314 
meaning—a foreigner, and speaking a Jan- 
gtage’no one knows. This lady he, in due 
time, marries.’ She wears on her arm a 
bracelet which attracts his attention, and 
which he wishes to remove. She intimates 
that. her lifeis bound up in it. . He relue- 
tantly yields; but his. jealous. and angry 
spirit dwells upon the repulse, and one 
morning catching her asleep with her arm 
out of bed, he unclasps the fatal bracelet, 
and finds within it—the identical gold thread 
which he had fastened round the leg of the 
rat. On ‘the instant the lady dies, anda 
rat, the ghost, the fetch, or the double of 
his ancient friend, presents itself, throws 
a reproachful glance, and is seen no more. 
The noble Lord retires to a monastery, 
and survives but a few months. The story 
is well told, and the mystery judiciously 
left vague and unaccountable—fit for Irish 
wonderment. 
‘Jeannie Halliday—the “ Tale of our own 
Times,”’ is a sweet tale of humble Scottish 
life, where a very amiable girl is beloved by 
one, but loyes another. She marries where 
her affections bid her marry ; but after two 
or three years spent on their small farm, 
by untoward circumstances, particularly 
the failure of a Scotch bank (did Miss or 
Miss A. M. Porter consider what she was 
about when she talked of the breaking of 
Scotch banks?) her husband is obliged to 
gotosea. He unhappily returns not. The 
poor widowed girl has a sharp struggle for 
life and livelihood, and at last, at the end 
of seven years, is persuaded, for the sake of 
providing for her children, to marry her 
old admirer, who is in a dying state, but 
whose property is so tied up that he can 
only leave it to a wife. Within a day or 
two of the marriage her long-lost husband 
returns, after a captivity on the Barbary 
Coast. The new husband dies, and the 
bigamed girl is restored to her first hus- 
band’s arms, rich and happy, and pure as 
he left her. This story is by far the best 
of the lot-—told in a very simple style, full 
of deep feeling, and successful delineation 
of unsophisticated passion. 
The larger and more ambitious tale is 
less to our taste. It describes the despe- 
rate attempts of Eustace de Bouillon, who 
had been cheated of his brother’s throne, 
to recover his lost rights, by sacrificing his 
Christian daughter to the Mussulman 
Caliph. The pilgrimage is Berenice’s pro- 
gress from Jerusalem to meet the Caliph 
on the banks of the Euphrates. Eustace 
perishes by a violent death, and Berenice 
is rescued from the Mussulman’s grasp, 
and meets with a more congenial spouse. 
There is a good deal of gorgeous descrip- 
tion and pains-taking topography; and, as 
usual, frequent strokes of pathos and pas- 
sion, with dificult positions and dexterous 
extrications, 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
(Serr, 
James IT. 3 the Hon. Sir Dudley North, 
Commissioner of the\ Customs,  &ci;°and 
Rev. Dr. John North,’ Master of? Trinity 
College, Cambridge, &¢e:; by ‘the Hon? Ro- 
ger North. © 3 Vols. 8vo. :1826— These vo- 
lumes were well worthy of ‘re-publication- 
To the greater part of modern readers they 
will be new, and to those of them whovare 
lovers of ancient anecdote, not. ito! say 
hunters of by-gone scandal, they will afford 
no inconsiderable gratification. »The» ex 
perienced reader will expect little more than 
a reprint. ‘The editor's illustrations are’ of 
the slenderest description, and might easily 
and profitably have been largely extended. 
His short and well-considered _ preface, 
however, gives a fair and sufficient view of 
the characters of these three, or rather of 
these four distinguished brothers. 
And they were extraordinary men‘ for 
one family. The sons of an impoverished 
noble, they were, with the aid of a good 
education, left to be the architects of their 
own fortunes. Their connexions, however, 
were extensive, and must have greatly 
helped, though it might be indirectly, to 
push them forward in their prosperous 
course. The keeper, though not the eldest 
son of the family was the eldest of the 
four with whom we are concerned, and 
as his own’ circumstances advanced he 
effectually served his brothers. His first 
introductions to the bar were luckily of the 
most efficient kind; he came m under the 
wings of the Attorney-General Palmer 
(with whose son he had formed an early 
intimacy in the Inns of Court), whose 
countenance was alone sufficient to make 
the fortunes of any man—of any man, we 
mean, with abilities enough to turn op- 
portunities to account. Those abilities ‘the 
Keeper undoubtedly possessed. He was 
indefatigable in his profession, and the fair 
prospects that daily opened more and more 
upon his aspiring hopes incited him to 
labour. He had, besides, no strong and 
impetuous passions to seduce him from his 
purpose ; his amusements were all of the 
quieting kind — music and the. lighter 
branches of literature, with an inkling for 
science and the. ‘‘ new philosophy,’’ sedu- 
lously shunning plays and wine,’ the revel- 
ries of his age, and the coarse debauchery of 
his cotemporaries. He was well tutored by 
his. able protector; and. by, the. facile arts 
of observance and deference to, the leaders 
and judges of the courts in which, he prac-: 
tised, made steady friends, where .a less | 
cautious or a less dexterous person-would. 
have made enemies, against whom nothing. 
but overpowering: talents could suecessfully | 
struggle. He thus - insinuated, along: his, 
ductile: course, and winding) his, easy way, 
through a crowd of perhaps abler competi | 
tors, which rather, yielded to.the, gentle 
pressure than presented any stubborn ob- 
stacle, he reached, .at an, early, age; the. 
highest pinnacle of English ambition, = 
As a judge he was distinguished in his — 
The Lives of the Right. Hon, Francis 
North, Baron Guilford, Lord, Keeper of 
the Great Seal under Charles’ II. and 
