The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-12 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Wife's Trials. 3 vols. Hurst and Blaokett.
Although a melancholy. story on the whole, and
one intersected with painful incidents and adven-
tures, this novel is deserving of attention and
claims consideration, inasmuch as it exposes and
condemns some social evils. Its design and moral
may be seen from its title-page. It would hold up
to merited scorn and reprobation those
d. domestio
wtyhraaz performed anal household
i
scourges,
life,
li
wouldarousewho do nthe
secret
indignation of an incensed nation. Sin, crime, and
vice are the same, whether the eye of man has
gazed on their works, or whether they are only be-
held by Him who seeth in secret. It must be left
to the moralist to decide how far he exceeds in real
guilt who strikes the defenceless, and wages war
against those whom divine and human laws have
alike agreed in putting under his control. The
author of this work would show that the man who
makes life a living death, and the ties of marriage
more terrible than the yoke of Egyptian bondage,
or the chains of African slavery, to the being he has
vowed at God's altar to cherish and protect, is be-
neath the notice of his fellow-mortals. It is toe
much the custom to think little or nothing of such
doings;
. but it is not because of their rarity or their
triviality that we shut them out from our study.
A gifted poetess has exclaimed:—
" 0 ! tell us, on thy flowery breast,
Earth, where thy nameless martyrs rest ?"
But if earth discovered the scenes of suffering
where "her nameless martyrs" live in anguish,
how few would care to listen ! How many of those
whose tears would fall fast onthe sacred soil
where " the weary are at rest', would turn their
thoughts to the homes of the weary where the
wicked have " not ceased to trouble," and who
would hail the grave as a sanctuary no human
tyranny could violate, and the king of terrors as a
champion whose rescue no mortal fury could op-
pose—not but that cases of the sort and nature
here described cannot be dealt with easily or effec-
tually. The stranger who interzneddleth often
hastens the catastrophe, or consummates the crime.
Still this does not excuse or explain why the
offender should be screened from blame, or tacitly
encouraged by respect and attention. Because his
offence is in defiance to the commandments of his
Maker, not a breach of the statutes of human laws
—because his judge is to be the Lord of Vengeance,
not a weak mortal like himself ; and, above all,
because this world will not see his punishment
society throws a shade over the deeds, but casts
the light of its favour on their doer. It ignores
the actions, while it welcomes the actor. This is
the purport of the story to demonstrate, and it is
well expressed in its motto—
" Nor custom, nor example, nor vast numbers
Of such as do offend make less the sin.
For each particular crime a strict account
Will be exacted."
The plot is worked out with a skilful hand, and a
variety of characters are introduced to our notice.
The most pleasing one is Ashley Vernon, who
forms a striking and glorious contrast to his proud
and wealthy neighbour, Colonel Templeton, who
must be considered the hero of the story, and who
is chosen to represent the character before
alluded to, that of a petty tyrant and house-
hold horror. The scenes are of exciting interest,
in which Helen had to fly at night from a
hateful marriage threatened by her father, and in
which the hapless Mrs. Templeton had to conceal
herself in a secret passage from her infuriated hus-
band, when he discovered she knew and aided her
daughter's escape. This rage grew to such a pitch
that his youngest daughter, Constance, his favour-
ite, the only one he cared for, had to leave him.
His home was then deserted ; his companions iq
crime had to leave him in possession, alone, for he
would not allow them to come to him, as they in-
sisted, and take up their abode. It was the dig-
nity of the master, and not the tenderness of the
father and husband, that forbade strangers to enter.
Ho resolved to be lord, but he was at last to be
subdued. Conscience was his unconquerable
enemy—not sorrow, nor remorse, nor pity, but fear
and horror, as one by one his victims passed him
by in the vigils of his solitary life and the watches
of his sleepless nights. His sufferings never soft-
ened him to repentance, but they maddened him,
they irritated and inflamed his impatient disposi-
tion till his life became a curse and a burden. With
no one to censure or contradict him, with relations
who fled from his presence but never exposed his
c.rue.lty, he lumself accused himself, and seemed to
self-punishmentct on sins only known to his
innermost thoughts. The ceaseless friction, the
gnawing tooth, the restless fear of a guilty mind,
confined within its own limits, was working out a
more fearful and agonising penalty than any tortures
man couldinflict or the arm ofearthlyjustice.execute.
It seemed, is its supernatural state of terror and
anguish, uncheerecl by faith or hope, and unsub-
dued by suffering and loneliness, as if his mind.
already tasted of that second death which eternity
in its undying worms and unquenchable fires is to
consummate. Colonel Templeton might well have
said—

"And now my race of terror run,
Mine be the eve of tropic sun."
There were certainly no " pale gradations," and no
" twilight dews," to calm down and soften the
glare of the noonday before the dark hour came.
The " wife's trials " were not buried in the grave ;
she had heard no words of kindness, and she had seen
no evidence of repentance. Ellinor Grantham had
indeed a bitter cup to drink. In early youth she
had married for love the unworthy subject of these
remarks, and for her wilfulness and infatuation she
had paid a heavy penalty. It was hers to show
how to " suffer and be still." At first duty con-
strained her to keep up appearances 2 • but, at last,
1 it was only love for her children that kept her at
home—her regard for their welfare. She never
would have counselled Helen to take flight had
any other rescue been possible ; and, above all, she
would never have fled like a thief herself, had not
her life been in danger from her husband, who by
drink and gambling was fast losing control of his
senses. Constance, the most pleasing heroine, was
of a noble nature and a fearless spirit. Had her
mother been gifted with her character she either
would not have married Colonel Templeton,
or have kept him in better bounds. He stormed
at those who trembled at him, but he was awed by
the gentle firmness which looked him in the face
with the eye of virtuous indignation, and his spirit
owned the superiority of his young daughter, who
feared not him because he feared not God.
When he cast out her he cast out hoße.e•
It is to be trusted that very many Colonel Teri__
tons do not exist, but if all are not so eixt,re
tehei;
was his case there are many who
iNivisoup d
waraiture
spoke truly, avow and acknowledgesen_tive. To
i iFee.ni d out The
itthuechir parotwoatyrpni.n,gif
h no one was
wrath of Heaven overtook!, himolhorrors seemed to
Pursuing him, and a death ins oat
sstuhreeirdlyre:
beyond ; while, though
foretel a darker vision yet._ fell an
easy
victim to
he terrified his faxing, nu
qualities which kept off
enemies by the T:be, like Ellinor,
refuse to hear
friends. To thoseu., , it
shows
that
reason in their year vn
-t yeltrS. `Phi
le on their at Ile it chronicles
°cords miseries
the work has no senti-
mentality and rd
mentality
4sede its exaggeration to mar its lofty pur-
pose outfl b dnatural progress. No one is
made a a .
badever wouy man amiable and pleasing qualities, or he
re have won the love of the Spanish
beauty and the English heiress ; yet it is the
faults of the attractive
that are dangerous, and
therefore tl •ns is sanctioned by probability, and
made evident by the daily .
experience of life. The
intention •
i is to prove that those who sow the seeds
of sin will reap a deadly portion. The increase
may not be now, nor the effects visible to every
eye, but, sooner or later the fruit of the labour
will be manifest, even if it be delayed till the har-
vest is death, and the garner-house eternity.

MR. SHELL'S LEGAL AND POLITICAL SKETCHES."
The republication of these papers has excited a great
sensation in Ireland. The Dublin Nail observes that
"They contain morn matter of high and enduring interest
to all classes of readers than any publication of equal
extent professing to illustrate the social and literary
imsition, or treat of the domestic manners, of that coun-
try." "Written," observes the Nation, " with the vivid
force of truth, and with great keenness of critique, and
grace of language, they place the charact3rs of the prin-
cipal emancipators, Protestant and Catholic, and the
stirring scenes of the Agitation, in fine relief." " They
serve to resoue," says the Belfast Whig, "from the
danger of being lost many interestinz particulars regard-
ing eons of the most eminent men of an age now passed
Their value as contributions to the history of Ireland
during a stirring and momentous period in her annals
will alone be.sufficient to secure for them a permanent
place Mang the productions of the age."

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