The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-03 00:00:00

DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE.

Flahault's new turn of the conversation, and so, address-
ing himself to Talbot, he went on—
" We were dining together one day, at the little inn at
Trois Rivieres, when a messenger came from Lachegon,
for the Pere to administer the last rites to a mourant.'
Maurice promised to be there in half-an-hour, but never
stirred—and though three other messengers came for
him, the answer was all the same—until, at last came
word, • C'est trop Lard, it est more
" Trop Lard f said Maurice, ' not a bit of it ; give
me a pen and ink, and some paper.' With that he folded
a piece, note fashion, and wrote—
" Mox CHER PIERRE—Fais ton petit possible pour
cot pauvre diable, qui s'est glisse hors du monde sans
mes soins. Apparement it etait bien press 6 ; mais to
l'arrangera pour le mieux.
" Ton viel ami,
" ' MAURICE DULANG.
" St. Pierre, Ala Conciergerie au Paradis.'
" Put that in his mouth," said Maurice, " and there's
no fear of him."
" Twas a blessed gospel he gave him," said Mary,
who did not comprehend the French portion of the story,
" and sure it's as good as anything."
"We all thought so, Mary. Poor Maurice related the
story at Lyons, when he was led out to the guillotine—but
though the Commissaire laughed heartily, and enjoyed
it much, they had found a breviary in his portmanteau,
and they couldn't let him off. Pauvre Late ! To travel
about the world with the piece de conviction' in his
possession."
Though every book from the pen of " Harry
Lorrequer," is looked forward to with pleasurable
anticipations, and read with interest, yet it is ad-
mitted on all hands, that his style savours less of
originality than as an imitation of Maxwell ; and
hence the inapplicability of this style, however attrac-
tive and amusing in itself, to a story, characters, and
incidents half a century o.d ; yet it must be admitted
that some of the dramatis personce are true to life,
particularly the O'Donoghue and Lanty.

-
The contents of the present Number of this Maga-
zine are of a very varied and amusing character. It
opens with a quaint and amusing tale of "The Train
for the Overland," by Tilbury Trump, Queen's Mes-
senger. We then have a notice of Baron de Bode's
Travels in Luristan and Arabistan, and then a
student's reminiscences of the "Quartier Latin," from
the pen of one who evidently thoroughly understands
the French people. We believe that in the following
passage the writer has explained the true cause of the
instability of all Governments in France, and the
secret of that constant yearning for change which is
the bane of the French people :
" Youth compressed, will burst like the boiler of a
steam engine. Youth has no vent in France, it accu-
mulates an avalanche of despised dimensions—of legiti-
mite and restless ambitions; it contracts few marriages,
families know not what to do with their children. What
may be the real storm that shall move these masses I
know not; but they will inevitably precipitate themselves
upon the existing order of things, and overwhelm it.
Louis XIV., Napoeon, England, were and are covetous
of intelligent youth. In France, youth is condemned
by the new code; by the evil conditions Of the election
principle—by the vices of the ministerial constitution.
hi examining the construction of the elective chamber,
you see there no deputy of thirty; the youth of Riche-
lieu a-id that of Mazirin, the youth of Turenne and that
of Colbert, the youth of Pit and that of Saint Just, that
of Napoleon and that of Prince Metternich, would find
no place there; Burke, Sheridan, or Fox, could not have
taken a seat in it. Political majority should have been
fixed at twenty-one years, and eligibility levelled to all
conditions, the departments should not have elected any
but balm fide deputies, not persons without any political
talent, incapable of speaking without maiming gram-
mar, and amongst whom, during ten years, there has
scarcely appeared a single statesman. At this moment
the whole body of youth is driven to become republican,
because it desires to see in republicanism its emancipa-
tion. It recals young representatives of the people, and
young generals !"

THE ILLUMINATED MAGAZINE.
We have read, with much pleasure, this month's
portion of Craven's tale "Father-Land." The writer
has thrown more thought into it than usual, and it
touches lightly, but effectively, on several points of
our social system that might be altered with improve-
ment—among them, two things that affect the two
extremes of society, prison discipline, and the educa-
tion of our public schools and colleges. As to the
first, he points out a difference that ought not to exist,
as it gives the balance of advantage to the convicted
felon.
" How long will it be a fact, credited by civilized
Christian people, that in England the treatment of those
suspected of crime was once more penal and severe, than
after conviction had taken place ? That such is the ear-
n ing out of the law at the present moment is past per-
adventure, not alone in remote and ill-cared-for districts,
bat in the heart of our great metropolis itself. The New
Prison, at Clerkenwell, is the place appointed for the
safe-keeping of persons charged upon wholly ex-parte
statements, awaiting evidence being adduced against
them, the arrival of witnesses, or, in short, anything or
everything that shall make such a case as would warrant
their committal for trial. Millbank Prison is the recep-
tacle of the convicted felonry, awaiting conveyance be-
yond sea ; of the worst of transports—villains of every
conceivable grade of atrocity : murderers, who have had
the luck to come within the loosest interpetration of
manslaughter ; in short, of vagabonds, ninety per cent.
of whom would have been hung at the Old Bailey a
dozen years ags. And in what relation of comfort and
convenience do these two gaols stand towards each other?
The board and lodging of convicts under sentence, at
Atillbank, bears such comparison with thatlof the accused
under suspicion at Clerkenwell, as the ménage of the Cla-
rendon does to that of Marylebone workhouse. Why
does not some Member of Parliament, with bowels, call
for a return of all persons remanded, during the past
year, from the metropolitan police-offices to the New
Prison, and of those subsequently committed for trial and
discharged."
" Travel and Talk," by Luke Roden, is a little dif-
fuse but readable ; he gives a fearful instance
—the man revenging the suffering of the school-
boy on his brute of a master, in the portion
of his paper in which he treats of the school system
of the good old times. " The Philosophy of News-
papers," by Angus Reach, is well written, but opens
no new reflections on the subject ; some space is de-
voted to a discussion of the practice of anonymous
editing. Mr. Reach is a strenuous advocate for the
opposite system, attributing to it the higher position
held by the political writer in France compared to his
status in this country. We question if anything
would be gained to the conductors of the
press here, by the change. Nor is the prac-
tice in France so different from our own ; the
only contributions to the French daily press
that are acknowledged are the feuilletons, and they
are often written under feigned names ; the articles in
their reviews have the writers names appended to
them more frequently than with us ; but did
Macaulay, or Sydney Smith, or Brougham, or
Wilson ever pen an article that was not at once as
well known4to be theirs, as if they had added their
signature? Again, the editors of the daily journals
are most of them well known, so that the different po-
sition of the press in the two countries does not arise
from the publicity of the names of the conductors of
it. There are many other influences at work here to
produce the result of which the writer of the article
complains. Almost every road to power and emolu-
ment is commanded here by the aristocracy, with
their immense wealth and political influence, and with
these, mere talent, if they contend, must do it at fear-
ful odds. Were public writers to put their names to
everything they penned, it would improve their posi-
tion in no one respect, and make it much worse in many.
But the question is too intricate to be discussed here.
The liveliest article in the number is " Embalming
a House," as practised in Dublin forty
.years ago ;
the process is ordinary enough, but it is described
with much gusto—that relish for mischief which is a
main ingredient in Irish fun. We have only space
to give the names of the remaining articles--they
are the "Adventures of a Scamp," the " Past, the
Present, and the Possible," a paper on " Whittington,"

This is succeeded by a continuation of the series of
articles on Robert Burns. A pilgrimage to Caldaro is
descriptive of a visit to the celebrated Estatica, Frau-
lein Morl, who exhibits the phenomena of what the
writer calls spontaneous clairvoyance. She is re-
garded by some of the pious and devout Catholics as
a prophetess, while, by others, it is considered that
she is possessed by a devil. The following is the de-
soription given of her appearance during her extacy.
" Living, yet scarcely breathing ; motionless, as if the
directing spirit had already fled from the pale and ema-
ciated frame ; present in body, yet, to all appearance,
absent in spirit, and unconscious of all around her; near
me, yet so for, so inaccessibly, unapproachably far from
me; like one entranced, caught up to Heaven, seeing
and hearing things unutterable; Maria Morl impressed
ate, I will confess, as I stood there, alone in her pre.
sense, with feelings which I have not words to convey.
Her large full eye, so bright, yet so evidently fixed on
something beyond the range of sensuous vision, directed
upwards as in earnest though submissive entreaty, her
bandslgently joined together before her breast; the small
rod spot or scar visible on the back of the hand next me;
her head thrown slightly back, and turned a little to the
right; her hair, of a bright brown, falling in wavy
masses over her shoulders, and descending almost to her
knees, her white bedgown and petticoat, so clean, so be-
coming, so sculpturally simple, her position—in a word,
her whale appearance, suggested the statue of a wor-
shipping angel, or of a praying Samuel, chiselled by a
master's hand in the marble of Carrara."
She was roused from her extacy by her confessor,
and welcomed her visitor by a friendly nod, present-
ing him with a small coloured print, which gave him
file opportunity of observing the stigmata on her hands.
The writer also visited three other patients who were
labouring under the: same disease of Maria Morl,
and who are also considered by the peasantry as
being sub'ect to supernatural influence. The writer
seems perfectly convinced that there is no trick or
collusion in the matter, and if there be not, these cases
are an additional confirmation of the theory of self-
hypnotism recently broached by Mr. Braid. " The
late Mrs. James Gray," is a kind, feeling, and just
teibute to the talents and virtues of one who was a
constant contributor to the pages of this Magazine,
aed who, as Mary Anne Brown, had acquired a fame
as a poetess, which will.be enduring. She died near
Cork, the 28th of January last.

THE O'DONOGHUE. By Harry Lorrequer. No. 3
'The Number of The °Donoghue for this month is
not either as carefully written, or as interesting as the
first or second. The author has fixed upon a time
distant by fifty years from the present ; but he is
continually falling into the mistake of applying
phraseology known only in times much more modern
to the Irish peasantry ; added to which he falls into
Lady Morgan's ridiculous error of putting into the
mouths of his best characters an odd jumble of low
vulgarisms and polite and polished sentences. On
the whole, however, this work promises to be less ob-
jectionable to the generality of Irish readers than
either of the last two. But the author should re-
member that it is not because the Roman Catholic
religion is now held so cheaply in France, that the
incident contained in the subjoined extract, as having
occurred fifty years ago, is likely to be a whit more
acceptable in the sister kingdom than was his libellous
portrait in the person of " Father Tom Loftus." In
the present Number he introduces a fire, a stranger,
and a smuggler. Tho first is a sore perplexer to the
victim—a recent settler from England. The second
of course has the usual amount of mystery wrapped
around him. Aad the third—but he speaks for him-
self in the following song and dialogue :
Thus saying, Flahault pushed back his chair a little
from the table, and in a rich deep bass voice, which rung
through the high rafters of the cabin, chanted out the
following rude verses, to a French vaudeville air—
giving the final e of the French words, at the end of
each line, that peculiar accentuation of a—which made
the word sound contrabands !
Though this information as to Captain Jacques'
performance seems of little moment, yet such was the
fact, that any spirit the doggrel possessed could only be
attributed to the manner of the singer, and the effect
F.:sawed by the intonation we have mentioned ;
LA CONTRABANDE.
A bumper, " meo enfans," to swallow your care,
A full bumper, we pledge, " a L'lrlande ;"
The land of " belles femmes—le pays do bonne chore,
Et toujours de la Contrabande.'
Some like to make love, and some like to make war,
Some of beauty obey " la commando ;"
But what is a glance from aw eye, " bleu," or " noir,"
Except it be " la Contrabande."
When a prince takes the cash that a peasant can't spare,
Aad lets him lie down " sur la lande ;"
Call it, as you like—but the truth is, I swear,
" Cest bien pire que—la Contrabande."
Stolen kisses are ever the sweetest, we're told,
They sink like a " navire qui fende ;"
And what's true of a kiss, is the same, too, of gold,
They're both, in their way, " Contraband©'."
When kings take your money, they won't even say,
" Mon ami le Dieu vous le rende ;"
While even the priest for a blessing takes pay.
" C'est partoat et toujours, Contrabande."
The good things of life are not equal, I'm sure,
Then how pleasant to make the " amende ;"
To take from the wealthy, and give to the poor,
" Voila ! que j'appelle,. Contrabande."
Yet, as matters go, one must not deem it strange,
That even " La France et L'lrlande,"
If good wishes and friendship they simply exchange,
There are folks who call that " Contrabande."
" Vive la Contrabande, ntes antis," shouted out Jacques,
a. - he arose, glass in hand, and made the room ring with
the toast. And every voice repeated the words, in such
imitations as they were able.
"'Tis an elegant song, any way," said Lanty, " if one
only understood it all—and the tune's mighty like the
. Cruiskeen Lawn.' "
" Well, Tlarry," said Flahault, slapping his friend on
the shoulder, " will the song persuade you to turn
smuggler ? I fear not. You'd rather practise your own
Contrabande' amongst the bright eves and the dark
lucks of the capital. Well, there are
worse 'metiers.'
' whether
on have had a turn at it these fifteen years, and
on the waters of Ontario, or Champlin, or scudding along
g
under the fog-banks of the Scheldt, I never grewweary
of it. But now for a little business talk—where is the
Padre? where's Father Luke ? Was he not to have
,en here to-night ?"
Mary whispered the answer in the captain's ear.
iiEW.•
.I , .arbleu," exclaimed he aloud—" is it so ?
r ~ .i'll,/:_ i little 4 Contrabande' of his own—trying to
4 fsllow safe over the frontier, into the next
414;1- ------A„,-- sa,- .-,
12.: 7_ 2;.,' - .-_. ... iii/r/s ,am Captain Jacques," said Mary, with
(----
r.,:_-:_,L.:.,,,_.:,,,.„,,,_,,_.,,„.._"Th'at's not the way to talk of the holy
(
.71- "-• -oiligie '• : ,
."-.1---7
_...4.1. 4:' i 4 .ad old Maurice Dulang here, the priest of
- 1 ThStilk :"." . --- he's the boy could despatch them without
itt,r irouble.'t
Neither Lanty nor Mary gave any encouragement to

and a review of Grantley Berkeley's pamphlet on
the game-laws, of portentous length—indeed, out of
all proportion to the merits or importance of the
work itself.

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 3, 1845.