1828.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



53i> 



office is taken ; a table and paper and 

 pens provided, and a few chairs; M.P.'s 

 assemble as directors, whose first act is to 

 vote themselves each 200 a year, which is 

 amended by a vote for two guineas each at- 

 tendance, &c. The scheme answers to admi- 

 ration the shares mount to a high premium 

 and Godfrey, of course, sells his stock. 

 Greece succeeding so well he and another 

 are despatched by some brother schemers to 

 Greece, to persuade the new government 

 to raise a loan, which gives full occasion for 

 detailing the practices of the contractors, 

 and especially of the patriotic holders of 

 bonds the poet Ardent, and Skinflint, the 

 M.P., can be mistaken by nobody who 

 reads newspapers. 



In Greece, Godfrey meets with Mr. 

 Haversham, the owner of the Priory, who 

 is rambling over the country, accompanied 

 by a Turkish boy, about whom there is a 

 good deal of mystery, and whom he rescues 

 from the barbarous fury of the Greeks, who 

 are ready to butcher every Turk that falls 

 into their hands. An intimacy follows be- 

 tween Godfrey and Mr. Haversham, which 

 is assiduously cultivated on the part of Mr. 

 H., who, though he recognized the auc- 

 tioneer's clerk, made no sign of recognition. 

 In the meanwhile Godfrey is honestly press- 

 ing the Greeks to furnish security for the 

 proposed loan; and his employers growing 

 impatient Godfrey is too scrupulous for 

 them they despatch a more out and out 

 agent to supersede him ; and, on his return, 

 the contributors to the expense of the mis- 

 sion demand restitution. Embarrassments 

 follow, and he resolves, as a dernier resort, 

 to enter the Columbian service ; but on his 

 way to the coast, passing the Priory, he 

 proposes to call on Mr. Haversham, whom 

 he had not seen since his return to England. 

 On approaching the gate, he is taken for a 

 poacher, and a charge of small shot being 

 lodged in his neck, he is taken to the 

 Priory, kindly entertained, and is some 

 time in recovering. This accident puts a 

 stop to the Columbian voyage, and Mr. H. 

 invites him to reside with him as his secre- 

 tary. Here for a time he is perfectly hap- 

 py going occasionally to town to call on 

 Adela, the young lady whom he had for- 

 merly protected from insult in the streets, 

 and to whom he had by degrees made him- 

 self very acceptable. After one of these 

 visits, Mr. H., without explaining his mo- 

 tives, urges him to give up the connexion, 

 and promises him, if he will do so, a per- 

 manent appointment of 500 a year 

 which, after repeated warnings, he finally 

 and peremptorily rejects. In a few days he 

 learns, accidentally, that a lady has been 

 introduced, and the matter he perceives is 

 studiously concealed from him. Circum- 

 stances awaken his suspicions that it is 

 Adela herself; it is she and overhearing 

 parts of a certain conversation, he suspects 

 his friend of treachery, and flies in disgust 



from patron and nymph, and abandons the 

 Priory. 



In his eagerness to escape, he forgets his 

 purse, and has in consequence some diffi- 

 culty in settling travelling expenses, till at 

 Brentford, the inn where he sleeps is broken 

 into in the night, and robbed, and he rush- 

 ing after the robbers, is himself arrested as 

 one of them. Circumstances are made to 

 tell strongly against him ; he is tried, and 

 condemned, and respited only on the very 

 scaffold. His rescue is due entirely to the 

 exertions of Mr. H., who accidentally dis- 

 covering his miserable condition, leaves no 

 stone unturned to save him. All is explained 

 on the part of Mr. H Adela is his own 

 daughter, and instead of himself making 

 love to her, as Godfrey supposed he had 

 overheard, he had actually been pleading 

 for him. The Turkish boy, whom he had 

 rescued from destruction, was Adela herself. 

 The prison scenes are too fully and painfully 

 detailed to give any pleasure ; and the 

 breakfast after the execution of some of 

 Godfrey's fellow prisoners, though probably 

 true almost to the letter, is most revolting. 



Though reprieved, and Adela avowing her 

 affection, the sentence is only commuted for 

 Botany Bay for life. To Sidney accord- 

 ingly the miserable man goes is retained 

 for the government gang gets after a time 

 released from labour, by paying ten shillings 

 a week, and is entrapped by a pretended 

 friend into a marriage with a most loath- 

 some woman of the town. By the same 

 precious friend known in the colony, for 

 his personal and moral qualities, by the 

 name of Lean Iniquity he is tempted to 

 try and escape to take first to the Bush in 

 order to elude discovery, and then to the 

 coast. Some scenes of considerable power 

 follow with the wretches of the Bush and 

 his companion, and after escaping extremest 

 perils, he falls in with some soldiers, and at 

 last learns that, by the confession of the 

 real housebreakers of Brentford, he is at 

 liberty to return to England. He does re- 

 turn, and proceeds to the Priory, deter- 

 mined, after a long struggle with himself, 

 to conceal his marriage ; but scarcely has 

 he arrived, when, to his dismay, he encoun- 

 ters his wife. He now makes a virtue of 

 necessity, and confesses his wretchedness to 

 Mr. H. and Adela. Perplexities thicken. 

 Mr. H. himself is in embarrassment, and 

 apparently at the mercy of a merciless cre- 

 ditor, who insists upon Adela's marrying 

 his son, a young gentleman just arrived 

 from abroad. This son Godfrey discovers 

 to be Lean Iniquity himself, and discloses 

 his story. A final scene is now got up 

 present, Mr. H. and his daughter, and the 

 creditor and his son, Mr. Lean Iniquity, 

 and the clergyman, to perform the marriage 

 ceremony behind the curtain are placed by 

 Mr. H. both Godfrey and his charming 

 wife. Fresh discoveries now take place, and 

 the denouement is complete Lean Iniquity's 



