The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-11 00:00:00

netting link, throwing light on what precedes and
follows; and so introduced as never to fatigue the
attention, while frequently some daring exploit or
well-told anecdote amuses the reader's fancy and illus-
trates the hero's character. The pleasing manner of
the author may perkips be gathered from a quotation
made at random from the book it=elf:—

NELSON AT SANTA CRUZ.
" The boat was then got afloat (for it had grounded
from the falling of the tide), and Josiah Nisbet took one
of the oars. The voice of his step-son giving orders
roused Nilson, whose faintness was subsiding, and,he
he
desired to be lifted up t.) look a little about him. The
scene of destruction, and the tempestuous sea, NTT_ su-
blimely dreadful; a painful uncertainty prevailed re-
specting the fate of his brave companions, when, on a F
sudden, a general shriek from the crew of the ,)x,
which had sunk from a shot she had received unsier
water made the Admiral forget his own weak and Fate-
ful state. Many were rescued trom a watery grave by
Nelson himself, whose huraene exertions on this occasion
added considerably to the agony and danger of his welind .
Ninety-seven men, including Lieut. Gibson, were
and eighty-three were saved. The first ship which the
boat could reach happened to be the Seahorse; but no-
thing could induce the Admiral to go on boar,l,
though- he was assured that it might be at the
risk of his life if they attempted to row to
another ship. "Then I would die,' he exclaimed, 'rather
than alarm Mrs. Freemantle by her seeirg me in this st Ito,
and when I can give her no tidings whatever of her hus-
band.' They accordingly proceeded without further
delay for the Theseus; when, notwithstanding the in-
creased pain and weakness which he experienced, he
peremptorily rerotrei all assistance in getting on board.,,
Let me alone, I have got my legs left and Date arm.'
The concluding chapter of the work is worthy of
its predecessors. It is a little gallery of portraits.
We have there afforded us an opportunity of com-
paring the various characters of Nelson as they have
been drawn by different able pens and intimate
which
Contemplationw e quote
osfh short passage friends of the illustrious deceased, as well as a spirited
and masterly sketch by the author himself, from
it was one of incessant activity, He had a mind ade-
quate to any emergency,his promp-
to every exigency;
tttudein action was as remarkable as his judgment was dis-
'ssacgaele".Tr admits of no pause,
tinguished; notl ing escaped his attention. He is an
e exam-
ple of decided genius his profession for whilst he could
enter into a consideration of
and particular details, his grasp of intellect was such as
enabled him to embrace and embody the whole view and
entire object, and determine even, the most minute
upon the consequences of
action. The moment a conception was engendered it
engrossed all his thoughts, and not an instant was lost
in the contemplation of the mesas calculated to ensure
its success; his energies were proportioned to the great
ness of the object to be achieved, end nothing was left to
the possibility of temporary necessity or accident. He
was too heroic to feel difficulty an opposition to his pro-
gress, and nothing affecting either individual or national
honour was with him a matter of indifference."
The appendix contains a short memoir of the " un-
fortunate Lady Hamilton" and her daughter, lloratia.
The work, comprising two handsome volumes, which
autographar letterseillustrated ofeminent
with eopies of several interesting
persons,
&c., &c., and
embellished by some well-executed steel cuts, forms,
on the whole, a most valuable addition to the lives of
our naval heroes, and merits the attention of all who
desire to adorn their libraries with books of genuine
and authentic information, or with histories replete
with useful and entertaining instruction.

5111 REGINALD .1110 HUN, BART., 5011 IE
ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE AND ADVEN-
TURES. Done in Verse, by George John
Cayley. Canto First.
The old manner of the thing propitiated us. Done
in verse was as agreeable to our palate as a wine
posset. And then the old-fashioned typography!
two stanzas in a page ! the number of lines docketed
in the margin ! and one of those outlandish woodcuts
at the head of the canto, representing impossible
little boys in a highly tropical state of nudity ! And
on glancing through the quaint, odd, rambling " In-
troduction," we were still more predisposed to be
satisfied, when we found that the poem was no am-
bitious flight into the heroics, but an off-hand, jocose,
comical, satirical, and sometimes even a
broadly burlesque narrative—in imitation of
that scoffing strain which Byron rendered
so popular by his " BoPP°and "Don Juan." At
the very outset the writer, placing himself fairly on
trial before the bar of Criticism, sneers at those
poetasters who proclaim the downfal of poesy—
"
against reason in their time,
Are And
rhyming
The celebrated poems of Bulwer Lytton, not to say
the volumes of Tennyson, and of Elizabeth Barrett
ircioniigtent to reason against rhyme."
Browning, are a sufficient refutation. Those who
appreciated either the "New
never
decry the age as unpoetical have never read, or,
having read, have
Timon' or the remarkable epic of " King Arthur."
So thinks Mr. Cayley—and, thinking so, he
still further prejudiced us in his favour. We
read, and we read on—slowly—at length te-
diously—but ultimately to the end of the
sixty-fourth page, or, which is the same thing, of the
first canto. It was scarcely necessary for the author
to disclaim so very expressly (Int. VI. 48.) any
attempt on his part of fine writing—seeing that we
Snd scattered profusely through his stanzas such
colloquialisms, vulgarisms, or conventionalisms, as—
" which answers pretty well" (Int. VI. 43.)
" when we expected eloquence.in blazes," (Int. XIV.
112)—" the cream of Nature's dairy," (Int. XVII.
132)—" they went along full slash," (XXIX. 228)
" I wish that I had lots of tin," (LXIV. 500—
" the hero tips up 211 his little annals,"
(LXXII. 572). Is this poetry ? Is it not
rather the most witless of all slang ? If the
reader is not brought by this time to the latter con-
viction by our foregoing specimens of Mr. Cayley's
Poem, we give another dainty 2noreeau, which for
delicacy is only to be surpassed by some of the gros-
ser passages in the effusions of William Somerville—a
poet of the last century creditably known only as the
writer of the lively and natural "Chase." We shall
quote only one stanza—quite enough we conjecture—
descriptive of
the commencement
or mmengcsemmeeknetepoefrsa,whoconversationa
re
between two grooms
re-
turning to Nornyth-place in a boat—
" They said Oh! what a gentleman to talk
Is that there Lacy! what a tongue he've got!
But Mr. Vivian is a pretty shot.
And what a pace his Lordship wish to walk!
Which Mr. Tancarville, ho seemed quite beat;
But he's a pleasant gentleman.—Good lawk,
How he do make me laugh !—dang! this 'ere seat
Have wet my smalls slap through—dang! what a treat!'
Nothing more is surely requisite to show that "Sir
Reginald Mohun, Bart." is no " Don Juan," and that
Mr. George John Cayley is no worthy successor
of the generation after that which has o wned Barry
Cornwall as one of its least prominent, yet one of its
most estimable, ornaments. Says the poet—
"If this be good—the world will find it out;
If it be bad—they will not take it in ;
Nor will it take them in."
No doubt of it—and so Mr. George John Cayley
had batter (if he would deign to listen to our re-
commendation) hang himself in his "last line" rather
than attempt anything like a continuation.

STUDENTS ON
QUIISTIONS FOR LAW
SER-
GEANT STEPHEN'S.II3I.3fEN
NEW
THE, SECOND EDITIONS TOFDCE-301
TARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND.
The educational preliminaries required L qualify
By James Stephen, Esq., .
the aspirant to the degree of barrister-at law are so
meagre and defective that he who contributes in any
way to facilitate the acquisition of legal knowledge
confers a benefit not only upon the legal profession
but indirectly upon society, in which the members of
Middle Temple.. 0
law a professorsndt the
system
in our u
ofr
ou universitiesr legal
o o l
liesg
e ofs , no
h e
practical t
this honourable profession have ever held a high and
important position. The little knowledge to be gleaned
frem tbe
use,
inns of court, which ought to be the schools for legal
instruction and the inculcation of sound legal
science, has unfortunately more reference to
Kitchener than to Coke, and until these de-
fefcit
be
in theseveral i
supplied
by the establishment
inns of court, under able
onsstrsu shall
lon
professors, where the sound principles and practical
e
knowledge of law shall be taught, as other sciences in
the several schools and colleges, we can see no better
mode by which the student can acquire,4(uleesgto ailnknow-
ledge through the medium of such well-arranged
helps as this very useful
ful volume These cof "Questions"
have
oi
immediate reference to one of the greatest
legal works or modern times Mr. Ser-
geant Stephen's "New Commentaries on the
Laws of England," a work which we should
not be surprised to see very soon supersede all others
—they are clear and well defined, and the mode of
reference is simple and well arranged. 'We cannot too
strongly recommend both the " Questions" and the
great work to which they refer to the attention of the
self-improving student, anxious to acquire sound legal
knowledge by the least difficult means.

THE LOTTERY OF MARRIAGE.—The scene of this
new novel, by Mrs. Trollope, is laid partly at Dover,
and partly in one or two English country residences.
The interest of the work is evidently intended to depend
more on the characters than on the fable, and though
not liable to the charge of being personal, it is difficult
to believe that the sketches are purely imaginative.
Young marriageable noblemen have furnished, from time
immemorial, a favourite and a fair material for the pen
of the satirical novelist, for few scenes of life are more
pregnant with folly on all sides, than those which ensue
upon the hunting down such a one, till he sinks at last
into the soft repose of matrimony. The young man who
enacts this part in " Thu Lottery of Marriage," is
evidently sketched after some original, who knows how
to fool his pursuers "to the top of their bent." But the
frivolity of the character is redeemed by so much that
is atniahl,, that no one could be very angry who fancied
they recotviised the Foal ait, for their own. The originals
of the th;ce noble beauties (it there be any such), who
were let slip from one leash to Rune him, might not
perhaps be equally well pleased.