The Sun.
London, England, 1833-12-11 00:00:00

in every other page, we were reminded of the
Paradist of the " Rejected Addresses." The
same objection applied to the " Torr Hill,"
which, however, being of a melodramatic nature,
and fertile in surprises, found favour with
the watering-place class of novel readers.
Fortunately for Mr. Smith's reputation, he has
here hit on a theme which he is every way
qualified to succeed in. " Gale Middleton" is a
tale of the bustling world about us; its incidents
for the most part are of a homely, every-day
cast, and though here and there it borders on
caricature, yet it has truth for its foundation,
and enforces a valuable moral. The Old City
Baronet, the most prominent character in the
novel, is evidently its author's favourite, for he
has worked it up with surprising care ; in-
deed, so much so, as to give it in places,
rather a stiff, elaborate air. It is no por-
trait of the citizen of the present day—the
rough edges of whose character the prevalent tone
of modern society has wholly rubbed off—but of
the age immediately preceding it, when the Sir
Matthew or the Sir Mark of the counting-house
had not yet began to ambition the gentilities.
The reader must be careful to bear this in mind,
otherwise he will be perpetually shocked by
glaring violations of probability. Sir Matthew
Middleton is most likely the last full-length we
shall ever have of a class of rich, bluff, jolly
citizens, now all but extinct. As such, we wel-
come it as a serviceable addition to our literary
stores, and should have been still more pleased
with it, had it been underplayed—to borrow a
dramatic term—instead of exhibiting, in every
scene, such a prodigious desire to make all the
points tell. A less prominent, but far better
sustained character than the city Baronet, is the
retired, cynical old tradesman Norberry, who,
having been once unfortunate in business, ima-
gines, in his country seclusion, that every one
looks on him with contempt. This character
is manifestly a portrait from life, and is drawn
with ready facility. As for the hero, Gale
Middleton, he is a dreaming visionary, such as
one reads of, but seldom meets with in life.
From one or two peculiar traits, we suspect that
the poet Shelley was in the author's mind when
he penned this character. But the greatest merit
of Gale Middleton is the conduct of its plot,
which, though very complicated, is unravelled
with singular dexterity. As a specimen of Mr.
Smith's comic humour, we extract the follow-
ing, which, in its breadth and richness, will re-
mind the reader of Theodore Hook. Lady
Middleton, we should premise, has just suc-
ceeded in giving her first fashionable entertain-
ment, which is interrupted by the unexpected
appearance of her husband and some common
councilmen, who have come home drunk from a

wardrnote dinner
We have recorded that Sir Matthew had engaged a
party of Common-councilmen to dine with him at the
London Tavern, all of whom were as unflinching topers
as himself. At a late hour of the night some of these
revellers were still at table, and still calling for fresh
bottles, or shouting bacchanalian songs, when, upon a
proposal being made that some devilled turkey should be
ordered for supper, Sir Matthew ejaculated—' Hey, what ?
—do you want some—hick !—supper I mean. Lots to
be had at my house. Meg has got the platter-faced
Duchess, and a set of scarecrow Countesses to listen to—
hick !—tweedle dum twee, and squally-wally. More fool
she mind : can't make a silken sow of a purse's
ear. Tell 'ee what, lads. 'Spose we tumble in upon 'ens
and help 'em to—hick ! finish the—hick !—capital fun !
frighten plater-face and the scrags of mutton out of s'oeir
wits. Hick, hick, hick ! Ha, ha, ha!'
" For an enterprise that was to begin with a wild frolic
and end with a supper and champagne bit auditors, who
were still more intoxicated than himself, were exactly in
cue, and they accordingly received it with a shout of as•
sent. Sir Matthew, scarcely able to stand, less, however,
from ebriety than from his chuckling laughter, as be
thought of the astonishment which his unexpected ap•
pe trance would eveite, invested himself in his alderman's
gown ; his companions put on their robes ; and the whole
party reeled into a hackney-coach, shrieking a verse of ono
of their standard bacchanalian conga—
., . What's life but a frolic, a song, and a laugh,
My toast shall be this, while I've liquor to quaff;
MA), mirth and good fellowship always abound,
Boys, all up a bumper, and let it go round.'
ee On descending from their vehicle in Portland-place,
they found lying on the hall table some of the instruments
belonging to the performers, when each, ' for madness
ruled the hour,' the motion of the coach having completed
the intoxication of the whole party, imitated the example
of Sir Matthew, by snatching up a fiddle, followed him
to the door of the supper-room, and burst into the midst
of the assemblage, all scraping their violins in a dissonant
screech, and yelling in chorus—
" Boy. fill up a bumper, and let it go round.'
" the belief' of 'nary of the guests that this uncouth
and boisterous pageant constituted a portion of the night's
entertainment, and that the performers were destined to
enact some species of masque, the first cries and faint
screams of the females were rather indicative of surprise
than dismay ; while the rest preserved silence, in order to
gather, it possible,
the meaning of the scene. Meanwhile
Sir Matthew, still plying his screeching fiddle and hic-
coughing his bacchanalian chorus, advanced to the head of
the table, and, fixing his fuddled grapy eye upon her
Grace of Harrowgate, stammered out—. What, hey, are
you the, moon-faced Duchess ?—hick ! very glad to see—
no—ar n't glad at all—not my doing—all Meg's—hick !
But now you're come I'll give 'ee a buss, not—notwith—
notwithstand—hick !'
" The first person that seemed to comprehend S!r Mat-
thew's real plight, was the Honourable Augustus Fortescue
Sidney Clavering, a sprig of nobility and a cornet of dra-
goons,
who, after peering at him through a jewelled eye-
glass, ejaculated with a distasteful look, and in an efferni
nate lisping
Ath I hope to 1w thaved ! the nathty
fellow 'th heatlitly drunk !' This had already been disco-
vered to be the case with the Baronet's companions, who,
in the fond, maudlin blindness of intoxication, had offered
to salute some of the mummy-like dowagers, and rouged
scraggy Countesses, occasioning a shrieking, dismay, and
confusion, which it would be difficult to describe. In the
midst of this hubbub the reeling Alderman put his auda-
cious arm round the fat throat of the Duchess, and at-
tempted to salute her cheek, when her Grace, struggling
to avoid the indignity, escaped from the embrace, leaving
in his arm not only her toque and its splendid ornaments,
hut the entire
wig that concealed the ravages of time upon
ber head.
" Heavens and earth ! was ever such a profanation
known? The dictatress of the haut ton; the queen of
fashion, the autocratrix of the exclusives and the inacces-
i giblets, to be thus exhibited to the elite of her subjects,