Star.
London, England, 1829-01-21 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

THE TRIALS OF LIFE.
Under this title, the authoress of De Lisle has just
produced a new wink. In her former novel, we were
particularly tuna: by the exclusively femicane cha-
racter which it presented. and we find the same peen.
di-tinguishing he Trials of I i,.e in a no less
Tema+ kable degree. We ha••e had enough, more than
cnoug'i, of lashionahle novels, some rf which, and
they not the wnr t, have been written by L sdies ;
but there are qu tlities in this writer beyond the reach
of her comp:•tntots, and which give a value and in-
terest tat her %%things that the others we have alluded
to ate wholly tit ficit nt in. Her walks are as fas`vion•
able as can be desired, and this for a very natural
reason—because she speaks in the tone of the only
society she knows; but, fn•r a better reason, and in
better taste, she does not dwell upon the mere external
modes of that society, nor indulge in descriptions
which, however agreeable to the great or little vulgar,
are so much in the spirit of ul•per servants and ladies'
maids, as lead us to suspect that their supposed lady
and gentleman authors are rather loilters-on at a dis-
tance, than actors in the scenes they aa'ect to paint.
The authoress of De Lisle po,sesses profound powers
of thought, with a closeness and accuracy of observa-
tion of a very extraordinary kind. These qualit;es she
appears to have devoted very earnestly to the study ol•
the philosophy of the female mind, and so successfully
as to display women's thoughts, and feeli►►gs, and pas-
sions, more truly than any other writer we recollect.
These powers are admirably adapted to the subjects on
which she chooses to exercice them. They ate those
romances or teal life of which Laid B)ton says, most
truly, we hear and see more than we shall ever
and their force is not diminished by out foaming that
,uch tragedies ate at t d in the strt•rts we dilly traverse,
and by yeop'e whom we al•ut•st know personally.
The present wink consists of two tales. The first is
called n Lord A me%l,,t'i Family." It is ot.e of thote
stories which, unhappily for human t►a:ure, are [no
c mason, in which the c..ns qaences of sin are sorrow
and bitte,ness, that reach beyond the per.ons an whom
the punishment ough alone to fall. A stOject more
difficult to be dealt wall can hardly be conceived. In
common hand., the details, which ..re of a va:ure that
cannot be dwelt u►►un without exciting very painful
fteli-gs, would be unmanageable ; but by this author
they are treated with so curious and delcate a skill,
that the in•ensity of the griefs they desct Pre is fully ex-
pres ed without exciting alything of d;sgu,t. But
thnugh the moths of describing the incidet is is not eq.
remote to decency, the story itself is shot king. The
writes—the !unity of who e object cannut be mistaken,
does not manifest a stein and beccm,ng displeasure at
the mischifvons vices which she polirtrayt; she rather
appears to sympathize with the delinq ruts. This may
tie cal—at all events it argues a Christian
spirit; hut the indulgent tierment tf such topics is
pernicious to the young of both sexes, who are the
principal renders tiiese publications. We are no
Put it.4os, ti,r do we l,,uk with a very fierce eye on the
natural follies of )(such ; but there is a Ism t beyond

hich folly ceases to b vi vial, And bee •mes a criminal,
because a mo t dangerous and destructive habit; here
our indulgence ceases: we may pity the weakness, but
we would reprobate, and even punish the selChness of
the delinquent. The I,4Ay, on the co•.traty, who has
%%rift n the tale on which we at. sregkis.!, introduces
a h sndsoine stt ipintg (on whose I estny, by the way,
she dwells snit etrtii, too much in the aides t sr.) le of
voting ladies in their tei ns, who falls iii love with his
lithe wife, and why, alter inft cling unspeakable dis•
:fen on all connected with him, i. rewarded with the
hand or the only reipectable and amiable person in the
nove'. Now we think that if chi. no, eful yowls had (in
•plte of his beauty) teen, in the first place, tl:oroughly
oisewlopped and dragged through a hone p nd, and
then t•e..t, with a c mnission its a West India iegmient,
to Wu bad. es or J 'mai( a, to die of rum punch, n uld
have been a clsa•acteri-tic and worthy end for so selfish
a sc• u 'diet; the tale would have lad An useful moral,
and new fledged cornets and tender Is arced wises of
elderly gentlemen wr old not rise f•om it with the con.
s lat ry reflection that 1, all's well that ends well." We
have no such objection to advance again,' the sec• nd
tale; it is in every respect the better of the twi•—better
in it object, better in the conduct of the story, and
heater in the rtyie and ex•.ressinn. It is called
And is tlie histay of a wi .man whom nt n her let mess
beauty. nor 1,01 connexions, nor an amod.le temper,
nor cx ilted tit toe, could WI from the most attar of
the wothl's cri.ss:s—from anal p-.vesty, and an
catty death. A great portion of its laciest is denied
from the truth of the main features of the narration, and
from the fact that its heroine is still reniem' eted. She
was the wife of Mr. Ticket!, the friend of Sheridan, a
man celebrated for his wit and talents, and belosed by
all who k..ew him, but whose thoughtless estravaga! ce
exhausted his 'united means, and who terminated his
biiiiiant but brief %meet .by a death full of horror. His
wife's mi ,fns tunes, wi ich began with his d.ath, did not
then end, and the course tf her subsequent life was
masked by d.ime.tic sorrows the haidest to be borne,
and which the inconveniences cf poverty tendered still
mote grievous. We have not room for any lengshened
acc. unt of this or of the other tale, hut they are both,
and the latter in a much greater degree, lull of thought,
and 'tithe highest degree pathetic. In the con-tr uc.ion
of these tales the authoress uses little art; she describes
merely the objects she has beheld; and the deep inte-
teat %%Inch they possess is derived, nut from the skill
with which the incidents ate connected, hut from the
irresistible force with which they illustrate the effects of
violent passion and ill regulated conduct upon human
happiness. That they are sad is not to be avoided; for
to describe the events of•life as they really happen, the
disappointment and suffering which abound in them
must not he omitted; but these is no affectation of ten•
timent, no attempt to excite pity by woes which are
only ingeniously imagined. The style in which they
are written is almost wholly without ornament. It is like
the flow of polished conversation ; agreeable, because
it is perfectly easy—forcible, becaa .e it is correct—but
no► striking from any effort to be graceful.
The authoress is said to be a Lady neatly connected
with a distinguished Peer; but, whoever she may be,
she is deeply acquainted with the %takings of human
passion, and seems thoroughly to understand (in spite
of a disposition too amiably indulgent) the wisdom and
necessity of coniroulling that inclination to evil, which
is as natural to the human heart as the blood that
warms it. In this restect her work is immeasurably
superior to the ordinary publications of the sante class,
which have been written by some conytton-place people
both of the high and thellow vulgar.

CORN-EXCHANGE, MARK-LANE. Jas. st.
The frost basing stopped the Inland navigation, we had petblog
doing in our market this morning; therefore, prices most Mt
nominally quoted as on Monday, for all descriptions of Gras.
-- -- -

IMPOSTATIONI MCI MONDAY

Wheat, English (qrs.) 550 Foreign
Irish —..— Oats, English
Foreign 2.100 Irish
Barley, Ralikla 850 Foreign
Irish ...... Flour (sacks)

31
1,550

LAW INtELLIGENCE.
Sittings appointed before Lord TENTERDIN at West•
min ter, in and after Hilary Tom, 1829:

IN 11911.
LONDON.
Monday. Jan. 29, half-past 12. friturday. Jan. 31, half put 12.
Wednesday, feb. 4. balf-past 9. Thursday, Feb. 3, half put 9.
Tueiday, Feb.lo,lsalf.past 9. Wednesday, Feb. 11, half-past 9.

ANTI; TIMM
twit, Feb. 13, half-past 9. I Saturday, Feb. 14, half-put 9.
VICE-CHANCELLOR'S COURT, Jai. 20.
ILIUM IN THI MATTI* of JOYNER.
TIC ViCa-CuaacatLort gave judgment to-day upon
this Pe'ition. He directed the Assignees to account for
14W. 18s. charged as travelling espenses, and ordered
an inquiry before the Commissionen, as to whether the
estate of the bankrupts had been damnified by the
Assignees in compounding the verdict for 3,0001.
COURT OF KING'S BENCH, _ 00.
Before Lord T and a Special Jury.

CROSSLEY V. BEVERLEY.
This was an action brought by the plaintiff, as pro.
ptietor of a patent taken out by Mr. Clegg, an engineer,
for the invention of certain apparatus to generate and
distribute gas, against the defendant,for an infringement
of one part of that apparatus, namely, the " gas meter,
a machine contrived to gunge or measure the gas during
its supply for the purposes of illumination.
Sir J..Sc* entre, on behalf of the plaintiff, entered into
an elaborate description of the principles of the " gas
meter," illustrating by models the :mute of the inven-
tion, showing that by passing the gas into a hollow wheel
or d. um, revolving upon an axis, and divided by several
compartments, inclosed in a case containing water to a
certain height, by which the gas was to displace a portion
of water in one of the compartments, and thus creating a
motion by which the revolution of the wheel was effected.
During its progress, the different compartments were
either receiving or delivering the gas,and being connected
with multiplying wheels and an index, graduated in pro-
portion to the capacity of the wheel itself, a register of
the gas consumed was obtained. The Learned Counsel
ob es wed, that if the merits of the invention consisted
in the first application t.f a pract;cal mode of measuring
gas, no mere variat;on of form in the method of apply-
ing the mechanical means could vitiate the patent. The
defendant, he contended, professed to have varied the
mert.od of introducing the gas into the meter, and by
discarding certain scrolls or serpentine tubes not neces-
ssry for the putp ,ses of tl.e machine, he had ventured
fit years to ma cut icture and sell the same articles as
the p aintiff, which he claimed by his patent an exclu-
sive privi'ege to. The plaintiff sold, from the year
1824 to December 1828, 15,678 gas meters, exclusive
'ci large one,.

Mr." Henry Will, examined by Mr. Poctocx, pro-
duced the following office copie.—The specification and
drawings of the pa.ent, which were put in and read,.
froM which it appeared that there were four parts of
gas apparatus ; the first was the rotatory retort, the se•
cond the purifier, the third the gas meter, and the
Mort , the gas governor, to regulate pressure.
• Mr. BROUGHAM, on behalf of the defendant, re-
quested that parts of the specification relating to the
retcrt. i.trifier, ;IA governor should be read, as well as
the whole ot that telating to the meter.
Farey, civil engineer, examined by Mr, F.
Poci.ncic deposed directing Ins particular attention to
the *roar:. s. for the preparation of gas for the last 20
yesrs. In 1816 he assisted 4s. Clegg in drawing asp
the specification of this Fatent, several parts of which
sere new, and patticidarly that for measuting gas,
%hid) is a :mot imitortinst inciple. The mode also
rf regulatiny ill? pressure or seri ply of gas was Lighly
important. The patent was the most perfect machine
at the time it was introduced, tamely, in 1816. It con-
tained the best method cf rimming, cleansing, and of
measuring gas, which c,suld be u•ed at that time; some
improvements i.ave taken place since. He considered
.11-e patent a mo t impor:ant invention. This witness was
banded one of the morels of the gas meter, the princi•
pies of which he mini ely described.
Mr. Clegg, the inventor of the apparatos, proved that
he tried it at the gas works in Peter•street,Westminster,
and found it a great improvement on the then existing
process. The only alteration in the machine used at
the gas works was a pipe invented by Mr. Mallam, who
had been employed in Peter-street works since he left
the Company in 1816.
George Lowe, manager of the Peter-stteet Gas Com-
pany, said he had seen Mr. Clegg's specification, and
having examined the retort for making gas, was eua-
bled to bii% it was an improvement on all other retorts.
It; quality was making a greater quantity I f gas than
the existing rem ts, with a lets quantity of fuel. The
.gas n:e er was also a great improvement.
The elaintiff having closed hit case,
Mr. BR.' L'GHA m addressed the Jury for the defendant,
'an..! cot .e dad that the plaintiff's patent was rendered
'void by obscurity in if e specification. Whoever took
01st a potent, which gave him a monopoly of 14 years,
was hound to set forth, for the tenefit of the publie,when
'his patent should crone T. cape: ificati cccc should be set
faith that auy prison simply reusing it might be able
i s nark, she machi' e ',Cum Ito tint explanation. This
is as pot the case with Mt Clegg's patent, It was so
stared by soi.e.of the witnesses that they could not make
Al.emachsites from the specification. Such men as
'vet would no doubt find the wal to pass ot er all difficul-
tie:. but 'an orcheiry oink/nen could not do so. If in
taking out a Pateat 5 th4igs were described, and 4 onli
"eittpecleally explaitied, the want of clear explanation fin-
th. sth would tender the patent void. There was a defect
in s. Clegg's potent, which be should contend made
'the action untenable. The Learned Counsel called
several witnesses, principally engineers and men of
science, who had been long acquaiwed with gas. The
evidence proved a defect in Mr. Clegg's rotatory retort.
When used iu the gas works in Westminster it did not
answer; the boxes for coal, fixed open iron arms,
swagged.nr bent down in consequence of the heat of
the file, and were useless; there was also a fault with.
respect to the specification of the meter. There was no,
rule by which, a meter could calculate the size a meter
should be to give a required supply **gas.
Mr. Mallam, an engineer, states! that he invemed in,
1817 the gas meter which the Gas Company in West
-
Minster now use. His invention was after Mr. Clegg
kft them.
Sir JAMES &ARUM made a most able reply, point-
ing out the use:ul improvement made by Mr. Clegg
in gas works, since a Committee of the House of Com-
mons reported that gas light would not succeed, and he
celled upon the Jury not to deprive an ingenious man
* the benefit of his science and invention.
Lord TINTERDIN commenced summing up the evi,
deuce, but the Jury informed his Lot dship they were
satisfied, and found a vet diet
.for the plaintiff, with no-
urinal damages.—The trial did not end until seven in
the evening.
COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, Jan. eo.