The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-01 00:00:00

TAIT'S AIAGAZ ISE.

In his monthly political article Tait, as might be
expected, rejoices in the liberation of O'Connell,
which he calls the " reversal of a series of injustices,"
and adds, " never surely was a Government so dis-
graced ! They have done the thing at last which they
were eternally twitting wiser and warier men with
cowardice for not doing—measured their strength
with the Agitator ; and they have got a most tre-
mendous fall. They have been exulting for many a
month past with rude unmannerly insolence over
convicted conspirators ; and it turns out that they
are the convicts, false imprisonment the crime. They
have taken all sorts of knavish advantages, and they
have taken nothing by them but defeat and scorn.
This is strong language, but we are not at all pre-
pared to say that it is stronger than the circum-
stances of the case warrant. Ministers have played
snunfair game as regards the Irish State Prosecu-
sit r.s,and it is but fit that they should pay the pe-
nalty of their unscrupulousness. " Our Hearth and
Homestead" is the continuation of a domestic tale by
Mr. Mills. The descriptive portions are full of fresh-
1108S and vivacity; and the character of Mike, a good-
hearted but somewhat scampish fellow, half labourer,
half poacher, whose notions of meunz and Muni are
exceedingly vague and indefinite, bears every appear-
ance of having been drawn direct from the life. The
41 Carpenter and the Capuchin Monk" is a wild legend,
translated from the Swedish of Nicander. There is
much truth, vividly expressed, in the parallel between
" Burns and Byron ;" and we agree with the critic
that the former's thoughtless follies have been too often
harped upon. Hundreds, we might add thousands, of
men infinitely worse than ever poor Burns was, and
without a tithe of his redeeming qualities, have
passed through life esteemed and loved, and been ho-
moured after death with an epitaph commemorating
their virtues, merely because they possessed more
worldly wisdom and hypocrisy than fell to the share
of the lofty-minded peasant bard. We subjoin a por-
tion of the parallel, previously observing that the critic
presses rather too severely on Lord Byron :
" There is little of the effeminacy of poetry about
Burns ; and, much as has been said about it, there is
little licentiousness, properly so called. It is true he is
often coarse, indelicate, unscrupulous in his phrases ; but
he is so, purely for the sake of the humour or the satire
—not for the sake of indelicacy. There is no gloating
'over vice as in Juvenal—no painting of it for its own
stake. Holy Willie's Prayer' and The Jolly Beg.
gars' may be too strong for refined tastes ; but the one

is a richly-deserved castigation of a class too numerous ,
in this country, and the other is life, real life, though it
he the dregs of it. But his highest efforts are his purest,
and they show the natural bent of his mind, which was
virtuous and honourable. The Cottar's Saturday
Night' is a picture of piety, benevolence, love, affection,
and contentment, which, we believe, could only come
from a pious and benevolent mind. No radically vicious
man could have so ardently delighted in the description.
It came fresh from an honest unsophisticated heart. His
thoughtless follies' have been rather too often harped
upon. With his festive soul—his adoring companions—
it is wonderful they were so few. But he has himself
immortalized them by his touching confession. There
was at least no hypocrisy in his character. He would
have pleaded guilty at once at any bar of morality. He
would have given judge and counsel no trouble in search-
ing for evidence. They and the world were welcome
both to the full knowledge of his sins, and his manly
repentance of them. His works have toned and improved
the feelings of his class.
" Byron's weakness was, to be thought strong. This
desire shines through the most of his poetry. He wished
to appear above prejudices. and opinions, and rules. He
was too high to be guided by them. He despised the
vulgar elements of human composition, and looked upon
himself as half dirt, half deity.' Byron was a weak
man, and the weakness of his nature was the strength of
his poetry. His works were the diction of his passions.
He was their intellectual bondsman. It was his slavery
to their mandates—his entire devotion to their gratifica-
tion—his intimacy with their operations—his intense
concentrated experience in their indulgence and contern-
plation—his long obedience to their slightest impulse—
that enabled him to paint and shadow, and compare and
contrast them so vividly. He was a poetical gladiator,
exhibiting for fame and gold the nakedness of a mind
diseased.' His feelings were passions, and his passions
crimes. Under their command the voyage of his life
was made with a false compass, and a false chart. He
read history and used it, not for healthful instruction in
the ways of man—not for great, or correct, or useful
views of legislation—not for philosophical analysis—not
for the sake of tracing to its source any art, or any sci-
ence, or any profession he read it to illustrate his pas-
sions—his own passions—pride, revenge, love, fear, ha-
tred, jealousy. Often he lauds highly and enthusiasti-
cally, the wise, Ole brave, the virtuous, the patriot, of a
past era ; but it is to gratify his scorn of the fool, the
coward, the libertine, the traitor, of a later time. He
draws an angel of light ; but it is to contrast the angel
with a demon. He looks into the grave of a father for a
scourge wherewith to lash the son. He raises the dead,
to mock the living."

NEW EDINBURGH REVIEW.
Like most first Numbers, this is got up with con-
siderable care, and if the work be carried on with the
same tact with which it has been commenced, we see
no reason why it should not meet with a fair portion
of success. At any rate, its cheapness is in its favour,
for it costs but a shilling, and for that small price,
gives a very liberal amount of matter. The first
article is entitled "Advances Since the Peace," and
its object is to show the rapid strides in social, poli-
tical, and commercial improvement that the country
has made since the memorable year 1815. Great
Britain—says the writer, who, like the celebrated
Doctor Pangloss, is something of an optimist—
" seems destined to reach a pitch of unrivalled power,
splendour, and happiness ; and the more serious
maladies that now menace her, we feel convinced, are
medicable, and the result of too rapid, rather than
too dilatory, an advancement. Time has been hardly
left for arrangement, but with freedom to urge all
claims, there is little doubt of a final equitable ad-
justment." " Gipsies" is an intelligent essay on the
subject of these migratory vagabonds, whose numbers,
it seems, are now fast diminishing in every country
of Europe. " Life of Lord Chancellor Eldon" is a
review of Mr. Horace Twiss's recent memoirs of this
eminent lawyer, who is no favourite with the Reviewer
as a politician, but is accused, and not unjustly, of
being actuated, throughout his public career, by the
most selfish motives. We quote from a notice of the
" Diaries and Correspondence of the First Earl of
Malmesbury," an account of Catherine the Second of
Prussia, and her favourite Minister, Prince Potemkin.
" But we must hasten to accompany Lord Malmes-
bury to Petersburgh, where he became stationed in
1778. Here the Sovereign was a woman, and amongst
the most remarkable of her order and sex. She had
dethroned her husband in self-defence, and usurped his
place. As Grand-Duchess she had shown herself a su-
perior person, cultivated her mind, and was distinguishd
for beauty, accomplishment, and ability, which had been
evinced by an equitable code of laws she prepared for
the future government of the empire. But her frail hus-
band, insensible to her deserts, attached himself to a low
female, and pretending to be jealous of the Empress, pro-
jected her perpetual imprisonment, and perhaps violent
death. Apprised of his designs, Catherine anticipated
their execution. Availing herself of her popularity, and
the services of a few devoted friends, Peter 111. was
seized, and after a short imprisonment destroyed; one of
the Orlows performing the office of executioner, first by
clandestinely administering a stupifying dose, and next,
aiding its effects by a vigorous manual grasp, the traces
of which were visible on the neck of the wretched Prince,
when his body was exposed to the gaze of the populace.
Whether the Empress was privy to the latter part of the
tragedy is doubtful ; it was certainly not displeasing to
her, for when the horrible news was communicated, it
made no abatement of her gaiety at table, and Alexis
Orlow became her first favourite.
" The first seven years of Catherine's reign were the
most splendid in the Russian annals. She governed
judiciously and with dignity. Firmness and regularity
were enforced in the public administration, and order
and exterior decorum maintained in the palace. But the
female Sovereigns of Russia, however capable, had never
been able, throughout their career, to resist the seduc-
tion of licentiousness. Certainly the private virtues of
Princes are not equally important with public capabili-
ties; between a Sovereign orderly, pious, and decorous,
but weak, prejudiced, and obstinate, and one able, wil-
ling, and zealous to advance national happiness, there
can be no hesitation about preference. But Catherine
was needlessly obtrusive in her abandonment ; more
shameless than any of her predecessors. The post of
favourite was as public an appointment and as open to
competition as that of Minister. Handsome men of little
minds were mostly preferred. No confusion of function
was allowed, the Empress being too shrewd to allow the
minions of her pleasure to intermeddle with the higher
duties of government. After her passion was satiated—
a short term mostly sufficed—they were dismissed, ge-
nerally with an injunction to marry or travel, and loaded
with magnificent gifts of lands, presents of jewellery,
and pensions.
" Lord Malmesbury says of the Court—' the leading
men hero are too rich for corruption' (a mistake which
his Lordship found out), too headstrong to be persuaded,
and too ignorant to listen to plain truth.' The two most
influential personages at the time of his arrival were
Prince Potemkin and Count Panin. The Count was
Foreign Minister, a man of no great capacity, indolent,
deceitful under a guise of frankness, and in the pay of
Prussia. The Prince had been a lover, but was then set
aside; he always maintained a great influence over the
Empress, and directed her in the choice of his successors.
Ile was a man of brilliant but superficial parts, like the
Beckinghams of the Stuarts ; sagacious and quick of
discernment; full of wit, levity, and cleverness, but im
pulsive and without steadiness of purpose. He lived
without order, eating, drinking, and sleeping at all
hours, and thought nothing of treating our Minister to
an airing in the rain in an open carriage at midnight.
Discontented and satiated with voluptuousness, Potem-
kin often said he would withdraw to a cloister, deter-
mined to lead a life of total abstinence. He was sud-
denly carried off by fever, which he vainly. tried to baffle
by the force of an iron will and constitution; appearing
abroad half-dressed, and eating raw turnips to allay the
fires that consumed him."

NOTICE TO MARINERS.
LIGHT ON BRUSTERORT, BETWEEN PILLAU

AND MENIEL.
In consequence of an error in the translation of the
following notice from the Prussian Government, which
appeared in this paper of the 26th inst., it is repeated :

(TRANSLATION.)
" The Sea Light exhibited on Brusterort has been
improved, so as to show two fixed lights, the position
and elevation being the same as the former, and visible
in clear weather at a distance of about 24 German miles,
within 101 degrees of the horizon—namely, from West
by North, as far as N.N.E. (W. by N. bis N.N., Ost.)"
Both Lights will bo exhibited for the first time on
the evening of the let of October, 1844, and kept burn-
ing from sunset to sunrise throughout the year.

Sir Robert Sale, in addition to being appointed to
the command of a regiment, has received the lucrative
appointment of Quartermaster-General of her Majesty's
forces in India, for which place he proceeds overland in
December.—Liverpool Albion.
Thu GREAT WESTERN.—This fine steamer,
which sailed hence on the 17th alt., arrived out at New
York on the 31st ult. She left again on her return, on
the 14th instant, with between twenty and thirty pas-
sengers, was telegraphed off Holyhead at five o'clock
yesterday afternoon, and arrived in the river about mid-
night, after a passage of fifteen days and a few hours.—
Liverpool Albion of Monday.
RAILWAY FARES.—The travelling public will be
agreeably surprised in the ensuing week to find that the
great northern lines, including the London and Birming-
ham, Grand Junction, and York and North Nlidland,
have spontaneously agreed to make for the future a large
reduction in their fares. A boon so unexpected, and
some would even say so uncalled-for, must be regarded
as a great public benefit, the value of which will be en-
hanced in the estimation of the public by the good grace
with which it is bestowed. These very men whom the
public have been taught to regard as grasping monopo-
lists, have shown in this case, as indeed in ever other case
throughout the whole history of railways, that the pub-
ic interest and that of the railways mutually depend on
each other, and that the latter can never seek to develop
it.elf without consulting and promoting the former.—
Railway Chronicle.
ATTACK ON A DUBLIN GAMBLING HOUSE.—ln-
formation having been given to the authorities that
gambling was carried on at a house at Pembroke-quay,
which had been opened extensively for cigar and read-
ing-rooms for the military, on Friday night Mr. Super-
intendent O'Connor and some of the detective force
effected an entrance into the premises. They did not,
however, find persons at the time engaged
in gambling,
but among other articles which were in the house they
got possession of an ivory tee-totum which was loaded,
and by turning the handle of which a party in the secret
could throw a high number for himself and have a low
one to follow for a player unconscious of the deceit. The
accounts of several officers of the garrison with the con-
cern were also taken possession of, showing that the
business carried on was of rather an extensive nature.—
Saunders.