scott,
Tom Moore, Oliver Goldsmith, Linnzeus, Sir Isaac
Newton, Steele, Hogarth, and many others. The number
finishes with a tale by Monk Saville, entitled " Worth the
Winning," which embodies some eminently characteristic
incidents of a love story, and tq the devotees of this class
of literature will be found `i'...Porth the v,:ading."

Temple Bar continues to be essentially that which its,
Title tells us it professes to be—a London magazine for
town and country readers. In the January number the

matter is sufficiently varied to please the grave, the gay,
the fashionable, and the commonplace. There are three
comll.Alations, the first of which, " Stephen Lawrence,
Yeoman," in carrying on the story already partly

old, introduces the reader to some curious incidents

in Parisian life, where the central figures are a fast young

English wife and an easy-going husband, who is rapidly
getting into bad company—gamblers to wit. Mr. Sheridan
Le Fanu gives three more chapters of "A Lost Name,"
which,contain many points of interest to the lovers of the
affectionate and the romantic. Mr. Frank Buckland
contributes a brief, pleasantly-written paper descriptive of
the domestic life of two monkeys which that well-known
naturalist has supplied with a home underneath his roof.
The writer says he could go on for a month describing the
characteristics of bis little pets, but he tells a great deal
in his half-dozen pages, and winds up by informing the
public that the monkeys love him, and he loves the mon-
keys. Mr. J. H. Riddell, under the head "In the Gloam-
ing," relates an instance of Scottish superstition, which,
like the ghost story named " Squire Toby's Will," in the
same number, is read by the admirers of the weird, the

supernatural, or the improbable. Mr. James Hannay
furnishes a well-written raper on the "Literature of

Satire." He contends that a great want of the present

generation, and one which is not likely to be supplied
during the ascendancy of the existing taste for twaddle, is
a History of Satirical Literature. The writer ought to
begin with Aristophanes and end with Btsranger. In his
rapid racy way, Mr. Hannay undertakes the task himself.
He deals with the satirists of Greece, of Rome, of the
middle ages, of the Reformation, and of the last and the
present centuries. He finds them taking part with truth
and right, and fighting nobly for them, in many a great
historical movement. He passes under a hasty review
works of every sort of charm, moral and intellectual,
affording abundant i lustrations of the changes of opinion
and manners, and gives a great deal of valuable informa-
tion on a subject on which he is so well qualified to form
and to express an opinion.
If the success of a magazine depends, as to a great
extent it certainly does, on its combination of the charac-
teristics of the journal and the novel, Tins/esss' is v:oi king
in the right vein. Two oisthe articles have a direct
bearing on the most prominent topic of the day
Fenianism. The "Adventures of Dr. Brady" affords
Dr. Russell an opportunity, which is well used, to throw
in a large amount of political philosophy anent the state
of Ireland. One might say to a Fenian-- dcte fabnla narra-
tur -of the following : " In their reveries they fancied that
one nationality was like another, that what one could do
,another could do,.under circumstances totally different.
A country gentleman, nnwarlike, main, --fierverse, and
impracticable ; some briefless barristers, intoxicated by
the praises of their followers : a few ardent journalists,
who deemed burning sentences and fervid periods to be
potent as volleys of musketry and as charges of grape ;
weak enthusiasts, who thought that to die for a cause was
to gain it : unselfish, but violent, utterly futile, foolish
conspirators, who plotted every morning in the news-
papers and held public meetings at night, to carry
out their secret designs—these, and, such as these, joined
by the desperadoes who are ever ready to run the hazard
of the die in any dangerous enterprise, absolutely
.set to
work to wrest Ireland from the dominions of the Crown
under which it was placed hundreds of years before Scot-
land acknowledged its sway. The whole scheme burst
into thin air before a few rounds of ball cartridge. But
as the tiniest jet of flame from the crater tells of tremen-
dous fires raging below, the outbreak proved that the ele-
ments of fierce eruption were underlying the crust which .
scarcely warmed with the touch of the expiring flash.
The volcano is burning yet, and ever since that time a
number of well-meaning people have been toiling up the
mountain side with tin cans and watering-pots, dribbling the
contents down the crater by way of extinguishing the
fire and quenching the internal conflagration." Dr.
Russell writes often epigrammatically. Of " a magnifi-
cent specimen of eloquence " he says truly : " Wisdom is
seldom found in the councils of the miserable. Misery
creates orators. The unhappy, the wretched, are elo-
quent ; but eloquence has eh stroyed more than it has
saved, and the great orators of the world stand amid
ruins." The dialogue and incident of the present chapters
of " Dr. Brady" are as sprightly as an Ilsh story ought
to be. "Aunt Anastatia on the Festive Season" com-
bines a little truth with much misrepresentation. Life
nowadays is not growing more artificial and restrained,
but, on the contrary, more sensible and rational.
" England, Ireland, and America" is professedly written
by an American Fenian. Its purport is that Great Bri-
tain is now the most easily assailable of empires, prOvided
that she can have an antagonist that can meet her upon
the seas. in that respect the United States are her pre-
destined and only opponent. This seems to be their
mission, for which all history has carefully educated them,
and to which they are steadily and not unwillingly im-
pelled by an inexorable fate. The British nation, like
other threatened people, lives long ; and if it be the geed
fortune of the writer, he will find he was not born
to be a prophet. " The Reck Ahead " has pro-
gressed to Book the Second, and in the present instal-
ment Mr. Yates says too much of his characters, and they
say too little for themselves. The novelist, like the
dramatist, should allow as far as possible his characters to
develope in the dialogue and incidents of his work. Mean-
while, the interest in them is fairly kept up and the plot
is beconiing exciting. " Middle-class Housekeeping" is
a useful but a slightly overdrawn picture of the rapacity
of London shopkeepers. Even in the metropolis ready
money will not reduce expenses by two-thirds. The means
recommended to extricate townspeople from monopolies
deserve practical consideration, especially in the matter of
markets. According to this article, the Liverpool market
reduces the expenses of the inhabitants to such an extent,
that £6OO a-year in Liverpool is worth £l,OOO in London.
The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine.- -The character
of this magazine is accurately defined by its title. That
character is strictly adhered to, and is efficiently developed.
Enriched with a series of engravings, accompanied with
letterpress descriptions, of the newest needle-work pat-
terns and ladies' and children's fashions, the number for
the present month will be very favourably received by the
class to whom it is especially addressed. Its literary
matter is not without merit. Besides two or three tales
adapted for family reading, there is a really excellent
paper on " Some Curiosities of Materia Medica," and an
instructive illuStrated article on " Drawing-room Plants
for Winter, Decorations." Presented to subscribers as a
little Christmas offering are ten exquisitely executed table
cards, intended to be used at dinner or supper to indicate
the places of the guests. These alone are worth a good
deal more than the shilling for which the periodical is sold.
" Scissors and Paste" is the title of a readable article in
Chambers's Journal, on the duties of sub-editors, fromwhich
we extract the following significant paragaph :--" With-
out revealing any prison-house secrets, I may mention
that I know at least. one newspaper now producing an
enormous revenue to its proprietors, which but a few years
back was only saved from absolute extinction by the
efforts of its sub-editor. Had he not begged an bor-
rowed money enough to pay for its machinery for as eek,
it would have died without a struggle, and instead of
being the great power in journalism wh;ch it new is,
would have been 100 Once forgotten,"