Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1853-01-22

| "Ah, gentle, tender lady mine,
The winter blows cold and shrill,
Come, I'LL me one more glass of wine,
And give the silly fools their will.
"And what care we for war and wrack,
How kings and heroes rise and fall2
Look yonder, in his coffin black,
There lies the greatest OF them all
t'To pluck him down, and keep him up,
Died many million human SOULS
'Tis twelve O'Clock, and tins to sup,
Bid Mary heap the fire with Goals.
"He captured many thousand guns;
He wrote sThe Great before his name;
And dying, only left his sons
The recollection OF his shame.
"Though more than half the world was his,
He died without rood his own;
And borrowed from his enemies,
Six foot of ground to lie upon.
ssHe fought thousand glorious war,
And more than half the world was his,
And, somewhere, now, in yonder stars,
Can tell, mayhap, what greatness is"
In 1872 Fraser contained the Con essions of
Fiteb0odle, followed by the series of Mems
Wees.
The Irssh Sketch Book, by Michael Angelo
Titmarsh London, l843, which the curious may
consult If they wish to enjoy pleasant compag-
non du uoyage, and to know what kind of a ira
weller Thackeray is, and are impatient to learn
how satisfactorily he can serve up country, or
what America may expect in its turn There is
satire you may be sure, and kumor too, and 'sphi-
losophy in sport" There are sore parts of Ire
land scariied and Irish irrtability is set smart
ing, and Pat has a bone to pick with Thackeray,
over which Pat will grumble for some time to
come Our authors Irish Sketch Book has got
him some rough blows in RETURN from those who
know how to handle shillalagh, and can break
heads and bruise bones with the lgiant Michael
Angelo himself. But of this, more anon.
The Luck Of Barry Lyndon a Romance OF The
last Century, was production in Fraser in 1874.
This was the most complete work, to this date,
that Thackeray had written. 1t is the narrative
Of the adventures of Irish Gil Bias, and it has.
too, apart from it's burlesque passages, something
of the characteristics of De Foes Colonel Jack.
The Appletons give us Barry Lyndon. in two
fresh volumes of their Popular Library. The
work has satire, as what production of Thacke.
rays has not, which comes down upon us some
times in the heavy blows of invective. Its mill
tary sketches of pryate's life in the time of the
Great Frederick, are drawn with great spirit and
freedom, and the sunny humor is occasionally
overcast with thunder-cloud, which breaks in o
clap like this
81 saw no one of higher rank that day than
my colonel and couple of orderly officers riding
by in the smoke-no one on our side, that is. A
poor corporal las then had the disgrace of be-
ing) is not generally invited into the company of
commanders and the great; but, in revenge, I
saw, promise you, some very good company On
Me French part, for their regiments of Lorraine
and Royal Cravatte were charging us all day;
and in that sort of melee high and low are pretty
equally received. hate Dragging, but l cannot
help saying that l made very close acquain-
lance with the colonel of the Cravattes, f,r l
drove my bayonet into his body, and finished off
a poor little ensign, so young, slender and small,
that blow from my pig-tail would have des-
patched him, think, In place of the butt of my
musket, with which dubbed him down. I kill
ed, besides, four more officers and men, and in
the poor ensign's pocket found purse of fourteen
louisd or, and a silver box of sugar plums, of
which the former present was very agreeable to
me. If people would tell their stories Of battles in
this simple way, think the cause of truth would
not suffer by it. All know of this famous fight
of Minden Except from books is told here above.
The ensgns silver bon-6on box and his purse of
gold; the livid face of the poor fellow as he FELL
the huzzas OF the men of my company as went
out under smart fire, and rifed him; their
shouts and curses as we came hand in hand with
the Frenchmen, these are, in truth, not very
dignified recollections, and had best be passed
over briefly. When my kind friend Pagan was
shot, brother captain, and his very good friend,
turned to Lieutenant Rawson, and said, 'Fagan's
all the epitaph my brave patron got. Il should
have left you hundred guineas, Redmond
were his last words to me, but for cursed run
of l-luck last hight at faro; and he gave me
faint squeeze of the hand; and, as the word was
given to advance, | left him. When we came
back to our old ground, which we presently did,
he was lying there still, but he was dead. Some
of our people had already torn off his epaulets,
and, no doubt, had riaed his purse. Such knaves
and rutians do linen in war become 1t is we'll
for gentlemen to talk Of the age of chivalry; but
remember the starving brutes whom they lead
men nursed in poverty, entirely ignorant, made to
take pride in deeds of blood-men who can
have no amusement but in drunkenness, debauch,
and plumber 1t is with these shocking instru-
mentS that your great warriors and kings have
been doing their murderous work in the world;
and while, for instance, we are at the present mo-
ment admiring the Great Frederick, as we call
him, and his philosophy, and his liberality, and
his military genius, |, who have served him, and
been, as it were, behind the scenes of which that
great spectacle IS composed, can only look at it
with horror. What number of items of human
crime, misery, slavery, to form that sum total
glory! can recolect certain day, about three
weeks after the battle of Minden, and farm
house in which some of US entered; and how the
old woman and her daughters served us, trem-
bling, to wine; and how we got drunk over the
wine, and the house was in flame presently;
and woe betide the wretched fellow afterwards
who came home to look for his house and chill
dren ~
Among the characters of the book, we
commend to the enjoyment of our readers
that of German polyglot, who knows eve
rything, from the Arabic to tight-rope dan
cling. concluding page of Barry Lyndon let's
us into the secret of the moral of Thackeray's
books:-
'.If the tale of his life have any moral (which
sometimes doubt), it is that honesty is not the
best policy. That was a pettfogger's maxim,
Tho half admits he would be rogue if he found
his profit in it, and has led astray scores of mis-
guided people both in novels and the world, who
forthwith set up the worldly prosperity or adj
versty of man as standards by which his worth
should be tried. Noyelists esnecially make q