NEW NOVELS. * A MALY object of Miss Wormeley in Our

Cousin Veronica is to depict American Slavery as it practically exists. In effect- ing this, she steers between the two extremes of Anti-Slavery ex- aggeration and Pro-Slavery absurdity.. There is no Black hero like Uncle Tom, no White villain like Legree, no ascribing Southern slavery to Providence in order to improve the Blacks an civilize Africa ; but the institution, notwithstanding, is too strong for her. The good temper, familiarity, and in a certain sense domes- tic tyranny of the slaves over their masters are naturally depicted; but their total helplessness and childishness, as well as the want of "looking before and after," are conspicuously apparent. The great feature of the story turns upon facts almost as dark as any- thing in Uncle Tom's Cabin. A Mite man takes the savings of his slave as part of the redemption-money of himself and family, gives fictitious papers instead of receipts, and tries to dispose of the whole family to a purchaser more hard, grasping, and villanous than himself. It is true that Mr. Williams is represen.ted as a dis- sipated disreputable fellow, unpopular in the neighbourhood; and his friend Gibson worse, as being more calculating. The gentry of the district, too, take an interest in the matter, and exert them- selves to trace some of the slave's money into the hands of Wil- liams and thus detect his misdeeds. Still the exertions of Tyrell the Virginian hero, of his father the Governor, and of others, are so much mixed up with the ladies and the romance, that the rescue of Uncle Christopher and family seems clearly exceptional; while the practice of keeping slaves illegally in bondage, and even of defrauding them of their money, looks very like a general rule amongst the poorer and more unprincipled Whites, who, it is probable, form a majority. The separation of families by sale is touched upon as if it were more a matter of course than some late writers have represented it. The point in the story is not, however, the misery, but the immorality in feeling, which the practice induces. The following representation of Negro notions on marriage is by a Black nurse of Veronica, who accompanies her as a little girl to England; but the same ideas are exhibited in Virginia. The " Nurse " of the extract is a steady oldfashion- ed servant of Veronica's cousins, with the strong sense of family attachment and duty that formerly distinguished many domestics in England. "Don't you know how to sew ? ' said Nurse.

"Laws, yes, honey. I know sure 'nuff. Allers use to sew for my ole husband. Sunday clothes, an' that ; other ones he done got from his mas' r.'

" ' Were you ever married ? ' asked Nurse, with an awakening curiosity.

" ' Law, sakes ! never lmowed ole maid o' colour, any how,' said Mammy,' with a laugh. Done married my first husbare when -I wor nos'ing 'scepts a chile, and had a mighty smart weddin'. Ole missus, she coined down ; there was right good times at dat ar weddin', honey. Ole maa'r tolled Jim he'd give him mighty sound wippin' if he warn't kind to me. Ole mas'r married us hisself—but, laws, 'twarnt no great use I reckon.'

" ' How ? did he die ? ' said Nurse.

" Laws ! he died . . . . who ? Jim ? I dunne as he's dead. His mas'r

• Our Cousin Veronica; or Scenes and Adventures over the Blue Bulge. By Mary .Elizabeth Wormeley, Author of ' Atnabel, a Family History." Published by Entice. New 'York ; Trnbner, London.

After Dark. By William Collins. Author of " Basil," "Hide and Seek," 4.c. In two volumes. Published by Smith and Elder.

The Coldstream' and the Musqusteers : a Novel. By Thomas Litchfield, Esq., Author of" Warlocorth Castle," 4-c. Its three volumes. Published by Newby.

moved to Missouri, way down South, an' took his Negroes than He offered inas'r to buy me to go 'long, too, with him ; but Miss Edmonia, she didn't want to give me up. So I reckoned I'd best stay with her. Mighty hard

thing gittin' real good servants like them you has brought up. Jim got nother ole woman 'ways down filar, I reckon.' "Married again ! Did you marry while your husband was living ? ' cried Nurse, in a fit of horror.

"He He done gone. Warn't never comin' back. Never heerd on hint agin,' said Mammy. 'Yes, I done married Blacksmith after that. We was man an' wife twenty years, I reckon.' " thought you called yourself a Christian !' answered Nurse.

" Laws ! so I sin. Done got religion five years Bence. Ole missus she thought a deal o' being pious an' taught my boys. a mighty heap o' things. One on 'em reads elegant. ,Wish't I was back in ole Virginny ! I ain't no 'count here like what I'd be at home. An' I'd see my chir ens too, I reckon.'

"Our nurse's last exclamation had been forced from her by her repression of indignation.

" Well ! I'm sure,' said she, I think you'd better be back there than bringing up a child with such notions. And as to my young gentleman and lady, I don't know what their papa would say about their associating with you, if he knew you were such a woman as you represent yourself. I fancy you won't get us back here when this visit is ended. Come, children, I am going back to the house. Come along with me directly. Never mind your cousin, Master Max ; her own nurse will take care of her.'

"'I! dunno what you'se flouncin' roun' that ways for,' said Mammy, waxing wroth. Here, Vera, come here and let me tie your hat.' Which she proceeded to do very roughly. I was back over de Blue Ridge in ole Virginny. I ain't gwine stay here no how. I ain't no 'count here to what I tillers done been 'mongst real White folks. r se gwine home, whar I'se betteen White Niggers any how, I reckon.'

"'Como along, Master Max—come, Miss Molly, do ! ' said Nurse, in a tone of irritation; 'And don't you,' she added in a whisper, take ex- ample by anything you see her teach your cousin. I don't want you to have no more to do with Miss Veronica than you are obliged to. As for that Black woman, all you have got to do with her is to be civil to her. She isn't fit company for little lashes and gentlemen.' " The story of Cousin Veronica has probably been modified to introduce the pictures of slavery; but, though their formal intro- duction is cleverly managed, the slave scenes are scarcely one in spirit with the other parts of the tale. This, however, is not the defect of the story, but want of freshness in its elements, and want of sympathy on the part of the reader with some of the prin- cipal characters, owing to their not reaching the necessary stand- ard of heroic morality. The subject is that of property both in England and America to be held or lost by a marriage in conse- quence of a will : an old idea, unsatisfactorily treated, because the conduct of the lover does not rise to the ideal. The literary exe- cution of the book is good, especially the variety, nature, and truth of the different characters, and the dramatic spirit of the dialogue. The newest and most striking feature of the work, however, is the part exhibitive of Negro slavery, and its effect upon Negro character, as well as upon social life in Virginia, if in no other State.

The After Dark of Mr. Wilkie Collins has already appeared in. Household Wards, save revisions, additions, a framework, and the title. The scheme of the book as it now stands is that of a series of tales, supposed to be told to an itinerant portrait-painter by his sitters; the artist encouraging the plan to get a less cramped and. set expression. The framework tells how he mune to think of publishing the stories thus collected ; the introductions describe his sitters, and the circumstances under which the tales were told. Perhaps these extraneous portions are the most inte- resting as they are certainly the quietest and most truthful parts of the book. The tales are stories of adventure, well varied, and often striking in their incidents, or with "thrilling" situations. They have the advantage of brevity over the regular novel, and. are about as pleasant reading as a novel-reader could desire ; but they are somewhat hard in their depiction of persons and in- clined to the melodramatic in their scenes or adventures. The parts connected with the framework want the rapidity of the tales, but they have a delicate everyday interest about them- " Some natural sorrow, joy, or pain,That has been and may be again," if not in this precise form yet in some other essentially like it. The art-student's early aspirations after distinction, sobered down in after-life to a. struggle for subsistence—the careful efforts of genteel poverty to keep up appearances and "pay its way," when illness compels the family "bread-winner" to suspend his exer- tions—the sketch of the "good doctor" and his delicate liberality —are little bits from real life, told without exaggeration or any attempt at exciting a deeper feeling than the case justifies. The experience of Mr. Wilkie Collins among artists and artist life gives rise to some of that floating knowledge which cannot be gained from books. Here is a touch-and-go description of men and women sitters, and the classes where real liberality is chiefly found.

"Some of the results of my experience are curious in a moral point of view. For example, I have found women almost uniformly less delicate in asking me about my terms, and less generous in remunerating me for my services, than men. On the other hand, men, within my knowledge, are decidedly vainer of their personal attractions, and more vexatiously anx- ious to have them done full justice to on canvass, than women. Taking both sexes together, I %aye found young people, for the most part, more gentle, more reasonable, and more considerate, than old. And, summing up, imia general way, my experience of different ranks, (which extends, let me premise, all the way down from peers to publicans,) I have met with most of my formal and ungracious receptions among rich people of uncer- tain social standing : the highest classes and the lowest among my employ- ers almost always contrive—in widely different ways, of course—to make me feel at home as soon as I enter their houses."

The difficulty of getting a sitter to appear natural, or in his every-day demeanour, is more generally known, at least to people

who have had anything to do with portrait-painting ; but these remarks on it are cleverly put, and may be new to many.

"People will assume an expression, will brush up their hair, will correct any little characteristic carelessness in their apparel—will, in short, when they want to have their likenesses taken, look as if they were sitting for their pictures. III paint them under these artificial circumstances, I fail of course to present them in their habitual aspect ; and my portrait, as a necessary consequence, disappoints everybody, the sitter always included. When we wish to judge of a man's character by his handwriting, we want his customary scrawl dashed off with his common work-a-day pen, not his best small-text, traced laboriously with the finest procurable crow-quill point. So it is with portrait-painting, which is, after all, nothing but a right reading of the externals of character recognizably presented to the view of others "Experience, after repeated trials, has proved to me that the only way of getting sitter; who persist in assuming a set look to resume their habitual expression is to lead them into talking about some subject in which they are greatly interested. If I can only beguile them into speaking earnestly, no matter on what topic, I am sure of recovering their natural expression— sure of seeing all the little precious everyday peculiarities of the man or woman peep out, one after another, quite unawares."

The Coldstream and the Musqueteers would seem to introduce the reader to a story partly French ; but the Mnsqueteers is one of Cromwell's regiments—the Coldstreams, the celebrated and yet existing body originally raised by Monk. It is almost needless to say that Mr. Litchfield lays his scene in England, or aims at ex- citing interest by pitting Cavalier and Puritan against each other, with a Jesuit in addition to "more embroil the fray " : a lady and her fortune is the mainspring of the contention ; her hand being sought by the Royalist soldier, her acres by the Roundhead Colonel ; while the fortune is the only object of

Chal- font, the Romanist devoted to his church, and of Ephraim Snuffle, a man devoted to himself, and ready to undertake any role within his power to carry out his purposes.

The conception and execution are both thoroughly conventional. The Puritans are hypocritical, sensual on the sly, knavish or bloodthirsty, according to their native boldness ; the Royalists, frank and honourable ; the true Romanist Chalfont, intellectual, polished in manners, but unscrupulous and inexorable. The more critical philosophy of the age has, however, forced its way even into romance-writing, and the power and capacity of Cromwell are admitted. The way in which the traits or manners of the time are embodied in the persons is as conventional as the more fundamental notions of it. The persons speak in the formal terms of the day, or what romancists receive as such ; but there is no- thing of the spirit of the Commonwealth. The Coldstreams and the Musqueteers has two characteristics which in fiction are more useful than many others : the author has the faculty of construct- ing a story, and. of so telling it as to carry the reader along ; he has also the power of making his situations and incidents ef- fective.