466 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[OCT. 



sive sentiments, and even charitably giv- 

 ing him credit for others of an opposite 

 character. The writer's acquaintance 

 with theological topics, and theological 

 discussion is obvious ; and he handles 

 his logical tools with skill and address. 

 He is thoroughly orthodox, but also 

 thoroughly good-humoured, and willing 

 to give the devil himself his due. With 

 those who really think there is any 

 offence in " Cain," beyond, we mean, 

 what the world is used to in Milton, 

 for instance, and scores of other exhibi- 

 tions of " evil" - the tone of the volume 

 before us will be most convincing and 

 consolatory. The bane and antidote are 

 both before us : the evil, if evil there be, 

 is neutralized ; and the good, too, some 

 will perhaps add. 



The Barony, 3 vols. \2rno., by Miss 

 M. A. Porter If it were not for its 

 appalling length, we should say Miss 

 Porter's new novel was at once respect- 

 able and readable ; but her three vo- 

 lumes are equal to any body else's six. 

 Would we could have whispered in her 

 Tear, compress, when she was indulging 

 in the fatal act of expanding. Miss Por- 

 ter writes, as she wrote twenty years 

 ago, when domestic details and young 

 ladies' dialogues were borne with to an 

 extent that never can again be tolerated. 

 Rapidity of narrative must now be pur- 

 sued by all who wish to catch the tone 

 and can measure the wants of the times 

 sketchings, rather than finishings, are 

 in request. Intricacy and entangling and 

 Flemish-painting no longer tell: mo- 

 dern readers require little more than 

 hints ; while Miss Porter seems more 

 than half-inclined to bring them back 

 to the profound prolixities of the re- 

 morseless Richardson. The " Barony " 

 will, however, still find readers, though 

 chiefly among the lingerers of the old 

 school. Her characters are, some of 

 them, vigorously conceived especially 

 the old, unbendable knight, and one of 

 the young ladies, whose vivacity agree- 

 ably relieves the eternal whining of her 

 friend. 



Miss Porter's scene is laid in Corn- 

 wall in the days of Charles the Second 

 and those of his Jesuit brother ; and the 

 subject springs from the contentions of 

 two neighbouring families, each claim- 

 ing aji ancient barony by descent. The 

 original right mounts upwards two or 

 three centuries to a maternal ancestor, 

 one only of whose two daughters was 

 legitimate, and the question, in the ab- 

 sence of specific documents was, which 

 of the competitors was the legitimate de- 

 scendant. One, of course, fails ; and he 

 unluckily was the one who piqued him- 

 self most upon family purity. He gained 

 nothing but an annoying blot upon his 

 scutcheon ; and, withdrawing from all 



intercourse with his triumphant neigh- 

 bour, spent his days in poring over musty 

 records, in the fond hope of still esta- 

 blishing his claim. He has a son and 

 daughter, and his competitor also has 

 family connections ; but the young peo- 

 ple do not, as usual in similar circum- 

 stances, perversely fall in love with each 

 other though an intimacy, some how or 

 other generated between the females, 

 proves equally vexatious. The old mor- 

 tified knight is a zealous royalist, while 

 the son, left very much to himself, with 

 none of the ad vantages arising from pub- 

 lic education, and intercourse with those 

 of his own class, entertains divers odd 

 notions, and at last stiffens into a poli- 

 tical protestant, and mingles with the 

 party who attempt to exclude James 

 from the succession, to the great horror 

 of the old gentleman. While he is from 

 home, a cousin, a very crafty fellow, con- 

 trives to give all his actions an unfavour- 

 able twist to the father ; and successively 

 represents him as assisting Argyle in his 

 escape as refusing to attend the coro- 

 nation, and assert the family claim to a 

 silver spur as joining the Duke of Mon- 

 mouth in the west ; and, to crown the 

 climax of delinquency, as marrying the 

 bastard daughter of the bastard duke. 

 These are all crimes of the first magni- 

 tude, and nothing but an act of disheri- 

 tage can soothe the paternal indignation. 

 The daughter, advocating her brother's 

 interests, is treated with harshness, till 

 at last she and her friend of the hostile 

 family, make sundry discoveries of the 

 cousin's treachery ; and volumes (of the 

 common size) are occupied in unravel- 

 ling the complexities of his scheming 

 career, as volumes had been in weaving 

 them. The scoundrel is thoroughly ex- 

 posed, and comes to a violent end; and 

 the noble youth, against whom he had 

 practised, emerges from the clouds that 

 had so long obscured him. All termi- 

 nates happily, and even the old knight's 

 claim to the contested barony is made 

 as clear as the day by a malicious disco- 

 very on the part of his competitors' sis- 

 ter, who had been resisted in some favo- 

 rite object, and thus amiably wreaked 

 her revenge. 



Memoir, written by General Sir Hew 

 Dalrymple, Bart., of his Proceedings as 

 connected with tlie Affairs of Spain, and 

 the Commencement of the Peninsular War. 

 Never was man more abruptly and 

 roughly judged than poor Sir Hew Dal- 

 rymple upon a mere rumour of the 

 convention, by which Junot and the 

 French troops were to be conveyed to 

 France, the ministers condemned him, 

 and encouraged the ignorant clamour of 

 the public press. General Wellesley's 

 troops changed their commander three 

 times in four and twenty hours. Sir 



