The Sun. — 1849-05-07 (London, England)

ALISON'S HISTORY OF EUROPE. Eighth Edition. Illustrated with Portraits. Vol. 11. This remarkable edition of the great historical masterpiece of Archibald Alison is continued—the second volume being embellished with three very striking engravings of three very hideous mortals, Mirabeau, Danton, end Marat. The two latter appear to us to be the most characteristic, the head of Mirabeau scarcely conveying that impression of grandeur which has made Hugo liken him to a Titan, and Chateaubriand depict him, in one of his sublime figures of speech, as the impersonation of Chaos. Marat, on the contrary, is evidently life-like. In the insolent ugliness of his features, you recognise the ruffian who emerged from the filth of his subterranean haunts to thrust his loathsome dogmas upon the. Legislature. Through all that squalor and deformity, however, it is itnpo&sible not to perceive the intellectuality that dazzled the millions in the columns of his famous Anti du Peuple. In the coarse and contorted countenance of Danton, a countenance seamed with the small-pox and illumined by the daring of his undaunted genius, you look, and not in vain, for those evidences of courage, of self-reliance, of capacity, of good nature, and yet of ruthless and inexorable resolution, which made up the incongruous emperament of the man who, after organizing and carrying out with a pitiless will the massacres of September, retired to his native place with his young and beautiful bride to smother remorse in the midst of voluptuous pleasures. We are fain to hope that the next volume may— though somewhat after date—contain a portrait of the young, the loving, the eccentric, the witty, the eloquent, the bold, the fanatical, the unhappy author of the Vieux Cordelier, poor Camille Desmoulins. I'Ve must not omit to mention that the second volume is accompanied with the second part of the re-issue of the masterly Atlas, illustrative of the history. Every student of the wars of the Revolution awl of the Empire will find the plates in this Atlas inestimable treasures.  FRANK FORBSTER AND HIS FRIENDS, By W. IL Herbert. 3 Vols. The author of " Cromwell" and of " Field Sports in the United States," two very dissimilar works to be written by the same pen, has now united the sportsman with the novelist, end produced a hook which possesses rqual attractions for the lovers of field sports, and for the general reader. Mr. Herbert is evidently an enthusiastic votary of the " noble science of Woodcraft," as he terms it. According to the revelations of Frank Forester, it would stern that a thorough sportsman is something of an admirable Crichton. He can turn his hand to anything. The stern apprenticeship, which an American sportsman must go through, endues him (according to Mr. Herbert, and very probably ho is right to a certain extent,) with almost universal knowledge, or at least it obliges him to make use of all his powers of observation, and all his reasoning faculties, and consequently he is (naturally enough) the very man fcr an emergency. No matter what the difficulty may be, whether to bring a murderer to justice, or to " make two lovers happy," tne sportsman's ready ingenuity and instinctive quickness of perception will overcome it triumphantly. In proof of this peculiar talent we may cite two instances in which Frank Forester's sporting friend, Harry, greatly distinguished himself. Frank and Harry, and an old huntsman, were out shooting in the forest, when, hearing a shot fired at a little distance from them, Harry ran on to inquire the cause ' • on his companions overtaking him they found him contemplating the corp se of a man known to them all, who had evidently been killed by the shot just fired. The bullet had pierced his brain, and was found in a tree at a little distance • his gun, just discharged lay by his side, it seemed evident that the unhappy trhrhiaaevnehhadln., ot us cmgohamtn ibat utnetddn soot sa suicide.onyiy'Surprise So Harry, thought Frank and spectator and grief wouldf in no wise diminished his powers of keen observation. He bade his friends notice that the bullet had descended in traversing the skull, the aperture at back of the dead man's head being lower than that in front. Had he shot himself the gun would have been pointed upwards, and the bullet would consequently have ascended. Then making Frank stand at the corpse's feet, in the very place where the victim had stood when receiving the shot, he bade the old huntsman go to the tree where the bullet had lodged, and, looking at Frank, take the direction from whence the shot must have come. These preliminaries being concluded, and it being evident that murder had been committed, Harrys next care was to discover and trace the footsteps of the criminal. This was accomplished with some difficulty, the murderer having made e covering his footsteps w iutz of branchesth I n ad ni adn 'lse advoeds g; eh uo ft' Harry fugitive's traces. with a acquainted with this trick also, and with a little trouble got upon the we have said it may be seen that will not folovv him in his perilous pruinrskuFito;rfersotemews•andat. but that interest is not always of sue appalling ventures are in no way deficient ina interest, h character ; for example, on the other occasion to w ich we alluded above, when one of Frank Forester's friends found it necessary to " run away " with his promised bride, in consequence of her brother's invincible I oljoction 11r) Eogl+shmari, Harry c-,l.l,iiict;!(l the elopf:lilent usual skill. We Nvi! allnviiitincr it, tpoit the veiy (•xeitiog description of how Harry drove the runaways in his sledge at full speed through field and forest, with the angry brother closeupon their heelo.:Thedenouentent is