The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-25 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

LIFE OF ADMIRAL VISCOUNT KEPPEL.
Vols. Colbzwn, London, 1842.
To the friends and connections of the Keppe
family, this biographical account of one of their
ancestors will prove interesting enough ; but the
public generally will, we apprehend, care little about
it, for as a naval commander Viscount Keppel was by
no means distinguished. for any very remarkable
abilities—notwithstanding the splendid panegyric on
him which Burke has left on record, in his celebrated
"Letter to Two Noble Lords,"—and as for his once
notorious squabble with Sir Hugh Palliser, it-has
long since been forgotten, together with many of the
other party strifes of the day. But, besides its want of
general interest as a biography, this work is stuffed
full of official documents which, whatever may be their
importance in the eyes of professional men; have, as
regards the public, no more value than a Turnpike
Act, and are Just bout as entertaining. The subject
of the. Memoir, who was descended from an illus-
trious Dutch family that came over to England in the
train of Wiliam the Third, was the second son of the
second Earl of Albemarle, and was born in the year
1725. At the early age of ten he quitted West-
minster School, to enter as midshipman on bo9.rd the
Oxford frigate, and passed three years in the Medi-
terranean, during which period he applied to his pro-
fessional studies with uncommon zeal and as-
siduity. In 17.40 be was appointed to the Centurion,
commanded by Commodore, afterwards Lord, Anson,
which was destined, with its accompanying squadron,
for a secret expedition against the Spanish settlements
on the western coast of America. The young mid-
shipman thui shared in the hardships and dangers of
that celebrated voyage, " which for its inauspicious
commencement," observes the biographer, " its
strange, protracted diasters, and its final success, is
perhaps without a parallel in the annals of any
coUntrY," On his return from this memorable ex-
pedition, Keppel, after duly passing through the in-
tervening grades, was in 1745 appointed Post-Cap-
tain, and advanced to the command of the Sapphire,
a frigate of
forty gi;_ns, in which he made several
successful cruizes. In tlit lowing year he received
his commission for the Maidstone, a ship of fifty
guns, which was unfortunately wide:zed off the Isle
of Nounnontier, and its commander and crew sent
prisoners to Nantes, in Brittany ; at the expiration
of five weeks, however, the former returned to Eng-
land on his parole, where he was tried by a court-
martial for the loss of his ship, and acquitted, and
soon afterwards appointed to the Anson. In 1749
Keppel was entrusted with a diplomatic mission to
the States of Barbary, and promoted to the chief
command in the Mediterranean, with the rank of
Commodore, The same year he sailed with his
squadron to Algiers, and had an interview with the
Dey, who—we quote the biographer's words—
" Surprised at the boldness of his remonstrances, and
enraged at his demand for justice, and despising also his
apparent youth, for he was then only four-and-twenty,
exclaimed that he wondered at the insolence of the
King of Great Britain, in. sending him an insignificant,
beardless boy. On this the youthful, but spirited Com-
modore replied, ' Had my master supposed that wisdom
was measured by the length of the beard, he would have
sent your Deyship a he-goat' The tyrant, unused to I
such language from the sycophants of his own Court,
was so enraged that he ordered his mutes to advance. ith
the bow-string, at the same time telling the Commodore
that he should pay for his audacity with his life.
The Commodore listened to this menace with the utmost
calmness ; and being near to a window which looked
Out upon the bay, directed the attention of the African
Chief to the squadron there at anchor, telling him that
if it was his pleasure to put him to death, there were
Englishmen enough on board to make him a glorious fu-
neral pile. The Dey cooled a little at this hint, and was
wise enough to permit the Commodore to depart in
safety I"
About the time that the unfortunate Admiral Byng
was appointed to the Anditerranean fleet, Keppel was
dispatched there with a squadron, and captured three
French ships off Cape Finisterre. In 1757, while en-
gaged on a detached cruise, with the Medway, he had
the good luck to take a rich prize laden with provi-
sions and stores for Louisbourg. He afterwards, in
1762, assisted at the capture of the Havannah, and
took a fleet of West Indiamen, in consequence of
which he was promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral.
His next appointment was to the Command-in-Chief
'of the Channel Fleet, which is rendered memorable
by nothing but his quarrel with Sir Hugh Pal-
liser, whom he accused of disobeying signals, when
the English ships, were engaged in chasing the French,
and. bringing them to action off Brest. The dispute
between these two Commanders_ occasioned consider-
able ferment at the time, and the result was, the trial
of Admiral Keppel by a Court-martial at Ports-
mouth, and his triumphant acquittal. Shortly
afterwards he struck his flag, and in 1782, was
promoted to . the peerage by the title of Viscount
Keppel and 'Baron Elden, and appointed First Lord
of the Admiralty, during the • Rockingham Admi-
nistration. Aft' & the breaking up of the famous
CoilitiOn Ministry, he withdrew entirely from public
life, and died in 1786, in the sixty-third year of his
age. In politics Viscount Keppel was a staunch

Whig, and being possessed of many amiable qualities."
was warmly loved by his friends, and generally popu-•
lar with-the country. We subjoin a sketch of his
character; as drawn by his biographer, the Hou. and.
Rev. Thomas Keppel:—
" The epithet little' fondly given by the sailors to
Kenpel, denotes him to have been low of stature. In Wis
early manhood, a blow received from the butt-end of.
pistol, in a scuffle with foot-pads, fractured the bridge :
his nose. His face, by this accident, was seriously : Lai I
permanently disfigures; yet the fascination of his an lac,
and the lively and benevolent expression of his eyes, re-
deemed the countenance from extreme plainness. the
hereditary charm.' of his demeanour has been ni en-
tioned already. It combined a professional honesty and
frankness with the ease and simplicity. of address wh
if not altogether acquired, are certainly confirmed end
perfected' by intercourse with the best society. Elis
popularity with all classes appeared not only at his ti ial,
but in the esteem with which both those under whom .h
served, and those whom he commanded at all times re,
'garded him ; in the zealous affection of his friends, and
in the enforced respect of his political opponents.
" The political opinions of Keppel were inherited from
ancestors who for centuries had been citizens of a free
state, and whose descendants shared in our own revolut—
don of 1688. Reason. and experience confirmed theses
sentiments in him ;and he was, throughout his life, the%
steady and fearless supporter of civil and religious fret —4
dom, even when au opposite course, or neutrality alon'
would have smoo'zhed and accelerated his profession al
advancemeat. His darling object was, active emplo;
ment; yet, when required to serve against his unrepr,
sented Bret hren on the opposite shores of the Atlanti.
Keppel cce irted neglect and misrepresentation rathe rt-
than lend his services to a cause which his feelings and_
his principles equally disapproved."

POEMS CHIEFLY OF EARLY AND LATE

YEARS. By 11'. IVOBD S WORTH.
Moxon, London, 1842.

To calm an d contemplative natures, such as love to
speculate on humanity in a philosophic spirit, keeping
aloof from the stir and turmoil of the crowd, the
poems of Wordsworth will afford a never-failing
source of deligLt, for none are better calculated to
nourish, quicken, and open up new veins of thought;
none are more fully informed with sentiment, or sug-
gest more striking and original reflections on the
homely, familiar co mmon-places of life. But to
readers of a shrewd, knowing, worldly turn of mind
they will afford little satisfaction. Such people, who aro
necessarily more conversant with the material, than the
spiritual, part of our common nature ; whose tastes and
habits prevent them from going out of themselves, as it
were, or thinking deeply on any subjects but such as
appeal to their own self-interests, or lie in their ordi-
nary course of study, will be sure to misinterpret
the spirit of Wordsworth's poetry; to discover nothing
but insipidity in his repose, and nothing but weak-
ness in his strength, because that strength is unac-
companied by the spasm and convulsion which they
have been accustomed to regard as energy. Mr.
Wordsworth, who is strict even to austerity in his
poetic notions, sternly rejects all the trickery of his
art; he deals in no sounding common-places on
popular themes ; avoids everything in the shape of
tawdry, rhetorical diction ; is sparing of imagery ;
and so careful, and even fastidious, in the choice of
epithets, as to select n one but such as shall tend di-
rectly to throw light upon the thought which he wishes
to develope. Thus in describing the aspect of the
clouds at sunset, when a storm is passing off, which
gives him the idea of magnificent castles and
palaces piled up confusedly in air, he speaks
of their restless battlements," which, it will be
observed, is the epithet of all others best fitted
to convey the notion of the quick shiftings and chang-
ings of !.the clouds. Again, in his sonnet written at
Abbotsford on a summer evening, when Sir Walter
Scott's death was hourly expected, he alludes to " the
setting sun's pathetic light"—an expression exquisitely
beautiful and appropriate, and which we admire the
more, because we entertain a notion, amounting to
all the force of a moral conviction, that it is beyond
Mr. Wakley's comprehension. Those who desire to
get an insight into the true character of Wordsworth's
genius, twill do well to peruse with attention Mr.
Sergeant Talfourd's masterly essay on the subject,
which appeared some years since in the New Monthly
Magazine, and has lately, together with his othex prose
criticisms, been republished in America, as we see by
the New York journals. This essay, which is of a
searching, analytical nature, and blends sound judg-
ment with vigorous eloquence in a very high
degree, may be fairly said to exhaust the
subject, and has materially assisted to extend that
admiration of IVordsworth's poetry which is
now so general both here and in the United States.
But it is time to turn to the volume before us. This
consists of poems written chiefly in the author's early
youth and his declining age ; but what principally in-
duces us to notice it is, that it contains a formal five-
act tragedy. A tragedy from the pen of William
Wordsworth! We should as soon have expected to
have seen one from the lien of Mr. Macaulay, the
Reviewer ! Yet, strange to say, the " Borderers,"
though proceeeding from one of the most meditative
and philosophic minds of the age, is by no means defi-
cient in passion, and exhibits occasionally such nice
dramatic touches as are surpassed by no living drama-
tist. Its great defect is its construction, which is
uniformly feeble, and violates probability at every
step. Men come and go without a why or
a wherefore; incidents are strung together for
no conceivable purpose ; and the most formal
preparations are made for catastrophes that never
arrive. 'We quote a portion of one of the most im-
pressive scenes, in justification of our assertion, that
the author occasionally exhibits true dramatic tact
and feeling. Marmaduke, a Scottish border chieftain,
has, it seems, undertaken to murder a blind old Eng-
lish baron, who has lately returned in disguise from
the Holy Land, and who, having been long supposed
dead, has lost his patrimony, which has passed into
the hands of others. The reasons of Marmaduke's
hatred to the Baron Herbert are, first, that he con-
ceives him to be an impostor; and secondly, that he is
led to believe, by the artful suggestions of an-
other borderer, _ Oswald, that he is desirous

to sell his daughter Idonea—with whom Marma-
sluke is in love—to a profligate English noble-
man, Lord Clifford. Impressed with this twofold
belief, the young man decoys the old Baron, who is
travelling about the country with his daughter, in the
disguise of a mendicant, into the dungeon of a half-
ruined castle, under the pretext of furnishing him
with shelter for the night ; and when he is asleep, he
enters the cell in order to perpetrate the act of assassi-
nation, but is so struck with the old man's resemblance

to his child, Idonea, that he cannot find it in his heart

to become 'his murderer. He therefore rushes out
again, the deed uncompleted, when the following dia-
logue takes place between him and his insidious
tempter,
_Oswald:—
MARDIAMIKE re-enters from the dungeon.
OSWALD.
It is all over then ;—your foolish fears
Are hushed to sleep, by your own act and deed,
Made quiet as he is.

NARMADUIEE.
Why came you down ?
And when I felt your hand upon my. arm
And spake to you, why; did you give no answer ?
Feared you to waken him ? he must have been
In a deep sleep. I whispered to him thrice.
There are the strangest echoes in that place!
oswALD.
Tut ! let them gabble till the day of doom.
m AR MADUIIt.
Scarcely, by gropirT., had I reached th© Spot,
Wheal round my wrist I felt a cord drawn tight,
As if the blind Man's dog were pulling at it.
os wALP.
But after that?

MARMADUKE.
The features of Idonea
Lurked in his face-

OSWALD.
Psha ! Never to these eyes
Will retribution show itself again
With aspect so inviting. Why forbid me
'r hare your triumph ?

MARMADUKE.
Yes, her vcry looks,

Smiling in sleep-

OSWALD.
A pretty feat of Fancy !
KARDIADUKE.
Though but a glimpse, it sent me to my prayers.
OSWALD.
Is he alive ?

31A1131ADIIKE.
What mean you .? who alive ?
OSWALD.
Herbert ! since you will have it, Baron Herbert ;
He who will gain his Seignory when Idonea
Hath become Clifford's harlot—is he living ?
NAAMADURE. •
The old Man in that dungeon is alive.

OSWALD.
Henceforth, then, will I never in camp sr field
Obey you more. Your weakness, to the Band,
Shall be proclaimed : brave Men, they all shall hear it.
You a protector of humanity !
Avenger you of outraged innocence !

MARMADUKE.
'Twas dark—dark as the grave ; yet did I see,
Saw him—his face turned toward me ; and I tell thee
Idonea's filial countenance was there
To baffle me—it put me to my prayers.
Upwards 1 cast my eyes, and, through a crevice,'
Beheld a star twinkling above my head,
And, by the living God, I could not do it.

The abrupt allusions to the " strange echos" in the
dungeon, and to the smiling features of the daughter,
as seen in her sleeping father—a trait of nature, by
the bye, suggested by Shakspeare's Lady Macbeth—
the incident of the conscience-smitten Marmaduke
being suddenly sent to • his prayers, at the very mo-
ment when he was meditating his crime, by the mo-
mentary glimpse of a single star shining in through
the crevice ; and above all, the disturbed, soliloquizing
tone which he is made to preserve throughout the dia-
logue ;—these, we think, are touches of feeling essen-
tially dramatic, and such as we should never have ex-
pe_ted to have met with in any production of Mr.
Wordsworth. But there is no speculating on the
works of men of genius, who seem to take a perveree

pleasure in upsetting the theories, and baffii ng
sagacity, of us poor purblind critics.

THE RIGHT OF SEARCH.

REPLY to an ..4MERICAR4` EXAATINATION
'of the RIGHT of SEARCH, 6-c. By AN ENG-
LISHMAN.
This pamphlet is an analytical review • andrefut ation
of the pamphlet of General Cass, and is a re 7 bulky
production. Not having seen General Cass s work,
we cannot say how far the writer is successful,. We
are willing on his authority to believe that General
'Cass is vain, presumptuous, illogical, threatening, and
unfair. We know, as he tells us, that the .A.mericans
are at once republicans and slave-holders, arrd, there-
fore, dreadfully inconsistent: and unjust ; but we are so
stupid that we cannot see any connection between the
misbehaviour of General Cass and the Americans, and
our claim to visit American ships. We cannot con-
cede the position assumed by this writer, amd main-
tained throughout his book. He assumes and asserts,
because Governments and all honest men are ready to
put down piracy, that, therefore, all maritime states
have a right to visit by theircruizers every ship at sea,
in order to ascertain that she is not a pirate, ex,s-ratia.
" A man of war cannot in a foreign port, or within a
certain distance of a foreign coast, board or seize a mer-
chant vessel, being within territorial jurisdiction, not so
upon the ocean. The m.an -ot-war, by bearing the com-
missioned officers of a civilized power, has the right, for
the security of the navigation of its own country, as men
•as that of all other nations, to prevent maritime free-
booters from carrying on a war on the great highways of
the world.."

If the writer only means that King's vessels may
put down pirates, so may merchant-vessels, if the
piracy be distinctly proved, and the merchant-vessel
can master the pirate. If the writer mean, as
the general tenor of his observations imply, that a
man-of-war has the right to board or seize a merchant-
vessel when not within territorial jurisdiction, to
ascertain her true character, he seems to us in error.
We agree with General Cass, that a ship is part of
the territory to which she belongs—a doctrine which
:England maintains, and bad will it be for Eng-
' land when she gives it up, for she now allows none
to insult and injure her merchant-vessels.
France has promised to concede to England the
!light of search within certain limits, but she would
mot allow England to stop and examine every French
t -vessel that may be passing between Bourdeaux and
iisbon, to ascertain that they were bona fide French
'vessels. Would England allow France to visit by
flier cruisers every English vessel passing between
,':lreland and England, and make her prove that she
-was an English coaster? Certainly not. The sup-
position is absurd. And why, then, should America,
.or any other state, tolerate our Government, or any
other Government, in visiting ships at sea on pretence
G f seeing whether they be real American ships or not ?
Whenever piracy is practised all people will unite
tc chase down the pirate, but Governments must wait
till piracy be practised before they overhaul vessels
to make them prove that they are not pirates. Eves
when piracy has been practised, it is more the busi-
of one Government than another to put an end to it.
:piracy was not long ago committed in the Gulf of
.Mexico, the United States Government properly took
am active part in suppressing it. In like manner were
piracy to be committed on the coast of England or coast
of France, it would be more especially the business of
these Governments to bring the pirate to justice. No
Government has ever practised the right of visiting
every ship, in order to ascertain whether she be a
pirate or a true vessel, and it is only, we affirm, when
and where piracy prevails that such a right, or rather
such a duty, is required.
Our author's principle, and it is worth notice, be-
because it is the claim of the Government, would
lead to endless mischief. How is the captain .f a
merchant-vessel to distinguish a true man of war
from a true pirate ? We know of no means, for there
are many small men of war, the shape of which a
pirate might assume to suit his purpose. He could
not well get a ship to look like a seventy-four, but
he might get plenty of cutters, schooners, and brigs
to look like those of her Majesty. If it were once
allowed that men of war might stop all vessels to
make them prove their nationality, under that cover
much abuse and much piracy itself would be practised.
During war, which always serves as a cover for out-
rages, more ,piracy is 'always carried on than during
peace. Then, in spite of convoys, merchant-ships are
stopped and plundered, Such would be the case in
peace ; the pirates would assume the character of
ships of war, were the maratime states once to esta-
blish a police of the sea. We need not go to Spain
and Gil alas to be convinced that thieves plunder in
safety, by assuming the garb of officers of justice.
Whether the writer refute General Cass or not we are
unable to judge ; but if he refute the General, both
must be wrong, for a more untenable position than
this writer has taken up it is not easy to find.

A NEW FRENCH AND ENGLISH LEXICON.
Baily, London, 1842.

The compiler of this copious and well-considered
work, is M. de la Voye, Professor of French Litera-
ture at the East India Company's Military College at
Addiscombe. He has, we understand, spent many
years in the compilation of his Lexicon, and his time
and labour have not been thrown away, for he has
succeeded in producing a work upon a most ingeni-
ous, and practically useful plan, comprising, besides
the usual number of words found in the best diction-
aries extant, an extensive addition of commercial,
nautical, military, and other terms, together with the
novel introduction of the singular and plural persons
of every tense and mood, belonging to all the regular
and irregular verbs in the French language. Abbre-
viations, elisions, contractions, and combinations have
also been explained in their respective alphabitical
place's.. For schools' this work is specially useful,
inasmuch as it curtails, by one-half at least, the labours
of teachers and pupils, and contains more general in-
formation and more words, by many thousands, than
in any dictionary of the size ever published. We
have examined it with some attention, and have been
struck with the exceeding care and pains-taking that
are manifest in every page ; not only are the words
given' with all their various significations, as we find
them both in prose and poetry ; but all the popular
idiomatic expressions are also explained, so that the
labour of the French student is very considerably
abridged. Such a valuable and laborious compilation
has only to become generally known to be as generally
appreciated.

ELEMENTS OF ASTRONOMY.
By Hugo Reid, Lecturer on Natural Philosophy.
Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.
This little work, which is illustrated with fifty-six
engravings on wood, is well adapted for beginners in
this interesting and useful science. It gives an ample
outline of the phenomena connected with the fixed
stars and the solar system, including, of course, de-
scriptions of the sun, planets, satellites, and comets,
the seasons, trade-winds and tides, eclipses, &c. The
language is simple and intelligible, and well calculated
to convey to the youthful mind suitable impressions
of the great works of creation.
The following brief extract from the chapter on
fixed stars will give an idea of the manner in which
Mr. Reid has carried out the plan :—" There are
about 20 stars reckoned of the first magnitude, eleven_
of which are visible in Great Britain. Sirius, the
dog-star, :is the brightest of the stars of this class ;
there are sixty of the second magnitude, and about
21,000 including those of the seventh magnitude.
Altogether there are myriads, infinitely more than can
be reckoned. The milky-way is composed of innumer-
able stars, whose average number is about the eleventh
magnitude, and whose joint light is separated
only by powerful telescopes. Every increase
of the powers of the telescope brings new stars
into view, and as their distances are so
great, it is possible there may be myriads so remote
from our system, that their light has never reached
the earth, while others whose light still reaches us,
may have been long since extinguished. At the con-
clusion of the work the author has given short
biographical notices of the principal astronomers,
from Thales, who lived 600 D. c., down to
Sir 'William Herschel. The present view of
the solar system was first promulgated by
Pythagoras, who flourished 500 years before the
Christian era ; but this opinion was not generally
entertained, and afterwards the popular notion pre-
vailed that the sun, planets, and stars revolved daily
around the earth, till the restoration of the true sys-
tem by Copernicus, the celebrated Polish astronomer.

THE QUEEN'S LETTER.—We have seen three testi-
monials to the fact of the Queen's Letter, begging for
the people, being read in church on Sunday last. The
affair has gone off so quietly that we should presume it
has been a failure, did we not know that the charity of
the clergy and of the wealthy landords is so unostenta-
tious, that they do not allow their left hand to know
what their right hand has bestowed on the poor. In the
House of Lords, last night, Lord Kinnard very properly
called this a begging letter, which we are afraid will de-
grade the people into paupers, without giving them relief.
FATAL CART ACCIDENT.—An inquest was held
yesterday, at the Bull and Pump, High-street, Shoreditch, be-
fore Mr. Baker, on the body of Charles Mason, aged 17
months, the son of Mrs. Mason, milliner, of No. 93. Holy-
well-street. It appeared in evidence that, on the afternoon
of Friday last, the deceased, in the care of a girl about fourteen
years of age, was walking along the kerb-stone in Cock-lane,
Shoreditch, when a cart, laden with goods, approached them.
Before it could pass it was necessary for the driver to take the
cart close to the foot pavement, and at the moment that he did
so, the deceased fell in front of the wheel. The driver was un-
aware of the accident until the wheel had completely crushed
the child's head against the ground. The witnesses said that
the (Myer was not to blame. Deceased 'bed upon the spot.
Verdict, " Accidental Death."
During the past Iveek, parties have been very busy
in passing spurious coin in the neighbourhood of Coggeshall
Mr. Terry, of the Chapel Inn, had four half-crowns thrust
upon him. The utterers, taking advantage of the fair, had an
easy opportunity of effecting their purpose, by tendering the
money to servants employed on the occasion. A clue has been
obtained, and, it is hoped the parties will be brought to justice.
—Essex Herald.
The Diario di Roma announces that his Majesty
the King of the French has been elected an honorary Member
of the Tiherine Academy of SCitilftil and Belles Lewes.