The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-02 00:00:00

HIE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY MORNING, JUNE 2, 1842.

MAGAZINES-CON TINUED.
FRASER'S MAGAZINE.

There are some beautiful thoughts respecting the
influence that mothers have on their children, their
sons especially, as regards their after-destinies in life,
thrown out in au article entitled, " A May Noon in a
Parlour Window." The author instances several
eminent individuals, the course of whose ambition has
been shaped by their motheri; hut he makes no men-
tion of the most eminent of them all, who has left it
on record, that it -was_to the .principles instilled into
him, when a boy, by Madame Mere, that he owed his
fixed resolution to win an undying reputation. Never
did her exhortation to the reserved, thoughtful Cor-
sican lad,—" Be distinguished, my child !" pass from
his mind. To his father he owed little, and remem-
bered little about him ; but he never forgot, when at
school at Brienne, or, subsequently, when the leader
of mighty armies, the apt and impressive maternal
comments on Plutarch's Lives. In like manner, it was
his mother's precepts and example that first implanted
in Johnson's mind a love of reading and meditation, and
laid the seeds of his subsequent literary celebrity.
Hoaxing Histories" is a whimsical account of a
hOax passed off by a wag on a party of Blues, who
were anxious to become acquainted with the poet
Pope, and were led to believe that he was that illus-
trious individual. -There is no great point or spirit
in the narrative, which is carried on by means of dia-
logue; but, nevertheless, it is very passable reading.
Mated and Checkmated" is a pleasing story, whose
scene is laid. in the East. A young Prince of ,Persia
falls in love with a beautiful girl, the daughter of a
famous chess-player, wooes her in disguise, and not
till he has achieved his conquest, informs his fair bride
that her husband is of the Royal blood. This de-
nouement will remind the reader of " Lalla Roukh."
In the remarks on the " Camden Society's recent
Publication," the writer justly observes that " of all
the distinguished personages of Queen Elizabeth's
Court, the Earl of Leicester has, perhaps, most exer-
cised the speculations of posterity.' Little, indeed, is
known of this once famous individual, and hat little is
not much to his credit, whether as a man, a statesman,
Or, a soldier. One- thing is certain—namely, that
he was most unscrupulous as to the means by which
he acquired and maintained power, and did not:hesi-
tate to remove obnoxious personages by poison.
" Flowers and Weeds from Olympus and Parnassus"
is a string of critical notices of some recent poems;
and among them is a review of Mr. Robert Mont-
gomery's " Luther," which is handled with very
little ceremony. The " Poniatoswki Gems" is an
elegant poem from the versatile pen of 1)r. Maginn.
" My Life and Times, by Nimrod," furnishes us with
a picturesque sketch of an old-fashioned Welsh squire,
Mr. Corbett, who appears to have been a perfect
specimen of a true gentleman in mind and feeling, if
not in superficial polish of: manner. " Fitz-Boodle's
Confessions" are amusing gossip, detailing, with infi-
nite unction the misfortunes of a young man who-
blighted all his prospects, matrimonial, military, and
otherwise, by an inordinate love of smoking. Here is
his account of his first military disaster :

In the army my luck was much the same. I joined
the —th Lancers, Lieut.-Col. Martingale, in the year
1817. I only did duty with the regiment for three
months. We were quartered at Cork, where I found
the Irish doodheen and tobacco the pleasantest smoking
possible ; and was found by his Lordship one day upon
stable duty, smoking the shortest, dearest, little, dumpy
clay-pipe in the world.
" Cornet Fitz-Boodle," said my Lord, in a towering
passion, " from what blackguard did you get that pipe?"
I omit the oaths which garnished invariably his Lord-
ship's conversation. •

" I got it, my Lord," said I " from one Terrence Mul-
lins, a jingle-driver, with a packet of his peculiar to-
bacco. You sometimes smoke Turkish, I believe ; do
try this. Isn't it good?" And in the simplest manner
in the world I puffed a volume into his face. " I see
you like it," said I so coolly, that the men, and I do be-
lieve the horses, burst out laughing,
He started back—choking almost, and recovered him-
self only to vent 'such a storm of oaths and curses, that I
was compelled to request Capt. Rawdon (the Captain on
duty) to take note of his Lordship's words, and unluck-
ily could not help adding a question which settled my
business. " You were good enough," I said " to ask
Me, my Lord, from what blackguard I got my pipe ;
might I ask from what blackguard you learned your
language?"
This was quite enough. Had I said " from what
gentleman (lid your Lordship learn your language ?" the
point would have been quite as good, and my Lord Mar-
tingale would have suffered in my place : as it was, I
was so strongly recommended to sell out by his Royal
Highness the Commander-in-Chief, that, being of a good-
natured disposition, never knowing how to refuse a
friend, I at pnce threw up my hopes of military distinc-
tion, and retired into civil life.
My Lord was kind enough to meet me afterwards, iu
a field in the Glaumire Road, where he put a ball into
my leg. This I returned to him some years later with
about twenty-three others—black ones—when he came
to be balloted for at a club of which I have the honour
to be a member,

Thus by the indulgence of a simple and harmless pro-
pensity—of a propensity which can inflict an injury upon
no person or thing except the coat and the person of him
who indulges in it—of a custom- honoured and observed
in almost all the nations of the world—of a custom which,
far from leading a man into any wickedness or dissipa-
tion to which youth is subject, but, on the contrary, be-
gets only benevolent silence and thoughtful good-hu-
moured observation, I found at the age of twenty all my
prospects in life destroyed. I cared not for woman in
those days ; the calm smoker has a sweet companion in
his pipe I did not drink immoderately of wine ; for
though a friend.to trifling potations, to excessively strong
drinks tobacco is abhorrent ; I never thought of gamb-
ling, fir the lover of the pipe has no need of such excite-
ment ; but I was considered a monster of dissipation in
my family, and bade fair. to
.come to ruin.