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money. This edition he could not afford to sell for five times the sum of the edition pirated, and consequently could not command for it an equal circulation with the coarse editions, which had cost the plunderers nothing but the expense of printing and paper. It is therefore obvious, that the bookseller, if he be subsequently protected in a Court of Law, must suffer great injury, even were it possible for him to make the pirate refund the exact sum of profit he had made. The ViceChancellor observed, that he had refused the protection of the Court lately to a song, because it was "a flippant trifling production;" but what had the nature of the production to do with the matter, when it might have involved a great property? The very act of going into Chancery, by men in the full possession of their faculties, is of itself sufficient evidence that it is for no trivial object in value, when the expenses of the Court are considered. It will not be denied, that in a country like England, an article which the Court may regard as very trifling in itself, and which is in fact really so, may involve property to

an enormous extent.

This decision of the Vice-Chancellor is still much more consistent than the refusal of his superior in Chancery to interfere because of his own doubts of the tendency of a publication. If a Chancellor's notions of equity are to be made the sole rule of the Court, they must change with every new Chancellor; there is no guessing the extent of the mischief they may produce. Few works that have had a great circulation, and that are stupendous monuments of the Nation's glory, have been free from passages and sentiments in policy, morals, and religion, that some scrupulous Chancellor might not imagine undeserving the protection of his court. Lord Chancellors are as much party-men in politics as others, and they may be to the full as much bigots in religion:this may be lax in morals; that may be unimpeachable as to morals, but not overnice about religion; and the opinion of each is still to be equally good upon both points, and equally decisive as to the property which may depend upon them. It has been remarked, on the authority of Selden, "that the making the Chancellor's sense of equity a rule for the administration of justice in Chancery, was like making the length of the Chancellor's foot the standard of cloth measure-one Chancellor might have a long foot, another a short one, and so on." If it is to be so, Chancery law will become very unsatisfactory to the public mind. The question of preceding law, in the Edinburgh Review, is so clearly in opposition to the late decisions, that one is wholly at a loss to account for them.

But if we examine the allegations of the defendant, and the grounds which he urged in support of setting aside the injunction, we shall discover matter for the astonishment of the country. Men defending themselves in cases of action, or indictment for libel, when their feelings are warm, often give the rein to vituperation against individuals, and are instantly checked by the judge, who informs them, that one libel is not to be defended by another. In the Court of Chancery, however, there is no resemblance to this sort of proceeding. From a professed regard to public morals, the Court refuses its protection to the comparatively limited circulation of a work of doubtful tendency, in the hands of the rightful owner; but still farther to evince its regard for morals, allows a pirate to circulate without number, in the cheapest

possible form, that very property, and permits in Court the barefaced iniquitous ground of defence, that the work is immoral! Now, if preceding Chancellors had made it a rule to refuse their protection to such property, which it does not appear they have done, the officer who fills the seat of equity at present seems bound to take the means most consistent with reason and justice, to keep the circulation as limited as possible;-and if the reverse had been the preceding practice, he should have laboured to effect an alteration. At present, it appears as if the Court were determined to annoy the proprietor of the work, rather than do what was consistent with sound sense, even at the expense of fourfold injury to those morals, of which it alleges itself the champion. Ought the reason urged by a pirate to secure himself in the enjoyment of his plunder, ever to be listened to in a British court of justice, but as an additional charge of criminality against the speaker? How venial is the offence of the worst of libellers to such an offender as this! The libeller may have endured repeated and unprovoked provocation from the libelled: the latter may be one high in office or rank; he may be a landlord who has oppressed his tenant, a seducer who has robbed the libeller of all he holds dear in the world; or the latter may have overstepped the bounds of prudence, and in a moment of the indignant feeling of honest patriotism, he may have hurled a well-merited but imprudent sarcasm at the head of an autho rity. Here there is some motive in palliation of the offence-something redeeming even in a breach of the rigid enactments of the law. But what palliation is there for a vile pander in lucre-a man careless of consequences, so that he may put money into his pocket, coming unblushingly into the sanctuary of justice, and there holding up his head, the brazen token of avarice and dishonesty, and pleading that the work before the Court is licentious, wicked, and will corrupt the community, and that, therefore, he is justified in administering a tenfold dose of its poison for his private advantage? Is not the allowing such a wretch to reap the fruits of his infamy a greater evil inflicted on society, and a more mischievous decision, than securing the rightful owner until a Law Court has decided the matter? But even were good sometimes attained by such means, they ought not to be used, being unworthy the dignity of character, and the pure attributes which should attend the administration of justice. Though the law may not have forbidden many practices in its execution, it does not follow that it is always correct to act upon them. A sheep-stealer was hung at Exeter a year or two ago, who was convicted solely on the forced evidence of two of his children; now, though a conviction was legal under such circumstances, it was once nobly observed by a judge in a like horrid case, that he should not suffer the trial to proceed-he would not punish one crime by the permission of a greater. It is manifestly a greater mischief to suffer a pirate to justify himself for a literary robbery, by alleging that he had committed a robbery of immoral goods, and that therefore he had a right to spread the mischief infinitely farther than it would otherwise have reached-it is manifestly a greater evil to allow this in open Court, than to concede a temporary protection to him who fairly possesses the right of property.

He who feels a respect for the courts of judicature of his country, and is well acquainted with the operation of what passes in them upon

society, will have observed with regret that decisions like the present are little calculated to add to that veneration for the law, the existence of which has been for a long time one of the surest safeguards of social order. It requires little expertness in the subtleties of the legal profession, to judge clearly in a case like the present. It is a plain straight-forward question, and will admit of as little subterfuge as any that ever came before a court. Why it is that persons of all parties see it in the same light, and that lawyers alone labour to obscure what is in itself so simple, cannot easily be explained. There is no labyrinth to unravel, no ancient statutes to unroll, no authority but plain sense to consult, and the cause of the preference given to the new practice is altogether a riddle. No one can wish to see the taste of the age corrupted. Let immoral publications be discouraged, let them be put down, if need be, by proper methods; but let their circulation be no longer extended, on the ground of their pernicious effects on public morals, by a British court of justice, nor let the opinion of any single individual, whatever may be his station, consign to plunder those literary works that do not square with his varying notions and capricious views. We see too much adherence to the forms rather than the substance of justice among present lawyers. They are too apt, in their profession, to run into extravagances rather than appear destitute of craft. As the world gets more enlightened, however, we shall find that it will prefer a plain and clear law-practice; and that the circumvolutions, fictions, tautology, anomalies, and inconsistencies of our law administration, must give way to a more simple and lucid developement of the principles of justice, and to the straightening and clearing the intricate by-ways that lead to it. Y I.

THE DAUGHTER OF MEATH.

TURGESIUS, the chief of a turbulent band,
Came over from Norway and conquer'd the land;
Rebellion had smooth'd the invader's career,
The natives shrank from him, in hate, or in fear;
While Erin's proud spirit seem'd slumbering in peace,
In secret it panted for death-or release.

The tumult of battle was hush'd for awhile,—

Turgesius was monarch of Erin's fair isle;

The sword of the conqueror slept in its sheath,

His triumphs were honour'd with trophy and wreath;
The princes of Erin despair'd of relief,

And knelt to the lawless Norwegian Chief.

His heart knew the charm of a woman's sweet smile,
But ne'er, till he came to this beautiful Isle,
Did he know with what mild, yet resistless controul,
That sweet smile can conquer a conqueror's soul--
And oh! 'mid the sweet smiles most sure to enthrall,
He soon met with one-he thought sweetest of all.
The brave Prince of Meath had a daughter as fair
As the pearls from Loch Neagh, which encircled her hair;
VOL. VI. No. 34.-1823.

45

The Tyrant beheld her, and cried, "She shall come
To reign as the Queen of my gay mountain home;
Ere sunset to-morrow hath crimson'd the sea,
Melachlin, send forth thy young daughter to me!"
Awhile paused the Prince-too indignant to speak,
There burn'd a reply in his glance-on his cheek;
But quickly that hurried expression was gone,
And calm was his manner, and mild was his tone:
He answer'd-" Ere sunset hath crimson'd the sea,
To-morrow-I'll send my young daughter to thee!
"At sunset to-morrow your palace forsake,
With twenty young chiefs seek the Isle on yon lake;
And there, in its coolest and pleasantest shades,
My child shall await you with twenty fair maids :
Yes-bright as my armour, the damsels shall be,
I send with my daughter, Turgesius, to thee."
Turgesius return'd to his palace ;-to him

The sports of that evening seem'd languid and dim;
And tediously long was the darkness of night,
And slowly the morning unfolded its light;
The sun seem'd to linger-as if it would be
An age ere his setting would crimson the sea.

At length came the moment-the King and his band
With rapture push'd off their light boat from the land;
And bright shone the gems on their armour, and bright
Flash'd their fast-moving oars in the setting sun's light;
And long ere they landed, they saw through the trees,
The maidens' white garments that waved in the breeze.
More strong in the lake was the dash of each oar,
More swift the gay vessel flew on to the shore;
Its keel touch'd the pebbles-but over the surf
The youths in a moment had leap'd to the turf,
And rush'd to a shady retreat in the wood,
Where many veil'd forms mute and motionless stood.

Say, which is Melachlin's fair daughter?-away
With these veils," cried Turgesius, "no longer delay;
Resistance is vain, we will quickly behold
Which robe hides the loveliest face in its fold;
These clouds shall no longer o'ershadow our bliss,
Let each seize a veil-and my trophy be this!"

He seized a white veil, and before him appear'd
No fearful weak girl-but a foe to be fear'd!

A youth-who sprang forth from his female disguise,
Like lightning that flashes from calm summer skies;
His hand grasp'd a weapon, and wild was the joy
That shone in the glance of the Warrior-Boy.

And under each white robe a youth was conceal'd,
Who met his opponent with sword, and with shield.
Turgesius was slain-and the maidens were blest,
Melachlin's fair daughter more blithe than the rest;
And ere the last sunbeam had crimson'd the sea,
They hailed the Boy-Victors-and Erin was free!

T.

GRIMM'S GHOST.

LETTER XVI.

Autumnal Leaves.

WHO has not heard of the Duke of Buckingham, who was driven from London to Mulgrave Castle, Yorkshire, by the great plague ? On the abatement of that scourge, in the autumn of the same year, the Duke made preparations for returning to his favourite Mall in Saint James's Park. His rural tenants waited upon him in a body, to bewail his departure, and respectfully asked when they might hope to see him again. "Not till the next plague," answered his Grace. The same Duke, by the way, thus execrated a dog that had offended him"Get along with you for a rascally cur! Ah, I wish you were married and settled in the country."-The late Duke of Queensberry must be well remembered by most middle-aged inhabitants of the metropolis. Often has my disembodied shade flitted under Lord William Gordon's wall, opposite the veteran's Piccadilly residence, to gaze upon him, with his straw hat, green parasol, and nankeen trowsers bleached by repeated ablutions. "Does not your Grace find London very empty?" bawled a morning visitor in his soundest ear, on the fifteenth day of a hot September. "Yes," answered the Duke; "but it is fuller than the country."-These are the only two men of whom I ever heard who pleaded a justification on being seen, like autumnal leaves, scattered about the streets of London during the fall of the year. Many others have pleaded a general justification. Doctor Johnson said, he who is tired of London is tired of existence. Charles Morris eulogizes "the sweet shady side of Pall Mall," in strains which, like his favourite beverage, become the mellower for age; and Doctor Moseley used to say, "I am half distracted whenever I go into the country; there is such a noise of nothing." All these were celebrated men, who could brazen it out. The common herd of mortals invent excuses: they shuffle like a May-day sweep, and lie like the prospectus of a new Magazine. They never saw the humours of Bartholomew Fair before they could not, till last Sunday, get a ticket to hear the Reverend Edward Irving: they have a particular wish to see "the Great Unknown" in the Haymarket; or the pavement of St. James's Square is about to be Mac-adamized, and they are bent upon patronizing the process.

Lord Robert Ranter is still sneaking about St. James's Street. I call it sneaking, because, if his optics start any being near the Palace, he backs up Bury Street; or, if hard pushed, he is intently eager upon decyphering the allusions in the caricature-shop. Dean Swift tells us that two of the brothers in the Tale of a Tub made great circuits to avoid meeting, whereby it usually happened that they encountered each other. So it fell out last Wednesday with Lord Robert and Captain Augustus Thackeray. The former saw the dapper farce-writer, mentioned in my last, skipping down St. James's Street, and the latter beheld young Culpepper swaggering up it. Both were, of course, ashamed of being autumnal leaves, and both, at the same moment, bolted into the pastrycook's-shop, on the right side as you walk from Pall Mall to Piccadilly. Each was of course surprised at meeting the

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