Elsmere," the purpose is completely undisguised; and yet they have been and still are somewhat popular, and doubtless will continue to give pleasure as long, for example, as the unutterable absurdity of " Mr. Isaacs." It is pleasanter, undoubtedly, not to find the purpose too prominent. A purpose is like the human skeleton. We do not want the anatomy offensively visible; we do not want the bones on the outside; but bones are useful. It is not to be denied that many novels without a purpose are pleasing; nor indeed that this is the. safer form of expression for most writers, for it requires a master to deal with a purpose in fiction. But the invertebrates, like Mr. Crawford, should not rail against those who have a backbone. The presence of that stiffening enables them to stand against the ravages of time more stur dily than the mere flesh and blood beauties of romance. After all, it is rather amusing to read the criticisms of Messrs. Crawford and Howells on a school of roman tic literature so infinitely superior to their own in attractiveness and influence. There were more copies of Dickens's novels sold last year than in any year of his lifetime; but who will know anything of these latter-day apostles thirty years after their death, and for that matter, who ever re-reads their gospel now?
"Subject to correction by Lord Coleridge, we believe the following is correct: — ' I knows a little Dona, I 'm about to own 'er, She 's a-goin' to marry me; At fust she said she would n't, Then she said she could n't, Then she whispered, " Well, I'll see;" Says I, " Be Missis 'Awkins, Missis 'Enery 'Awkius, Or acrost the seas I 'll roam. So 'elp me, Bob, I'm crazy, Liza, you 're a daisy, Won't yer share my 'umble 'ome (won't ver)? '"Oh, Liza! Dear Liza I If yoo die an old maid, You 'll 'ave only yersclf to blame Oh, Liza! Sweet Liza! Mrs. 'Enery 'Awkins is a fust-class name." '"
It is awful to think that such things can lurk under a Chief-Justice's wig out of a Gilbert and Sullivan's opera.
NOTES OF CASES
JUDICIAL POETRY. — We knew that Lord ChiefJustice Coleridge comes of a poetical family, but we have seen some recent verses, apparently attributed to him, which seem hardly up to some of the great Samuel's, or some of his own which have come under our observation. The " Law Times " has a column and a half entitled "Royalty at the Middle Temple," beginning thus : — "Expectation stood on tiptoe on Friday, last week. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales was going to dine as a Bencher, and his son the Duke of York, just be trothed to the Princess Victoria May, was also expected. It was a great occasion; a large bench mustered, whilst probably never was the old hall so crammed with barris ters and students, of every race and color. There was a covered entrance to the hall, and the passages were car peted with crimson baize and lined with brilliant flowers. The hand of the Grenadier Guards, under Lieut. Dan God frey, occupied the gallery above the screen. Royalty was late, and kept waiting such august persons as the Master Treasurer, and Lord Halsbury, and Lonl Justice Lindley, Sir Henry Hawkins, and Sir Francis Jeune, and gentle men of the position of Sir Peter Edlin and Sir Henry James, the Dean of Llandaff and Canon Ainger. The genial presence of the Prince, however, removed all sense of hunger and annoyance," etc., etc.
Among a medley of songs and ballads was " the well-known refrain, ' Mrs. 'Enery 'Awkins is a fustclass name,' which excited the merriment of the stu dents to an extraordinary extent, and vastly amused the head-table. The report continues : —
MENTAL ANGUISH. — There is the most unfeeling class of telegraph companies in Texas that we ever heard of! In every number of the West Company's Reports are one or more cases of " mental anguish" inflicted by them. But in a very recent case it ap pears that the value of that mental anguish was cal culated too exactly and at too high a figure to stand on review. It was the case of a sick child (Western Union Tel. Co. 7>. Berdine, 21 S. W. Rep. 982), and it was held that where defendant's negligence caused a delay of twelve hours in the arrival of the doctor, and in the mean time the plaintiff might have called another doctor, a verdict for $1,999.99 damages is excessive. ACTION BY SERVANT AGAINST FELLOW-SERVANT. — In Steinhauser v. Spraul, Supreme Court of Mis souri, 2i S W. Rep. 859. it was held that an action may be maintained by a servant against the master's wife as fellow-servant for injuries sustained in using, at the wife's bidding, a ladder known to the wife to be unsafe. The court said : — "In the case of Osborn 7'. Morgan, 137 Mass. I, s. с у) Am. Rep. 437, where the facts were that the general superintendent of a manufacturing corporation, whose works covered several acres of ground, and in whose employ were a large number of men, including plaintiff, designed for one of its mills a mechanical fixture consist ing of a rail sixteen feet above the ground, on which ivas
