The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-01 00:00:00

MAGAZINE

MINE.

BLACKWOOD'S AIAGAz.

the most re-

The decline and fall of party rancour are 47-, no pub-
markable symptoms of the present time, and . he
Nations are these symptoms more manifest tha, • 4"
monthly periodicals, devoted originally to literati irga."(l
amusing tales, but up to the accession of the Peel Minis
try, generally ending with a violent dissertation on, the
politics of one party or another in the State.
Peel's reign commenced, the writers have found it a, ntost
difficult task to put the political engine in motion. Tney
could not get up the steam for want of fuel, and lattrly,
so scanty has been the supply, one party artio2e in the
course of three months has been reckoned 0, fair
average for the market. Even that amount, Nortl 3, with
all his strong Tory principles, could not furnish. Others
bare been more productive, but perhaps to less p urpose,
for what with a wish to blame, or to praise, the 2onduct
of the Minister, and a want of power to discern the ob-
jects of his policy, they have not unfrequently be( m com-
pelled to unsay in one article the arguments whi, .1h they
had put forth with much gravity and assurance. in
another. These are the natural results of the pro tent
state of parties. Peel has confounded Whigs and 'Tories.
Kis old friends occasionally write against him, but they
write without hope. They have no other idol to substi-
tute in his plate, a sort of interregnum exists, and they
trust to the chapter of accidents for a new leader,. :and a
better state of things. The Whigs, the Liberals, .a.n,l the
moderate Conservatives, and all the other sections, if
we except the thorough-going Radical, have new, reason
to find fault. The two first, in fact, can only corn plain
that they are not allowed to work, for they canna t say
that their work is not done. They hare been shoved
from their places by their skilful adversaries , who have
tikkir up their trade, and now carry on the fire 1, as
nathan would say, under a new name, but with more
enterprise, and a great deal more capital. These rea-
sons sufficiently explain the absence of those angry dis-
cussions which were formerly appended to the literary
dissertations in the Magazines. Blackwood has, how-
ever, contrived to infuse a little Tory policy into the
present number by reverting to events now nearly half
s century old. He has gone back to the time of Pitt
and the French Consulate, and the partition of Poland.
" Marston, or the Memoirs of a Statesman," has for
months been rather a heavy and prosy production, but
it has been imbued with fresh vigour by the astonishing
events which it describes, and we are glad to find owes
that rigour, not so much to the violence of Tory prepos-
sessions, or to selfish attacks on the policy of the Whigs
during the long reign of Church and State principles,
as to a generous and catholio spirit in the cause of
freedom, and a sincere regret that the man of the age
sacrificed Poland, and threw away countless blessings
which he might have conferred on mankind, to gratify
his boundless and wicked ambition. The following
extract will bear out our remarks :

" The partition of Poland was the most comprehensive and
audacious crime of the modern world. It was a deliberate in-
suit, at once to the laws of nations and to the majesty of the
great Disposer of nations. And never fell vengeance more
immediate, more distinct, or more characteristic. The capital
of Autria twice entered over the bodies of its gallant sol-
diery ; Russia ravaged and Moscow burnt ; the Prussian army
extinguished by the massacre of Jena, and Prussia in a day
fettered for years—were the summary and solemn retribution
of Heaven. But, when the penalty .was paid, the fate of the
executioner instantly followed. Guilt had punished guilt, and
justice was to be alike done upon all. Napoleon and his ern-
** vanished, as the 'powder vanishes that explodes the mine.
Th, round was broken up; the structures of royalty on its
wines were deeply fractured; the havoc was complete; but
Llery deposit which had effected the havoc was itself scat-
tered ilzto
" His en-establishment of Poland would have been an act
of grandeur.. It would have established a new character for
the whole Revolution. It would have shown that the new
spirit which had gone forth summoning the world to regenera-
tion, was itself regeneration ; that it was not a tempter, but a
restorer; that all conquest was not selfish, and all protestation
not meant to deceive. If Napoleon had given Poland a
diadem, and placed it on the brew of Kosciusko, he would, in
that act, have placed on his own a diadem which no chance of
the field could have plucked away ; an imperishable and
dazzling answer to all the calumnies of his age, and all the
doubts of posterity. He might even have built, in the re-
storation of the fallen kingdom, a citadel for his own security
:in all the casualties of empire; but, in all events, he would
ihave fixed in the political heaven a star which, to the last re-
seollection of mankind, would have thrown light on his sepal-
sere, and borne his name."
In the same article is a brief allusion to the death of
Pitt, in which we heartily concur. "It was said," says
the writer, " that Pitt died of a broken heart, in despair
of the prospects of England. The defeat of Austerlitz
was pronounced his death blow. What thoughts may
cluster round the pillow who shall tell ? But no man
knew England better—none had a bolder faith in her
perseverance and principle—none had more broadly laid
"the foundations of victory in national honour. I shall
sever be driveit into the belief that' William Pitt des-
paired of his country." Yes—who can tell what
thoughts may cluster round the sleepless pillow ? Dis-
ease of body produces awful changes in the mind. The
"land of death unnerves the strongest spirit, yet there
ore men of the present day, vainly calling themselves
British historians, who attribute the words " 0 my
country" (we beli..?ve they were never uttered), to the
convictions of a rational mind, and, with a want of na-
tional spirit, rendered only more disgraceful by repeat-
ing the reveries of the dying, encourage the French in
their vain-glorious boastings, that Bonaparte had not
only Wiled Pitt, but subdued the spirit of his country-
men. Pitt never despaired of England. North still
continues his " Specimens of the British Critics," and in
the present series has enlivened them a little by a viru-
lent attack en the poet Churchill, the friend of Wilkes.
Had it been less coarse, it would have been more &Yee-
:tive. His character is thus summed up :—" lle let*: his
profession, the Church ; and he exchanged his wife, af-
ter many years' cohabitation, for a mistress ; two para-
mount desseeati6 ns unhappily met. And the trumpet-
call to the war-fie2d of patriotism sings but uncheeringly
when the blast is winded by the breath of Wilkes."

COLBURNS .NEW MONTHLY.

The most valuable article in this Number, perhaps we
should not be far wrong in saying, the most valuable
Magazine article of the month, is the one entitled " Con-
fessions of a Water Patient, by Sir Edward Bulwer
Lytton, Bart." It appears that sixteen years of wear
and tear in the literary, political, and fashionable world,
had completely upset the physical well being of Sir Ed-
ward—that for years he never bad passed twelve hours
without pain or illness—that his constitution was, in
;fact, completely shattered. Various physicians pre-
scribed various rea'iedies—he tried them all. He tra-
velled, he retired to .the seaside and lived quiet, still his
sufferings continued uoalleviated, and gastric irritation
rendered his lib wretched. At length he was induced
to try the cold water cure, and went to Malvern, where
he placed himself under the care of Dr. Wilson, of whom
and of his establishment he si.,eaks in the highest terms.
A two months' course of hydropathy nearly restored
aim to health. He was called Away to Germany. On
his journey he took cold, fever came on. Fortunately
lie was near the hydropathic establishment of De Schmidt,
at Boppart, to which he was conveyed, and under cold
) water treatment he recovered in two days. He is now
in better health than he has been for years, and he at-
tributes his recovery entirely to cold water. tihe use of
the wet sheet has always been represented by anti- hy-
dropathists as most dangerous ; according to Sir Ed-
ward's account, it =At be the mildest of remedies. It is
infect a very gentle continuous vapour bath, not attended
with the danger of tk cold effusion so strenuously
recommended by the late .Dr. Currie in cases of fever,
and infinitely more efficacious, as its action may with
safety be kept up for any lee: gth of time. Every new
.remedy suffers, perhaps, more from the exaggerations of
Unreasoning bel;evers than frcerri the a tte.eks of the
sceptical. It is therefore no small advantage to have
the opinion of such a man as Sir Edw.ard Bulwer Lytton
on the capabilities of hydropathy, more especia!iy when
that opinion is founded on personal experience and
close observation. The subject is one of ;such vast im
yortance that we offer no apology for the length of the
following extract.
" It remains for me to say, merely as an observer, and solely
with such authority as en observer altogether disinterested, but
without the least pretence to professional science, may fairly
claim, what class of diseases I have seen least, and what most,
tractable to the operations of the water cure, and how far en-
thusiasts appear to me to have over-estimated, how far sceptics
have under-valued, the effect., of water as a medicament.
There are those (most of the water doctors especially) who
contend that all medicine by drugs is unnecessary—that water
internally and outwardly applied suffices in skilful management
for all complaints—that the time wil.l come when the drug
doctor will cease to receive a fee, when'the apothecary will
sloe* his shop, and the water cure be adopted in every hospital
and by every family. Dreams and absurdities! Even grant-
ing that the water cure were capable of all the wonders
ascribed to it, its process is so slow in chronic eases—it usually
/squires such complete abstraction from care and business—it
takes the active man so thoroughly out of his course of life,
that a vast proportion of those engaged in worldly pursuits
cannot hope to find The requisite leisure. There are also a
large number of complaints (perhaps the majority) which yield
so easily to a sparing use of drugs under a moderately compe-
tent practitioner, that th e convenient plan of sending to the
nest chemist for
.your pill e'r potion can never be superseded,
nor can I think it desirable I.`hat it should be. Moreover, as
far as I have seen, there are complaints curable by medicine
which the water cure utterly fails to reach.
" The disorders wherein hydropathy appears to me to be
least effectual are, first neuralgic pains, especially the monster
pin of the tic doloreux. Not one instance of a cure in the
latter by hYdrepathy has come under my own observation, and
I have only heard of one authentic case of recovery from it by
that process. Secondly, paralysis of a grave character in per-
sris of an advanced age. Thirdly, in tubercular consump-
tion. As may be expected, in_thtstagereosftrhe, bu
that
tI have
melancholyv e
'disease, the water cure utterly fails to restore,
&Down it even here proloisg life,
reasonable calcula-
beyond all rea
Ceti, and astonishingly relieve the
more oppressive symptoms.
In all cues where tlienorvous exhaustion is great and of long
standing, and is accompanied with obstinate hypochondria,
hydropathy, if successful at all, is very
the patience of the suffer too often slow in its benefits, and
sufferer°
worn
before the
favourable turn takes place. i have also noticedtulta
i
and deep-rooted maladies, in perons of very athleti obcfsratimnaets!
stem to yield much more tardily to the water cure than similar
complaints in more delicate constttgtions, se that
you
will
often see of two perwns afflicted by the same gc-net., of
m
plaint,. the feeble and fragile one recover before the
stout
man with Atlantic shoulders evinces one gvmpto„f
Anselieration.
Those cases, on the other hand, in which the water cure
Seems an absolute panacea, and in which the patient ma) corn_
winos wile the most sanguine hopes, are, first, rheumatism,
however pro longed, however complicated. In this the cure is
usually rapid—nearly always permanent. Secondly, gout.
Mere its effilacv is little legs startling to appearance than in the
forum case; it seems to take up the disease by the roots; it
extracts the pecuhar acid, which often appears in discolora-
tion. upon the sheets used in the application, or is ejected in
ether modes. lit here, judging always from cases subjected
to my personal knowledge, I have not seen instances to justify
the assertion of some water doctors, that retuyns of the disease

do not occur. The predispositii.'n—the tenainoy, has ap-
pee.red to me to remain. The patieot is liable to relapses—but
I have invariably found them far less I..requent, less leiNthened,
and readily susceptible of simple and speedy cure, especially if
the habits remain temperate.
" Thirdly, that wide and grisly family of affliction cla.gsed
rider tha common name of dyspepsia, A derangements
Ow digestive organs, imperfect powers of nutrition—the
lialaise of an injured stomach, appear precisely Vie complaint; J