708 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



every thing like grace of motion ; her voice 

 was loud and discordant, and her brogue of 

 the most vulgar tone; a map of defects," 

 &c. But even this lump of deformity was 

 speedily licked into shape, and turned out 

 one of the most amiable and effective mem- 

 bers of society ; conflicting bravely, and of 

 course successfully, with difficulties ; go- 

 vernessing, marrying, and finally benefiting 

 her husband's " comfortable tenantry, bodies 

 and souls, more than all the thousand and 

 one writers for and against Catholic eman- 

 cipation ever did (she dare not venture to say 

 ever cou Id) effect." A story of two Indian 

 girls not half-castes, though one of them is 

 something of the brownest, but the daugh- 

 ters of an English merchant with a Dutch 

 name, and a French lady betrays a lack of 

 acquaintance with the circumstances of In- 

 dian society, and is mixed up with another 

 of a black sheep which had crept into the 

 school, a young lady of nineteen, who comes 

 among them a perfect esprit fort, and sets 

 systematically about enlightening the younger 

 pupils. The examination of the delinquent, 

 when detected, before the parson of the 

 parish, throws an air of ridicule over the 

 whole, full before of unlikelihoods. Another 

 tale of two sisters, one perfectly blind, the 

 other as perfectly deaf, is still more impro- 

 bable. The deaf girl is not congenitally 

 deaf, so that she is not also dumb ; though 

 the narrator occasionally forgets her own 

 statements, and makes sad confusion in her 

 intercourse with the poor girl. The blind 

 girl is, what never blind girl was, lovely and 

 graceful : she had not the mirror by which 

 alone the one can be preserved and the other 

 acquired. Beethoven was deaf (we do not 

 know that he was stone deaf), or we should 

 have said no girl could play, as the other 

 does, without ears. In spite of these impe- 

 diments, the girls both marry, have families, 

 and bring up their children " according to 

 the best system of education, example." 

 Mrs. Hall has the enviable power of throwing 

 interest upon nothings. 



Life of a Lawyer. The tone of this 

 imaginary history is far too like that of a 

 solemn piece of biography to be popular. 

 The hero of the tale is the architect of his 

 own fortune, and, commencing as country- 

 attorney's errand-boy, advances through a 

 conveyancer's office to the bar, and, rising 

 step by step, each leading to the next, ul- 

 timately arrives at the woolsack. The ca- 

 reer is traced with great intelligence by a 

 person familiar with the general business of 

 life, as well as that of the lawyer. But 

 under cover of this plain narrative, the author 

 introduces his views of reform, legal, judi- 

 cial, and ecclesiastical ; and matters are 

 represented in actual operation, the accom- 

 plishment of which the most thorough-going 

 reformers contemplate as yet at a distance. 

 This assumption takes miserably from the 

 ease and the charm of the narrative. All pro- 

 bability vanishes, because things are not 



exhibited as they are known to be, however 

 we may heartily wish they were so. Thus 

 the first opportunity for distinction on the 

 circuit is by an address to the jury in de- 

 fence of a charge of murder. While solicitor- 

 general the hero introduces a bill for the 

 amendment of process and pleadings in 

 the superior courts of common law, with a 

 speech as sweeping and as eloquent, but not 

 quite so interminable, as one of Brougham's, 

 and carries it; as chancellor, he brings 

 about a thorough reform in his own court; 

 while the crowning act of his official reign is 

 ecclesiastical reform, consisting of an equa- 

 lization of the episcopal revenues, and the 

 salarying of incumbents, the tithes being 

 collected by the crown, that is, all titheable 

 property being made taxable to the average 

 value of the tithes. To this the author no 

 unintelligent observer plainly thinkswe shall 

 come at last ; nor do we see what there is in 

 all this so terrible for churchmen to con- 

 template. Such an arrangement, if really 

 desirable, might be quietly conducted, and 

 would certainly cut away one source of dis- 

 sension between incumbents and parishioners. 

 Patronage might and of course would be 

 still in the same hands, and the same oppor- 

 tunities for bargain and sale and corruption 

 still remain. Patrons might still act as they 

 now do, and aspirants for preferment find 

 livings as easy of access as now. 



Original Letters of Locke, Algernon Sid- 

 ney, and Lord Shaftesbury, author of The 

 Characteristics, edited by T. Forster, M.B., 

 &c. Though fussing about these letters as 

 the editor does, and even dissertating at the 

 rate of a hundred good pages or more on 

 Locke's religious and metaphysical opinions, 

 and those of some others from Plato to 

 Priestley and even Lady Mary Shepherd, 

 he very honestly, and in a manner creditable 

 to his own discernment and candour, " de- 

 clares, for his part, and as far as his opinion 

 goes, the circumstance of these letters being 

 the production of men so well known and 

 respected in the literary world constitutes 

 their principal claim to notice." This frank 

 declaration, which the editor applies to all the 

 letters, is however fairly applicable only to 

 those of Locke and Sidney, which are indeed 

 of no earthly value, and only prove, what 

 did not require proof, that men of great name 

 could twaddle as well as meaner folks. The 

 most notable passages in Locke are where he 

 says, with great levity, " If you had asked 

 me where the best chocolate is to be got in 

 London, 1 should answer, where the devil 

 had the friar even where you could find it ; 

 but to Joanna and Rachael you must say 

 that I had formerly a friend there, that made 

 it very well and just as I directed ; but now she 

 is dead, I could no more tell where to find the 

 bestthanthe greatest stranger there." Sidney's 

 letters are relative to mere matters of busi- 

 ness, but show, at least, he was careful to 

 make the most of his property : butShaftes- 

 bury's letters are of some historical import- 



