The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-30 00:00:00

COURT' ().1 ttCU LA R..

The Queen and Prince Albert took their usual walks yes-
terday, in the royal gardens of Buckingham Palace.
His Royal Highness Prince Alkert, attended by Mr. George
Edward Anson, went yesterday morning to the office of the
Duchy of Cornwall, in Somerset House.
The Royal dinner party at Buckingham Palace yesterday
included her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, the
Duke de Broglie, the Earl of Aberdeen, Lady Anna Maria
Dawson, the Right Hon. Sir Robert and Lady Peel, and the
Right Hon. Stephen Lushington.
The band of the Scots Fusilier Guards attended at Buck-
ingham Palace on Tuesday, and performed the following
pieces, under the direction of Mr. Boase :
The Royal Birth-day March—C. Coote.
Jubel Overture—C. M. Von Weber.
Grand Selection, Don Carlos—M. Costa.
Dublin Wal:zes—Labielzki.
Annen Polka—Strauss.

The names of the Duchess Dowager of Bedford and Mrs.
Dempster Heming were omitted in the list of company present
at her Majesty's birth-day drawing-room on Tuesday.
Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cam-
bridge and Prince George, visited her Majesty the Queen
Dowager yesterday at Marlborough House.
The Duchess of Cambridge visited her Royal Highness the
Duchess of Gloucester yesterday, at Gloucester House.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge dined last even-
ing at the Foundling Hospital.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge honoured
the Earl and Countess of Brownlow with her company yester-
day evening, at their residence in Belgrave-square.
A deputation from the Alto-Douro Railway Company had
an interview with the Earl of Aberdeen yesterday, at the
Foreign-office.
The Ecclesiastical Commisioners for England had a meet-
ing yesterday afternoon, at the office in Whitehall-place. There
were present the Bishops of London, Winchester, Bangor,
Ely, Lichfield, and Salisbury, the Secretary of State for the
Home Department, the Earl of Besborough, the Right Hon.
H. Hobhouse, the Right Hon. John Nichull, and the Dean of
Westminster.

Dispatches were sent off yesterday evening, from the Colo-
nial-office, for the Governor of New South Wales.

The Duke de Broglie transacted business yesterday, at the
office of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

LITERATURE.

LEAVES FROM A JOURNAL, AND OTHER
FRAGMENTS IN VERSE. By Lord Robertson,
one of the Judges of the Court of Session. 1845.
This little volume was first printed for private cir-
culation amongst the friends of the distinguished
author. The approbation expressed of it by judges of
high eminence in the literary world has induced him
to give it to the public, and for more reasons than one
the public should be thankful. First, its intrinsic
merits are great ; and, secondly, it is delightful to
find the profound lawyer, the brilliant orator, and the.
laborious judge, enjoying his first free vacation with
all the buoyant spirit of the enthusiastic classical
student just released from his University, and finding
himself for the first time on the sacred soil of Italy—
the land of his high dreams. " Nor (in Lord Robert-
son's own words) let it be said that the journey was
in itself idle, and the record of it—even for the grati-
fication of friends—only a piece of useless vanity. To
give rest to the mind is not to be without thought,
any more than to sleep is to be without
dreaming. And surely to have beheld the glories of
the Splugen and the Simplon—to have seen the sun
rising from behind Vesuvius, or his golden rays glit-
tering on Venice, as he sunk behind the Alpine
heights which skirt the Adriatic—to have contem-
plated the perfection of ar,lhite..:ture in the majesty of
St. Peter's, in the beauty of the Duomo of
or in the dark aisles of the Cathedral of Florence, and
the triumphs of art amidst. the labyrinths of the Vati-
can and the Florentine Gallery—or to have wandered
by the Coliseum, stood on the Capitol with the Forum
At his feet, and every arch and pillar pregnant with
classical recollections—or, finally, to have pondered
amidst the ruins of Pompeii, yet daily disinterring—
all this was not to be in a position where waking
dreams were likely to be absent. It may be hoped
that while such images were passing before the eye,
the mind was not vacant. I, therefore, resolved to
show my friends that my holidays had not beep a
blank; and I rather chose to do so in the some-
what ambitious form of what cannot, I fear, be
called poetry, and yet is not sober prose. I
took this course, because it pleased my fancy,
and I thought that truth is not less instructive al-
though presented to the eye in a garland of flowers ;
any more than the vine grows less luxuriant because
gracefully festooned. lam aware that some may
think the work after all extremely trifling. I feel
that

" Oh, my strain,
Perhaps even now some cold fastidious judge
Casts a disdainful eye, and calls my toil,
And calls the love and beauty which I sing
The dream of folly.

" But from so grave a censor I must appeal to the
generous and indulgent, and claim from them a sym-
pathy in those musings which afforded me such un-
feigned delight." Withnut quoting specimens from
these effusions, we will content ourselves with a pas-
sage from L'Envoy, which beautifully expresses the
past and present feelings of the illustrious writer.
" The panoramic pastiin o'er, slow drops
The curtain on my sated eye, and like
The rainbow in the heavens, the vision fades.
Nor say, that to my task with slothful foot
I turn, the holiday now o'er, and in
An idle schoolboy guise creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.'—Oh, no. Over
The cheerful stream lightly my bark has sped,
Joy at the helm with fancy in the sails,
And now—laden with larger charity,

And deeper love of ..•,untry—home she turns,
Casting her anchor there—to seaward bound
Ni, more. Nor dean my 1-,anderings idle. or
Their record vain, fur one whose con6tant care
Duty exact demands. The memory of
These hours, like water sprinkled from the brook
On arid ground, amidst the summer's drought,
Will fall upon my heart, freshening the soil."