1825.] 
marvellous; and the narrative, in many 
parts, possesses all the vigour and point of 
Swift, without his coarseness. Although a 
smart satire on the prejudices of some of 
our countrymen, who have been afilicted 
with the travelling mania, and un coup pour 
coup for the civilities which America and 
Americans have received from the Quar- 
terly Review; yet the author has had the 
judgment to refrain from employing the 
venom which usually distinguishes that 
standard work; while his arrows are infi- 
nitely more effective, from the apparent 
good-humour which directs them. In this 
respect, Mr. Paulding offers a good exam- 
ple to his countrymen: for nothing can be 
more unworthy of two great nations, con- 
nected by such important interests, than 
that reciprocal vituperation which has too 
long existed in certain quarters. This lively 
satire is, therefore, not only calculated to 
amuse an idle hour most agreeably,—but, 
like the works of the author of the “ Sketch 
Book,” it is well calculated to rub down 
some of those asperities which have hitherto 
been allowed to prevail on both sides. 
Tremaine, or the Man of Refinement. 5 vols. 
8vo.—To the mere novel reader this book 
would prove uninteresting, but to the 
reflecting it will afford no little delight. It 
is the production of a man who thinks 
deeply and rightly. The characters are 
well and. naturally described; the style 
flowing, argumentative and elegant. The 
author appears deeply read, in literature 
and philosophy; and that he should have 
chosen to have clothed his reflections in the 
garb of a novel, though somewhat sur- 
prising, is not less judicious: for there 
are many individuals who, like his hero 
Tremaine (devoured by ennwz) must be 
tempted into thought by some species of 
amusement, which may seem calculated 
to relieve them from the trouble of think- 
ing; and a novel, when once sat down 
to, is rarely thrown aside till finished. 
And we will venture to predict, that, how- 
eyer prosing the introduction to this work 
may, to some, appear, nobody will be dis- 
posed to throw it aside who has persevered 
to the third or fourth chapter. If we were 
disposed to find fault, we should say that it 
inclines rather too much towards sentimen- 
tality, and that the third volume is rather 
too theological ; but we know not how the 
task of reasoning Tremaine out of his infi- 
delity could have been more concisely exe- 
cuted. But by weaving more action with 
the argument, though at the expense, per- 
haps, of adding another volume, the in- 
terest would, in all probability, have been 
more completely sustained. 
Tales by the O'Hara Family. 3 vols. 8vo. 
—The author of this work has chosen, 
with true Hibernian sociality, to distribute 
his laurels among his family; but it is ap- 
parent enough that they are gathered by an 
individual hand. That he is an Irishman, 
to the very heart’s core of him, is also 
Domestic aud Foreign. 
359 
equally evident; and let Ireland be proud 
of him, for he is a writer of no every-day 
stamp, who looks upon nature with that 
clearness of vision and intensity of purpose, 
which enable (and can alone enable) the 
transcripts and combinations of imaginative 
genius to become part of the authentic his- 
tory of human nature. Judging from the 
specimen before us, we should have little 
hesitation in predicting, that Scotland’s 
Great Unknown was likely to find in the 
author of the O'Hara Family a competitor, 
with whom he must stand the tug of rival- 
ry: and it must be confessed, that time 
and occasion are somewhat favourable for 
an impartial attention to the conflict. Pre- 
possession is losing some part of its influence. 
What was heretofore originality, has beeome 
by reiteration, mannerism ; and the public 
are prepared to attend, without prejudice, to 
the claims of a new candidate, who brings 
in his train a different class of characters, 
and from a Jess exhausted region—a region 
in which the romantic may, abundantly, be 
found, without much departure from the 
probable ; and in which a vivid interest 
may be sustained, without verging so often 
on the bounds of the supernatural. In short, 
we hail these volumes, as symptomatic of a 
returning taste to the true genius of novel 
writing. The scene of the Tales—three 
in number—is laid, as the title will suggest, 
in Ireland ; and the author has shewn, in 
two of them, that Whiteboyism may be 
made a subject far more interesting than 
the horrible descriptions of arson, larceny 
and murder, ushered to the world by the 
daily newspapers, would lead one to ima- 
gine. The characters are drawn with local 
precision; and the rude sublime of nature, 
the wild energy, constitutionally inherent, 
or generated by a barbarizing oppression, 
the immolations of tyranny, and the acmé 
of human wretchedness and suffering, are 
finely pourtrayed. The first tale, in parti- 
cular, .“‘ Crohoore of the Billhook,” is a 
specimen of neryous writing rarely to be 
equalled. The mystery, at the commence- 
ment of the tale, respecting the murder of 
Dooling, is continued to the very last 
chapter ; and the curiosity of the reader is 
wrought up, by the gossips of the town, to 
a pitch that amounts to anxiety. The ca- 
tastrophe, far from finishing the interest, 
is afresh inducement to a second reading of 
the tale ; and it is perfectly astonishing how 
much, which had before excited our horror 
and detestation, the mystery being once 
unveiled, becomes natural, interesting, and 
even amiable. 
Thomas Fitz-Gerald ; a Romance of the 
Sixteenth Century, in 3 vols. 8v0.—It is cu- 
rious, that while we hailed the author of 
* Tales of the O’ Hara family”’ (who modestly 
ushered his work into the world, without 
one boastful word, either direct, or mas- 
queraded in trembling hopes and_ fears, 
&c.), as shewing capabilities of the first 
order, in the art of novel writing ; and pro- 
phesied 
