pose of kindliness, delight, amusement and admiration, but should, by a turn of the wrist, be easily convertible into an exquisite chapter for a future novel.

But where is the great mischief of any private fancies of this kind, which moreover have some foundation in an undoubted versatility and general accomplishments? Even in the matter of external daintiness, a great deal too much fuss is made about it, and many ill-natured remarks vented, as if no other eminent man had a private hobby. If the private hobbies of the majority of our leading minds, and well-known men of genius, were displayed, the eyes of the Public would open to the largest circle, and its mouth become pantomimic. One great author has a fancy for conjuring tricks, which he performs "in a small circle," to admiration; another would play at battledore and shuttle-cock, till he dropped; another or two (say a dozen) prefer a ballet to any other work of art; one likes to be a tavern-king, and to be placed in the "chair;" another prefers to sit on a wooden bench round the fire of a hedge alehouse, and keep all the smock-froeks in a roar; two or three are amateur mesmerists, and practice "the passes" with prodigious satisfaction; one poet likes to walk in a high wind and a pelting rain, without his hat, and repeating his verses aloud; another smokes during half the day, and perhaps half the night, with his feet upon the fender and puffing the cloud up the chimney; another sits rolled up in a bear's-skin, and as soon as he has got the "idea," he rushes out to write it down; another has a fancy for playing all sorts of musical instruments, and could not be left alone in a room with organ, bag-pipe, or bassoon, but in a few minutes a symphony would begin to vibrate through the wall; and if so much is thought of an overattention to a man's bodily outside, what should be said of those who-as one would fill a tub-pour or cram into the bodily inside so much that is not harmless, but injures health, and with it injures the powers of the mind, and the moral feelings, besides shortening the duration of life. We should look into ourselves, and be tolerant. Notwithstanding the popularity of Sir E. L. Bulwer, we hardly think he has been sufficiently appreciated as a great novelist by the majority, even of those critics. who admire his works; while the hostile attacks and depreciations have been very numerous and unceasing. Of his philosophy we would say in brief that we believe

the world is hardly in the main so bad as he considers it, and certainly with many more exceptions than he seems to admit; and that he himself is a much better man than he knows of, and only wants more faith in genuine and sincere nature to be himself the possessor of as large a share as his faith.

WILLIAM HARRISON AINSWORTH.

"Madame Tussaud describes **** as a fine handsome-looking man, with a florid complexion, and a military air. He had presided over some of the massacres in the provinces."-MADAME TUSSAUD'S Memoirs.

"With regard to the personal descriptions of the different characters introduced throughout the work, it may be confidently asserted, that they are likely to be more accurate than those generally given by other authors."-IBID. Preface.

FROM the historical novel and romance, as reoriginated, in modern times, by Madame de Genlis and Sir Walter Scott, and adopted with such high success by Sir E. L. Bulwer, and with such extensive popularity by Mr. James, there has of late years sprung up a sort of lower or less historical romance, in which the chief part of the history consisted in old dates, old names, old houses, and old clothes. But dates in themselves are but numerals, names only sounds, houses and streets mere things to be copied from prints and records; and any one may do the same with regard to old coats, and hats, wigs, waitscoats, and boots. Now, we know that "all flesh is grass," but grass is not flesh, for all that; nor is it of any use to show us hay for humanity.

To throw the soul back into the vitality of the past, to make the imagination dwell with its scenes and walk hand in hand with knowledge; to live with its most eminent men and women, and enter into their feelings and thoughts as well as their abodes, and be sensitive with them of the striking events and ruling influences of the time; to do all this, and to give it a vivid form in words, so as to bring it before the eye, and project it into the sympathies of the modern world, this is to write the truest history no less than the finest historical fiction; this is to be a great historical romancistsomething very different from a reviver of old clothes.

Such are the extremes of this class; and if there be very few who in execution approach the higher standard, so there are, perhaps, none who do not display some merits which redeem them from the charge of a mere raking and furbishing up of by-gone materials.

DD

But as there is a great incursion of these un-historical un-romantic romances into the literature of the present day, and fresh adventurers marshalling their powers of plunder on the borders, it may be of some service that we have drawn a strong line of demarcation, displaying the extreme distinctions, and leaving the application to the general judgment.

With regard to the Newgate narrative of " Jack Sheppard" and the extraordinarily extensive notoriety it obtained for the writer, upon the residuum of which he founded his popularity, so much just severity has already been administered from criticism and from the opinion of the intellectual portion of the public, and its position has been so fully settled, that we are glad to pass over it without farther animadversion.

The present popularity of Mr. Ainsworth could not have risen out of its own materials. His so-called historical romance of "Windsor Castle" is not to be regarded as a work of literature open to serious criticism. It is a picture book, and full of very pretty pictures. Also full of catalogues of numberless suits of clothes. It would be difficult to open it any where without the eye falling on such words as cloth of gold, silver tissue, green jerkin, white plumes.

Looking for an illustration, we are stopped at the second page. Here is the introduction of two char

acters:

"His countenance was full of thought and intelligence; and he had a broad, lofty brow, shaded by a profusion of light brown ringlets; a long, straight, and finely-formed nose; a full, sensitive, and well-chiselled mouth; and a pointed chin. His eyes were large, dark, and somewhat melancholy in expression; and his complexion possessed that rich, clear, brown tint, constantly met with in Italy or Spain, though but seldom seen in a native of our colder clime. His dress was rich but sombre, consisting of a doublet of black satin, worked with threads of Venetian gold; hose of the same material, and similarly embroidered; shirt curiously wrought with black silk, and fastened at the collar with black enamelled clasps; a cloak of black velvet, passmented with gold, and lined with crimson satin; a flat black velvet cap, set with pearls and goldsmith's work, and adorned with a short white plume; and black velvet buskins. His arms were rapier and dagger, both having gilt and graven handles, and sheaths of black velvet.

"As he moved along the sound of voices chanting vespers arose from Saint George's Chapel; and while he paused to listen to the solemn strains, a door in that part of the castle used as the King's privy lodgings, opened, and a person advanced towards him. The new-comer had broad, brown, martial-looking features, darkened still more by a thick coal-black beard, clipped short in the fashion of the time, and a pair of enormous moustachios. He was accoutred in a habergeon, which gleamed from beneath the folds of a russet-coloured mantle, and wore a steel cap in lieu of a bonnet on his head."-Windsor Castle, p. 2-3.

The book is also full of processions, banquets, royal

hunting parties, courtiers, lords, and jesters, who are indeed "very dull fools." It has, moreover, a demon ghost in the form of Herne the Hunter, who, according to this legend, led King Henry VIII. and all his court the life of a dog. As to plot or story it does not pretend to any. "Old St. Paul's, a tale of the Plague and the Fire," is a diluted imitation of some parts of De Foe's "Plague in London," varied with libertine adventures of Lord Rochester and his associates. It is generally dull, except when it is revolting. There are descriptions of nurses who poison or smother their patients, wretched prisoners roasted alive in their cells, and one felon who thrusts his arms through the red-hot bars-“literally” is added, by way of apology.

A critic recently remarked of Mr. Ainsworth's "St. James's, or the Court of Queen Anne,” that the delineations of character in it were mere portraits, and nothing more. "The business in which they are engaged has no vitality for any but themselves-it is dull, passé in every sense of the word, and they leave not a single incident or memento of romance or poetry behind them by which to identify them in our hearts; so that, in truth, we turn back from these cut-and-dry dummies to Maclise's portrait of Mr. Ainsworth quite as a matter of relief; and as we sit contemplating his handsome and cheerful lineaments, wonder how, in the name of all that is romantic, he will get through the task which he has assigned to himself, of rendering the dullest period of our history amusing to our mass' of readers. It is one thing to write an historical romance; another, to write a romantic history; and a third to write a history without any romance.' This is all very just, and we might quote many similar opinions.

It has become very plain, that brief as this paper is, the natural termination of it can no longer be delayed. The truth must be told. This paper is a joint-production. No sooner were the first two paragraphs seen, than the article was taken out of the writer's hands in order to prevent a severity which seemed advancing with alarming strides. But the continuation by another hand appearing to be very little better, recourse was had to a quotation from the author's works, introduced by a third hand; and finally, as it was feared by the hint at "similar opinions" that further critical references were intended, it was unanimously agreed that no