The Press.
London, England, 1857-11-14 00:00:00

situations are occasionally atriking. But it is
curious that the authoress has overlooked the
obvious moral of her tale. It was argued
against one of the clauses of the Divorce Bill
that to permit parties divorced for adultery to
marry would be to offer a direct premium on
that offence. Could there be a better illus-
tration of this view than the conduct of Mrs.
Luxmoor and Lord Mauleverer? The autho-
ress has unconsciously penned the bitterest
satire upon the cause she has undertaken to
plead, and we do not think her injured sisters
will thank her very warmly for tho issue of
" Maulevcrer's Divorce."

2. " Summerleigh Manor," which we under-
stand to be a young lady's maiden effort, is a
very clover story, and written in an en-
gazing style. It is the history of a family of
children—four• daughters and three sons—in
which the authoress traces the gradual de-
velopment of their dispositions, and the influ-
ence, either for good or evil, which their
education exercised. Both the father and the
mother and the governess are described as
kindly and sensible persons, but without any
glimpses of a higher life than the purely con-
ventional, and incapable of detecting or appre-
ciating the faculty of imagination. Owing to
the first-mentioned qualities they do not seek
openly to coerce their daughter's choice in
marriage. But their example and training is
naturally not without its effect, which leads
one of the young ladies, a most sprightly and
amiable character, into a very ill-assorted
union. The eldest girl, Alice, who had always
been a little overlooked, in consequence of
her retiring and sincerely religious tempera-
ment, is wedded to the man of her choice, but
feels the effect of her maiden life in fits of
nervous depression and superstitious tremor
when parted from her husband, who is a
captain in the royal navy. But it is round
the youngest daughter, Margaret, otherwise
" The Daisy," that the chief interest of the
story is thrown. Her genius is for art, and
long and dreary is the struggle by which she
gradually succeeds in emancipating herself
from the drudgery of the schoolroom, and
securing a certain portion of leisure for the
cultivation of her favourite pursuits. How
she made friends for herself out of her own
family circle, and how she daily increased in
goodness, simplicity, and tenderness, the
reader must discover for himself. We are
confident he will be charmed with the easy
grace of the dialogue, the natural posture of
the characters, and the tone of purity which
pervades the whole composition. The brothers
and sisters when together form a very pleasing
group, enlivened by the gaiety of Henrietta,
the fun of Keene, and the piquant oddities of
the little artist. The following is a fair speci-
men of the genial home pictures with which
this volume abounds—Charles is the naval
captain aforesaid ; the subject of the talk is
emigration :

" Oh, it wonld be such inn," continued Dora; " Rupert
would go hunting and shooting, and Brian fish and plough
and cut down trees, and I would bake and sweep the house,
and milk the cows, and have a spinning-wheel, and once
a year you would go to wino town a great many hundred
miles off, and bring back all the things I irritated for our

housekeeping."
"Yes, aid how many would you forget?"
" Anal why are you to do everything?" said Henrietta;
" are Margaret and I to do nothing?"
I think I know who would do nothing," said Rupert,
throwing aside his pencil and commencing to cut out of a
card a model of an Australian boomerang.
" But I don't think Henrietta would like the bash," re-
marked Margaret. " There would be no society."
" And no books for you, and no paper and pencils," re-
turned Henrietta.
" Oh, Rupert would ride off to some settler and exchange
books," said Dora.
" Well, I must say I think I should go with the waggon
by way of a change," said Henrietta.
" It would be very nice when Rupert came home with
the books," said Margaret.
" Something famously horrid," said Rupert ; " and,
Dora, Rome day when you were making damper, with your
arms up to the elbow in flour, you would see a wild Indian
creeping in, like this, with his tomahawk, all ready fur a
spring. How should you like that ?"
" T would take a musket and shoot him. Besides, we
should be very kind to the Indians, cud make friends
with them."
" I am afraid all this would not go very well with that
white silk frock, Dora," said Henrietta.
" Well, I should like to see her in the bush," said Ru-
pert ; •' Dolly and the old peacock. they are just tit for one
another. I shall come and bee you. if my ship toaebee at
any port near enottgb.'