The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-26 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

THE FORESTER'S DAUGHTER. 3 V.
Newby, London, 1344.

This is a story of the Reformation, by the author
of a tale entitled the " Thirst for Gold," which we
remember reading a year or two since with no ordinary
interest. The same peculiarities which characterised
that entertaining fiction characterise the one before
us—namely, a skilful mode of conducting the plot,
great variety of incident—which, however, is not
always sufficiently probable—spirit, if not abso-
lute consistency, of portraiture, and powers
of terse, vigorous description of no ordinary
merit. The "Forester's Daughter " .refers to
that exalting period in history, when the
doctrines of Luther had alarmed the Catholic ChurCh,
and made it doubly severe in its punishments of all
open violations of its ordinances. One of the
most effective passages• in the story is the account
of the attempt at escape of a nun who has
become a secret convert to the reformed doctrines,
from her convent on the banks of the Rhine, in com-
pany with a young military man, by name Herman.
The whole incident of this escape is very dexterously
and forcibly wrought up.

CYCLOP.EDIA OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
Chambers, Edinburgh, 1844.
In the present part, which is the twenty-sixth, of
this cheap miscellany, we find brief biographical
sketches of some of the more distinguished poets who
have flourished during the last half century ' • among
them are the names of Byron, Keates, Shelley,
Pollok, Clare, Heinans, and Herbert Knowles, the
notices of whom are penned in a candid and discri-
minating spirit. To the memoir of each poet the
editor has attached one or more extracts from his
works, and these, generally speaking, are well selected.
The part is embellished with numerous engravings ;
but the majority of the portraits are sad failures, as
regards likenesses, especially those of Leigh Hunt
and the late James Smith, which bear no closer
resemblance to the originals than a Stilton cheese
bears to a grasshopper.

PHILLIP VON ARTEVELDE.
Moxon, London, 1844.

We have here a republication, in one half-crown
duodecimo volume, of Mr. Taylor's drama of " Phillip
Von Artevelde," which was no sooner published, about
five years since, than it obtained instant popularity.
It is a noble play, full of poetic imagery, and sus-
tained, elevated thought, but adapted exclusively for
the closet, being wholly deficient in that bustling and
continuous action so necessary to ensure success on
the stage. We regret to see that the author has re-
tained in his preface all those passages which—as we
remarked at the time—bore with unjust severity on
Lord Byron, who, with all his faults of style and
sentiment, wis a genuine poet, if ever man was.

LEIGH HUNT'S POEMS.
Moxon, London, 1844.

In this cheap and neat edition we have the whole
of Mr. Leigh Hunt's poetical works, carefully re-
vised, as he tells us in his preface, and weeded of
many of those quaint peculiarities of phrase, which
years ago subjected him to the ridicule of the caustic
wags of Blackwood. On running our eye hastily
over " Rimini"—Mr. Hunt's most elaborate, but by
no means his most successful work—we find that the
alterations are unusually numerous; and we do not
think that he has at all improved, by his emendations,
his opening description, which was deservedly ad-
mired at the time, of an Italian spring morning.

THE MILITARY ANNUAL FOR 1844. alburn.
This work is intended to supply a deficiency in
our " annual" literature, which furnishes no work re-
cording the gallant deeds of the English army, both
in present and past times, though the materials for
such a book are both rich and abundant. This is the
first volume of what we presume is to be a series ; it
has been compiled from an immense mass of autho-
rities of all kinds and descriptions, and brings toge-
ther a great number of facts, which would otherwise
have to be sought in the voluminous contents of Par-
liamentary reports, returns, general orders, dis-
patches, and even the columns of newspapers. The
" Soldier's Almanac," which commences the volume,
is a valuable table of reference for the chronology of
military events, and it is followed by a paper on
" Arms and Armies," which is to be continued till
the subject has been treated historically from the
earliest ages till the present time. This first part
gives an account of the wars and weapons of the
Jews and Romans, and a sketch of the struggle that
was terminated by the destruction of Jerusalem and
the Temple, and with them of the nationality of the
Jewish people. The rest of the work is a compila-
tion from the sources we have named. The work is
embellished with fine steel engravings of the Duke of
Wellington and the late Lord Hill.

SOCIETY FOR THE EMANCIPA-
TION OF INDUSTRY.

On Tuesday evening a numerous meeting of the friends
and supporters of this Institution was held at the offices
of the Society, in Parliament-street, for the purpose of
giving publicity to, and adopting steps to further the
objects of the Society. Amongst the gentlemen present
were several Members of the House of Commons.
Mr. ANDREW SPOTTISWOODE was voted to the chair,
and explained the nature of the meeting. The country
was detached into various and singular classes, who
each professed to have a remedy for the existing
evils, but whose professed remedy was fallacious and fan-
ciful. It was ipt the principles of that society alone that
a remedy was to be found, and pamphlets and tracts had
been published to explain them. It had, however, been
ascertained that explaining them verbally was much
more effective, and much more conducive to the interest
of the society than by promulgating them through the
medium of fracts. It was, therefore, their intention to
hold weekly meetings in that place until the public were
fully made acquainted with their objects. The princi-
ples they advocated were not new ; on the contrary,
they were as old as Aristotle, Plato, and had been en-
tertained by all learned men from their day down to the
present time. They merely assembled together to ex-
plain that the principles held in the time of Aristotle
were worthy of every attention now. Previous to the
year 1819 twenty millions were advanced annually
towards reducing the National Debt, but since then not a
single farthing had been paid. It was clear, then, the
present monetary system of the country and standard value
of gold was wrong, and they were determined to agitate
until they obtained some reform, or were convinced their
views were erroneous.

Mr. LA3IIE MURRAY followed with a series of re-
marks upon the injurious operation of the present system
of currency, and laid down the principles of the Society
as applicable to the circumstances of the country. He
elucidated, with considerable power, the advantages that
would accrue from a liberation of gold from the fixed
rate of 31. 17s. 100. per ounee, and the allowance of a
paper circulation, convertible at the market or commer-
cial price of that commodity.
Mr. ATTWOOD, of Birmingham, advocated at some
length the revival of the Bank of Restriction. He never
heard of any objection being raised to it when in exist-
ence ; certainly it never was petitioned against by the
peopl, while, to his certain knowledge, 360 petitions
were, in 1819, presented to the House of Commons
against the then proposed change. It was the means of
carrying the country through a long and tedious war,
and he had no hesitation in expressing his firm convic-
tion that, unless the Bank Restriction Act were again
revived, to some extent, a revolution would ultimately be
the fate of this country.
Mr. Muntz, M.P., and several other gentlemen, also
addressed the meeting at some length, advocating a free
trade in gold, and an entire Change in the monetary
system ; and thanks having been accorded to the Chair-
man, the meeting was adjourned till this day week.

We learn that the scholars of the Duke of York's
School intend visiting General Tom Thumb, at the Egyptian
Hall this morning, at eleven oclock, accompanied by their
band.

GRASS PARKS.—The grass parks belonging to the
Earl of Lauderdale, around Dunbar House, were let for
the season, at the high rate of five to six pounds per acre.
—Scotch Paper.
TIIE HAGUE, APRIL 22.—Their Majesties the King
and Queen, and the other members of the Royal Family, re-
turned to the Hague this morning by a special train from
Amsterdam. They left -Amsterdam about tea o'clock, and
the journey was performed in one hour and 35 minutes.
_ _

A labourer named Trevis was killed on Thursday
morning, at Throop, near Christchurch, by the sudden
falling of a mud wall, which deceased and another man
were engaged in removing, and imprudently neglected
to prop up whilst picking away the foundation. When
taken out he was quite dead.

Our military friends have now got their new
" military cap,' and of course we civilian lookers-on
must give a diffident opinion on such matters. We hope
they will not be distressed when we express our opinion
that the " cap fits" them extremely well. Its appear-
ance is rather, foreign, but so was that of the curvilinear
" chako" at first, which was a Prussian importation.
The "poke" is a far more sensible thing than the up-
and-down affair, which gave no shade or comfort, how
ever knowing might be its, look. The leather chin-strap
is bad, but then that was used latterly with the former
chako; it has an especially shabby appearance, whereas
the lately introduced brass curb chain, fixed on one side
and hooked on to the other—looked both serviceable
and elegant. Wliy•discontinue it ? Ono great advan-
tage realised by ,the smallness of this head gear (besides
lightness and comfort) is, that it is so much more becom-
ing to the figure ;—it adds two inches of apparent breadth
to the shoulders. We wish it might furnish a hint in this
way about those monstrosities the Grenadier
Hampshire Advertiser.
SHEEP STEALING.—We understand that the farmers
in Wester Ross are complaining very much of depreda-
tions among their flocks. Two sheepnd
a flately disappeared
from the farm of Munlochy, a
Conan farm about eight days ago. Itfine is supposed that
this practice is kept up by someindividuals who kill the
sheep and sell them in the towns
Cheap food is highly desirable bat a rVdtleed price.
but, if it is only to be
got by crime, the sooner an end is put to it the better.
We trust the authorities will spare no efforts to detect
the delinquents, and so put down a system so discredit-
able to the district. —Roim-shir. diducrt4cr.