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Those persons, and we fear there are many, to whom a course of novel-reading is as necessary as their daily bread, will hold themselves obliged to Mrs Gunning for the ample [409] supply of five volumes which she has here presented them with. Mary, the heroine of the tale, is an orphan of quality (indeed all the personages are of quality) brought up in the country under the wing of a venerable grandmother, from whom she is separated at the opening of the work, to be placed under the protection of a family of high rank, relations also, in London. She soon becomes the object of attention in the circle to which she is introduced, and is on the point of making a splendid connection, when her lover, made to believe that her heart is still in the possession of a former suitor, suddenly deserts her without assigning his reasons, and she is on the verge of being dispossessed also of her paternal name and fortune by a plan of villainy fabricated by her quondam lover and his confidants. These distresses, as we may suppose, give occasion for the young lady to show her sweetness, equanimity, heroism, &c.: we may suppose likewise that at the end of the fifth volume all matters come right again, and are concluded by a wedding and a ball. Indeed, if it should ever happen to Hymen to lose his torch, he cannot look for it in a more likely place than between the concluding leaves of a novel. With regard to the powers shewn in this production, they are very certainly not of the first order, yet some of the situations are not void of interest, and some of the characters are not ill delineated. The tender affection between Mary and her venerable grandmother is touched with feeling; and the latter character makes us recollect Miss Byron's good Mrs Shirley. There is character in the portrait of the dutchess of Cleveland; as also in some others of the fashionable set; but the last volumes fall off from the preceding ones, and show the author totally unequal to the difficult task of painting the stronger workings of the passions, or winding up the intricacies of a complicated plot with a due regard to probability and dramatic justice - We say justice, because one of the greatest villains of the story, after actions which should have brought him to the gallows, is made equally happy with the most virtuous character in it. The author seems to take to herself great credit for her knowledge of the fashionable world; and we do not doubt but many are induced to read her productions on that account. We meet, it is true, with birth-day suits, presentations at court, my lord duke, and my lady dutchess; but we cannot help remarking that the splendor of so exalted a sphere does not seem to have communicated to the style any tincture of that elegance and refinement, which, we cannot allow ourselves to doubt, must prevail there. In one point Mrs Gunning has certainly not done justice to the world. She labours much to represent her heroine as the mark of envy, malignity, plots, and scandal, merely because she is amiable and pretty. This cannot be true [410] in any society; the natural consequence of amiable qualities is affection; the sure reward of unblemished honour and prudent conduct is public esteem, and whoever attempts to persuade young minds to the contrary, betrays more of soreness than a regard to fact.

The following little narrative, given by lady Auberry herself of her early years, conveys a moral worth the attention of young ladies:

'A daughter of lord Basil, and the heiress to a considerable fortune, met Mr Pleydell at an assembly: - he was handsome, she young; - they were enchanted with each other at first sight. - His proposals were made in form to her father, and were rejected for no other reason in the world, but because the lady had rank and riches, and the gentleman was but ill accommodated with either. Prospects he had, and these prospects terminated in an earldom; but the perspective was at such an immense distance, lord Basil could not, or would not see it: - and as to his estate, that, alas! was entirely personal.

'The lady supposing her father's scrutiny too partial, undertook herself to examine the propriety of her lover's pretensions, and found out, in his open, manly, and beautiful countenance, such treasures of virtue, such inexhaustible mines of happiness, that she wondered how it was possible lord Basil could be so very much deceived in his calculation; and effectually to convince him of his error, she gave herself a legal right to the abundant riches of her own discoveries.

'What a charming adventure was this for a girl of seventeen, preceded and followed by all its natural consequences! An infant without a mother, trained up under governesses, who taught her, that to be a fine lady, she must also be a despot, and humbled their own necks, that she might learn to trample over them, almost before she could walk without her leaders: - her head stuffed with romances, and her temper stubborn by indulgence. These preceded her stolen nuptials; and of course there followed a flattering reception, a hearty reconciliation, some love, some disputes, much repentance, and a great deal of misery.

'Settlements were proposed by the father, but the lover was now a husband, and it was his turn to refuse. The lady, who had learned a lesson of submission in much less time than might have been expected, rallied on the side of her lord and master, - pleaded the disinterestedness of her affections; - what a stigma it would cast on it to have a shadow of doubt pass over the honour of her husband; - should not the man she had entrusted with herself, have also the unbounded guardianship of her nasty dirty acres? Such arguments were unanswerable; and, when enforced by tears and caresses, who could withstand them? - not her poor father, for he had never any will but her own; and Mr Pleydell was so well pleased with the success [411] of his instructions, that he did not insist on her making any more sacrifices for a long time, because she had given him this trifling specimen of her obedience.

'Lord Basil lived ten years, and imagined (but it was a wrong idea) that he saw his daughter superlatively happy, after her own way: - she wished to have her situation appear in this false light; it was the only recompence she could make to him for her folly and disobedience.

'All this time she had been studying in the school of contradiction under a most morose and severe master; she had learned also a great deal of self-knowledge, and how to gain a victory over the errors of education, from which all the bitters of her life had been extracted, but in which the heart was in no manner concerned.

'The study was a hard one, and the pains she took indefatigable, not only to learn her lesson, but to conceal, under a smiling countenance, the harsh, unaffectionate, and intemperate language of her instructor, who never appeared before the fortunately hoodwinked father in any other light than as being worthy of his tenderest approbation. Besides, two lives had now dropped between Mr Pleydell and his honours; - the perspective was more than visible, even to lord Basil; he had now nothing to regret, but that his dear spoiled daughter had no progeny, to lead up through the avenue which terminated in so ancient a house, and a coronet so splendid.

'His lordship would, in this æra, have thought it the most unpardonable crime of which he could be guilty, had he made an independent provision for his daughter. What use could she have for money, who had a husband that adored her, and with whom she must partake of a fortune more magnificent, and titles superior to his own?

'In this temper of mind he made his last will, adding to every thing which was her's by settlement, all his own personal and accumulated wealth, to the amount, in the whole, of two hundred and forty thousand pounds. His daughter knew nothing of the disposition he had made, until the will was opened, after his funeral: it was then time enough for her to be informed, that she must ever live in a state of servile dependence on a man who acknowledged no deity but avarice, and no consideration for any body but himself.

'The effects were all his own, and having taken possession of them, this blessed couple retired into the country, not only to avoid unnecessary observation, but unnecessary expence; for that insatiable thirst of riches, by which he was ever pursued, the more it was fed, the more it required to be fed: and the superfluities - almost the common necessaries of life, were sacrificed to the account of accumulation.

'His wife was not of the same sentiments with himself; but we will say nothing of her disappointments, or the vexations attending them. Custom, it has been justly observed, is a sort of second na-[412]ture, and the difficulties of her self-chosen captivity, though not diminished, were much more supportable at the distance of twenty years, than they had been at the close of twelve months after her marriage.

'The nineteenth year of her union, and the ninth of her imprisonment, produced two events that seemed to prognosticate happier days: her family promised an increase, and her husband succeeded to the long-expected title, together with an estate still more valuable, in his estimation. All these agreeable circumstances happening so near each other, seemed greatly to have changed his temper, and the wife was again considered as something better than a mere upper servant

'He had often wished for children, yet dreaded the expence of rearing them. She had frequently, after the first ten years, been in a similar situation to that she was in at present; and, during the first months of success, his repinings were without number, and his fretfulness without end. Here am I, he would say, going to be burthened with a parcel of children, who may turn out, for any thing I know, a plague and torment to me: a certain expence they must be, and how am to support it? your father did not die half so rich as I expected he would have done, yet I dare say you would think yourself mighty ill used, if I did not keep you up like a lady of quality.

'Something or other always happened to prevent the evil he dreaded; and then it was, by G--, madam, these repeated disappointments must be owing to your negligence, or to the d----d stubborness of your temper, and the pleasure you take in making me miserable.

'He became an earl; - his wife was in the way of bringing an heir; - he once more assumed the language of affection, which, after the first six weeks of married felicity, he had used as cautiously as his purse, except in the presence of her father, since whose decease it was laid by, and seemed totally forgotten.

'But now the case was altered; and, as the poet elegantly expresses the idea, "he fears that the winds of heaven shall visit her face too roughly," though storms and time had left very little in that face worth preserving.

Does she walk round the shrubbery, he fancies her fatigued - flies himself to the house for servants and a chair, to assist in bringing her back; - she is obliged to summit [sic], but blushes at her submission. He walks by her side - holds her hand in his, and pushes away with his foot every loose pebble that may entangle the steps of her bearers.

'If she sits down on any but the easy seat he has appointed for her accommodation, he is in a paroxysm of despair, and entreats, for the love of heaven, she will consider her situation, if not for his [413] sake, yet for the sake of that noble boy on which the inheritance of both their houses so absolutely depended.

'A London residence was procured, and the most astonishing preparations made for the reception of the little magnificent stranger, about a month before it was expected he would make his debut. The lady was conveyed to town by easy stages, and funeral paces, but in all the state of a princess, and as many attendants as if she had been the grand signior's favourite Sultana.

'Alas! she was still a captive, and had only exchanged one prison for another. She was neither to receive or pay visits, and seldom to take a peep from her win-dows, under the apprehension some passing object of terror might alarm or afflict her.

'The hour at length arrived, when instead of the noble boy so anxiously looked for, a lovely female child brought his excuse, so much to the mortification of her father, that the first time he saw her was by chance, and not till she had been nursed at my bosom three months: - for do you not conceive, madam, I have all this time been talking of lord Auberry and myself; and that this sweet messenger of consolation, at least to her mother, was no other than that dear Mary, on whom at our return to Riversdale, you performed the offices of a little nurse, though only eight years older than herself; on whom you afterwards bestowed that tender friendship which has not ceased with her existence, but is eminently distinguished in your goodness to her orphan daughter.' [complete]

Provided by Julie A. Shaffer, January 2000