The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-23 00:00:00

NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.

"England's Antiphon" is Dr. George Macdonald's con-
tribution t 6 Messrs. Macmillan and Co.'s admirable Sun-
day Library, to which we referred when reviewing Mr.
Farrar's " Seekers after God." The volume now before
us is a sketch of English religious poetry from the 13th to
the 19th century—from the immediate predecessors of
Chaucer to Keble and Tennyson. All the chief writers of
sacred poetry are in turn sketched biographically,
and specimens of their works are given, with
notes explaining archaic words or phrases. And
there is this valuable peculiarity in the book, that
whereas other compilers have spared themselves trouble
by confining their extracts chiefly to comparatively modern
poets, whose works are both easily intelligible and ready
of access, Dr. Macdonald has devoted a considerable
portion of his space to the earliest writers, of whom the
ordinary reader knows little or nothing. Thus instead of
filling up his volume with extracts from Heber,
Doddridge, Keble, and Wordsworth, Dr. Macdonald deals
very lightly with those, and devotes considerably more
than half his space to the antecessors of Milton. Another
commendable feature of the volume is its thorough catho-
licity. Whether it be the Jesuit Southwell, the Puritan
Wither, the saintly Herbert, the courtly Dryden, all, if
they have written religious poetry worthy of being remem-
bered, are placed in this choir of England's sacred singers.
The interspersed remarks are quite in accordance with this
liberal spirit, and are marked by all Dr. Macdonald's
vigour and clearness of language. Altogether this is a
volume which every devout heart and every poetical mind
will treasure ; a book to read at odd minutes and spare
seasons of rest and refreshment of mind. Cordially do we
thank the writer for having so "heartily thrown ' this,
his " small pebble, at the head of the great Sabbath-
breaker—Schism."

Mr. Vernon Wollaston's Lyra Devoniensis (Macmillan
and Co.) owes its title to the fact that the author is a Devon
shire man rather than to anyspecially local subjects in the
poems. Only some three or four have to do with Devon-
shire scenes. The rest are chiefly of a religions and de-
votional kind. There is little novelty in the ideas, but
there are several attempts at novel styles of versification
which are successful in so far as the lines run smoothly and
the verses have a pleasant sound when read aloud. Mr.
Wollaston seems to be a florist, so frequently does he
take flowers for his theme. And yet surely a florist would
not have made the "tufts of gay chrysanthemum " flower-
ing " beneath the fragrant summer showers," as he does
in " The Reign of Croquet." His most successful poems
are, " Dartmoor," " Florence," and " Miserere."
The final line of each verse in the last-mentioned poem is
in Latin, and is made to rhyme with the third line in ,
English. The " Lenten Hymn 'is another and purely
English version of the same hymn.

" Navigation and Nautical Astronomy," by J. Merri-
field and H. Evers (Longmans), is awork requiring special
knowledge to criticise. We can give only the general
impression which the book conveys to alandsman. It is a
work of about 400 pages, written by two well-known
Plymouth men, and appears to ns admirably arranged
and most clearly and intelligibly written. It is divided
into two parts, Navigation and Nautical Astronomy, and
contains a mass of information upon both subjects, such
as we believe has never been brought together before. We
imagine that the work will become a recognised text-book
at all schools where navigation is taught.

REMA.RICABLE SUIT FOR DIVORCE IN
FRANCE.

A remarkable suit to obtain the annulment of a marriage
contract has just occupied not less than seven sittings of
the Civil Court of Paris. The defendant was a gentle-
'man named Stern, a Russian subject, formerly a ship-
broker in London, twice bankrupt ; and the plaintiff,
Madame Edouard Houssaye, sister and heir-at-law of
Madame Stern, now deceased. The marriage between
K. and Madame Stern had taken place in 1862 after a very
casual acquaintance at Dieppe during the bathing season ;
the lady, then named Lucie Avrial, possessed great
personal attractions, in addition to a fortune of 200,000 f.;
the gentleman, who was living in great style, passed him-
self off as a wealthy banker, although lie appears to have
been in a very restricted way of business, and to have not
been even solvent. By the marriage contract, in which the
defendant's property was set down at 900,000 f., the two
parties instituted each other universal legatees. At the
last moment the discovery was made that Stern, who had
represented himself as a bachelor, had been already mar-
ried in England, but as he produced proofs of a subsequent
divorce the wedding took place. Stern at once began to
treat his wife in a cruel manner ; the first night he spent
away from her, and his conduct was such that in little
more than two months Madame Stern was forced to leave
him, and commence an action for a judicial separation.
The husband had, however, already converted all his
wife's disposable property into cash, and with it he
started for America, taking with him a young German
woman, whom he presented everywhere as his wife.
The 900,0001. which he had declared himself in his mar-
riage contract to possess was only a fiction. His conduct
towards his first wife had been equally scandalous. After
squandering a sum of 50,000 f. which she had brought
him, his treatment was such that she was able to
obtain the divorce for . acts of violence and adultery.
Stern, however, appears to have made a considerable
fortune in America during the war as president of
the Pork Committee. He returned to Paris in 1806 and,
by the wife, he charged her with adultery, although,
at the moment at which the facts were alleged to have
taken place in London, Madame Stern was residing
in Paris. Before, however, the suit was decided, the un-
fortunate lady, worn out with grief, expired, leaving a will
in favour of M. Mires. She had been very intimate with
his daughter, the Princess de Polignac, and had supposed
that her affairs would be better defended if confided to a
man of experience in legal and business affairs. M.
Mires, however, considered the succession as only
a trust, and resigned his claim in favour of the
next of kin, Madame Edouard Houssaye, by
whom the present action was sustained. Madame Stern,
it must be mentioned, had in the meantime inherited the
property of three brothers who had died since her mar
riage. M. Stern did not shew more respect for his
wife dead than he had manifested affection towards her
when living. On the evening following the day of her
lecease he was present at the Opera, and on the next
morning had the seals put on her property, which he
claimed under the marriage contract. The object of
the present suit was to set aside that pretension ; three
pleas were brought forward by Madame Housaye : the
first, which constituted a charge of bigamy, was that
the divorce from the first wife was not legal, as Stern,
being a Russian subject, could only be released by a deci-
sion of the Lutheran Church, to which he belonged ; the
second demanded the nullification of the marriage conven-
tions on the ground of fraudulent representations ; and
the third the revocation of the donation for ingratitude,
Stern having by his cruelty towards his wife forfeited his
right to inherit. The court in its judgment decided that
the marriage had been legally contracted; but on the
application made to have the marriage contract set aside,
it pronounced.in the affirmative, on the ground that Stern
had been guilty of deceit and fraudulent manoeuvres.

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