BEN BEADSIlkWE, THE MAN WITHOUT A HEAD.

As regards skill in composition, the knowledge of life of a man about town, with such observation as is likely to fall in the way ofa person of that stamp both in London and the country, Ben Bradshawe is a work of merit, far exceeding the mass of fictions. In point of story, it fails like them ; deriving its incidents from former books, exhibit- ing a mode of life that exists no longer, or one that has been worn threadbare by frequent exhibition. In a structural point of view, indeed, Ben Bradshaw, falls below the general mu of' novels, from the extent to which it Flushes the use of accidents. This abuse is so curious, that it must strike the most uncritical reader. Almost every thing is the result of an accident. The story is set in motion and the distress commenced by a lover send- ing a letter to his mistress without a direction ; which Ben Brad- shawe, the simple " man without a head," delivers to the wrong lady. The distress is capped by the same person getting out of a down-train at an intermediate station and wrongfully getting into the up ; by which the heroines are left in a dilemma that leads to consequences which endure to the last chapter. A lover is reduced to difficulty, and all but ruined, through a change in the wind; even a burglary which the villain perpetrates towards the close is caused by the accident of a key left in the street-door ; besides the usual events of deaths apropos, and so forth. It is not too much to say that these things would be overdone in farce : but there they would be used for farcical purposes—the writer before us turns them to tragic uses : and we believe that men will sooner laugh than weep at extremes. The story of the novel centres in Ben Bradshawe, or circulates around him ; some skill being used in connecting him with every person and almost every incident : it reminds us of that dexterity which JOHNSON ascribed to CERVANTES in the management of Dori Quixote—" Wherever he is, or whatever he does, he is generally made ridiculous, but never contemptible." In Ben's absurd love- epistle to Sophia Leslie—in his town-adventures and private theatricals with the family of the Snobbinses—in his elopement to Scotland with Julia Danby, and in her subsequent elopement front him, as well as through the closing scenes—however farcical or improbable many parts may be, the reader's criticism is directed towards the author, and " the man without a head" retains regard because he evidently has a heart. With the execution of this character the praise of skill ceases: the other persons, if not the common stock of novelists, have

little of distinctive idiosyncracy or sustained consistency ; and the ladies remind one of a litterateues heroines. The exceptions are, Williams, the good-natured, good-hearted, reckless artist—a sketch from life ; and Dillon, the villain of the piece. This per- son is an obvious and not very agreeable imitation of some stage- characters in which YATES used to excel—the rich gentleman with strong passions, but some feelings that might have led their owner to virtue had be not preferred vice, passing through all the grades of violent excitement and vicious indulgence till he becomes reduced to the lowest grade of felonry. Of the structure and governing accidents we have already expressed an opinion : the common inci- dents are probable, and lifelike enough ; but those which are to excite interest or create distress smack of the Minor-melodrama or the Police-report.

With this censure, it may be asked, in what does the merit of the book consist ? and it may be answered, in the qualities we mentioned at starting, but chiefly in the power or peculiarity of the composition. However theatrical the incident or unlikely the conduct and dis- course, the writing is forcible and effective, without being strained ; and in the lighter parts the style keeps up attention. It is true, this style is not original ; for it consists in a metaphysical compa- rison of the subject thing with all its cognates or resemblances, and is a great favourite with young authors who make ingenuity do the work of observation : still, with a first-rate hand, it sometimes titil- lates by successful hits, and sometimes reaches wit " by bringing remote ideas happily together." At the same time, it induces the writer to delay his narrative while he is making points ; and, in- troduced in connexion with serious incidents, it suggests the fatal idea of want of earnestness in the author-

" Si via me Sere, dolendum est

Primum ipsi tibi."

There is also in Ben Bradshawe a power over the ludicrous, which, coarse and farcical as it often is, excites laughter, and there- fore amuses. The following example is a scene connected with the elopement from a concert, at which the lady is to slip away from her company. Ben is unable to discover Julia, from the crowd in the room ; and Williams proposes to go round to the orchestra, where he is known, and take a front survey.

"They entered the music-room, and while a scene was progressing, stole to the door of the orchestra : but Ben could he induced by no persuasion of his friend to stand in front of the audience; and as he would not allow them to see him, of course he could not he expected to see them, and therefore the scheme of friend Williams proved abortive. However, Williams persuaded our hero to follow by a back-way up to the highest part of the orchestra, and to come in by a little door beside the organ. They crept in softly, unwil- ling to interrupt the Rena; and most of the musicians being absent, Williams ensconced his friend behind a music-desk; and thence, half-hidden, they perused the different rows of auditors, till the eye of our hero fell upon the form of his inamorata.

"'There tiny are, by Goles ! ' exclaimed Ben, in a tone of voice which brought upon him a rebuke from Williams : but our hero was too excited to heed him ; and in the intensity of his ardour to point out to his friend the situ- ation of the fair one, he forgot the fragile nature of the substance against which he was leaning; the.treacherous music-desk gave way, and falling forwards, he came head-foremost down the steps toward the front of the orchestra with a most tremendous crash, desks and music, wax-candles and candlesticks, flying about him in all directions.

"The prima donna, alarmed at the noise, stopped her ears with her hands, and, without looking back, screamed in the face of the audience; the venerable old basso clung to his instrument in an ecstasy of laughter ; the amiable old violoncello shook his sides in a rapture of enjoyment ; while the auditors were in.convulsions—laughing hysterics we mean. Two-thirds of the listeners to a long concert would ten times rather have a bit of fun. They took the catas- trophe in good part ; nay, so much did they enjoy the joke, that when some wag set it a-going, they gave poor Ben a round of applause. Ben knew no more than the man in the moon what he was about; but, having observed that the singers bowed whenever there was a round of applause, he bowed too.

"He had some vague notion of propitiating the audience by bowing to them ; so, he kept making congees like a Chinese Mandarin. The more he bowed the louder the company applauded ; and under cover of this feuillade, he sneaked off—a little bruised, a little dusted, with a face redder than his peony watch-ribbon.

"The prima donna was so annoyed at the applause bestowed upon Ben, that she was too unwell to sing in the second act ; nevertheless, when the au- dience went home, they said they bad never enjoyed a concert so much in their lives," REDUCED GENTILITY.

The Miss Busbys were two ancient spinsters ; daughters of a highly re- spectable but completely declined house. They were the sole survivors of the family ; and they managed to live upon a scanty pittance, the poor residue of a large fortune. They bad been reduced step by step—not by any imprudence or:extravagance of their own, but by unavoidable misfortunes, and the faults and follies of others—step by step—until they had barely wherewithal to subsist. They had borne misfortune without a murmur, ill usage without rebuke; they relinquished the luxuries of life to which they had been accustomed, without a sigh; but they could not part with their little lady-like habits; and they were as dignified in their deportment now that they were the tenants of an obscure cottage in a small neighbourhood, as when, the indulged daughters of a man of large fortune, they were courted by a wide circle of friends and flatterers. Many people called them proud; but these many people were those who have not acumen enough to form a right estimate of human character : there was not a spark of pride in the character of the spinsters; on the contrary, they were truly humble; but they bad an innate, quiet, self-respect, which shrunk from the intrusion of commonplace acquaintances.

They dressed exactly alike, and in rather an antiquated fashion, for they never bought any thing new : indeed, they had an inexhaustible magazine of clothing, which was nut altogether a " magazin des modes," but a very treasure- house of old silks and satins, laces and brocades : they sometimes edified a little chubby child of a neighbour with sight of their wardrobe ; and reports had spread over the vicinity that they must have been a sort of private mistresses of the robes in days of yore.

To cut, carve, and contrive these respectable garments—to modernize these venerable remains of antiquity—was a very important part of the occupations of the Miss Busbys ; and they occasionally came out with some specimens of vandyke trimmings, or piping and puffing, that made the folks tremble. It was no love of finery, but a pure spirit of economy : they felt not the slightest elation of heart when they sported silks and satins that would have made the silk-worms of these degenerate days hide their diminished heads; they felt no inflation of spirit when they threw across their shoulders a lace of sufficient value to make a cope for a cardinal ; no doubt, many a cardinal under similar circumstances has felt greater elation than they.

The character of the writing cannot always be conveyed by ex- tracts ; it sometimes lies in so small a compass. " Deep down in the country among green fields, large trees, black thatch, and white mud," is an instance of what we mean ; describing an elderly schoolmaster, with a broad, youthful-seeming face, as like " a preterpluperfect schoolboy," is another; rising " next morning, pale as a parsnip with a cross of the lemon," is a third ; and here is a fourth-

" There was a sun-dial in front of the market-place, staring full in the face of the church-clock at the other end of the street. These two time-telling dig- nitaries were continually giving one another the lie; but as nobody believed the clock, or understood the dial, there was no harm done."