The Sun.
London, England, 1842-11-01 00:00:00

MAGAZINE DAY.
BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE..

ibis
The
ail,

J 44

The " Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela"—a
Jewish traveller who is supposed to have lived in
the thirteenth century—forms the subject of the
first article in the present Number. Several,cu-
rious extracts are given from this "Itinerary,"
and among them, is a brief sketch of the far-
famed city of Bagdad, which, at the period when
Benjamin visited it, was celebrated throughout
the East for its vast population, its abundant
wealth, and magnificent public buildings; the
circuit of the Caliph's Palacealone was three miles,
and comprised within its inclosure, parks, pleasure
grounds, and reservoirs! " How are the mighty
fallen !" This once splendid and powerful city,
where the royal hero of the " Arabian Nights"
held his Ccurt, is now in the last stage of hope-
less decay. War, pestilence, and famine have
successively devastated it, and the recent inunda-
tions of the Tigris have all but completed the
work of destruction. " A Passage in the Life of
a Maitre d' Armes" is an animated account of an
interview which a French fencing-master had
With the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia,
win), after witnessing his professional skill, gave
loin a letter of recommendation to his Imperial
brother, Alexander. We quote the concluding
portion of the writer's narrative:—
At ten o'clock the following morning, I started for
the Emperor's present abode, the Palace of 'J'zarsko
Selo, determined to walk in the gardens until I
met him, and to risk the penalty of imprison-
ment, incurred by all who ventured to present a pe-
tition to his Imperial Majesty. My stock of patience,
however, was very nearly exhausted, when I had
waited and wandered more than fbur hours in the
Palace-gardens, which contain in their vast incicsures,
slopes, levels, lakes, and forests ; grottoes, pyramids,
and statues. All these I had visited, without per-
ceiving any one but the sentries and a few loungers;
and I was beginning to despair of meeting him whom
I came to seek, when the avenue I had just entered
was ciossed by an officer in undress uniform, who sa-
luted me and continued his promenade. I asked a
gardener's boy at work near me who that very polite
°Meer was.

" The Emperor," answered he.
I immediately darted down an alley whic'i I calcu-
lated would traverse the path Alexander was follow-
',Pg. I had scarcely gone a hundred yards, before I
found myself so near his Majesty that I 'mused in
4.B?_lne alarm. The Emperor halted for an instant;
ren seeing that respect prevented me from approach-
'ng him, he advanced towards me, and I awaited his
coming, 'standing uncovered on the side of the foot-
path. The Emperor limped slightly, owing to the re-
°Pening of an accidental wound in the leg, received in
one of his journeys to the banks of the Don. As he
',lowly advanced, I had leisure to observe the great
c.reange which had taken place in his appearance since
▪ had seen him in Paris. His countenance, formerly
a° Open and cheerful, had now a sickly and mournful
expression, and he was evidently a prey to the deepest
melancholy. Notwithstanding this, his looks were so
benevolent that I felt re-assured, and as he passed
near me, I ventured to address him.
" Sire!"
• " Put on your hat, sir," replied he. "It is too
cold to remain bareheaded."
Seeing that I hesitated, from respect, to obey him, he
seized my hat, clapped it on my head, holding my arm
the while to prevent my taking it off again. When
he found that I made no further resistance, he said—
" Well, sir, what have you to say to me ?"
" Sire—this supplication," and 1 drew the petition
,from my pocket. The Emperor's countenance fell.
" Are you aware, sir,", said he, "you who pursue
nie even here, that I absent myself from St. Peters-
burgh to avoid petitions and petitioners ?"
I know it, sire ; but my petition has, perhaps,
more than most others a claim on your Majesty's
gracious consideration, It is countersigned by your
Alajesty's august brother—by his Imperial Highness
the Grand Duke Constantine.
" Ah, ah!" exclaimed the Emperor, holding out his
hand, but immediately withdrawing it.
" So that I ventured to hepe," I continued, " that
your Majesty would, in this instance, deign to deviate
from the rule established."
" No, sir," replied the Emperor quickly. " No,
sir :I will not take it, because if I did, I should to-
morrow be pestered with a thousand such papers ; and
I should be compelled to abandon these gardens, where
at present I find solitude and quiet. But," added he,
observing my disappointment at this refusal, and ex-
te.nding his hand in the direction of the city," put
you". petition into the post-office. I shall receive it
to-night, and the day after to-morrow you will have
my answer."
" Sire, I know not how to express my gratitude,"
" Prove it, then," he replied, " by telling no one
that yon have presented a petition, and escaped
Punishment. Good-day to you, sir."
With these words, and a gracious but melancholy
the Emperor pursued his walk. I did not fail
-Trif• "I.plow his advice, and put my letter into the post.
uft.:,',.llVeror was true to his promise, and two days
sial,—;.asrls I received his reply. It was my commis-
fencing-master to the imperial corps of
elihneers, with the rank of captain.
✓ "Poems and Ballads of Schiller," form a
very
delightful poetical melange. "Cassandra,"
.11 Particular, is a truly impressive and energetic
lyric, in which Schiller's teeming fancy is seen to
tea,t advanteo. "An Ancient Dandy" is a
i'e'Y tale, written in a spirit of arch and good-
,,111:11,, his
raillery. The sketch of the old Beau
s toilette reminds us, in its minuteness and
Particularity, of that well-known scene in the
Clandestine Marriage," where Lord Ogleby
8 vrepresented as elaborately figging him-
out for the day. "Marquis Welles.
? '—as the title implies—is a biogra-
sketch of this eminent statesman. The
Sketch is
eulogistic,
r but not too much so ; but
writer whose style is his chief recommenda-
o exceedingly hasty and reckless in some
his Essertions, as, for instance, where he re-
Tarks that "no transaction of European king-
02Ing within memory so nearly justified the name
..,!,.tniracle, as the Spanish insurrection of 1808."
hat was there miraculous in a proud, jea-
lous nation, oppressed and trampled on as
having
"'Pain was by France at the period in
question,
recourse to arms in order to
e
''aneipate itself from its degrading servitude?
Inv e can recognise no supernatural agency in this
apstance of resistance to tyranny. Again, still
it,Lcling to the Peninsula, the writer says,
iarbOain,
which -bad known nothing of popu-
_ government from the fall of the Ito-
u'au empire, became suddenly a hive of
popular) governments."
early
and This observation ex-
hibits great ignorance of Spanish history.
theirY
fur
system of
period—say a
Aragon were remarkable from an
0--say the thirteenth century—for
sopopular administration ; indeed,
e were these two kingdoms, the most intim-
opal in the Peninsula, from knowing " nothing
popular government," that they verged on
___ absolute democracy in their political institutions!
1.: Caleb Stukely " contains some clever writing,
but the story, as a whole, is too elaborately
Worked out, which gives it an air of stiffness and
?rmality that detracts not a little from its inter-
st. <<A Lay of the League" is a humorous
?oeiical squib. " Thomson's Seasons" is a most
7ktertaini„_
g notice of the late splendidly einbel-
'kled edition of this fine poem.

BENTLEY'S
This periodical has rillealctdedEiuLsAaNt suchY. a late
that we must perforce content ourselves
4.1 ,a a hasty glance at its contents. It on
%ne whole, an entertaining urniiber, varying
pleasantly from grave to gay. drst article
it an account of an unsophisticated
andedock of Cockney's.
rtunes and misfortunes at Paris,
ttroll practical jokes, playederogotonnsolnii.rnitra
sarnpish-adVenttirer, one Jack
are several whimsical incidentswilnicitiliiissaorntiecloef,
4,11-14 no lack of broad humour,
le. most popular qualifications that a Periodical
writer en,
Leech addeffect of the different
possess. Some clever Illustrations by
greatly to the
sketches and descriptions. The " Life and Snags
Anacreon is an agreeable essay, interspere d
'with scraps ofcriticism and poetical translations.e do not, however, agree with the author .11
remark that " it would be difficult to find
.
ilanrYitytwOor poets between whom so great a sinn-
genius and disposition existed as. that
:between Horacc and Anacreon." Both certainly
'were social and festive in their temperament,
and sang the joys of love and wine with equal
grace and freedom, and so far they resemble
each Other; but Horace was a thorough man of
the world, which we have no proof, in his
jrltings at least, that Anacreon was ;\ again,
°race when he pleased, was alternately a good-
Tnnoured and caustic satirist, whereas Anacreon
noes
noire
appear to have had the slightest idea of
; moreover', Horace was an elegant and I,'lcliclotts critic, and imbued with all the lighter
_"terature of the age ; occasionally, too, though
.`,""ften, he evinced in his more serious lyrics
iboral dignity and elevation of sentiment ap-
11;r°3eInng* to the sublime; in Anacreon none of
rlese qualities are visible; he displays no lofti-
sser ot thought, no acquaintance with even the
litature of his own country, but is simply a
-azY) Epicuredn, whose range of ideas
hiniteeto a-degree, and whose sense of enjoy-
/Tient is purely animal, however gracefully it is
S"Pressed. The " Haunted Mine" is a passable
tory from the pen of Mr. ['cake. " A Cam-
gn with the Christinos" furnishes us with
.r)
~, rne entertaining and animated details the late late civil war in the Peninsula.resp " The
Child" is a pathetic little poem which
Re regret that our limits will not permit us to
extract. "The Piper" is an Irish story, verging

—after the fashion of most Irish fictions—on the
extravagant; its chief defect is its l"ngth.
" Richard Savage" is unusually spirited this
month. The quarrel between the hero and Lord
Tyrconnell is described with a truthful earnest-
ness worthy of Boz. " The Philosophy of
Fighting" is principally to be commended
for its illustrations, which are ingenious and
fanciful enough. We quote from the
"Traitor's Doom" an account of the execution
of a native Indian officer who had betrayed
an .English regiment with which he professed
to be in alliance :
The Deputy Judge-Advocate was desired to read
an account of the proceedings of the general Court-
martial held at C— on the prisoner, Dewallah
Surhat, lately commanding the Auxiliary Native
Field Force, charged with having on the night of the
15th of October, 181—, willingly and treacherously
betrayed the British forces, with whom he was appa-
rently acting as an ally, and thereby, &c. While the
proceedings were being read, the prisoner was much
agitated whenever the treason he had been guilty of
was alluded to. He evidently was much pained.
The convulsive movements of his countenance showed
how acutely he felt his position ; but when the whole
trial had been recited, whim the verdict of " Guilty"
was pronounced, he seemed suddenly to recover his
immobility. When, the sentence of death was read
out he did not quail in the slightest degree; and
finally, when the sentence of the Court condemned
him " to be blown from a gun," he looked with an
almost triumphant glance on his late friends, who
stood horror-stricken around him. The General was
perfectly overcome. His former friends and brother
officers shuddered with dread at his coming fate; for
though the sentence was strictly just, yet many who
had never seen this mode of execution drew back
with terror and disgust. Surhat was the calmest man
on that field as we wheeled back into line preparatory
to the dreadful scene. We took open order, arid the
prisoner marched along the line, and up again be-
tween the ranks. Ile was then taken toa spot some
hundred yards in front of our centre. No coffin was
there to receive his rem sins, as I had previously seen
at military executions— -no friends to take his body
away after his doom ha d been completed—so clearly
was it foreseen that his ar inihilation would be complete,
his whole frame scatte red to the winds, the morsels
left in all directions for Ore beasts and birds of prey.
The troops were now "tt, old off" in three divisions, the
wings wheeled up, the artillery brought into the
centre; thus, as it were, :re-forming a hollow square,
x_ept on the side on whilch the prisoner stood. A
single gun was now bro' tight up, turned round, and
unlinked. The drivers \ willingly trotted away to the
rear. The prisoner was desired to advance ; he did
so within a pace of the mr.vale. The deputy Provost
Marshal produced a cord with which to bind him to
the gun. For the first trine Surhat seemed shaken.
He made a special request that he might not be tied
down. The General was solicited, and consented that
it should be so. The prig oner turned upon him a look
of the sincerest and hear tfelt gratitude, shook hands
after the European man] ier with the Provost-Marshal,
and after receiving his directions, agitatedly given,
walked boldly up to the cannon, and pressing
his body up to the muzzle, threw his arms round the
gun itself, gave one last glance, and stooped his head
down to the piece. At the same instant a signal was
given, the ready-lighted match was applied to the
touch-hole, a flash of ilia., a volume of smoke, a roar-
ing sound re-echoed fi •ot a the neighbouring hills, and
all was over. A few c lrops of blood, a few scattered
remnants, scarcely rec •ognisable as ever having be •
longed to humanity, wi me all that now remained of the
once proud, the genero as, the brave chieftain, who,
by thus choosing a doe m which brought total earthly
annihilation, seemed di !terrained to leave behind him
no record of the basely-faNen chief, the hated name
of traitor !

NEW MONT HLY MAGAZINE.
Mr. Hood leads off ' this Number with a highly
diverting article he: tded " News from China,"
which consists of a correspondence between a
Mrs. Jemima Budg( and her son, who had gone
out to China on a a ammercial speculation. The
chief epistolary characteristic of the mother is a
remarkable indiffer' once to orthography ; that of
her son, a strong tendency to be too poetical in
his prose—in other . words, to lie as fast as a horse
can gallop. These; two peculiarities are turned
to most amusing a et ;ount in the correspondence
of the amiable co uple. Here is one of the
young man's yarn s; the incident is supposed to
have occurred wh die the was sailing in the Chinese
seas :—" We can ie aoross a striking proof of the
deleterious effects of opium, namely, a man-of-
war's launch with a midshipman and twelve
hands in her, all as i list as tops, and .as hard
to be waked it p as Diletor Watts's sluggard.
Luckily, there was ocean's of cold pig at hand,
and did'nt we give it th em with the gravy
which at last l' ,rought them ,to their senses, when
it appeared 'shat hearing so much talk about
opium, and:finding a package of it adrift, they
had chersTed a little out of curiosity, which
being An overdose had sent them all into the
land of Nod.. Poor fellows, it was lucky we
picked them up, before falling into the power of
the pigtails, i ustead of the ninetails; for they
had two doze n apiece on rejoining their ship,
but one of the m, a deep old file, took another
dose of the apium beforehand, and so was
flogged in his sleep, they say, without feeling
it." We subjo in another specimen of the young
traveller's pow -•ers of mendacity, which is as
compact a co. Ilsection of circumstantial lies as
any perpetrate al by the notorious Baron Mun-
chausen
:
The Chinese towns are very
.populous, so much so
that there isn'tr oom for half the inhabitants on dry land,
and according] y hundreds and thousands of families
live, where yc rt would'nf, namely, on the water, in
regular swim- ming houses, with no ground floors.
This arrangemien t of course prevents the rising gene-
ration from playing as ours does about the streets, so
they play about the deck instead, which being wet
and slippery, it often happens that some of them,
especially what you call the little toddles, plump
overboard, and. we xuld. be drowned but for a great
empty calibash that flair mothers tie to their backs,
and which acting like a cork jacket keeps the dear
little ducklings afloat, 6,1 their industTious parents
are at leisure to haul them - out with a long boat hook.
An operation they never hurry themselves about,
knowing the darlings are perfectly safe, as well as
doing their own washing, s whine ese young uns from
the same sense of securit y- are fae from particular
about their footing, but drip in and flu at as if they
were paid for doing it, hi :e the aquatie, actors at
Sadler's Wells.
Well, you see when the n andarin boats bore down
on the gun-brig she bega a to fire away like blazes,
right and left, and one or two of the random balls
falling among the floatini houses, the proprietors
considered it as a notice; to i luit, and away they went
helter skelter—sove qz ci pen, which is the French for
devil take the hindermost , some up the river and
some into the canals,—when e Water-lanes and River,
terraces moving off in double quick, with such
screaming and hov cling, tl ley say, as never was heard.
In such a skuri .y the ji tvertiies got knocked over-
board, poor thing ;s, like fun, scme of the unpleasant
or snubbed chili' iren in lai..gefiuniiies perhaps getting
a kick on pur pose ; hos vever .in they went, plump
after plump, ',lke 'frogs, frightenkals into a pond—the
brig all the
chattering while kicking up a regular smother, and
away like thornier as long as she could get
an answs.a. and rather lo tiger. At last; she stopped
firing, and the s mole clew ring off lo and behold there
was not a mai idarin boi it in sight—the swimming
town had gone into the • country, and all round the
ship the sea was alive wi th little Chineses brought
down by the eb" b tide, all floating about with their
life-preservers, ai id scream; ng like Sea-gulfTfor their
absent fathers an 3. mothers.
As common ht insanity va, suired they wereall picked
up-and-taken abo and the bi g, one hundred and sixty-
four in all, from r
grog apiece, whi e year upwards, and after a little warm
.eh some t took naturally and others
quite the revers(
.1, the. captai n sent them all off in a
gig and a cutte s, with a ti 'bite ensign to each boat.
Not that the C' aines( would mind firing on a flag of
truce, which tl ley di d so unmercifully, that the officer
in charge, out, hut sanity, gave orders to pull round,
and brought 'all the little innocents on board again,
as well as sortie six or seven more which they had
picked up in the's.- pal ;sage. Well, when Captain ,
saw them all col tie ba ck on his hands, he looked at
them, then' say, l ike as i ogre, for he thought the bar-
barians had conti ived it on purpose, to prevent his
fighting his ship, and he swore, so soon as the flood
made, he wool, 1 heave the brats overboard, every
cherub, and let t hem fide back again. But when the
time come, bein g a Family man himself, his heart
always misgave, —so the children remained aboard,--
and there was h e' Majesties gunbrig the turned
into a regular I. is undlingilirospital.
By goodluck ; cur commaisder took me with him on
a visit to the sig., and sure enough she was literally
swarming wit' s lib le flat-faced Cdhinese, some put to
bed three ani:: four in a hammock, and the rest sprawl-
ing about e deck( s each looked after by a strapping
he-moseins Id six fa at high,—the carpenter's nurseling
excepted, s v'Oieh, be') ng called off to a job, he had tied
by the 1e,6- • ring bolt. And oh, thinks Lif my
dear 171" he rip - motiai could but see the boatswain !
a great, re, 1.4 iced m( miter, and almost as hairy as the
beast that sue &led BA artmlus and Romus, a sitting on
a carrona with a brown foundling on each knee,
one gettig ua:l, and the other sick, from being
tried with a ip a sq.because it couldn't
soft quid of tobacco,
manage liar,• • And then the noise !—for at
least half of I biscuit .
I d the children were screeching like para-
keets" do; et think for want of toys, far one had a
marlinspik ' and another the tar-brush, and another
an old SW
ab, but by degrees the whole kit of inno-
cents on deck 1 their rapes as if King
isd set up ,
Herod ha,
I :got among them—and nohocly knew why.
Some rho aght it was at the black cook, and Others