The Sun.
London, England, 1835-09-15 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

LARDIVER'S CABINET CYCLOPLEDIA Vol. 70.
Longman. London, 1835.
Contains a useful treatise—the result evidently of
much research, and for which the author is in no
slight degree indebted to the labours of Adams, and
other toilers in the same vineyard—on the " Manu-
factures, Manners, and Institutions of the Greeks and
Romans." The cursory remarks on garlic, a vegetable
which the refined Greeks abhorred as much as honest
Sancho relished it, are curious, and had we space we
would quote them ; but at present our limits forbid.

SCOTT'S PROSE WORKS.
PERIODICAL CRITICISSI.-VOL I.

The volume before, us consists wholly of republi-
cations of Sir Walter Scott's contributions to the Edin-
burgh and Quarterly Reviews. We have here his
opinions in detail, of Southey, Byron, Campbell, J.
W. Croker, author of the " Battle of Talavera"—a
poem long since defunct—Godwin, Chatterton, Spen-
cer,' Chaucer, and many of those old Scottish and
English ballads, as collected by Ritson and Ellis,
whose rough music were to him more delightful than
the most polished of modern strains. Prone as we
are to admire the writings of Scott, still we must
reluctantly admit that he is far from showing to ad-
vantage in the present volume. Unquestionably his cri-
ticism is marked by that calm good sense which charac-
terised every thing he said and wrote ; it is replete, too,
with a benevolent and forbearing spirit ; but it is defi-
cient in depth, acuteness, and that quick, various sensi-
bility without which excellence in the art is unattainable.
Sir Walter rarely seems to dig into his subject ; he
never probes it to the quick; but contents himself with
pointing out for praise or blame that only which lies on
the surface. The nearest approach he makes to the
true critical apprehension, is in his notice of " Gertrude
of Wyoming," though even here he betrays an occa-
sional want of discernment; as for instance, in that ex-
quisite simile where the fair, laughing English boy
brought to Wyoming by the swarthy Indian, is com-
pared to " morning brought by night ;" which he
quotes without a word of approbation, just as if he in-
troduced it for no other purpose than to carry on his
analysis of the story. In some of his other extracts
from the poem, he marks the line which most strikes
his fancy in italics : it is no unreasonable conjecture,
therefore, that the apt felicity of the other simile had
escaped his notice. Still his criticisms are well worth
reading, and being held in remembrance, if only for the
unequivocal manifestations they every where evince, of
a social, charitable, and enlightened nature.

HISTORY OF THE BRITISH COLONIES.
fly 11. MOXTGOMERY MARTIN,
In Five Vols., Vol. I." Second Edition. London :
Cochrane 6- Co.

Mr. Martin's projected work is not yet completed,
and here we have the public impatient for second edi-
tions of the volumes which have appeared. This is
rare success for the author, and yet we must declare
that it is not rarer than deserved. Mr. Martin's his-
tory of our colonies is a standard work, which will only
be forgotton with the language. We are truly re-
joiced to find that the people of England have realized
the expectations of tihe whole of the public Press re-
garding it. We were among the first to hail its ap-

pearance, and our a.e.mtration of it has suffered no
diminution.

The APT for LIMITLVG the TIME of TAKING the

POLLS AT ELECTIONS.

BY CHARLES F. F. WORDSIV.O.I4TH, ESQ., OF THE INNER TEMPLE.

A. Maxwell, 1835.

This Act has been
,published by Mr. Wordsworth,
as an Appendix to his very valuable book on the Law
and Practice of Elect. ons for England and Wales.
The alterations effected by the sth and 6th William
IV., chap. 36, are compaised in this short publication,
and it will be necessary for the purchasers of the se-
cond edition of the " Lt tw and Practice of Elections,"
to substitute it in th eir copies for the matter which is
at present standing in that part of the work. The Act
of Parliament itself has been paged, so that it may be
brought in at the end of the Appendix in its proper
place.

While referring to thtis Work, we cannot do better
than call the attention. of the Revising Barristers,
who are about to hold their Registration Courts, and
the electors generally, to seven chapters on the regis-
tration clauses of the Raft n Bill. With these chap-
ters every elector ought tc, be familiar.
Mr. Wordsworth, in Ya is preface to the second edi-
tion, informs us that the 3 vhole impression of the book
was exhausted before the expiration of six months from
the date of publication— .an occurrence, " in his be-
lief," unexampled in the sale of law books. We are not
surprised at this : the Wca k is altogether as perfect as
anything of the kind can 13,e •