tered, abode Raymond has no company whatever but that of his tutor, Signor Thaddi-and for want of better employment is reduced to the necessity of writing poetry. In the meantime Mr. Nugent is in the way of making visits to Leghorn, connected with his affairs in England. At last, on one of his visits, his stay is protracted beyond the usual time, and day after day passes without his return. Raymond becomes alarmed, and goes to Leghorn in search of his grandfather, but is unable to hear any tidings of him. The landlord of the hired house also gets alarmed for his rent, seizes on the furniture and pays himself, and turns Raymond out of doors. With the small means left him, Raymond now, after spending some time in Leghorn in vain inquiries after Mr. Nugent, returns to England to get Mr. Atterbury's assistance. He arrives at Ravensdale after nightfall, knocks at the door of his grandfather's mansion, but gets no answer, and being wearied, lays himself down on the stairs, and falls into an unquiet slumber till dawn. On again knocking for admittance, the door is opened by Mr. Gilbertson the house-stewart, who reproves Raymond for disturbing him, and tells him that he cannot see Mr. Atterbury, who is not at home. On telling that he is the grandson of Mr. Nugent the owner of the house, the stewart tells him that he never heard of a Mr. Nugent.

"Get away with your imposturing lies-have I not been here two twelvemonths, and I have never heer'd nothing of the sort before. Mr. Atterbury will allow no callers of the kind-shipwrecked mariners and what not! Begone, and tell your tales at other folks' doors. And it was you indeed that disturbed the family last night at prayers, when I myself was conducting of the worship, as I always does in Mr. Atterbury's absence; you could have been took before a magistrate for that very thing."

This Mr. Gilbertson, the stewart, makes a great profession of piety; and it may be thought out of character with a man of his pretensions to curse and swear, even when in a passion, as the novelist makes him do. It certainly is not usual to find this vice in the character of the hypocrite; but having known some instances of it in our own experience, we are prepared to uphold Mr. Gilbertson as a real character. On this subject we may notice an acute remark which we fell in with lately, though we are not able to recollect where, further than believing that it is in one of the recently published volumes of Dr. Chalmers's works. In commenting on Peter denying his master with oaths and curses, the divine says that, in all probability, Peter, before his conversion, had been in the practice of swearing, and that in his passion he had fallen into his old habit. In the case of the sham convert Gilbertson, his swearing and cursing would be accounted for in the same manner. Profane swearing, however, is seldom in the mouths of professors of religion, for this very obvious reason, that it is not merely an outward evidence of gracelessness, but also a vice which is unprofitable and unfashionable in this present world.

In our limits we must anticipate matters. Mr. Atterbury has served himself heir to the property of Mr. Nugent, and has caused Mr. Nugent himself to be kidnapped by his emissaries, and carried off

to Wallenbach Palace, a religious institution în Austria, of which Mr. Atterbury is proprietor. This Wallenbach Palace, ostensibly a religious house, is used as a place for seduction and debauchery, and for the forcible confinement of parties whose relatives wish them removed from the world. For its support, immense sums of money are collected in England, principally by religious ladies. Amongst its inmates were, as we said, Mr. Nugent, and the beautiful Lucretia Ravensworth, who comes by the favour of Miss Webster to be Lady Brackenridge, and the wife of our Raymond.

Next evening Raymond returns to the manor house, once his own home, and meets with a reception from the stewart similar to that which he had done before. He stops in the house, however, till Mr. Atterbury arrives, who denies all knowledge of him, abuses his servants for allowing him admittance, and orders them to see the young man clear off the premises. In Mr. Atterbury's house there was an Italian servant who had seen Raymond, and could unfold a tale of his master's crimes. He follows Raymond out, but is himself pursued by the other servants, at their master's orders, and brought back. He is a sickly, consumptive boy, and Atterbury sends him to his bed, and with many expressions of kindness for him, causes a young lady in the house to carry him a draught, which speedily sends him into a better world he having been some time before converted from the errors of Popery by Mr. Gilbertson the stewart. Raymond having now retreated from Ravensdale house to lodgings with a grocer in the town, (Redmond) is there seized by orders of Atterbury as a vagrant, and brought before Mr. Justice Sievewright, charged with endeavouring to raise money under false pretences, as also with assault, and several other crimes. The case is completely proved by Atterbury's servants. Sarah Mollison the housemaid, and Matthew her sweetheart, swear to the whole indictment. "Both of them declared upon oath that he had entered the manor-house by force-insisted on seeing either the master or mistress, and when that was denied him, he proceeded to strike them with violence, with a small staff or bludgeon which he had concealed about him." The testimony of the devout stewart Gilbertson was that the prisoner "struck the servants, blasphemed, and swore that he would have them all murdered; and he attacked me in the dark, your worship, in the avenue, and mostly took my life." Redmond the grocer and his wife, who had before shown some kindness to Raymond, now see it for their interest to side with the winning party, and to agree that they had been imposed on by the young man. Raymond was then sentenced to two months imprisonment in the neighbouring jail.

The fortunes of Mr. Atterbnry now grow better and better every day :

"He had made himself busy on the popular side of some public question concerning the tonnage and poundage of merchandise, connected with the Plymouth trade; and a magnificent testimonial, consisting of plate to himself, and jewels to his lady, which cost upwards of L.40,000, was to be presented to him by the patriots of Plymouth and its

environs. The day fixed for the presentation of the splendid gift was that which has just been described as the day of Raymond's release from his melancholy prison. A grand banquet was preparing in the town hall, for Mr. Atterbury, on the auspicious occasion. His name was honourably posted on the streets, with striking notes of admiration appended, and high encomiums upon his public conduct filled the public prints."

It is a beautiful contrast to this scene, when the author introduces us to John Dyvan," the master of a lodging-house of a suspicious description;" who, though a bit of a rogue, proves afterwards to be a real saint, in comparison with Mr. Atterbury, the darling of the repectable world.

We pass over a good deal of excellent matter, and find Raymond again in Italy, whither his beloved Lucretia Ravensworth has been sent for her health. There he meets his true friend, Mr. Erasmus Crawford, who believes his tale, and is determined to spend all his means in the attempt to get justice done him.

It is now that fortune begins to turn round in favour of Raymond. In the inn at which he and Mr. Crawford lodge, they are the witnesses of some of Atterbury's villany. They follow him to England, and in the end are able to expose his true character. In searching after his Lucretia, Raymond finds her at Wallenbach Palace, where he also discovers his own grandfather. The mansion of Ravensdale is burned to the ground by an accidental fire, occasioned by Atterbury's idiot son, a lad who had been deprived of his senses by drugs administered to him, by his stepmother, Atterbury's third wife. Atterbury dies miserably. Raymond marries Lucretia Ravensworth, the lady of Brackenridge and Mr. Erasmus Crawford, now in middle life, gets his choice in a worthy widow.

Such is the main plot, in which there is nothing very striking; but the details, the descriptions and the conversations are admirable, and perfectly true to nature. The sketches of Wallenbach are exquisite, but we have space for only a few short extracts :

"The village of Wallenbach boasted exclusive Protestantism. Wallenbach boasted that not a Papist could be found within its precincts, otherwise, if any dared to intrude, he was denied shelter by the seniors, and pelted with stones and mud by the juveniles of the place."

From the time

To Wallenbach Palace we have already referred. that a handsome subscription to this den of iniquity, was squeezed out of the late Queen Adelaide, the place was called "the Royal British Sanctuary." Amongst those in England, who collected immense sums for the "Sanctuary," was Miss Molly Gripeman. To do her justice, she contributed merely to the fame of this wicked place, for the collections which she raised she invariably sewed into a pocket which she had made in her "red coloured stays." Miss Webster's Sketches of Miss Gripeman, are splendid, from her intense closeness to truth. The following extracts would have done no discredit to the author of Jonathan Wild :

"There lived in the town of Plymouth, in a semi-genteel lodging, an elderly pious female spinster, or to be more explicit, an old maid, who had attained the age of sixty-five years. She was straight and stiff as a pole, and grim in the visage as a dead saint that had begun to decompose. Her name was Miss Molly Gripeman. I dislike fanciful descriptions; a plain portrait is the best. Miss Molly Gripeman was a religious character, be it understood. She allowed no doubts to remain on the subject. She announced herself as such in conversation. She spoke of the Lord's dealings and the Lord's doings, while the poison of the adder was under her sanctimonious lips. She was, in fact, as thorough a hypocrite as Satan ever baptized with his spirit: and yet her own petty circle of friends never doubted that she was other than a daughter of light. Pedigrees are out of fashion, but there was one small worldly feeling that tortured this pious female's breast, and sometimes betrayed itself at unlucky moments. Miss Molly Gripeman was of low origin, as her name might indicate, and as, in consequence of her great piety, she associated with persons superior to herself in station, it cost her some trouble to conceal this humiliating fact. Her father had been a baker in a small country village. Oh, how she secretly hated her father from her soul! Brought up in mean circumstances, she did not affect the lady till she became a Christian, which event took place as follows:-Miss Molly Gripeman's father being dead—heaven rest his ashes-his pious daughter once kicked a home missionary down stairs, for mentioning her father's trade in her presence. She had a brother, who itinerated through the kingdom, selling pens and stationery, by which he earned a competence. He then was converted, and practised itinerant preaching instead of vending stationery; and marrying a widow, who had L.1500, he got a meeting-house built for himself in Plymouth, when his sister, Miss Molly, came thither, in triumph, to reside, and became also a converted Christian.

"The zeal of the new preacher drew for a time the under current of society in the town, and his sister lauded him as second only to the apostles; but in process of time he died, and having no family, his sister hoped to be his heir; but alas! for the fallacy of human hopes, she got nothing. His widow, as the Scotch law would have termed it, as the longest liver, "bruiked all." Ah, well-a-day, for Miss Molly Gripeman, she was thrown off her equilibrium by the disclosure of the fact, and she shook the dead man in his coffin, and called him a thief, a swindler, and a vagabond, in presence of the undertaker, the chief mourner, the widow, and the widow's attorney, which last-mentioned gentleman, with an exemplary suavity, showed Miss Molly to the door, while the chief mourner humanely apologized for her, and laid the blame on the London porter, with which the company had been refreshing themselves; and he farther stated, that it was his firm conviction, that the lady, in the excess of her grief, did not mean to impeach the deceased, but was only apostrophising the tyrant death, as a thief and swindler for robbing her of such a brother. This charitable interpretation of the scene by the chief mourner, was adopted by the funeral company, who thought the least said about the matter would be the soonest mended."

This is really splendid writing, and the whole character of Miss Gripeman, and of her sayings and doings, is kept up in the same style-her every word and every gesture being true to the very life. The following is one of her speeches. She has been rummaging amongst some papers on Mr. Atterbury's desk, when she is interrupted by Mr. Atterbury's housekeeper

"Woman, how durst you touch Squire Atterbury's papers?' "Such impudence!' said Miss Gripeman, to call me a woman, you low wretch ! Know that I am a lady; I have always been treated like a lady, you low person that you are. I could shew you (if you were capable of reading, but I daresay you don't know a letter of the alphabet) correspondence from ladies of the highest rank and quality, who are proud to receive a letter from me, knowing my time is so precious and valuable. The very postman said the other day, Madam, you must have a large correspondence. Only think of that; and you to woman me, you ill-bred beast."

We have the misfortune, for such we must account it, though it is a retrievable one, to be unacquainted with any of Miss Webster's former publications, which we believe attracted the attention and high praise of the late Dr. Chalmers. The novel, however, which we have endeavoured to introduce to our readers, must become a classic work.

"Owen Glendower" is a work of a very different character, though far from devoid of merit. The title indicates that it is an historical romance on the subject of "the irregular and wild Glendower," who, upwards of a century and a half after the destruction of the Welsh nationality and independence, maintained himself in the state and character of a Welsh Prince, against the arms of England. Disapproving as we do of all historical romances, we are obliged to allow considerable praise to the manner in which the fair author of this work has executed her task. She has the praise of having selected a really romantic subject when she chose Owen Glendower-warrior, scholar, statesman, and reputed magician. The narrative is well told -and the whole tone and spirit of the novel are healthy and excellent. The characters of Henry the Fourth and Henry the Fifth are sketched with great fidelity and historic truth, and there is much talent in the portrait of Sir Robert Neville.

"Sir Edward Graham" is the work of a lady of no very modest pretensions, and no small popularity-for there is a lively vulgarity and an amusing confidence about her, which makes her books sell better than more worthy commodities; and we do not dispute her word, which indeed would be unpolite on our part, when she tells us of one of her novels, that five thousand copies of it "are already in circulation throughout England, besides many editions in America and on the Continent." Miss Sinclair has long been notorious as an ostentatious teacher of morality and religion, and an inveigher against the wickedness of those writers whom she considers not so good as herself. At the same time she is singularly ill qualified for the office which she assumes, and betrays the good causes which she takes up by her extremely awkward advocacy. Vulgarity has stamped this lady for her own-and her presumption in speaking about subjects of which she is totally ignorant, scarcely ever deserts her for a single page. At the same time she is not devoid of a knowledge of which it would have been better that she had been ignorant. She has picked up-where heaven and herself best know-a fair stock of the language of the pot