The Sun.
London, England, 1842-11-10 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

THE NABOB AT. HOME. 3 Vols.
Colburn, London, 1842.
There are one or two stirring incidents in this
tale, and among the most striking, we may men-
tion the shipwreck of the homeward-bound East
Indiaman, Snowdon, which gets among breakers
in the Bay of Bengal, during a thick fog. The
whole of this scene is described with.great vigour
and minuteness; indeed so minute is the descrip-
tion, that it seems to be less an effort of fancy,
than a literal transcript from reality. The tale,
on the whole, is clever, and the various pictures
of life in India aro touched off with spirit. The
chief personage is a Scotch Highlander, who,
having made a fortune in the East, returns in
the autumn of life to his native land ; his cha-
racter throughout is drawn with feeling and dis-
crimination.

COMIC ALMANAC FO1? 1843.
Tilt and Bogue, London; 1843.

The Comic Almanac makes its appearance—as if
out of a considerate regard to its readers—just at the
fitting season, when the fogs and frosts, and rains of
November announce the immediate advent of winter.
A &arty laugh is now a social luxury infinitely
to be coveted ; even a grin is not to be
despised ; and the volume before us will
supply both these desiderata in abundance. Seat
yourself in fancy beside us, gentle reader, at a bright,
cozy fire-side—let the warm, flowing curtains be
close drawn, and the lamp newly trimmed—let a
sparkling decanter embellish the table, by way of fron-
tispiece, while an uncorked, well-crusted black bottle
stands, stiff as a sentinel, in the remote distances un-
derneath the side-board—and thus snugly located,
reader, let us laugh together at the kdroll fancies of
eGoicreaotryrhyg,epea,Cceruikshank, as they exhibit themselves in
observe,oo df thel
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anything
is sittinglevlaugiablet, in the d(
than, the face
and
of winter, up to his knees in an ice-pail ? He fancies
himself uncommonly comfortable, but you can
see by the rough goose-skin creeping over his
legs, that he is within an ace of becoming
a petrifaction. Close beside him is a fellow who is
lying in bed with a big lump of ice in his night-cap,
while a German doctor is deluging the sheets with
the contents of two watering-pots, by way
of keeping up a healthy and refreshing moil..
ture in the invalid's system ! Next. observe the
credulous youngster who is stretched, full-length,
with his mouth wide open, right under the
water-butt, because he has been told that cold water
—the colder the better—drawn fresh and frisky
from the butt, is an . infallible remedy for
the tooth-ache ! Distrust seems struggling with
faith in his countenance—and well it may, for
we can see by the convulsive movement of his
hands that he has just got such a twinge as would
set him roaring put . like. a bull of Basilan, if his
mouth were not full 'of %the ',cooling' element. "Oh,
Law I" is a truly.tQT;liingillustratioti.-.,The age has
become moral, virt itpus, and peaceable, and-the lawyers,
inconsequence, are all ruined. 'The Courts of Queen's
Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer are advertised
to be let or sold ; and of the three Chief
Judges, one is selling apples at a fruit-stall, a second
has turned street-sweeper, and is plying disconsolately
at Charing-cross with his broom in his hand, and the
third is hawking pies about Westminster. Such a
set of scamps as they look ! We wonder how the
police can have left them at large, for not one of the
three but appears fully capable of petty larceny to
say the least of it. " Distraining for sent" repre-
sents a party of legal functionaries attempting to force
their way into a house, to the infinite disgust and
annoyance of the establishment, who are attacking
them with all sorts of weapons. The cook heads the
charge, armed with a gridiron, which she has just let
fall on the unprotected sconce of a thick-set sheriff's
officer, while the scullion brings up the rear, flourish-
ing a frying-pan above her head, destined, we fear, ere
long, to floor one or more of the advancing foes. This
plate is in Cruikshank's most grotesque style, but,
indeed, his genius appears to signal advantage
throughout the Comic Almalack, which is this year
better than it has yet been.