The Sun.
London, England, 1827-04-13 00:00:00

there are about 230 in the different gaols of the
county on orders. Most of them have been con-
victed of petty offences, and a great number are
very young. It seems to be the general opinion that
the alarming increase of criminals in this county, as
compared with others, is, in a great measure, owing
to the failure of trade, and the excessively low rate
of the wages of labourers in agriculture.

CIVIL SIDE—WzowEsDAY, APRIL 11.
ACTION FOR LIBEL.

Mr. HALCOMBE opened the pleadings. The plain-
tiff was Mr. H. Mackey, an attorney of Bath : the
defendants, John and James Keene, proprietors and
publishers of the Bath Journal. The libel imputed
to the plaintiff that lie had acted injuriously and op-
pressively towards one Ambrose Child. To this
action the defendants first pleaded " not guilty,"
and secondly justified, by stating that the statement
was true.

Mr. Sergeant WILDE for the plaintiff, stated that
his learned friend Mr. Erskine had made a commu-
nication to him, stating that the editor had been se-
duced to an act, which he now felt to have been in-
judicious, by the affidavits of an interested person,
and that he had no wish whatever, to injure the
character of Mr. Mackey : but thought it was due
to the interests of truth and justice, that a transac-
don of this kind should be brought before the pub-
lic. He was now satisfied that the charge against
Mr. Mackey was untrue; and as his (Mr. Wilde's)
client had come into Court to defend his own repu-
tation, and was neither influenced by vindictive feel-
ings, nor wishing to make a profit &at of the trans-
action, his ends would be satisfied by having stated
publicly all the circumstances of the -Case, and the
declaration of the defendants that they are fully sa-
tisfied of the falsehood of the letter.

Mr. ERSKINE for the defendant stated, that the
instant his Learned Friend had declared that the
action was brought neither from vindictive feelings
nor to obtain damages, but that the sole aim was the
vindication of his client's character in the face of
the whole country, both himself and the defendants
had felt that this was a very justifiable and proper
feeling. He was now convinced that Mr. Mackey
had been calumniated ; and he made this public de-
claration of such conviction, gave up the letter to
enable the plaintiff to prosecute the author if he
though tit, and engaged to indemnify him from
pecuniary loss. _

- A juror was then withdrawn;
Mr. Justice BURROUGH commended the plaintiff
for bringing the action to defend his own character,
which he had now completely done, and the de-
fendant had acted with equal propriety in the course
which he adopted. The conduct of both was ex-
cvedingly proper, and Mr.Mackey went out of Court
quite clear of every thing like imputation.

GLOUCESTER, 'WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11.
CROWN SIDE.

Leonard Jones was indicted for uttering false and
counterfeit money to Sarah \Vhitchurch, on the :3d
of February, at Beachley, in Tidenham.
The Jury immediately found the prisoner guilty.
Mr. Baron VAUGHAN—I am much afraid that
you are not a purchaser, but a maker of this base
and counterfeit coin. I have no discretion in your
punishment. The law adjudges, that for this your
first offence, you be imprisoned in the Penitentiary,
and kept to hard labour, for six months, and find
sureties for your good behaviour for the further term
of six months.

CIVIL SlDE.—tsuts v. mouse, &e.
Mr. GODSON—This is an action of assault and
false imprisonment. The defendant has pleaded the
general issue.
Mr. PHILLIPS—The plaintiff is, and has been for
many years, a butcher at Thornbury, where he has
always lived in good repute and estimation. The
elder defendant is a farmer, the two other defend-
ants are his sons. They had dealings together, and
in September last the plaintiff purchased some sheep
of tile elder defendant. Shortly after this purchase
the defendant thought fit, most wantonly, to accuse
the plaintiff of stealing one of his sheep, and in the
most public manner he with his two sons surround-
ed the plaintiff in the inn at Thornbury, and with-
out any reasonable ground, or any warrant for the
purpose, seized him aed took him into custody
upon that accusation. They soon relinquished their
charge, but the plaintiff has been in a desponding
stare of mind ever since. He had always bore a
most excellent character, and was known to ha'f the
magistrates of the county, and for the preservation
of his character, which has been thus wantonly at-
tacked, he now comes before you.
William Willshire examined by Mr. GODSON.—
The plaintiff has been a butcher at Grovesend, in
Thornbury, for the last twenty years. On Thurs-
day, the 28th of September, I was at New-inn,
Thornbury. The plaintiff and several others were
in the kitchen there. Farmer House and his two
sons came in, and all the three collared and seized
the plaintiff. House said, " The butcher has stolen
my sheep : he has been a sheep-stealer all his life."
In about ten minutes' time they let him loose. The
plaintiff tried to get up before then, but could not,
they held him fast. The defendants produced no
warrant. Verdict for the plaintiff—Damages 2UI.

SPECIMEN OF MR. CANNING'S CONVERSA-
TION.—Mr. Wentworth's energy moved his hearers, and
even Herbert, who was too classical not to be shaken by
these arguments. " Still, however," said the latter, "we
admire, and even wish to emulate Camillus, and MiWades,
and Alexander; a Sully and a Clarendon." "Add a Lord
Burleigh," replied the Minister, "who, in reference to
Spenser, thought an hundred pounds an immense sum for
a song Which is now most thought of, or most loved?
the calculating Minister, or the poor poet ? the puissant
treasurer, or he who was left "in suing long to bide
Sir George and De Vere, considering the quarter whence
it came, were delighted with this question. The doctor,
was silent, and seemed to wish his great friend to go on.
He proceeded thus :—" I might make the same question
as to Horace and Mecienas; and yet, I dare say, Horace
was as proud of being taken in Maczenas's coach to the
capitol, as the Dean of St. Patrick's, in Oxford's or 80..
lingbroke's, to Windsor. Yet Oxford is even now chiefly
remembered through that very Dean, and so would per-
haps Bolingbroke, but that he is an author, and a very
considerable one, himself. We may recollect," continued
he, " the manner in which Whitelocke mentions Milton

—that " one Milton, a blind man," was made secretary
to Cromwell. Whitelocke was then the first subject
in the state, and lived in all the pomp of the seals,
and all the splendour of Bulstrode ; while the blind man
waked at early morn to listen to the lark bidding him good
morrow at his cottage window. Where is the lord keeper
now ? where the blind man ? What is known of Addison as
Secretary of State? and how can his excellency compare
with the man who charms us so exquisitely with his wri-
tings? When I have visited his interesting house at
Hilton, in Warwickshire, sat in his very study, and read
his very books, no words can describe my emotions. I
breathe his official atmosphere here, but without thinking
of him at all. In abort there is this delightful superiority
in literary over political fame, that the one, to say the best
of it, stalks in cold grandeur upon stilts, like a French
tragedy actor,—while the other winds itself into our
warm hearts, and is hugged there with all the affection of
a friend, and all the admiration of a lover. " Hear, hear,"
cried Sir George ; which was echoed by De Vere, and
Herbert himself. " This is very good," said Sir Herbert,
looking at him with great keenness in his small black eyes
—" and we are to understand, therefore, that you would
have been happier in the pursuit of letters and philosophy
than of power. You would, no doubt, prefer, like Waller,
' All on the margin of some flowery stream,
To spread your careless limbs ;'
rather than like Sliakspeare, in a storm,
' To look abroad from some high cliff, superior,

And enjoy the elemental war.' "
" I know not," said Wentworth, " but among friends I may
say, that though I have pursued, and, as some think, ob-
tained power, I have not been the happier for it." All
were struck with the emphasis which he laid upon the
words, " as some think," and each looked at the other with
a significance which seemed to say, more was meant than
meets the ear. He perceived it, and in rather a hurried
manner returned to the subject. " With regard to my-
self," said he, " I repeat, among friends, that the glare we
all live in is not what I should say was real happiness ;
though, like drunkards, few can quit their acquired taste.
I trust, however, I could return to the shade at an hour's
warning, and find a repose far from the gaze of men, more
gratifying than in buffeting and being buffeted as we are,
although victory be the consequenm"...De Vert.

LITERATURE.

VIVIAN GREY.—VoLs. 111., IV., ♦rm V.

The two former volumes of this novel, were
distinguished by the boldness and rapidity of
their conception—the personality of their satire,
and their piquant smartness of style. They had
all the usual faults of youth about them—its
rash estimate of human nature—its hot and
hurried spirit—its self-sophistry—its reckless
audacity ; but mixed with these, were germs of
excellence, that promised at no distant date to
ripen into a successful maturity. This promise,
to a_ certain extent, has been fulfilled in the pre-
sent volumes. There is a greater maturity of
mind about them—a more temperate and enlarged
portraiture of character—and, what is still more
satisfactory, less of that coxcombry and perpetual
' display of fashionable life, which gave such ge-
neral disgust in the preceding sketches. Vivian
Grey, having luckily ceased to be a monster, is
now content to become a man. He has conde-
scended to look upon his companions with an eye
of equality, and even to fall in love, which, from
so pert, precocious, and unfeeling a politician,
is really a very great condescension. But though
he may have fallen in the estimation of his
author, by having thus degraded himself, we
think him not only improved, but even exalted
by the humiliation. We have no sympathy (be-
cause we cannot understand them) with these
very extraordinary intellects—these prose Don
Juans—who affect to stand apart from their fel-
low creatures ; we cannot forget that the master
spirits of our literature—our Milton, Shaks-
peare, Scott, and Burns, reduced even their
worst characters to the level of humanity: that
Milton made his Satan susceptible of remorse—
that Shakspeare's Richard felt one lingering
touch of penitence when fancy shadowed forth
his crimes—that Scott's Serjeant Bothwell, de-
spite his bullying ruffianisM, died with the love-
letters of the gentle Alice in his pocket,—and
that even the Devil, in Tam o' Shanter, was a
sociable well-disposed sort of fiend. It remain-
ed with Mr. d'lsraeli, nobly disdainful of those
inferior minds, to make his Vivian Grey a
monster; and having exhibited him long enough
in that capacity, to change the entertainment, and
reduce him to the level of a man, in which humi-
liating capacity we now proceed to discuss his
merits. At the opening of the 3d volume we find
him at Frankfort, where he meets with a certain
Baron Von Konigstein, an agreeable mixture
of the politican and the pick-pocket (we, beg the
Baron's pardon, gambler, we believe, is the gen-
tlemanly term) whom be accompanies to the
Baths of Ems. At this place Vivian meets also
with two English ladies, one of whom, Lady
Madeline Trevor, is described as being uncom-
monly beautiful and moral ; while the other,
Miss Violet Fane, is slim, sentimental, con-
sumptive, and so forth. With this last, our
hero, as in duty bound, makes all possible haste
to fall in love, and would, we really believe, have
been successful, had it not been for the awkward
circumstance of her dying just at the moment
of acknowledgment. From Ems, Vivian sets out
on a sort of rambling tour through Germany,
where in the midst of an extensive forest, he
chances to light upon a set of Bacchanals, whose
drunken orgies, as he himself witnessed them, is
described with amazing spirit and richness of
effect. Escaping from these tormentors he jogs
slowly onward, accompanied by his servant Essper
George (a half-witted nondescript), and contrives
by good luck, to rescue the German Prince of Little
Lilliput, who chanced to be out hunting at the
time, from the fangs of a voracious wild boar.
By him he is warmly befriended ; invited to his
Castle ; introduced to a Barc.astie man of the
world, Mr. Sievers (a well-conceived character),
and finally persuaded to accompany the Prince
on a visit to the famous German Diplomatist,
M. Beckendorff. An admirable detail is gives!
in this interview of the Minister's peculiar eccen-
tricities. He is a humourist, it seems, as well
as a politician ; and, though strictly private, even
parsimonious, in his mode of life, is supposed to
be the most powerful of Continental Ministers.
By means of this gentleman our hero is ushered
into public life at the Court of tls, Grand Duchy
of Reisenberg, where, for the second time, he
falls in love with a young lady, who, agreeably to
the good old novel receipt, turns out to be a dis-
guised Princess—no less a character, in short,
than an Archduchess of Austria. She requites
his tenderness ; but unluckily, at the moment of
confession, the parties are surprised by that old
fox Beckendorff, who gives Vivian a passport,
and compels him, within twenty-four hours,
to quit Reisenberg for ever. Here terminate the
chief incidents of the novel : there is to be
sure a thunder-storm, in which our hero and his
unwearied servant, Essper George, are caught ; but
as it possesses no marked peculiarity, we dismiss
it with this brief mention. The characters now
demand our notice, among which Beckendorff
stands pre-eminent. There is indeed a vivid
reality about this personage, which renders it
difficult to suppose it fictitious. The alternate
mixture of shrewdness .and eccentricity, the sly
but subdued humour, the calm decisiveness with
which the minister is invested, betoken the art of
a master. Lady Madeline Trevor, on the other
hand, is a downright failure. She is described
as being highly moral in her notions, yet chooses
as her dearest friend, the man whose chief re-
commendation to that character consisted in the
fact of his having made her dishonourable pro-
posals. This may be very fashionable, but it is
very false sentiment, and reminds us of a remark
we heard made the other day at a party, where
a Baronet's wife was described as being " all
soul," which same wife nevertheless eloped next day
with her footman, a fellow with about as much
" soul" in his composition as a baked leg of
mutton. To resume, the character of Vivian
Grey himself we have previously described ;
that of his friend, the gambling Baron, is •
more objectionable. He is, forsooth, not
merely a gambler, but a man of the most
refined sensibility, a little neutralized, perhaps,
by his invariably playing with marked cards.—
For our own parts we think bins far less senti-
mental than a man at the tread-mill. The Prince
of Little Lilliput is an infinitely better-conceived
character. The perpetual struggles between his
pride and prudence are inimitably told, especially
the detailsof his interview with Beckendorff, and
subsequent acceptance of office under the Grand
Duke of Reisenberg. With respect to incident,
we would point out, for particular approbation,
the detection of Baron Von Konigstein's disho-
nesty ; the drunken orgies in the Forest ; the
Ball at Reisenberg, and the love-scene between
Violet and Vivian. The following extract from
this last is, imbued with a high spirit of chivalrous
generosity and, when uttered by a man of even
tolerable address, would instantly find its way to
the heart of a woman were she as cold as the
North Pole. We give it for the gratification of
young ladies :
cannot speak—My face burns
with
Itaawam
cov;erlwhhaevlme
culated gry atrogth of nand._,,