The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-28 00:00:00

two young leopards, were taken to the Castle and
shown to her Majesty and the whole of the Court.
The Royal dinner party at the Castle this even-
ing will consist of her Majesty the Queen, -His,
Royal Highness Prince Albert, their Royal High-
nesses the Duchess of Kent, the Duke and Duchess
of Cambridge, the Princess Augusta of Cambridge,
and the Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburgh
Strelitz ; the Earl and Countess of Dunmore, the
Lady in Waiting on. the Duchess of Kent, the Lady
in Waiting on the Duchess of Cambridge, Hon.
Miss Stanley, Hon. Miss Hamilton, Hon. Mrs.
Anson, Marquis of Exeter, Dowager Lady Lyttelton,
Viscount Hawarden, Hon. C. A. Murray, Sir Ro
bert Otway, Colonel Arbuthnot, Sir Edward Bo-
water, and Dr. Prcetorious.
Her Majesty's private band, and the band of the
Foot Regiment staying here, will. be in attendance
in the evening.

Sir Robert Peel arrived in town yesterday morning
from a visit to her Majesty at 'Windsor Castle. The
Lord Chancellor had an interview with the Right
Hon. Baronet after his arrival at his residence in
'Whitehall-gardens. Sir James Graham and other
Cabinet Ministers also visited Sir Robert in the fore-
noon. Sir Robert Peel and Sir James Graham left
town by the London and Birmingham Railway in the
afternoon, for the seat of the former, Drayton Manor,
Staffordshire.
The Governor of the Bank of England and the De•
putt' -Governor bad an interview with the Chancellor
of the Exchequer yesterday at his official residence in
Downing- street.
Lord Granville Somerset transacted business yester-
day at the Treasury.

LITERATURE.

FRIENDSHIP'S OFFERING.

Smith and Elder, London, 1842.-$
The " Friendship's Offering " is one of tht
oldest, as it is one of the best, of the glittering
fraternity of Annuals. It has outlived at least
one-half of its brethren, many of whom came
forth into the literary world with far greater
pretensions ; and if it be continued withthe same
skill and spirit with which it has hitherto been
conducted, we see no reason why it should not
attain a patriarchal age, and, like Godwin's St.
Leon, " shut up the tomb overits contemporaries,"
and become the last of its race. The volume for,
the present year is more than usually interest-
ing, from the circumstance of its containing, by
way of frontispiece, a picture entitled "The
Royal Family," in which we have full-length
portraits of the Queen, Prince Albert, and the
young Prince and Princess, beautifully engraved
by Fox, from an original painting by Stephanoff.
The likenesses of her Majesty and her illus-
trious Consort may he discovered at the very
first glace, so happily :has the artist caught,
not the mere lineaments, but their prevailing
• expression of dignified serenity. The pictrire is
an exceedingly pleasing one, and the editor ex-
pressly states in his preface, that " it is the only
complete groupe existing of portraits of the
Royal Family." " Norah" is a sketch of a young
Irish peasant girl who is standing, with a milk-
pail beside her, near a gate, absorbed, apparently,
in contemplation. From the cheeiful expres-
sion of her round, ruddy countenance, it is mani-
fest that her reflections are far from unsatisfactory;
whence we may infer—without any great viola-
tion of probability—that her wedding-day is
fixed, and that in a week or so she-will be a
happy bride, and half-proprietor of a cottage, a
pig, and a potatoe field. The " Anxious Wife"
is a picture of quite a different character. A mo-
ther, whose child is resting on her lap, is seated
just outside .her _door; • 'waiting with evident
uneasiness the return of her husband. She
may welt be anxious, for twilight is sad-
dening over the landscape; the distant moun-
tains wear a sombre frown on their brows ; the
halfseen river flows in deep shadow through the
valley—yet still the truant returns not! What
can have kept him so long from home? Has he
• gone to a Chartist meeting, or an Anti-Corn-law
lecture? Has he lost his way, and been beguiled by
an ignis fatuus into a thick, muddy, chickweed-co-
vered ditch, where he may get board, lodging, and
washing for nothing; or is he playing at cribbage
for pots of beer, in the. sanded parlour of the
•, village ale-house? Alas! we fear that this
is the most probable solution of the mystery,
and that he will came back „ towards Morning,
as drunk as any freeborn Briton • could
reasonably desire to be ; and justify his
wife's aaxiety by calling for just out.
more glass, and threatening her, in case of re-
fusal, with the discipline of the knout! "Ship-
ping at the Nore" is a truly graceful and pic-
turesque sketch, whose distances are defined
with much nicety and correctness. The vessels,
—majestic emblems of repose--are resting in per-
fect etillnees on their shadows, for there is
scarcely wind enough to stir the flags that
hang drooping from their roasts. " Amboise"
is . a striking representation of a fine old
castle, perched upon .the stuntnit of a
lofty, precipitous hill, at whose base flows
a broad, deep stream. The back-ground,
' with the bridge spanning the river, and
the distant village on its bank, seen
by' the dim light of the moon, which is half con-
cealed- by heavy clouds, has a very impressive
affect. Of the literary contents of the volume
we may speak in terms of deserved praise.
There is the usual allowance of prose and verse,
of serious tales, and humourous tales, of sonnets,
lyrics, and descriptive poems, and each is good
of its kind. Of the prose stories, the hest, per-
haps, is that entitled the " Novice," which
from the pen of Mrs. Erskine Norton.

THE VargrwO4A
LA
or
nOdoCn,T
108G42E.NARIAN.

The author of the work before us, which is t:
rambling, rhapsodical dissertation on the New-
Poor-law, and is dedicated to Sir Robert Peel, is
furious in his reprobation of this law, observing
that " in its origin, its object, its execution, and
its effects, it is opposed insultin.cey to all God's
direct and unalterable-ordainments." The mur-
der of the " Babes in the Wood," says the au-
thor, was bad enough; but it was nothing, he
adds, " to the thousands of infant murders per-
petrated and now perpetrating in Bastilcs, for
want of fresh air and food, by hired ruffians,
under the sanction of the British Legislature.'
He then proceeds to describe a vision which be
had in the House of Commons some few montlt.
since, when Sir J. Graham rose to propose the
continuance of the New Poor-law for five years.
The whole ceiling
of the House, he tells us,
appeared to be hidden by " celestial being
with lovely countenances," and in the chair satt.
—not the Speaker, but "the Recording Angel!
How such a Being could think of paying a flying
visit to St. Stephen's, we cannot possibly conceive;
for of all places in the world, it is the one least
likely to suit an angelic nature. But perhaps the
author mistook the Speaker for a Cherub, just as
the Ettrick Shepherd, when in town, mistook
him for an elderly lady of his acquaintance; bu;
we can hardly imagine this could have been tin
case, for• Mr. Shaw Lefevre looks as little like an
anzel as any gentleman we ever saw. The rest
of the work is penned in this strange incoherent
spirit, and is embellished with a full-length por-
trait of the author, who is represented standing
on a bleak moor at midnight, in black shorts and
silks!

GUILLE.REZ'S LECTURES .HISTORIQUES.

Marshall, and Co.
The method of these grammatical and his-
torical readings is the most useful and instructive
that could have been devised for students of the
French tongue. They consist of selections from
the ablest writers and rhetoricians of France, re-
lating to scenes, topics, and persons, purely
English, by which means the tyro, while pro-
ceeding in the acquisition of the language,
makes, at the same time, mastery of much valu-
able knowledge relating to his own country. An
astute scholar, also, will observe with critical
pleasure the peculiar and often original phases
in which either an elegant or talented foreigner
views the habits and institutions under which he
lives, and agreeably divert himself by contrast-
ing them with his own national form of opinion.

ShimP andlivi'alinitaargs:l4
NEW FRENCH GRAZIIMAR. Ey A. F. Guificrez.
This Grammar professes to be framed upon
that.of Noel and Chapsal, which has been long
adopted with
in the schools of
and Co.
Belgium. Material improvements have, how-
ever, been made upon the Continental edition,
and the exigencies of the English tongue care-
fully supplied. The various parts of speech are
ably classified, and the tabular form given to
the verbs, arranges them lucidly for the learner.
Its adoption in schools should be general.

THE SWELL MOB.-At the Newport Quarter Ses-
sions true bills were found against the two gentlemen
who picked Mr. Farnell's pocket, at the Royal Yacht
Squadron Ball, at Cowes, in August last. The young
gentleman was brought up, in custody, found guilty,
and sentenced to nine months imprisonment. The
elder (Mr. Charles Hawkins), our readers may re-
member, was liberated on bail, himself in 5001., and
four sureties in 1501. each ; they applied, through
counsel (Mr. Poulden), to put off his trial till next
Sessions, as he had not surrendered to his bail ; they
were most anxious he should do so, and would do
all in
,their power to place him in custody.—Ap-
plication granted.
The quantity of eggs used annually in France ex-
ceeds, says one of the journals, 7,250,000,000, of
which enormous number rads absorbs 120,000,000.