The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-02 00:00:00

TAIT S MAGAZINE.

In the present chapters of Mrs. Gore's " Abednego,
the Money-lender," we find many of those light,
satirical touches for which this lady's novels have ever
been remarkable. Thus, speaking of a West-end Ex- •
quisite, she says that he was one "whose notions of
the world might have been geographically defined, as
bounded on the north by Marylebone—on the south
by Lambeth—on the east by St. Martin's-lane—and
on the west by Kensington-gardens ;" and observes,
of a dull, respectable dinner-party, that "all was as
decorous as in the House of Lords, with the bench of
Bishops and the Woolsack acting as dead weights on
the buoyancy of human nature!" Mrs. Gore should
try her hand at comedy. Her fertile invention, and
her airy, sparkling, epigrammatic style are happily
suited to this department of literature. " Tennyson a
Poems" is a favourable—but by no means uncle-
servedly so—notice of the works of a young and
fervid writer, whose genius is not yet sufficiently
appreciated. His " Locksley Hall," which we hap-
pened by chance to meet with a few weeks since, and
read through at a sitting with the deepest interest,
exhibits vigour—we might almost add—originality of
thought, sincere pathos, and alert and vivid fancy.
In " Bentham's Table-talk" occurs the following just
remark on duelling :—" The man who values himself
on his personal courage, independently of the applica-
tion made of it, values himself on that which is pos-
sessed in a higher degree by a dog, especially when it
is mad." In his earlier years Bentham, it seems,
formed an attachment to a lively young girl, to whom
he was introduced at the late Marquis of Lansdowne's.
The attachment was not returned by the fair object
of it; but he retained it through life; and thus
addresses her in the eightieth year of his age, nearly
sixty years from the period when he first met her at
Bowood! There is something exceedingly touching
in his language, and in the tenacity with which,
through all the changes of time and circumstance, he
clung to his first affection :—" I am alive, more than
two months advanced in my eightieth year, yet more
lively than when you presented me (nearly sixty years
ago !) with the flower in the green lane. Since that
day not a single one has passed, not to speak of nights,
in which you have not engrossed more of my thoughts
than I could have wished. I have still the piano-
forte on which you used to play at Bowood; as an
instrument, though no longer useful, it is still curious ;
as an article of furniture, not unhandsome ; as a
legacy, will you accept it ? I have a ring, with some
of my snow-white hair in it, and my profile, which
everybody says is like. At my death you will have
such another." We quote from the fourth Number
of the " Lays of Scottish History" the first portion of
a spirited poem on the invasion of Scotland by the
Norwegian King Haco, in the year 1263 :
From the ancient warrior land
Haco, lord of Norway came,
Proud of heart; and strong of hand,
Scotland's Isles in arms to claim.
England, on thy western shore
Be not now the 'larum dumb !
Where the Norsemen raged before,
Thither Norsemen still may come.
Ostmen of Hibernia's Isle,—
Ye that Henry's liegemen hate,
Bid your mourning widows smile,—
Bid your swords for vengeance whet!
Late, from Norway's crowded coast,
Haco steered his ships afar :
Shouted loud his mighty host
O'er the deeps of Breydeyar.
O'er his ship of oak the gale
Stirred the banner's gorgeous fold :
Round the prow and snowy sail
Mythic dragons shone in gold.
Men and ships—how great a baud
Through the Hebrid Isles bath gone
Crested warriors crowded stand ;
•
Mail-clad rowers ply them on.
'Gainst him conies no foeman there,
But, with aiding ship and sword,
Homage paying, quick repair
Mona's prince and Isla 's lord.
Who shall meet his vast array ?
Hark, the storm is answering !
Will the winds allegiance pay,
Or the tempest homage bring ?
Wandering in the stormy gloom,
Darkling moved the ships, and slow,
While the lightning's dart of doom
Paled the golden dragon's glow.
Vain to Cumray's rocks repair
Holy priests with beaded knee ;
Vainly rose their chant of prayer—
" Miserere, Domine !"
Still the waters louder woke,
Sweeping o'er each woeful deck ;
And the billows, as they broke,
Downward crushed the shrieking wreck ;
Till the nearer shores of Clyde
Saw the mighty navy sail,
Rising o'er the surging tide,
Stoutly struggling with the gale. '
Soon to land the Norsemen spring,
Gathering fast and gathering aye :
' Alexander Scotland's king.
Met at Largs the foe's array !
Near and far, with warning horn,
Swift the signal beacons flew
Hurrying there, from eve to morn,
Many a stalwart Scot, and true.
Clad in mail from head to heel,
Hasted thither knight and lord,
But the foremost foeman's steel
Rattled on a peasant's sword.

SPORTING REVIEW.
There are two engravings in the present Sporting
Review—one, a portrait of Attila, the winner of the
last Derby—a fine, strong, symmetrically formed ani-
mal ; and the other a cabin sketch on board a steam-
boat. This last is a highly humourous illustration.
As the wind is brisk, and the swell of the sea is con-
siderable, the passengers are all more or less affected
by sea sickness. Some are lying in their berths,
others are stretched fall length on the floor in the most
desperate stage of the malady ; and to add to their
afflictions, the captain, accompanied by the mate, has
just entered the cabin to demand each sunerer's pas-
sage-money ! We can conceive no more pitiable
situation than to be called on to draw one's
purse-strings, at the very moment when one is
labouring under the horrors of sea sickness. it
is like heaping calamity on calamity. The letter-
press department of the Review exhibits a more
than ordinary variety. We have some graphic
sketches, entitled—" Wild Sports among the Hima-
layas," a lively account of a " Shark limit," off
Curacoa, and some interesting "Recollections of
Hungary," by Lord William Lennox.

SYMPTOMS OF IMPROVEMENT

After the most severe and prolonged distress which this
country has known in modern times, it gives us heartfelt
satisfaction to see a few rays of light break in upon the gloom.
It is certain that the fearful stagnation of the last three or four
months has been in sorve degree owing to the suspense about
the tariff, and to the consequent locking up of some conside-
rable classes of foreign commodities in bond till the reduced
duties came into operation. That event having taken place,
sales of goods aro resumed, and the seaports begin to display
greater activity. The very favourable weather, also, not only
cheers the spirits, but affords substantial ground for hoping
that food may become cheaper and more abundant, in which
ca,e manufactures and trade cannot fail to receive a stimulus.
We wish it were in our power to state that an improvement
was already obvious in the condition of the manufacturing dis-
tricts of Yorkshire, but there appear to be no grounds for
such an assertion. All we hear would lead to an opposite
conclusion, and this is borne out by the reports of the
state of trade during the week at the seats of our staple
manufactures—except, perhaps, at Bradford.—Leeds Mercury.

'ell's Life in London of Sunday contained four
of their long folio columns of the Goodwood Races, with an
Engraving of the Goodwood Cup, designed by Mr. Cotterill,
drawn by Mr. Herring, and engraved by Mr. Orrin Small.
Bell's Life also gave nearly two folio columns of the Grand
Cricket Matches between the Eleven Gentlemen and the Eleven
; the Eton, Harrow, and Winchester Contests; Tile
Eight-oared Match of Eton and Westminster; and a full re-
port of the Pugilistic Affair at Woodstock ketween Maley and
Cross. Bel! s Life of July 31 will be kept on sale all the
week, at the Office, 170, Strand; the price. 5d3
E FATHR iNIATIIEW.--It is now positively fixed that
the celebrated philanthropist, Father Mathew, will visit Glas-
gow on Monday, the 15th of August.
A BAD SUDJECT FOB. MESMERISM.—The boy from
the Union-house, ou whom Mr. Taylor failed to produce
any mesmeric effect while lecturing in Boston on Wed-
nesday evening, being asked why he didn't go to slesp,
shrewdly answered, " Because I hadn't got my supper."
—Stamford Mercury.