The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-21 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

MRS. HALL'S IRELAND, No. XXVL
How, London, 1842.
The present is a double Number, and contains
—in addition to two excellent maps of the
counties of Donegal and Mayo—views of that
romantic locality entitled the Kelleries, in Gal-
way ; and of Achill, a large, wild, thinly-
peopled island, lying a mile or two off the Irish
coast of Mayo. This last view is very carefully
finished off, even down to its minutest details ;
and the group in the mountain foreground,
consisting of a sportsman, and a pretty-looking,
bare-legged peasant-girl, who is leaning with a
free and easy air against a little white, shaggy
pony, produces a very pleasing, and picturesque
effect. The work, we understand, will be com-
pleted in one more Number. •

DUBLIN REVIEW, No. XXVI.
Dolman, London, 1842.
The chief defect of the Number before us—a
defect, by which this Review has been charac-
terised almost ever since its first establishment
—is the general tediousness and want of spirit
and variety of its articles. True, they contain
infbrmation, and of no uninteresting nature, but
this information is put forth in so tame and life-
less a manner, that it loses at least half its value.
This is particularly the case with the notice of
" Faber's Foreign Churches," which it is quite a
task to read, though it is by no means wanting
n a certain sort of knowledge, compounded in
learly equal proportions, of theology and his-
. The review of "Palmer's Letters to Wise-
.tin" is another heavy article; but as it is on a
subject in which many people are interested just
now—namely, Catholicism, it will,we suppose, find
attentive readers. " Spain and her Resources,"
speaks of Mr. Prescott's account of the reign of
Ferdinand and Isabella in just such terms as
that eloquent and impartial history deserves. In
the course of his notice, the Reviewer gives a
brief, intelligent, biographical sketch of the
famous Cardinal Ximenes—one of the most illus-
trious statesmen that Spain ever produced, and
whose whole chequered career is a romance of
the wildest character. In an article, headed
" Depopulation, Fixity of Tenure," the Reviewer
gives the following anecdote :—" The Right Hon.
J. W. Croker, who is generally considered one
of the principal conductors of the Quarterly, and
whom, from his long absence from Ireland, we
may now set down as an English Conservative,
when first he came to London, wrote a work on
the condition of the Irish peasantry, which a
literary friend once declared to us was the best,
most vigorous, and most scathing exposure of the
iniquities of the Irish landlords that he had ever
read. It was soon withdrawn, and we have never
been able to get a copy." The remaining articles
are of average merit.

:ury

The Cheltenham stag-hounds, on Tuesday, had a
narrow escape of adding another item to the long cata-
logue of " dreadful railway accidents." The meet
had been the Rising Sun, and the stag having given
its pursuers a smart run thence in a circuit round
the town, crossed the railroad near Badgeworth, just
as one of the Gloucester trains came up. The fore-
most dog was instantly crushed beneath the carriages,
and had the train been a few seconds later, the whole
of the pack must have shared the same fate, as the
hounds were at the moment coming full speed down
the bank, but the engine being at full speed also, the
train had passed before they crossed in pursuit, fol-
lowed by such of the field as were up at the time.
The stag was captured all safe at Badgeworth.—
Cheltenham Looker-on.

MEDICAL PRIVILEGES.—A paragraph, which ori-
ginated, we believe, with the Globe, recently appeared
in our columns, to the effect, " that degrees in medi-
cine, or diplomas in surgery, of Scotch Universities
or Colleges confer no privileges out of Scotland, do
not qualify to hold medical or surgical appointments
under the New Poor-law Act—the Militia or Prison
Acts of Parliament." We have since referred to the
Prisons Act, 4 George IV., c. 64, and we find by the
33d section that the latter statement is wholly untrue.
We are inclined to believe that the statement relative
to the Militia must be also untrue—for no such regu-
lation exists in the army, the navy, or in the East
India Company's service, in which medical men with
Scotch degrees or diplomas stand on the same footing
as English. The Globe added " the Poor-law Com-
missioners have recently dismissed all those who hold
Scotch diplomas from their offices under them as un-
qualified." We are enabled to give a decided contra-
diction to this, and we believe not a single dismissal
has taken place.— Gloucestershire Chronicle.
DEAN PARK, NEAR WANSFORD.—The Earl and
Countess of Cardigan have been receiving .a succession
of visitors, including Lord George Paget, Lord Maid-
stone, Hon. Col. Anson, Mr. De Burgh and Mrs. De
Burgh, and some of the leading members of the Mel-
ton Mowbray Hunt, who have formed the circle.
DESTRUCTION OF Fism—The slaughter of salmon
in the Teviot and its tributaries has been, and is still,
carried on to a disgraceful extent, hundreds of fish
being taken daily, and that without the smallest hind-
rance being offered.—Kelso Mail.
BUEGIILEY HOUSE, NEAR STAAIFORD.—The Mar-
quis end Marchioness of Exeter are entertaining a dis-
tinguished circle. There was to be a grand ball at
the Assembly Rooms, Stamford, last night, under the
auspices of the Marquis of Exeter, Marquis ofGranby,
M.P., Earl of Lindsey, Hon. Colonel Lowther, M.P.,
and Lady Eleanor Lowther, Sir J. Trollope, Bart„
M.P., and Lady Trollope, Dowager Countess of
Lindsey, &c.
VELOCITY or SOUND.—In a still night, the voices
of the workmen at the distillery at Battersea may be
heard at Westminster-bridge, an interval of three
miles. The watch,-word at Portsmouth, it is said, can
be heard at Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, a distance of
four or five miles. The echo in Woodstock-park is
repeatedseventeen times by day and twenty by night.
The artillery, at the siege of Genoa by the French,
was heard at Leghorn, a distance of ninety miles.
The firing at the battle of Waterloo was heard at
Dover, at a distance, in a direct line, of 140 miles, of
which 110 were over land, and the remainder over -
water.—F. Winslow's Health of Body and Mind.