The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-02 00:00:00

THE MAGAZINES.
BLACKWOOD. •
A second book of "My Novel ; or Varieties in
Ermlish Life," being commenced in the present num-
ber of Blackwood, Pisi6tratus avails himself of the
opportunity to preface the new iestalinent with an
initial chapter introducing us agsin into the very
midst of his renowned "Family Pletnee." For, in-
asmuch as this kind of episode promises to bring us
again into communion with the Caxtone, we are re-
joiced ; otherwise we cannot help thinking in some
manner with the Anachronism that it is a somewhat
irksome and puzzling interruption. In the instance
before-us the initial chapter consists of a gmsipping
argument as to the propriety of any such proceeding,
an argument in which the conversation is charac-
teristically maintained by Roland, Augustine, and
.Piaistratus. By a witty arrangement, arieing out of
a hint (taken from a humorous quatrain, said to have
been penned by the great Conde, and cent by him to
Madame de Montansier), it is decided that the pa-
rentage of the " Novel" shall be traced in a three-
fold manner to the above• mentioned disputente—
" 7cl enfant en a jump' a trois
Resuming the thread of the narrative, the novelist
tells us in his own incomparable way the manner after
which Master Frank and Signor Riceabocca held
converse with each other. The alarm experienced by
the latter at the prospect of drinking some of the sour
wine manufactured by the Italian and his familiar
Jackeyrno is capital. After delivering his message
and the letter of invitation to Riceabocce, Frank pro-
ceeds to the miserable village and Hall of Rood, for
the purpose of visiting his brother Etonian, Randal
Leslie. The whole family of the Leslies is Lit off to
a nicety, the father, the mother, the brother, the
sister, and best of all, Randal Leslie himself.
The last-mentioned is pencilled in strong colours,
and gives promise of figuring most conspicuosly
in:the fiction. His patron, Audley Egerton, is yet
more admirably delineated. So minutely and cha-
racteristically are all his personal traits defined by the
writer, that we cannot divest ourselves of an impres-
sion that it is drawn from the life, even to the very
lineaments. A dialogue held between the Right
Hon. Audley Egerton, in his ministerial chambers in
Downing-street, and a certain mayor of a provincial
town, who turns out to be one Dick Avenel—is
written with a great and nervous energy. The inci-
dent of this quarrel is destined very evidently to have
a strange effect upon the fortunes of the chief persons
in the narrative. We are half expectant that Randal
Leslie may turn traitor to his benefactor, and in this
manner somehow realise the threat of Richard Ave-
nel. An article on " The Rise, Power, and Politics
of Prussia.' conveys a very dismal impression of the
social, moral, political and intellectual condition of
Germany. In what manner Mega speaks of the
Germans may he guessed from this one disparaging
paragraph :—" Germany is irreligious ; its Protestant
population is infidel, its Popish is sunk in the depths
of superstition." As affording a rapid view of the
elevation of Prussia from a petty duchy to a great and
flourishing kingdom, the paper is eminently deserving
of a perusal. " Flours in Spain" will be found a very
agreeable contribution, containing a fund of literary
gossip as to the land of Cervantes and Calderon. A
second criticism on "Modern State Trials," the last
and not the least valuable work of the late Recorder
of Macclesfield, carries us back to the period when
some of the darker crimes in the annals of iniquity weer
perpetrated, and presents to us, among others; .•the,
ghastly phantoms of Courvoisier. Some passages are
powerfullyend patheticallywritten, bearing token,in one
or two instances, we are fain to think, of the mas-
ter-hand of Mr. Warren. A condensed translation
of a popular German romance, called after the heroine,
"Anna Hammer," comes next in the contents of the
number for November. Penned in an animated
strain, it will be perused with interest and satisfac-
tion. Old Mansie Wench, tailor, of Dalkeith, one of
the veteran contributors to Blackwood, comes down
with sledgehammer violence upon the head of the
luckless " Alton Locke," the tailor, poet, and Char-
tist, who has recently startled the world of critics
with his eccentric autobiography. After this labour
of destruction, the number is wound up with an ar-
gument on the "Renewal of the Income-tax," a paper
singularly attractive, coming as it does, in anticipation
of next year's Parliamentary session. Among these
sterling prose articles of Maga, we miss the poetical
fragments to which that periodical has accustomed us
as coming from the hands of such lyrists as Delta or
B. Simmons. Barring these, however, the current
number of Blackwood is excellent.

"To Brighton and Back for Three and Sixpence ;"1
and Nicholas Michell progresses with his serial story
of " Hester Somerset." Another continuation in the
New illoahly will be found not only interesting but
instructive—WO mean the one relating to the "Junc-
tion between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans," from the
pen of Dr. Hamilton, of Plymouth. " Soapy Sponge's
SportingTour"is also pursued with indefatigable anima-
tion. Two poetical ccutribu!ions are moreover contained
in the New Monthly for November, one " A Song of
the Mouth," by J. E. Carpenter, and another " A
Canzonet," by W. Charles Kent. Besides the fore-
going, should likewise he mentioned a paper relating
to " The Track of John Franklin," a learned
article on the " Progress of Discovery in Southern
Africa," and a postscript of miscellaneous criticisms.
Altogether the New Monthly for this last month but
one in old 1850 displays as brilliantly as ever its
versatility, its ability, and its capacities for affording
intellectual entertainment.

COURT CIRCULAR.
OSBORI\.TE, Nov. L
The Queen and Prince Albert., accompanied by
their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, the
Princess Royal, Prince Alfred, the Princess Alice,
the Princess Helene, the Princess Louise, and Prince
Arthur, and attended by the Countess of Mount
EdAecumbe, the Hon. Caroline Dawson, Miss ILld-
yard, Colonel the Hon. Charles Grey, Lord Alfred
Paget, Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Hugh Seymour,
and Mr. Birch, left Oiborne, Isle of Wight, at
twenty minutes past ten o'clock yesterday morning,
crossed in the Fairy royal steam-yacht to Gosport,
and from thence travelled by the South-Western and
Great Western Railway, by route of Basingtokejand
Reading, to Windsor.
The august party entered several of the royal car-
riages at the Windsor station and proceeded to the
Castle, where her Majesty and the Prince arrived at
five minutes before two o'clock, and were received by
Lord Byron, the Master of the Household, Lieut.-
Colonel the lion. Robert Boyle, Colonel Buckley,
and Colonel Bouverie.
The Queen and Prince Albert walked in the Park
in the afternoon.
Lord Alfred Paget left the Castle this afternoon.
Colonel Buckley has relieved his Lordship in his
dutes as equerry in waiting to her Majesty.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent and their
Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess Augustus
of Saxe Cobourg Gotha, are expected to dine with
her Majesty this evening.

The Oxford University Commission met yesterday
at the official residence of the First Lord of the
Treasury, in Downing-street. The Commissioners
present were :—The Bishop of Norwich, the Dean of
Carlisle, the Master of Pembroke, and the Rev. H.
G. Liddell.
The Rev. A. P. Stanley (secretary to the Commis-
sion) was present.
Dispatches were received yesterday at the Colonial
Office, from the Governors of Ceylon and Malta,
and also from the Lord High Commissioner of the
lonian Islands.
Dispatches. were sent off last evening from the
Colonial-office, for the Governors of the North
American Provinces, and also for the Governors of
the West India Colonies.

THE FRENCH FLEET IN TORBAY.
TORQUAY, Nov. I.—The French fleet returned to
the bay again on Wednesday afternoon, and took up
a position somewhat nearer in shore, where they are
still lying. The ships are anchored in divisions this
time, and not in so irregular a manner as when last
here.
Yesterday, the weather being very moderate, a
great many people from Dartmouth, Brixham, Tor-
quay, Teignmouth, Dawlish, and Sidmouth visited
the fleet, and met with great ccurtesy from all the
officers on board.
The Friedland was the favourite, and was much
crowded with visitors all day—probably on account
of her being the senior officer's ship. The Admiral
entertained a large and distinguished party of ladies
and gentlemen from this place at luncheon, and kindly
allowed the, baud to be constantly playing for the
gratification of all the visitors.
The Friedland is in excellent order inside, parti-
cularly so on her main-deck, where everything is
arranged with the greatest economy of space, giving
very ample room for fighting her guns, &c. Her
upper deck is rather crowded. The orlop-deck is
very neat, and also the lower-deck, where there is a
great deal of room. All the fittings between decks
and on the upper-deck are very handsome and in good
order.
I cannot compliment her on her appearance aloft ;
everything is clumsy, heavy, and very old-fashioned.
There appears to be a want of good practical seaman-
ship in all the vessels.
The crew of the Friedland are mostly young men,
and I could see but few thorough-looking tars among
them.
The officers were most attentive to all classes of
visitors, and I heard them several times inquire if
they could show them anything more.
The French officers and crews will leave this an-
chorage with an excellent character for their kindness
and politeness, but no one will he able to call them
sailors in the true meaning of the word. The English
officers who reported upon these ships at Cherbourg
saw them in holiday attire, and to the best ad•
vantage in harbour. A few months' cruising and
exercising would be beneficial to all.—Times.

COLBURN'S NEW MONTHLY.
Foremost bath in position and importance among
the contributions to the New Monthly for November,
is an official paper describing the intrigues of a Russo-
Anattian alliance in the Danubian Principalities.
From this remarkable and most perspicuous contri-
bution, entitled " Foreign Influence on the B3nks of
the Danube," the reader may obtain an instant and
vivid appreciation of the difficulties of late years clus-
tering more and more thickly over the city of Bucha-
rest., and generally speaking also over the whole of
the provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia.
Previously to explaining the real position of affairs
in those unfortunate principalities, the writer—evi-
dently master of his subject—dissipates all the false
impressions abroad as to the nature of the dis-
turbances recently taking place in Bulgaria. All
those disturbances he attributes to the despicable in-
trigues of the Viennese and the St. Petersburgh Go-
vernments, intrigues tending perpetually, if possible,
to embroil the Christian peasantry with their rulers,
the Muasulrnen ; and most justly attributes this
ferocious policy in the instance of the Kaiser to a
spiteful thirst for vengeance on the Sultan Caliph, for
the hospitalities shown by him last year to the fugi-
tive Hungarians, and in the instance of the Czar to
the lust of realising that ambition so long cherished
by the imperial lords of the Muscovites. Rather
should we have said in reference to Russia, that the
author of this masterly paper on the Danubian Pro-
vinces laughs to scorn the notion of the Czar ever ex-
tending his rule to the waters of the Golden Horn, insist-
ing that Nicholas is too sagacious to dream of ever occu-
pying with his legions the palaces and harems of Con-
stantinople, and that consequently all his military
efforts and diplomatic intrigues against the Ottoman
Porte arise solely out of his anxiety to preserve the
confines of his dominions as much as possible from
the contaminating touch of liberal institutions, or from
the yet more subtle infection of liberal ideas and
principles. As well, thinks the writer in the New
Monthly, might the Brother of the Moon dream of
eating with his chop-sticks in the Elysee or in Buck-
ingham Palace, as the Czar indulge in visions of
nailing as a conqueror through the channel of the Dar-
dandies. He recogniFea too much vigour in the
councils of the Sultan, too much vitality in the
Turkish Government, too much enterprise and en-
lightenment in the views of the Osmanli states-
men to imagine for an instant the prac,
ticability of the Cossacks ever affixing the
banner of the double eagle to the minarets of
Byzantium. In the generous, but still impartial esti-
mate, thus formed of the Administration at Constan-
tinople, we cordially and entirely coincide, as
those might readily conjecture who have watched our
arguments for some years past, in the leading columns
of this journal, in regard to the infamous and unjusti-
fiable occupation of Wallachia and Moldavia by the
barbarian soldiers of the Autocrat. Against this oc-
cupation the intelligent correspondent of the New
Monthly inveighs with just and earnest indignation,
depicting it as diametrically opposed in its character
to the stipulations of the treaty of Adrianople, a treaty
which, as far back as 1460, proclaimed the Sultan the
sovereign lord paramount of those principalities, and
constituting the Autocrat as the potentate, simply
• guaranteeing the carrying out of the views of that
famous compact. We are rejoiced to observe
the tempered but emphatic words 'of com-
mendation passed by the writer on Prince
Stirbeg, in whose talents we would fain recognise
some assurance of the ultimate redemption of the
provinces from :Russian domination. The boyards
alone are spoken of as men having some interest in
maintaining the authority of the Czar at Bucharest,
and even in their regard we cannot but imagine that
the fancied advantage is purely supposititious, and
that in the restoration to its due predominance of the
influence of Turkey, the boyards, as well as the
prince and the peasantry, would ultimately recognise
the best assurances of happiness. Respecting the so..
called Bulgarian insurrection, it is said that mediately
Austrian and Russian intriguers were to blame, and
that immediately the culprits were Marouf Aga and
Sherif Effendi. While passing judgment thus ad-
versely upon those officers, a tribute of respect and
admiration is offered, on the other hand, to Yasuf Bey
and to Ahmed Vefyk Effendi. We are gratified to
observe, from. the heading of this important political
statement in the New Monthly, that the subject will
be resumed. The argument is already too lucid and
valuable not to render the reader :lolicitous to witness
its continuation. Among the lighter contributions to
the magazine are many deserving this month of es-
pecial praise, imparting, as they cannot fail to do in
perusal, some sort of animation to the suicidal month
of November. " London Locomotion, or the Cab
Stand," is a capital essay upon that haunt of public
conveyances, penned partly in the style of Pierce
Egan, nod partly in that of Charles Dickens. "My
Cambridge Coach," to the uninitiated might sound as
upon a kindred subject, though there are thousands
who will not need to be told that the coach is not a
vehicular contrivaece but a moan, in this instance one
Mr. Staunton. A lively, g:istipping, and most
amusing
be found Pareppelre'te on
dotes ; one of them with
hnt amaAniyr.
" Free ch. Almanacks" will
t
figures once mere in the NOV I
in, nrt
.a7i
Green,di i
el e
ab
j.ue
oat
nn
no
terci
our merry friend Mr. Jolly Gree
w ho ouently
butor. This time his lucubratiun is rif;'ser;erive of a
burglary perpetrated
John's Wood. One ofluthhei'
h apoilenstrs%lidteeinAzes ai
nt
the
description is the postscript. Dudley Costello tells us
how Alfred WashbAll dud Alexis Boatemps wont

RAILWAY RETURNS

TRAFFIC RETUZS FOR THE PAST WEEK.

T E SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, N O;VEMBER 2, 1850.