present instance, we expect that novel-reading ladies abundance of thanks, for saving them from the diswhich they would, perhaps, have experienced, had ken the serious task of reviewing Mrs. Hanway's To Miss Caroline, or Miss Fanny, confined at pany on a rainy afternoon, and who has conhe hope of a rich treat from the last new been dispatched to procure, it must asing to find, that the anxiously-expected upid" that she cannot get through it; resource than to strum over again her alf a rose, or a bit of a tree, or add a score piece of netting, which is now taken up for the It is to avert from the fair such a

a fiftieth time.

.u

evil as this, that we encounter Christabelle. Forewarned, .earmed, says the old adage.

In the first place, we must inform all those whom it may concern, that Mrs. Hanway has a high-souled contempt of the rules which have been established by such musty fellows as Lindley Murray, and others of his dogmatical and overbearing class. She disdains to be trammelled by the tyrannical laws of grammar. Accordingly she indulges in a most revolutionary licence, with respect to persons, moods, and tenses, and to the construction of her sentences. In fact, some of her sentences look as if they had been composed from fragments shaken in a bag, and written down, as they were drawn out by chance. The following passage, which occurs in her dedication to the Duke of Sussex, will afford but a feeble idea of her peculiar style. It is far outdone by numberless passages in the novel itself.

"Your Royal Highness, humane, equitable, and just, whose ear is ever open to a tale of woe, and your hand always ready to relieve distress, from your exalted sphere you descend with benignity to commiserate the sufferings of the poor. You are always to ba found in the Senate, pleading with energetic, powerful oratory, the cause of humanity, desirous to behold restored to freedom Afric's sable sons, to see them enfranchised from their galling chains, their unjust thraldom, their enforced slavery! You have also zealously endeavoured to emancipate from restrictions no longer deemed necessary, in this enlightened era of Britain, which were imposed in turbulent and factious times, upon our Catholic brethren; men who, with ourselves, acknowledge the same God, whom they wor ship in spirit, faith, and truth!"

grammar.

With language she takes the same liberties as she does with She tells us of "the omniscient voice of truth," of #thoughts which soared into the great emporium," of "a bosom always

Father! and shall I see my Egbert too?

"Cen. Yes! thou shalt see him-nor for thousand worlds Shalt thou be torn from him!

Come Ethelbald!

[Embraces her and the child together with

agonizing emotion-then

In all thy terrors, come! I am prepar'd

I and my children will defy thy rage." P. 59.

This scene, if acted with spirit, and heard with silence, must have deeply interested the heart of every spectator; but we fear that the storm had already burst, and that the fifth act was little more than a ballet of action.

We have selected what, in our opinion, are the most favourable specimens of Mrs. Wilmot's powers, and they certainly justify the expectation of a better whole than is now before us. The dialogue is often flat and tedious, and wants that spirit and point, which few but experienced dramatic writers can attain. We trust that the ill success of our authoress will not discourage her from any future attempt, as her powers are certainly beyond the common level. If she will select a story with more interest, frame a plot with more art, and endow her dialogue with more animation, not forgetting that moderate attention to stage effect, which is so essential to a fortunate representation, we doubt not but that a second effort would be attended with all the success that either herself, or her friends, could desire.

NOVELS.

ART. XIV. Christabelle, the Maid of Rouen. A Novel, founded on Facts. By Mrs. Hanway, Author of " Ellinor,” "Andrew Stuart," and "Falconbridge Abbey." 12mo. 4 vols. pp. 1928. Longman. 1814.

There are, we believe, few readers who are quite aware of the severity of the labour which we reviewers undergo in their service; and fewer still who feel a proper degree of gratitude for the beneficial consequences which result to them from that labour. Yet, to a very large portion of their gratitude we think ourselves fairly entitled. What numerous drains do we not every month prevent from being made on their pockets, time, patience, and temper! Benevolently acting as their tasters, we run the risk of being poisoned ourselves, to save them from the risk of being so. Henceforth, then, we hope, that a more correct estimate will be formed of our merits, and that we shall be considered as public benefactors, and not merely as literary tomahawkers and butchers.

In the present instance, we expect that novel-reading ladies will give us abundance of thanks, for saving them from the disappointment which they would, perhaps, have experienced, had we not undertaken the serious task of reviewing Mrs. Hanway's "Christabelle." To Miss Caroline, or Miss Fanny, confined at home without company on a rainy afternoon, and who has consoled herself with the hope of a rich treat from the last new novel, which John has been dispatched to procure, it must assuredly be a shocking thing to find, that the anxiously-expected novel is so" abominably stupid" that she cannot get through it; and that she has no other resource than to strum over again her favourite airs, draw half a rose, or a bit of a tree, or add a score of meshes to a piece of netting, which is now taken up for the hundred and fiftieth time. It is to avert from the fair such a serious evil as this, that we encounter Christabelle. Forewarned, forearmed, says the old adage.

In the first place, we must inform all those whom it may concern, that Mrs. Hanway has a high-souled contempt of the rules which have been established by such musty fellows as Lindley Murray, and others of his dogmatical and overbearing class. She disdains to be trammelled by the tyrannical laws of grammar. Accordingly she indulges in a most revolutionary licence, with respect to persons, moods, and tenses, and to the construction of her sentences. In fact, some of her sentences look as if they had been composed from fragments shaken in a bag, and written down, as they were drawn out by chance. The following passage, which occurs in her dedication to the Duke of Sussex, will afford but a feeble idea of her peculiar style. It is far outdone by numberless passages in the novel itself.

"Your Royal Highness, humane, equitable, and just, whose ear is ever open to a tale of woe, and your hand always ready to relieve distress, from your exalted sphere you descend with benignity to commiserate the sufferings of the poor. You are always to ba found in the Senate, pleading with energetic, powerful oratory, the cause of humanity, desirous to behold restored to freedom Afric's sable sons, to see them enfranchised from their galling chains, their unjust thraldom, their enforced slavery! You have also zealously endeavoured to emancipate from restrictions no longer deemed necessary, in this enlightened era of Britain, which were imposed in turbulent and factious times, upon our Catholic brethren; men who, with ourselves, acknowledge the same God, whom they wor ship in spirit, faith, and truth!"

With language she takes the same liberties as she does with grammar. She tells us of "the omniscient voice of truth," of "thoughts which soared into the great emporium," of "a bosom

always

always talking against persons," of a natural child, the produce of "disgraceful contumacy," of " that attenuating thread which unites the parent and offspring throughout the spacious universe," and of "an encumbrance that had long hung like a loadstone round a man's neck." But her choicest effort in this way is perhaps that which follows: "Jeannette and Marianne obeyed the summons; but Catherine and myself sat watching the lurid atmosphere, and admiring the brilliant light it shed on the surrounding scenery."

In the figurative and rhetorical style she is singularly excellent. What can be finer than such sentences as these?" The finest face grows familiar by being constantly contemplated, and is too frequently turned from, if not with disgust, with apathetic indifference, to behold some newer constellation, whose beams have not palled on the sense by repetition, whose features are not grown callous by worldly usages, who retains that timid modesty, that retiring bashfulness that blushes at the rude stare, the insolent remark, and bold manners of men of fashion.""From those combustible spirits springs the germ of revolution, a tree that flourishes in troubled waters, branching out into those ramifications that generate ingratitude, revenge, robbery, cruelty, lust, and murder."-" Sir Everard might be typified as an electric machine that emits brilliant sparks, whose corruscations vivify and enlighten the world, but, overcharged with fluid, it bursts; and the inflammable materials, by repercussion, destroy his best intentions, and wound himself!"-We have occasioned that mystery which arose from imperious circumstances, to vanish by a touch from the all powerful talisman of truth; thus enabling them to unravel the puzzled skein wove by the fatal sisters!

66

For some words Mrs. Hanway seems to feel a peculiar affection, and she crowds them into her pages as frequently as she can. All hard hearts are 66 petrescent," and all cold ones apathetic;" every thing foreseen or foreboded, is " vaticinated," every thing increased, is "exacerbated," every thing that is called forth is "elicited," and every thing that is urged forward is "propelled."" Poverty," says she, "intenerates the heart, while riches render it petrescent." Entendered, or intendered, is, however, her usual expression for "softened." Sometimes she finds the English language too poor to supply her wants, and she then coins a few such words as 66 to obdurate," 66 to oblivionise," ," "unaliened," "stroamers," and " adulated," the last of which, it is necessary to say, stands for beloved, adinired, adored. We trust that Mr. Todd will not forget to insert these valuable words in his new edition of Johnson's Dictionary.

«

We also recommend to the future editors of Shakespeare and Milton, the following judicious readings of Mrs. Hanway: for Shakespeare's

Shakespeare's "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing," read "full of fire and fury," &c.; and for Milton's "the mind is its own place," read "the mind is its own palace." It cannot fail to be observed, what an advantage is obtained, on the side of grandeur, by substituting "palace" in the stead of" place."

Over matter of fact, and even over time and space, Mrs. Hanway exercises a despotic controul. She confounds persons and things, and perverts circumstances and dates, with all imaginable facility. One rather ludicrous example of her talent in this way may not be unamusing. That National Convention which trampled on Christianity, and decreed that death as an eternal sleep, she represents as trying her heroine, for having insulted religion! But her master-stroke of conjuration must be placed under the head of geography. By one flourish of her magical pen, she has contrived to open a communication between the Bristol Channel and the Lake of Geneva; and, of course, to introduce British vessels on that Lake. To this feat she was doubtless excited by a laudable desire of emulating the old romancers and playwrights, who never suffered any natural obstacles to stand in the way of the movements of their cha

racters.

We must now take our leave of Mrs. Hanway; and we shall do it without casting a single " longing, lingering look behind," even though our acquaintance may never be renewed. " Many years," she says, "were bestowed in composing and arranging The Maid of Rouen :" and, therefore, if she always write thus slowly, we shall at least have a long respite. She will probably consider our strictures on her volumes as "the unjust castigation of hypercriticism"; but our readers will, we flatter ourselves, acknowledge that she stands fully convicted on her own evidence. As a proof that, for what she has inflicted on us, we harbour no malice against her, we will give her at parting a word or two of friendly counsel. We earnestly recommend to her, to procure, without delay, a grammar and a dictionary of her native language; and not, on any account or pretence, to write another line, before she has made herself mistress of the contents of those valuable books.

MONTHLY LIST OF PUBLICATIONS.

DIVINITY.

The Doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration contrasted with the Tenets of Calvin, in a Sermon preached before the University of Oxford, at Christ Church, Sunday, Jan. 29, 1815. By Richard Lawrence, LL.D. Regius Professor of Hebrew, and Canon of Christ Church. 2s.

A combined View of the Prophecies of Daniel, Esdras, and St. John, shewing that all the Prophetic Writings are formed upon one Plan. Accompanied by an explanatory Chart. Also a minute Explanation of the Prophecies of Daniel; to

gether