The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-02 00:00:00

TAIT'S MAGAZINE.

The indefatigable Mrs. Gore—who fortunately
fur us is as amusing as she is industrious, and
who almost rivals the renowned Prince;s Sche-
hezerade in the number of her tales—con!ribates
another work of fiction to the pages of Tad,
under the title of " Blanks and. Pr;Zt`f, or the
Wheel of Fortune." As a clia,ater or two only
of this story are yet before us, we cannot under-
, take to pronounce a decided opinion on it ; hut
we may state that it opens well; that the mealy-
mouthed country physician, Dl. To:ldles, looks
very like a portrait from life; and that the dry,
stingy old maid, Miss Lavinia Mzade; whose
quaint, obsolete furniture, "b:ineazioal hy her
graudmother, was rubbed and scrub!) d a t I bur-
nished till it acquired a sort of ironic :I freshness,
like the- youthful airs of an old beau," is
sketched in that spirit of'' merry malice" which
is so conspicuous a feature in the ina.ority of
Mrs. Gore's fictions. In the slight and hasty
notice of "Lord Jeffrey's Contri!JutioUs to the
Edinburgh Review" his Lordship is taken to task
for h'it well-known criticism on the Lake poets,
which, observes the writer, "augur something
like limited imagination or a narrow ranee of
poetical emotion." This is by no means a-legiti-
mate inference front the circumstance of the
critic's inability to discover the profound genius
of Peter Bell, or the fancy and sensibility Of the
Laureate Odes. On the contrary, we a
proof of his refined taste and -discrimination.
Lord Jeffrey was unquestionably—we say was,
because we believe he has long ceased to wr;te
—the most intelligent critic of his day, endowed
with less sensibility perhaps, than Hazlitt, but
far sounder in his judgments, because less liable
to be biassed by his prejudices, and posseSsed of •
.a• far more extensive range of information. We
owe to 116 pen the subtlest analyses that have
ever been given of the poetical powers of Byron,
Crabbe, and Moore ; and his account of Swift '
and his writings, coloured as it may be here and
there by an evident -dislike of the man, is run
informed with 'weighty truth. The " National
Anti-Corn-law League" is a poem very much in
the manner of Ebenezer Elliott, when in one of
his ultra-truculent moods. - In the " Reminis-
cences of Dublin College Life," we find some de-
tails respectint the well-known Historical So-
ciety when in :14 decline, but we should have
preferred reading about it when it was hi its full
meridian vigour, and Plunkett and Bushe were
among its orators. The " Recollections of Sir
Walter Scott," are—if the truth mutt be told—
a little too twaddling this month. Here, how-
ever, is an amusing anecdote or two respecting
the poet's favourite dog Maids, of whom honour-
able mention is made in Lockhart's Life of his
illustrious father-in-law :

"One morning, while at breakfast, a woman called,
complaining that Maida, Sir Walter's stag-hound, had
bit her child. And did not I give you some-
thing handsome. to help to cover it ?' said Sir
Walter. You did so ; but lam told that if the
dog is not hanged, the bairn will go mad.' Ido
not think that the crime deserves death, as the child
is not yet dead ; but Maida shall be banished; and
if the child die, he shall suffer, which is the law of
the land ; and there is some more money.'
" Maida was an ill-natured tyke, and no favourite
with me. He once attacked me. I met him in a
narrow path; and he stood in the middle, disputing
my passage. Having, by good luck, a Measuring-
pole in my hand, about eight feet in length, I pre-
pared to make my passage good. If I had turned
my back, he would have been on me immediately.
I advanced, and with my good ash pole hit him a
whack along the ribs, on which he gave a fearful
howl, and fled. So much for the courage of this
Highland brute. On telling it to his master, he
would not believe it. will again defend myself in
your presence ; indeed, I will make believe to attack
you, and you shall see whether this Highland hear of
yours will be bold and faithful in defending his very
kind and-over-partial master.' Ido not entertain
the smallest doubt of his courage and affection; but it
may be as well not to put it to too severe a test.
" One morning I heard a dog howling in distress.
On going to the place, I found Maida, who had been
hunting hares ; and on leaping a paling, wai en-
tangled by the hind-legs, and could not relieve him-
self. At breakfast, I mentioned the circumstance of
Maida's distress. And did you relieve lain ?'—' I
did not think it at all safe, as he holds me at a grudge.'
Good heavens !' exclaimed Sir Walter, the poor
brute's legs may be broken.'— Do not be alarmed ;
I sent Tam Purdie to his relief.' And soon after the
dog made his appearance, much fatigued, and the skin
peeled from his hind legs."

DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE.
This Magazine is one of the most carefully
conducted of the Monthly tribe, and, usually
contains one or more articles of more than ordi-
nary interest. We have here not le,s than three,
which are well worthy the reader's attention.
The first is a glowing sketch of the gatherings of
the Marshals and Generals of France at Bona-
parte's private residence in Paris, just previous
to the memorable movement which gained hint
the Consulate ; the second is an account of Erupt
and its capital, Cairo, with incidsatal notices of
the memorable battles of the Nile and Alex-
andria; and the third, the most entertaining of
all, is a copious memoir of the late 1)r. Magnin,
evidently frotn the pen of one who knew him
well. The portrait of the Doctor, which is pre-
fixed to the biographical sketch, is a good likeness,
and the estitnate of his versatile talents, is, in
the main, just, thought here and there if is rather
too highly coloured by the partiality of friend-
ship. The following tribute to 1)1.. Magitas
extraordinary powers may, perhaps., interest our
readers :

" I sat, on last Friday, two hours with Doctor
Maginn in his bed-room. The, Doctor has been
raking, I believe, since his family went to France;
he was quite ill when I saw him. Ilowevvr, he ma-
naged to write a leader for the Argos newspaper, in
his shirt, and that completed, he jump:A into bed, and
we had a long talk. The more I see of hire, the
more I admire his talent. He is really a splendid
fellow. He knows every thing. Ile will teach you
as much in one hour as the best hook will in ten.
His conversation is the most extraordinary thing pos-
sible. He jumbles together fun, philosophy, and
and polemics ; and in these (so incongruous) he is
pre-eminent. At first you would say that he spent
all his life reading jest •books ; but Oleo there is such
admirable philosophy and common-sense in his
reflections, that you get rid of your first notion as
quickly as possible. But just as you are on the
point of averring that this man reads nothing but
works of thought and reasoning, you are forced to
gulp down the exclamation, for he jumps into theology,
and will argue on it like a bishop. Then you declare
that he has studied nothing but polemics all his life.
Such a man is Maginn. Ile is a ruin, but a glorious
ruin, nevertheless. Ile takes no care of himself.
Could he be induced to do so, he would be- the first
man of the day in literature, or any thing else. But !
he lives a rollicking life ; and will mite you one of
his ablest articles while standing in his shirt, or
sipping brandy—so naturally do the best and wittiest
thoughts flow from his pen. reading is immense ;
his memory powerful, and his knowledge of the
world is perhaps equal to that of nay man . that ever
lived. In fact, I say he knows every thing, and so he
does. -We talked about a war in France, about which
all the John and Jenny Bulls are getting anxious.
The Doctor asserted stoutly that there would be
none, and quoted Lord Brougham, who said, in allu-
sion to the national debt, that linglard was bound in
eight hundred millions to keep the I.eace."

UNITED SERVICE JOURNAL.
An instructive article on the subject of
"Slavery in Sinde," which we find in the present
Number of this periolical, repre:ents the slave-
system as being by no means so revolting to
humanity as it is in the southern States of
America.' " The negroes," says Captain Hart,
" are always taken care of during their 'voyage
to India from their native country; and when
purchased, are, in the majority of instances,
treated with kindaess and forbearance, and be-
come, in:consequence, NI trinly tched to their
purchasers." This is certainly a releeming point
in the Sinde slave-system ; neve► theless, we ex-
claim %lit!' Sterne, " Disguise it a.: thou wilt,
slavery, still thou art a bitter draught." A
" Voice from Cafferland" is a condensed abstract
of the political history of the colony of the Cape
of Good Hope, from the year 1805 down to 11:e
present day.