314 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[MAR en 



a more rapid performer. A change became 

 imperative; but invention was exhausted, 

 and the hackneyed contrivance, the dernier 

 resort, the hero's name, Herbert Milton, in 

 another unlucky moment, was resolved on. 

 But then, though the title was changed, the 

 contents were not, and therefore resem- 

 blances might occur resemblances we mean 

 to " Almack's," which some very queer per- 

 son called the best novel in the language ; 

 and therefore some account must be given 

 to remove suspicions of plagiarism. What 

 account does the writer give? First, he 

 abstained from the perusal of his successful 

 competitor. Very well ; a very good plan, 

 and alone sufficient ; but not content with 

 this precaution, he nevertheless makes some 

 changes, to obviate, he says, the probability 

 of resemblance. The drollest contrivance 

 surely that ever was hit upon, and calculated 

 especially to give the lie to his first account ; 

 if he was unwilling to come into direct com- 

 petition, why not read . the book ; and then 

 if resemblances actually existed, which he 

 was unwilling to exhibit, he would have 

 known where to change, and not, like a 

 mole, be working in the dark not know- 

 ing, in short, whether he was doing what 

 he might come to wish undone, or undoing 

 what he would most wish had been left 

 untouched. 



Well, but the work finished at last, and 

 all impediments apparently got over, behold 

 another contrc-temps Mr. Lister comes 

 forth with a HERBERT Lacy. Confusion 

 to the author's hopes ! At first he boldly 

 resolves to face the difficulty, but soon he 

 flinches again, and, recurring to the old 

 title, he chooses now to call it " Almack's 

 Revisited," in which he is not only un- 

 happy, but usurping and misleading ; for 

 the uninitiated will now suppose the work 

 to be a second visit by the first " Almack's," 

 or one meant, to correct his misrepresenta- 

 tions. Nothing, however, like making the 

 best of circumstances, and accordingly the 

 author advertises under both titles Herbert 

 Milton, and "Almack's Revisited" and 

 thus gives himself a double chance of being 

 once read. 



But this botheration about Almack's is 

 after all little to the purpose. A scene, to 

 be sure, is given at Almack's, but a scene 

 which has nothing to do with the tale, and 

 could not have been the writer's first ob- 

 ject ; nothing is furthered by it, and it is 

 itself of the most meagre description. With 

 Herbert Lacy, too, there are no conflictions 

 whatever that is altogether a country scene 

 this a town one, written .probably by a 

 person of some acquaintance with the worst 

 parts of London society, but of taste and 

 attainments literary we mean very infe- 

 rior to Mr. Lister's. And yet there is an 

 odd sort of similarity between them. The 

 subject in both is villany baffled ; though 

 in the case before us, not baffled till mis- 

 chief is done. Mr. Lister keeps the reins 

 tight in hand ; and would no doubt be afraid 



of inculcating some lesson, which somebody 

 might call immoral, if he did not in the 

 clearest light set forth the laws of poetical 

 justice, which novel readers seem to think is 

 always, and which happily sometimes is, 

 natural justice. Accordingly, his villain 

 plots and contrives, indeed, but inflicts very 

 little serious, and no durable, mischief, and 

 none but what is carefully remedied and 

 amply recompensed. The author before us 

 is of a more reckless cast, and though not 

 more extravagant in plotting mischief, he is 

 more resolute in giving permanent effect, 

 and hesitates not even to kill his hero, 

 though the villain himself, eventually, also 

 reaps the fruits of his own devices. 



Herbert Milton is the son of Sir Herbert, 

 an East-Indian, born in the East, but sent 

 home with his mother when young, and 

 educated under her care the father not 

 returning home till his son was six-and- 

 twenty ; and when he does come, comes 

 prejudiced against him. This son, how- 

 ever, is a most exemplary youth. Brought 

 up at Eton, he was distinguished there, 

 and afterwards obtaining a commission in 

 the Guards, he was still, and on every oc- 

 casion, equally distinguished for bravery, 

 for liberal feelings, and gentlemanly quali- 

 ties. When at Harwich, superintending 

 the landing of the sick from Walcheren, he, 

 in company with a brother officer, observes 

 two ladies, a young one and an elderly, 

 anxiously watching the miserable scene. 

 An opportunity quickly presents itself of 

 lending assistance, in. landing the young 

 lady's drooping father, and placing him in 

 their own comfortable lodgings, and going 

 themselves to an inn. This gentleman, 

 Major Manby, dies ; but he proves not to 

 be the father of the lady she had been, 

 when a child, rescued from a wreck, and 

 adopted by him. Though unable himself 

 to discover the parents of the child, one of 

 the parents at least seemed not to have lost 

 sight of her ; for soon after her adoption a 

 sum of 10,000, for her benefit, was placed 

 in his hands mysteriously. This Major 

 Manby had encountered a variety of for- 

 tunes ; he had been in the East, and dis- 

 missed from office for the malversations of 

 a clerk, and incurred the fiercest hatred of 

 Sir Herbert Milton, our hero's father. 



The services young Milton had been able 

 to render to the young lady, naturally for 

 she was incomparably beautiful drew on 

 further acquaintance, and that acquaintance 

 quickly involved his fullest admiration. He 

 was however checked in "his declarations by 

 the known dislike of Sir Herbert to the 

 young lady's supposed father. His mother, 

 indeed, was delighted with her, but she also 

 discountenances her son's passion, for the 

 same reason. Professional duties meanwhile 

 call him to Spain, and, in his absence, his 

 friends at home, true and false, join curious- 

 ly in making love for him, and ascertaining 

 the state of the young lady's affections, 

 which of course are entirely his. The false 



