Retrofped of Domeftic Literature...Novels and Romances. 
great deal of humourin this novel, as well 
as eloquent defcription. The love {cene 
between Lonifa and Hennig, on the lake, 
is nearly equal to any thing Rouffeau has 
ever written. We objet to the hatred 
of Mrs. Halden to her fon Hennig as un- 
natural and improbable. The chara¢ters 
of the major, the chamberlain, and the- 
old negociating count, are admirably 
drawn, 
“ The Fairy of Misfortune, or the 
Loves of Oétar and Zulima,’’ has been 
very well tranflated fromthe French. It 
is a pleafing performance, and of a very 
moral tendency. 
“¢ Men and Manners” is the produc- 
tion of Mr. LarHom, and much fuperi- 
or to any thing he has yet fent into the 
world. We begin to have hopes that he 
will prove no contemptible novelift. 
There are fome original and well-drawn 
characters ; many ‘attempts at humour, 
and occafienally fuccefsful ones. With 
much incident, though not much intereft, 
it contains many improbabilities : the im- 
prifonment of Rachael is a very ftriking 
one. The language is frequently erolsly 
incorreét, and the fiory is too much {pun 
out. 
** Melbourne’’ is a novel in three vo- 
fumes, by the author of Deloraine. 
Though it cannot boaft of ogiginality of 
ftory, it has fome interefting perfonages, 
and inculeates very found principles of 
morality. 
rerbne Pernt is a novel of faperior 
merit. Anthony Babington, who is well 
known in hiftory as the accomplice in a 
plot in favour of the perfecuted Mary, 
againft her cruel confin, is the hero of 
the work. He is the fon of a morofe and 
gloomy fanatic, educated by a Jefuir, 
father Ballard, and continually watched 
over by him in his maturer years. The 
omniprefence, and feemingly fuperna- 
tural agency of this man, very much re- 
femble a charaéter in the Ghoft Scer. 
Excited both by religious fanaticifm and 
by a paffion for Lady Maria Scuart, a fup- 
pofed daughter of Mary by Bothwell, he 
engages to 5 affafinate Elizabeth ; ; and, the 
plot being difcovered, by the Vigilance of 
her minifters, he falis a vidtim to his trea- 
fon. A very powerful interct is excited 
and maintained during the whole of the 
work. The horrors of the civil war car- 
ied on by the league in France, 2nd the 
affaffination of Blois, feém as if defcribed 
by an eye-witnefs. Thofe who are fond 
of Davila will have an indefcribable plea- 
fure-in becoming thus familiarly acquaint - 
ed with Mayenne and the Guifes. We 
1053 
cannot finifh our notice of this novel. — 
without exprefiing, in the moft decided 
manner, our difapprobation of the at- 
tempt which (when we confider the ex- 
traordinary anti-catholic rancour which 
has appeared in fome late noted publica- 
tions) we fear lurks within it, of exciting 
again that {pecies of religious animofity 
which all good men muft hope to have 
apmihilared: It is of no avail to the 
proteftant caufe to expofe the cruelties 
of Mary, when cruelties, precifely of 
the fame kind, were ‘perpetrated by 
Elizabeth. | As this is the produ€tion of 
a lady, we ‘are eee at one or two 
rather indelicate paiiages. 
The * Charite and ‘Polydorus” 
celebrated BARTHELEMY, which was 
lately publithed at Paris, with others of 
‘his ‘pofthumous works, has been, well 
tranflated into Englith. This is a very 
.fimple ftory, founded on the plan of the 
old Greek romances; and is a very flate- 
ly performance, with which it is as im- 
poffible to be warmly pleafed as to find 
-fault. 
é 
“The Spirit of the Elbe” is a _ro- 
mance abounding in wild and extrava- 
gant fentiments, exprefled in very inflated 
language. Ina word, quite in the ftyle 
of fome of the German performances, 
with which our indefatigable tranilators 
have deluged the public. 
‘s The Orphan and Heirefs of Sir 
Gregory” is an hiftorical novel, the ob- 
ject of which is to throw an ‘odium on 
the partifans of the parliament during 
of the | 
the celebrated conteft with Charles I. and 
partucularly on Oliver Cromwell. 
Mrs. Heme, the authorefs of * Lou- 
Wee | Or. the Cottage on the Moor,” 
which was rather a favourite perform-~ 
ance in its day, has publifhed ‘* Albert, 
or the Wilds ab Strathuwern,’”? which is 
a novel of very refpeétable mediocrity. 
We cannot fay more of “ Dettination, 
or Memoirs of a private Family,’ by 
CLaRA Reeve. Had this lady con- 
tented herfelf with publifhing “ The Old 
Engiifh Baron,’ how much greater would 
have been her | terary fame. 
The Miges Lee have publifhed a third 
volume of their very pleafing ‘- Canter- 
bury Tales,’ which contains two, the 
Offcer’s and the Clergyman’s. ‘They 
are both very affeéting ftories, bur ra- 
ther too fimilar in/their ground-work. 
In our laft retrofpec&t, we recommended 
thefe ladies to be iefs florid in their dic- 
tion; but we do not perceive any ma- 
terial improvement in this refpect. Ge- 
nerally correct, frequently elegant, t 
‘ftyle 
Kerr. | 
