The motion for a repeal of the law authorizing the use of springguns is deserving of notice. This measure originated with a select number of landed proprietors, with a view of protecting their own gamekeepers, several of whom had been recently wounded by the engines which they had themselves set for the purpose of inflicting summary punishment upon poachers. The bill passed the House of Peers, but was lost in the House of Commons by a majority of one only; and that was owing, we are told, to one of the honorable and learned members for Nottingham having been asleep at the time of division, and, by mistake, counted on the side opposite to that which he intended to support. Another useful measure, proposed and rejected, was that introduced by Mr. Martin of Galway, for the purpose of bringing within the pale of the law all such persons as should attend dog-fighting, bear-baiting, and similar disgraceful sports. Mr. Martin stated, that he had conversed with almost every police-officer in or near the metropolis, and that they were unanimously of opinion, that nothing was more practically conducive to crime than such sports were, since they led the lower orders to gambling; educated them for thieves, and gradually trained them to bloodshed and murder. The bill was, however, rejected by a considerable majority. The amendment of the game-laws came also under consideration. The object was to repeal all former acts, imposing penalties upon persons destroying, selling, or having game in their possession, and to substitute another general act, authorizing the sale of game; and specifying that the word 'game' should mean hares, partridges, pheasants, black game, grouse, heath, moor game, and bustards,' and those only. This bill was lost by a majority of fifteen out of sixty one. Among the most important discussions of the session was the debate on the delays of the Court of Chancery, -a subject which has long, and not altogether fruitlessly, employed the attention of Parliament. Mr. Williams, member for Lincoln, having, on the presentation of several petitions, complained of the inefficiency of the commission appointed to take the subject of Chancery abuses into consideration, Sir Francis Burdett moved an Address to the King, praying that he would be pleased to cause the evidence taken before the Commissioners to be laid before the House. This motion was made chiefly upon the ground that the powers of the Commissioners were extremely limited; that the Commissioners themselves were so much engaged in their own private concerns, they had little or no time for the exercise of their duties as Chancery-commissioners; and that, instead of digging to the root of the evil, C 4 the the inquiry into the construction and nature of the Court itself, they had wasted their time in investigating the conduct of mere subalterns. This proposition, which, perhaps, was intended merely for the purpose of keeping the subject alive, was lost by a division of 73 against 154. The seventh chapter enters into the subjects of the financial statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the reduction of taxes and duties, and other measures arising out of that statement. This is followed by a detail of the measures adopted by Parliament relating to trade and commerce; as the uniformity of weights and measures, the fisheries, the repeal of the Act of 2d of William and Mary relative to the importation of silk, the Mauritius Trade Act, and the still more important regulation which has taken place in regard to the Quarantine Laws; by which it has been determined, that all vessels liable to quarantine are bound, under a penalty, to make certain signals, either on meeting other vessels, or when within two leagues of the kingdom. The act also gives to the Privy Council the power of ordering vessels from the West Indies, or the two continents of America, to any place which they may deem proper, as often as there is reason to apprehend that the yellow fever prevails in the countries whence they may have sailed. The act passed during this session allowing companies of more than six members to issue promissory notes in Ireland, provided the same be done at places fifty miles from Dublin; allowing persons resident in Britain to be members of Irish trading companies; making the members liable individually, and regulating the whole of the details;' is justly expected to conduce very much to the prosperity of that part of the United Kingdom, in consequence of the stability it is calculated to give to the private banks; many of which, under the old system, were productive of great mischief, and tended strongly to diminish the general security of property. This act has been already taken advantage of by two highly respectable and opulent companies. The ninth chapter, which is a very important one, gives a summary of measures relating to the administration of justice, and enters so far into the details of each measure, as to give the general reader a pretty clear insight into those enactments which have done so much credit to the last session. The first was an act for consolidating and amending the laws regarding jurors and juries; a measure fraught with utility: for it not only tends to simplify the law on the subject, but gives security against the packing and corruption of juries. The act passed relative to the bankrupt-laws appears to have little reference to an im proved system: but it carries with it the advantage, that it repeals all the former enactments; so that the bankrupt-laws are simplified, though otherwise not at all ameliorated Another most important act was that which raised the salaries of the Judges, in compensation for several descriptions of fees which they or their officers received, and for some patronage of which they were deprived. According to these regulations, the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench is to receive 10,000l. a year; the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, 8000l. a year; the Chief Baron of the Exchequer and Master of the Rolls, 7000l. a year each; and all the Puisne Judges, together with the Vice-Chancellor, 5500l. a year respectively. The combination-laws were also modified during this session: we fear we can hardly say that they were improved; for since the act was first meditated, combinations of workmen have been more numerous, more systematic, and more malignant, than during any former period in our history. Another important measure was the assimilation of the Irish currency to that of England: bank-tokens were ordered to be called in, and sterling to be the circulating medium and money of exchange for Ireland from and after the 1st of January, 1826. The number of petitions for private bills presented to Parliament in the last session was 438; in consequence of which 286 acts were passed. Of these, 11 were for the establishment of Joint-Stock Companies; 23 for Enclosures; 3 for Draining; 2 for the Regulation of Tithes; 104 for the Improvement of Towns; 146 for the Improvement of Internal Communication by means of Rivers, Roads, and Canals; 24 for the Accommodation of Shipping, and of the Coasting Trade; 51 relating to Divorces, Private Properties, and other matters bearing no relation to public benefit or convenience. We have thus given a concise summary of the most important proceedings in Parliament during the last session. The Appendix is far from being the least interesting part of the work it presents, in an alphabetical list, the names of the members, the places for which they are returned, under what influence, and the manner in which each member has voted. The criticisms on some of the members we do not esteem of much value: but we cannot dismiss this work, as a whole, without honestly recommending it to all persons to whom the proceedings in Parliament are in any way objects of interest. The execution of this volume, as to its style, is not to be much commended in this respect it stands in need of great improvement. : ART. ART. IV. The Lives of Dr. John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Mr. Richard Hooker, Mr. George Herbert, and Dr. Robert Sanderson. By Izaak Walton. To which are added, the Autographs of those eminent Men, now first collected; an Index, and illustrative Notes. 12mo. Boards. 18s. Major. 1825. IZAAK WALTON's name is one which brings with it some of the most agreeable associations of any name in our literature. The quiet, easy gliding of his style puts us in mind of the calm brook along the banks of which he pursued his tranquil occupation; and in going through his works we feel as if we were enjoying a conversation with Piscator himself, angling through a pleasant country. The character of his works is impressed upon his good-natured and simple countenance, the expression of which we may well say represents "Candida semper Gaudia, et in vultu curarum ignara voluptas.” His work on Angling is better known than that before us, and it is on that production that his fame is generally established. It has procured him the promise of immortality in a beautiful sonnet of Wordsworth: "While flowing rivers yield a blameless sport Shall live the name of Walton sage benign, That nature utters from her rural shrine. Or down the tempting maze of Shawford brook! The cowslip-bank, and shady willow tree, And the fresh meads, where flowed from every nook But though the Angler is the more famous at present, his lives of Donne and other eminent churchmen have not been neglected. In them we find the same characteristics which are so charming in his piscatory works applied to purposes of higher mood. The men, whose lives he took upon him to record to posterity, were each of them remarkable in the most remarkable age of the church of England; and if Walton does not bring to his task learning sufficient to do justice to Hooker, or the courtier-like views which would elucidate many passages in the life of Wotton, yet he has given us a smooth and agreeable narration, in which all the good and 19 amiable amiable points in every character are set in their fairest and most engaging light. In short, these lives are something in the manner of the French elogés, in which the biographer thinks himself bound to exalt the fame of his subject. They differ, however, from the labored works of the Academy, in the great simplicity of their style, and the unostentatiousness of the praise which always falls on the quieter virtues, and the more retiring habits of those of whom they treat. Dupont, in some Latin verses to Walton, well describes the book. They have been excellently translated by Mr. Tate for Dr. Zouch's Life of old Izaak, and are worth copying: "And yet your pen aspires above The maxim of the art you love; The virtues faintly taught by rule Are better learned in angling's school, Where temperance that drinks the rill, And patience sovereign over ill, By many an active lesson bought, Refine the soul, and steel the thought. Far higher truths you love to start To train us to a nobler art, And in the lives of good men give That chiefest lesson, how to live, While Hooker, philosophic sage, Becomes the wonder of your page; Or while we see combined in one The wit and the divine in Donne; Or while the poet and the priest In Herbert's sainted form confest, Unfold the temple's holy maze, That awes, and yet invites our gaze; Worthies these of pious name From your portraying pencil claim A second life, and strike anew With fond delight the admiring view; And thus at once the peopled brook Submits its captives to your hook, And we the wiser sons of men Yield to the magic of your pen, While angling on some streamlet's brink The muse and you combine to think." It may be superfluous to make extracts from a work so well known, yet we shall venture on one or two. We shall take his account of the apparition of Dr. Donne's lady to him; a story which it is evident that Walton believed. At this time of Mr. Donne's and his wife's living in Sir Robert's house, the Lord Hay was, by King James, sent upon a glorious embassy to the then French King, Henry the Fourth; and Sir Ro |