1819.] Florence Macarthy, by Lady Morgan. *You forget, brother Crawley,” said his sister anxiously that I told you, if you would have listened to me, or to any one but Jemmy Bryan, when you came home, that I had asked a gentle. man to dinner, a very distinguished person, that called on you this morning, after you were gone to Glannacrime." "Oh, very well, he'll be here while dinner's dishing, I'll engage.-Did he lave his name?" "I cannot tell you his name," said Miss Craw. ley, with a smile, "because I really forgot to ask it. But what's in a nume? as Romeo says. This I however can tell you: he is not only the most distinguished, but the most poetical-looking person, as dear Lady Clotworthy would have said." 531 out of me, and abusing the cook. I'd rather see the Devil come into my house than a methodist preacher. Lord forgive me! and thinks when there's a religion by law established, which qualifies a man for every place in the state, it may serve our turn as well as our betters. If this gentleman then is one of the sarious, one of your missionaries—" "Here he is, to speak for himself; here at least is one of the Dunote hack chaises driving up the approach, so l'il ring for dinner," observed the commissioner. Oh! a hack chaise," said his wife, supercili. ously, and letting fall her spy glass, Is it a hack chaise?" asked Miss Crawley, in a tone of mortification; but before any other ob servation could be made, the door was opened, and the stranger, unannounced, appeared. He was in full dress; and the air with which he entered the room, and walked to the place occupied by Miss Crawley, was marked by a certain diseg gaged freedom, beyond what is merely acquired in so "You know, Ann Clotworthy, I am always rather a stiptic to your descriptions," said Mr. Craw ley, winking to the sub-sheriff, "ever since you tould me that that methodist preacher, who came to us on a visit of two days, and staid three months, was an ungel without wings. He was without wings sure enough, but it was a scare-crcwciety the ease of conscious, careless superiority,” without wings he was the very moral of." "That's nate!" said the sub-sheriff. 1Mighty nate!" replied the surveyor. "When I spoke of the angelic properties of the Reverend Jeremiah Judd, I alluded to the inward man, and I was induced to day to believe, for a moment, that this gentleman had brought letters from him; but though he avowed that his mission into this country was of a serious nature—” Then I'll tell you once for all, Miss Crawley," interrupted her brother in a passion, "I will not 29 have my house made a magdalen asylum to a par cel of canting methodistical thieves, who are of no druse, but to set aside the simple lethargy of the church service, and to substitute the errors of the Presbyterians for those of the established faith. With your missions and missionaries, conversions and perversions, have you left me a tinpenny in my pocket to give to my own poor in New Town Mount Crawley? And pray, what's gone of my one pound note that went to make Christians of withe black negroes Never saw a single sowl of then set foot in a church yet, barring Mrs. Casey's Tittle black boy, that carries her prayer-book to carly service. And I'd trouble you for my cleven and fourpence halfpenny, Miss Crawley, that you made me give to get King l'omarre, of the Ota heitee Islands, to let himself be baptized; though faith I believe it was king of the Mummers, that's king of the hummers he was?" And 'bove all, where's my sixteen and three-pence, carried off by your angel without wings, for lighting up the dark villages; and my elegant surtout, that was stolen out of the hall in Merrion Square, by your converted Jew, that was waiting for your Guide to the Land of Promise.' I wish you bad given the Devil his Jew (due), and left me my great coat; that's all, Miss Crawley." "That's nate!" cried the sub-sheriff, looking to the surveyor. "Mighty nate!" echoed the surveyor, nodding his head, while Mr. Crawley, who had panned himself into good humour, as the man in the Guardian punned himself out of a fever, and who observed the rest of the party much amused at Whilst the treaty for Court Fitzadelm❞ is pending between the Commodore, and Mr. Darby Crawley, the Dowager Marchioness of Dunore, the lady of the manor, pays a visit, with a party of fashionables, to her Irish estates, for the purpose of canvassing the vacant borough of Glarmacrine for her second son, Lord Adelm Fitzadelm; his elder brother, the Marquis, being a lunatic ward in the custody of his mother. Among the company at the castle, are Lord Rosbrin, a nobleman infected with a mania for private theatricals; a male and female exquisite; Mr. Daly, a patriot, in Lady Morgan's acceptation of the term; Baron Boulter and Judge Aubrey, i. e. Lord Norbury and Judge Fletcher; the Commodore, or as he now calls himself, General Fitzwalter; and Lady Clancare, a descendant of the great Irish chieftain, Macarthy More, and the heroine of the piece. She is represented as an extraordinary genius; a writer of National Tales, much abused by the critics; exceedingly beloved by the poor, though not overburthened with riches herself; and at once eccentric, captivating, and mysterious. "The vanity of drawing from self" has become so prevalent of late, that if we only look into the writings of the most popular authors of the day, we may find the broad outlines, if not the most particular events of their lives therein recorded. Lady Clancare, it will easily be seen, is intended for Lady Morgan; and, if we were to form a judgment of her from our acquaintance with her writings, we should pronounce the resemblance too striking to be mistaken. But to proceed. Superior virtues and acquirements, too often generate, in the minds of the illiberal, envy, and consequent this attack upon the evangelical aud dictatorially dislike. Thus it is with the Crawleys, Miss Crawley, continued, in a milder tone, Now, Clotty, dear, tonld you before that I never would let one of your angels without wings roost in my house to the day of my death, since Mr. Judd's visitation, who did nothing but preach and ate from morning to night, frightening the life with who spare no exertions to effect the ruin of Lady Clancare and General Fitzwalter, no apparent motives in the first instance, be yond those of jealousy and malignity. All their efforts, however, prove abortive. The latter turns out to be the real Marquis of 532 Florence Macarthy, by Lady Morgan. Dunore, whose object in visiting that part of the county appears to have been the recovery of his hereditary right; and the former, LADY CLANCARE, who, though personally unknown to him till they met at Dunore, was his betrothed wife. The novel then concludes in the usual way. Virtue is triumphant, and vice overthrown; and the hero and heroine are restored to the possessions of their ancestors. In this very brief and imperfect digest of the principal events of the story, we have omitted to mention several characters, very humorously and faithfully delineated; and among the rest, Mr. Terence Oge O'Leary, an Irish Dominie Sampson, and the foster father of the heir, and Padreen Gar, a supposed leader of rebel marauders. The following scene, as having less connection with the events of the narrative than any other we could extract, will doubtless prove acceptable to our readers. A wet evening in the country, during the long vacation, would frequently afford him (Darby Crawley) an opportunity of displaying his intuitive views of advancement in life, for the benefit of those who stood indebted to education alone for their distinctions. Then, released from the neces sity of representation, and indulging to its full extent his natural vulgarity, seated over what he called his " sup of hot," or a tumbler of punch, he might truly be said to be in his element. Then, surrounded by his family, his sister presiding at the tea-table, his three sous lounging in different parts of the room, his intellect quickened by his potations, his feelings softened into maudlin tenderness, his eyes half closed, his punch half drank, his hands half clasped, and his thumbs in a twirling motion, giving loose alike to prospect and to retrospect, thinking over what his family had been and what they might still be, he would begin his customary exhortations to his sons. These domes. tic lectures usuaily commenced with drinking their health to call their attention; then reproving, then advising, and at last becoming pathetic as he grew fuddled; he usually concluded with his own death, and the family ruin which must ensue, if his advice was neglected and forgotten." Tim, Con, Thady, your healths; Anne Clotworthy, my sarvice to you, well then, Clotty, dear, will never you send away that water bewitched? It's little the tay ever your mother drank at your age, though she got to be the tay-drinkingest sowl in the barony before she died, poor woman. Why then, Tim, dear, have you nothing to do but to lie stretched on the broad of your back along my new hair bottoms, with your arm dangling down, and surprising them innocent animals of flies on the carpet that's strewn with their corpses; upon my word, Tim, it would be fitter for you to be raiding the Hints for a Magistrate,' or Mach Nally's Justice of Pace; you that will be in the commission, and high sheriff of the county, by promise since the Union. I wonder, Tim, but you'd send them game to the bishop you brought home last night, instead of giving them to your erony, the surveyor; and the bishop, brother to a minister! and he that likes a bit of grouse above the world. There is nothing better bestowed than that which we give to them that want nothing; mind my words, Tim. Why, then, captain, I wish you'd quit with your rattan against my iligant Northumberland table, and get off it intirely. What use is [Jan. 1, the chairs but to sit on? And if you had gone, as land. I've often told you the general might make "Well, bijou then; but apropos de bot, Thady. "Well, Gally-matchaw, then-and not all as one as now, Con, when a man has only to follow his nose, and walk into place or pension, just by sticking to the main chance. Och, sir, the Irish bar is another thing since them days. Tell me, Con, dear, is it independence will get you a silk gown? Will ganius make you first counsel to the com. missioners, with your eight thousand a year for doing nothing at all at all?-Will it make you a deputy remembrancer, with your nate four thousand, which is the true remembrancer. Or would ganius, poethry, or pathretism, with the aristocracy at their head (that is barring theUnion lords)get you at this moment to be one of the thirty-one county sessions chairmen, all made since the year eightynine, for the encouragement of the rising young barristers; or even a magistrate of police, or a seneschal of the Dublin liberties, or a missionary to explore the disturbed districts! Troth, and faith, they would'nt. And could do more this day my. self for you than the whole boiling of them, in respect to pushing you up the stick, Con, at the 1819.] Florence Macarthy, by Lady Morgan, bar; that's if you lave off bothering us with your poethry. For see here, the thing's as plain as pais (peas). Sure there's spectacles for all ages, as well as wigs and gowns. Thanks to him that served the country well when he was in it, and does to this day, for all he butters them up with the Catholic question, and votes with his tongue in his cheek with the opposition, about it; and it's only for him the Crawleys would'nt be where they are the day. And there's a little bone bush in store for you all round, if you will just be aisy and mind your hits, and drive on the ball when it comes to you, and be ready for your turn. For there is two hundred of vez, great and small, ould and young, walking the hall, with your wigs and your bags, and there is three hundred places to divide among yez-make money of that, Con; and not one of you but may be a loyal man, and an enfant trouvé of the government, as the French says, if he plazes." "Enfant cheri," interrupted Miss Crawley. "Well, infant cherry; if yez will just mind your P.'s and Q.'s; and so now you know the ways of the place; there's neither twining nor turning, but straight forward. So let's have no more of your rhymes and your garius, and your satirical perigrams, Counsellor Con." "Epigrams my dear Darby, "Can't you mind what I think, and not what I say; for you're not beholden to them, Con, with your college education, and your speaking French like a Nabob. Now, just ask yourself, is the chief baron a ganius? or the counsel to the commissioners a ganius? or was it poethry made a serjeant of your uncle?—No; but wigging all the chancellors that ever were created, and offering to kick a Catholic barrister, which he did'nt after all, for a raison he had ;—but the will, sir, was taken for the deed. So come to your tays, Con, and be aisy with your poethry. Well boys, dear, I'll see the day yet, when I'm dead and buried, God help me, and in my new moleseum in Dunore church, when my words will come to pass, and you will be thinking of your auld father Darby Crawley, when some of yez may have titles, which, if ever there comes about another rebellion, as I expect there will, plaze God--but that's neither here nor there -only, just as I was saying when I am dead and buried, and Clotty there places an epithet over me, from his affectionate sister, and the pew hung with black, like the Dunores. I'll see my words come to pass,and you'll remember your poor father, that worked night and day to make gentlemen and loyal men of you; for we must all die, boys, honey, great as we are. Momenti mori, as the tomb-stone says, and the yeomanry corps fire over us, the Lord help us! for dirt we are, and to dirt we must return; the Craw leys like the rest. "As this compound idea of death and supre: macy rounded off the admonitory peroration of Mr. Crawley, snuff and punch had usually wound up his whining sensibility to its utmost excitement, and the tears which he shed for his own death were commonly followed by that profound sleep which images it." Further quotation from a book which promises to be in every body's hands would be useless. Those who are not curious to peruse FLORENCE MACARTHY from the specimens we have already adduced, would hot 533 have their curiosity excited by any further testimony we might feel inclined to advance in its favour. The public, however, on this, as well as on former occasions, seem resolved not to wait for critical recommendations, as a demand for a second edition was intimated almost immediately subsequent to the appearance of the first. Without, therefore, entering into the particular merits or defects of the performance, we may observe, that the very bigotry of opinion which Lady Morgan so severely reprehends in others, is notoriously evident in nearly every page; and so determined an aversion does she exhibit to all those who are not as democratical as herself, that out of the whole dramatis persone of her novel, there is not one single respectable individual, whose political bias is different from her own. She appears to consider it as impossible for any one to revere the regal authority and government of his country, from disinterested motives, whilst those whom she designates as patriots (and whose intrusive rantings about liberty can scarcely be acceptable to romance readers of any party), are always actuated by the best and purest incentives. This want of liberality detracts not a little from the admiration which the superiority of her talents is calculated to inspire: and great as has been the success which, in the face of critical condemnation, has attended Lady Morgan's writings, it would, we doubt not, have been materially increased, had she given less frequent publicity to the violent prejudices with which she appears to be imbued. Her powerful rival in illustrating national peculiarities, the author of "Waverly," &c. very properly abstains from endeavouring to impose upon his readers particular set opinions. His personages are frequently very different from one another in their persuasions; but they are all more or less amiable, as the nature of the plot requiresthe Tories as good as the Whigs; and their sentiments, when they possess any, seem to result more from accidental circumstances, than from the previous calculations of the author. Lady Morgan's agents, on the other hand, bear internal evidence of having been conceived before her story was planned; an inversion of order which renders its management more than commonly difficult especially when they are made the obscure, rather than increase the interest vehicles of principles and sentiments which of the narrative. We are far from wishing to draw any invidious comparison between these two popular writers; on the contrary, considering Lady Morgan's talents abstractedly, we venture to pronounce them very little, if at all, inferior to those of the celebrated Mr. CLEISHBOTHAM, of GANDERCLEUGH: and no one can pretend to deny her claims to the original invention of the STYLE which has been imitated with so much success by the redoubtable Jedediah. 584 America and her Resources, by John Bristed. We return to this very valuable work, which cannot be brought too forward at a time when the grossest artifices are practiced to delude the people of this country into a notion that wealth and liberty are only to be found in the republic of the United States. Mr. Bristed has endeavour ed, as much as any man can do, consistently with the truth, to give a flattering picture of the land to which he is attached, but his industry in research, his accuracy in reporting, and the freedom of his spirit have produced a portraiture more correct than agreeable. The man, who, after reading such a book as this, should be tempted still to embark his hopes of happiness in a resolution to settle in any part of that continent, is beyond the art of persuasion, or the force of argument, Equal laws binding all under the same government are essential to individual security, public morals, and the consequent welfare of the state. How the case stands in America may be inferred from the following account: A crime committed in one state is not punishable in another; for example, if a man steals a horse, or kills his neighbour, in the city of New York, and crosses the ferry into the state of New Jersey, he may escape punishment altogether, for the New Jersey law takes no cognizance of a crime committed in the state of New York, and the New York law has no jurisdiction in the state of New Jersey. Under such circumstances, the only chance of punishing the culprit lies in a provision of the federal constitution, which gives the citizens of each state all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states; and declares, that a person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, who flies from justice, and is found in another state, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the state whence he fled, be delivered up to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime." This last provision, perhaps, may be considered by some as answering all the ends of justice, but let such bring the matter home to our own country, and represent to themselves one law in Cornwall, and another in Yorkshire, and so on through all the counties of England, what would be the consequence, but an enormous increase of criminals infiYnitely exceeding the evil which is now the general subject of complaint? The pernicious effect of this monstrous system is pointied out by the ingenious author of the present volume, who says, that duels of the most sanguinary character are more common in America than any where else, because the parties have nothing more to do than remove into another state, and then if one of them fall, in ever so foul a manner, not the least notice is taken of the survivor or the seconds. Next with regard to pro [Jan. 1, Perty-What says this liberal and enlight ened practitioner ? "The laws in this country generally favour the debtor, at the expense of the creditor, and so far encourage dishonesty. The number of insolvents, in every state, is prodigious, and continually increasing. They very seldom pay any part of their debts, but get discharged by the state insolvent acts with great facility, and secrete what property they please for their own use, without the creditors being able to touch a single stiver. There is no bankrupt law in the United States, and no appeal in these matters from the state to the several courts; whence, in every state, the insolvent acts operate as a general jail delivery of all debtors, and a permanent scheme by which creditors are defrauded of their property. The British merchants and manufacturers who have trusted our people, doubtless understand this." Some excellent observations follow on the state of the American bar, and the degraded condition of the judges, from all which it is pretty clear that this boasted republic has many purgations to pass through before she can attain that superior elevation in the scale of nations which even our author ventures to prognosticate. TheLiterature of the United States" occupies an entire chapter; and yet, by the author's own account, nothing can be more contemptible than the literary pretensions of his countrymen. But this ought not to raise wonder when the state of education in America is considered; a subject that kindles the indignation of this patriotic and well-informed writer to a laudable degree of zealous warmth. That morals and learning, for they are necessarily connected in great communities, are in a low state among these boasting republicans, is admitted on all hands by those who have taken an impartial view of their character. The cause of this is to be found in the following extract with which we shall close our account of this valuable performance : "Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as social subordination in the United States. Parents have no command over their children, por teachers over their scholars, nor lawyers, nor physicians over their pupils, nor farmers over their labourers, nor merchants over their clerks, carnien, aud porters, nor masters over their servants. All are equal, all do as they list, and all are free not to work, except the master, who must be himself a slave if he means his business to prosper; for: he has no control over any other head, eyes, or hands, than his own. Owing, perhaps, to the very popular nature of our institutions, the American chil dren are seldom taught that profound reverence for, and strict obedience to their parents, which are at once the basis of domestic comfort, and of the welfare of the children themselves. Of course, where there is no parental authority, there can be ceptor presume to strike, or effectually punish a no discipline in schools and colleges. If a preboy, he most probably loses one scholar, perhaps more. And as no inconvenience attaches to a boy being expelled from school or college, the teachers 1819.1 Hon. Horace Walpole's, Letters, Letters from the Hon. Horace Walpole to the Rev. Wm. Cole, and others; from the year 1745 to 1782. Noto first published from the Originals. We have only had time to take a cursory view of these new Letters; but we think we may venture to predict they will considerably increase the fame of the writer. A large portion of them are on literary subjects. We select a few specimens at random. To the Rev. Mr. Cole. Strawberry Hill, Sept. 30, 1762. It gives me great satisfaction that Strawberry Hill pleased you enough to make it a second visit. I could name the time instantly, but you threatened me with coming so loaded with presents, that it will look mercenary, not friendly, to accept your visit. If your chaise empty, to be sure I shall rejoice to hear it at my gate about the 22d of this next month: if it is crammed, though I have built a convent, I have not so much of the monk in me as not to blush-nor can content myself with praying to our lady of Strawberries to reward you. I am greatly obliged to you for the accounts from Gothurst. What treasures there are still in private seats, if one knew where to hunt them? The emblematic picture of Lady Digby is like that at Windsor, and the fine small one at Mr. Skinner's. I should be curious to see the portrait of Sir Kenelm's father;-was not he the remarkable Everard Digby? How singular, too, is the picture of young Joseph and Madam Potiphar. His Majora-one has heard of Joseph's, that did not find the lady's purse any hindrance to Majora. You are exceedingly obliging in offering to make an index to my prints, sir, but that would be a sad way of entertaining you. I am antiquary and virtuoso enough myself not to dislike such employment; but could never think it charming enough to trouble any body else with it. Whenever you do me the favour of coming hither, you will find yourself entirely at liberty to choose your own amusements: if you choose a bad one, and in truth there is none very good, you must blame yourself, while you know, I hope, that it would be my wish that you did not repent your favour to, Sir, DEAR SIR, 535 Strawberry Hill, June 26, 1769. Oh! yes, yes, I shall like Thursday or Friday, 6th or 7th, exceedingly; I shall like your staying with me two days exceedinglier; and longer exceedingliest: and I will grimage to Ely. But I should not at all carry you back to Cambridge on our pillike to be catched in the glories of an installation, and find myself a doctor before I knew where I was. It will be much more agreeable to find the whole caput asleep, digesting turtle, dreaming of bishoprics, and humming old catches of Anacreon, and scraps of Corelli. I wish Mr. Gray may not be set out for the North, which is rather the case than setting out for the summer. We have no summers, I think, but what we raise, like pine-apples, by fire. My hay is absolutely water-soochy, and teaches me how to feel for you. You are quite in the right to sell your fief in Marshland. I should be glad if you would take one step more and quit Marshland. We live at least on terra firma in this part of the world, and can saunter out without stilts. Item, we do not wadę into pools and call it going upon the water, and get sore throats. I trust yours is better; but I recollect this is not the first you have complained of. Pray be not incorrigible, but come to shore. Be so good as to thank Mr. Smith, my old tutor, for his corrections. If ever the anecdotes are printed, I will certainly profit of them. I joked, it is true, about Joscelin de Louvain, and his duchess; but not at all in advising you to make Mr. Percy pimp for the plate. On the contrary, I wish you success, and think this an infallible method of obtaining the benefaction. It is right to lay vanity under contribution; for both sides are pleased. It will not be easy for you to dine with Mr. Granger from hence, and return at night. It cannot be less than six or sevenand-twenty miles to Shiplake. But I go to Park-place to-morrow, (Mr. Henry Conway's,) which is within two miles of him, and I will try if I can tempt him to meet you here. Adieu, 6 འ།་ Dear Sir, Yours most sincerely. O has HowITOS CI Strawberry Hill, July 15, 1769. DEAR SIR, blow dry Your fellow-travellers, Rosette and I got home safe, and perfectly contented with our expedition, and wonderfully obliged to you. Pray receive our thanks and backins, and pray say and back a great deal for us to Mr. and Mrs. Bentham, and all that good family. After gratitude, you know, always comes a Jittle self interest; for who would be at the trouble of being grateful, if he had no further expectations? Imprimis, then, here are the directions for Mr. Essex, for the piers of my gates. Bp. Luda must not be |