suiting from cramming, but given with the air of one

" native and to the manner born ? " There are other traits, too, of hoar anti-A CHARACTER.

been considered with as much care as if -it had been the action of A WOCLD•RE FINE DINNER PARTY.

midst of It Ashbrook returns (his innocence having been made

clear in his absence,—which, by the by, a word would have cleared A WIDOWER.

entanglements, save by the interference of machinery ; and it persons, and their peculiarities. But in the third volume, we sus- too much of tl e shop ; it is as wordy as a deed, and reminds one pect, he will begin to get impatient—to pay little or no attention of the theme-like eloquence which Ciceronian attornies are in the to nice elaboration—to pish, and to read skippingly. The reason habit of putting into briefs : there is very little of the " linked of this is, that the events are all of the same kind, and their causes

sweetness," but more than enough of the " long drawn out." - inadequate ; whilst they serve no other purpose than to delay the

catastrophe. The author has proceeded on the misconception of a critical canon. She has heard that change and variety are neces-

ROS ABEL. sary to the writer who would amuse; but she has not reflected Timis a novel to set one wondering, first as to the writer, secondly that the changes in fortune and circumstances should result from as to where she could have found the materials for her fiction. The incidents of corresponding importance,—and the joy or sorrow of description of old dresses and old fashions are accessible enough ; the chief characters is a circumstance of first-rate importance to authorities also exist for the modes and habits prevalent (luring a novellist. Should she again take up the pen, she will of course the time of the American War ; but where was she able to study bear in mind the maxim, " &Mat, mulcet ;" but no critic would the characters of that remote period—to acquire their cast of dream of recommending that the reader should be tantalized.

thought, and to catch and mint their very prejudices, not osten- Enough of criticism : now for specimens. They will be few, siblv and • like a person sitting down to pour out the crudities re- and taken from passages having no relation to the story.

Lord Lovaine was, in the latter part of every day, a beau of the old school-- (laity : a love—we may truly, but not in an ill. sense say, an un- a sloven of the old school in the morning. The habits of men, and of women reasoning love—of old-fashioned ways and opinions; an equally too, are more equable now than they were formerlv. If men, Englishmen in unreasoning distaste to innovations; a lofty tone of morality, particular, never now seem to be full dressed—if the cut of their coat be pie- which was then the fashion, and in the truth of which the ladies of beian, their whole air cammercial—if the dingy black of a well-wmu cravat that day implicitly believed, from their knowing less. than their have superseded the fanciful grace of a neck ruffle, or the neatcess of a plaited muslin stock—if all the insignia of rank, powder, embroidery, and swords, be daughters of the doings of gentlemen and of the realities of life. exchanged for the close crop, the useful, warm, tight-fitting waistcoat, the The scene for a while is laid in a retired part of Derbyshire; and in cane—and if the long trouser, loose as well as long, be now invariably always some quiet nook of some quiet old aristocratical county, where the adopted—and the boundary between the knee and the leg be for ever lest, or manners are far more remote than in the vale of the Mississippi, seen only on Court days—if all the taste to be displayed in knee.bands and the writer must have received her mental nurture. In such a dm- buckles evaporate, from want of an object to bestow itself upon—still a more

constant attention prevails to neatness, cleanliness, and mopriety in costume, -trict she must have studied that imbecile invalid Lord Lovaine, than formerly pervaded even the most refined society. who is only redeemed from utter insignificance by the old-fashioned Lord Lovaine, after revelling all the morning in a dressing gown and velvet polish of his manners, and the apparent sympathy with others to nightcap, appeared at the bottom of his own table in a blotting-paper coloured which it gives rise. The aristocratic automaton Mrs. Waldegreve suit, a well-powdered peruke and tail, the collar of his coat vell powdered too, —her echo, the old maiden aunt Alice—and the respective feelings a large cameo ring upon the little finger of one hand, an onyx on the other.

Broken up as he was in constitution, and it might he said, in mind—but he had of patronage and reverence a ith which the embarrassed Fortescues no mind to break up—and padded in every limb,—made up, in 5hort, of flannel and the new rich people the Warners reciprocally regard each and wash-leather,—his Lordship, (it his Lordship's clothes, still had an air of well- other—must have been painted from the denizens of a similar bred decorum, almost to the point of foppery. When he stood, were it but for a place. A spot remoter still—some up-country background to the moment, even upon his crutch, it was in an attitude, one foot advanced before

• animproved region—must have furnished the originals of the the other ; the noble art of bowing, now fallen wholly into disuse, and the last learned, respectable, but twaddling old rector, Mr. Evelyn, and his specimen of which, genuine, was, I suppose, to be seen in Beau Nash, was still possessed by his Lordship in some perfection. He had also that quality, greatly

attentive, charitable, bumble-minded wife. degenerated among us, of giving up his sole attention, or seeming to give up his But there are other traces in Rosabel of the author's belonging sole attention, to those who honoured him, not whom he was supposed to ho- t() the old school, besides characters and manners. The story has nour in receiving, but who honoured him in being his guests.

is the result of years of observation, and, we imagine, of no slight If good manners consist in setting people at their ease, Mr. Warner certainly excelled in that respect. In a few minutes the clatter of spoons and forks labour; though the style at times displays that awkwardness was exceeded by the universal buz of conversation which ran round the table. which only long practice in the art of writing can remove. Rosalie!, who had outlived her (lays of childish effrontery, and was emerging. The novel has been aptly named; for the fortunes of the into the middle period of bashfulness, sat back, and looked around upon the heroine are the pivot upon which the whole of the interest is made company. It seemed to her that thev were different to those whom she had been in the habit of seeing occasionally, though she could not define in what to turn. There are many persons and many scenes, but they all the difference consisted. They were equally well-dressed, and fully as much at revolve round the centre of the system—Rosabel. To exhibit the

their ease; but it was an ease which repelled female timidity, and made her growth and formation of a female character, from its first germ long to retire into a corner : it was an ease connected with a perfectly good un- til its perfect development, is one object of the writer; another is, derstanding with oneself: and yet there must have been a consciousness of to show the advantages of religion in worldly trials. When the something wanting, as the more aspiring of the party took every opportunity of

raising themselves in general estimation, by sonic indirect boast. Rosabel story opens, we see Rosabel a high-spirited girl, rendered self- Her regard for her father thought she had seldom heard so many great names brought forward for such willed by the tyranny of her two aunts. slight occasions. * *

enables her to subdue this failing ; in a few years an attachment Mr. Warner had, or created to himself, an arduous duty at the bottom of the conies to strengthen her character, and to expand her intellect, table; for he was what is vulgarly termed a fidget, and his official functions had by her exertions to become worthy of her accomplished lover, The given him a taste for interfering in every thing. He suspended the labours of first volume closes with bright prospects, and the experienced the carving-knife from time to time, to discipline his troops as he called them, —a body guard consisting of his men servants, creatures who looked as if they reader almost wonders how the other two are to be filled. But

had jumped out of smock-frocks, or fustian jackets, into their liveries. The Rosabel, somewhat credulously, listens to a scandalous tale of the

modern improvements in the management of the table had not then rendered profligacy of her betrothed; somewhat strangely keeps her know- obsolete, neither had they entirely banished, even in good society, the necessity ledge to herself; and Captain Ashbrook being sternly dismissed, of some directions from the top and bottom of the table; and, as Mr. Warner goes to fights mind towards religion, and the time soon arrives the rebellious Yankees. The loss of her lover turns observed aside to his confidential clerk, whom he had squeezed in on the heroine

his left, " since he bad been a widower, every thing had been left to him :"

and, indeed, the duties of hospitality, in his opinion, rendered a little bustle when she has need of its consolations. Her father's affairs become desperate; her eldest brother runs off from the officers; her second essential. " Come, John, look sharp; clear away fast. Where is James? What are with an officer's wife ; illness, and all but death, enter the family, you all about? The tarts there, Peter - make all uniform—balance the dishes. —chiefly,. as we conceive, to thicken the distress; and just in the What! no hot plates ?—all frozen? How's this ? all's not right below, Miss

Warner."

at any time). This is at the beginning of the third volume; and and That was a delightful trait, certainly," said Mr. Norman, growing more

the remainder is filled by a game at cross purposes between the d more interested in his companion ; and he grieved that the interview was lovers, which not only occupies three hundred pages of tan- not longer protracted ; for it was interrupted by the entrance of Mr. Warburton. two

He bustled into the room, his hair by no means in tight curl, or strict pow- talizing suspense, but might, like the mathematical problem of der — a dishevelment suitable to the first days of widowerhood ; and, without the approaching lines, have been continued for ever. The fair waiting for inquiries or sympathy, he deposited his ponderous form in an arm- writer, herself seems to have felt that two such impracticable chair, saying, in anticipation of all condolences— people as Rosabel and her beau could never be rescued from their " Why very poorly indeed, my dear; extremely unwell—as might have been

expected. Don't rally at all—can't rally—can't get on at all."

"lam am very sorry," replied Rosabel, who had risen at his entrance, sitting comes in no less a shape than the riots and burning of London down again, and putting her handkerchief to her eyes. Her grief was but a by Lord George Gordon's mob. Her father is accidentally shot by gentle shower at first ; but it ROOD thickened almost into a tempest of sorrow. "Don't take on so, Miss Fortescue; it is wrong to fret : what have you lost the troops under the command of Colonel Ashbrook ; the Colonel, in comparison with me? I am the person to be pitied, Miss Rosabel," said as a matter of course, comes to the house; and an ecclaircissement Mr. Warburton, as he sat bolt upright, looking almost angry with her for takes place, in the hoar of sorrow and bereavement.

grieving. " A poor bereaved man. We must submit to these things, dear;

The two first volumes are very pleasant reading; for though my dear, lamented Mrs. W. used herself to say so ; though I confess I am quite the narrative does not outrun the reader's impatience, he advances inconsolable, quite!"

with it; and it is agreeably varied by the accessories of scenes, He applied the corner of his handkerchief to his eyes, and with some success, for a tear did absolutely start forth ; it was the attitude of grief at any rate.

"And then," pursued Mr. Warburton, "any thing that is distressing bsings. buck, for a certainty, my old stomach complaint : 1 have such a weight and un- easiness here," he added, putting his hand to his side. "Could not eat a thing to-day at dinner, Mr. Norman, as you must have observed—my dear Nancy lying above-stairs in the state she is." Poor Nancy was fond of salmon ; and for her sake I took a bit of that, and I peeked at a bit of chicken, Miss Fortesette ; sent that away—then I had a bit of lamb, and that wouldn't do; and nothing could I fancy but a wing of leveret, though it came from Mr. Ashbrook on purpose for poor Mrs. Warburton, but arrived too late—heigho! She always had a parti- cular good sauce of her own to it, per woman! " "This specimen of the bathos seems to he the most effectual way of curing Miss Fortescue's grief," thought Mr. Norman, as he glanced at the downcast form and features of Rosabel; on whose face a settled calm agaiu prevailed.