The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-04 00:00:00

LITERAT URE.

THE CHAINBEAREB7 By J. F. Cooper. 3 Vets.
This is another of Cooper's American tales—a con-
tinuation of the " Littlepage Manuscripts," to which we
were first introduced some months back in "Satanstoe."
The hero end heroine of that novel give place to their
son, who plays the first role in this. A few years are
supposed to have intervened, but they are years that
performed the work of ages—a mighty revolution bad
taken place. " Satanstoe" was a tale of the Colonies ;
the events of the " Chainbearer" occur in the States.
These volumes are not remarkable for the stirring inci-
dents and animated descriptions to be found in the pre-
ceding work, but, en revanche, we have highly-finished
portraits and masterly sketches forcibly illustrating the
different characters. Mordaunt Littlepage is the osten-
sible hero, the preux chevalier of the romance ; but there
is another, and a very important personage, who gives his
name to the work Andries Cocjemans (Que( mans) is a
Dutchman, a captain in the American army. Having lost
his fortune, he becomes a surveyor, but, we are told, " he
had no head for mathematics, and after making one or
two notable blunders in the way of his new profession,
he quietly sunk to the station of a chainbearer, in which
capacity be was known to all the leading men of his craft."
Old Andries seems to be a favourite with the author.
His character is described with considerable force and
even minuteness. He is represented as a compound of
pride and humility ; ignorant, yet shrewd; sagacious, but
simple ; warm-hearted, honest, and honourable. The
chief incidents of the plot are occasioned by the disputes
of the landlords and the " squatters," the former
anxious to maintain possession of the soil which the
latter unceremoniously appropriated to themselves.
This gives rise to some interesting discussions regard-
ing land and landlords. The description of Aaron
Thousand Acres, the chief of a family of" squatters." is
one of the most powerful in the book. He is independent,
stern, even cruel ; convinced of his rights and resolved to
maintain them ; his motto, nemo me impune lacessit ; his
anger easily kindled, and his revenge terrible. These
stern scenes are pleasingly contrasted by occasional
glimpses of the Littlepage family. We there find our
old friends Cornelius and Anneke surrounded by their
happy children, passing their lives in tranquillity and
peace. The romance of the story is occasioned by the
loves of Mordaunt Littlepage and Ursula Malbone,
the niece of the chainbearer. The whole narrative is
related in the first person. It is told in the easy style of
familiar conversation, which soon places the author on
friendly terms with his readers.

LA SOUBRETTE; or THE ADVENTURES
AND RECOLLECTIONS OF THERESA
DORNAY. 3 Vols.

This is a very lively, entertaining narrative, full of
variety. It is said to be founded on facts, and very pos-
sibly the main incidents are not wholly without foun •
dation. Theresa Dornay, the heroine, is left at an early
age without friends or fortune. Having enjoyed the ad-
vantages of an excellent education, she assumes the ar-
duous duties of a nursery governess. In this situation
she endures many trials • she is treated with neglect,
sometimes with unkindness, dismissed on the most
trifling pretences ; at each engagement hoping for better
fortune, yet each time doomed to disappointment. She
perceives the different treatment experienced by the
lady's-maid, and yielding to the persuasions of some
humble friends, she resolves to change her situation.
She is told " that it is not more humbling to wait on the
mistress of the family than to be in constant attendance
upon the children ; that she will be better paid, more
kindly treated, and have much more liberty as lady's-
maid than as governess." She accordingly commences
the life of a Soubrette, and finds no cause to
repent the change. At first sight it appears
extraordinary and improbable that one occupy-
ing the inferior position of lady's-maid should
be preferred before a. person of education and refine-
ment, to whom is entrusted the intruction of the young.
But the reason is obvious. A governess is poor, but in
other respects she is the equal, if not the superior, of her
mistress. All persons of narrow views and ignorant
minds (and it is only these who can ill-treat the in-
structors of their children), all such persons will feel
humbled by their own inferior abilities, and, conscious
that they are superior in wealth, will avail themselves of
this advantage to humble those whose talents they envy,
but whose position they affect to despise. The lady's-
maid, on the contrary, does not pretend to be an equal •,
she is regarded as a servant, but often, by abilities which
render her necessary, or flattery, which makes her
agreeable, she becomes the favourite companion, if not
friend, of her mistress. Whatever the cause, Theresa
Dornay experienced the advantages of the change. Yet
her course is not smooth even here. From some pretext
or other she is constantly changing situations ; but this
only renders her adventures more interesting. She gives
an amusing sketch of every family she knows. Being
behind the scenes, she can furnish full details, and this
she does in the most lively and sparkling manner. It is
one continued round of whimsical adventures, tragical
histories, piquant anecdotes, misunderstandings and re-
conciliations, plots and counterplots. If " variety is
charming," then this is a most charming book. At all
events, it is amusing, and if not calculated to afford much
instruction, will make many an hour pass pleasantly.
We would observe, en passant, that it must not be taken
as a correct picture of modern life. If the scenes are
any of them probable, they can only relate to extreme
cases ; the general tone of society is of a far higher
character.

THE MAGAZINES.
AINSWORTH.

The present is an excellent number of Ainsworth, and
is distinguished by that which should be the distin-
guishing characteristic of every literary magazine—
variety. That reader must indeed be difficult to please
who cannot find matter of amusement here. Is he a
lover of romance, he will be delighted with the opening
paper, " The Count of Monte Christo," a continuation
of Alexander Dumas' tale of the " Prisoner of If ;"
eschewing fiction, he is one of those who patronises
useful knowledge (though Heaven knows more than
one-half of that which by a strange misnomer is termed
useful knowledge is the most useless lumber with which
man ever encumbered his brain), Mr. W. Francis Ains-
worth and the Hon. C. Stuart Savile are there ready to
administer to his amusement—the former by an account
of his adventures among the Muntifik Arabs, the latter
by a graphic description of the City of Ispahan ; does
he like the dreaming misty haze of German poetry and
metaphysics, Oxenford and Boyd will introduce him to
Richter and Heinrich Heine ; or should he prefer to
revel in horrors, Charles Oilier will make his flesh tingle
as he relates to him the sensations of " Osborne North-
brooke," who, in a fit of catalepsy, was placed in his
cogs, possessing his consciousness the whole time, and
was on the point of being buried alive. The sportsman
will find some most amusing reminiscences of Nimrod,
by the author of " Handley Cross." Persons about
to marry will derive both amusement and instruction
from the perusal of Mrs. White's admirably-told tale,
" The Separate Purse." We are delighted to meet with
an old friend in the present number of Ainsworth—Cor-
nelius Webbe, the English pen and ink Teniers, who, in
" The Lonely Man of Lambeth," gives us some most
highly-finished pictures of London low life, as distin-
guished from Cockney vulgar life. His picture of the
lonely man eating his breakfast of fried dabs, and at-
tended on by honest John Dards, that admirable speci-
men of Thames fisherman, is one of the moat finished
interiors that the pencil of an artist ever produced ; and
albeit Cornelius Webbe paints in words only, yet is he
an artist of the very highest order. Dudley Costello
contributes an amusing " Dissertation on English Do-
mestic Cookery," in which he proves himself to be the
most learned and
.painstaking of culinary bibliogra-
phers ; and L. Mariotti gives us a sketch of town life
in Italy, entitled " The Fiasco." The following de-
scription of an Anglo-Italian grand cosmopolite rout,
although perhaps somewhat too sarcastic, is in its main
features correct ; and the concluding observations,
coming as they do from an Italian pen, are valuable, as
showing the estimation in which the Anglo-Italians are
really held by those amongst whom they choose to pass
their time :

" Lady Phillimore had, on this occasion, been extremely
particular in her invitations—that is, she had drained
Florence of its motley population. The guests were from the
four corners of the globe. The accomplished and the wealthy,
the great and the learned of many regions, were blended in
a crowd. There were long-haired professors, and bewigged
Danish savans, bare-necked German artists, and lorgnette.'
French attaches, and amongst a few of a better class, many
of that vulgar breed, whom gold enables to haunt the idle
towns of the Continent, the two varieties most prevalent in
the European menagerie—the Russian bears and the English
bores. Conspicuous among the latter, and distinguished by
their colossal turbans, and by their air of familiarity with
the lady of the house, were two female dabblers in literature,
a Mrs. Brattle, a notorious novelist, who had, as she ex-
-Ipressed it, walked half the Courts of Europe ; and a Lady
ntmelina Bruton, a person of whom her best friends said
she had all bumps in her head save that of adhesiveness—a
mal-maritata, who dipped her pen in gall, and emptied her
quiver at all man-kind, with a hope that some random shaft
might find its way to her ill-wedded lord. The rest of the
company was made up of dowager countesses and consump-
tive spinsters ; a lord bishop, with a swarm of his daughters,
and the squires and lordlings licensed to flirt with the said
bishop's daughters—besides sundry lean and lank poets,
magazine editors, wits, rakes, sharpers, and missionaries.
The ' natives' were few ; and there would have been none
but for the circumstance that one of their number was to be
exhibited as the hero or the victim—the lion of the night.
They shrunk back and clustered together in a corner, awed
and abashed by a consciousness of their own insignificance.
All good understanding between the Italians and their foreign
visitors, especially the English, is for ever at an end. Tourists
may have their neat hotels in the best quarter of the town.
The grand duke—that inn-keeper on a large scale—may
throw open his drawing-rooms, his galleries to them. But
Italians who respect themselves never appear at Court. The
English may buy the pure sky, the climate, the country ;
they may feel at home in the Vatican, or the Palazzo Pitti ;
but, from that very reason, the heart of the soundest part of
the nation is closed against them."
How much better would it be for these persons to re-
turn to their native land, where they would find that,
provided they behaved with only common decency, the
heart of the soundest part of the nation would not be
closed against them.

RENCONTRE BETWEEN THE PEOPLE AND THE Po-
LICE IN IRELAND.—On Friday last some policemen on their
way from the Petty Sessions at Ardfinnan went into a public
house at Mooncrea, and drank there with some men of the
name of Brobstin, and two brothers named Fennessy, one of
whom was inebriated. After leaving the public-house a ills-
pute arose between these men and the police, and blows were
struck ; the policemen, it is said, struck down their opponents
with the butt ends of their guns, when another party of
countrymen came up andlook the arms from the police. The
Fennessys and Brobstins were arrested and sent into Clonmel
gaol ; but the arms were left at the hall door of Neddins,
with a letter addressed to Charles Mulcahy, Esq., n which it
was stated that the party who took the arms from the police
LL., oarnddGbloenth.
were teetotallers, whose sole object was
to prevent any ill
use being made of them. Mr. Mulcahy immediately had the
a gentlemenbroug
hadht t oaßichard
interview Butler
o n the Lowe,
subject E s q .w, D.
L.,
Glen-
gall, after which the Fennessys and Brobstins were admitted
to bail.—Tipperary Free Press