The Sun.
London, England, 1850-05-20 00:00:00

MAT. 20, 1850.

NING

•
LITER.A.
SIN AND SORROW. A Tale—. 3 Vols.

The author of "ling Arthur" has beautifully de-
scribed as the triple bond of all humanity—
" Three truths unite the children of the sod—
All love, all suffer, and all feel a God."
The same words might be applied to the title
of these volumes. Sin and sorrow are
unhappily as common to man as is the air he
breathes. Hence the subject of this work is essen-
tially one of universal interest, and, the manner in
which it has been treated is such as to render the
book as valuable in a moral, point of view as it is
beautiful and deeply interesting as a tale. In em-
ploying the word interesting, we do not apply it so
much to the plot of the story as to the portrayal of its
characters. With regard to the main incident of the"
narrative, the • " sin,' which is the cause of all the
"sorrow" so vividly and so pathetically detailed, it
might perhaps have been avoided with advantage, and
the many and varied beauties of the whole composition,
and the most excellent lessons which it so forcefully
inculcates would, in that case, have bad a better
chance of finding favour in the eyes of a
greater multitude of readers. But as it is, in a
moral point of view, the incident alluded to in no
way derogates from the value of the work. On the
contrary, never was sin more sinlessly described, and
never was sorrow more effectively shown forth as its
immediate and inevitable consequence. Not only
does the reader of this novel find in its pages no
seductive pictures of vice, but, on the contrary, while
he is led to abhor its commission and to shudder at
its consequences, he is also, and in the most alluring
manner, made acquainted by example with the
beauty and sweetness of virtue, and he is likely to
close the third volume a wiser and a better man.
We have already intimated that the author
might have• chosen, a happier theme, and we might
also find fault with. the too complicated manner in
which a very simple story is set forth ; but having
said thus much in censure of the work, we cannot
too highly eulogise its style and sentiments. The
spirit which pervades the whole is one which, for us,
is capable of rendering any theme whatsoever attrac-
tive—a spirit of universal and unaffected charity.
Why ,we so especially appreciate and admire the
lessons set forth in these volumes is because the
charity which they inculcate, both by precept and
example, is of an essentially practical nature—a sort
of benevolence of which there is, much need
at the present day both in public and private. Of
theoretical charity we have enough, and more than
enough, but such self-abnegation as is here exhibited
in Lady Emily, or such :continual kindness in appa-
rent trifles as is practised by the joyous Fanny Evelyn
is • unhappily, not too commonly visible in the world.
Ultimately the sinful husband of the virtuous and
sorrowful Lady Emily is redeemed from his guilty
career, and confesses that his wife " has fulfilled her
mission, and won by love and a spotless example."
"I have seen in you," he says, "that religion was
mote than a name and a dogma. I have seen an ex-
ample of pure, unselfish love, whose existence I never
believed. I have seen you bear my unreason-
able irritation—my apparent alienation—without
a ftown of anger or a word of reproach. The faith
I had despised as a prejudice I now see is a reality
and truth." In this and in other passages unneces-
sary to quote is contained instruction and encourage-
ment for the wives of England as excellent as any
that Mrs. Ellis ever penned. In fact the triumph of
Lady Emily is only an illustration of the saying of
the Apostle as to how those who obey not, the word
" May be won by the conversation of the wives."
The style of the whole narration is singularly beau-
tiful, and it is very evident that the sentiments ex-
pressed by the writer are all genuine and heartfelt.
IVe might cull from these pages a vast number of
beautiful thoughts and truthful observations, of which
the following, taken almost at random, are a specimen :

SECRETARY OF THE

• TRADFORD RUFIOR4
- Sir,-r-On the 14ff tlitintsendletirned over Wed-
nesday,',for the celebration of the Queen's birthday.
On Thursday theA6th, the 3farriages Bill was very
neat beiUg made an end of, through what must have
been alvant of forecast on the part of its conductors ;
teibg Saved from being thrown out on the motion for
going into Committee,-by only 42 against 40.
In Committee a strenuous effort was made to
.eject
, the dada, to legitimize the offspring of past marriages.
A legal notability challenged the House to produce a
precedent for such proceeding, and, declared it mon-
strous and uttntly unheard-of. A lay Member, with
no knowledge' beyond general recollections of English
histOry, intimated across the House, that' he would
produce a.precedent. Being a• sort of Pariah in the
pouse, it' was only with great perseverance, and after
all effect of immediate answer had gone by, that he
was able to 'adduce his precedent. It consisted of the
Statutes pro and contra on the subject of priests' mar-
riages in the times connected with' the Reformation.
The next day he got the, assistance of counsel, who
speedily disinterred for him the most complete mass
of precedent which imagination could devise. If u '
playwright in one of those interesting dramas where
a virtuous lawyer acts as the dens ex machina, had fa-
bricated according to his own will and pleasure, it
could not have been surpassed.
31 Henry 8, cap. 6, enacts that religious persons
being priests, or that bare vowed religion at 21 years of
age. shall not marry. Cap. 14 of the same, is "An
Act for abolishing Diversity in Opinions." Enacts that
if any priest after the 12th day of July do marry or
contract matrimony, he shall. be deemel and adjudged a
felon, and suffer pains of death, &c., and forfeit all his
lands and goods.
A succeeding section enacts, that if any person 'who
is or hath been a priest before this present Parliament,
hath married &c., such marriage shall be void ; and
_further if any person as aforesaid after the said 12th
day of July do openly be conversant (the expressions are
too coarse for quotation in the present day, and appear
intended to be taken from a Statute against bestiality )
with any woman to whom he is or hath been married or
contracted, every such act shall be deemed felony as well
against the man as the woman. ' -
2 and 3 Ed. 6, c. 21, is ‘•An Act to take away all po-
sitive Laws made against Marriage of Priest's. Makes
void all Manner of Forfeitures &c. as well concerning
Marriages heretofore made by any of the Ecclesiastical
or Spiritual Persons aforesaid, as also such which here-
after shall be duly and lawfully had and made."
5 and 6, Ed. 6, .c. 12, is "An Act touching the De-
claration of, a Statute made fOr the Marriage of Priers,
and for the Legitimation of iheChildrhn."
1 Mary, seas. 2, c. 2 repeals the two Acts of Ed-
ward 6.

1 Jac. 1, c. 25, B. 48, repeals the Statute of Mary. and
s. 49 and 50 revive the two Statutes of FA. 6 by name.
What becomes of the argument that it is monstrous
to talk of legitimizing the offspring of those who
have married in neglect of the statute of 1835, when
here we have -the law legitimizing offspring whose
parents, male and female, were declared to have been
telons by the act of giving them life ?
The attempt to eject was • defeated by a majority
approaching to two to one, being 111 against 68.
An attempt to cut off the Scottish Liberals from the
benefit of the Bill, was resisted by. a narrower ma-
jority, being only 144 against 137. Whenever a
piece of bigotry is to be hatched et preserved, the egg
is laid in Scotland. • ,

At the same time it would be wrong to overlook

the splendid manner in which the first Law Officer in
Scotland, ordinarily of scholastic and somewhat re-
tiring habit, roused himself to a' .display of the per-
fervidum ingeniurn of his country, when pushed to
take hi's stand between law and unreason,--between
the dignity of knowledge, and the degradation of
bigotry which will not reason, amalgamating with
the infirmity which cannot.
On Friday, explanations•touching the strange and
scarcely yet unravelled departure of the French Am-
bassador. Everything cuts two ways, and so does
this. The French Royalists, always the bitter ene-
mies of England even when foolishly serving them,
think to promote their views bydistracting the atten-
tion of
.the French to war. Such, from the days of
Rome, and as much further as the case was ever
found, has always been the policy of G-overnments
afraid of popular opposition. But, on the other
hand, they have given to the revolutionary volcano
which is rising through the earth against them, a, ne•
cessary sort of appui in England ; for it is plain that
though the results of that explosion should be what
England should ever so much deplore, it is impossible
for any expression of this to be otherwise 'than maimed
by the facts of the last few. days. There is
no use iu trying to saddle the English Go-
vernment with a love for Red Republics ; the
reactionary party, by putting ' themselves into a
hostile attitude towards England, have made
England perforce to a ce_r_tain extentthe negative ally
of anything that may present itself as hostile to the
reactionaries. The pacific disposition of the English
people has been proved under former attempts at
alarm. An important element on the other side is that
neither the French army nor the National Guard is
covetous of an attack on general Europe. 1\ ith the
army'the trade of war is gone by. A French soldier
quietly' fulfils his seven or five years of heroship in
Algiers ; but at the end of the vista he sees, not the
baton of a Illarechal d'Ernpire as his father did, but
the chimney-corner where he left the girl he intends
to marry and 13e a notable in his commune. The
National Guar are avowedly the soldiers of peace
the first thing from which they would guard the
nation, would be another march to Moscow. They
wisely would prefer the view of the Exhibition
of 1851, to anything they would take by encamping
at Boulogne. The circumstances on the whole are
complicated; but the result will probably be, that the
French and English nations will be found to have
been laughing at their rulers, and carrying on to the
best of their ability their own several views.
On the same day, a debate on bringing in a Bill to
abolish the office of Lord-Lieutenant in Ireland. In

,he history of the Spaniards who followed Columbus,

it is recorded that tliey sent to an American chieftain'
an embassy with hand-cuffs under the name of orna -
ments, and it was not till he was in the Spanish camp
that he found out he was a prisoner. The Irish who
stand out for a Lord-Lieutenant, appear to be under
the same kind of hallucination.
The House on rising adjourned till the 23d.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
AN OLD REFORMER.
London, 20th May, 1850.