The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-18 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

THE LAND OF BURNS—PARry 21, 22, 23.
Mackie, Glasgow, 1841.
We have just received the three last Parts of
this work, which is published in Monthly Num-
bers, and contains a series of landscape sketches
illustrative of the Poems of Burns, with literary
notices of them from the pens of Professor Wil-
son and Mr. Robert Chambers. The Parts be-
fore us are exclusively dedicated to a criticism on
the writings and character of the great national
Scottish poet, which the Professor has dashed off
in his happiest and freest manner,, interspersing
his critical remarks with an abundant variety of
characteristic anecdotes of Burns in his youth,
in his manhood, and in the decline of his days,
when the hand of adversity had fallen heavily
on him, and sorrow was a, constant guest at his
fire-side. How just in thought, and beautiful in
expression, are these observations on the general
spirit that pervades Burns' poetry! To our
thinking they are superior to anything that has
yet been written of this trauscendant peasant-
poet. " Imbued with vivid :perceptions, warm
feeling's, and strong passions, Barns sent his
own existence into all things, animate aud
inanimate, around him; and not an occurrence
in hamlet, village, or town, affecting in any
way the happiness of the human heart, but
roused as keen an interest in his foul, and as ge-
nial a sympathy, as if it had immediately con-
cerned himself and his own
.individual welfare.
Most other ppets of rural life have looked on it
through the aerial veil of the imagination, often
beautified no doubt by such partial concealment,
•and beaming with a misty softness more delicate
than the truth. But BuniS would not thus
indulge his fancy where he had felt so poignantly
all the agonies and transports of life.: He looked
around him, and when he saw the smoke of the
cottage rising up quietly and unbroken to heaven,
he knew, for he had seen and, blessed it,
the quiet joy and unbroken contentment that
slept below ; and when he saw it driven and dis-
persed by the winds, he knew also but too well,
for too sorely had lie felt them, those agitations
and disturbances which had shook him, till he
wept on his chaff bed. In reading his poetry,
therefore, we know what unsubstantial dreams
are those of the Olden age. There is no delu-
sion, no affectation, no exaggeration, no false-
hood, in the spirit of Burns' poetry." Truer
words than are contained in this last significant
sentence, were never yet spoken. Burns is in-
deed sincere and unaffected, if ever man
was. His poetry is an exact, literal
transcript of his own thoughts and feelings,
and gives us a better insight into the peculiarities
of his private character, than a thousand bio-
graphical memoirs could do. Who could pos-
sibly mistake the nature of the man who wrote
" Tam o'Shanter ?" Till Moore's Life appeared,
we were all, it seems, grievously in error respect-
ing the character of the noble " Childe ;.' but
none could ever misapprehend the sort of being
that Burns was, who had once read his inimitable
love-songs. We are glad to see that Professor
Wilson does not fall in with the prevailing cant
about this great poet's dissipated habits, but
writes of him in a frank, manly, genial spirit, as
conscious that he has no cause to be ingeniously
begging the question, but that the bold, plain-
spoken truth is the best compliment he can pay
his memory. We have read the Professor's cri-
ticism with infinite pleasure, and object only to
one portion of it—that, namely, where he endea-
vours to institute a parallel between the charac-
ter of Burns, and—who does the reader think—
of Dr. Johnson ! We can scarcely believe he is
in earnest in instituting this parallel, for we
know but of one equal to it in perverse, whim-
sical ingenuity, and that memorable one is,
Fluellyn's comparison of Maceddn with Mon-
mouth.

HISTORY OF SURREY.—PARTS V., VI.
Ede, Dorking, 1841.
We have more than once had occasion to speak
in terms of approval of this local history, and
having now the first half volnme before us, find
that our favourable opinion is not without suffi-
cient warrant, and that the want of a work illus-
trative of an important metropolitan county will
no longer be felt. The most recent agricultural,
manufacturing, and commercial changes that
have taken place in Surrey, have been all pointed
out with great minuteness by Mr. Brayley and
others ; and the geological section of the work,
f'rom the practised pen of Dr. Mantell, supplies
that species of knowledge which is just now so
much sought after, and which must ever prove
of high value to the practical farmer. We must
not omit to speak of the imbellishments—such as
the plates, maps, sections, &c., which are finished
'off in a superior style of art.

D ODD' S PEERAGE, 4^e.
Whittaker, London, 1841.
A useful work of reference, containing an ac-
count of the peerage, baronetage, and knightage
of Great Britain and Ireland; together with
all necessary particulars respecting the junior
branches of the nobility and all the titled classes.
The compiler is a gentleman named Dodd, who
has performed a troublesome and laborious task-
with skill and efficiency, and to whose active in-
dustry we are indebted 'for the " Parliamentary
Pocket Companion." The great merits of the
present work are its brevity and condensation,
and its introduction of the knights who, as the
compiler justly remarks in his preface, " have
long demanded a place among the hereditary
titles of which these distinctions are frequently
the precursors." The book is got up in a singu-
larly neat style, and is of a very commodious
shape.

A TREATISE ON THE COPYRIGHT OF
DESIGNS, 6,c.
By J. E TENNENT, ESQ., M.P.
Smith and Co., London.
Mr. Tennent was Chairman of the Committee
of the House of Commons, in 1840, on the
Copyright of Designs, and in this little work
has given a brief outline of the proceedings of
the Committee, together with the more interest-
ing portions of the evidence, the actual condition
of the trade of*calico printing in the States of the
Prussian League, and replies to the reasons alleged
against the extension of the copyright. Mr. Ten-
nent's main object, however, is to show that the ex-
isting law for the protection of designs is defective,
that the term of three months during which the
proprietor shall have an exclusive property in the
profits of his inventions is too short, and that the
extension of the period to twelve months will re-
medy a great many of the evils of which the
proprietors of original patterns have aeason to
complain. It is a very complicated sub-
ject, embracing a vast variety of details, and
affecting more or less manufacturers, retail
dealers, and the public at large, and we therefore
refer our readers to the work itself, where they
will find both instruction and amusement. On.
one point nearly all are agreed, that the proprie-
tor of a design, like the author of a book, or a
patentee of an invention, is entitled to have his
property secured for a certain period, against the
invasion of copyists and pirates, the only diffe-
fence is as to time, one party contending that
three months is too short, and twelve months
too long, and the probability therefore is that
some intermediate' period, six or nine months for
instance, will finally be adopted by the Legis-
lature. The Bill prepared by Mr. Tennent and
Mr. O'Connell fixes the longer period. What-
ever be the result, however, the author deserves
credit for the labour he has bestowed on a very
important measure, and for the clear and excel-
lent arrangement of the arguments on both sides.

THEATRICALS IN AMERICA.—In this month
we have to chronicle the entire downfal of the two large
theatres in this city, for the present, under every kind of
movement which they have attempted to make; tragedy,
comedy, melodrama, opera, , tragi-coinie, opera-tragic, con-
certs Musard, concerts d Hiver, concerts d'lnfernal, pro-
menades and fancy balls, winding up with legitimate farces.
Power, the Woods, Braham, nor all the talent in the country
could check their career, and down they have gone for the
present. Alas, for the legitimates I The entire revolution
in public tas:e, which we have so long predicted, has
reached itsclimax at last, and the Covent-garden and Drury-
lane of America have had to succumb to it. In the mean-
time the minor theatres, admittance 25 cents and a shilling,
are doing big business. In the meantime we have the
following array of talent of all sorts in the country ; some
busy, some idle, some making money, some spending it :
—Messrs. Braham, Sinclair, Wood, De Begnis, Giubilci,
Seguin, Martyn, Bough, Manvers, A. Phillips, Lee;ier,
Horncastle, Vandenhoff, Forrest, Booth, Power, Hacket
Rice, Brown, and Mons. Martin; Fanny Ellsler, Mrs.
Wood, Mrs. Sutton, Mrs. Martyn, Mrs. Bailey, Miss In-
veraTity, Mrs. Morley, Mrs. Lceder, Mrs. Watson, Mrs.
Gibbs, Miss Vandenhoff, Mrs. Maeder, Mrs. Fitzwilliam,
Madame Giubilci, and Madame Lecomte. —New York

MEETING ON THE IMPORT DUTIES.—We
refer with pleasure to the requisition to the Lord Provost,
signed by a large number of the most respectable mercan-
tile houses in this city, and embracing individuals of all
shades of political opinion, for a meeting on the subject
of the Import Duties. His Lordship, it will be seen, has
appointed the meeting to be held on Friday next, at three
o'clock, in the Trades' Hall, Glassford.street, and wo an-
ticipate that the assemblage will prove one of the most in-
fluential that fora long time has taken place in this city.
We rejoice to find so many gentlemen coming forward,
who, although differing on certain party questions, are as
ono as to the necessity that exists for a searching revision
into our system of Import Duties; and a manifestation of
this nature from the important mercantile and manufactur.
ing community of Glasgow cannot fail to have its due
weight in the deliberations of the Legislaturc....-Glasgote
Argue.