17 SEPTEMBER 1831, Page 20

We are glad to see that the spirited author of

the Corn Law Rhymes has brought his little work to a third edition. In his pre- face, we read an apology for, or rather a defence of, the union of poetry and politics. They who make the objection are very poor Judges of the nature of either. If a great and valuable political measure is to be carried through the influence of opinion, ought not a rational advocate to use every fair means of influencing that opinion ? and is not the dressing up of arguments and incentives with the illustrations of poetry and the charms of versification, an obvious and a just mode of advocating a cause ? Why should not the Glasgow mechanic sing of corn-tax as Tyrtmus sang of war? Is not the object of both national ?