written in letters commonly failed of success, because all the
letters were the work of one author, who could hardly throw himself into the mental attitude of all the writers. In the " Miz-Maze," so called after the country seat of Sir Walter Winkworth, there are twenty- three characters,—some of them, indeed, penance muter, but most of them writing letters. Very good these letters for the most part are, though the effusions of the Bootle family—to wit, Mrs. Bootle, the better half of the Rev. Joshua Bootle, rector of High Scale, and of Algernon Bootle, his son, are caricatures. Some one of the letter- writers compares Algernon Bootle to Miss Austen's " Mr. Collins," but Miss Austen drew with subtler lines and more subdued colours. Bat then the Bootle family are Evangelicals, and therefore fair game. The story has two chief interests, the love of Sir Walter's eldest son, Miles, for Emily Warburton, a very earnest young lady, who has in- herited a large fortune and is bent on doing all manner of good with it, not a little to the discomfiture of her somewhat worldly mother ; and the reconciliation to Sir Walter Winkworth of his eldest daughter, Bertha, who has married an Italian patriot, in the days before Italian patriots were considered respectable. These two plots are cleverly carried out. The characters make their reality felt. Here the form of letters that has been employed is certainly effective.
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