The Press.
London, England, 1857-11-07 00:00:00

suitor whose love she had ever returned. The
experienced novel-reader will hardly require
to be told that the paper given to the colonel
was a forgery, that Miss Vivian did not look at
it, thinking it of course was the really cool and
platonic note which she had written in her
schoolgirl days to Seyton, and that she natu-
rally considered the colonel cruel and unrea-
sonable in punishing her so severely for what
her conmience could not reproach her with as
an offence against propriety or a slight to the
one man who alone had truly touched her heart.
The lady goes to Italy with her valetudinarian
father, and slowly pines away, till she meets
the colonel on board a steamer, which is
wrecked in the Mediterranean. Her old lover
swims with her to shore, and of course at the
end of the second volume an eclaireissement
takes place, and everybody is happy and has a
large fortune.
We should be tempted to accuse the fair
author of plagiarising from Miss Edgeworth's
charming story of " Helen " the device of the
disagreement between the lovers on account
of the discovery by the gentleman of a former
real or fancied favourite of the heroine, but so
candid and graceful an acknowledgment is
made to the reader of the source from whence
the idea is taken, that all hostile criticism is
disarmed. There are many pleasing passages
which we could quote. We will content our-
selves, however, with the following short
extracts, which we trust will tempt our readers
to read the book in extenso. We think we can
promise them fair and reasonable entertain-
ment in its perusal :

THE RADICAL DINNER PARTY.

When dinner was announced, Mr. Chariton gave his arm
to Lady Montagu, and Sir Hugh took in Margaret, who
was pleased to see Mr. Milner seated by Lucy, and
opposite her father, by whom Mr. Cockspur had placed
himself.
To prevent the reader from supposing that a French
cook was at the bottom, or rather at the top, of Mr. Charl-
ton's festivities, let him know at once that a worse dinner
never came up half cold from the kitchen. Grease and
rancid butter were the only discoverable flavours ; the wines
had been bought at sales for their cheapness alone, and
were utterly guiltless of grape; poisonous weeds gave the
colour, poisonous drugs the flavour; and there was not a
glass that had not a headache in it.
The whole affair sadly disgusted Sir Hugh, and he
sighed to think that his dear daughter had given up the
simple and elegant cuisine of Beaulieu for such a disgrace-
ful apology for food.
Mr. Cockspur did nothing to divest Sir Hugh's con-
sideration of the bad things at table. The letter Hhe
had always despised, considering it, no doubt, a waste of
time to indulge such coxeonabries ; and though he said
little about politics till the ladies had withdrawn, yet his
loudly expressed opinion that the American Government
was the only one in the world worthy of imitation, roused
the baronet from the contemplation of a lean hare only
half roasted, and so dwelt on his memory, that when the
gentlemen were left to themselves he tenewed the subject.
" I think, sir, you made a remark at dinner on the
American Government. Have Sou read the Transatlantic
news lately T'
" I have, sir, and found it most interesting," replied
Mr. Cockspur, putting on his defiant manner.
" It appears to me," continued Sir Hugh, " that no
Government exists there at all. 'Fhe mob carry• it all their
own way ; the laws are disregarded ; stabbing is more
common than in the darkest days of Italian biavoism ;
cheating is the only virtue in their eyes; and the gentle-
men either live in seclusion, or resort to Europe for
civilisation and refinement."
Mr. Cockspur grew redder and redder as Sir Hugh
went on. He burnt to interrupt him, but the quiet,
steady manner in which the opinion was given prevented
him. No sooner had Sir Hugh left off speaking than he
broke out.
" Is it possible that you believe those calumnies of the
most enlightened people on the face of the globe? Look
at their steamers, their ships, their laws ; they go a'ead of
us in everything, and I expect to live to see the British
empire absorbed in the great American republic."
" I take the accounts of them from their own descrip-
tions," said Sir Hugh ; " and though I admire their enter-
prise, I can foresee no great future for a people who throw
over principle ; and I think you are more likely to see the
entire dissolution of the American confederacy, than the
result you talk of with such patriotic calmness, especially
if their wicked slave trade continues."
" Prejudice, all prejudice, my dear sir ! Come and live
at Smoketon for a year, and we will put things before you
in a new light.
What answer Sir Hugh might have made to this pleasing
suggestion we do not presume to conjecture ; his heigh-
tened colour foreboded one of a warm description, but he
was saved the trouble by the young clergyman.
" As •isnal, Mr. Cockspur, you are talking for the sake of
rousing opposition. You know well how heartily you dis-
approve of the eternal money seeking, over-reaching spirit
of the Americans, and you forget the hard words you
lavished on them when you found the payment of your
bonds repudiated. As a British merchant, these things
outrage your feelings of honour."