The scene, as the title imports, is laid in Derbyshire, and the time is the age of England's glory, the reign of our maiden queen. The hero, Edward Stanley, is of the rabid species, and would be described by the naturalist somewhat in these terms. Mens atrox, furibunda; moribus pravis dedita; vultus pulcherrimus; oculi minaciter splendentes; corpus elatius, prævalidum; gladium semper in manu portat, pugnas rixasque diligentissime exquirens; odore sanguinis maxime delectatur; armis equisque omnino sese de dicat. The fact is that the fierceness of Master Edward Stanley somewhat violates the modesty of nature. The two sisters, Margaret and Dorothy Vernon, (names which still linger around the mouldering ruins of Haddon Hall,) are exceedingly well drawn a we were not disappointed in the character of the King of the Peak, the valiant Sir George Vernon; and Sir Thomas Stanley, suitor of the Lady Margaret, and his father the much-honored Earl of Derby, are both good family-portraits. The plot turns, very principally, on a papistical conspiracy in which Edward Stanley is involved for the purpose of dethroning the queen; and to aid in the accomplishment of which he introduces into England two of his accomplices, a German colonel and a Jesuit, who both play very prominent parts, and do no discredit to the author's to the quie abilities. Then we have a Sir Simon Degge, (what the lawyers say to this profanation of a name much honored in their vocation?) who is a species of compound between Master Shallow the Justice, and the classical Baron of Bradwardine; possessing the weak head and judicial authority of the former, with the learning but not the bravery of the latter. In some instances, however, where Mr. Lee Gibbons has attempted to tread closely in the steps of his great prototype, he has induced a comparison in which he must necessarily be a sufferer; and the character of Ashby, a wild and unhappy fanatic, too forcibly recalls the Mac briars and Burleys of the Scotch novelist, Still we should not be doing justice to Mr. Gibbons, if we did not add that the interest of his novel is very well preserved; and that the plot is managed with a dexterity which might almost puzzle such old and wary novel-readers as ourselves, who can generally anticipate all the turns and doublings with which the romance-writer seeks to de ceive the young and inexperienced. A few poetical pieces are interspersed, which shew a practised and indeed a skilful hand. We give the outlaw's serenade to his mistress, as a specimen : Around me his arms twining, açon que dMy true love said to me, When the summer sun is shining, I will come again to thee; And the birds are whistling free, #47607991A Pll watch the dappled sky, love," J ai to And come again to thee; I'll rouse the moorcock early, and mg of desi MonA 9 And drive the pheasant from his tree, 23473795 "And then my own dear true love, dreporta SEMELY LE1985%. I'll come again to thee. 119′′B MOдw to rate. I love the deep-mouthed hound, love, word en wa. With dewlap hanging low; I love with wind and stream, love, When I've chased the noble hart, love! Oh! then my own dear true love, I'll come again to thee.' Art. 13. Seventy-six. By the Author of "Logan." 12mo. 3 Vols. Printed at Baltimore in America, and reprinted for Whittakers, London. 1823. [The remarks which we have made in the preceding article will, in part, apply to the volumes before us, for we have here no ordinary story, with every-day-characters and every-day-occurrences: but still it is of a different stamp from "The King of the Peak," and, proceeding from an American pen, does not come within the range of observations that refer to the productions of English presses, It is, however, like that work and the Scotch novels, historical, in its bearings, characters, and scenery; for it relates to the unfortunate contest between this country and the American colonies, which raged in the year seventeen hundred and seventysia. We know not that any good purpose can be answered by recalling the events of that lamentable warfare, vividly and painfully as they are here depicted to the eye, by one who certainly must have been an actor in them; and whose sentiments are so violently anti-Anglican, and anti-monarchical, that they by no means soften the effect produced by his delineations. Still the interest excited by this tale, and the command over our feelings which the writer exerts, are very far from trifling and ordinary. His energies are somewhat rough, indeed, but they are powerful; like much of his vast continent, not cultivated but fertile, not polished but naturally impressive: his battle-pieces plunge us into the midst of them; and his hero is "every inch" a hero, not resembling too many of those who aspire to that denomination even in the Scotch novels, but an object of sympathizing and admiring contemplation. We have spoken of the thoroughly American feelings of the writer, and a short sentence will exemplify them. Alluding to the likelihood of a particular instance of the republican forces being defeated, he says, What would have become of us, if we had been overtaken before we embarked? God only knows - but it is my belief that we should have been at this moment, with the gallant men of Ireland, the vassals of England, the hewers of wood and drawers of water, to a patrician rabble and a profligate kinį. Little can the author know of the character of our late venerable monarch, under whose mistaken views of policy the American war commenced, if he refers to him in the last words of this most blameable sentence. Many of the leading military characters among the Americans are introduced by name, and Washington of f course: several anecdotes of whom are related, which agree with the general representations of his conduct and behaviour; and numbers of the scenes brought before us are probably real. President Munroe appears, in one instance, bravely fighting as a mere lieutenant, and is said to be remarkable for a solemn undisturbed earnestness of countenance,' The language of this narrative is often inelegant and peculiar, and is especially marked by the following ungrammatical form of expression: 'I never could pay a compliment in my life, when I wanted to' (do it). Art. 14. Tales of Old Mr. Jefferson, of Gray's Inn. Collected by Young Mr. Jefferson, of Lyon's Inn. The First Series. 2 Vols. 12mo. 15s. Boards. Whittakers. 1823. It would have been quite as well if young Mr. Jefferson had suffered old Mr. Jefferson's Tales to remain in the supposed learned obscurity of Gray's Inn, amid other masses of venerable duhiess in which, without doubt, that respectable pile of buildings abounds. We do not refuse, however, to believe that these tales were the production of an old Mr. Jefferson, because the style indicates that they were written before the origin of the present improved taste in novel-writing; and so much of the weakness and mawkishness, which distinguish the common novels of the last century, appear in the volumes before us, that we fully acquit young Mr. Jefferson of the suspicion of being their author. Yet we cannot forbear to observe, also, that it would not have been incompatible with his duty, as editor, to have corrected the grammatical errors and bad construction into which his progenitor has occasionally fallen. Such phrases as directly he went,' for "immediately after he had gone," continually meet the eye, and many other instances of negligence might be pointed out; as when the hero of the second tale laments over the sod which covers the once young body' of the heroine. These are indeed trifling sins, and would be readily overlooked if counterbalanced by any substantial excellences: but unfortunately they are not. Some portion of the second tale,Mandeville, or the Voyage,' is of a better character, and not without spirit and interest. The naval battles are very terrific indeed, and sufficiently appalling to us landsmen; but much personal satire is evidently couched under the introduction of several names and several incidents, in which the ages of Queen Anne and King George III. are purposely confounded. Indeed the names of some naval officers and some ships are very little disguised, and we conceive that in several instauces the aspersion is as little deserved." P 3 Art. Art. 15. Isabel de Barsas; a Tradition of the Twelfth Century. 12mo. Baldwin and Co. 1823. *** 3 Vols. ་ ་ ཝཾ "What art thou that usurp'st this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form ?" SHAKSPEARE. emar. 9 The above motto to this work is exceedingly appropriate, and will convey a very just and accurate idea of its contents, the vellous being indisputably the staple article of the whole production. It is, for instance, marvellously perplexing, marvellously horrible, and (if last not least in the account) marvellously absurd. Its very merits are of that nature which seem to arise rather out of wildness and extravagance, indulged by the writer without re*straint, than from the serious dictates of good taste or judgment; in which requisites, even for a tale of the twelfth century, the work betrays a lamentable deficiency. To compensate for these faults, however, we have a plentiful supply of those supernatural ingredi"ents which have been in such high request from the time of Boccaccio to that of Mrs. Radcliffe, but the reputation of which ought, ere this, to be somewhat on the wane. In fact, the real hero of the piece disappears very early in the first volume, assuming his more convenient alias of a ghost; which he maintains till called to the res5 cue of the heroine at the close of the third. This is both a novel and extraordinary resource for the romance-writer, when a little hampered with his leading characters, of which we were not before aware, but which we beg leave to suggest to the attention of the rest of the more supernatural romancers of the day. } ༔ The story embraces the feuds of two noble French families, De Montfort and De Barsas, (romantic names,) whose castles are very pleasantly situated, at least for fighting; which amusement, with the assistance of sundry "bowls and daggers," a few homicides, some seduction, a little starvation, and a portion of solitary confinement, enables the writer to occupy three volumes of between three and four hundred pages each. 6 It must be admitted, however, that this production has at least the merit of perfect consistency throughout. Though always in extremes, the characters and the incidents are wholly of a piece; while the sentiments and language will not be found much to differ from the uniform extravagance of the whole story. These high qualities are occasionally relieved by a familiarity and bathos of style, which serve to vary the tediousness of the volumes. We meet with such language as you are no ways related to me;' and there's how you spoil all your young ladies by humoring them! &c. &c. Some works amuse from their very contrast to every thing excellent, being at once a burlesque on good and the very best satire on bad writing. In this view, we have to thank the author for his portraits of the heroine Isabel, of her ghostly lover De Montfort, and especially of the Marquis de Morbiere; whose novel manner of recommending himself to the ladies whom he admired, by starving them to death in solitary con confinement, is Į almost unparalleled in the annals of romance. The novel ends as such a novel ought to end, in a grand confla gration; from which we should be sorry to see arise a phoenixform in the shape of a successor. T Art. 16. A Letter to William Joseph Denison, Esq. M.P., on the Agricultural Distress, and on the Necessity of a Silver Standard. By Gilbert Laing Meason, Esq. 8vo. pp. 47. Is. 6d. Hard. ing." 1823. }. not *[ .0031 Our readers will obtain from the following paragraph an outline of Mr. Meason's opinions as to the causes and remedy of the distress which continues to press on the agriculturists bus clien ***The leading causes of our distress are, the transition from a "profuse paper-circulation, to the preparation to meet a gold payment, on demand, of notes in circulation; the consequent alteration in the value of all money-contracts; an overwhelming supply at market of corn and cattle, arising in some degree from abundance, but principally from the very distresses of the landlords and tenants; the oppressive weight of taxes under the gold 'system, compared to the paper-circulation, by which the public loan-contracts were made; and, while the weight is thus doubled, the means of paying these taxes and money-contracts out of the agricultural industry of the nation are almost cut off by the price of that industry, viz. corn and cattle being below the expence of "culture and breeding. Hence the necessity of a silver standard, like other nations in Europe, in order to avoid fluctuations in the "circulating medium, and of a system of country bankers' circulation, secured to all classes, by a deposit in the public funds, equivalent to the value of notes issued. To gain further relief, we must reduce taxes, by lessening the public expenditure on the army, the navy, the ordnance, and more particularly on our colo nies; we must do away the sinking fund, until we have a real surplus revenue under a light taxation, when such surplus should be directly applied towards payment of the debt, without the machinery of an establishment and separate fund.' The topics here introduced have been often discussed in our pages, and in various publications. If, in such a country as Great Britain, observes Mr. M. in another place, exceeding all others in the amount of its manufactures and the extent of its interior commerce and circulating industry, the currency is reduced to one-third of what it was, without a corresponding diminution of the circulating industry and capital, surely the price of agricultural produce must decline; since, by diminishing the number of pieces of money or paper in circulation, the more valuable does the remainder become, when exchanged for the produce of land. True: the farmer gives twice as much corn in exchange for a pound note at par with gold, as he would have given for a pound note at 50 per cent. discount: but what then? The nominal price of his corn, indeed, is lowered 50 per cent., but its real value is the same, measured with other commodities; |