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

THE SAME AS ALTERED BY MR. WESTERN.

" In order to give a further proof of the soundness of the principles
upon which the English Government is founded, and to confute in ge-
neral the opinion of foreign writers or politicians, who misled by the ap-
parent heat with which these disputes [what disputes ?] are carried on,
and the clamour to which they give occasion, look upon England as a
perpetual scene of civil broils and dissentions."

By striking out the first principal member of the sentence
here quoted, Mr. Western has succeeded in depriving it of
all meaning. He has nearly done as much for the very
last sentence of the work. In both instances the alterations
appear to us to be anything but necessary. However
highly, therefore, we may estimate Mr. Western's acquire-
ments as a lawyer, we cannot compliment him on the ele-
gance and purity of his style. He might have borrowed
with advantage many of Mr. Hughes' notes, as well as se-
veral appended to Chitty's excellent edition of " Black-
stone's Commentaries." With equal profit to the rising
generation might he have avoided his constitutional disser-
tations on the Ballot, and several other questions which are
yet but the subjects of popular discussion out of doors
His business was with the Constitution and the Laws—not
with the possible consequences of presumable changes in
them. So much for our objections to Mr. Western's exe-
cution of a design at once great, laborious, and laudable ;
and which with all its faults well deserves to become popu-
lar. It is dedicated by permission to the Queen.

THE AT.HEN.EUM—ANIMAL MA GNETIS3I.
There cannot be the least doubt that our scientific Con-
teMporary of the " Athenaeum" is perfectly correct in the
assertion, that

" What's impossible can never be ;"

but the fact is, that the older the world grows the more
scarce become the impossibilities ; and although we do not
go so far in credulity as that venerable Father of the Church
who believed in certain matters because they were impos-
sible, we utterly deny the statement that "no sound mind
should act " upon the truth that " we know not the bounds
of possibility." We hold, on the contrary, that it is a truth
with which the mind of a philosophical observer should be
thoroughly impressed ; and a pretender to scepticism
may do as much to mislead in a scientific investigation as
the most " hot-brained enthusiast." The uncandid, but
very clever article on " Animal Magnetism " in a late
Number of the " Athenmum " is calculated—we use the
word in its strict sense—is purposely adapted, to check and
obscure the investigation of this mysterious subject. Cer-
tain seeming absurdities, in the way of inference, are se-
lected from the book of Dupotet, and, by ridiculing those
inferences, it is sought to discredit the facts themselves, and
to involve the Professor of Medicine to the London Uni-
versity in the ridicule and the discredit.

It is asserted by the Baron Dupotet, and indeed by all
the French philo-Mesmerists, that Mesmerised persons
sometimes are endowed with a power of seeing in all parts
of their bodies ; for instance, that, whilst in the state of
somnambulism, they can read books, manuscripts, &c.,
which are placed in contact with their elbows, necks, toes,
or abdomen, the faculty of vision being distributed over
the whole body. The stories which are told about this
clairvoyance do really appear to be very absurd ; but still
they are supported by such a mass of authority as to re-
quire attentive and unprejudiced investigation. The phy-
siological facts and phenomena, which cannot be disputed
are so much at variance with the ordinary phenomena of
the material world, that the most reasonable and cautious
may hesitate before they pronounce anything impossible,
even though the establishment of its reality should " reduce,"
as the " Athenaeum " supposes, " all the phenomena of na-
ture to a causeless and baseless phantasmagoria." Yet it
is not fair to pick out the " North London Illuminati" for
censure as believers in clairvoyance. At the North Lon-
don (that is the London University) Hospital, there is but
one advocate for Mesmerism, and his character for good
sense and good faith requires no defence against the insi-
nuations of any anonymous writer. Besides he has not, in
any of his public experiments, put forward instances of the
alleged clairvoyance, or of prevision, with the exception of
the case of the girl Hokey, who predicted her recovery—
a prediction in which there was nothing mysterious or
unprecedented. Imagination is known to have so much
influence in nervous diseases, that it is by no means incre-
dible that a nervous patient, being strongly impressed with
a belief that recovery would take place on a particular
day, should recover on that day.
That there is much of inconsistency in the instructions
of Mesmer, Puysegur, and Dupotet, must be conceded ;
but the mysterious and perplexing character of the pheno-
mena which they elicited is sufficient to account for that,
without impugning either their veracity or the clearness of
their judgment. All that can at present be said about the
matter is, that a most curious and important field of inquiry
has been opened, and that we should enter upon it with
caution, but without prejudice.

EDINBURGH CABINET NOVELS.
Sutherland, Edinburgh, 1838.
By the preface prefixed to this volume—which is the first
of the Series—we find that it is proposed to bring out from
time to time, original tales and romances complete in one
volume, and at the very convenient price of two shillings.
The idea is an ingenious one, but it is not novel, for Mr.
Leitch Ritchie made an experiment of the very same sort
in his " Cabinet Library of Fiction," some few years since.
We hope the Editor of the present work may be more suc-
cessful than his predecessor was. He begins well, with a
spirited tale entitled the " Medicaster," which is replete
with stirring incident.

RAMBLES IN THE PYRENEES.
Longman, London, 1838.
Those who are fond of reading picturesque sketches o
mountain scenery will do well to procure this little, unas-f
suming volume, which is the production of an ardent lover,
of nature, and who knows how to give reasons for the faith
that is in him.

THE CoRoNATIoN.—A Court of Common
Council was held this day for the purpose of taking into consideration
the propriety of inviting the distinguished foreigners at present in
London to dine with the Corporation in honour of the Coronation of her
Majesty ; but no decision had been come to when our Reporter left.
ERRATUM.—In our leading article of yesterday on
the Mails Railway Bill, instead of the words " we doubt the propriety
of it lodging," read " we doubt the propriety of lodging it."
CHANGE-RINGING EXTRAORDINARY.--TO-1110f-
row each of the metropolitan ringing societies have determined to evince
their loyalty by performing several excellent peals—viz , the Society
of College Youths will ring on the twelve bells at St. Martin's-
in.the.Fields a peal of cinques on Stedman's principle, containing
7,152 changes; this number will take nearly six hours to per-
form, and it will be so arranged that the bells shall be ringing
at the time that the Royal procession passes to and from the Abbey.
The peal will be conducted by the celebrated Mr. William Dunn.
The Junior Society of College Youths will ring on the twelve
bells at St. Saviour's, Southwark, a peal of Oxford treble bob
maxims, containing 8,000 changes, which will be the greatest number
ever performed on those bells, and will be conducted by their active
and intelligent secretary, Mr. John Orton. The Society of Cumber-
' land Youths will perform on those beautiful.toned bells at St. Mary-le-
Bow, Cheapside, a peal of Stedman's caters, containing 6,120 changes;
the tenor bell of this peal weighs 53 cwt., which will be rung by Mr.
Zachariali Frost, who is considered by the amateurs to be the most
competent man in England to ring a tenor bell ; the peal will be con-
ducted by Mr. H. Burwash. The Junior Society of Cumberland Youths
will ring on the bells ef Allhallows Barking, Tower-street, 5,040 changes
of bob major, which will be conducted by Mr. Daniel Jewson. The
Society of St James's Youths will ring at St. John's, near Waterloo.
bridge, 5,120 changes of Kent treble bob major, which will be con-
ducted by Mr. Robert Merrifield. The Society of Eastern Scholars will
ring at St. Paul's, Shadwell, 6,047 changes of gransire bcb major, which
will be conducted by Mr. Jonathan Merriman. The ringers of St.
Leonard, Shoreditch, will ring on their twelve bells 5,039 changes of
grandsire cinques, which will be conducted by Mr. James Stibbury, the
hospitable landlord of the Fountain, in Virginia-row, near the church,
where the Society will afterwards hold their annual .estival, and various
other performances, too numerous to mention, will be achieved at the
different churches in the metropolis having peals of bells.