HE DIES OF CONSUMPTION.

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friend, he was observed to give a long, grave look at the picture of Sterne. His host seeing this, took care to remove the portrait whenever he had to welcome the injured husband again to his house. A vacant space was thus left; but Mr. Draper never failed to look round at it, to see if the lineaments of his former rival were still visible.

Sterne was the victim of consumption. After braving the disease for some time, for his spirits never flagged, he died in the south of France, 1768, at the age of fifty-five. In his letters, great interest is expressed by him for the comfort and health of his wife and daughter. There is little known that is valuable or interesting as showing the state of mind of this gifted but unsatisfactory being.

The works of Mrs. Radcliffe, the justly celebrated authoress of the 'Mysteries of Udolpho,' and the 'Old English Baron' of Clara Reeve, come under the head of Romantic Literature, rather than that which is intended to cast a light on domestic life, or on manners, or on popular amusements.

The Life and Letters of Horace Walpole' we have already reviewed. His romance, The Castle of Otranto,' and his play, The Mysterious Mother,' were the chief productions of his earlier life; and his Letters were published during the present century.

Even during the last century, women were establishing their reputation as novelists. It would be impossible,' Sir Walter Scott declared, 'to match against certain names, the same number of masculine competitors, arising within the same space of time.'

Perhaps there is no novel in our language more perfect in its own style than Mrs. Inchbald's 'Simple Story.' The main character of the tale, Doriforth, the young Roman Catholic priest, is drawn from life; and John Kemble, the great tragedian, was said to be its model. Mr. Boaden, in his biography of Mrs. Inchbald, has described her visit to the Kemble family; where Mrs. Siddons, bearing with heroic

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MRS. INCHBALD CHARLOTTE SMITH.

firmness her failure on the stage, was alternately preparing herself for a second attempt, and attending to the duties of her family; ironing her clothes, and bending in stately form to the household duties which her humble fortunes rendered essential. Mrs. Inchbald, meantime, was contemplating the young, handsome, and studious John Kemble, who was then preparing to enter into orders as a Romanist priest. Sandford, Miss Woodley, and above all, the heroine, are masterly characters, each consistent throughout the whole of this interesting and touching story: and there is a dash of superstition hovering over the hasty marriage, and the mourning ring, that adds inexpressibly to the excitement with which the reader is hurried on. No other production of Mrs. Inchbald's—not even her plays-present so much dramatic power as the 'Simple Story?

Among the almost forgotten writers of the last century was Charlotte Smith. There is, perhaps, a deficiency in the plots of her novels—which, with the exception of the 'Orphan of the Castle,' are hurried and unconnected. This defect is ascribed by the kind-hearted Sir Walter Scott to the 'inexorable necessity of the daily supply of the press,' before her materials were well arranged for her task. For how many authors might not the same plea be urged! is the Old Manor House,' a novel which fastens itself upon one's youthful ¡imagination in spite of reason. We should now find it, we fear, tedious and improbable, somewhat highflown in sentiment, though broken and enlivened with admirable descriptions of scenery.

Her best work

Mrs. Smith, in private life, was eminently unfortunate. Well born,-well married, according to the notions of her friends,—the mother of a large family,—she was united to an improvident and selfish man, from whom eventually she separated, trusting to her pen for a great portion of her maintenance, and for that of her children. She has, however, lost much of our sympathy, by describing her husband in her

MISS AUSTIN'S NOVELS.

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works with bitterness and sarcasm. Whatever one may be betrayed into saying, in the angry discussions of private life, one should never employ the pen as a vehicle of hatred, or in reference to family quarrels.

The novels of Miss Austin, incomparable in their way, belong too nearly to our own time to be here analyzed. They opened a fresh path in literature; and proved what a great writer, in reference to the superiority of women in the domestic novel, has stated,-that the less evanescent shades of modern society are more happily painted by the fine pencil of a woman than by a masculine hand.

CHAPTER XII.

ORIGIN OF THE EDINBURGH AND QUARTERLY REVIEWS.-THEIR RESPECTIVE CHARACTERS AND PRINCIPLES. SYDNEY SMITH, JEFFREY, BROUGHAM, HORNER, MURRAY, &c.—THE EFFECT PRODUCED BY THE APPEARANCE OF THE EDINBURGH REVIEW.'-EDINBURGH SOCIETY SIXTY YEARS AGO.-LORD COCKBURN; HIS LIFE OF JEFFREY.-JEFFREY AND SOUTHEY.-MRS. GRANT OF LAGGAN; HER LETTERS FROM THE MOUNTAINS.' MRS. ELIZABETH

HAMILTON; HER COTTAGERS OF GLENBURNIE.' WILLIAM GIFFORD; HIS BIRTH AND EARLY STRUGGLES. THE 'QUARTERLY REVIEW.'-INCREASE OF NEWSPAPERS. CONCLUSION.