The Sun.
London, England, 1838-06-27 00:00:00

ROLLS' COURT.-(THIS DAY.)

SITTING OF THE COURT.
The MASTER of the Rol.Ls stated that he should not sit in his Court
to-morrow or Friday.

LORD MOSTYN V. DURDEKIN.
His LORDSHIP was occupied the whole of the morning with the argu-
ments in this case. The Bill was filed by the plaintiff for the purpose
of getting relieved from the obligation of a promissory note for 2,500/.
given by the plaintiff to a Mr. Pugh.

LITERATURE.

SONGS, SONNETS, AND MISCELLANEOUS

POEMS.
Fox, London, 1838.
This little volume is the production of John and Mary
Saunders—husband and wife, we presume--and contains
more than one poem characterized by just feeling and un-
affected simplicity of style. We must confess we like the
lady's contributions the best, for they seem to spring more
directly from the heart. The sonnet on "An English
Village," which is the only poem in the collection without a
signature is, we take for granted, from her pen. We sub-
join this pleasing effusion, which is fully equal to Bowlfs's
earlier sonnets, and is not much unlike his manner :
" Dear English village grassy nest of peace,
Where bird-like singeth still the human heart,
Never, oh never, may thy sweet fame cease,
Thine artless children from thy vale depart ;
Long may they there laugh out in harvest glee;
Down thegreen slopes among the clover, laugh ;
Thy ruddy maids still carol jocundly ;
Thy sons the horn round winter hearth-stones quaff,
And to the simple Church, in simple guise,
Still decently repair as Sabbaths come,
Where in rude harmony their voices riso
To God, to fit them for their Heavenly home—
Oh, sick and weary of the world's vain strife,
How glad were Ito lead a village life '!'
The second line in this sonnet is very felicitously ex-
pressed, and the whole has a quiet repose about it, in per-
fect keeping with the subject. What a pity that one who
can write in this style, should put forth such hopeless drivel
as the following !

" Marinette—why loved I her ?
She was meek and she was fair,
Sweet Marinette !
" Marinette—like silver bells,
Then rang out her laughing peals,
Glad Marinette !

•• m.rinette_to the she clung,
On me all her heart she hung,
Fond Marinette!

" Marinette—her cheek is pale,
All her happy spirits fail,
Sad Marinette

" Marinette will conquer pain,
She will try to laugh again—
Good Marinette!"
The disciples of the daffodil and butter-cup school of
Poesy will, we suppose, be in extacies with the exceeding
freshness and purity of this canzonet, which, however, to
our thinking, is as very a piece of barley-sugar sentiment
as was ever concocted by a crazy Cockney bard, while
lying inspired full length in a cart-rut under Prim-
rose-hill on a summer's day, or watching from the
brow of that Arcadian eminence, the " Great God Pan"
come bounding up from the Regent'S Park towards him !
But though Mary Saunders be the author of this silly
twaddle, we shall hold John Saunders accountable for it,
on that excellent principle which holds good in law, that
the wife is always supposed to act at the instigation of the
husband. We remember reading, many years since, in a
novel, written by Mr. Barrett, the following quizzical ode
on Sensibility, which we protest upon our honour, we think
infinitely less absurd than the above, and which for that rea-
son we subjoin :

Dear Sensibility, oh la !
I heard a little lamb cry " Ba!"
Says I, " So you have lost Mama
All I"

The little lamb as I said so,
Frisking about the field did go,
And frisking, trod upon my toe,
Oh!

We should not hare spoken so unceremoniously respect-
" poor Marinette," had we not seen indications in the
volume before us that the authors are capable of far better
things. They have quick and ardent feelings, and a poe-
tical apprehension of no ordinary calibre ; we have there-
fore thought it our duty to administer a bland and tender
corrective, in the hope that it may be attended with be-
neficial results.

LARDIVER'S CYCLOPEDIA., -No. 103.
Longman, London, 1838.
Mr. Connop Thirlwall's History of Greece is continued
in this volume, which forms the fifth of the series ; and
commences with a review of the position of Sparta at the
peace of Antalcidas, and goes down to the period of the
overrunning of Phocis, by the shrewd, statesmanlike Phillip
of Macedon, which, it may be remembered, forms the
subject of one of the most affecting and impressive
passages in Dernosthenes's speeches against iEschines ; and
from which we are convinced Burke derived the germs of his
striking description of the overrunning of the Carnatic by
the forces of Hyder Ally—the most splendid episode in his
best speech on the Nabob of Arcot's debts. Mr. Thirl-
wall is a sound reasoner, and goes to the heart of his sub-
ject-matter. He takes nothing for granted, nor does he
slavishly follow in the track of his predecessors. He is at
times, however, somewhat too minute and prolix in his re-
capitulations.

LIBRARY of ENTERTAINING KNOWLEDGE.
C. Knight, London, 1838.
The volume before us is wholly biographical, containing
memoirs of many of the most distinguished men of modern
times. These memoirs are brief—some of them, such,
for instance, as Burke and Napoleon, too much so—but
they are all written with candour, and without any desire
either unduly to depreciate or to eulogize.

COMMENTARIES on the CONSTITUTION and
LAWS of ENGLAND, ii.corporated with the POLI-
TICAL TEXT of J. L. DE LOLME, L.L.D.
By TuomAs G. WEsTnnx, Esq., of the Middle Temple.
London, Houghton, 1838.
There are few readers in the slightest degree acquainted
with the principles of the British Constitution who are not
well acquainted with M. De Lolme's popular treatise on
the Government and Laws of England—a work deservedly
regarded as only second in interest to the admirable com-
mentaries of Sir W. Blackstone. But as many most im-
portant changes have taken place in the Constitution of
England since 1784, when De Lolme published the last
edition of his work—particularly as regards the principles
of our penal and criminal codes, and the regulation of the
elective franchise—Mr. Western has undertaken the ar-
duous and hitherto unattempted task of striking out from
the text of De Lolrue the portions of his treatise which ,

have become obsolete, and interweaving in the body of the
work the history of all the principal recent changes which
have been effected in the Laws and the Constitution of Par-
liament, in order to render it a safe and trustworthy guide
to readers of the present day. He states in his preface that
he has invariably preserved, where it was possible, and al-
tered with diffidence, the text of De Lolme. On looking
carefully through his work, and comparing the text with
that of the excellent edition of De Lolme, published by
Mr. W. Hughes Hughes in 1834, we are bound to ob-
serve that he would have executed his task much more to
our satisfaction had he meddled with the text still less
than he has done. In some instances he has rendered that
obscure which was before palpable, and in others his alte-
rations, uncalled for by any necessity, have made nonsense
of the passages in which they occur. Let us take, as an
example, the first sentence in the concluding chapter:—