The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-01 00:00:00

TAIT'S MAGAZINE.

The more interesting articles ,in this number are
" Mitchell's Fall of Napoleon," and the " Politics of the
Month." We looked for something good in another,
entitled " Ireland and her Agitators," but it consists
chiefly of extracts from " Saints and Sinners," supposed
to be written by the Private Secretary of Mr. O'Connell.
What Tait, however, says is to the purpose, and espe-
cially the remarks at the close of the brief notice :
" What care the great body of the British people for the
Established Church of Ireland ? Is there one man in ten
among .us who recognises the principle e,f ecclesiastical
establishments in any shape, who will hesitate for a
moment in replying to the plain question, what ought to
be the established church of a Catholic country
The " Letters from Naples" contain little or no news,
and merely repeat statements respecting the habits,
poverty, and idleness of the people, and the beauty of the
climate—facts generally known to English readers. In
commenting on the fall of Napoleon, the writer concurs
in the opinion of the author, that this great General had
been much overrated, that he had committed faults with-
out number, that his crowning victory at Marengo, to
use the words of Cromwell, was an accident, and i&there
had been active and fit generals opposed to him, his army
must have been annihilated. Of this there can be little
doubt. The battle was completely gained, and had
Melas done his duty all the efforts of Dessaix and Killer-
man would have been in vain. Austria, in fact, was the
good genius of Bonaparte up to the Russian campaign ;
her wavering and vacillation, her wa.AL of moral courage,
carried him to victory, and the ver; same qualities in
Prince Schwarzenberg had nearly decided the day in his
favour in 1814, when a million of enemies were fighting
against his troops on the plains of France. In a very
brief notice of " Sybil" we find these remarks:—

"Its tendency or avowed object—for the real one, after all,
is in the first place to entertain—is well understood. Mr.D'lsraeli is for the hour the fashionable preacher of the cir-
culating library; and he suits his sermons to the times and
his audience, with much more tact than the author of Hawk-
stone, Hannah More, or even Miss Edgeworth."
We have room for only the following extract from the
political article. It relates to the banking and currency
system of Scotland, and is entitled to much weight.
We may remark that, in; the same article, the magnifi-
cent demonstration of the zeal and resolution of the free
traders. aff ,rded by the Covent-garden Bazaar, is re-
garded as the greatest stroke yet made by the League,
and to it is attributed the remarkable change which ap-
peared in the- House of' Commons on the motion brought
forward by Mr. Vdlis-rs:—
" The small space left us we wish to occupy with a few
words on a matter affecting Scotland alone, but affecting the
most vital interests that country—Sir Robert. Peel's inter-
ference with the banking and currency system of Scotland.
That interference we deprecate in the strongest terms, as
highly detrimental to Scotland, while useless to the empire
at large. Throughout the whole Scottish community, there
exists on this subject no difference of opinion. All classes,
Tories, Whigs, and Radicals; landlords and tenants of both
houses and landed property ; rich and poor, creditors and
debtors, are unanimous in deprecating any meddling with a
system of currency and bauking which has existed so long,
and has been found to work so well. The suitableness, to a
different community, of the Scottish banking and currency
system, we are not called on to prove. Possibly in a coin-
manity so large as that of England, so busy, so wholly ab-
sorbed, as are both public companies and private individuals,
with their own affairs, so ignorant and regardless of the af-
fairs of others, it might be productive of less unmixed be-
nefit. But here, in Scotland, where not only banks and other
public companies, but private individuals, have so much
more leisure, so much more curiosity, and know each other
so much better than do the two millions of London citizens,
our system of banking leads to none of the mischievous re-
sultshthaed
Independent
such swindlingedeeten
dl% c, e company panyi
which possibly it might produce in England.
We have
Middlesex Edinburgh Assurance orGclea
res gpoa
nw a s
That monstrous and impudent fraud was openly carried oyi;
in London; and it was reserved to a citizen of Glasgow to
expose and break it up. In Scotland we have no equivalent
to that rapacious and dangerous, although perhaps useful and
even necessary personage, the English bill-broker. Losses
by private loans are-with us things comparatively rare; the
banker acting as the careful and intelligent agent between
those who have money to lend and those who require to
borrow."

DOLMAN'S MAGAZINE.
The present number of Dolman is an excellent one.
The opening paper, " An Adventure in the Pacific," is
from the pen of James Welsh, an American welter, and
is dated from Baltimore. It is a most spirited descrip-
tion of the eruption of the Conseguina, a volcano or
Central America, in the year 1835. The gt'eater number
of the papers iu this Magazine are devoted to the de-
fence and propagation of the faith of the Roman Catholic
Church, and, differing as we do with the writers in opi-
nion, we cannot but admire the talent which they display,
and honour them for the absence of that odieuz theoloyicum
which has hitherto been the besetting sin of all contro-
versial writers.

LITERATURE.
.111E11101PS OF SOPHIA DOROTHEA, CON-
SORT OF GEORGE I.
This work is chiefly composed from the secret
archives of Hanover, Brunswick, r.: lin, and Vienna,
and contains letters and other decum e.s published from
the originals. The more interesting portions of it re-
late to the death of the Count Konigsmark, and the
treatment of the wife of George I. The general belief
is that thie prinee,s was imprisoned in a fortress under
the most mysterious circumstances—that some horrible
crime on her part had led to this severity—and that her
husband, who was Crown Prince of Hanover, and during
her imprisonment, or rather seclusion, mounted the
throne of England, had shown towards her a degree of
cruelty and vindictive vengeance which rendered him
unworthy of the high station to which he was elevated
by the British Parliament. These are all exaggerations,
and the accounts furnished by the author, who leans to
the side of the Princess, leave little doubt on the subject.
The Court m
of H
.over at that time was the most cor-
rupt Europe (we know not what it is now). George
the First had many mistresses, but, like George the
Fourth, he would make no allowances fur indiscretions
committed by his wile; she was like Queen Caroline in-
discreet; advantage was taken of her folly, or perhaps
erienee ere, n ie,g" inveet gati,•n was instituted, and
tee woe, teteee eeipi it was found guilty arid confined to
the Castle of Ahlden. lier confinement, however, was
not solitary. She was permitted to invite the civil and
military authorities i f the place, and the gentlemen in
w.ietibourleoed. Sue had a larg,e retinue of at-
tendants anti servants, as many as fourteen footmen, a
Taru
propomonate eumber of feeiales three cooks &:e
cation with her father'satched , afti:yal.loweßdutlitetlli::hcchune.;
but . wasy watched,
father bad east her off, and a gen.ral belief at the time
prevailed that she was 'a
of irregular habits, and
that her separatien ;rem husbandhellirla
hhad been brought
on by her own conduct The author,(,b disposition of
all her m;sfertunesinttoritghue,
sehoeful;i:
meiwiespositiondot her
husband, and the
es e-
ciallv to the Countess Platen, who tran=nllttse'datno
heir forged letter, as coming from Count konigsmark rea-
questing her permission to visit her in her private apart-
discovered remained
merits. The request was granted ; yet, after they both
of adducing this long
discovered the !etN•t* to be a forgery,
she
eeiwr criminalanted. intercourse. The
together for some. hours, and thereby gave the Countess
interviewt h e opportunity
as
s a
proof whichot
part of the palace in which she resided was surrouneled
with armed men, for the purpose of seizing the Count
he had to make his escape, a scuffle. ensued, and he fen
mortally wounded, his last words being " Spare the in.
nocent Princess. " This tragic scene is thus described .
" On leaving the Princess, the forged letter had presentee
itself to his mind as a snare that could not have been em-
ployed without a purpose ; that it was the production of an
enemy there could be but little question, and lie need,, not
have hesitated long before he must have been satisfied who
w
that enemy was. When he ascertained that the doors through
he had hitherto proceeded out of the palace from the
Princess's apartments were locked, he began to fear he wasl
enclosed in a trap. He walked cautiously along, and on tee
first rush of the trabants his sword was out of its scabbard
befor6thev could lay hold of him.
" Urged: on by the Countess, and inflamed by the liquor
they had drunk, the men attacked him furiously with their
weapons. A most desperate conflict ensued, the result of
which might have been doubtful—for the Count had in.