120 Monthly Review of Literature. LJAN 



Sir Walter Scott intimates " that these are, in all probability, the last tales 

 which it will be the lot of the author to submit to the public." And he con- 

 cludes the whole so beautifully, that we cannot help quoting his words : 

 " The public has claims on his gratitude, for which the Author of Waverley 

 has no adequate means of expression ; but he may be permitted to hope that the 

 powers of his mind, such as they are, may have a different date from those of 

 his body ; and that he may again meet his patronizing friends, if not exactly in 

 his old fashion of literature, at least in some branch, which may not call forth 

 the remark, that 



" Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage." 



We hope it will not be the last time we shall see Sir Walter as a novelist or 

 poet. In no other character can he appear to such advantage, and in no other 

 can we so conscientiously award him the following tribute 



" Semper honos, nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt." 



NEWTON FORSTER, OR THE MERCHANT'S SERVICE, BY THE AUTHOR OF THE 



KING'S OWN. 3 VOLS. 



The present has been called a novel-writing age ; by which we presume is 

 meant, an age that produces a vast number of novels : but in point of fact it is 

 no such thing ; for ninetenths of the three-volumed works that require us to add 

 another wing to our libraries once a year, are no more novels than pantomimes 

 are epic poems ; or to use a figure more to Captain Marryat's taste, than steam- 

 boats are seventy-fours. Still we have no more objection to works of this order, 

 and Newton Forster is one of the best of them, than we have to pantomimes 

 and steam-boats ; but another name should be invented for them. They should 

 be called Kaleidoscopes or Cosmoramas in three volumes ; where we pass 

 without any note of preparation from Moscow to Madras, and from St. 

 Paul's to the Pyramids. f lhe idea of a novel leads us to expect, not a succes- 

 sion of splendid pictures, linked together, as in Stanfield's Diorama, by the 

 branch of a tree, or a few feet of London fog ; but one picture a plot in short, 

 where the events are not stray-children of the inventor's fancy, but incidents 

 lawfully-begotten of each other, all journeying on like pilgrims by different 

 roads, but meeting in the end at a Mecca, in the shape of a moral. We may 

 with justice say however of Captain Marryat, that his pilgrims ramble along 

 quite as pleasantly as Peter Pindar's traveller, who was wise enough to " boil " 

 the peas upon which so many novel-heroes hobble ; and this illustration, by the 

 way, reminds us of another from the same source, that Newton Forster is a 

 sort of razor, not meant " to shave," but "to sell." 



If there were no other points of interest in these volumes, the opinions and 

 observations scattered through them, touching the merchant's service, and other 

 subjects upon which the knowledge and character of the author give him a right 

 to speak boldly, would alone recommend them to us. He is at no time more 

 impressive than when he casts anchor to tell us the why and wherefore, and to 

 deliver himself of his sentiments. His experience supplies him with safe ground, 

 and his earnestness makes him eloquent. It is in this earnestness that his great 

 power lies ; he writes with firm nerves or as an Irish reviewer might say, with 

 his fist doubled. His descriptions of events and persons thus acquire a direct- 

 ' ness that gives them peculiar force, " and leads him to depend more upon the 

 strength than the skill of his blow. His sea pictures are made up of the old 

 materials ; his shipwreck in the work before us, is full of the old phrases, such 

 as " forked lightning," " angry surge," " redoubled fury," and " huge monsters 

 of the deep," yet so far from being common-place, it is one of the most vigor- 

 ous descriptions to be met with any where ; and might go far to ruin the navy 

 by deterring youngsters, in these circulating-library days, from aspiring to be 

 mariners and midshipmen. He has a large amount of melo-dramatic tact 

 besides ; as is indicated in various points of this scene, in his battles and a hun- 

 dred others. Above all, he has great knowledge of character in various grades of 

 life, and very little ill-feeling to induce him to distort his pictures, and to hold 



