The Sun.
London, England, 1832-02-11 00:00:00

since that period thought of reviving a subject
so interesting to him—that they should by
their cruel want of sympathy for his condition
have driven him to the necessity of complaining
aloud in the House of Lords—is no doubt an
offence which might well excuse even a stronger
expression of disappointment than the Noble
and Learned Lord permitted himself to indulge.
The matter is not certainly of much importance
in a public point of view, because we sup-
pose there can be no indisposition on the
part of the other members of the Adminis-
tration, as certainly there is none on the
part of the public, to do full justice to
the Lord Chancellor, so far as pecuniary claims
are concerned. What is really curious in the
affair is, that a Ministry should have been able
so long, we will not say to carry on the business
of the country, that would sound too much like
mockery, but to keep together ill office at all,
among the members of which there has existed
so little of personal cordiality or of unreserved
intercourse as the Lord Chancellor's complaint,
and the occasion of it, would lead us to suppose.
It is to be lamented that the members of his
Majesty's Government should be upon such
terms with each other that they cannot communi-
cate their sentiments reciprocally and frankly
upon a subject of some importance to the
nation, and of great interest to one of their
own body, otherwise than by speeches in Par-
liament, or by disclosures through the medium
of the Press. The Lord Chancellor, however,
ought to know why none of his colleagues have
approached the subject of his compensation ;
and as it appears that he will not ask them,
and that they will not tell him unless he does,
we will endeavour to enlighten the Noble and
Learned Lord as to the probable causes of
that procrastination and reserve which seems
to him as unintelligible as it is tantalizing.
It is to this moment extremely doubtful, in the
opinion of every body but the Lord Chancellor
himself, whether the new machinery in Bank-
ruptcy will work. The probable necessity, there-
fore, of a new Bill may have entered into the
contemplation of the Noble and Learned Lord's
co/leagues ; and considering that in this case the
proper amount of compensation is still unknown,
and that as affairs now actually stand the pro •
posal of any measure of compensation could
scarcely fail to give rise to much disagreeable and
inconvenient discussion in the House of Com.
mons, it may have occurred to them that upon
the whole it was better to say nothing upon the
subject for the present. This would account
for the delay which has taken place in proposing
the expected compensation ; and as it is not pre-
cisely the kind of explanation best calculated to
soothe the temper of the Noble and Learned
Lord, it surely need not excite much surprise
that none of his colleagues volunteered to give it.
That so large a proportion of the fair and usual
income of the office of Lord Chancellor as that
which the New Bankruptcy Act has abstracted
should have been permitted to remain for a period
of seven or eight months in legal abeyance,
should for so long a time have been subject to
the chances of political vicissitude and the con-
troul of patty passions and manceuvres, is
no doubt inconvenient and unwise, if it be not
unconstitutional. But there may have been
reasons for it, and reasons too such as the col-
leagues of the present Lord Chancellor might
naturally enough be reluctant to advance.—
The times are critical. Is it nothing at such a
moment as the present for such an Administra-
tion as that of Earl Grey to hold, or to fancy
that it holds, a man like Lord Brougham by the
powerful tie of self-interest ? Is it at the crisis
of their fate, and while it remains doubtful whe-
ther the provision they are called upon to
make for the support of the dignity of the Great
Seal shall be enjoyed by a Whig or by a Tory
Chancellor, by a colleague or by an opponent, by
an unflinching partisan of their own, or (for even
this they may deem not impossible) by a con-
vert to the principles and a deserter to the ranks
of their victorious antagonists—is it, we appeal
to Lord Brougham himself, reasonable to expect
that at such a trying and interesting moment the
Whig Ministers should forego the advantage of
so good a card in their hands as the power of
fixing the emoluments of the present, the next,
and all future Chancellors ? The Noble and

Learned Lord uught to be a little reasonable,
and we have no doubt that if he and his Noble
and Right Hon. Colleagues could but get to a
right understanding, he would at once acknow-
ledge the prudence and propriety of maintaining
their present ambiguous position with respect to
the affair of the Lord Chancellor's salary a little
longer. He is much too acute a man not to
perceit e the advantage of refraining from any
specific preposition to Parliament upon this sub-
ject until Ministers know on which side of the
House they are likely hereafter to sit—until
they can determine upon sure grounds whether
it be their proper game to exhibit parsimony or
munificence.—Morning Post.

LORD BYRON AND THE CANTERBURY
TALE 5......." I have almost finished," said his Lordship,
" another play, which I mean to call Werner. The story
is taken from Mims LEE'S Kruitzner. There are fine
things in The Canterbury Tale. Nothing of SCGTT'S
is finer than The German's Tale.' I admired it when a
boy, and I have continued to like what I did then. This, I
remember, particularly affected me."—( conversations of
Lord Byron.) Hour many are there who, like the Noble
poet, have been affected in their youth by the exquisite
fictions in The Canterbury Tales ; and bow many will
renew their ply asure in mature age, now that, after those
volumes have for several years been scarce, and, conse-
quently, only to be obtained at high prices, they are again
placed within reach of the public in an improved form, at
little more than a fifth of their original cost in the
Standard Novels!

CONJUGAL REGRETS.—When YOU have
passed the barrier of Mount Parnassus, you see on the lift
side of the Boulevard, almost opposite, the name of
GemeiN, in large letters. It is an alehouse of some note.
lou may vow never to enter it, but you cannot be very
certain that it is not in your fate to remain once, at least,
at the door. It is the ordinary rendezvous of the under-
takers belonging to Mount Parnassus ; and usually the
hearse is stationary for a short while before it. It i.
almost the only place where your inconsolable husbands
take " a drop of comfort," after having been to fling
flowers on the graves of their wives. Two friends were
seated at a little table, having drunk and laughed them-
selves into feelings of great sociability. Seeing an ac-
quaintance pass by, they eagerly insisted on his joining in
their festivity. " Ilnp.)ssible ;" said he, "to-day is the
anniversary of my wife's death, and I have promised
POLITO that we will go and weep over her grave." lie
was leading a little boy, of about six years old, who held
a wreath of immortals in his hand. However, gaiety is
very contagious, and our widower thought it mattered not
whether the flowers were scattered over his wife's tomb
half an hour sooner or later. Down he sat, and " three
merry men I trow were we." The only interruption to
their enjoyment was the teasing of the child, who kept
worrying, " I will go and cry over mamma." " Be quiet :
we can't go bow," said the father, whose own sorrow was
yielding to the influence of wine, the comforter. " I whl
go and cry over mamma." " I tell you you shan't ; yo❑
have been a great deal too naughty the whole week for any
such indulgence." Well, the boy kept worrying, till a
last the disconsolate widower, provoked beyond all patience,
gave the child a good thrashing—and then got drunk.
The flowers which were to have been strewed over the
grave were scattered under the table; and so ended the
anniversary of " my poor dear wife's death."—Le Livre
des Cent-et- Utz,