703 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[DEC. 



was enterprising, dashing, and unlucky. 

 He preferred a short but barren route 

 to the south, to a fertile but circuitous 

 one the measure was bold and adven- 

 turous, but not, therefore, precipitate 

 and ill-judged. Circumstances called for 

 a speedy encounter with the enemy ; and 

 unhappily the troops were surprised 

 forced into action, when weakened by 

 disease and short allowance, and after 

 the exhaustion of a night's march the 

 Caroliners fled at the first onset, and the 

 rest were overwhelmed by numbers, 

 after a resistance that commanded the 

 admiration of their conquerors. 



In the tale comes a Captain Temple- 

 ton to the house of old General Leth- 

 bridge, who resides on his property, in a 

 state of retirement, a few miles from 

 Camden, to announce the advance of 

 General Gates, and solicit his co-opera- 

 tion, and influence in the neighbourhood. 

 This captain is the hero of the novel, 

 and Miss Lethbridge, the general's 

 daughter, is the heroine. The young 

 folks had met before, and had felt a 

 mutual attachment, the ardour of which, 

 however, had been chilled by misunder- 

 standings these are of course soon 

 cleared up, and the dying embers of 

 affection rekindle and blaze afresh. The 

 old general bestirs himself without loss 

 of time, collects his friends, joins the 

 troops, and mingles in the fatal fight. 

 The officers connected with the tale are 

 most of them wounded, and all captured. 

 Among them is the colonel of Temple- 

 ton's regiment, the Marylanders, who 

 after the battle is introduced to the 

 Lethbridges, and when released on 

 parole, visits the family, where he falls 

 in love with the young' lady or her for- 

 tune, and forthwith resolves by hook or 

 by crook to supplant the captain. The 

 colonel is a very Lovelace, as profligate, 

 as mischievous, as plotting, and unprin- 

 cipled, with even more of the infernal 

 about him. He is a disciple of Hume and 

 Voltaire, and of course, in the writer's 

 conceptions, not only capable of villanies 

 of every kind, but disposed to execute 

 them. He contrives to involve his rival in 

 charges of cowardice, disobedience, and 

 treason, and the victim is finally cashier- 

 ed upon one of them. The details of 

 the profligate colonel's intrigues the 

 merited punishment he at last meets 

 with the clearing up of Templeton's 

 honour his restoration to rank, and the 

 final reconciliation with the heroine and 

 her friends, constitute the texture of the 

 tale. The piece is completely American 

 not merely in subject, but in charac- 

 ter. Dusty Sam is coarse painting, and 

 so is fat Captain JUoebuck, but doubtless 

 both of them have resemblance to reali- 

 tiesone of them is a Kentuckian. Old 

 Lethbridge is well sustained, with all 

 his predilections in favour of the Great 



Frederick of Prussia. The young ladies 

 are, both of them, agreeable sketches 

 scarcely refined or affected enough for 

 our boudoirs. Like all the ladies who 

 figure in American novels, they are full of 

 exclamations and expletives Lord, how 

 pretty Lord, how mad you make me 

 with a thousand similar phrases, univer- 

 sal with the most cultivated in England a 

 century ago, and still general enough in 

 the middle ranks of society. Colonel 

 Taiieton and his dragoons, and one Cap- 

 tain Huck, of the same corps, seem to 

 have left a terrible impression they are 

 represented as very devils incarnate. 

 The novel is well calculated, by its local 

 and historical information, to extend our 

 acquaintance with America, and we are 

 glad to see it reprinted. Mr. New- 

 man, we hope, will go on will select 

 the best, and not be deterred by compe- 

 tition of loftier pretension. 



Demonology and Witchcraft, by Sir 

 Walter Scott, Bart. In spite of the 

 many occasions on which the author has 

 shewn more than a common penchant 

 for the marvellous, these letters as good 

 as deny the farther possibility of either 

 ghosts or witches. On witches he has 

 no mercy, at any period, ancient or mo- 

 dern, nor indeed any tolerance for spirits, 

 except when he discusses the demonology 

 of the scriptures, where, as may well be 

 supposed, he is too sound a theologian 

 to carry scepticism beyond the orthodox 

 point. Nothing, to be sure, can well 

 be less peremptory than his sentiments 

 on this part of the subject. " Wise and 

 learned men" " men of no mean autho- 

 rity," have said so and so except, when 

 speaking of the obscurities of the Bible 

 on these matters, he oracularly adds, 

 " all is told that can be important for us 

 to know" and here he is as peremptory 

 in fact as he is prostrate in words. But 

 as to witchcraft he has no misgivings. 

 Witchcraft implies a compact with the 

 devil, which he seems to affirm was as. 

 impracticable, when the Prince of Air 

 exercised powers all but sovereign, as 

 it is now when, apparently, if we take 

 Sir Walter right, he has none at all. 

 The Law of Moses directs that witches 

 shall not be suffered to live. But what 

 sort of things were those witches to 

 which Moses alludes ? Why, that some- 

 what puzzles the author as well as other 

 folks ; but he has a point to enforce, 

 and therefore the knot must be cut, if it 

 cannot be united. The original word, 

 he is told, may have meant nothing but 

 dabblers in poisons ; and though the 

 Witch of Endor professed to deal with 

 spirits, she was pretty clearly an im- 

 postor, and at all events there is no 

 evidence that she had any thing to do 

 with the devil professionally. There- 

 fore, the scriptures are not fairly lia- 



