The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-01 00:00:00

AI SIT'ORTIPS MAGAZINE.

" Revelations of London " continues as full of
mystery as ever. Mr. Ainsworth must have a de-
cided taste for the horrible and marvellous ; he seems
animated by the same feeling as Crebillon, when he
exclaimed, " Corneille s'est empare du' ciel, et Mo-
liere de la terre, rien ne m'etait laisse que les Rulers
et je m'y suis jete." Whether imposed by necessity
or choice, he fulfils his task with vigour, and has
doubtless many admirers among the lovers of' ro-
mance. " A Bit of Still Life" is an amusing
adventure at an illicit still among the hills of
Connemara. Mr. W. F. Ainsworth's "Travels
in the East " are as interesting as ever ;
the present Number, entitled " The Habor, Re-
hoboth, and Saladin's Castle," is full of information.
We subjoin a description of the last memorial of the
mighty Soldan
It is remarkable that this chieftain, who became the
bulwark of Muhammadanism, at a time when it was
seriously threatened by the enthusiasm of the Christian
nations, who was the greatest terror of the crusaders,
and whose name, indeed, belongs as much to poetry and
romance as to history, has left few monuments behind to
commemorate his power and prosperity. It was a part
of that character, which he assumed, when his talents
and energy had established him as defender of the faith,
and in which he was throughout as consistent as he was
in that humanity and chivalrous moderation which has
earned to him the applaue of history, that he never
allowed himself to be dazzled by his great elevation and
successes : his garments were of coarse woollen, his
drink, water, and he unifo'r'mly discountenanced all pomp
and vanity. Hence his works were consecrated to public
use. Cairo was fortified with a wall and a citadel, and
mosques, colleges, and hospitals, were endowed in every
city of Arabia and Syria ; but for himself he never built
either a palace or a castle. At the presnt day a hall,
with noble monolith columns of red granite, some rude
granaries, and a solitary well, still preserve his name in
lisr al Kahira ; a fort on the confines of the desert, ce-
lebrated in the annals of French occupation, a suburb of
Damascus, and the ruins now first resuscitated from
darkness and oblivion, are among the few existing remi-
niscences of the noble Saracen. _ _ _

-
" The ruins now before us formed, indeed, in their
utter desolation the most fitting monument to that self-
denying warrior, who commanded at his death that no
solemnities should be observed, but that his shirt should
be made fast to the point of a lance, and carried before
his dead body, as an ensign, while the public crier an-
nounced to the people that Saladin, Conqueror of the
East, of all the greatness and riches he had in his life,
carrieth not with him after his death anything more
than his shirt.' A sight,' says an old historian,
worthie so great a king, which wanted nothing to his
eternall commendation more than the true knowledge of
his salvation in Christ Jesus.' "
The following account of the combustible pro-
perties of asphalte is worthy of attention, with regard
to the facilities it may afford in the navigation of the
great rivers :
" We obtained at this place—the inhabitants of which
were very friendly and well-disposed—large quantities
of a-phalte, or solid bitumen, and the Colonel determined
upon remaining the next day, to experiment upon its
qualities as a fuel. The experiments were made on
board the Tigris, and it was not found to answer well,
alone, being so fusible as to cake and extinguish itself
for want of air. The great quantity of combustible mat-
ter also caused so much smoke, or of carburetted pro-
duct, to be given off before complete combustion had
taken place, as to choke the vents, and add to the impedi-
meuts already existing to a free supply of air. These
inconveniences were, to a certain extent, obviated, by
mixing it with other substances ; but we had only earth
and stones and dry dung to experiment with. It natu-
rally answered best with the last, which is the ordinary
fuel of the Arabs. It would answer still better mixed
with cinders, and a fuel has been lately patented in this
country, which is made of the refuse cinders, used in
brickfields, and earth, cemented with oil of tar, which is
a fluid bitumen, or petroleum.
" I have been the more explicit upon this subject, be-
cause so highly combustible a substance exists in con-
siderable quantities in various places on the Euphrates,
Tigris, and Persian Gulf, and it may become of high im-
portance in any future steam navigation of the rivers ;
also because the result of the experiments was made the
subject of special reports to Government, not all of a fa-
vourable character ; while it is quite evident that it
would require the exercise of but trifling ingenuity to
overcome obstacles which positively take their origin
from the excess of combustible matter presented to us."
The " Forger" is a translation from Alexandre
Dumas, written in that abrupt and vigorous style for
which all his productions are remarkable. The for=
lowing simple tribute tcr, the lamented Laman Blan-
chard must be admired by all, for all must feel its
truth :
Vir probus et justus, facet hic ; qui vixit honest 4 ;
In medie vitae, sors inopina fuit.
Supra alios homines, scribendi doctus in arte ;
Quod scripsit, pulchrum est ; utile, et inocuum.
The adventures of " llereward, the Saxon," which
is commenced in this Number, promises to be inte-
resting ; it is an account of the Norman Conquest and
the ineffectual resistance of the son of Lady Godiva,
another Harold the Dauntless. "The Haunted
House in Yorkshire " is one of those terrible ghost
stories which must not be believed, yet cannot be re-
futed. On the whole Ainsworth must this month be
very welcome to the lovers of light literature; it is
full of variety, and pursues its course with unabated
spirit.

TAIT'S MAGAZINE.
The historical sketch of the disturbance in Switzer-
land contains a great deal of information and some
sound reflections in a small compass. The writer
justly remarks that nothing can afford a more strik-
ing example of the manifold evils attending a Federal
Government than the presentposition of thatcountry.
Distrust, jealousy, nay, even feelings of the most
hostile nature exist between the German, French,
and Italian Cantons. Their political, commercial,
and religious interests are in many instances op-
posed to each other, and the whole union is threatened
with a civil war, because one canton chooses to adopt
a certain system of education. But, besides, there
is a radical defect in the original construction of the
Union. There is no controlling power sufficiently
strong to neutralize or curb the rebellious disposition
of discontented States, and Switzerland exhibits it-
self among monarchical governments only as a beacon
to warn them against democratic institutions. But
Switzerland is not the only
republicLnited States led the
T where this exhi.
bition
and
ds
thetak place.etnwo
togetherway, have certainly lowered
very much in general estimation_ the whole system of
Republican
at L
Government.
uerne
After giving a summary
of late events
and Zurich, the writer thus
concludes :

" But whatever may be their professions, it is quite
certain that .wifzerland is no longer the seat of those
disinters sted sentiments, and noble feelings, which once
illuminated its history. On the contrary, the chief cha •
racteristic of its rulers and of its society is littleness !
the littleness of small towns. Ambition is little, poli-
tical views are narrow, and intrigaes are for paltry ob-
jects. Great talents find no exorcise worthy of their
powers ; ai.d it is not wonderful that where they do
exist, their possessors desire to see a capital in their
own country, and a means afforded by a central govern-
ment for the development of a larger system both of
commerce and of politics. Though great advances have
been made in education, much yet remains to be done as
regards moral culture. The Protestant clergy are un-
fortunately regarded with little respect throughout.rthe
C41114a. of Zurich; slue() wally of them allowed tplas 0§

to be made the tools of party ; their churches are thinly
attended, whilst drinking houses, dancing rooms, and
the theatre, are crowded every Sunday to exeess. There
is no country in the world where there exists in propor-
tion such an enormous number of public houses, and
those of the worst character, or where they are so con-
tinually frequented, alike by young students, the pea-
santry, and the townsmen. The universal laxity of
morals is almost incredible.

" Whilst, however, the views of the Liberals are more
enlarged, and better calculated to enable their country
to keep pace with the progress of the age, than those of
their opponents, it is to be regretted that they have af-
forded them, in various ways, just grounds for reproach.
Many of the leaders of the party make no secret of their
want of respect for the established religion ; and on se-
veral occasions they have shown a great want of political
prudence in provokine, the enmity of the clergy of their
own persuasion, and precipitating measures which,
without effecting any good, have excited the malevolence
of their opponents, and the distrust of their more pru-
dent friends."

This Number contains the conclusion of " The
Goldsmith's Daughter," by ➢lrs. Johnson ; a review
of Thiers' History ; and an article on Poor-laws for
Scotland, in which the writer says, " He demurred
not at what ➢lr. Wakley thought the perfection of a
poor-law—the supply of a butcher-meat dinner and
two pints of porter per day, but we wish to put an
end to the cruel and selfish hallucination in this
country, that a human being can be efficiently sup-
ported on a shilling a week." There is also a pithy
disquisition on the Maynooth question, which tells
some striking truths, from which several of the Libe-
ral party might profit. We give the following as a
specimen
That this measure is, in many grave respects, a
highly disagreeable one to us, it must be needless to as-
sure our readers. State endowment of a particular form
of religious belief, a new ecclesiastical impost, taxation
of the public in favour of the creed of a sect, the salary-
ing of theologians out of the Consolidated Fund—no-
thing can possibly be worse, except that state of things
of which this scheme is a slight corrective. But we can-
not overlook the " circumstances" which turn this wrong
into a sort of right. That gigantic iniquity, the Church
of England in Ireland, is a circumstance which, in our
apprehensioh, completely forbids, so king as it continues
to exist, the application of the principle on which we
would otherwise deal with the matter. We confess we
have no heart to introduce the " voluntary principle"
into this business. It is not a case fur the voluntary
principle. If voluntaryism is to be the rule of our eccle-
siastical legislation, make it the rule—lrish Catholics
have no sort of objection. But voluntaryism is not the
rule. Do what we will, we cannot yet get it made the
rule. Not voluntaryism, but state endowment is the rule
of the ecclesiastical polity of Great Britain ; and this
being so, it is hard that the case of the poorest, and
most oppressed and insulted body of religionists in the
empire should be made an exception. Do-the-boys
Hall is scarcely the fittest field for a first experiment in
ecclesiastical economy and laissez- faire. We must begin
somewhere else the war against state endowment of
theological creeds. We should be indeed delighted, if
we could stop this Maynooth grant, in the pure, unaided
strength of the voluntary principle : for, were the prin-
ciple strung enough for that, it would be strong enough
for some other things of considerably more practical
moment. But we cannot. Voluntaryism has, really and
practically, no voice in the matter. The protestations
of voluntaryism are drowned and lost in the clamours of
'No Popery' and Protestant Ascendency.' The
strength of the agitation is not in the voluntary princi-
ple, but in the no popery and ascendency passion. Vo-
luntaryism is perfectly powerless in the matter, except
as a subordinate ally of no-popery and ascendency. As it
is powerless, we think it should be neutral. One thing
at least is clear—if the advocates of the voluntary prin-
ciple feel themselves bound actively to oppose this Bill,
they are most especially bound to oppose the opposition
—the most illiberal, bigoted, and fanatical opposition—
with which it is assailed by men whose principles are as
contrary to theirs as darkness to light."