The Sun.
London, England, 1828-11-22 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

(From the Limerick Evening Post of Tuesday.)
On Saturday, GO of the 12th Regiment, under
Captain Bradfute, arrived in Limerick, from the
Depot at Boyle, to embark at Cove for Gibraltar.
Every Army Medical Officer at Plymouth has
been ordered out to Gibraltar. The only Medical
person remaining at Plymouth, is Dr. Dempster of
the 94th, (late of Nenagh, a Magistrate of the County
Tipperary,) and he has just received the temporary
rank of Principal Medical Officer in that district.
Major-General Sir Edward Blakeney is at present
on a tour inspecting the Regiments at Templemore,
Roscrea, Cashel, Tipperary, Clonmel, &c.
One hundred of the 77th Regiment, with Captain
Raines,,Lieutenants Butler, Atkin, Galway, and
Nixon, are waiting at Spike-Island the arrival of a
vessel to convey them to head-quarters, Jamaica.
The Depot of the 22d Regiment, 300 strong,
arrived en Monday at Tralee.
The transfer of the Depots of the 30th and 47th
Regiments to the Isle of Wight, is preparatory to
the arrival of the Service Companies of both from
Madras and Bengal, which are daily expected.
Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Lumley, Royal African
Colonial Corps, Lieutenant-Governor of that Colony,
died at Sierra Leone, the 2d of August. His death
is much regretted in this country.

The East India Company's ship Dunira
left Bombay for China the 11th July. The Duchess of
Atholl was expected to follow about the 28th of that month.

The following is an extract from a letter, dated
Vienna The bears in the forests of the Principalities,
doubtless disturbed by the tumult of war in numerous
lands, have made many incursions into our eastern pro-
vinces. They have penetrated by the Czikes Stuhl from
Moldavia into Transylvania, and have done considerable
damage.' A great number of other beasts of prey, and
especially wolves, have accompanied them in their excur-
sions."—French Paper.

The latest accounts from Portugal represent
that country as continuing in the most miserable and de-
graded condition imaginable. Arrests, imprisonments.
and confiscation, are now so usual as scarcely to be won-
dered at. In the case of Mr. GARDING, master of the brig
Ringdove, of Newcastle, which returned here on Sunday,
from Oporto, we have an additional proof of the jealousy
and tyranny of the usurper's Government. Mr. GARD-.
ING took out from hence a great number of letters from the
Portuguese refugees ; and instead of putting them into the
Post-office, gave them to some persons belonging to the
house of Noma; at Oporto, who sent them to the parties to
whom they were addressed. The creatures of Ma [TEL
having discovered this circumstance, employed the police to
seek out Mr. GARDING ; but information having reached
him, he left the port in haste, with ballast, and only three
pieces of beef on board, and arrived here after a passage of
II days, himself and crew almost exhausted for want of
food. -Had he not been so quick in taking his departure,
he has no doubt that he would have been imprisoned, if
not put to death.—Plymouth Journal.

On Thursday last, just as the Magdalene
steamer had got under weigh from Dundalk. Quay, the
boiler burst, by which accident 48 pigs, chiefly the pro-
perty of poor jobbers, were so dreadfully scalded, as to re-
quire their being killed. One person only, whose duty it
was.to attend the fire, was injured.—Drogheda Journal.
DOVER, Nov. 20.—Arrived his MAJESTY'S
steam-packet the Crusader, Captain HAMILTON, from
Calais, with a number of passengers, amongst whom were
Lord BINGHAM, and the Marquis de LAVALETTE. These
noblemen, after dining at Wiucwr's Hotel, set off for
London. The above packet left this harbour yesterday
morning with the mail, tour carriages, Lord and Lady
SOUTHWELL, Mr: RoTriscnii.o, and a number of other
passengers, and upon arriving in Calais harbour it was
found that she bad been just under two hours and ten
minutes, being the quickest voyage from Dover to France
ever known to have been performed—it blew a strong
breeze at north-west, and the packet in entering Calais
harbour encountered a tremendous sea, which dashed in 17
of the cabin panes, and, notwithstanding her dead lights
were up, the force of the sea drove large quantities of glass
and water into the cabin, but no other injury was sustained.
Sailed his Majesty's packet the Salamander, Captain
KING, with the mail and passengers, for Calais.
TORRINGTON.--On Saturday night last,
about nine o'clock, a farmer in the neighbourhood of Tor-
rington, bearing an ttnnsual rustling noise in an elm-tree
near his door, was induced to examine the cause, and dis-
covered a non who had climbed about fourteen feet from
the ground. What art zeeking voor there then?" quoth
the honest farmer. " God bless you, Zir," was the
answer, " I have missed my road." On descending, the
farmer discovered in the wanderer the person of his day
labourer. It appeared the sight of a fine turkey roosting
in the tree had induced the man to stray from the road to
g
his home, and from the path of honesty. The master
made his toe pay several visits to the breech of the ° ender,
and dismissed him, under a promise to, keep, the road of
rectitude in future.—Nort4 "'CM, Journal,
04 the night 91 Monday or morning of Tues-
day last, the residence of PATON, Esq., in Gower-
street, Bedford. square, was burglariously entered lay thieves,
who succeeded in carrying off, -without detection, plate and
other property of between 2001, and 8004 in value.

LITERATURE.

LETTERS FROM THE WEST.—Lortnort, IS2S.

The great object of the Hon. Judge Hall in
these Letters, which are descriptive of the
Western parts of the United States of America,
is to be delightfully facetious and piquant in his
remarks. He is, however, very unfortunate in
this respect. His humour is the most serious
portion of his volume, and when directed, a it
too frequently is, against what he is pleased to
call the mis-statements of English travellers, in-
jures no one but himself. Next to his attempt
at smartness is his rage for description, which is
of a less equivocal character. But even here he
is guilty of singular absurdities. He gives a
flaming account of the picturesque beauty of the
new town of Pittsburgh, on the banks of the
Ohio, such as would at first sight lead the reader
to conclude that he viewed with a poet's and a
painter's eye the varied charms of nature and
art ; yet when he comes to more minute particu-
lars, he is forced to admit—having previously in-
formed us " Pittsburgh and its vicinity may
proudly challenge comparison in beauty of scenery
and healthfulness of situation"—that its chief
beauty of scenery is composed of a huge un-
couth coal-pit ; and its healthfulness of situation,
of a large proportion of sulphur perpetually ex-
haling from that Avernus.

"But the prospect which the good people of Pittsburgh
consider as most lovely 'to soul and to eye,' is to be found
on the northern face of Coal-hill. The yawning caverns,
which here display their hideous mouths, would have been
celebrated among the ancients as the abodes of unpropitious
deities ; the less classical citizens have peopled them with
spirits of sterner stuff—have made them mines of inex-
haustible wealth, and drawn from them the materials of
substantial comfort. Not only this hill, but the whole
of the surrounding country, is full of coal of excellent
quality, which is found in immense strata, lying almost in-
variably upon one and the same level. It contains a large
proportion of sulphur, and is hard, heavy, and of a deep
shining black colour; it is easily ignited, and produces an
intense heat ; but is very dirty, emits immense volumes of
smoke, and throws up an unusual quantity of cinders and
dust. These latter fill the atmosphere, and are continually
falling in showers, to the great terror of strangers and so-
journers, and with manifest injury to the dresses of the la-
dies, and the white hands of eastern gentlemen. From this
cause, every thing in Pittsburgh wears a sombre hue ;
even the snow as it falls brings with it particles of cinder,
and loses its purity by the connexion. But the people are
now so used to the black and midnight appearance of ob-
jects in their city, as scarcely to be aware of its inconve-
nience; so that I once heard a lady exclaim, on witnessing
a snow storm out of town, 'La! what white snow !' "

These, it must be confessed, are very Ameri-
can notions of the sublime and beautiful. Pitts-
burgh, in fact, is neither more nor less than a
Transatlantic Brentford. On quitting this pic-
turesque city, which but half a century ago was
an immense wilderness, our traveller proceeds
up the Ohio, towards Shawnee Town, and in-
dulgss us with some very agreeable details of the
mode of journeying, and of the scenery with
which he from time to time falls in. In these
cursory descriptions there is much to amuse and
instruct : and were it not for the aninius with
which every thing English is alluded to, they
would be unexceptionable. The following ac-
count of a raft which Mr. Hall met while
journeying towards the Falls of the Ohio is
characteristic, and may remind the reader of a
similar description respecting the Rhine naviga-
tion, in Dr. Granville's late Travels to St.
Petersburgh :
" To-day we passed two large rafts lashed together, by
which simple conveyance several families from New Eng-
land were transporting themselves and their property to the
land of promise in the western woods. Each raft was SO
or 90 feet long, with a small house erected on it; and on
each was a stack of hay, round which several horses and
cows were feeding, while the paraphernalia of a farm-yard,
the ploughs, waggons, pigs, children, and poultry, carelessly
distributed, gave to the whole more the appearance of a
permanent residence, than of a caravan of adventurers
seeking a home. A respectable-looking old lady, with
spectacles on nose; was seated on a chair, at the door of
one of the cabins, employed in knitting ; another female
was at the wash-tub; the men were chewing their tobacco
with as much complacency as if they had been in ' the
land of steady habits,' and the various family avocations
seemed to go on like clock-work. In this manner these
people travel at a slight expence. They bring their own
provisions ; their raft floats with the current ; and honest
Jonathan, surrounded with his scolding, grunting, squall-
ing, and neighing dependants, floats to the point proposed
without leaving his own fire-side ; and on his arrival there,
may step on shore with his house, and commence business,
like a certain grave personage, who, on his marriage with
a rich widow, said he had nothing to do but to walk in
and hang up his hat.' "

The remaining portions of the volume need
little or no comment. They are chiefly made
up of local description, interspersed here and
there, with remarks which indicate more shrewd-
ness than good taste. They add little to our
stock of information, though intended to be
profound. Indeed the only amusing chapter in
the book is that on popular superstitions, to
which, accordingly, we would recommend our
readers to restrict their attention.

TRIALS OF LIFE.-LONDON, 1828.

The very minute acquaintance with the female
heart, more especially of its impassioned feelings,
that pervades these volumes, leads us to con-
clude that they are the work of a female pen.—
There is a strain of effeminacy throughout
them—a lingering upon subjects where the sen-
timent is more to be admired than the judgment,
that few male pens could have rendered even
tolerable to the reader. But, mark the grace
of the female mind, it lightly touches on almost
interdicted subjects, and they lose their repul-
sive character. We do not go so far as to assert
that the moral to be inferred from these agree-
able volumes is altogether to be deprecated, but
that it is thrown rather too much in the shade,
and does not (to borrow a phrase from the pallet)
stand sufficiently out in the foreground. As far as
regards character, the " Trials a Life" are in
no respect deficient. There is, in fact, a rich-
ness of invention about them that betokens
strong creative faculty. Mrs. iViontressor, in
the first (and by no means the best)
tale, en-
titled " Lord Amesfort's Family," is a very
prettily conceived sketch. As a specimen of the
style—which, by the bye, is remarkably easy and
fluent—we
conscience-stricken wife :
give the following description uf A

" If the wounded feelings of Adolehtlll4leptuessor stung
him to madness, or crusher despair, she who had
shared in his wAttderims ‘vas scarce less deserving of con;
passion, The shock, the separation, the terror which her
hnskand'a presence inspired her with, were too much for a
mind fevered by passion and exhausted with grief. Some-
times she struggled against the. imbecile torpor that hung
upon her ; sornetiims sbe WOE retuge, leer mental and
bodily weakness, from tb,esbup pangs of reflection ; some-
times she fbrgot the cause of her grief, and was conscious
only of some indefinite, restless pain,—some vague, con-
fused notion of unexpiated guilt, which her mind was not
clear enough to investigate, nor strong enough to Wbake. off

By degrees her memory recovered its' power, her under-
standing its tone. She awoke, by a slow and painful pro-
cess, to the full knowledge of her situation ; and as soon as
she could reason on any thing, or feel for any body but
herself, her astonishment at her husband's conduct knew
no bounds. She could not suppose he would forgive her,
—that he could ever care for her : she looked upon the
absence of her child as a punishment, and refrained from
asking about him.
" She wondered what could be Lord Amesfort's reason
for saving her so anxiously from a grave, where alone she
felt her shame and sorrows could be concealed. She some-

time 3 thought he must have some refined plan of vengeance
to be executed in time, and almost wished she might have
some outward suffering as well as' the inward one that
consumed her. In his presence, she felt like the malefac-
tor before his judges ; and the respite was harder to bear
than could be the punishment ; yet, as her mind recovered
its vigour, she lost the nervous dread that made her shrink
from his very step as though it was the harbinger of death,
and would gaze fearlessly on him, labouring to comprehend
a gentleness so unnatural. His consistency puzzled her.
He was neither stern nor affectionate ; but cold and vigi-
lant, as if he performed a task in watching over her, for
which he was accountable to some one. They never re-
mained long any where ; and the carriage, in which she
travelled alone with her maid, was arranged with the care
and attention to her comfort necessary to an invalid."

Our very circumscribed limits prevent us
entering into detail on the subject of the plot of
the different tales which make up the " Trials of
Life :" we must, therefore, dismiss them with
this brief comment, that to the lovers of senti-
ment and description, they will furnish a rich fund
of amusement.