The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-30 00:00:00

the merely actual and simply matter-of-fact—
abandoning at will the luxurious charms of fancy
and the seductive faeryland of imagination.
Whenever, moreover, Mr. WARREN has thrown
aside his pen as a romancist, to take it up anew
as a lawyer, his professional writings have always
assumed to themselves even in their manner, in
the style of their composition, a peculiarly solid
and practical character. They have been the pro-
ductions not of a dreamer, but of a master of
jurisprudence. They have displayed this in their
oneness of design, their concinnity of expression,
and their plenary appreciation of what ought in-
variably to be regarded as the three most desir-
able merits to be found in works of this descrip-
tion—clearness, completeness, and condensation.
Admirably as these qualities have been united in
the previous effusions of Mr. WARREN, "as a
lawyer," they have never been so homogeneously
combined as in the one just published, a work
scarcely less attractive to the mass of electors
throughout the country, than to Solicitors, and
Counsel, and Agents, and Members, and Candi-
dates, constituting as it does an authoritative
manual of the whole Parliamentary Election Law
of the United Kingdom.
Several reasons have induced us to direct at-
tention in this manner through our leading co-
lumns, to a volume which we conceive to be one of
very great political importance. Among other rea-
sons we do so, because in this matter we speak less
as critics than as publicists, less as reviewers than
as journalists. Then, also, we are disposed to
comment in this manner upon the circumstance

of its appearance, as, according to our previous
argument, a brilliant evidence that sound legal
knowledge may be allied with eminent literary
capacities, that one and the same man may be a
practical lawyer, and yet, at the same time, enjoy
deservedly a high reputation in polite literature.
Besides, we take it to be but just and reasonable
that there should be some express recognition of
the enormous labour manifestly devoted to a pro-
duction of such great public utility as that relat-

ing to the law and practice of Election Com•
mittees—an amount of labour absolutely astonish-
ing if viewed in reference to the mere toil of

compilation. Without any work whatever of this
character, the authorities, more particularly of
late, have suffered really grievous inconvenience.
Everything considered, therefore, it comes before
the public most opportunely. What consider-
ably enhances its value, and cannot fail to render
it doubly acceptable, is that, while the style of
the work is delightfully graphic and picturesque,
the details accumulated in the different chapters
appear, from all we have yet been enabled to see
in the way of analytic examination, to be remark-
able for their general accuracy. It is lamentable
to reflect that the author closes his elaborate en-
terprise with the acknowledgment that " the im-
pression left on the mind (after the most painful
scrutiny of the subject) is that of sorrow and
mortification :" an impression, says Mr. WARREN,
" forcing one to exclaim—how much corruption.
exists which no legislation can prevent, detect, or
punish !" It is the old sad story—the old
melancholy lamentation. Perhaps the Learned
Recorder of Hull will pardon us, in consideration
of our political tenets, when we venture to ques-
tion the absolute necessity of that most sorrowful
and even despairing conclusion. Certainly we
shall be forgiven for so doing, by our good
friend the Hon. Member for the City of Bristol
—that VILLIERS of the Ballot. Until it (the
Ballot) shall have been " tried and found want-
ing," we cannot by any means regard the preven-
tion, detection, and punishment of the corruption
still (I) existing as beyond the reach of AIL legis-
lation. However this may be—whether good or
evil would result from that " Un-English" sys-
tem which is nevertheless not so " Un-English,"
but that it can be habitually resorted to at the
Club-houses by English Gentlemen—the cause of
Parliamentary Reform, no matter how unwit-
tingly, cannot fail to be advanced by the appear-
ance of the elaborate and comprehensive volume
which Mr. WARREN has here presented to the
country and to the Legislature. Considered in
detail, the -various sections of the work will be
found, as in the instance of the chapters relating
to " Evidence" and " Agency," worked up with
admirable skill into very treatises or disquisitions.
Viewed as a whole, the work will be admitted on
all hands, we doubt not, to be a sufficient attesta-
tion of Mr. WARREN'S legal ability, and to con-
stitute the latest and not the least interesting tes-
timony that a practical lawyer may—just within
the limits of possibility—be one of the "bright par-
ticular stars" of literature. Henceforth, or we
are marvellously mistaken, WARREN'S " Law of
Elections" will be referred to as the standard au-
thority
even within the walls of Parliament.