Polynesian., 1844-11-02
NEW SERIES, Vol. mo. %.

ho 40 i
ging Mr.. Ricord, IA privy councillor of the
king, with having stolen twenty five dollars,
and cheated twelve men out of a dollar each.
Again Up. 49, we find him calling the same
gentleman "a dry Nurse" a phrase which
for d~clicacy ofexpression is only to be equal
cd page 42, where he informs Mr.. Judd, as
goa haze made your bed, so you must lie,"
acknowledging it to be ga rulgar adage,"
but, nevertheless, not hesitating to use it.
Such felicitous expressions constitute a nov
city in the language of diplomacy. Again,
(p. A., we find the following;-" l would
not have tried to creep out Of the dilemma l
had got into, through a hole of such a ma
%turc:" and for an example of invidious per-
sonal reflection, we refer our readers to his
~allusion to the former profession of Mr.. Judd.
But enough of this. The next subject
which merits our attention is what, in some
cases, may be considered a very desirable
attainmcnt; to wit, a mode of expression
which shall admit of a variety of readings.
But this does not seem to have been the OBJ
lect of Mr.. Brown, if we may be permitted
to Judge from the usual plainness Of his Ian
guagc, which seldom admits of two i%nterpre-
%tations. Yet in some sentences we notice
an obscurity which renders it difficult to tell
what he really does intend to say. These
solccisms result, we apprehend, from the
novel use he makes Of coniunctions, the Pc
culiar position he gives to pronouns, and the
injustice done to verbs by not permitting them
to consort with their proper nominatives.-
A new school of poetry has lately been star
ted, which permits in its %votaries a total dis
regard of metrical rules. With them, poe
try, to bear the impress of true genius, should
be the natural offspring of the OVERLOOKING
imagination, unmoulded by art, and free as
the spring that gushcs from the mountain
side. Their productions have, however,
much the appearance of a field on a militia
muster day. Amid chaotic masses, some
companies, by chance, assume an orderly
array; so with this poetry; accident gives
birth to a metrical verse or two, which but
renders the dissonancc Of the remainder the
more conspicuous. Unknown to us, in this
distant quarter, a new school Of prose may
have been commenced on the same princi-
pie, and the old fashioned rules Of syntax be
falling into disusc. Until, however, the
grammar kings give due notice ofthe change,
we must conform to the edicts of Murray
and Johnson. To illustrate the facts alluded
to above, we quote again from the letter.
(p. 42) &c as well as all my countrymen am
bound" Mr.. Brown, in the paragraph from
which the extract is taken, argues thus; be-
cause Mr.. Judd gave him an English trans
lation of the Hawaiian laws, which, by the
tway, was merely the result of the voluntary
labor of an American, for the benefit of his
countrymen and entirely independent of leg
i~slatiye sanction, he and all his countrymen
s. am" bound to consider it a correct ~transla-
ton. 1.-THE gift had been IA horse, would he
and all his countrymen have been bound to
consider it an easy one ! The book was Civ
en- because the original was unintelligible
to Mr.. Brown. 1t is the only translation and
therefore the most correct one.
Pages 40 and 43, at the commencement
of the last paragraph Of the one, and the
first of the other, we find the definitive adiec-
tive "this," but nothing in connection for it
to denote, which would make common sense.
In the former, il cannot be intended that the
{" translation is the agreement, +" or in the
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