The Sun.
London, England, 1828-11-17 00:00:00

Lirly enough, the passage there adduced as a
proof of Sir Humphrey Davy's ignorance of
true pastoral description, is here triumphantly
brought forward as a sample of his excellence in
that line. " Who shall decide when Doctors
disagree ?" With the Reviewer's incidental ob-
servations on Isaac Walton we cordially agree.
It is . impossible not to admire that quaint old
fisherman's (we were going to say fishmonger's)
simplicity and unassuming goodness of heart;
but who, except a desperate Cockney, can respect
the mind of a man whose highest object was to
stand for hours beside some muddy stream, and
watch a bit of cork bob up and down ; or listen
to the sighing of the bull-rushes, as they rustled
to and fro beneath the influence of a charming
south wind, full of rain, f'og,. and London
smoke. Salmon fishing in North Wales or the
Highlands is quite a different affair. Wherever
there is danger there is interest ; and trolling in
a mountainous country is redeemed by the chance
the sportsman hourly runs of breaking his neck.
We once saw a gentleman in pursuit of this
amusement tumble from a decent-sized chit, in
the vicinity of Snowden ; fortunately he pitch:A
upon his head, or the consequences might have
been fatal.

" The Roman Catholic Question" is a very
sad dose indeed. It is full, as might be ex-
pected, of worn-out hacknied dogmas, put forth
with all the pomp of novelty. The Reviewer
mnadpassing allusion to "Bloody Mary,"
a
brings the whole fire of his artillery= to hear
kis a
upon that stale topic the Coronation Oath. He
is as merciless in this respect as Dr. Philpotts,
with not one half his adroitness. Ail occasional
gleam of arch quiet huiriour leads us to con-
clude that this infliction proceeds from the lite-
rary workshop of Dr. Southey. If so, we con-
jure the worthy Laureate to desist ; he is a good
versifyer, but a sorry controversialist, and too apt
in pressing his dogmas to forget his manners.—
The whole spirit and tendency of his present
diatribe may be summed up in these two words,
No Surrender. " Restrain treason throughout
Ireland," he says, " punish sedition." Excellent,
but how is this to be effected ? By relaxing
the Penal Code, or discontinuing a system of
ungenerous ascendancy, whereby the few, how-
ever worthless, however bigotted, however scornful,
are allowed to lord it over the many ? So common
sense might perhaps suggest, but the Laureate
says no ; though when pressed for closer argu-
ments he shakes his head, like Lord Burleigh, and
contents himself with sounding on his sack-butt
the loud war-cry of No Surrender. Now
really—however trite the remark—this comes
with bad grace from the eulogist of %Vat Tyler,
the upholder of democracy, the opponent of
Kings and Bishops, both of whom some few
years since he unceremoniously consigned to
Tophet. It were far more discreet, far more
delicate, that he should preserve silence on those
topics, the discussion of which must perforce
give rise to so many awkward recollections re-
specting hint. But none are so bigotted as those
who having once been tolerant, have since found
reason to recant ; and it is indeed a humbling re-
flection for the pride of human genius, that a
man like Dr. Southey, so variously and highly
accomplished, a poet—a philosopher —a critic—
s linguist—a biographer—and am historian—must
of necessity spend the last half of his life in un-
ceasing reprobation of the former half.