Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
condition of their construction . Their foundations , consequently , had been deeply laid , their walls properly seasoned and cemented , aud their roofs carefully covered in . They were intended to live in , and to last out several generations of inhabitants . In almost every instance they might have been more wisely planned , better situated , more convenient , or more elegant ; but , at any rate , they were water-tight , and at the end of many yeai-s required but a little external paint and pointing to make them look as well as ever . To take them down when once established was no easy matterand required the directing skill of an architect
, , and the patience aud perseverance of experienced workmen , to be accomplished without injury to the materials : as to falling to pieces of their own accord they would never have dreamed of such a thing . New houses , on the contrary , like new governments , had been run up in a grudged , rather than a given time . To have them finished and bedizened before the sudden caprice , or fancied necessity for their erection , to which they owed their existence , had subsided , this was the chief object . They were intended to look at , to excite astonishment or envy in the beholder ; and to gratify the vanity of the possessors , was the service they
were to render . The climate to which they were exposed , the storms they were to brave , all these considerations were lost sight of . They owed nothing to the experience of the pasfc ; and they had no claim on , as they had no connection with , the future . To pull them down would never be a difficulty ; to keep them standing , or even in tolerable repair , was heartless and unprofitable labour ; to restore to them any of their first short-lived doll's-house smartness , after the wear of a few years , was an utter impossibility . " As philanthropy is catching , we will here mention another novel * having somewhat similar aims , to be reached by more common-place ,
although equally impracticable , means . Instead , however , of a Lady Una , whose very name is intensely suggestive of excellence , grace , and gentle , untiring benevolence , Ave have a Colonel Eorbes , who sets to work to accomplish the two apparently incompatible objects , viz ., the social perfection of a borough , and his own return as its representative to Parliament . To realize his views , he seeks to draw into closer relationship the several classes of society , into which the borough is divided , and of course fails . Love , however , grows spontaneously out of his effortsaccompanied b
, y the usual amount of disappointments and cross purposes . The heroine , Kate Ashton , is , however , too good for the place , and , if the truth must be spoken , rather too slow ; although in mental power and accomplishments , she is as near perfection as any of her sex : yet , on the whole , we should be doing an injustice to the author if we did not candidly admit , that the interest of the tale is well sustained , and the original design ably carried out .
" The Last of the Old Squires , " f might have been the last of any race , of any country , and at any period of time , provided he was six feet hi gh , riotous in his youth , obstinate , selfish , and what is usually called firm , in his manhood , rind addicted to hard drinking , and the persecution of dissenters and poachers in his old age . Eortunately the picture is overdrawn , and , therefore , not very true to nature : but the book , as a whole , is , nevertheless , rather attractive reading , and is well got up in the last st yle of StBarnabas t h
. ypograpy . An historical romance called the " Cardinal , " J is worthy of honourable mention as an attempt , and by no means an unsuccessful one , to impart a great deal of historical information in the garb of a romance . The scene
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
condition of their construction . Their foundations , consequently , had been deeply laid , their walls properly seasoned and cemented , aud their roofs carefully covered in . They were intended to live in , and to last out several generations of inhabitants . In almost every instance they might have been more wisely planned , better situated , more convenient , or more elegant ; but , at any rate , they were water-tight , and at the end of many yeai-s required but a little external paint and pointing to make them look as well as ever . To take them down when once established was no easy matterand required the directing skill of an architect
, , and the patience aud perseverance of experienced workmen , to be accomplished without injury to the materials : as to falling to pieces of their own accord they would never have dreamed of such a thing . New houses , on the contrary , like new governments , had been run up in a grudged , rather than a given time . To have them finished and bedizened before the sudden caprice , or fancied necessity for their erection , to which they owed their existence , had subsided , this was the chief object . They were intended to look at , to excite astonishment or envy in the beholder ; and to gratify the vanity of the possessors , was the service they
were to render . The climate to which they were exposed , the storms they were to brave , all these considerations were lost sight of . They owed nothing to the experience of the pasfc ; and they had no claim on , as they had no connection with , the future . To pull them down would never be a difficulty ; to keep them standing , or even in tolerable repair , was heartless and unprofitable labour ; to restore to them any of their first short-lived doll's-house smartness , after the wear of a few years , was an utter impossibility . " As philanthropy is catching , we will here mention another novel * having somewhat similar aims , to be reached by more common-place ,
although equally impracticable , means . Instead , however , of a Lady Una , whose very name is intensely suggestive of excellence , grace , and gentle , untiring benevolence , Ave have a Colonel Eorbes , who sets to work to accomplish the two apparently incompatible objects , viz ., the social perfection of a borough , and his own return as its representative to Parliament . To realize his views , he seeks to draw into closer relationship the several classes of society , into which the borough is divided , and of course fails . Love , however , grows spontaneously out of his effortsaccompanied b
, y the usual amount of disappointments and cross purposes . The heroine , Kate Ashton , is , however , too good for the place , and , if the truth must be spoken , rather too slow ; although in mental power and accomplishments , she is as near perfection as any of her sex : yet , on the whole , we should be doing an injustice to the author if we did not candidly admit , that the interest of the tale is well sustained , and the original design ably carried out .
" The Last of the Old Squires , " f might have been the last of any race , of any country , and at any period of time , provided he was six feet hi gh , riotous in his youth , obstinate , selfish , and what is usually called firm , in his manhood , rind addicted to hard drinking , and the persecution of dissenters and poachers in his old age . Eortunately the picture is overdrawn , and , therefore , not very true to nature : but the book , as a whole , is , nevertheless , rather attractive reading , and is well got up in the last st yle of StBarnabas t h
. ypograpy . An historical romance called the " Cardinal , " J is worthy of honourable mention as an attempt , and by no means an unsuccessful one , to impart a great deal of historical information in the garb of a romance . The scene