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

AINSWORTH'S MAGAZINE.

The best paper in the present Number of Ains-
worth is a feeling tribute to the powers and many
estimable qualities of the late Mr. Laman Blanchard;
many extracts from his numerous essays are given,
among them, like a gem in a rich setting, a part of
one of his poems, " The Eloquent Pastor Dead,"
some verses of which, though our readers may re-
member them, they will not object to perusing again ;
they are, says the writer of the article, singularly
descriptive of the amiable poet and essayist himself:—
" Oh, mourn not ! yet remember what has been—
How buoyantly he trod this troubled scene,
The pathways of his spirit always green!
" He taught the cheerfulness that still is ours,
The sweetness that still lurks in human powers;—
If heaven be full of stars, the earth has flowers!

" His was the searching thought, the glowing mind ;
The gentle will to others' soon resign'd •
But more than all, the feeling just and kind.

" His pleasures were as melodies from reeds—
Sweet books, deep music, and unselfish deeds,
Finding immortal flowers in human weeds.
* * * * * *

" His thoughts were as a pyramid up-piled,
On whose far top an angel stood and smiled—
Yet, in his heart, was he a simple child."
Mr. Ainsworth's " Revelations of London, proceeds—
we wish we could say with increasing effect; but the
introduction of Rosiorucians and the elixir of life,
undying men, and compacts with fiends, into a
framework of the everyday life of London, is not cal-
culated to take a strong hold of the reader. It has
all been done before besides ; for instance, the opening
of the tomb of the Rosicrucian in the old house at
Stepney in this Number, is almost a repetition of the
passage in the " Lay of the Last Minstrel," where
William of Deloraine takes the "Book of Might"
from the tomb of Michael Scott. The article on
Townsend, the officer, by the author of " Mornings
in Bow-street," is amusing. The man was an
original, and a great character in his way; the paper
makes us at once wish to know more of its hero, and
see something from its author more frequently. The
mingled fun and pathos of those "Mornings in Bow-
street" still dwell in the memories of many.
The " D'Orsay Gallery " is a descriptive
paper: of the productions of the pencil of Count
D'Orsay, who, in the absorbing idleness of high life,
has found time to prove to the world that he has
talents that might have won him a high place in the
list of painters, had fortune compelled him to be a
follower of the arts instead of making him a leader
of fashion. A.s a specimen of his skill, a portrait of
Mr. Ainsworth, by the Count, is given, and is worth
whole pages of description or eulogy. Many of the
other papers are very readable, and the Number is al-
togother an exceedingly good one.

TAIT'S MAGAZINE.
The article on " The Correspondence of Edmund
Burke" is in every respect excellent. It gives, with-
out pretensions, a graphic description of his active
and varied life, his political connexions, his change of
politics (if his marked detestation of the horrors of
the French Revolution deserve the name), the neglect
with which he was treated by a party that he had
long served faithfully and effectually, the comparative
solitude and gloom in which he was left in the decline
of life, and the melancholy sufferings which closed a
life embittered tit last, beyond endurance, by the
death of a brother and a son to whom he was ardently
attached. Impartiality, truth, and kindness are the
principal features in the picture here given of this
beautiful writer and splendid orator. His faults and
frailties are not extenuated, but they are pcurtrayed
as if by the hand of a friend—his great qualities, his
eloquence, varied information, industry, and genius,
though incidentally mentioned, are placed in full
view ; and the reflections on his death are expressed
in glowing language, and bear all the marks of sin-
cere conviction. After quoting a letter addressed to
Burke on his death- bed, by the daughter-in-law of
the venerable Quaker at whose school he had received
his early education, the last, or among the last, which
ne received, the writer thus concludes :—" And so
Edmund Burke sank to his long sleep—the innocent
memories of childhood hovering round his pillow, the
blessing of pious friendship resting upon his head.
The overworked heart, whose beatings literally
destroyed it, had ceased to beat at last. The worn-
out body was deposited in that quiet village church,
where the beloved son and brother lay already, and
where, many years afterwards, the aged widow was to
lie down beside her own. There, too, lay buried the
distrusts and animosities, the disappointments and
regrets ; there lay buried all of sorrow and of suffer-
ing, which, imparted by birth to the human spirit,
the cold hand of death wipes away. On earth, nought
survived but the name of the dead, and the works
which have made that name immortal: the name of a
man who sometimes erred in thought, and often
sinned in feeling and in act, but who yet was wise,
and good, and great; works which, in spite of
grievous faults, are among the noblest monuments
ever created in the arts of thinking and of commu-
nication."

The article is long, extending to seventeen pages ;
but, with the judicious remarks of the reviewer and
the extracts from his letters, is full of interest ; and
we may, therefore, be excused for giving the follow-
ing additional extract, as it displays at once the in-
dependence and sincerity of his political opinions,
and the deep interest which he took in the sufferings
of his persecuted countrymen :-
9 He obeyed the Ministry in nothing: ho would not
even agree with them, unless when they chose to obey
him. He resisted them steutly, even in their policy with
regard to the events which alone drew him and them to-
gether. He differed from them diametrically as to the
conduct of that unlucky war, which he, like them
held to(anhde
much more decidedly than their leader, Pitt),
`just and necessary.' Ho remonstrated against
if en e
thehle pam measuresphlet pswr
hi vi ac
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se
hn
eodu np,cf
we dr them m their
publicly
retirement
from parliament. Never was Ministry plagued with
such a partisan. Or rather, toexpreshsytshuech nrealatiaolnlytoarire
correctly, never was party perplexed
ally too powerful not to be courted, yet too thoroughly
unmanageable to be efficiently used. Nor was this all.
There was one great question, upon which his head and
heart were alike sound to the very last. To Ireland his
affection was always true. In regard to the treatment of
Ireland, his indignation never waxed cold:—the genuine
remedies for the evils of Ireland were always clearly and
steadily present to his view, It is consolatory to be able
to close the survey of his agitated career with a notice
of events in which his enlightened patriotism shone out
with steady brightness, and in which an honourable part
was borne by one who was dearer to him than fame or
life."

There is another rather long article giving numerous ex-
tracts from recent novels on the Condition-of-Ireland
question, which are descriptive of the habits of the
people, and the state of the country, and one entitled
" Opinions of the Germans on the Scottish Church