BOOKS.

DR. BARTH'S TRAVELS IN NORTH AND CENTRAL AFRICA.* TICE account os Dr. Barth's six years' wandering through the great Sahara and Negroland will eventually be presented to the world in five octavo volumes, and extend, if we judge by the three before us, to some three thousand pages. Upon the plan of the author, which consists in exhibiting his journal rather than the results of his journal, this extraordinary expansion could scarcely have been avoided. There is a great variety in the writer's subjects. Roman and Mahometan antiquities are exhibited so far as the sway of those empires extended Southwards from the Mediterranean, and which sway appears to have been further than is usually supposed ; the external features of nature are described, not only in their forms but in their scientific characteristics; the social, ethnological, and political traits (if that can rightly be called political which depends upon the individual ruler) of the many different tribes and districts among which his fortunes led the traveller, are noted, and accompanied with remarks • besides the incidents and adventures of his journeys, Dr. Barth depicts the qualities of the many men he came in contact with durmg his long wanderings. No doubt, this is done minutely and diffusely : the style might have been condensed, many trivial facts or occurrences might have been omitted, with advantage. The gain from this course, however, would not have been great in proportion to the whole ; and there is reality in the smallest matter that turns up in the journeys through regions rarely visited or wholly unvisited by civilized man.

Still, so long a work on a subject with little bearing on the direct interests or sympathies of mankind, and whose sameness is great notwithstanding its variety of topics, is too much for any reader; and a different plan would have obviated this very vital objection. Dr. Barth's absolute novelty of exploration is in the country South and East of Lake Tschad. Modern travellers, especially Lyon, have recorded their observations on the Sahara and its immediate confines. In Denham and Clapperton's great expedition of 1821, the route was nearly the same as Dr. Barth's, till Bornu and Lake Tsehad were reached. The head of this present expedition, Mr. Richardson, died at a place in Negroland called Ngurutfiwa, after having parted with Barth and Overweg, (who subsequently died,) each man undertaking a route for himself. But Richardson's narrative has been published from his papers, as well as a previous journey in the Sahara under his own superintendence. We do not quite go with Dr. Barth in his literary estimate of Richardson; indeed, we prefer his own simple narrative to what he calls the "eloquent language" of his leader; but for purposes of the general story Richardson's narratives would suffice. Had Dr. Barth commenced his full narrative at the time when the travellers separated, throwing his previous journal into the form of an itinerary, and his interesting account of the antiquities of the coast and desert region into a separate form, the present -story could have been reduced one-third. We do not mean that curious delineations would not have been lost by this process ; but there is a limit of length beyond which human power of continuous perusal with sustained attention does not pass.

Some preliminary excursions before Mr. Richardson's arrival being put aside, the journey-ground of the expedition consists of three classes. There is first the route through the desert, with its inevitable hardships from heat and thirst, and risk of plunder or worse from the wandering tribes. In Dr. Barth's pages the oases of the desert seem to come out brighter than usual ; his picture of architectural ruins is certainly fuller, and indicates the distance to which the Romans extended their power Southward, and the steady exertions by which they maintained their sway. The SCmid region is the belt of country lying between the great Sahara, and the land where Tropical rains, Tropical vegetation, and Tropical animated nature begin to impart richness and variety to the scene, though covering greater danger to life than the desert itself. It was on the Southern edge of this belt, when danger from robbers was supposed to be over, that the expedition was plundered of much property by conspirators in their own camp assisting the more open freebooters. The third region was all Tropical, Dr. Barth not reaching the Equator by nearly ten degrees; and it may be subdivided into five routes : the journey to Kowka or Rakewa, the capital of Bornu; an exploration (Eastward) of the Tsohad, with an expedition in the same direction to Musgu ; another Westward to Kanem ; a Southern journey as far as Yola, the capital of Adamiwa, lying in about 91° North latitude and 12° East longitude ; and a journey into Bagirmi. His return from the last, and the death of Overweg, terminate the present narrative, though the author finally reached Timbuctoo.

The last three expeditions were the only part of the explorations that led over ground entirely new; Denham and Clapperton having previously explored the other parts of the country, if not always in the same course. The Musgn expedition was a slavemarauding one, which Dr. Barth joined unwillingly. Though inflicting a vast deal of misery on the country, it failed of any great success through the want of strategy in the chiefs and the cowardice of the soldiers : the confusion of the march and the danger of wandering limited the extent of observation, but the

• Trare/s and Discoveries in North and Central Africa : being 4 Journal of an edition undertaken under the Auspices of H.B.It's Government, in the years 1 1855. By Henry Barth. Ph.D.. D.C.L., the. the. In five-yolumes. Volumes I. II. III. PLblished by Longman and Co. traveller got a general idea of a yet unexplored country, curious as a water-land. The same remark may be made on his journey to Bagirmi, though from a different cause. Ignorance, superstition, or political intrigues in Bornu, caused his arrest ; and though he was soon liberated as regarded personal freedom, his range of locomotion was limited. At Yola, too, he was ordered to depart after a very brief residence ; but his journey thither involved the great discovery of his travels, the river Benuwe or Binue and its tributary the Faro, forming on their junction the Southern branch of the Niger,-1and indicating the existence of most extensive inland river navigation.

The statement that the countries have been traversed before is merely a fact. There is not only freshness but, novelty in Dr. Barth's narrative. Sometimes his route was not the same as that of the preceding travellers. The lapse of thirty years in those countries makes a wonderful difference. Whole districts are wasted and reduced to a state of nature by a single campaign in a small way. Empires are changed more rapidly in Africa than in Europe during a time of revolution, and bhange seems the fixed state of things. Then the difference between the well-appointed expedition of the princely merchant Bho Khalum, the protector of Denham and Clapperton that was an object of fear rather than attack, and the state of Richardson's band after their 'robbery or indeed before, was considerable. A man with scanty resotirces or none sees the world, and is seen by the people in it, from a different point of view from the amply provided friend of the great and powerful. Dr. Barth looked about him with other eyes than those of our military and naval men. He was a philologist, an ethnologist, and an historian, as well as a geographer ; and though these matters may sometimes encumber his narrative, they furnish variety and of course information. His turn for tongues moreover madaim acquainted with several leading native languages, and facilitated conversation. Then he was a German, with a more cosmopolitan and tolerant mind than Britons always possess. This perhaps enabled him to adapt himself to unpleasant circumstances better than an Englishman, to form a higher estimate of Negro life and character, as well as to look leniently on social laxities. Strict himself in conduct towards the fair,—whieh he says is absolutely necessary for the African traveller —ho allowed for the customs of the country whether Pagan or Mabemetan. An appropriately-named friend, who with others relieved the tedium of his detention in Bagirmi by solid information, may serve as an example in this direction.

"My friend Sliman, who, besides topics of a more serious nature, used to entertain me with stories from his domestic life ; for, being of a roving disposition, ever changing, and of rather desultory habits, he woo accustomed to contract temporary matches for a month, which of course gave him a great insight into the habits of the females of the countries which he traversed on his peregrinations."

Like most travellers in Africa, Dr. Barth forms a higher opinion of Negro industry and trade than the actual results seem te support ; and, like all explorers, he naturally attaches an importance to his discoveries. In a geographical sense these are considerable. The Southern and South-eastern confluents of the Niger (to use the best-known name) doubtless facilitate navigation of some kind across one-half of the continent. This navigation is easily if not actually connected with the river Shary, that falls into the Lake Tscha.d. There possibly may be some communication (with slight interruptions) even with tributaries of the Nile. But such interruptions are slight in Central Africa, because commodities ore few and of small value, and time is of no value at all. Even boatnavigation seems, at least on the Mary, liable to interruption in the dry seaSon; in the height of the rainy season the greater pert of the country is inundated, and the difficulty of navigation is to keep the channel.

But at present this navigation is of small practical account, because there is scarcely anything for whioh navigation is required. No doubt, the country is very capable of production— as much so as any in the world. As yet it produces nothing more than suffices for its own wants in the very simplest way ; and till there be a change in its political condition it will not advance further in production. Every petty governor can devastate a small neighbourhood, and if able and successful, extend his devastations through a large region ; a displaced governor with any sort of repute can raise a band of marauding followers, and under the plea of regaining his rights do the same thing. The condition of Europe during the barbarian invasion seems to be the normal state of Africa. Kingdoms rise today and are overthrown tomorrow ; the Mahometans never wanting a plea to attack the Pagans. Above all, there is the slave-trade, stimulated greatly, no doubt, by foreign demand, but still interwoven with the whole circumstances of African life. A sample of the effects this trade produces on a country is seen in the slave-hunting expedition of the Sultan of Bornu • not merely by the destruction of

property and life but by the actual away of people, althpugh this pax-hauler expedition was badly managed for deetructive purposes. "We to those regions through which an army takes its march in these Otis of the world, were it even their own country ! We passed this Morning some very extensive corn-fields, the crops of which were of the most luxuriant growth ; but notwithstanding the piteous clamours and even the threats of the slaves who were watching on the highly-raised platforms in order to keep away the birds from the corn, the nob ears fell s prey to the hungry horsemen, for their own sustenance and that of their animals. "After these interruptions we pursued our march, and reached, about half an hour before noon, the Northernmost of the Mfisgu villages, which is called Gabari, surrounded by rich fields of native grain; but everything presented a sad appearance of pillage and desolation. None of the inhabitants were to be seen • for, although subjects of A'dishen, who enjoyed the friendship and protection of the rulers of Bdrnu, they had thought it more prudent to take care of their own safety by flight than to trust themselves to the discretion of the undisciplined army of their friends and protectors. The preceding evening the order had been issued through the encampment that all the property in the villages of A'dishen should be respected, and nothing touched, from a cow to a fowl, grain only excepted, which was declared to be at the disposal of everybody.

"It was rather remarkable that the greatest part of the crops were still standing, althou.gh we have been lingering so long on our road, and had given sufficient time to the people to secure them for themselves. All the grain consisted of the red species of holcus, called by the Bdrnu people ngiberi keine,' which grows here to the exclusion of the white species and that of millet. All the people of the army were busy in threshing the grain which they had just withered at the expense of their friends, and loading their horses with it. Even the fine nutritive grass from the borders of the swamp, which, woven into long festoons, the native had stored up in the trees as a provision against the dry season, was carried off, and, notwithstanding the express order to the contrary, many a goat, fowl, and even articles of furniture which had been left behind by the natives, fell a prey to the greedy host. "The spectacle of this pillage was the more saddening as the village not only presented an appearance of comfort, but exhibited in a certain degree

industry ndustry of its inhabitants. • * •

"The village we had just reached was named Kfikali, and is one of the most considerable places in the Mdsgu country. A large number of slaves had been caught this day ; and in the course of the evening, after some skirmishing, in which three Blimu horsemen were killed, a great many more were brought in : altogether they were said to have taken one thouBand, and there were certainly not less than five hundred. To our utmost horror, not less than one hundred and seventy full-grown men were mercilessly slaughtered in cold blood, the greater part of them being allowed to bleed to death, a leg having been severed from the body. Most of them were tall mei?, with not very pleasing features. • • •

"Not less interesting than the scenery of the landscape was the aspect of the host of our companions, who were here crowded together at the border of the water. Only very few of them had penetrated as far before; and they looked with curiosity and astonishment upon this landscape, while most of them were rather disappointed that the water prevented them from pursuing the poor pagans, the full-grown amongst whom, with few exceptions, had just had tune to escape. But a considerable number of female slaves and young children were captured ; for the men did not take to flight till they became aware, from the thick clouds of dust which were raised by the army, that it was not one of the small expeditions which they were accustomed to resist that was coming to attack them. Besides the spoil in human bar, a considerable number of coilts and cattle were brought

"The whole village, which only a few momenta before had been the abode of comfort and happiness, was destroyed by fire and made desolate. Slaughtered men, with their limbs severed from their bodies, were lying about in all directions, and made the passer-by shudder with horror. Such is the course of human affairs in these regions. Small troops of light cavalry tried to pursue the enemy; and there was some fighting in the course of the afternoon when a few men of the BUrnu army were killed."

According to Dr. Berth's account, though English enterprise in the interior and on the coast has discovered the facilities to commerce offered by the network of the interior navigable waters, the opportunity has been neglected by Englishmen, but taken advantage of by the Americans to extend the slave-trade. Such is the ease in regard to his discovery of the Binue and the exploration of its lower course.

"I must here speak about a point of very great importance for the English, both as regards their honour and their commercial activity. The final opening of the lower course of the Kwara has been one of the most glorious achievements of English discovery, bought with the lives of so many enterprising men. But it seems that the English are more apt to perform a great deed than to follow up its consequences. After they have opened this noble river to the knowledge of Europe, frightened by the sacrifice of a few lives, instead of using it themselves for the benefit of the nations of the interior, they have allowed it to fall into the hands of the American slave-dealers, who have opened a regular annual slave-trade with those very regions while the English seem not to have even the slightest idea of such a regions, going on. Thus American produce, brought in large quantities to the market of Ndpe, has begun to inundate Central Africa, to the great damage of the commerce and the most unqualified scandal of the Arabs, who think that the English, if they would, could easily prevent it. For this is not a legitimate commerce • it is nothing but slave-traffie on a large scale, the Americans taking nothing in return for their merchandise and their dollars but slaves, besides a small quantity of natron. On this painful subject I have written repeatedly to H. M.'s Consul in Tripoli and to H. M.'s Government, and I have spoken energetically about it to Lord Palmerston since my return. I principally regret in this respect the death of Mr. Richardson, who, in his eloquent language, would have dealt worthily with this question. But even from his unfinished journals as they have been published, it is clear that, during his short stay in the country before he was doomed to succumb, he became well aware of what was going on."

The Niger is not altogether neglected. Mr. Macgregor Laird has carried on a commerce in the Nun branch ; but the fact that he is not much disturbed by competition indicates what we have more than once said, that the paucity of the supplies in Africa is an obstacle to extensive legitimate commerce. This fact, too, is distinctly brought out by Dr. Barth's remarks. He continually notes the scanty supplies and little variety in the markets, and those supplies limited to the merest wants of a very primitive society; though, strange to say, ready-dressed food of a vegetable kind is a frequent article. 1 hat the means exist of raising valuable supplies is true, and it is possible that the natives are industrious enough to raise them ; but till there is greater security for life and property, they never will be raised.

impression mpression left by Dr. Barth's description of the Negro character is pleasing. Selfish, ill-conditioned, or bad individuals, he met with of course ; their morality is not our morality, as the Doctor himself observes ; the women along the main lines of caravan route openly exhibit the unchaste characteristics displayed

by the lower class of European females in seaports and garrison towns. Still they cannot be held as other than an amiable people. Here was a total stranger, with purposes which very few indeed could comprehend at all, and the mass of people looked at with suspicion, -appearing in a country where anarchy was the normal condition and appearing without means ; yet he was generally well-trealed • he made many friends, even when rulers were looking at him suspiciously; and, what is the best proof of the good-nature of the people, he was able to contract debts. Measured by London doings the amount was miserable, but large for the interior of Negroland. When the remittance from Lord Palmerston arrived, he owed his loose-moralled friend the Vizier of Bornu 500 dollars; a heavy debt to a merchant, besides arrears of wages and sundry promises to pay. In some few places Mahometan boys assailed the traveller by shouts ; but the same would have been done in England to a foreigner. Generally the Mahometans were tolerant; curious about England and Christianity. An old chieftain of the border country between the desert and Negroland was intelligent as well as liberal, though not without his faults, of which avarice was one.

"The old man was, in fact, on the most friendly terms with us, and instead of being suspicious of our writing down his country,' was anxious to correct any erroneous idea which we might entertain respecting it. I shall never forget with what pleasure he looked over my sketch of the route from Tintellust to A'gades while I explained to him the principal features of it; and he felt aproud satisfaction in seeing a stranger from a far-distant country appreciate the peculiar charms of the glens and mountains of his own native land. He was, in abort, so pleased with our manners and our whole demeanour, that one day, after he had been reposing in my tent and chatting with me, he sent for Yusuf, and told him plainly that he apprehended that our religion was better than theirs : whereupon the -Arab explained to him' that our manners indeed were excellent, but that our religious creed had some great defects, in violating the unity of the Almighty God, and elevating one of his prophets from his real rank of servant of God to that of his Son. A'nnur, rising a little from his couch, looked steadily into Yusuf s face, and said, hfikkaniinne ' (is it so) ? As for me, in order not to provoke a disputation with Yusuf, who united in himself some of the most amiable with some of the most hateful qualities, I kept silence as long as he was present; but when he retired I explained to the chief, that as there was a great variety of sects among the Mohammedans, so there was also among the Christians, many of whom laid greater stress upon the unimpaired unity of the Creator than even the Mohammedans. So lunch sufficed for the Justification of our religion ; for the old man did not like to talk much upon the subject, though he was strict in his prayers, as far as we were able to observe. He was a man of business, who desired to maintain some sort of order in a country, where everything naturally inclines to turbulence and disorder. In other respects, he allowed every man to do as he liked ; and notwithstanding his practical severity, he was rather of a mild disposition, for he thought Europeans dreadful barbarians for slaughtering without pity such numbers of people in their battles, using big guns instead of spears and swords, which were, as he thought, the ouly manly and becoming weapons."

Notwithstanding its defects of Pin, with over-minuteness of description, and too great a number of topics, Dr. Barth's vohunes contain the best account of the interior of Negroland we have yet had North of nine degrees of latitude; as he himself is the model of an explorer—patient, persevering, resolute, and satisfied with little. Many plates are contained in the work, which give a striking and apparently characteristic idea of the scenery, people, and buildings. Numerous maps of his route accompany the text, and form indeed a skeleton narrative of the journeys. Scientific matter of various kinds will be found in the appendix.

MADDEN'S PHA.NTASMATA.• So far as intention can be inferred from language, the design of Dr. Madden in this bulky work was to investigate the "epidemic" superstitions and other delusions or phantasies of mankind, in order to determine their physical and mental causes. How much, for instance, is due to traceable disease ; how much to causes which, though possibly of corporeal influence, are too subtile in their nature to be demonstrated to the senses, so that mankind agree to call the result mania and to ascribe it to the mind. Neither are external circumstances to be disregarded in such an investigation,—such as the social and economical condition of the people, with the character of the rule or the tyranny they are subject to; which things, Dr. Madden thinks, have much influence upon popular manias. The state of public opinion at the time is also a matter of consideration, for it is powerful in determining the form such delusions take • less however, we think, by shaping than by controlling them. Who deny that a witch and wizard mania could be got up now if opinion would permit it ? who can say that an order of flagellants could not be instituted, to roam in bodies from place to place and flog themselves in public, if it were not for the police ? Philosophically conducted, an inquiry like that avowedly aimed at by Dr. Madden would be curious' and probably useful ; though, as in all other cases when mental operations are in question a satisfactory or complete conclusion cannot be attained. After all is done and said, there are manias—fashions—on which no rational resolution can be formed ; those fashions sometimes taking up the most important, sometimes the most trivial subjects. There are "Tom and Jerry" manias, there are " Boz " manias, there are manias for cant words, and a mania for "Palmerston," which, though partly traceable to " causes " cannot altogether be found out. In like manner, the origin of flinger delusions may in part be traced. In such things as the tulip mania, the Mississippi scheme, the South Sea bubble, and the railway madness of some ten years ago, there is an obvious starting-point in the

• Phantasuaata ; or Illusions and Fanatieissis of Protean Forms produetire of Great Brits. By R.,R. Madden, F.R.C.S. Eng., M.R.S.A.. &e., Author of "Memoir.? of Lady Dlessington," &e. In two volumes, Published by Newby.

cupidity and gullibility of mankind. The prosaic cause of surplus capital seeking a more profitable investment than can be safely obtained is also an element. In this last ease, the high rate of dividend on railway shares, and the fact of the (present NorthWestern) 100/. shares standing between 2301. and 2404, might fairly tempt people with a sanguine turn to invest their money. In the case of witchcraft, a mistaken public opinion operatinr, upon the ignorance and superstition of tile vulgar, prompted toO often, it is to be feared, by malice and encouraged by bigotry, will resolve a good deal into assignable causes. The &menial, possession of the middle ages, the convulsions of the Methodist assemblies of the last century, and of the contemporary camp meetings of America, may also be traced to ignorance and the uncontrolled nervous excitement which the vulgar display under strong emotion. Still, when investigation has done all that it can in superstitious manias there will be something unaccounted for, mere extensive and difficult to deal with than in the tangible " phantasmata " of pecuniary greediness. The element of numbers should receive a close attention for probably a good deal rests upon it. Economists tell us of a attention, law that operates in scarcities. The persons who suffer first and most in such visitations are the pariahs of society—people who cannot or will not work, and who have no accumulated resource for even one day in advance. The force of an unhealthy season not accompanied by famine falls heaviest in like manner on the outcasts. In severe modern epidemics, however general they may be, a comparatively small number only are affected. In the statistics of the " black death" of the fourteenth century, we have slender faith—a Wonder never lost in monkish hands; but even in their terrible account more escaped than perished. The number of those who suffered as witches during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries seems grossly exaggerated. If we take it implicitly, and add the parties directly concerned in the persecution the number would bear a very small proportion to the general population. In such phantasmata as the dancing mania of the fourteenth century, the flagellants of the same period, the different manias that at different times have seized the residents in different convents or other societies, an inconceivably small portion of society was directly or indirectly affected. As the mass i of men, except n very wretched times indeed, seem capable of resisting physical epidemics, so the sluggishness of mankind resists the mental or physical mania of bodily disease as usually understood. It is also a significant fact, that the resistance of anything like an equal power to the persecutors stops the persecution: and sometimes the mere int4rference of reason. Cornelius Agrippa readily got he lay po'Vai: teiback him in'saving an unfortunate man accused of sorcery by the priests. Some medical practitioners preserved a number of poor people in France during a rather hot provincial persecution in the latter part of the fifteenth century. The report of one of the members is important also as evidence of the true disease of the so-called sorcerers. "In 1589, a medical officer named Pigray, charged with three other Commissaries with the examination of fourteen persons accused of sorcery, who had been previously tried and condemned to death while the Parlia

ment sat at Tours, in a medical treatise (book vii. ch. x.) in which a report of this inquiry is given, says, We found them to be very poor stupid people, and some of them insane• many of them were quite indifferent. about life, and one or two of them desired death as a relief for their sufferings.

"'Our opinion was, that they stood, more in need of medicine than of punishment ; and so we reported to the Parliament. " ' Their case was thereupon taken into further consideration ; and the Parliament, after mature counsel amongst all the members, ordered the poor creatures to be sent to their homes, without inflicting any punishment upon them.'"

Whatever conclusion might be finally reached by an inquirer into the delusions spoken of, he would, like the husbandman's sons in the fable, digging for a supposed treasure, arrive at many curious and important results. Remarkable facts will be found in Dr. Madden's book, but rather because it was impossible to pursue his subject through upwards of a thousand pages without presenting interesting matter, than from any active care or effort on the part of the author. Me scarcely makes an attempt to solve the problems he professes to have had in view. The account of the various phantasmata from ancient times to the seventeenth and slightly to the eighteenth century is the merest compilation in point of substance, and unskilfully or carelessly presented in point of form.

NEW NOVELS,* MR. Tnou.on's new fiction of Bareliester Towers is a species of continuation of "The Warden," with greater variety' of persons and interests, and a little more of novel story. That, however, is not much, and mainly consists in the marriage of Eleanor Bold née Harding, now a widow. The larger part, and perhaps the greater interest of the book, turns upon clerical characters and clerical ideas and doings, respecting which Low Church comes in for some hard hits ; for as the romantic action consists in the marriage of Eleanor, so the religious action involves the struggles, exposure and defeat of the new Bishop of Barcheater's Low Church chaplain, the Reverend Mr. Slope. This worthy is not exactly painted with anger, for indignation is not Mr. Trollope's satiric vein ; but the pen that delineates him is ever dipped in gall.

• Dorchester Towers, By Anthony Trollope, Author of " The Warden." In three volumes. Published by Longman and Co. The Wreckers. Ey the Author of " Smugglers and Foresters," Sze, In three volumes. Published by Newby. Nightshade: a Novel, By William Johnston, M.A. Published by Bentley. Catherine 05 litre: a Tale. By H. M. W. Published by Longman and Co. As variety is given to the marriage of Mrs. Bold by three suitors, including Slope, so more complication is produced in Church matters by a larger field of contest and a greater number of persons than were necessary to the solution of the question in " The Warden," whether the charity of the almshouses was properly administered, and whether Mr. Harding could conscientiously hold the office of Warden and its 800/. a-year, The present novel eihibits the new Bishop, Dr. Prondie, a Whig instrument, plunging into open opposition with his clergy, less from any motion of his own, for he is a weak though self-seeking man, than instir„at6d. thereto by his wife-bishop, an Evangelical formalist, and by the busy ambition of Slope. So long as the Low Church chaplain agrees with Mrs. Proudie, all goes well ; but, prompted by his own interests and vanity, in an evil hour Slope opposes the lady, and instigates the -Jerry-Sneak-like Bishop to aspire to independence. This seals his downfall : the lady finally, recovers her ascendancy ; the chagain loses his prospects of the deanery, and is dismissed. " It is Well known that the family of the Slopes never starve:. they always fall on their feet like cats, and let. them fall where they will they live on the fat of the land. Our Mr. Slope did so. On his return to town, he found that the sugar-refiner had died, and that his widow was inconsolable, or, in other words, in want of consolation. Mr. Slope consoledlier, and soon found himself settled with much comfort in the 'house in Baker Street. He possessed himself also before long of a church in the vicinity of the New Road, and became known to fame as one of the most eloquent preachers and pious clergymen in that part of the metropolis."

In a technical sense' there is greater variety in Barehe. der Towers than in "The Warden," and consequently more of the novel. From this very extension and complexity it is scarcely so complete or satisfactory a book. The first work was obviously a satire, in which caricature is allowable provided the features of the person or the points of the case are markedly presented. This. licence does not extend to the more regular novel, and Mr. Trdllope has a peculiarity that lessens his power in this direction. His characters are frequently rather abstractions of qualities than actual persons. They are rather the made results of skill and. thought than the spontaneous productions of genius operating instinctively. There IS some exaggeration, too, III other direetions than mere satire. All religious parties are represented—High Church, Low Church, and their varieties ; there is also an easygoing divine without any religion, with two daughters—one only 'bad in the usual worldly way of selfishness, but the other, Signora Neroni separated from a bad Italian husband, is daringly philosophical and desperately wicked. Poor Slope is drawn by her arts into equivocal positions even -while pursuing Mrs. Bold and her thousan,1 a year. Here is the beginning and end of his proposal in that ituar%i, " That which has made them drunk, has made me bold.' Twas thus that Mr. Slope encouraged himself, as he left the diningroom in pursuit of Eleanor. Ile had not indeed seen in that room any person really intoxicated, but there had been a good deal of wino drunk, and Mr. Slope had not hesitated to take his share, in order to screw himself up to the undertaking which he had in hand. He is not the first man who has thought it expedient to call in the assistance of Bacchus on such an occasion. • • . * 'MI's. Bold was certainly treating Mr. Slope rather cavalierly, and he. felt it so. She was rejecting him before he had offered himself, and informed him at the same time that Ito was taking a great deal too much on himself to be so familiar. She did not even make an attempt " From such a sharp and waspish word as "no,"

To pluck the sting.'

"He was still determined to be very tender and very pious seeing that,

in spite of all Mrs. Bold had to him, he not yet abandoned hope ; but he was inclined also to be somewhat angry. The widow was bearing herself, as he thought, with too high a hand, was speaking of herself in much imperious mperious a tone. She had clearly no idea that an honour was being conferred on her. Mr. Slope would be tender as long as he could, but lie began to think if that failed it would not be amiss if he also mounted himself for it while on his high horse. Mr. Slope could undoubtedly be very tender, but he could be very savage also, and he knew his own abilities.

" That is cruel,' said he, 'and unchristian too. The worst of us are still bidden to hope. What have I done that you should pass on me so severe a sentence ? ' And the he paused a moment; during which the widow walked steadily on with measured steps, saying nothing further.

"'Beautiful woman,' at last he burst forth,' beautiful woman, you cannot pretend to be ignorant that I adore you. Yes, Eleanor, yes, lore you. I love you with the truest affection which man can bear to woman. Next to my hopes of heaven are my hopes of possessing you.' (Mr. Slope's memory here played him false, or he would not have omitted the deanery.) How sweet to walk to heaven with you by may side, with you for my guide, mutual guides. Say, Eleanor, dearest Eleanor, shall we walk that sweet path together ? '

"Eleanor had no intention of ever walking together with Mr. Stepp on any other path than that special one of Miss Thorne's which they now occupied ; but as she had been unable to prevent the expression of Mr. Slope's wishes and aspirations, she resolved to hear him out to the end before she answered him.

" Ah ! Eleanor,' he continued ; and it seemed to be his idea that is he had once found courage to pronounce her Christian name, he could not utter it often enough. Ah ! Eleanor, will it not be sweet, with the Lord's assistance, to travel hand in hand through this mortal valley, which his mercies will make pleasant to us, till hereafter we shall dwell together at the foot of his throne ? ' And then a more tenderly pious glance than ever beamed from the lover's eyes. 'Ah ! Eleanor —' "'My name, Mr. Slope, is Mrs. 'old' said Eleanor ; who, though determined to hear out the tale of his love, was too much disgusted by his blasphemy to be able to bear much more of it.

" 'Sweetest angel, be not so cold,' said he ; and as he said it the chainpagne broke forth, and he contrived to pass his Arm round her waist. He did this with considerable cleverness; for up to this point Eleanor had contrived with tolerable success to keep her distance from him. They had got into a walk nearly enveloped by shrubs, and Mr. Slope therefore no douht considered that as they were now alone it was fitting that he should give her some outward demonstration of that affection of which he talked So much. It may perhaps be presumed that the same stamp of measures had been found to succee.with Olivia Proudie. Be this as it may, it WAS not successful with Eleanor Bold.

"She sprang from him as she would have jumped from all adder : but she did not spring far—not, indeed, beyond arm's length ; and then, quick as thought, she raised her little hand, and dealt him a box on the ear, with such right good will that it sounded among the trees like a miniature thunderclap."

A rough but uncultivated power, and a knack of vigorous delineation, are the leading characteristics of The Wreckers, as well as of the author's previous works. In the choice of his subjects and the nature of many of his scenes he appears to resemble the inferior novels of the Bronte family; but the resemblance is mainly superficial. He may be less coarse, but he is also less real. Hard and repulsive as were the less popular novels of "the Bells," they were obviously transcribed from the life of (as it turns ont) their native district, but without the corrections of nature necessary in art. In The Wreckers and its precursors, the persons are of a more speculative or metaphysical kind. The foresters, boors, smugglers, and now the wreckers and quarrymen, are based upon certain natural "types," as the physiologist would say ; but their developments are conventional, though the conventions are in some measure the writer's own.

The predominant point in such previous novels of the author as we have read is visible in this. Cui bone? What is to come of it all ? The story is so remote from the likelihoods of life—the majority of the actors are so coarse or criminal in manners and actions—that we cannot learn any lesson from the story, while much of the story itself is of a repulsive kind. In its particulars it is complex enough, what with wrecking, smuggling, storms by sea and rows on shore ; but the whole turns upon the marriage of Beatrice Lockwood, the daughter of an Indian judge, to a middle-aged man in an humble position of life, to save her from dishonour by pirates. Of course there is a good deal of mystery and trouble from this ; as Stephen Rayner is too proud to enforce the match after his contemptuous treatment by Beatrice out of danger; Sir James Lockwood has matrimonial plans for his daughter ; and that daughter, though exhibiting little regard for Rayner till it is time to wind up, conceives herself bound by the ceremony. There is, as we have said, a good deal of vigorous delineation, especially in the scenes of wreck or violence ; but the author is repeating himself, with the consequent effect of mannerism.

Much of exaggeration, and of that pseudo-charity which both thinks and speaks a good deal of evil, are found in religious fictions designed to warn their readers against some rival church ; but we never knew the odium theologieum in romance get much further than in Nightshade. The abomination designated by that title is, we take it, the Romish communion, the machinations of whose members, especially the Jesuits, are at work throughout the story ; the nominal aim being the conversion "to the Church" of two orphan sisters, but the real object the possession of their property. To this end, "a Jesuit " appears on the death of their last parent, in the character of the orphan's (dead) uncle, with a forged will; carries off first one and then the other to the Continent, where they are immured in convents and finally in dungeons. A defender starts up, however, in the person of Charles Annandale. This Protestant hero has passed tinperverted through the dangers of Oxford, and does battle with the Jesuit Ricei, otherwise Air. De Vere. He exposes in a court of law his assumption of the latter name ; he rescues the two sisters from the convent prisons in which they are immured, though too late to save the life of one of them ; he is a means of the wicked Jesuit being done to death in the Roman revolution. Amid the bigotry and exaggeration of some religious novels there is occasionally a sort of dramatic or narrative power. In Nightshade everything is of the crudest in the story-telling ; the style is drawn from the platform and Dickens mixed together rather than combined ; and though the writing is often not bad, it is displayed at the ex se of the namitive. Of the notions of "William Johnston I .1." on the probability of things, here is a sample. The Mr. Prynne of the extract is.a perverted clergyman, still retaining his living in the Church of England ; the other speaker is ▪ the Jesuit" ; the person whose assassination is -under discussion is Charles Annandale.

" 'I can never rest till that man is disposed of,' said Mr. Prynne's visitor, his lips being tightly compressed and his brow contracted. agree with you ; he has done us much mischief.'

"'He must be disposed of and quickly.' "'That is rather more difficult to accomplish in England than in Rome.' "'More difficult, indeed, but not impossible.' "'And yet—' said Mr. Prynne, musingly, his hand resting on the sermon which he was to preach from the pulpit of his church next Sunday. " Well ? '

"'Suppose he could be got over to Ireland.'

"'By our Lady ! a capital suggestion : shall I ask the Provincial ? ' " So I could counsel ; it might be done after our usual manner.' "'Certainly, a pressing letter from Mr. Baring—yes, that is his agent's

name : when is O'Toole's letter ?—a pressing letter from Mr. Baring, with hint about an important discovery, wlich may mean anything or nothing, but which he will at once connect with the ease of tite Walpoles, will bring

Annandale over to Ireland, and then—'

"'Then he will be fair game, and a good mark while the nights are long,' said the Reverend Mr. Prynne."

The tale of Catherine .De Vere also is a religious fiction, It is far less extreme in opinions than Mr. Johnston's Nightshade ; but the religion is much more superficial, not so ingrained, and coming in as it were by fits and starts. In other respects the tale is poor enough : with no consistency between one part and another, or one person and another ; with the fundamental ideas drawn from other books and misapplied; in short, with nothing but "good feeling" and a rather pleasing though weak style. The moral of the book points against jilting a serious clergyman for a gay excaptain, and gambling. The last idea seems to have been taken from the tragedy of The Gamester ; for Marchmont is involved in misery and ruin less through his own devices than his weakness in listening to "Jack Lovat," a wicked old rogue, who hates Catherine for having rejected him.