The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 30, 1864.

LITERATURE.

The Convocation and the Crown in Council. A
Stcond Letter to an Anglican Friend. By H.
E. Manning, D.D. Bvo., pp. 39. Longman and

The recent act of Convocation, by which it has
put itself in direct opposition to the Crown in
Council, is a circumstance of great interest in the
history of the Church ofEnglaud. This act has been
severely censured, as illegal and ridiculous bythe
Lord Chancellor, on the otherliand it has been warmly
defended by the Bishop of Oxford. The present
letter treats on the effect which is likely to be pro-
duced by the decision legally on the Established
Church, and morally on the religious feeling of
the English people. It is valuable because written
by one who is not personally affected by it, and who
stands and looks on as a spectator, and who is, more-
over, well qualified to form an opinion by his great
familiarity with the proceedings in ecclesiastical
courts and matters of the canon law. Although,
of course, the writer is a zealous Boman Catholic,
the letter is written with great moderation, and
apparent goodwill for those who do not agree with
him in his religious convictions.

Me Biglow Papers. By James Russell Lowell.
Second Series. Pp. 13G. T.inner and Co.
Another, a briefer, but un cqualiy racy series of
these delightfully ridiculous exemplaw (in a
rythmical form) of genuine Yankee wit, humour,
' s'AT3sm, satire, all rolled into one, sustains to the
full, it it does not ac'ually exalt still higher the
admiration excited in our minds by the publication
of the former and larger series of the Biglow
Papers, enhances our unaffected admiration, we
would say, for the grotesque genius of James
R. Lowell. An original, a thorough original,
the author of these same Biglow Papers indise
putably is, if ever there was one. An original
tie is, as surely as was Sam Slick, when he first in-
troduced us to the Clockmaker—nay, as surely even
as Boz himself, when he followed up his inimitable
tittle Sketches of Landon Life and Caaracter, pub-
lished originally within the co- umns of the Evening
Chronicle, in the green shill ing monthly num-
bers (illustrated, first by Seyt our, afterwards by
Phiz) of the immortal "Pick,e ick Papers.,' Yes,
as tru'y in his way is the author of the " Biglow
Papers" an original as even the world-famous
author of the " Pickwick Papers." In his way—
observe ! For the two writers stand in no degree
upon the same level. They are wide as the globe
asunder. The one a great writer, the other a
very small one. 'The one fl:eting and fugitive in
reputation, the other, years and years ago, secure
of a lasting fame as one of the glories of our national
literature. Yet, granting this immense difference
between the two men—between these two conspicu-
ous humorists—the ephemeral Yankee humorist and
the immortal English humorist—James Lowell ie,
to our mind, as undeniably an original as Charles
D:ckecs himself. The Biglow Papers are as die.
tinct an attestation of the grotesque genius of the
one as the Pickwick Papers were of the radiant and
perennial genius of the other. They are fugitive
pieces, these Biglow Papers, undeniably, and the
more's the pity. But shot though the folly is, here
as it flies—it is shot with an unerring aim, and that
too with shafts of delightful ridicule, winged with
wit, pointed with irony, barbed with sarcasm
The humour of the thing, such as it is, is sui generis
unrivalled, unapproached, unapproachable.
Coarse, vulgar, slangular, preposterous, if you will,
but racy, poignant, full of flavour—the flavour not
of attic salt, but of genuine Yankee acid.

Buy your own Cherries. By John W. Kirton,

Pp, 32. S. W. Partridge.

A capital low life story, with a moral
running all through it like a golden
thread woven into a hit of tapestry. " Buy
your Own Cherries," may take rank with
the famous historiette, entitled " A Trap to Catch
a Sunbeam." Mr. Kirton's tale about the Cherries,
however, has this advantage over that yet more
popular story about the Sunbeam, written
by one of his anonymous contemporaries—to wit,
the fact of the former having about it much
less of what we may call the " goody " character.
A. wholesome, manly, I..onaely sketch of artizan
life this is, in truth, and one flavoared, moreover,
with several charming little touches of genuine
humour, as where Jack Lewis, "Mr, Lewis," by
the way, goes a•marketing with his tuissus—or,
still better, where the goods come dropping in upon
Tommy and Sally to their exceeding wonderment.

The history and Mystery of a Glass of Ale. By
J. W. Kirton, Pp. 72. S. W. Partridge.
A great deal of interesting information is hero
completed together very pleasantly. Mr Kirton ex-
plains the mystery and relates the history of "A
Glass of Ale " in an agreeable and colloquial man-
ner: and we can't by possibility quarrel with him if
he tacks on to his present paper (about malting and
so forth) an earnest recommendation of the advan-
t iges of teetotalism. Teetotallers though we our.
selves are not, we cannot for the life of na quarrel
with that part of Mr Kirtoo'e argument—it we give
but one casual glance any day in the whole year to the
reports of the police.oflices—otherwise, to the daily
retards of the crimes resulting from the vice of
drunkenness.

The Duke and Duchess of Manchester are among
the guests of the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland at Duo-
robin Castle, N,B,