The Press.
London, England, 1857-05-09 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

" original views." He confesses himself thus
in his preface :
In the composition of his work, the author has been
much influenced by the conviction that there may be a
great advantage in omitting to mention facts which teach
little that is worth knowing. Though every shell gathered
on the seashore proclaims the greatness of the Divinity,
and though the study of shells might lead to the discovery
of a dye that would rival the Tyrian purple, yet persona in
an ordinary station of life may do better than devote them-
selves to the study of conchology. The author is also c3n•
♦inced that it is better to state the opinions and arguments
of a Bacon or a Lord Mansfield than indulge too much in
original views, which would be without the support of an
established political reputation, and which, if not parti•
cularly striking, would be deemed worthless in this age of
light literature, lectures, and encycloparlias.

The serene pomposity with which he turns up
his nose at this age of "light literature and
" encyclopedias," while he hesitates about
putting forth his " original views," is
charmingly comic. It reminds us of the
schoolboy who told his friends that lie had
written a tragedy " in the same style as Shake-

spcare s.
There is no detailed table of contents to
this volume, nor an index. The chapters cf
which it is composed are thus headed

The Constitution—Sovereignty—The Feud il System—
The English Law of Landed ['rope -t)—Magna Charta of
John—The Reign of Charles I.—Petition of Right—
Hampden's Appeal against Ship Mone3—The Pill of
Rights—The Act of Settlement—The Law of Treason—
Parliamentary Supplies—The Liberty of the Press—Poli•
tical Relations between England and her Dependencies.

We might have supposed that " Church and
State" would occupy the attention of a cum•
meutator, or the " House of Lords," or the
" House of Commons," or " Franchises," or
" Counties, Cities, and Boroughs." The defi-
nition of "The English Constitution " is a
ponderous joke, which we shall not withhold
from our readers. The first sentence runs
thus: --
The English Constitution, as it substantially exists, may
be defined as the aggregate of the laws that determine the
political relations between the bodies that share in sove-
reign power, and between those bodies and all subordinate
legislatures, together with the laws that regulate the poll-
tieal relation% between the sovereign bodies. the subordi-
nate legislatures, and the individual members of the com-
munity.

That is a matchless specimen of a lucid defi-
nition. and w•e refer it to the notice of the
lovers of "light literature." The commentator
then continues :

Parliament possesses a sovereignty in the sense of legal
impunity ; but though Parliament, taken cillectively, can-
not be legally hound, yet the King, Lords, and Commons,
like the Legislatures of the British dependencies, are sepa-
rately capable of receiving legal obligations, and therefore
each of them may be leg illy bound in their political rela-
tions towards the subordinate legislatures and toward,' the
individual members of the community.
This will read as so much " news " to consti-
tutional lawyers. The confusion of ideas in
the author's mind, resulting from his not dis-
tinguishing between the " Constitution" and
the " Empire," is ludicrously obvious.

At definitions this author shines. Here is
a luminous sentence :
In truth, feudalism was the product of that elelnent of
the principle of status which is termed commendation,
united to that element of the principle of contract which
is styled emphyteusie.

We are reminded of the 1ec,,,11 pedants' ques-
tion, at which all readers of " light literature"
would be amused, and most perusers of
" cyclopiedias" would be puzzled. " Whether
" goods taken in withernarn are irreplevisable?"
But enough of a ,cork which is only a stu-
dent's commonplace-book on th• 3 text-writers
of the Constitution. We trust that the noble
Secretary for Foreign Affairs will not choose
this volume as a handbook for the candidates
for employment in the F.O. Department.

The Roua Pass; or, Englishmen in the High-
lands. By Erick Mackenzie. Three Vols.
London: Smith and Elder.

SCOTCH novels have not yet gone out of fashion.
There arc phases of northern life Ivhieh are
worth describing ; and the contrasts of Scotch
society, with the rich background of the High-
lands, offers tempting materials for a novelist's
art. The domestic life of Scotland is interest-
ing—a fact which has been rather obscured
from the circumstance of Scott having asso•
elated the renown of his fictions with "histori-
cal" scenes and subjects. As a relief to the
still life of our English tales, it is probable