The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-11 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

WESTMINSTER REVIEW. A'o.

Clarke, London, 1844.

The most remarkable article in the present Num-
ber, is the one which is very properly placed first ; it
is on the subject of " Railway Administration and
Improvement," and is full of most sanguine specula-
tions as to th© immense advantages that will accrue
to humanity from the spread of these wonderful
improvements. The Reviewer justly remarks that
the railway serves to unite both mind and matter,
and to draw the ends of the earth together, and that
it is its office to perfect the civilization which the
Press has commenced. " Coningsby" is a notice of
Mr. D'lsraeli's most popular work of fiction ; it is
written in a highly eulogistic strain, though, as
might be expected, there are many points in which the
Reviewer differs widely from the Reviewed. On one
point, however, their opinions are marvellously in ac-
, cordance with each other. Both acknowledge that
the machinery of the Reform Bill has utterly failed ;
and the former, more especially—who, we need not
say, is a Radical—expresses his decided opinion that
the kind of Government which this Bill has secured,
in
telligent
minority, neither that of the majority nor of the
minority, but that it has placed power in the hands
of the venal. There is some truth in this observa-
tion, but it certainly is not true to the extent
which the Reviewer would fain have his readers be-
lieve it is. The Reform Bill has done a world of
good, if in nothing more than in having overthrown
the corrupt influence of the boroughmongers, and
brought the House of Commons more in harmony
with the character of the Constitution ; but it un-
questionably is not a final measure, and—notwith-
standing the perverse notion of one of the Whig
chiefs—could never have been seriously intended us
such. The " Prize Comedy" is a caustic notice of
Mrs. Gore's unfortunate play of Quid Pro Quo,
which the author denounces as a trashy abortion, and
observes that it is far more remarkable for flippant
vulgarity than for sterling wit or humour. As we
have neither seen nor read the comedy, we cannot of
course presume to pronounce an opinion on its merits,
but if we may judge from the extracts quoted by the
Reviewer, we should be tempted to say that it was at best
but a so-so production. " Charles James, Bishop of
London," professes to be a temperate and impartial esti-
mate of the character of this bustling Prelate. The
article is clearly the production of one who has at-
tentively studied the peculiarities of the character
which he pourtrays, and his judgment, therefore,
however unfavourable, cannot but be received with
respect. The Bishop, he says, " gives us the impres-
sion of being a man of small mind, of feeble powers
of thought, contracted sympathies, mean aims, and a
most slippery public morality. He has talent with.
out a doubt—talent to become Bishop of London—
talent to get new churches built, and cathedral sine-
cures cut up into benefices for episcopal patronage ;
but of any of the higher mental qualities, we see not
a trace at any period of his life." We quote the
following eloquent and emphatic passage from the
article on railways
God made the country, and man made the town.'
And now that man bath practically annihilated both
time and space, by the spirit within him that bath
taught his right hand the cunning whereby he may
achieve his escape from darkness into light, let the
country once more be devoted to God's uses for the many,
instead of being confined to the few. Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. The words of God's mouth
are written on mountain and moor, on heath and hill,
on wood and forest, brook and river, ocean and sea.
They who would blot out the face of nature and make
' the whole land artificial, would destroy one of man's
noblest faculties, the power of appreciating nature. They
would destroy God's handwriting, and substitute for it
artificial signs. We hope, we trust, we believe, that
this shall not come to pass. We trust that the wild
lands of England, the Mount Horebs of the soil, the
spots that nature hath made difficult of cultivation, as
though she had said, " these are reserved" the wild
gardens cf the poor man, in which the purple heath and
the yellow gorse flourish self planted—the old forest
patches, the Charts and the Commons, the Combes and
the Hurats, the wildernesses of the land—we trust that
the rich man's plough shall never pass over these, the
poor man's inheritance. Up and be doing, ministers of
religion ! Plant your cross in such places, and shadow
them with your protection. Not as the head of the
Church—he of Canterbury—bath done—enclosing a
poor man's common for a private park, but shutting out
for ever the spoilers of Naboth's vineyard. Proclaim
that the high places and wild places are set apart for the
worship of nature's God, and build ye your temples at
their entrances, for the seasons when the rains of heaven
shall fall, and a wintry sky require artificial warmth.
" The great work is nearly wrought, the problem
solved, whereby the natural man and the cultivated man
may become one, whereby the city may be rescued from
its squalor, and field and forest from their ignorance.
The yearning for this has always existed in men's minds.
People confined to towns by their daily avocations
placed their children at school in country air—when
they possessed pecuniary means—excepting the strange,
anomalies of Westminster school, and similar establish-
ments. The poor were fain to be content with the day
school, or the parish school—free air was too great a
luxury for them. The church, the chapel, the lecture-
room, the concert-morn, the theatre, wero all reared in
impure places, and their uses confined to the inhabitants
of towns. All this is within remedy, as the uses of the
railway become developed. The poor man can have his
accessible country dwelling. Churches and chapels may
be reared in beautiful spots at the confluence of lines of'
railway—temples worthy of man's nature, where man
may meet man in Christian equality, where all benign
influences may be at work, attracting but not com-
pelling, where architecture, music, and painting—the
beautiful in art, may combine with the beautiful in na-
ture. When the promoters of religion shall work by
the aid of nature, instead of striving to counteract her,
when they shall enable the working-classes to pluck
wild flowers, as well as " ears of corn on the Sabbath
day," when they shall make for them a healthy and
pleasant path to the temple ; then will the temple be
thronged with voluntary worshippers, and hypocrites
shall cease in the land."

IMPORTATION OF SPIRITS IN BOTTLES.—A diver-
sity of practice having prevailed in the mode of ascer-
taining the quantity of spirits in bottles, the same being
computed at certain of the outports at the rate of six
reputed quart bottles to the gallon, and in London by
actual measurement of one bottle out of each case ; the
Commissioners of Customs have deemed it expedient to
extend to the eutports the regulations of their minute of
August, 1839, which directs with respect to spirits which
are chargeable with duty according to the strength
thereof, that the bottles in each case be counted, and
that one bottle of each size from every case be sent to
the room appropriated to the trial of the strength of
spirits for measurement ; but as regards other spirits
and cordials, when the bottles are of the same size, the
glass, and description of glass, that one bottle in every
three cases be measured, excepting Maraschino, and
with respect to that article, that one bottle only in every
five cases is to be measured. Copies of this order have
been furnished to the officers at the several departments
n London, and to the collectors and controllers at all
the outports of the kingdom, for their information and
government.

POLICE VIGILANCE.—On Friday night, Sergeant
John Gunn observed a female hurriedly leaving a noto-
rious house in West Register-street, and suspecting all
was not right, followed at a distance, until he got the
assistance of one of his men, and apprehended her in St.
Andrew's-square. He found in her hand notes and
sovereigns to the amount of 406, and on being ques•
tioned as to how she got possession of it, she said she
" didna ken" where she got it. After lodging her in the
police-office, he proceeded to the house in ques-
tion, and apprehended other three women on suspicion,
but could get no trace of the person who had lost the
money. However, about nine o'clock on Saturday morn-
ing, M‘Levie, the officer, was cent for by a gentleman,
who stated that he had been robbed of a considerable
sum of money the night previous in West Register-
street, and described the money. The officer invited bit
s
to the police-office, where, to his astonishment, Lieute-
nant Id‘Lellan produced the cash, which was imme-
to quellu
diately identified. The whole of the prisoners were re-
mitted to a higher court.—Caledonian Mercury.
Doves,
Ia st nightr ing t h
e p
woreeent for r
iicliarolftotnh,e"4l
storm
Dover.
police-officers.—u
a serious disturbance which had occurred, and murder
S er.
the 9 9.—During
in a noted house in Paper-alley, C
Upon the officers arrival they found the
neighbourhood
in the utmost alarm, expecting for hours previously that
murder would ensue. The house was
and prize-fighters. The police occupied by sweeps
were requested to go la
to preserve the peace ; on their
im-
mediately attacked by the wholeentrance they were
gang. The police were
only two in number, Samuel
Couchman and Smith ;
the latter was soon knocked down, and upon Couch-
man coming to his assistance he was immediately
surrounded, struck, kicked,
and -stamped upon.
At length one of the ruffians, named Thomas
Clarke, a prize-fighter,
handle of a broom, to which a piece of iron was attached
at the end, and struck poor Crouchman with the greatest
fury across the bridge of the nose, which lacerated it
and the cheeks in the most frightful manner. He never
I spoke afterwards, and having breathed a short time, fell
dead. He had been some months in the police, and
served upwards of twenty-six years in the Royal Ma-
rines, on board her Majesty's ship Thetis and other men-
of-war ; had obtained the silver medal for twenty-two
years' good conduct, and a medal for his services at St.
Jean d'Acre. He has left a widow and two children.
Four of the gang concerned in the murderous attack
have been taken, but the leader, Thomas Clarke, and 8,
man named Smith, fled, and were seen on the road be-
tween Canterbury and Dover.
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Holloway's Ointment) at Professor Holloway's Esta-
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throughout the civilised world.