The Sun.
London, England, 1832-03-30 00:00:00

SIMPIIN AND MARSHALL.

It is almost superfluous to give this work the
praises due to its useful application to the daily
business of life, for the fact of its having reached
a seventh edition, is a sufficient testimony that
the public appreciates its merits. The title of
the book is hardly well chosen ; for, although it
contains an able summary of our system of law,
the principal utility of the work is the guidance
it affords to every occupation of life, even in
cases in which the law i, not supposed to enter•
The work affords a useful study to men of edu-
cation, and to what are termed men of fashion
and of general information, whilst it is an ex-
cellent example of that beneficial class of books
addressed to the people, and of which it has
been complained that our country has as yet pro-
duced but few specimens.

NARRATIVE OF THE SHIP-WRECK OF
THE JUNO.-EDINBuBGH 1831.

This is a republication of a work written in
the year 1795, by a young man named William
Mackay, second officer of the Juno, and who
was one of the few who survived on the wreck
for twenty-three days without food. The narra-
tive which is addressed to his father, the Rev.
T. Mackay, Minister of Lairg, Sutherlandshire,
is remarkable for the truth and vigour of its de-
scriptive powers, but still more so, from having
been the original from which Lord Byron drew
his famous episode of the ship-meek, in the
second canto of " Don Juan." Moore, in his
Memoirs of the illustrious poet, has said, and said
rightly, that this " is one of the instances in
which poetry must be content to yield the palm
to prose ;" in other words, that the original is su-
perior to the imitation. By his republication of
the former, Mr. Blackwood has afforded the
public an opportunity of comparing the two
versions.

The EXTRAORDINARY BLACK BOOK, or
EXPOSITION of CHURCH and STATE.

1 Vol. BVO. EFFINGHAM WILSON..

The Black Book has done the state some
service, for it has afforded the public much in-
formation which they have already applied very
beneficially, and from which further good matt.
fairly be anticipated. We have therefore much
satisfaction in noticing the second edition,
particularly as the work has now received
many emendations, and the errors which were
pointed out in the first publication are corrected
in the present. The lists of places, pensi.,ns,
and pluralists have been carefully collected
from Parliamentary documents, many sa-
jects have been enlarged, and a valuable
chapter has been added upon the numbers.
wealth and intellectual improvements of the
Dissenters. 'We find in this edition a chapte'
upon the origin and present state of Corporations.
Companies, Guilds, and Fraternities; and in th,
appendix we are happy to find many new table,
and much additional matter of importance. Thi
Black Book justly styles itself the Encyclopedi.
of English Poli.ics, but it might to this titlt
have added the words History and Statistics.

MEMOIRS OF GREAT COMMANDERS
BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ.-3 VOLS. 12mo.
The subject of this work and the experienced
talents of its author, are sufficient guarantees tG
the public that it must contain much of what i•
useful and entertaining. General praise is

therefore superseded, and the duties of criticism
must be confined to details. The selection of
matter by Mr. James, is in several respects
judicious, for he includes in his work

the lives of Foreign Commanders, with whom
English Readers in general are but little ac-
quainted. We wish that this feature had more
extensively pervaded the work. There are 1
lives in the three volumes, and they commence
with Henry V. and end with General Wolfe.
The author's plan, of necessity, excludes the firs
Earl of Leicester, and our great warriors Edward
I. and 111., but we should not have regretted

the insertion of a life of the Duke of Norfolk.
the Duke of Somerset, of Lord Clive, and a fev,
other great men, whose names must occur
to every reader acquainted with English History.
The following extract from the life of the Mar.
quis of Granby must remind the reader of that
undaunted firmness of Thiish troops to which
our success in Spain was attributed, and which
indeed seems inseparable from our national cha-
racter The event of the war now depended
upon the skill and firmness of the British Ge
neral and the courage and resolution of his
small body of troops. The fire of artil-
lery and musketry was tremendous ; the
attacking force overwhelming, and the charge of
the French conducted with all that impetuous
confidence in their own success, which has so
often won them victory. At the same time no
succour could be afforded to the British force.
General Wutgenau, destined to support them

mild not reach the bpnt for nearly throe hours,
cid during the whole of that time Lord
(iranhy resisted, without yielding a step, a
force of more than ten times the number of his
own troops."