The Sun.
London, England, 1828-01-31 00:00:00

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CHARACTrn. OF '. ,
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Mr. Southey is a mournf 4 t(Lxel 7 -vim
see •
ruin which may be wrought uplier,ttiVAelitala
minds, by attaching an universal feAing to pare •
titular institutions, and by professing to find all
truth in the creed of one establishment. In this
case the whole spiritual nature of man is nar-
rowed into an almost mechanical dinging to
few valueless sounds, the images, perhaps, of
nothing either in earth or heaven, but of the
stupid bigotry that invented them. The attri-
butes of Deity become the watchwords of in=
tolerance and uncharitableness,--and Christianity
itself, instead of being a scheme for the perfect=
ing our nature into purity and love, is changed
into a volume of dissonant Ivar-cries, whi:,P ” the
whole armour of God " is employed for the tliee
hallowed strife of worldly passions.
It is obvious also, that in politics, so soon a,:.:
ceasing to look forward for improvement, the
itaeociritsti,vity of Mr. Southey's mind attached itself
to things as they arc, he began to look back
into the past, to find supports fur his opinion ;
and because he wished to make out that the pre-
sent government is a good one, he perverts the
whole aspect of history. Strafford and Laud
were put to death by political reflirmers ; and
therefore, out of hatred to all reform, and as
a means of bringing dislike on modern inneea=
a,Sidtrauflubserclifisbhepeoaitirlieostisamn:aratlyidr ttohleiissibde:eineietelg-
n blood-thirstiness
oblivion.
isilvat:leo,
thinking
oLekusiatib,ugtpdollisioi ss,
ttitbtt oail
iealb)tfueoi\rrbeli unir‘ir, ioasefrdoi
stgiti
tioolhe.ieere,
sat,:e.tfrics:
cqouiiltsetitu tisincereconstitution
went. But moved by this conviction, he epeaks
of all who think otherwise with an abhorrence.
which he probably justifies to himself by the
consideration that the; are enemies to the hap.
piness of mankind, without reflecting that other
men may honestly think just as ill of his
opinions as he of theirs, and that neither party
would be excusable in slandering and mierepree
seining the other.
In spite of the excesses into which ne
Southey has been betrayed, his natural hin(!nesa
breaks out very frequently through the fretful
load of prejudices and dislikes, wherewith years
of partisans have encumbered him : while his
propensity to vituperation usually displays itself
most strongly on the points with regard to which
he has himself been in the habit of disputing.—
He hates Roman Catholics, he hates Calvinists,
he hates Unitarians, he hates Frenchmen, who,
in his eyes, are almost all Atheists and Jacobins.
He thinks the Whigs a very dangerous set cf
men, he believes that the Edinburgh Review is
possessed by Satan, and above all, he abhors
every one who dreams of introducing any re forme ,
into England. Yet with all this, we verily ba.
lieve few men would take more trouble to cone
fer a service on the people of 'Mexico or Arabia,
or even, Van opportunity presented itself, ‘eeuld
seize with more anxiety an opportunity of doing
erood to his enemies.
te
Whatever be his faults, he must, as long as
he lives and writes, continue to be a popular
author. As a mere controversialist, (the tno't
melancholy mockery of humanity we know, ex-
cept the monkeys of Exeter Change,) his abilities
and information can never be despised ; thouilli
in this department (the garrets) of literature, he
chows to the least advantage. He has abundant
information, and a ready grace in applying it ;
but he wants the subtlety cf argumentation and
bitterness of sarcasm, which are so large inne-.
client; in the finished polemic. He generally
substitutes for reasoning mere assertion and aue
thority, and downright abuse for satire. The con-
struction of his sentences, the clearness of his ar-
rangement, and the liveliness of his narrative, are
:r.italmntirta,bflay ll adaptedpower
o h
roffpr
philosophising,
B h.
isulgu,thfrm the;
lookso
a t
events as naked facts rather than as dee-elope-
mute of principles ; or if he ever recurs to ge-
neral laws, they arc of the most common-place
description. As a writer of• biographies, and of
essays of amusing information, scarcely any one,
we believe, ever excelled him, His life of Nelson
has been much praised, but not more titan it de.
serves, for unaffected simplicity and unexagge-
rated earnestness. His writings probably cover
more paper than those of any one now living.
except indeed the gentleman in the farce, WhO
" has written all the newspapers in Europe for
many years."
On the whole, Mr. Southey's chief talent ap=
pears to us to be style. Though sometimes a
pliousliet i o affected,n
,o thea 11:%I. whole, is itsh‘avteibul et rif.aullelt,lY' clear,his ccoairne '-
lioncielui
Bseelul
cts
et ho, eiirse,,fe,)N're
qualities,lai
er eibiafraid,ays the
lleo tbwh‘i!et,
anticful iie fa:p.ledarr)ta, I lloiiiftl':olaettei red
which generally go toaether. He has none of
the sprightly fancy of 'Mr. Moore,—none of the
elevating imagination of Wordsworth. He never
could have written half as much as he has, if his
books required any great expellee of thought ;
but they really appear to us to exhibit none at
all ; and the research they display, though
laborious and astonishingly extensive, yet costs
infinitely less of real intellectual toil and weari-
ness, than the deducing subtle conclusions of
vast and complicated premises, and the binding
together and arranging masses of disjointed
facts by the application of great general laws.
But Mr. Southey, happily for his present
ease, fame, and profit, has no such trouble-
some propensity. He seems, in fact, .to
have a fainter conception
aoinnfd
yo!liV7ghisalltshoeitt
like abstract speculation than an
faiells:nthc:gle:
of nearly equal celebritya,ur:atiedpot
Scott. And it must necessarily be 50. Great
competitor in quanztiiatlyariifny wi-'Sir—beltoSttlahrpepmiNsalairivtieel,r,
Euthinkerstnine
.etxenptrieisssoNfv.idalel
tpherine,eviPnite:
chronicled by thelipuoneJ
his pages such as
mind, and do not scent
principle
with any universalor permanent cone
occasion of any Leling in his
breast, but contempt for some rival dogmatist, ot
exultation over some inaccurate historian. Few
t3ocihuauvseneb6eseonftthhee
s call
of his work live among future generations.—
Ath moor.

The effects of
the extreme mildness of the
wooer
at this seazott already begin to show thernseivee in
isrious instances of premature fruition. Amonast ot:.ers,
there are in the garden of East Wonford House, fleavltree.
strawberry plants now in full bloom.—Exeter Alfred'

person in
a secure line
zodffaeubs iaNieott.urr
0-nt,ra,p4
for on the night ot Satur-
Mr. GEO. TAYLOR, of Sun-street, Keigh_
ky, having had last week occasion to employ a
ins cellar of suspicious character, contrivel
placed under the. cellar-lid,.
The event showed his sagacity,
day last, the family were roused . from their beds by a
person from beneath calling is a dismal tone for a.sgika..inoc,
—On descending into the cellar,they found,
not much to
:heir surprise, the identical thief ft', , 1
.-- ---2 whom the trap had
',con set, struggling
.in his tolh, the iron having caught
,hielnshteructed of two pieces of wot.i,
-,is clothes, and the timber so effectually secured his person
,s to render every attempt to extricate himself fruit:ess.—
On being apprehended, he acknowledged that he had been
a that situation for nearly three hours, and that he had
iy turns sung, sworn, and prayed, without being able to
tfect his liberation.—Brighton Guardian.