The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-16 00:00:00

rAYS.

LITERATURE.

Margaret Hamilton. By Mrs. S. C. Newby. 3
vole. Bentley.
We meet with a most pleasing story iu these
volumes, there is nothing very romantic in their
details, nor extraordinary in their progress, but the
attention of the reader is attracted, and the inte-
rest kept up till the end, although it is a mournful
fact that the position of the Hamilton is " the
tale the truth of every day," it is one replete with
incidents that may serve to illustrate the pages of
fiction. The parents are only mediocre sort of in-
dividuals, the father becoming desponding and the
mother garrulous under their troubles ; the young
girls of the family are nothing particular, but it is
in the two elder members of the household that
the interest centres, Mark and Margaret. This
brother and sister were congenial spirits, they
could not bo together as he had to reside
in chambers, being a lawyer just commencing
his arduous avocations, but when they
did meet it was a delight to both. Margaret ex-
perienced the trial so hard to be borne by the young
and enthusiastic, that of feeling her ardour extine
guished, and her energies damped by the over-
whelming force of circumstances, and the chilling
blasts of poverty. She was not destitute of that
better hope, and brighter knowledge which whis-
pers consolation to the wounded spirit, and assures
the upright mind that those never work in vain
who make others their first object, and endeavour
to see good in all that may occur. However sweet
and sustaining it was to the afflicted heroine to
feel that she was actuated by a purer motive than
self-indulgence, and was struggling for a nobler
end than self-aggrandisement, failure was bitter all
the same. It was not the want they were some-
times reduced to, the daily annoyances, and
petty mortifications which those who have
come down in the world feel tenfold more than
those born and bred in indigence, but it was the
sharpest sting of poverty to find it effected a change
in more than the bodily feelings, that it corroded
the mental and moral qualities. When her sister
Alice made an unsuitable marriage to one she did
not like, on the plea of her own home being so bad
any change must be. for the better, when her mother
became a perfect torment to herself and an inflic-
tion to all around her, ruining every faint chance
of amusement, and doubling every annoyance by
her moroseness and unhappy manner ; above all,
when her father, led on from trouble to impru-
dence, at last stooped to guilt, no wonder that then
even the high spirit quailed, and the trusting heart
was in despair. Margaret quickly roused herself
and met the emergency. She contrived td screen
her father from open proof, though flying rumours
were circulated of a dark story. She was hardly
more fortunate abroad than at home, for,
when she went to visit her aunt, at
Hastings, hoping that a change of air and scene
would renew her faded strength and revive her
drooping spirits, she met with new troubles. Mrs.
Daventry, or "Aunt Anne," as she was always
styled, was very good-natured, but nothing more ;
and, therefore, though considei ably wealthier, she
could be of no essential service to her brother's
family. At her house, Margaret renewed her ac•
quaintance with Mr. Travers, a gentleman whose
mental gifts and moral excellence rendered him
peculiarly the object of Margaret's attention Aunt
Anne threw an evil spell over their intercourse by
intermeddling, and the consequence was her
niece's hasty departure from the spot, and the
abrupt tei misation of their summer pleasures.
Maik had meanwhile had his difficulties to en-
counter, and his spirited defence of his old serv-
ant Jasper, who was falsely accused of theft,
is well described as the turning point of
his career. From thence it might be steep and
arduous, but never more hopeless, as the first part
of the ascent had appeared to himself, and indeed
to others also. Some diversion is ingeniously con-
trived to the narrative by the courtship of Richard
Daventry and Julia Anstruther. It is satisfactory
to find the deceiver unmasked at length, 'the more
so as, with all his faults, the idolised son of poor
Aunt Anne was really deserving of abetter fate than
could have been his when once united to such a
woman as Julia proved herself to be. Kate Lynd-
hurst is an agreeable girl, and one whose lively
disposition and buoyant spirit were well calculated
to prove a blessing to Mark, so engrossed in ab-
struse studies, and so further depressed by care
within and early acquaintance with some of life's
sternest realities. Mr. Travers fulfils the promise he
held out of being a genuine character, by seeking
out Margaret in her obscure home and offering her
a far fairer prospect. The best natures are those
which endure trouble as a refiner's fire, and come
out purified and softened ; and such were Margaret
and her brother, whose fortunes have afforded us
pleasing study, and whose virtues, while not in.,
o ,mpatible with humanity, are of that exalted
order which forms its most glorious crown. •