The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-03 00:00:00

FRASER' S MAGAZINE.

Like every one else who has ever bestowed a
thought on the subject, Fraser—Tory as he is—ex-
presses, in no measured terms, his astonishment at
the grossly inconsistent conduct recently pursued by
the House of Commons on the Factecy question.
" Something is required," he says, " to preserve for
the House any share, however small, of public respect
and public confidence. A few more such exhibitions
of pliability to the Minister's will, as have lately
come before us, cannot fail of bringing the repre-
sentative system into contempt. Unless it be Sir
Robert Peel's intention, not merely to lord it over the
House of Commons, but to show to the whole world
that he does so, it will be advisable not to repeat the
Comedy of Errors, on which the whole world has
recently gazed with wonder." It will be advisable
certainly that such a comedy should not be repeated
in St. Stephen's, but it will be so, just as often as the
Premier may choose to issue his despotic mandate to
that effect. Should he, for instance, insist on the
Conservative party stultifying itself on the subject of
the Corn-laws, no doubt that obsequious squad will
obey him, without so much as a whisper of remon-
strance, and support the very measures to which it
has so long been inveterately opposed. There is
nothing too difficult of digestion for a Conservative.
He can swallow any nostrum, no matter how unpa-
latable, provided it be presented to him by the hands
of the Prime Minister. "An Episode in the Tines
of Phillip the Fifth of Spain," is a story told with
especially as respects the denouement, which is
very skilfully wrought out. " Animal Magnetism" de-
votes far too much space and attention to one of the most
cowl-ions quackeries of the day. " The Picture-
(lalleries" is a series of eon amore criticisms hy Tit-
marsh on the principal paintings in the Exhibition,
and the Suffolk-street Gallery. The critic scarcely
does justice to Mr. Hay don's picture of Napoleon
musing at St. llelena, which is a very striking pro-
duction, and remarkable for its extreme simplicity.
hi the course of some comments on the " Oxford
Professors of Poetry," the author mentions some
severe strictures of Southey on Dryden, to the effect
that he was among the second-rate poets, and that in-
stead of " amending ages to come, he was the pimp
and pander of his own." Dryden was certainly far
from immaculate in his public conduct, but his faults
were chiefly those of the age in which he lived, which
more or less has a direct influence on us all. It should
be borne in mind, too, that if he was a servile flat-
terer in his dedications, it was poverty only that
made him so—that gaunt, malignant Fiend which
tames the boldest spirits, and bows to earth the most
soaring natures. As a poet, so far is Dryden from
being—as Southey would intimate—among the second
rates, that he is fore Most among the great geniuses of
his country, nor can our language show two produc-
tions more perfect of their kind than his " Absaloin
and Achitophel," and his " Theodore and Honoria."
We subjoin the opening passage of an article on the
" Red Indians "—who are still, we believe, resident
in the metropolis—chiefly for the sake of the diverting
anecdote with which it is introduced :
" There is a story told of the late Dick Martiti, which
occurred forcibly to my mind when I paid my first visit
to the Ojibbeways. Dick, being at Greenwich fair, was
led by a very superfluous curiosity upon the part of the
king in Connemara, to enter a booth, whose proprietor
professed to exhibit a wild man l"There, assuredly,
he saw a very wild-looking individual, with his head and
face covered with a profusion of red, shaggy hair,
regular glib, nearly naked, and with a chain about his
waist. But Mr. Martin. upon observing that the savage
seemed to display towards him some uncouth and uneasy
signs of recognition, was induced to examine him more
closely, and the result was that he recognised in the
wild man' ono of his own tenants, and shouted out,
• with all the indignation becoming a legislator in favour
of animals, ' Why, then, Flaherty, you blackguard of
the world, what is it you're about there, at all-at all ;
making a beast of yourself entirely—entirely ?' Earn-
ing the rent for your honour !' was Mr. Flaherty's pro-
pitiatory and, to an Irish landlord, unanswerable reply.
Now, really, when I first gazed on these Indians, an im-
pression, almost amounting to conviction, took posses-
sion of my mind, to the effect that the chiefs, braves,
squaws, and child before me, were neither more nor less
than a party of • the finest peasantry on the face of the
earth' (as Mr. O'Connell calls them), who were em-
ployed in earning the rent for some flinty-heared Sasse-
nach,
landlord. As to the features of the strangers,
their resemblance to those of the Celtic Irish was most
exact, most perfect. Take half-a-dozen of the denizens
of s, and a couple of Hibernian basket-women
from Covent-garden market, paint them, and decorate
them with skins, and scalps, and claws, and feathers,
and, for all matters of appearance, to a casual observer,
they would be as good Indians as if they had been im-
ported hither from the eastern shores of Lako Huron.
And as to the dancing, singing, shouting, drum-beating,
tomahawk-twirling, and club-brandishing, they could
be taught it all in a week. On examining the Ojibbe-
ways more narrowly, however, I discovered certain
marks which distinguished them from the Celtic Irish,
, and satisfied me they were not impostors, but real Red
Indians. First, they had those small and dQlicately
moulded hands and feet which the Celtie multitude, in
Ireland, at least, can never generate ; and, secondly, the
muscles of the arm were so slightly developed as to show
that they never had been; at any period of their lives,
engaged in the.practice of manual labour. This clearly
proved that they were not the indigenous offspring of the
island of saints, though, if some antiquaries be collect,
they may boast a common origin, namely, from the
Jewish nation, and this would account for the precise
similarity in the cast and style of the features, and con-
tour of countenance. Raving now dismissed all scruples
about the authenticity of the performers, I set about con-
sidering them curiously. The-men were sufficiently clean
built, but not tall .er muscular, nor, apparently, either,
very strong or very actitre.:_Strip them of their weapons,
and Deaf Burke would • double-up' the six of them in
three minutes. Give.ttien:(their war-clubs only, and one
Anglo-Irish Tipperary boy Would make short work of
them with his blackthorn stick."

ILLUMINATED' MAGAZINE.
Mr. Jerrold's " Chronicles of Clovemook." which,
though somewhat too vague and desultory in their
character, abound in point and brilliancy; and exhibit
here and there thoughts pregnant with meaning, will .
be more attractive to the generality of readers this
month than..they have yet been, for they detail the
history of a young man of genius, who is visited
one evening in his lonely garret by no less
distinguished a personage than the Devil, dressed,
of :course, in a full suit of mourning. This visit
gives the author an opportunity of venting
divers apt sarcasms against the hypocritical cant
of those who, when they fall into sin, attribute
their beekslidings to the instigations of the Devil, in-
stead of to the promptings of their own evil nature.
The object of Satan s visit to the youth of ge-
nius, is to request him to write' his memoirs in
a kindly and forbearing spirit, which,, however, the
'young man declines doing,. partly from conscientious
motives, and partly because the Evil One' has been
fuel enough to. Pay him for the task, beforehand. The
conversation that takes place between this 'amiable
couple is of the most pungent and diverting charac-
ter possible, especially,in those places where it glances
at the conventional notions and practices of, what
is called, respectable society. " A Defence for Poets"
is contained in five small poems, gracefully versified,
and in which occurs this just and impressive thought :
'" The heart's religion is its poesy." In the article en-
titled "Bowie-knives," the author describes the par ticu-
-1 ass ef a most murderous single combat that took place a
geol. or two since in America between a Georgian doctor
and a MiSsouri farmer, in consequence of a politicai
dispute, which ended in the death, of the latter, under
circumstances of inconceivable atrocity. "A Parting
Glimpse of St. Giles's" is a graphic sketch of the in-
terior of this distinguished locality, which, it seems,
will soon le numbered among the things that
once
were---Troja fuit! The illustration prefixed
to this article is full of spirit, but indeed all the plates
in the number are of a superior character. We quote
from the Chronicles of Clovernook," the young
genius's account of the earlier 'portion of his career:—
" My parents let me follow my own will, which, at a
very early age, dayeloped itself towards doing nothing.