The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-09 00:00:00

THE QUARTERLIES.

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THE EDINBURGH REVIEW.
No. CLXXXV.

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Almost every article in the current number of the
Edinburgh partakes of=a mare then
dite character. The opening contribution, for ex-
ample, is dedicated to a c,reful analysis of Quetelet's
theory cf " ProbibilHei.--," a work recently translated
IrJrn the original French by Dr. Olinthus Gregor
Downes, and noticed by ourselves shortly alter its
publication. The merest tyro in the science of meta-
physics ctnnot fail to derive entertainment from the
very lucid and ingenious argument of the reviewer.
and, what is yet of greater importance, will obtain
from its perusal a somewhat more definite idea as to
the nature and peculiarities of causation. Under
colour of a criticism on the Rev. Charles Ale.rivale't
recently commenced " History of the Romans under
the Empire," an admirable and scholarlike epitome is
given of the principal events transpiring between the
death of Cmsar and the establishment of the first tri-

umvirate. Sertorius, who seized a large portion of
Spain from the Republic ; Spartacus, who provoked an
internecine conflict by arousing the passions engen-
dered by slavery ; Cneius Poinpeius, the formidable
antagonist of Mithridates ; Cicero at once the philo-
sopher of oratory and the orator of philosophy; Caesar
the imperial demagogue and p,triotic dictator ; toge-
ther with others of the illustrious men who either
wielded or influenced during this interval the desti-
nies of the Ronnln empire—are here sketched with a
rapid but masculine distinctness. Incomplete and
even incidental as the paper is necessarily, it is never-
theless one which reflects honour upon the chief of all
the quarterly periodicals. Another effort is made by
the Edinburgh in the next article to revive the almost
exhausted interest of the public in r-gatd to the
often discussed question of " Church and State
Education." But for our restriction in re-
gard to space, we should be tempted to
make lengthened excerpts from a contribution
which is entitled to a wide and serious examination.
A rather discursive review of Merin ale's " History of
Pedro the Cruel" affords the writer the opportunity
of tracing the career and estimating the character of
that famous monarch of Castile. Terrible is the
voice of horror raised by posterity over the memory
of that threefold fratricide, whose atrocities were not
restricted to such ghastly pastimes as those of burn-
ing women to death by slow fires, and boiling men
alive in cauldrons of oil. Hoole for his " Tasso,"
Potter for his " .lEschylus," Gifford for his " Juvenal,"
Moore for his " Anacreon," Frere for his " Aria-
tophanes," Francis for his " Horace," Cary for his
Dante," Lytton for his " Schiller," have
each and all acquired, according to their re-
spective merits, a large share of celebrity.
According to the Edinburgh, Professor B!ackie
has some right to look at least for a share in the re-
nown already enjoyed by his predecessor Potter.
'That he has surpassed Symmons, and Sewell, and
Chapman, is mentioned as a fact too obvious to re-
quire demonstration ; and the reviewer insists with
considerable emphasis that Mr. Blackie has given the
best English ver,ion yet published of the Suppliants,
if he has not done so also of the Prometheus and the
Agamemnon. Taking a hint from the effort made on
the 28th of August, 1849, to celebrate the hundredth
anniversary cf the birth of the greatest writer of
Germany, the Edinburgh, in the next article, endea-
vours to arrive at a more correct idea than has been
hitherto attained in regard to the scope and value of his
genius, under the'eheading of " Goethe's Festival?' See-
ing that this estimate is in many respects depreciative,
we doubt not that it will be read by the enthusiastic
worshippers of GUethe with a sort of indignant cu-
riosity ; though we are satisfied that every impartial
and unimpassioned peruser will coincide with the re-
viewer in laughing to scorn the absurdly incongruous
and contradictory panegyric passed by many upon
the great German Poet and Philosopher, that he was
" at once the universal genius whom all the world
was hound to worship and the peculiar genius whom
few could understand." A consideration of the worth
of the " African Squadron" as a means of suppressing
the atrocious traffic in negroes, and a critical chapter
on the "Gorham Controversy" as one calculated to
affect extraordinary changes in the position of the
Establishment, are preceded by a searching review of
M. Guizot's Discourse on the "English Revolution."
Such are the nine sterling articles constituting the
current number of the Edinburgh.

THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. .No.CLXXIII.
the Quarterly is less erudite in its nature this
month than its Whig contemporary, it is altogether
more generally attractive in the nature of its subjects
and more popular in the manner of their treatment.
As about the most brilliant illustration of this, we
may point to the inimitable contribution entitled
"Mechanism of the Post-office," a paper of "facts
and figures," which it is impossible to attribute to
any other man in her Alijestj's dominions than the
author of "Bubbles from the Brunnen of Nassau."
Already by his admirable papers on " Railroads and
on Tubular Bridges," Sir Francis B. Head has ac-
quired for himself a high reputation as a writer pus•-
sessing extraordinary powers of description. H►s
companion paper to " Stokers and Pokers," and
to "High Ways and Dry Ways," referring
this time to the mechanism of the Post-office
department, cannot but tend materially towards the
enhancement of that reputation. One or two sug-
ges'ions are altogether so felicitous, that we would more
especially direct attention to them either by reference
or quotation. Read for example, the following para-
graph on the