MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 403 



favourite, we have great pleasure in stating our conscientious opinion that Mr. 

 Midshipman Easy is the best of the author's novels. 



Captain Maryatt is not like^many of his tribe of litterateurs, who write 

 merely to amuse without a moral object. Each of his books has a distinct 

 end in view ; and in each he has considered a novel as a channel through 

 which wholesome advice may be conveyed in a palatable form ; and there is 

 reason to believe that his writings have' not only amused the public but have 

 also done no small good to the navy. Whether or not " out and out radical" 

 notions are gaining ground in the service we pretend not to know : if the 

 abominations of radicalism are tainting the middies, all well and good ; the 

 equality mania must be written down : but, if not, why the gallant author has 

 raised up a man of straw in order to knock him down. But to tell the truth 

 we suspect him of aiming his shafts at civil as well as naval politics. Oh fie! 

 Captain Marryat. This is too bad ! But to the story. 



The hero, Jack Easy, is the son of a wealthy country gentleman imbued 

 with the revolutionary notions of equality which prevailed in England at the 

 close of the last century, which of course he is made by the author to express in 

 so absurd and unlimited a manner as to make the reader laugh at Mr. Easy's 

 expense. Jack, as tiresome and obstinate a little brat as ever sucked of a wet 

 nurse, imbibes from his father at a very early period all his peculiar notions 

 of equality; and it requires all the hard discipline detailed in these three 

 volumes to knock them out of his noddle. His first acquaintance with school- 

 discipline would, it is reasonably supposed, have opened the youngster's eyes: 

 but no, not even his acquaintance with the watch-dog, the bull, and the bee- 

 hive while robbing an orchard, to the fruit of which" in arguing the point" he 

 claims an equal right with the owner, nor his ducking in the fish-pond when 

 caught poaching on a neighbour's property, are sufficient to convince Master 

 Jack of the untenableness of his position. 



The theory of equality not being satisfactorily proved on land as far as his 

 experience goes, he determines to try its truth at sea ; and he accordingly as- 

 serts to his father, his right on the principle of equality of determining his 

 own profession. The "point" is argued, and Jack prevails. By influence with 

 a captain, fortunately for Jack, under pecuniary obligations to Mr. Easy, he is 

 appointed midshipman on board the Harpy, and in due time he makes his way 

 to Portsmouth. After enjoying his notions of equality by spending his money 

 like a lord for three weeks, and after insulting the first lieutenant of his own 

 ship (one of the best scenes in the book), he goes on board, and while in the 

 service meets with a variety of adventures, particularly in the Mediterranean, 

 on board, in engagements, and on shore, all of which tend to prove the in- 

 validity of his favourite ' point.' Jack on the whole is a lucky fellow with his 

 ultra notions to escape mast-heading or the bilbos. He gets married in the 

 end to Donna Agnes, a Spanish lady, whom he had once released from a prize 

 ship, and afterwards fallen in love with at Palermo. Mr. Easy senior 

 becomes stark-mad with the equality mania and dies. Jack succeeds to eight 

 thousand a year, leaves the navy, and becomes a country gentleman and a 

 Conservative. 



There are some admirably humorous scenes in these volumes, which might 

 be extracted, if our space allowed and we did not wish to forestall the reader's 

 pleasure. Jack's learning his alphabet withhis mother and afterwards with the 

 schoolmaster, the first interview between him and the lieutenant, Bigg's ad- 

 venture at Gibraltar illustrative of "duty before decency," and the duel scene at 

 Malta, are perhaps the best ; but there are many others, at which we have 

 laughed incontinently. The best drawn characters are Mesty, quite a bijou 

 in his way, although a black diamond, Easthuppthe purser's steward, cidevant 

 pick-pocket, Talboys the mathematical gunner, and Gascoigne the firm friend 

 and ally of Easy : the foreigners are we think rather a failure. 



After pointing out so much that is excellent in Mr. Midshipman Easy, we 



