1831.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



223 



manners ; and clutched the wildest 

 sketch, so that it gave a bold outline of 

 local scenery. I wanted to shew the 

 Americans as they are, or rather make 

 them shew themselves." An arduous 

 task for one who has no personal ac- 

 quaintance with the country, and must 

 trust to books, with nothing but her own 

 sagacity, on which however she may 

 safely rely, to guide her. In the stories, 

 variety of course was a leading point 

 some relate to the towns, and some to 

 the forests; some to the shores, and 

 some to the prairies ; some are broad 

 and coarse ; some sentimental, some 

 moral, others romantic, but none of 

 them heavy. You need not go to sleep to 

 escape from any of them. Good sound 

 sense, with nothing of the lack-a-daisical, 

 runs through the whole of the pieces, 

 and in this respect they might have 

 been written all by one person. Many 

 of the pieces are anonymous at home, 

 but the editor has not given the names 

 even of those she must have known, 

 which is something like defrauding 

 the authors of their fair fame. We 

 have space neither for extracts nor out- 

 lines, not to say that the whole are so 

 equally respectable, that it would be 

 invidious to attempt to give priority to 

 any. If we did notice any in particular, 

 it would probably be Pete Featherton, 

 because the story involves a point of 

 superstition, from which America is 

 thought to be as free, as Ireland from 

 snakes. The scenes in Washington too, 

 might justly, if any, claim distinction ; 

 crowded with the holders of office, and 

 candidates for office, and speculators of 

 every age or sex. 



The Vizier's Son, or the Adventures of 

 a Mogul^ by the Author of Pandurang 

 Hari, fyc. 3 vols. \2rno. By moguls are 

 meant in India, specifically, foreigners, 

 whose complexions are fair, and who 

 profess Mahometanism, such as Arabs, 

 Turks, and Persians. The writer, a 

 very competent person, has before given 

 us the Adventures of an Hindoo. The 

 scene of his new tale is the court of 

 Shah Jehan, and the basis and most of 

 its materials consist of the cabals and 

 intrigues of his four sons towards the 

 close of his life, to succeed him. The 

 hero of the tale is involved, in spite of 

 all his efforts, and in defiance of honest 

 intentions, in their several schemes, and 

 in general escapes from one peril only to 

 plunge into another. He is himself, 

 though he does not know the fact till 

 the final denouement, a nephew of Shah 

 Jehan ; but is brought up in the family 

 of the Vizier, represented as his son, 

 and very early introduced into office and 

 command. The youth is of a mighty 

 inflammable temperament, and a pair of 

 bright eyes bring him into frequent 



conflict with the duties of his station. 

 The Shah's daughters are as restless 

 and intriguing as his sons. Never was 

 king, indeed, more plagued with his fa- 

 mily, except perhaps our own second 

 Henry ; but the workings of Nemesis 

 were, as usual, just enough. The Shah 

 had destroyed many of the members of 

 the race of Timour all as he thought 

 and his greatest vexations finally pro- 

 ceeded from his own children. His 

 domestic cruelties were visited on his 

 own head by his own family. A brother, 

 the father of the hero of the tale, had 

 however escaped the general carnage, 

 and after submitting to a long obscurity 

 reappears, and recognizes his brave and 

 noble son, in concurrence with whom he 

 resolves to attempt the recovery of his 

 regal rights. The result is not pursued 

 in the volumes before us, and the silence 

 of historical records implies a failure or 

 a fiction. Aurungzebe, that son of Shah 

 Jehan who finally triumphed over all 

 his brothers, we know seized his father's 

 sceptre, and kept it to his 90th year, 

 and handed it over quietly, quietly for 

 the east, to his own offspring. The 

 story is not altogether without interest; 

 but so abhorrent are the habits of the 

 east to those of our western world in 

 our day, that with difficulty can any 

 warm sympathy be raised in our bosoms 

 by the revolting details. So perverted 

 are the natives in principle and so des- 

 potic in practice, such contempt of life 

 and security appears on all sides, such 

 ups and downs, such fury and revenge, 

 such cold selfishness and burning pas- 

 sions, that there is no going along with 

 them. The finest sources of interest, 

 which spring from the delicacies of do- 

 mestic feeling, are absolutely withered 

 and swept away. The volumes, how. 

 ever, are calculated to extend our ac- 

 quaintance with the country, but must 

 be read, if read at all, for the sake of 

 dry information ; amusement they can 

 scarcely furnish to any one, not already 

 orientalized. 



Sunday Library, by Dr. Dibdin, Vol. /, 

 The value of a selection does not de- 

 pend wholly upon ,the selector. The 

 best he can do is to give the best he can 

 find. Ex nihilo nihil ; and if it be true, as 

 it probably is, that out of the writers of 

 sermons within the last fifty years, 

 amounting to some hundreds, perhaps 

 thousands, nothing better could be found 

 than the contents of this volume, the 

 Editor is not to blame, save for not 

 abandoning an undertaking, which, 

 however well conceived, could not be 

 executed with any credit either to him- 

 self or the profession. With two, or at 

 the most, three exceptions, the eighteen 

 sermons here reprinted the volume has 

 nothing but reprints really present 



