FLOWERS IN A ROOM OF SICKNESS.

"I desire, as I look on these, the ornaments and children of Earth, to know whether, indeed, such things I shall see no more?-whether they have no likeness, no archetype in the world in which my future home is to be cast or whether they have their images above, only wrought in a more wondrous and delightful mould."-Conversations with an Ambitious Student in Ill Health.

BEAR them not from grassy dells,
Where wild bees have honey-cells;
Not from where sweet water-sounds
Thrill the green wood to its bounds;
Not to waste their scented breath
On the silent room of Death!
Kindred to the breeze they are,
And the glow-worm's emerald star,
And the bird, whose song is free,
And the many-whispering tree:
Oh! too deep a love, and vain,
They would win to Earth again!
Spread them not before the eyes,
Closing fast on summer skies!
Woo thou not the spirit back,
From its lone and viewless track,
With the bright things which have birth
Wide o'er all the coloured Earth!

With the violet's breath would rise
Thoughts too sad for her who dies;
From the lily's pearl-cup shed,

Dreams too sweet would haunt her bed;
Dreams of youth-of spring-time eves—
Music-beauty-all she leaves !

Hush! 'tis thou that dreaming art,

Calmer is her gentle heart.

Yes! o'er fountain, vale, and grove,

Leaf and flower, hath gush'd her love;
But that passion, deep and true,
Knows not of a last adieu.

Types of lovelier forms than these,
In their fragile mould she sees;
Shadows of yet richer things,
Born beside immortal springs,
Into fuller glory wrought,
Kindled by surpassing thought!
Therefore, in the lily's leaf,
She can read no word of grief;
O'er the woodbine she can dwell,
Murmuring not-Farewell! farewell!
And her dim, yet speaking eye,
Greets the violet solemnly.
Therefore, once, and yet again,
Strew them o'er her bed of pain;
From her chamber take the gloom,
With a light and flush of bloom :
So should one depart, who goes
Where no Death can touch the Rose!

F. II.

SKETCHES OF THE ENGLISH BAR, NO. II.

Sir Edward Sugden.

If it were our object to select as subjects for our sketches only those whose popular qualifications, rather than their professional attainments, gave them notoriety at the Bar, we should not have chosen Sir Edward Sugden to sit for his portrait in pen and ink; but Sketches of the English Bar, omitting the great lawyers, would perhaps (by the fastidious) be considered rather an incomplete performance, and therefore, at the risk of being almost as dry, though certainly not so tedious, as a Chancery-suit, we venture upon a sketch of a mere lawyer, but, as a master of the most difficult branch of the law, second to none at the Bar. Indeed, this is perhaps not saying enough for the professional reputation of Sir Edward Sugden; for, though a little man, he is, undoubtedly, the greatest lawyer in Westminster Hall. Mr. Tyrrel, one of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the law of real property, than whom there is no one more capable of judging in such a matter, has given it as his opinion, that Sir Edward is the only man in Westminster Hall who is master of the English law of real property; and it will hardly be denied, that of all the branches of the law, this is the one which requires the most laborious study to become acquainted with, and which, while it preserves more of the form of a science, is, from its dry and abstract nature, less inviting, or perhaps we should rather say, more repulsive than any other. To those unacquainted with the various branches into which the practice of the law of England divides itself, and who think that every man who wears a wig and gown has the same sort of business to attend to, it must seem strange that two men so opposite in every respect as the subject of our last sketch, and the subject of the present one, should both have attained such eminence in the profession. While both were at the Bar, the scene and the nature of their professional labours were, indeed, as different as their characters and abilities; but now that we find them in the same court-the one as judge, and the other as principal counsel-the consideration of the different means by which they have attained to their several stations is strongly forced upon us. There cannot, indeed, be a greater contrast than that between Lord Brougham and Sir Edward Sugden. The former remarkable for the extent and variety of his accomplishments; versed in almost every species of learning; gifted with resistless but irregular energy; distinguished for the facility with which his mind grapples with great affairs; matchless in the fervor of his eloquence, and eminently qualified to be the first of the popular body, has been made a Judge and a member of the House of Peers, in neither of which situations do his peculiar talents shine forth to particular advantage. The latter, a laborious, acute, deeply-read lawyer, who has dived deep into the dark recesses of his profession, and left no nook nor cranny unexplored, but whose mind, never by accident nor design, took an excursion in any other direction-possessing, instead of energy, undeviating assiduity-his mind incapable of elevation beyond professional concerns-always fluent, but never eloquent -familiar with the manner in which every species of Equity question

has been considered and decided upon by former Equity judges. Such is the principal advocate, whose daily business it is to plead before the Judge we have described, while he plainly and openly lays claim to much more knowledge of the way in which the questions ought to be decided than is possessed by him whose judgment he seeks. Lord Brougham took fame and fortune, as it were, by storm -Sir Edward Sugden has obtained fortune, and fame in his profession, by slow and painful steps. His father followed a business which gave him opportunities of being well acquainted with the heads of the legal profession; but it is said that he used to declare his son had no genius for his business, and he would be forced to make him a clerk. He accordingly became a clerk in a solicitor's office, and from that humble station he has risen to his present distinguished position as a lawyer, without any qualifications of a more brilliant nature than steady good conduct and unwearied industry. He had not even the advantages of a liberal education-no acquaintance with the Muses tempted him to wander from the dry delights of parchment-he was

not one

"Who pens a stanza when he should engross."

He kept the even tenor of his way, copying and consulting authorities; his thoughts by day were of fines and recoveries, and his dreams by night of springing uses and contingent remainders.

He practised for some time as a conveyancer before he went to the Bar, and in this branch of the profession continued to perfect himself in the legal learning which he has since turned to so much advantage, both at the Bar and in the legal works which he has published. If Sugden had never entered the Court of Chancery, the reputation attaching to his name from his books alone, would place him amongst the first on the list of real-property lawyers: in the technicalities of the science-the casing and dry husk of the law-that curious, pedantic old gentleman, Mr. Preston, may perhaps have more knowledge of details; but in the substance and the application of his subject, in arrangement, and facility and clearness of expression, and in popular usefulness as an author, Sugden is without a rival among modern writers in his branch of the law. Indeed nothing but his profound legal erudition, nothing but his undoubted knowledge, could have raised him to the rank he holds, having no advantages of birth, nor of prepossessing manners, nor of education, other than legal. Rather insignificant in his appearance, and without much pretension to winning address, he must have remained in obscurity but for the depth and excellence of his professional attainments. His high character as a real-property lawyer in the Court of Chancery, was acquired while Lord Eldon presided there; a Judge not likely in a matter of this sort to be deceived. Sir Edward's knowledge of cases is boundless; with the rules of practice he is familiar, and still more so with the remote and difficult principles of our complex system of law. Conveyancing, an intimacy with which is so important to a Chancery practitioner, he is a thorough master of, in all its forms. Upon questions of title, no man's opinion is so valuable, nor so much sought after. He has considered the subject attentively, and written upon it with great depth and minuteness of learning. His book on this subject, called

"A Treatise on the Law of Vendors and Purchasers," is that one of his works which is most generally known and consulted; it has run through numerous editions, and is allowed by all competent judges to be one of the most judicious and practically-useful books in the law. Every thing relating to the purchase and sale of estates is laid down with care and exactness; the cases classified with skill, and commented upon with judgment and discrimination. The estimation in which this book is held, is testified by the continual references made to it, both in court and elsewhere, and by its rapid and extensive circulation. His next most important work is, "A Practical Treatise on Powers," a title which is a stumbling-block to the unlearned. We entreat our readers not to believe that it has any thing to do either with mechanics or politics. In the days in which this book was written, Mr. Sugden dreamt not of the lever, the wedge, or the screw— no Archimedean dreams shot athwart his meditations on the Statute of Uses; nor did his legal wishes ever learn to stray to Continental congresses, and the balance of the "Powers" of Europe. What think you, gentle reader, is a real-property lawyer's notion of "powers?” Listen to the mellifluous Sugden, and he will tell you, that "powers are either common-law authorities, declarations or directions, operating only on the conscience of the persons in whom the legal interest is vested, or declarations or directions deriving their effect from the Statute of Uses." There is a flowery definition for you-there is a slight taste of the matter to which our College youth turn their ardent studies, having been duly prepared for such pleasant reading by diligent study of the Muses; by imbibing the fire of Homer, the graceful elegance of Virgil, the impetuous energy of Demosthenes, and the eloquent argument of Cicero.

Sugden's book on Powers is by far the best regular work on a subject that is abstruse and difficult, and founded upon legal doctrines, which fully to understand, requires years of patient study and incessant perseverance. The author calls it his favourite work, and we doubt not, that if there be

A lawyer's joy, to legal authors known,

he must feel it to the utmost, in contemplating a work, which placed upon grounds intelligible to professional men, doctrines which had confused the learned judges when Coke and Bacon argued, and which, until simplified by him, had puzzled every student since. Sugden's edition of "Gilbert on Uses" is another excellent lawyer's book; and his "Letters on Estates" are instructive, and may be advantageously read by all for whom estates have a proper interest, whether they be professional men or no.

It will be worth while here, (and we crave the reader's patience, as we shall soon proceed to lighter and more sketchy matter,) to point attention to a few paragraphs from one of Sir Edward Sugden's books, both to exhibit a specimen of legal morality, and of the style in which the subject of our sketch expresses himself. “Moral writers," says Sir Edward," insist that a vendor is bound in foro conscientiæ to acquaint a purchaser with the defects of the subject of the contract; arguments of some force have, however, been advanced in favour of the contrary doctrine, and our law does not entirely coincide with this

strict precept of morality." And farther, he says, "Even if the purchaser was at the time of the contract ignorant of the defects, and the vendor was acquainted with them, and did not disclose them to the purchaser, yet if they were patent, and could have been discovered by a vigilant man, no relief will be granted against the vendor. The disclosure of even patent defects in the subject of a contract may be allowed to be a moral duty; but it is what the civilians term a duty of imperfect obligation. Vigilantibus non dormientibus jura subveniunt, is an ancient maxim of our law, and forms an insurmountable barrier against the claims of an improvident purchaser. In this respect equity follows the law."

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Sir Edward does not appear to be in the least startled at this acknowledged discrepancy between equity law and pure morality-the law is his creed, and that is all that concerns him. Blackstone says, that courts of equity are established for the benefit of the subject, and he enumerates among their uses, that of enforcing such matters of trust and confidence as are binding in conscience, though not cognizable in a court of law; but this, it would appear, is mere flattery, if Sir Edward's account be the more correct one, which, we fear, it is. It is curious to observe how completely a lawyer of Sir Edward Sugden's habits rests his mind upon the authority of precedents, and cases, and dicta, laid down in the books, even in matters of the most obvious kind, which, with ordinary men, would be thought sufficient to stand of themselves, without any support from a case quoted. When Sir Edward discourses concerning value," he says, "neither can a purchaser obtain any relief against a vendor for false affirmation of value, it being deemed the purchaser's own folly to credit a nude assertion of that nature." Now this is a legal dictum, and the reader is very properly referred to the authority in Harvey versus Young, Yelv. 20; but immediately after, there comes another dictum, namely, that "value consists in judgment and estimation, on which many men differ." Surely it requires no ghost to come from the grave, nor lawyer to rise from his tomb, to confirm a thing so plain as this. We would have taken Sir Edward's word for it, and backed him for a thousand pounds, on the strength of our own conviction. But our author quotes an authority, and whom, think you, does he quote on the subject of the nature of value? Adam Smith, perhaps, or Say, or Mill, or Ricardo, or M'Culloch. Not one of them; he quotes Eikins versus Tresham, 1 Lev. 102, reported in 1 Sid. 146, by the name of Leakins v. Clissel. There are some lawyers who would quote a case,. to show that the 1st of February came the next day after the 31st of January, if that circumstance ever happened by any chance to have been noticed in a report.

I must now say something of Sir Edward Sugden in Court. When I was first in the habit of seeing him there, though it is but a few years since, the Court of Chancery presented a very different scene, and different actors, from what it now does. Lord Eldon was upon the bench, and Sugden was the junior of the King's Counsel that appeared in Chancery. Pepys, Bickersteth, Treslove, Knight, Pemberton, and Tinney, who have since got silk gowns, were then behind the bar; and before it, I was daily accustomed to see Wetherell, Hart, Agar, Heald, Horne, Shadwell, and the subject of our sketch. Feb.-VOL. XXXI. NO. CXXII.

L