The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-07-10 00:00:00

MODERN INTELLIGENCE.

It is quite amusing to read, as we do, every now and then,
a paragraph in newspapers, exemplifying ignorance and super-
stition, by an anecdote of some poor dupe, in a far country
village, victimised by a fortune-teller ; the writer forgetting
that in the metropolis, in which he writes, " ignorance and
superstition," even of the same kind, may be found, or may
have been lately, among those who are classed the prudent,
the educated, the wealthy. The poor almanac-makers were
innocent if compared with spirit-rappers and mesmeric for-
tune-tellers. Cagliostro grew rich at court, and among the
great Cagliostros still exist under other names. Whoever
will have the impudence to assert boldly, and trick it cleverly,
that he has direct intercourse with the world of spirits, will
not lack believers, followers, nor almost worshippers.
In an article headed " Modern Light Literature—
Theology. The Broad Church," the writer, in a style
of irony and indignation, exposes the absurd reasoning
and dangerous doctrines propounded by the Rev.
Frederic Denison Maurice, chaplain of Lincoln's Inn.
After a romantic story, entitled " Vernier," poetically
told by Edwin Arnold, we have a continuation of " The
Story of the Campaign, written in a Tent in the Cri-
mea," an extract from which we gave last week. " Two
Years of the Condemned Cabinet" is one of those mas-
terly political essays for which Blackwood's Magazine
has long been justly celebrated ; and the concluding
article, headed " Administrative Reform—the Civil
Service," contains some judicious observations on a
subject which has lately excited a more than ordinary
share of public attention.

Blackstone' s Commentaries, systematically abridged
and adapted to the Existing State of the Law and
Constitution, with great additions. By Samuel
Warren, D.C.L., F.R.S., Q.C., London: W. Maxwell.
That the author of this comprehensive and well-
systematised work is a voluminous writer as well as

a great and deserved public favourite in the world of
literature, is a fact too patent to require corroboration ;
it has been long admitted, and is as much rejoiced in
by an admiring circle of votaries almost co-extensive
with the reading public. How he has Ibiind tibm sQ ,
amply to explore, so fully to illustrate the recesses of
the moral and intellectual world as he has done, while
engrossed with the cares and burdened with the duties
of a laborious profession, has been a puzzle to those
who look only to results, without troubling themselves
to inquire as to the vigour of intellect, the indomitable
will, and the assiduity of purpose, which are at all
times, and under all circumstances, characteristic of
the master mind. Those who, like ourselves, have
watched narrowly the career of Mr. Warren, will rea-
dily have perceived a growing maturation of intellect
as his progress has been onward in the paths of lite-
rature, and upward on the road to fame. His earlier
efforts were marked by liveliness of fancy, keen discri-
mination, varied yet powerful delineation, a taste
almost fastidious in its refinement, and an inexhausti-
ble fund of correct and generous feeling. As he pro-
ceeded on his journey, his tread became more free, his
air more commanding,his self-reliance emboldened and
expanded. Judgment, with sedate consideration, now
followed 'on his footsteps, and the severity of her
counsels conferred a graceful dignity on his achieve-
ments. His writings have lately been attuned to a
grander and more solemn harmony than was their
early wont, and, guided by the lamp of Christian faith
and hope, he has ranged through many of the more
intricate rounds of philosophic speculation ; while he
has, from time to time, given sonorous exposition to
difficulties which embrace many of the recondite prin-
ciples on which his own profession is based. In each
of these progressive steps, the calmly meditative mind
has been more and more clearly defined ; the sharpened
and comprehensive judgment more revealed. Every
step, indeed, has indicated the ceaseless diligence of
an acute and anxious intellect bent upon exploring and
unfolding the hidden stores of knowledge.
On a recent occasion we embraced the opportunity
of glancing slightly at his forensic skill, as that was
evinced in the felicity he displayed in analyzing evi-
dence, and out of that rearing up a fabric of massive
strength and symmetric beauty—or, by its aid, rend-
ing the mask from villany and laying bare pretension.
In that instance he presented to our view the cautious,
painstaking, and dexterous unraveller of plots and
factions—the ready detector of the slightest deceit—
the able expositor of truth, however overlaid—the
persuasive pleader for the beauty • and strength of
virtue and of truth—the skilful demonstrator of a case
as that is to be judged according to the action of
our law.
He now comes before us as the occupant of a higher
sphere. In the work whose title stands at the head
of these remarks, he challenges the observation of his
country as an expositor of those principles of law and
justice on which hang not merely the rights and im-
munities of individuals, but on which, in fact, depend
the safety of the state, the well-being and existence of
the commonweal. The self-imposed task is one of
vast importance—the position it implies is one of
great dignity ; it is also one involving deep responsi-
bility, and of this latter fact Mr. Warren feels evi-
dently the full and impressive weight ; but, having
felt the weight of the responsibility, he has not been
deterred from undertaking it, 'though the sense of its
importance has obviously stimulated him to arduous
preparation. He tells us the work is the result of
twenty years' unremitted labour, often rendered par-
tially nugatory by the changes which from day to
day the legislature has wrought upon the law, while
his labours were in progress. Still, he has manfully
addressed himself to the Sisyphean duty, and has suc-
cessfully attained the object of his ambition. Deeply
impressed with the solemn majesty of his coveted
position, Mr. Warren feels that " the contemplation