The Sun. — 1844-07-01 (London, England)

AINS WORTH'S MAGAZINE. In the present chapters of the editor's novel of " St. James's" we have a passing glimpse of the notorious Doctor Sacheverell, a shallow blustering bigot, who would never have been heard of beyond the street in which he lived, had not the suicidal policy of the Whigs elevated him for a lime into a martyr. The history of this High Church quack's triumphal pro gress through the western counties of England is the most ridiculous that can possibly be conceived. He travelled in first rate style in a carriage and four, and was received by the thick-headed squires at whose houses he lodged on his road, with honours scarcely inferior to those which would have been paid to a sovereign prince. As he was not very particular in money matters, he made a point of borrowing as much loose cash as his entertainers could conveniently spare him ; but, when the promised day of re-payment came round, behold, the Doctor was not to be found. .Abiit—excessit--evasit—erupit ; in plain English, he had bolted ! His story is a difficult one for a novelist to handle with any hope of effect, and, accordingly, Mr. Ainsworth judiciously contents himself with just slightly glancing at it. lhe " Wrong Omnibus" is a strange story, supposed to be told by a lunatic, respecting a murder which he imagined he had committed, and for which he requested as a particular favour that he might be hanged. His commendable wish, however, was not complied with, and he was shut up instead within the four walls of Bedlam. In the critical notice of "Jesse's Life of Beau Brummell," the reviewer states that " the qualities which made this prince of fops what he was, were impudence without limit, and selfishness without scruple." Brummell must have had other and rarer qualities than these, or he never would have ruled so long as a dictator at the West-end. Wit, or if not wit, great readiness of repartee we know he had; but he must have had also imperturbable self-possession, quick insight into character, and a power of turning to his own advantage the weaknesses of those with whom he associated. These are requisites far superior to those usually found in the mere fop, and will go far to account for the grinding despotism which Brummell exercised far nearly twenty years over the world of fashion. Poor George ! With alll his mincing dandyism he was a gentleman at heart. He refused to snake money, when he had scarcely a sou in his pocket, by publishing his memoirs, for which large sums had been offered him; and in his quarrel with the Prince Regent—a man every way his inferior—evinced a manly spirit of independence and selfrespect, as rare then as it is now among the courtier tribe. " A Jar of Honey from Mount Hybla" is one of Leigh Hunt's discriminating critical essays, who is never so much at home as when descanting on the genius of Spenser, as he here does—a poet whom, to our shame be it said, we have three several times endeavoured to read, and asoften failed in our attempt. We can devour Dryden, with his sounding versification, vigorous sense, and felicitous periphrases, and specially relish the courtly compliments and condensed cutting sarcasm of Pope ; but the genius of Spenser is too abstract for our sympathies ; he dwells in an enchantel world of his own, and few, we suspect, but men of vivid fancy can properly appreciate him. " A Lapse of Forty Years" is a journal of a man of fashion at two different periods of his life. Here is his diary, penned when he had become a superannuated Roue, 65 years of age : "