The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-05 00:00:00

THE WORKING 3IAN'S FRIEND.

This little periodical is indeed calculated to be
what its name asserts, the working man's friend and
family instructor. It is issued in weekly numbers
at the price of one penny, and the monthly part
now before us is a sufficient evidence of its excellence.
Written for working men, its articles are chiefly
characterised by their common sense. Amusing
anecdotes, tales, and poems enliven its pages, which
contain also an abundance of good advice and useful
information. The spirit of the work is well exempli-
fied in the following lines, not remarkable for their
poetic excellence, but nevertheless well worthy of
being constantly remembered by all :

" SMOOTH THE PATH.
" 'Tis well to walk with a cheerful heart,
Wherever our fortunes call—
With a friendly glance, and an opeu hand,
And a gentle word for all.
" Since li(e is a thorny and difficult path,
Where toil is the portion of man,
We all should endeavour, while passing along
To make it as smooth as we can."

ALISON'S HISTORY OF EUROPE.

Tol. XIII.

Illustrated Edition.

Bringingthentti4ative—inciusively down to the
battle of Ligny, the last military triumph of the
Emperor Napoleon, the volume before us is em-
bellished with two striking portraits, excellently en
eraved from original and authentic paintings, one of
Prince Talleyrand and the other of the Emperor
Alexander, as Byron calls him in his " Age of
Bronze," the "coxcomb Czar." From the represen-
tation of the Autocrat's countenance, however, pre-
fixed to this volume as a frontispiece, uncomely as it
is in every feature, we should scarcely have given his
Russian Majesty credit: for having ever dared
assume the airs of a petit maitre. The republication
of the masterly illustrative Atlas, by Alexander
Keith Johnston, is continued with the ut-
most regularity, month after month, the
companion re-issues appearing simultaneously. Next
month both will have been brought to a con-
clusion, in a fourteenth part and a fourteenth
volume. When thus completed, Mr. Alison may
congratulate himself on having witnessed the publica-
tion of his great history in an edition as superb
as could be well contrived with the united
aid of the paper manufacturer, the engraver, and the
typographer. His narrative of the most momentous
epoch (humanly speaking) that was ever recorded in
the annals of mankind since the first commencement of
the great march of nations along the path of civiliza-
tion, will herein be presented to the reader in a form
worthy of its eloquence and its comprehensiveness.
No library, no English library, no European libritry
can. be considered complete without a copy of
Ahson, s work upon their bookshelves, and no
edition of that, many as there have been, and excel-
lent ones as there have been already, can be regarded
as in any respect comparable to the one here drawing
rapidly towards its termination. It is an edition
honourable alike to the age, the work, the author,
and the publishers.

HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF
MEXICO. Vol. 1.11. By IV. H. PreBcott.
Another of the masterly works of this luminous
historian—one whose name is henceforth destined to
shine brightly in the records of American literature
—has here been brought to a conclusion by 111 r.
Bentley in the form of a cheap and admirable repub-
lication. The mere circumstance of the present edi-
tion being (already) the fifth, is a token that the
writings of Prescott are appreciated—nor is the pub-
lic appreciation of his effusions, the effusions of his
scholarship and his erudition, of his industry and his
eloquence, carried to any extravagance,
,enthusiastic
and earnest as is his literary popularity. the books
this Milton of historians has penned with his firm,
though invisible, hand, are an attestation that his
perceptive faculties, his judgment, and his discrimina-
tion are as keen and vigorous as if the light of his
eyes (now sightless) had been transferred internally to
his intellect. That a melancholy interest is excited
towards the author of these brilliant productions by
the knowledge, at present very g.cneral, of the extra-
ordinary difficulties under which they have been
penned, we are, of course, aware ;
but apart alto•
gether from the fascination inspired by the
great toil overcome by the blind annalist, his

genius would be quite sufficient of itself to secure to
him a wide and lasting admiration. Such being our
opinion of the historian Prescott, an opinion formed
not lightly, it must be almost unnecessary to add that
we regard this cheap and beautiful re-issue of his
works by Mr. Bentley as a boon conferred upon the
mass of English readers. As one interested in the
diffusion of sound knowledge and sterling literature,
we are sanguine the population may not be unmind-
ful of the present advantage.