:AXE LOMAX, OR A MOTHER'S CRIME.

THIs fiction has been written some few years: it was planned with the intention of offering a contrast to the " fashionable novels," which were then the rage, by introducing the reader to the neighbourhood of Tooley Street, and exciting his interest by the crimes and remorse of Mr. and Mrs. Lomax, of Cypress House, Bermondsey, and the loves of Mr. Hunter, clerk to Mr. Jacob Br ant, of Eagle Wharf, with He!en Owen, a ward of the afore- said Jacob, and Rose Mayhew, her friend.

We will not discuss the critical questions of how far such a class of life is adapted for fiction, how it should be treated, and how limited. It is enough to say, that for such a work to succeed, it must possess truth, consistency, character, manners, or passion, if not the whole of these qualities ; and that Jane Lomax has none. A more egregious failure we have never met ; or a fiction more flat in its even parts, more stilted in those which were intended to be passionate, and more wishy-washy and tritely literal in those that were written to be so natural.

The e Mother's Crime" of the titlepage, (sough papa has a hand in it,) is the forgery, or more correctly the substitution of a will. The temptation, hesitation, perpetration, remorse, and final punishment, are taken from Macbeth, with these alterations—that Mr. Lomax is ever chicken-hearted, but Mrs. L. game to the last. At the opening of the story, Mr. Lomax is reduced to the condition of a copying clerk, having fallen from the state of a substantial tradesman : by nature he is timorous, and not very bright—by temperament sensual. Mrs. Lomax has been a lady of easy vir- tue, who reformed after the straiehtest sect when she bad per- suaded Mr. Lomax to make her his wife. They have two chil- dren,—cne a boy, the (Luling of his mother, and consumptive. To place this child in easy circumstances, with the view of saving his life, is the cause of Mrs. Loienx inducing her spouse to sub- stitute his own name for that of the rightful heir in the will of Diedrich Hullinao, an old miser, to whom he is clerk and the wife housekeeper.

Having "done the deed," they wind up the executorial busi- ness, and leave Bristol for Bermondsey ; where they are punished through the better part of three volumes. Mr. Lomax, true to his natural propensities, engages a cook, lays in a choice cellar of wines, and starts his carriabe. But, like Damocles of Syra- cuse, be is wretched amid all his splendour. The sword indeed is not suspended over his head, but he feels the halter constantly round his neck. He hears the runners in every knock, and the gallows terminates every prospect of futurity. Mrs. Lomax is not haunted by these fears ; for, by her direction, the whole property is invested in the Funds; and, favoured by their "immediate vicinity " to the Bank, she intends selling out and being off the moment the matter should be mooted. But she does not escape Providence. Her beloved Benjamin, the child for whom she has "filed her mind, and her eternal jewel given to the common enemy of man," dies. His mother goes mad ; evades the keeper ; dresses in her best, and drowns herself in the Thames at high- water,—" Benjamin !" being the last word she utters as she comes up for the last time.

This catastrophe prepares that of Mr. Lomax. Accustomed to rely upon the energy of his wife for giving the law the go-by in

case of need, the widower's terrors rise to phrensy after her decease. Wine ceasing to lull his fears, he takes to brandy; which breaks up his constitution. In one of his night perambulations, (for, like

Lady Macbeth, he is a sleep-walker,) he catches cold, and, dying, confesses his crime to his amiable and high-minded daughter,— which breaks off her marriage, and shows how guilt is punished in the second generation.

Such is the tragedy of The Mother's Crime. The sentiment is of a similar bathos, with a strong dash of' the mawkish superadded.

And in addition to all the absences and presences we have men- tioned. the tone of the narrative is pitched in a key not adapted to the subject. The Lemma speak in heroics ; their deeds and terrors are narrated in the epic or historic style; and the dilemmas at Eagle Wharf told as if Romeo and Juliet were travestied in grave burlesque. The only exceptions to this censure are, the character and broken German of the miser, Diedrich Hoffman ; some points in Mrs. Bryant, a vain, vulgar, good-natured woman ; elide few occa- sional reflections. Were the deathbed of Hoffman condensed, and limited to its subject, it would form an effective Annual or

Magazine paper : but the best of the other parts are only scattered hints, available in the bands of a novelist, but not of Mr. SMITH. Of these points we will give a specimen or two. LONDON AND COUNTRY trims.

In the country, a man cannot, as in London, bide himself among a million and a half of his fellow creatures, and become a deserter from the performance of his duties. The eyes of his neighbours are upon him ; he is amenable to public opinion ; he is, moreover, registered and enrolled in the parish-books ; he must share all the liabilities Of his station and his fortune; he must dis. charge his obligations, whether public or domestic, whether municipal, pare. chid, or social. In the Metropolis, almost every thing of this sort may be evaded, if a man be mean and sordid enough to make the attempt. A guinea subscription to a district or a mendicity society acquits the London selfist of all claims on the score of charity ; and, as to any other demands upon his time, his purse, or his taleits, he carefully withdraws from them, not scrupling to employ the must paltry shifts and subterfuges for the accomplishment of his object.

THE SIGNATURE Or THE WILL.

Although the contemplation of a crime not unfrequently blinds us as to its consequences. it sometimes renders us exceedingly quicksighted as to the means of its successful accomplishment. Such was the case with Mrs. Lomax, who, having observed that the sick man cherished a feeling of resentment against his partner, and was particularly anxious to conceal from him all knowledge of his testamentary dispositions, concluded that he would be much more' likely to keep the will closely folded up at the time of its execution, if she could persuade him that Vandermeulen was using underhand means to penetrate the secret of its contents. Throwing out hints, therefore, of his impertinent curiosity, she insinuated that he had been sounding her upon the subject, but that, in con- formity to her solemn pledge, she had made no disclosure whatever, and had professed a total inability to satisfy his doubts. " Coot ! goot!" cried lioffinau, dat is right, mine worthy Mrs. Lomax. Halt! he is gurious, is he? 0 de knave, de busy, prying knave. He shall know ebery ding by and by. Where is de will ? Hah, dere it is, I veel it onder mine billow ; and dat reminds me what dere are dwo or dree directions I want to give in case I should never ged oop again. " I shall be happy to receive any instructions," said Mrs. Lomax, drawing nearer to the bed.

" First and voremost, you must tell your hosband, what I have made von of my egsecutors' dat in seddling wid mine partner, he most take care not to be

gulled and ober-reached, for Vandermeulen would cheat his own fader. Next, he most write diregly to mine nephew, Edward Ruddock, wid a gopy of de will ; and he most send dublicates and driblicates, ontil he hears from him. Dere is a letter from him in my wriding-desk what gives his address in Soud America."

" I will take care, Sir, that Joel shall punctually obey all your orders." "Den if I die, I gourmand you nod to incur any voolish exhenches for mine fooneral. Onderdagers are all robbers and bickbockete. Why should they stick a dead man all ober wid plumes and fedders, as if he were a live ostridge,

except to swindle and .plunder him? I want no black goaches and horses, and tall footpads in mourning, fellows what ought to be all sent to Bridewell. Tell your husband to save all he gam ; for since it is better late than never, I wish to do jostice to mine poor nephew. Dat is all ; and now you need not disturb me,

for I will dry and gompose myself a liddle." • • • • " Gentlemen," said Hoffman, as the physicians entered the room, followed by the apothecary, " for ounce you are wellgonie. I am going to surprise you by telling you what you can be useful to me ; not in the way of your profession, bole by being witnesses to de egseeution of mine will, what I have got all ready tinder mine billow. Fare is Joel Lomax to put in de date ?" " He is unfortunately too ill to attend," said his wife. " He has over-fatigued himself; and I desired him to lie down, and endeavour to procure a little re- pose." " Ali, boor yellow ! he has been sidling oop will me, what has been doo much for him. I ant sensible of his gindnese, and your's doo, goot Mrs. Lomax ; and you will vind by mine will what I have not forgodden you." " Shall I till in the date, Sir ?" demanded Mr. Vandermeulen, who had slipped into the romu unperceived by any one.

" No, dank you; no, dank you. Mrs. Lomax is close to de dable ; and she will fill in de prober date. You will viud, mine gout Vandermeulen, dat I re- member your -hint about your son."

A sardonic expression writhed his cadaverous features; for even'on his death- bed he scented to feel pleasure in avenging himself upon his partner for having attempted, as he thought, to bamboozle him out of his property.

In inserting the date, Mrs. Lomax took care so to arrange the paper as that only the concluding lines should be visible ; when Hoffman, who had suspici- ously fixed his dull sunken eye upon her during the process, immediately took it from her hand, and called fir a pen. Before he used it, however, he uttered a deep-drawn sigh, or rather groan, and exclaimed, in a sorrowful voice, " Mine Gott ! is dis all what a long life gomes to? For dirty or forty years, since I

arrive at Bristol, I give mine time, and labours, and lodgement, droadging like a slave, and denying mineself all holydays, and lugsuries, and gomforts, what may sgrape togedder, by hook and by grook, a handsome broberty; and now, iu von fiddle moment, wid von single sgratch of mine pen, it shall all bass away from me for eber and cher, and anoder shall enjoy it ! douses, and stocks, and debts, and bills—I must leab dem all behind me. Dis is what makes it so bidder to die."