NEW NOTELS. * A WEEK or two has brought together five

new novels, of no very particular mark. The best, or at least the most interesting, is the American importation, A Long Look Ahead, by A. S. Roe. The interest arises less from the power of the author than from the accident of his position among the olden society of an older State, whose social condition he is thus able to depict. The few incidents in the book (to use the word " incident" in the sense of a striking occurrence) seem borrowed from our oldfashioned fic- tions,—as a seduction by means of a pretended marriage, and an attempted abduction of the heroine by fraud and force. It is possible that the less restraint of public opinion over private conduct in America, with the facilities to change one's domicile that the number of States afford, may have the same result as the lacer sense of the rights of the feeble formerly produced in this country. Certainly the novelists and tale-writers of America con- vey an indifferent idea of the morality of the Model Republic. The story of A Long Look Ahead is slight. It points the misery resulting to an amiable woman from marrying a rich dissipated man of (American) fashion, and the happiness promised to Julia's cousin Adelaide from her union with an honest industrious "gen- tleman" of humbler means. The interest of the book is not in the story, scarcely in the occurrences that form the material of the story. It lies in the exhibition of the manners and opinions of different classes of society, and the light throvin upon social ideas. Except that the small farmers appear to be freeholders, we have a

• A Long Look Ahead; or the First Stroke and the Last. By A. 8. Roe, Author of " James Montjoy; or I've been Thinking," " To Love and to be Loved," Sze. Published by Trnbner and Co. Willy Reilly. and his Dear Colima Bawu a Tale, founded upon Fact. By Wil- liam Carleton. In three volumes. Published by Hope and Co.

The Dwarf. or Mind and blotter: a Novel. By E. L. A. Berwick, Esq. In three volumes. Published by Newby.

Edith Vernon; or Contrasts of Character. In two volumes. Published by Hope and Co.

The Story of a Nun; a Novel. By Mrs. A. Crawford, Author of " The Lady of the Bedchamber," "The Double Marriage," Re. In three volumes. Published by Newby. picture not essentially differing from country life as it was in Eng- land, minus the aristocracy, and less familiarity of manners between

i the different classes of society. The freedom in the States, how- ever, seems often more of habit than actual independence. Death,

accident, misconduct, misfortune, produce poverty, which when it overtakes the old, the weak, or the very young, cannot be removed. Narrow circumstances among the poor seem prevalent. The small landholder, or yeoman as we should call him in England, must work very hard to lay anything by ; and what power he possesses in that way he owes to the advantage—a great advantage, no doubt—of the land being his own. Gentleman-farming in Ame- rica seems more unprofitable than at home. As farming carries with it less of position than in England, where the old Roman ea- timate of agriculture obtains, the persons who pursue it are moatlY oddities, who are used as conveniences by their city frien4 for the sake of a little country air. Among the country residents there is an apparent equality in manners; but it is rather apparent than real—respect is paid to wealth and position. The rich town visitants treat the country people with small consideration; the worst of them attempt to domineer in a way which good taste would hardly permit here. The story supports other represent- ations as to the poverty in which numbers of the American clergy are kept, and the strong tendency in the congregation to rule over their minister : indeed, their domination can only be with- stood by ability and a resolute will. The demarkation which is drawn between the rich and fashionable in their own estimation and the rest of the community is in strong contrast to the freedom of which we hear so much. In their case, however, vice does not lose any part of its evil by "losing all its grossness." Yanderpose, the profligate husband of Julia, is quite of the " gent" order—a "snob." Even Mr. Roe, though his object is to point the moral of man for himself, has a weakness in favour of heraldry. He de- lights to tell that the father of Vanderpose was a Dutchman, who made his money in a low grog-shop and other business not even so reputable.

The dramatic power of the author is slight, his imagination nil: He seems able to transcribe literally what is before him ; but he cannot rise at all beyond the actual. The following will give an idea of Mr. Roe's quality. Charles Lovell, the hero, is a voung man of good manners, good character, and fair acquirement; whe with his brother works on his own farm, and adds to his income in the winter-time by teaching. He has become acquainted with Adelaide, the heroine, at the house of her uncle, Captain Halliday, who has retired from the sea to a rather expensive farm. A rival has conveyed to Adelaide's aunt, a rich city widow, an exaggerated account of Lovell's attentions. This brings down the aunt on the evening when Adelaide has gone with Charles to a religions meeting.

"Adelaide bad kissed her aunt, and was taking off her bonnet and furs, at the same time asking questions about members of the family in the city. Her aunt having at once resumed her seat, commenced rocking. " The family in the city are well, and doing well ; and I wish I could have the same assurance that all its members were pursuing a proper course.

"Adelaide had by this time disrobed herself, and taking a scat in the cor- ner, fixed her eye in all honesty and simple-heartedness upon the face of her relation ; and as she did not exactly comprehend to whom the exception in her aunt's remark had reference, very likely looked somewhat in doubt.

" Adelaide ! Adelaide! don't look at me in that hypocritical manner, as though you did not understand my allusion ; that it is for you my anxieties are aroused, and my heart pained, and my pride—yes, I may say it—my pride greatly humbled.' And then, having delivered herself, she rocked faster than ever.

"Adelaide was perfectly astonished, and knew not what to say. Deeply affected, her beautiful countenance was suffused with a burning blush, but her bright eye was still fixed upon her aunt. " 'I had heard, indeed, that your conduct of late had been, to say the

least, very extraordinary ; but little did I imagine that I should live to be a witness to the degradation of my own flesh and blood.'

"Adelaide could remain silent no longer.

" As you say that you allude to me, aunt, may I know wherein I have acted so as to merit such strong expressions of disapprobation? What have I done ? do tell me, aunt, I beg of you.'

"The lady stopped rocking, and rose from her seat. Her eoimtenaries was deadly pale, and she shook her finger, with pointed earnestness, at her almost affrighted niece.

" What have you done! Can you sit there, Adelaide, and calmly aali me such a question ? What have you done ! Have you not lowered your, self, and put a stain upon the respectability of our family, by allowing at- tentions from one who is far below you in the world? Have you not eveni in the presence of gentlemen of respectability, shown a decided preference for one who is far down among the menials of life? Have you not even degraded yourself by going off alone on an evening ride? Oh, Adelaide!' and the excited lady clasped her hands in agony, that I ever should have it to say of my own sister's daughter !' And, almost exhausted with the violence of her feelings, she sank again into her chair, and began to rock.

" I am very sorry, aunt, if say going away this evening is not approved by you. I had the consent of my uncle and Aunt Halliday. And the gen- tleman with whom I went is much respected by them both.' " Gentleman ! gentleman ! a pretty gentleman ! A plain working farmer, a mere clodhopper. I suppose he waited upon you with his tow frock on and his cow-hide boots : you must have felt highly honoured by his company And I suppose he took the same liberty with you that he has been in the habit of doing with his mates the milk-maids: how many times did he kiss, you on the road ? ' " Aunt Nabby, you are very unjust!' and Adelaide, unable to endure any longer the torture of her feelings, burst into a flood of tears.

Yes, Adelaide,'—her voice had softened considerably ; ah, yes, that is always the way I am unjust merely because I am desirous of having my own sister's child keep in mind that she has a standing a little above the common herd. What would your father have thought, when himself the first gentleman in the assembly-room, with his gold knee-buckles, and silk stockings, and his sil ver-mounted dress sword by his side, and the first people in the city for his companions,—what would he have thought, if one had told him that a daughter of his should one day accept the attentions of a day-labourer?' " Willy Reilly is not the best of Mr. Carleton's Irish novels. The tendency of the writer's mind to literalness in his narrative and scenes, as well as to strike by melodramatic effects, has rather grown upon him. The subject of the story is not altogether well chosen : it is founded on the abduction by Willy Reilly, a Romanist hero of ballad and tradition, of " his dear Coleen Bawn, ' the beauti- ful daughter of a Protestant gentleman. We believe an uncon- scious sense of the difficulties of his subject has induced Mr. Carle- ton to strip it of much that would be offensive to modern English ideas, by making the lady's father violent, coarse, and inconsiderate, and by presenting a villanous rival in the shape of a profligate persecuting Protestant baronet, surrounded by myrmidons as bad as himself. As Reilly has saved Mr. Folliard's life, and has thus bad opportunities of gaining Miss Folliard's affections, the old gen- tleman would have consented to the match if Reilly would have turned Protestant : the elopement takes place at last to avoid a marriage with Sir Robert Whitecraft. In thus stripping the ab- duction of the characteristic of age and nation, the author has also aripped it of its raciness, and so aurrounded it by exaggerated ex- tenuations, that the trial and condemnation of the hero to seven years' transportation seems inconsistent and out of place. Perhaps the subject itself is bygone. The abuses of the penal laws and the social oppression of the Romanists exist no longer. During their continuance—probably for some time later—we had so many expositions of Protestant tyranny and Romanist suffering that the interest in the themes is exhausted.

The object of Mr. Berwick in The Dwarf is, as he says in a de- dication to Lord Carlisle, to endeavour to "establish the supe- riority of mind over matter, and to convey to my readers the instructive lesson that Providence never forms anything in vain." His present attempt is of too wild and romantic a character to teach any lesson whatever. The Dwarf is a novel of adventure during the early part of the reign of Maria Theresa, and exhibit- ing some ideas of the social state of Germany at the time. Mr.

also shows some fertility of invention, and a turn for contriving incidents with theatrical effects. His romance, how- ever, is of a conventional kind, and his conception of the Dwarf swell too stilted. The thing is altogether unreal; but as a mere tale of mystery and adventure, there is no lack of variety, ra- pidity, and the readable interest which attaches to fictions of a good circulating library cast.

In point of elegance of style, literary ability, and a certain freshness of thought, Edith Vernon is the most remarkable novel of the eve. These advantages are to a great extent neutralized by want of art and a tendency to exaggeration. The writer is said to have been a lady of much intellectual promise, who had looked " deeply into the habits of those who form what is called the society of the world of fashion. The selfishness and unreality which she felt were predominant there induced her to give ex- pression to her feelings" in this tale. The hypocrisy of con- vention and social selfishness are by no means the principal features of the book—indeed they are scarcely found there, ex- cept in the heroine's marriage to a lord whom she does not love. There is undoubtedly plenty of selfishness, hypocrisy, and unreality to boot, in Trevor, the villain of the piece ; but it is of an exceptional and melodramatic kind, with a dash of Anti-Popery feeling, and a slight leaning towards the supernatural. Dismissed with contumely for an impro- priety that so all-skilled and all-accomplished a man as Trevor was not likely to be guilty of, he pursues Edith through life, partly in hate partly in love, finally turning Romanist, taking orders, and at his death paying a supernatural visit to his old love. There are scenes of power, though of a forced character ; good writing is everywhere met with ; but, independently of her want of art, the writer was also deficient in the dramatic spirit which is needful to give life and reality to fiction.

M.04•■•■•,..

The Story of a Nun is a regular circulating library novel, in matter, manner, and mind. There is a young lady of fortune persuaded to enter a nunnery and then falling in love ; there is a bigoted Portuguese nurse, who poisons the children of her mistress lest they should grow up heretics; there are conversions, escapes, difficulties, and the final happiness of the good,—all done in the regular oldfashioned way.