The Sun.
London, England, 1834-11-14 00:00:00

BLIGHTED HOPE.

This is an engraving which should hang in a lady's
boudoir, and be looked at by moonlight,- when a soft
western breeze just sighs and moans through the
strings of an Malian harp placed in the half open
window, and the heart, mellowed by the gentle influ-
ence of the hour, is sensible only of the tenderer emo-
tions. " Blighted Hope I " What a world of melan-
choly, and bitter, endless, but unavailing suffering, is
lomprised in these two words I They embrace, in
their comprehensive range of meaning, all the varieties
of agony that can most afflict the heart of woman.
Man has many objects of pursuit to distract attention,
and divert gloom ; woman, but one—to love and to be
loved. If her hopes are here blighted, she may in-
deed still continue to, wear on a dull, monotonous exist-
ence, but her thoughts never again put forth
leaf or blossom. Her world is disenchanted ;
a dark cloud perpetually broods over the fu-
ture ; and she either sinks into a premature
grave, or, if she have sufficient energy of mind and
body to bear up against her disappointment, her feel-
ings insensibly become soured; and her countenance—
once so serene and beautiful—taking its expression from
the gloomy hue of her thoughts, she settles down by
little and little into a confirmed, crabbed old maid, and
ends by a desperate plunge into Methodism and Scotch
snuff. The engraving which is now lying before us,
would appear to represent the beginning of a history
like this. It is that of a young girl, whose sweet, pale
face, though it can scarcely yet have seen its twentieth
summer, is nevertheless clouded with the settled an-
guish arising from blighted hope. Her lover has left
her ; perhaps he has split on the nice question of
settlements ; perhaps he has married another ; per-
, haps, being afflicted with polygamous propensities, he
has been taken up for bigamy, and has just penned his
farewell letter previous to a seven years' transportation ;
but be the cause what it may, one thing is certain—lie
has left her, and she is miserable. We trust, how-
ever, that she will not break her heart—hearts, by the
bye, whether in man or woman, are tough things, and
not so easily broken in real life as they, are in ro-
mances, at the end of the third volume—but console
herself for the loss of a first, by patronising a second
lover. All sensible. young ladies should act in this
manner,—that is to say, they should make a point of
having two strings to their bow, so that if one snap,
the other may supply its place. The original of this
engraving, which is highly finished in all its subordi-
nate details, is a painting by Paris, to whom, it may
be remembered, we are also indebted, for that graceful
picture, the " Bridesmaid." The present is its worthy
successor, and should be framed and hung up close be-
side it, if only for the sweet and gentle, but melancholy
expression that is stamped ineffaceably on the counte-
nance of the young victim of " Blighted Hope."

LITERATURE.

A GUIDE TO MARINE INSURANCES.

Containing the Policies of the Principal Commercial Towns
in the World; also, Remarks on the Mutual Relation be-
tween Insured and Insurers : and Comparative Tables,
exhibiting at a glance, the principal conditions of the several
Policies, and the Risks warranted by them. By J.
Vaucher, Esq. Bailey and Co., Cordial, London. 1834.

The great importance of a work of this kind can
only be properly estimated by those, who understand
how intimately the subject of maritime insurance is
connected and interwoven with the commercial pros-
perity of Great Britain ; and even by the majority of
them the extent of the obligation, which mercantile
men owe the author of the volume before us, will be
but imperfectly comprehended. The reason of this is
easily discovered, though not very obvious at a first
glance. The number of those who understood the
principle of insurances was always very great, but the
sum of the knowledge possessed by persons, with leisure
and inclination to communicate, it to others, seldom
extended to an acquaintance with those minute
details, without which works on commerce are fre-
quently productive of more evil than good. Hence
it followed that the subject engaged no part of the
attention of the learned world—was not elucidated
with clearness or any degree of perspicuity—and, al-
though the fortune of thousands frequently depended
upon it, men had no other remedy than to rely upon
the word of an underwriter, in the same way as upon
the judgment of a surgeon or physician, even in cases
where it was his interest to deceive them. Another
cause which tended to mystify this matter will be found
in the rules observed by commercial men, who in all
disputes between the insurers and the insured were re-
ferred to .as umpires, and generally considered them-
selves bound to settle the matter without permitting the
parties to appear before legal tribunals. This very
excellent practice, which, we believe, is common
to them only, of course deprived practitioners at
the bar of all opportunities of studying the juris-
prudence of this department, and the conse-
quence even now is, that on no subjects are
lawyers so imperfectly read, as in what apper-
tains to .the Policies of IVlarine Insurances. The
only work we know which is regarded as judicial
is " Marshall's Treatise on the Law of
authority,
Marine Insurance," which to the merchant is of little
value, inasmuch as it supplies no important 'informa-
tion with respect to foreign policies. All however that
was most defective in previous publications is per-