The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-03 00:00:00

FRASER'S MAGAZINE.

Like every one else who has ever bestowed a
thought on the subject, Fraser—Tory as he is—ex-
presses, in no measured terms, his astonishment at
the grossly inconsistent conduct recently pursued by
the House of Commons on the Factory question.
" Something is required," he says, " to preserve for
the House any share, however small, of public respect
and public confidence. A few more such exhibitions
of pliability to the Minister's will, as have lately
come before us, cannot fail of bringing the repre-
sentative system into contempt. Unless it be Sir
Robert Peel's intention, not merely to lord it over the
House of Commons, but to show to the whole world
that he does so, it will be advisable not to repeat the
Comedy of Errors, on which the whole world has
recently gazed with wonder." It will be advisable
certainly that such a comedy should not be repeated
in St. Stephen's, but it will be so, just as often as the
Premier may choose to issue his despotic mandate to
that effect. Should he, for instance, insist on the
Conservative party stultifying itself on the subject of
the Corn-laws, no doubt that obsequious squad will
obey him, without so much as a whisper of remon-
strance, and support the very measures to which it
has so long been inveterately opposed. There is
nothing too difficult of digestion for a Conservative.
He can swallow any nostrum, no matter how unpa-
latable, provided it be presented to him by the hands
of the Prime Minister. "An Episode in the Times
of Phillip the Fifth of Spain," is a story told with
spirit, especially as respects the denouement, which is
very skilfully wrought out. " Animal Magnetism" de-
votes fir too much space and attention to one of the most
notorious quackeries of the day. " The Picture-
Galleries" is a series of con amore criticisms by Tit-
marsh on the principal paintings in the Exhibition,
and the Suffolk-street Gallery. The critic scarcely
does justice to Mr. Haydon's picture of Napoleon
musing at St. Helena, which is a very striking pro-
duction, and remarkable for its extreme simplicity.
In the course of some comments on the " Oxford
Professors of Poetry," the author mentions some
severe strictures of Southey on Dryden, to the effect
that he was among the second-rate poets, and that in-
stead of " amending ages to come, he was the pimp
and pander of his own." Dryden was certainly far
from immaculate in his public conduct, but his faults
were chiefly those of the age in which he lived, which
more or less has a direct influence on us all. It should
be borne in mind, too, that if he was a servile flat-
terer in his dedications, it was poverty only that
made him tso—that gaunt, malignant Fiend which
tames the boldest spirits, and bows to earth the most
soaring natures. As a poet, so far is Dryden from
being—as Southey would intimate—among the second
rates, that he is foremost among the great geniuses of
his country, nor can our language show two produc-
tions more perfect of their kind than his " Absalom
and Achitophel," and his " Theodore and Honoria."
We subjoin the opening passage of an article on the
" Red Indians "—who are still, we believe, resident
in the metropolis—chiefly for the sake of the diverting
anecdote with which it is introduced :
" There is a story told of the late Dick Martin, which
occurred forcibly to ray mind when I paid my first visit
to the Ojibbeways. Dick, being at Greenwich fair, was
led by a very superfluous curiosity upon the part of the
king in Connemara, to enter a booth, whose proprietor
professed to exhibit a wild raan !' There, assuredly,
lie saw a very wild-looking individual, with his head and
face covered with a profusion of red, shaggy hair, a
regular glib, nearly naked, and with a chain about his
waist. But Mr. Martin, upon observing that the savage
seemed to display towards him some uncouth and uneasy
signs of recognition, was induced to examine him more
closely, and the result was that he recognised in the
' wild man' one of his own tenants, and shouted out,
with ail the indignation becoming a legislator in favour
of animals, Why, then, Flaherty, you blackguard of
the world, what is it you're about there, at all—at all ;
making a beast of yourself entirely—entirely ?" Earn-
ing the rent for your honour !' was Mr. Flaherty's pro-
pitiatory and, to an Irish landlord, unanswerable reply.
!low, really, when I first gazed on these Indians, an im-
pression, almost amounting to conviction, took posses-
sion of my mind, to the effect that the chiefs, braves,
squaws, and child before me, were neither more nor less
than a party of the finest peasantry on the face of the
earth' (as Mr. O'Connell calls them), who were em-
ployed in earning the rent for some flinty-heared Sasse-
nach landlord. As to the features of the strangers,
their resemblance to those of the Celtic Irish was most
exact, most perfect. Take half-a-dozen of the denizens
of St. Giles's, and a couple of Hibernian basket-women
from Covent-garden market, paint them, and decorate
them with skins, and scalps, and claws, and feathers,
and, for all matters of appearance, to a casual observer,
they would be as good Indians as if they had been im-
ported hither from the eastern shores of Lake Huron.
And as to the dancing, singing, shouting, drum-beating,
tomahawk-twirling, and club-brandishing, they could
be taught it all in a week. On examining the Ojibbe-
svays more narrowly, however, I discovered certain
marks which distinguished them from the Celtic Irish,
and satisfied me they were not impostors, but real Red
Indians. First, they had those small and delicately
moulded hands and feet which the Celtic multitude, in
Ireland, at least, can never generate ; and, secondly, the
muscles of the arm were so slightly developed as to show
that they never had been, at any period of their lives,
engaged in the practice of manual labour. This clearly
proved tlhat they were not the indigenous offspring of the
island of saints, though, if some antiquaries be correct,
they may boast a common origin, namely, from the
Jewish nation, and this would account for the precise
similarity in the cast and style of the features, and con-
tour of countenance. Having now dismissed all scruples
about the authenticity of the performers, I set shout con-
sidering them curiously. The men were sufficiently clean
built, but not tall or muscular, nor, apparently, either,
very strong or very active. Strip them of their weapons,
and Deaf Burke would double-up' the six of them in
three minutes. Give them their war-clubs only, and one
Anglo-Irish Tipperary boy would make short work of
them with his blackthorn stick."

ILLUMINATED MAGAZINE.
Mr. Jerrold's " Chronicles of Clovernook." which,
though somewhat too vague and desultory in their
character, abound in point and brilliancy, and exhibit
here and there thoughts pregnant with meaning, will
be more attractive to the generality of readers this
month than they have yet been, for they detail the
history of a young man of genius, who is visited
one evening in his lonely garret by no less
distinguished a personage than the Devil, dressed,
of course, in a full suit of mourning. This visit
gives the author an opportunity of venting
divers apt sarcasms against the hypocritical cant
of those who, when they fall into sin, attribute
their backslidings to the instigations of the Devil, in-
stead of to the promptings of their own evil nature.
The object of Satan's visit to the youth of ge-
nius, is to request him to write his memoirs in
a kindly and forbearing spirit, which, however, the
young man declines doing, partly from conscientious
motives, and partly because the Evil One has been
fool enough to pay him for the task beforehand. The
conversation that takes place between this amiable
couple is of the most pungent and diverting charac.
ter possible, especially in those places where it glances
at the conventional notions and practices of, what
is called, respectable society. " A Defence for Poets"
is contained in five small poems, grezefully versified,
and in which occurs this just and impressivo thought :
" The heart's religion is its poesy." In the article en-
titled "Bowie-knives," the author describes the particu-
lass of a most murderous single combat that took place a
year or two since in America between a Georgian doctor
and a Missouri farmer, in consequence of a political
dispute, which ended in the death of the latter, under
circumstances Of inconceivable atrocity. "A Parting
Clikimpae of St. Giles's" is a graphic sketch of the in.-
terior of this distibguished locality, which, it seems,
will soon be numbered among the things that
once were—Tcs
fuit! The illustration prefixed
to this article is
full of spirit, but indeed all the plates
in the number are of a superior character. We quote
from the " Chronicles of Clovernook," the young
genius's account of the earlier portion of his carer :
" My p9rents let me follow my own will, which, at a
very early age, developed itself towards doing uething.

And, indeed, throughout my life, that, my first bent, has
ever directed me. My brothers, who were so very
stupid, and therefore fit for nothing, were early placed in
the world, and indicated the truth of the parental opinion, ,
by making their fortunes. They were dull blockheads,
according to my father, and so became men of wealth
and intiuence by the very force of their insensibility.
Now I, who was brimfull of genius, was to do every-
thing by some extraordinary hocus pocus dreamt of by
my parents, but of which I, indeed, had not the remotest
knowledge. Leave Jack alone,' would still be my
father's cry, ' he'll make his way in the world—how can
it be otherwise ?he has such wit Well, after spend-
ing my little patrimony—and in its happy mode of out-
lay I may be permitted to observe I showed a genius for
ten thousand a year—and after losing some twelvemonth
or two at bo-peep with bailiffs, you will judge of my
destitution when I tell you that I found myself reduced
to pen and ink. Oh, my friends! there is a condition
for the human animal. Consider the outcast. The
maker of matches has a business ; nay, he is the pos-
sessor of a mystery. When he has made his matches.
there they are—tangible wood and brimstone ; their
merits open to the eye of cook and housemaid. Con-
scious of the excellence of his ware, the matchmaker
may higgle gallantly for his price ; matches are things
wanted in the commerce of life ; it is no difficult task to
recommend their utility to the world, alive as it is to the
worth of firelight. But books! their worth is a matter
of fancy, say of weakness, to the weaker part of man-
kind ; they have no standard value, none, at their birth.
Hence, the unknown maker of a book—l speak especi-
ally of the time when I first sinned in ink—is a sort of
gipsy in the social scale ; a picturesque vagabond, who
somehow or the other contrives to live on the sunny
side of the statutes, but is nevertheless vehemently sus-
pected of all sorts of larceny by respectable householders.
Shall I ever forget the uneasiness, the look of distrust
from my landlady, when first the alarming truth fell
upon her, that her three-pair room sheltered an author
—or rather, an author in the shell, for as then I had
hatched nothing, but was only sitting upon foolscap ?
Good soul! in a flutter of concern, she told me that that
very room had been tenanted, for three long years, by an
honest journeyman tailor, whose rent was regular as the
Saturday ; she looked at me from head to heel, and said
she hoped that all was right; though I could perceive
that she spoke in the very forlornness of the feeling.
And, after all, the woman had truth upon her side. Her
tenant tailor had an allowed business; was a recognised
necessity by fallen man; was moreover one of a worship-
ful guild; an artificer whose cunning administered to
human pride; whose handiwork was all-in .all to worldly
triumphs. For instance, what would be a coronation
without a tailor? What would be man, left to nothing
more than sheepskins and parrots' plumes? Hence, the
woman, in her strong sense of the decencies of life, ac-
knowledged the vital use of the labourer of the needle;
hence, when she learned that I only dealt in pen and
ink, she looked upon me as a sort of vagabond conjuror;
a white wizard, whose very money—if ever she saw it—
might be of doubtful origin. Shillings got out of an
inkstand, she could hardly look upon as good mint coin:
and for this reason she could not comprehend how any
man, by mere pen, ink, and paper, could give value re-
ceived for the ready cash. Now the tailor's work was
plain: a pair of breeches was a tangible thing; and
spoke as it were common sense to the common sense of
man and womankind. But authorship! Alas! how small
to the breeches was a tale in verse !"

THE SCOTT MONUMENT.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
" Exegit monumentum mre perennius."
Sin,—l regret to learn from the Committee that there is
still a deficit, in the sum required to finish Sir Walter Scott's
monument, of something less than 1,0001. This ought not
to be. The structure has been for a considerable time in
progress, but its completion is delayed for want of sufficient
funds. It is a sad reflection that, after a lapse of nearly
twelve years from the decease of this illustrious man, the
structure is still unfinished. Without wishing to cast any
reflections on the nobility and gentry of the " Modem
Athens," I really think they have been somewhat dilatory,
and have meted him out but tardy justice in offering up their
tribute of admiration at the shrine of his genius. They
ought most decidedly to have led the van. Let it be remem-
bered that it was his birth-place, where the first dawning
of his genius clivlayed itself as a tale-teller, when the ap-
plause of his companions was his recompense for disgrace and
punishment. It was his chief residence during his life for a
certain part of the year, where he underwent the toil and
drudgery of the law, and where he frequently
" Penn'd a stanza, when he should engross?'
It was the place where many of his poetical pieces were
written, and not a few of that splendid file of historical fic-
tions iat have conferred on all the monuments of his coun-
try a more than classic immortality. He has celebrated their
city in more than one of his poems and romances, and has
made it the chief scene of one of the finest of his fictions in
the " Tales of my Landlord—The Heart of Mid-Lothian."
He also designates it the " Queen of the North ;" and in that
beautiful apostrophe, in canto iv., stanza 30, of " Marmion,"
he exclaims with_enthusiasm—

" Mine own romantic town !"

From these associations alone, the " Modern Athenians "
owe him a deep debt of gratitude, which, as I before observed,
they have been rather tardy in acknowledging, and I should
have thought that a much larger sum might have been sub-
scribed con amore in a much shorter space of time. The
capital of the West exhibited a promptitude worthy of a
great commercial city, a statue having been erected to his
memory many years ago in Glasgow, which he has for ever
celebrated in his " Rob Roy." It is not my intention to
enter into a dissertation on the merits of the author of
" Waverley," either as a poet or a novelist; but as one who is
sensible of the great benefits which his works have conferred
on Scotland at large, I cannot refrain from offering my
humble tribute of admiration to the Northern Magician. I
earnestly hope that the admirers of Scott, now in Edina, who
have not yet contributed, will exonerate themselves from the
stigma of tardiness by immediately subscribing towards the
completion of this National Monument to his memory.
Your most obedient servant,
C. P. J.

5, Westmoreland-street, Portland-place, May 29.

THE ITALIAN OPERA.

Il Barbiere de Sivigla was repeated on Saturday night
to a house equally crowded as on the Thursday, but still
more fashionably filled than on that occasion. The other
entertainments were La Vivandiere and the ballet of
Alma ; the former interposed between the acts of the
opera. The audience sat out both, and remained until
the termination of the performances.
Among the distinguished personages present were—
The Queen Dowager, attended by Earl Howe ; the Duke
and Duchess of Cambridge, attended by Baron Knese-
beck and Col. Stevenson ; the Duchess of Gloucester;
the Dukes of Leeds and Montrose ; the Duchesses of
Leeds and Montrose ; the Marquises of Ailesbury and
Huntly ; the Marchionesses of Ailesbury, Conyngham,
and Wellesley ; Earls Shelburne and Pembroke ; Coun-
tesses of Westmeath, Sefton, and Glengall ; Viscounts
Castlereagh and Ranelagh ; Count Esterhazy ; Lords
Trimlestone, Kenmare, Emlyn, Altamont, and Sandys ;
Ladies Trimlestone, Kenmare, Joddrell, Wombwell, E.
Thynne, Eleanor Balfour, Shuckburgh, and Seymour ;
Sirs P. Joddrell, Loftus, Otway, C. Kent, Robert Wilmot
Horton, A. Clifton, H. Webb. H. Meux, and H. Wil-
loughby ; Honourables Mr. Yorke, Mrs. Yorke, Mrs.
Dawson Darner, Mr. Baring, Mr. Standish, Mr. Vord, &c.