in many other places, with the ,,talent, liveliness, and eloquence" which the reviewers freely admit, there is so remarkable a simplicity in the style that a child might read the greater part of these volumes with pleasure. The words which follow respecting the crudity in the conception and haste in the execution" may be partly true of a few portions, but are in the main unfounded The reviewers remind us of a gardener, who will not only weed out the wild plants, but every flower which is not of the choicest and so leave a bareness in his garden: or of those who criticise in the spirit expressed by Juvenal in his racy Satire ,,Stulta est Clementia, cum tot ubique

Vatibus (here scriptoribus) occurras periturae parcere chartae." Even such men as Sir Walter Scott, Sir William Hamilton & c were not spared. The only one of the overwrought incidents" is the dwelling rather long upon the meeting again of the father. His rejoining the daughter at such a time cannot be classed among the everyday incidents of life, but we must remember that the course of some is more eventful than that of others, and many things as strange have happened to those whose career is not to be classed among the strange or unusual.

There are a few grammatical errors; and a few expressions, but very few, which seem scarcely dignified enough to be inserted in a book. We find on page 59 „They had not know each other like us" sometimes ,,an union" (which is incorrect), at other times,,a union"; -,,If all that we have gained was erased" (Tauch. Ed. Vol. II page 210); (He said to himself) ,,years must elapse before he was (would be) his own master";

could not have rode home" (page 75); sometimes ,,lit" for lighted and the conversation of the lady's-maid is more unpolished than is necessary. However these drawbacks would not justify the terms applied to the too works,,Henrietta Temple" and ,,Venetia" ,,many redundancies, extravagancies, and even vulgarities." The reviewers should rather have given the unapproving words as a caution to the author, showing him that which impoverishes an otherwise good production. They have however written upon his works as a comparative failure with a few redeeming spurts of eloquence and display of talent. There is a conventional standard which some place before them, strongly reminding us of the mathematician who said, speaking of Milton's ,,Paradise Lost;" "Yes, I grant that it is a good sort of poem, but what does it prove? Although there are still some who incline to the wiews expressed in the article before us, the works of Disraeli have been perused by so many of the more intelligent classes in England, and men

of letters, who bear testimony to the many excellencies they exhibit; that since these words of criticism appeared, they have justly obtained a place among the standard literature of the nineteenth century. In many people looking at the same object, there are peculiarities which strike each, according as he is predisposed. We remember that Jeffrey the editor of this very Edinburgh Review incurred the displeasure of Sir Walter Scott by condemning,,Marmion" on account of political prejudices and thus inducing him to favour the advances of John Murray and become a contributor to the Quarterly Review" Among other complaints is one that the characters introduced are few. The best answer which can be given to this is to enumerate them; namely eight principal characters; Lady Annabel, Marmion Herbert, Venetia, Dr. Masham, Lady Monteagle, all varying very much, and in the novel well sustained, besides Pauncefort, the gipsy-man, Justice, Mr. Pole and others who play a more or less important part at various phases of the story.

The reviewers add ,,We will not deny that some of his situations are powerfully painted, and that he is occasionally dramatic and forcible in the language of feeling". This is a great admission after so much censure, and in all we may concur except in the expression ,,dramatic"; which quality is as a rule no ornament to a novel, and as inappropriate as a bouquet of wax-flowers in a glass case, in the middle of a garden flower-bed. For the language and whole dressing up of a drama is so different from that of a work of fiction, that while most people can read the latter and give delight to a whole party of people old and young; respecting the former, we feel from the heart with Cicero (De Oratore I. V),,in qua quum omnes in oris et vocis et motus moderatione elaborent, quis ignorant quam pauci sint fuerintque, quos animo aequo spectare possimus“? Many of the statements either in praise or blame seem so emphatic and to treat of the whole work, that they certainly border on contradictions for in the paragraph commencing ,,the best part of Venetia is undoubtedly the first volume", there is so much said in praise, that it cannot coincide with the wholesale deterioration of the novel in the opening remarks. Perheps the second volume is as a whole not equal to the first but there are many portions of it not inferior, and many of great interest, and displaying equal talent.

In some instances there is copying, and sometimes even the very words of other writers, with a word or two altered, which alteration is generally an improvement. This fact and the many acknowledged, even by the Edinburgh Reviewers, touching and

estimable passages show the author to be in no way dependent on the works of others.

III. As to the choice of subject, which is so much objected to by the reviewers. The remark,,We do not think it would have been possible, by any talent to have reconciled us to the subject", is not strictly philosophical; for genius must be acknowledged to be genius, and must be considered in itself apart from our opinion of the motives of its author.

Propably most of the survivors of Lord Byron would object to his life and others connected with him being made the subject of a novel; but poets and literary men like kings and emperors, occupying an important place in public thought are exposed to having their character and actions made the property of all bookmakers. Some go even so far as to maintain that all works of fiction are rather to be ragretted as not productive of good whether they, like Democritus laugh at, or like Heraclitus mourn over the follies and errors of mankind.

Certainly it was the opinion of the unhappy Byron that an account of his follies might be a warning to young men, which opinion he expressed to Medwin of the 24 Light Dragoons, when he handed him his notes, which he said might be published without alteration. As however the ralations of Byron do not probably coincide in the feelings of their departed friend, it might have been wiser and kinder to have avoided this subject. Even if this be granted, the expressions used by the reviewers are too strong. However this question is here only slightly touched upon, forming part of the review, but need no further comment not belonging to the real criticism of the work. Its moral tendency, which in such novels is often the chief object is undoubtedly good.

The works of our author have been casually mentioned by other writers. In ,,An Autobiography" Anthony Trollope has still more unequivocally condemned them in such langage, that I will pass over his opinion as utterly valueless.

The fact is, it cannot be maintained that our author is perfact; nor has popularity ever ascribed to him a fame among those who stand at the very first of the list of novelists; but there is a large number of very intelligent readers in England who can appreciate his works and admire the good even if they do not entirely pass over the faults which they constain.

This novel does not deal with any adventures of pirates, or marvellous escapes but with the simple affairs of everyday life.

There is not to be found in it the lengthy description of scenery or the exalted tone of Sir Walter Scott, for the subject

is a more homely one; but the characters, as in a well written drama are well sustained, and the household incidents are therin more in the colloquial but animated style of Dickens portrayed. Like the latter writer, the author, who at one time swayed rule over the political arena of England, descends to the description. of the trivial events of life, and presents them in such a form as to produce a beneficial moral influence upon society, and to some extent relieves his story with similar pleasantries; and if these jeux d'esprit are not so continued and so pointed, it can truly be affirmed, that the impression of exaggeration in his representations is not so much to be feared. He never overburdens the reader with long descriptions, or a perpetual recurrence of pleasantries produced with effort; but there is a quick and natural succession of scenes.

In reading this romance we are somewhat reminded of Souvestre's,,La Maison Rouge" but cannot but compare it favourably with the last mentioned work, which with all its vivid representations, its well developed plot, and sustianed interest, leaves the impression to the reader of want of any definite object but to amuse.

It is also satisfactory to find that right through the narrative the supernatural, which is not only introduced into Hauff's tales, but even in such works as ,,A Strange Story" by Bulwer,,the Monastery" by Sir Walter Scott is in ,,Venetia" entirely excluded.

It has often been asserted that truth is stranger than fiction. Whether this be the case or not, in reading interesting and even exciting accounts, there is to the lover of truth a peculiar pleasure in feeling that if they are not taken from actual fact, they are at least within the range of possibility; while there is with all the enjoyment experienced in the perusal of good works of fiction, a conviction of something unsatisfactory in finding a ghostly apparition or spiritual agency incompatible with the rest of the story. (Of course such tales as Christmas Carol" where the introduction of spirits has a very special object, are not included in this remark.) In ,,Venetia", while there is throughout everything to excite curiosity and delight; while the whole tale is full of that which is curious and eventful; not only is it entirely in accordance with the coincidents of human life; but the subjects are drawn from real personages, and in the opening chapters by far the most important descriptions are derived from the history of the celebrated Lord Byron; and in the further study of the novel, if we regard it as divisible into two histories, that of Venetia, and that of Lord Cadurcis, it is evident that the bulk of what is related of the latter was suggested by the perusal of his life. For in analysing the description of

this character we find that the habits of Byron, almost in their detail, his temperament and general disposition, and personal qualifications and predilections, as well as many of the circumstances of his remarkable life are too forcibly depicted for this not to be the case: although, as the author did not profess to write a true history much is differently presented and oppropriately omitted. For even the peculiar events connected with so remarkable personage as Lord Byron would scarcely be sufficient in themselves, or connected enough in their occurrence to form what is demanded by the British public, in a romance, or tale of fiction, without the filling up, and imaginative genius of one capable of arranging and writing such works. There is certainly very much due to the talent and skill of the author. The conversation introduced and the main drift of the story are entirely his own; although even some of the modes of address between mother and son are suggested by the letters and accounts, which the friends of the late Lord Byron have handed down to us. Thomas Moore has, in giving an account of Byron's life sought to cover his faults; and, to use the language of Macaulay; (to vindicate),,as far as truth will permit, the memory of a celebrated man who can no longer vindicate himself, showing forth his courage, and other generous phases of his character. Disraeli has in his ,,Venetia", not like Hunt, too sadly exhibited the shady side, but while showing the remarkable scenes of the sad life of the poet; his gloomy moods, and irritability, he brings out his friendly and humorous gaiety, of which Sir Walter Scott wrote ,,Report had prepared me to meet a man of peculiar habits and a quick temper, I was most agreeably disappointed in this respect".*)

And surely it cannot be affirmed that he has chosen an inappropriate subject as basis for his work: for there is perhaps scarcely another man whose writings seem so inseparably connected with his life and character, that when we hear of Don Juan or Childe Harold, the author of these poems, the incidents of his life and especially his disposition and actions pass in an instant through our mind. The pen of some of the best writers of the English language and of many authors of celebrity, has been employed upon this theme. For we may mention in the list Macaulay, Thomas Moore, Lady Blessington, Sir Egerton Brydges, Bart, an elegant writer who seeks somewhat to screen the poet and make some allowance for the unfortunate circumstances in which he was placed; Dallas,

*) Moore's Life of Byron, Complete Edition: Murray, 1860 P. 280.