536 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[MAY, 



father proves to have been the cause of all poor 

 Mr. H.'s former troubles, and guilty, more- 

 over, of forgery Godfrey's wife was already 

 the wife of Lean Iniquity. The officers of jus- 

 tice are at the door to arrest the criminals 

 but on their consenting to give up all claims 

 none of which were just and q; it the 

 country, they have a quarter of an hour's 

 law of which they make the best use. 

 The field is thus left clear for Godfrey 

 who marries Adela and becomes heir to 

 Mr. H.'s vast possessions. 



Mary Harland, a Tale of Humble 

 Life; 1828 This is an excellent little 

 story, intended to read a moral lesson to 

 young women of humble life, but entirely 

 free from the asperities of religious fanati- 

 cism, and the cant of the " tea and tract" 

 school. It is told with great truth and 

 feeling. The steps that lead to wrong are 

 distinctly traced, and its consequences as 

 plainly and indisputably pointed out, with- 

 out harshness or exaggeration. The story 

 is simply that of an innocent and right- 

 minded girl, virtuously brought up, quit- 

 ting her parent's roof to better her con- 

 dition by service in London prompted 

 chiefly by the representations of a com- 

 panion of hers a girl of a lighter and gid- 

 dier cast, who was thought to have done 

 wonders in this way. She goes first to a 

 place of all work, and her friend soon per- 

 suades her she is very much overworked, 

 and, indeed, we think so too and soon 

 finds her a situation in a family of distinc- 

 tion, where her work is easier, and, at all 

 events, her liberty greater. Her inter- 

 course with her friend becomes now more 

 frequent she goes with her to the theatre 

 and takes to gayer dressing, but still not 

 precipitately she firmly resists what ap- 

 pears to her improper till, at last, after a 

 short suspension of intercourse, her friend 

 informs her she is married to a gentleman 

 of fortune, who for the present chooses, for 

 family reasons, to conceal his marriage, and 

 begs her to come and live with her as a sort 

 of companion. In her simplicity, she has 

 no distrust of the truth of the story, and 

 considering the offer as a grand lift in life, 

 she readily accedes. 



Here, unhappily, she is exposed to the 

 arts of a profligate in high life, and, under 

 the mask of honourable intentions, is event- 

 tually seduced by him. Before, however, 

 he is tired of his victim, the poor girl 

 discovers his villany, and instantly, and 

 steadily renounces all further intercourse, 

 and, abandoning all her raised and roman- 

 tic hopes, in the bitterness of her feelings, 

 but with the resolution of genuine virtue, 

 she turns again to the labour of her hands. 

 With a ruined character, to find a service 



was difficult enough. One at last, how- 

 ever, she does find, but so hard and grind- 

 ing, that few who could help themselves 

 would accept it when, to complete her 

 misery, she discovers herself to be with 

 child. Her condition is discovered, and 

 she is harshly dismissed. She returns to 

 her family, gives birth to a boy, and, not 

 to be a burden to her parents, she resolves 

 to tramp the country, selling pincushions, 

 till at last she comes to London, sinks 

 deeper and deeper into distresses acci- 

 dentally encounters her seducer is repulsed 

 by him looses her senses goes to an hos- 

 pital her child is taken by the parish, and 

 she herself, on her recovery, goes into some 

 miserable service. The hapless child is 

 stolen by a chimney sweeper, and, after suf- 

 fering the most heart rending misery, is 

 rescued by the employer, whom she had 

 faithfully served, and placed again in her 

 hands. In the fulness of her misery, she 

 meets with her first mistress, to whom she 

 tells her story, and is listened to, and, in 

 time, recommended by her to a relation of 

 her own a slopsellcr, at Gravesend, a wi- 

 dower, with a family to take care of his 

 house and children. Here she acquits her- 

 self admirably it is the first opportunity 

 she has had since her fall, and she makes 

 the best use of it. After an ordeal of some 

 years, the mate of a merchantman, a gallant 

 fellow, falls in love with her she is still 

 young and pretty, and, eventually, after all 

 necessary explanations, marries her, and she 

 lives the remainder of her days in comfort 

 and respectability. By one act of credu- 

 lity at sixteen or seventeen, brought about 

 by the most insidious schemings of an ac- 

 complished scoundrel, she is plunged into a 

 sea of sorrows, and sunk to the very depths 

 of despair for five or six years, and as many 

 more are passed in what may be termed her 

 trial and atonements through every hour 

 of all that long and weary period does she 

 bravely and resolutely aim at doing what 

 is right she is guilty of nothing but cre- 

 dulity, and she is visited with inflictions 

 that no crimes of the deepest dye would 

 seem to deserve. The thing is painful to 

 contemplate ; but the consequences are not 

 untruly stated and the delineation may 

 work a timely warning. 



If we found any fault, we should find 

 it in the pains that arc taken to enforce 

 the necessity of obedience and submission 

 in services of such sharp severity, that it 

 would be surely rather a duty to fly from 

 them. Had the poor girl suffered less hard- 

 ships in her first place, she might not have 

 been so easily induced to change it, and 

 might thus have escaped the temptations 

 before which she fell. 



