The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-08 00:00:00

dreadful day which, it needs no prophet to foretel, must
come? Men feel as individuals, and it is surely a pregnant
truism, that every mass, be it mob or be it nation, only of
such materials is composed. • • • •
" The old world politicians of 1815 tried to squeeze back
the young serpent into its cast-off skin. Common sense
must have taught them it would wriggle itself free ! Shall
kings and congresses put new wine into old bottles, and trust
that it will not ferment there? • • *

" The oak and the elm are the aristocracy of the forest.
Poplars represent the foreign adventurer. The walnut,
beech, and chesnut, the middle class of gentry; while lower
in the social scale we find the apple, cherry, damson-tree,
or pear. Thus far our analogy holds good, though hardly
for the very poor. Perhaps these may be best typified in
our present state of society by the waste undergrowth of an
American forest, serving by their decay to nurture the more
fortunate plants which rear their heads above them." • •
Our author seems rather addicted to finding similes
for elevated subjects, among the well-known and corn-
mon• place matters of every day life—as, for instance,
" Imagination, like the Polytechnic, has its dissolving
views." Again, where he speaks of " the telescope of
faith "—an expression singularly felicitous (for does not
Faith, like the telescope, make the things of distance
appear near ?) and yet the comparison hardly accords
with the due dignity of the subject. Our lady-readers
I will not admit the justice of the following sentiment:—
' It requires an excess of moderation and patience to talk
1 with a woman on the object of her love. We are most of
us at such times so provokingly ( pinionated ! Our pride and
\
our affection so guard all avenues to the ' fort of reason,'
that very little effect can be produced by the most disciplined
attack of the besieger. Unless, indeed, a bomb falls in that
Powd eprl-amc e within
a ga-iztini en h—ta walls,woman'sand
vanity Then the explosion
takes
pride and affection both
perish amid the ruins."

TURLOGH O'BRIEN. No. 111.
We congratulate the author of this serial fiction upon
a certain degree of improvement in its composition ;
and his readers will doubtless congratulate themselves
upon the dramatic incidents which the plot is develop-
ing. The castle (in whose vicinity the occurrences of
the narrative have hitherto been laid) is subjected in
the present number to a siege from certain predatory
assailants ; but, as might have been predicated from
preceding circumstances, the defenders promise to keep
them at bay yet awhile, if not entirely to nullify their
machinations. Phiz's illustration to this point of the
story is a right spirited etching, the grouping of which
is artistic ; and the attitudes into which several of the
figures are thrown, though difficult in their extreme
peculiarity, are nevertheless elegantly and naturally pen-
cilled. We have observed that the number as a literary
composition is an improvement upon its predecessors,
and it is so inasmuch as there is less of that wordiness
which we have already particularised as most reprehen-
sible in the style of the writer. Our surprise at this
peculiar failing in his productions is somewhat height-
ened, we will confess, at discovering in him one of the
popular contributors to the Dublin University Magazine.
We should have imagined the pupilage which he had
undergone in lavishing his midnight oil upon that mis-
cellany would have diminished his reckless expenditure
of diction. Hewover, as he appears to have acquired an
inkling of the blemish, we shall anticipate a modifica-
tion in his future use of adjectives. A ous verrons

THE LAW LEXICON; or, Dictionary of Jurispru•
dente. By J. J. S. Wharton, Esq., S.C.L., of St.
Mary's College, Oxford. Part I.
If the subsequent parts of this very useful compilation
are equal to this, the first part, Mr. Wharton will have
conferred a very great obligation on the public, and on
the legal profession, by its publication. It is a work that
has long been wanted, for the existing law dictionaries
have, in consequence of the numerous recent alterations
in the law, become almost obsolete. Mr. Wharton pro-
mises to give in this Law Lexicon an explanation of all
the technical words and phrases employed in the several
departments of English law, including the various legal
terms used in commercial transactions, together with an
explanatory as well as literal translation of the Latin
maxims contained in the writings of the ancient and mo-
dern commentators. The first part contains the whole
of the letter A, and he has, as far as he has gone, per-
formed his promise perfectly. As a specimen of the
manner in which he has executed his task, we give his
account of the rules to be observed in interpreting Acts
of Parliament.

" The principal rules for the interpretation of Acts of Par-
liament are the following :-1, That a statute begins to ope-
rate from the time when it receives the royal assent, un-
less otherwise provided for. But where an Act expires
before a Bill continuing it bas received the royal assent,
the latter Act takes effect from the expiration of the former,
unless otherwise provided, and except as to penalty. (48
Geo. 111, c. 106). 2. It is to be construed equitably, not
according to its mere letter, but the intent and object with
which it was made; 3, that these points be considered—the
old law, the mischief, and the remedy; 4, that a remedial
statute be more liberally, and a penal more strictly con-
strued ; 5, in construing a statute, all other such statutes
made in pari materiel, ought to be taken into consideration ;
6, a statute which treats of things and persons of an inferior
rank, cannot by any general words be extended to those
of a superior; 7, where the provision of a statute is general,
everything which is necessary to make such provision
effectual, is supplied by the common law; 8, a subsequent
statute may repeal a prior one, not only-expressly but by
implication, as when it is contrary thereto, i. e. so clearly
repugnant that it necessarily implies a negative. But if the
Acts can stand together, they shall have a concurrent effi-
cacy ; 9, if a statute, that repeals another, is subsequently
repealed, the repealed statute revives without any formal
words ; and 10, Acts of Parliament derogatory from the
power of subsequent Parliaments do not bind."

HOW TO SPEAK AND WRITE FRENCH

CORRECTLY. By D. M. Airdl

' We recently took occasion ti recommend Mr. Aird's
"Self-Instructing Grammar" to the notice of all stu-
dents in the French language, and we mentioned it as
a really successful and meritorious undertaking. Many
obstacles which had blemished the works of previous
French grammarians were in that little volume re-
moved, or brought so nearly to a level with the under-
standing of youth, as to facilitate his progress in the
i acquisition of that knowledge very remarkably. In the
present book we conceive that the author has attempted
something yet more difficult—he has had more obstruc-
tions to subvert in its composition; he has had to tax
his ingenuity and to simplify his explanations to an ex-
tent which we should imagine would have allayed his
enthusiasm in the cause—but that the product of that
enthusiasm is now Virg upon our escritoire.
Mr. Aird has evidently laboured, upon the
principle that pronunciation can be taught through
black and white, and he endeavours to prove the
accuracy of that principle by publishing this volume.
Now for our own part we are sceptical, we must acknow-
ledge, as to the possibility of learning the right pro-
nunciation of an idiom through anything but oral
tuition. If we were all of us Mezzofantes, the im
pediment would be merely nominal, but being as we
are, and looking, for example, at some of those guttural
combinations of consonants in the German, we are
(again we say it) sceptical. Howbeit, if the pronuncia-
tion of the French language can be taught " by the
book," we would hazard the opinion that Mr. Aird's
book will do so. That it will enable any one with
ordinary capacity to write the language correctly we
are satisfied, and that too in a remarkably short period.
The author will not accuse us of pedantry if we object
to the publication in the first page of such an aphorism
AS--

" La terre tourne, mais non le soleil."
It is an oversight which might impress the mind of
childhood with a wrong image. The work, however, is
good, and practically good.

EATING-MATCH EXTRAORDINARY.
A grand eating-match -has been for some time going
on between the Courts of Chancery and Aldermen, the
contest being which of the two courts shall devour the
largest number of charities. Some may object to this
harmless pastime; but one great object of charity is the
feeding of the hungry ; and who can be more hungry
than aldermen, except lawyers? Betting, at the outset,
was two to one upon the aldermen, whose long-estab-
lished reputation for prowess at the table had created a
prestige in their favour ; and one bold speculator was
heard to declare that he would back them to eat up
every charity in England in a twelvemonth. Their
worships have certainly been doing pretty well. 'Tis not
in aldermen or any other mortals to command success;
but they have done more, as the poet says, they have
deserved it ; having assuredly spared no exertion to
justify the reliance which has been placed upon them
by their backers. At one bout, which not long ago came
off at Greenwich, a small but determined band of
civic champions disposed of whitebait, stewed, collared,
and spitchcocked eels, Thames flounders, salmon in
some half-a-dozen shapes, mackerel in about as many,
carp, tench, turbot, and lobster sauce, in all about 30
dishes of fish ; the whole forming a most formidable
array of the finny race. They next got over, or through,
a phalanx of strong pikes de resistance, consisting of
shoulders, breasts, and cutlets of lamb, roast and boiled
fowls, ducks, goslings, hams, tongues, sweet-breads, fri-
candeaux, curries, and other substantials, to the amount
of, some 40 dishes, not to mention a numerous force of
pstttiesandsuch light auxiliaries • after which they set-to
with a relay of tarts, cheese-cakes,i' Charlotte-Busses,...
creams, Jellies. and custards ; all of which, with their
accompanyingu
p and dispatched.e4a condiments
they manfully returned to the
confections,
execution upon grapes, pineapplees,exf e'
and did signal
ds and raisins,
acorert-
f figs, prunes, oranges,
hock, Sauterne,'
ing, in an incredibly short time, a desserteeintsto;
ate
astonishingan ds eda
feat,
and
an
dinw,io,
tweets
these efforts,
In the mean time, they completely absorbed a Ne,rorlt,;
frenchMc eallda Madeira, a !ill
brandy,oieret,d Sherry,punch,ad Champagne,liqueurs. This
T seltzerhis
unparalleled in any other
the d
aneimmollsitoiofndeegflauntiitmionmetnbsaen the
civic, was pilecrowned by
of muffins and crumpets, and a proportionate number of
h alj' to town. Our
vessels of tea and coffee ; with all of which under their
waistcoats they returned triump ai
bold citlzons thus, at one sitting, ate up about 901.,
pO/.,r00r
the interest of a charity of 3,0001. sterling,.
perty. Wonderful, however, as
it has been eclipsed by the exploits of
Chansery ; which pomesses a width of throat and a
capacity of stomach which defy all competition. By
was
this
sthe achievement,
Court o
reason of these natural advantages, Chancery is enabled
to do that at one gulp which it would take the aldermen
many dinners to accomplish. In a single suit it has
swallowed up from 3001. to 5001. charitable trust pro-
perty, as a mere morsel ; and its barristers and clerks
have bolted, in fees, the bagatelle or kickshaw of 201.
or 301. at a time, and thought nothing of it. So that
the odds in this eating-match are now in favour of the
Court of Chancery ; for, though the aldermen have
eaten large holes in charities, Chancery has swallowed
them entire.—Punch.

THE WEATHER.—The weather during the week has
been almost unendurably sultry, and everybody is crying out
against the heat. Summer clothing, hair-dressers, baths,
liquids, and so forth, have been in great request. The country
looks parched for want of moisture, but the crops have sus-
tained, as yet, no injury worth speaking of from the con-
tinued drought,—Car isle Journal,