316 



Monthly Review of Literature. 



[MARCH, 



roness and a niece. All the young ladies 

 are marriageable ones all are possessed of 

 considerable attractions, and the friends of all 

 come speculating on suitable matches. This 

 indeed, it seems, is the general object of 

 Harrowgate visitors. The two heroes, both 

 gentlemanly-looking men, and one espe- 

 cially of a very superior cut, with the in- 

 dubitable air of good company upon him, 

 excite considerable sensation among old 

 mid young the elders not of course liking 

 the mystery, while the younger are charm- 

 ed with it. The young gentlemen very 

 soon shew symptoms of particular admira- 

 tion, but neither, for some as yet unknown- 

 reason, can indulge his inclination, or give 

 a frank expression to his feelings. But 

 just as the least attractive of the two has 

 been all but sent to Coventry by the papas 

 and mamas, he is discovered to be really a 

 gentleman, in actual possession of large 

 property, and in expectation of another 

 still greater. With him, of course, every 

 obscurity soon clears away, and difficulties 

 vanish, and he wins without further toil 

 the lady of his love. But the other, For- 

 rester, not only can nobody, not even the 

 dowager baroness, though she knows the 

 peerage by heart, and every family of a 

 thousand acres in the country, find out 

 who he is, but he does not know himself. 

 He is under a sort of guardianship of a lord 

 who disclaims any relationship, and pro- 

 fesses to be only the agent of one who will 

 never declare himself. The youth of course 

 is anxious to discover his birth, and frets 

 tinder the curb. Every clue is withheld, 

 and every attempt to engage in any pro- 

 fession is checked and crossed by the watch- 

 ful lord, and his chief behind the scene. 

 At length, however, he encounters an old 

 man an old soldier, who goes about doing 

 good, and is very successful in divers de- 

 tailed cases, who seems at the first glance 

 to recognize our hero, and being shewn a 

 pair of miniatures, which are believed to be 

 the portraits of the parents, gives a slight 

 hint that he knows something about them. 

 From this period commences the unrolling 

 of the tale, and it is but justice to add, the 

 interest is very well kept up, and the mystery 

 developed only piecemeal. Forester proves to 

 be the grandson of a peer of the realm, with 

 70,000 a year, kept out of his rights by 

 the artifices of the nominal guardian, who 

 of course is next heir to the title, and ex- 

 pectant of the estate. The old peer is led 

 to believe the grandson was illegitimate, 

 but all is satisfactorily disclosed by the in- 



defatigable old soldier, and Forrester weds 

 the lady of his heart, after she has bravely 

 refused the offered hand of the gouty old 

 peer and his 70,000 a year. 



The Young Wanderer's Cave, and other 

 Tales: 1830. This series of tales is by 

 the author of the u Children's Fireside."" 

 They are cleverly and intelligibly told, but 

 why the principal tale is told at all is not 

 very obvious. A boy of fourteen, travelling 

 towards the north on a visit to his friends, 

 sleeps on the road at an inn, in a room 

 where a murder is committed. He is ar- 

 rested on suspicion, and thinking that, 

 though perfectly innocent, he shall certainly 

 be hanged, he contrives to make his es- 

 cape ; and after abundance of frights and 

 embarrassments, reaches the Suffolk coast, 

 where he hides himself in a cave, in the 

 hope of finding some means of crossing the 

 water to Holland. All his difficulties in 



Srocuring food, and his expedients for fish- 

 ig, filching and cooking, are minutely de- 

 tailed the main object of the tale being, 

 apparently, to teach children what they are 

 to do under similar troubles. At last a 

 high-tide sweeps him out of the cave to sea, 

 and he is picked up by the very boat on 

 board of which is the actual murderer in 

 custody. The poor boy is of course res- 

 cued from his fears, restored to his parents, 

 finds new and powerful friends, and be- 

 comes a man of substance in recompense 

 for the self-possession and resolution he had 

 shewn in what was surely a very novel po- 

 sition. 



Another story is aimed directly and for- 

 cibly at the fagging system of great schools, 

 and very strange it is that more effective 

 resistance is not made to the practice. The 

 obvious evils are poorly balanced by the 

 alleged advantages. Superior strength, ac- 

 tivity, and intelligence need not surely be 

 armed with authority and privilege. The 

 younger and feebler require protection, and 

 this at least the masters should furnish. It 

 is idle to say the eye of the master cannot 

 be everywhere, and the elder keep the 

 younger in order for him ; let him do his 

 own business, and if the concern be too 

 mighty for his personal controul, let him 

 abandon what he is thus confessedly unable 

 to manage. The honor and amour propre 

 of the bigger lads might be readily enlisted 

 in the suppression of the system, and they 

 become proud of protecting instead of op- 

 pressing. 



