Editorial

The long pending suit between Mars and Mercury came on last Tuesday evening, and was determined in favour of the defendant, by the irresistible eloquence of his counsel. The plaintiff, however, met his adversary at a disadvantage, from the sudden indisposition of his leading advocate, for which all the ability of the junior counsel, tho’ exerted with much energy, and highly to his credit, was unable to compensate.

It has been rumoured, that Mars intends to move for a new trial, on the ground that he was deprived of the advantage which his cause would have derived from the precedents, and the arguments founded thereon, by the accident above alluded to, but chiefly because the defendant had only a majority of one, and it is well known that a stranger not legally entitled to vote, had given his suffrage for Mercury which decided the contest in his favour.

We shall open the reading this evening with a poem entitled The Proxies, which we are sorry was not read on the night of the trial as it might have prevented the counsel from mistaking the President of the Court for the Lord Chancellor Jupiter, which deprived the trial of its requisite formality. This will be followed by some verses on the same subject, and a Dialogue between Mercury and Mars. To these will be added certain verses which compare a certain lady, called Celia, to the rose, but as the poet has thought proper to fill the flower with thorns, if the comparison holds good, we are afraid the lady must have the heartburn. The poem, however, notwithstanding this slight inaccuracy, is not unworthy of a place in our Chest. The Fall of Hercules is an ingenious exposure of a misrepresentation of the number of new planets discovered with the last 50 years, which either thro’ ignorance or design, had been inserted in an elementary book of astronomy. We suspect this was designedly done, and the author, were he known, would deserve severe reprehension for his falsifying the source of astronomical knowledge, and making erroneous impressions on the pupil, which may perhaps now be eradicated.

We think “The Three Suitors” is a poem of some merit, and the author displays considerable dexterity in appropriating the language of their respective professions, to the fair lady.

The 3d Canto of the Sylphiad is received, as well as the 3d Canto of the 2d Book of the Restoration. The former we must defer to some future meeting and with the latter shall conclude our evening amusements.