New Books.

LOVE AND MESMERISM. By HORACE SMITH, Esq., author of "Brambletye House," &c. 3 vols. post 8vo. Colburn.

THE FOSTER BROTHER. A Tale of the War of Chiozza. Edited by LEIGH HUNT. (Written by THORNTON HUNT.) 2 vols. post 8vo. Newby,

HERE are a brace of novels, the one by an aspirant just entering on the stage, and the other by a veteran renouncing it. In each, of course, different sentiments are pourtrayed; the one being tinged with the feelings of a past, and the other foreshadowed by the coming time. Upon this, however, we have no space to descant, and must proceed to an examination of the fictions; both having claims to attention, exclusive of those arising from their intrinsic merit. Love and Mesmerism, as being the last of a long line of productions which have afforded their age much amusement and instruction; and the other being the first production of one whose lineal claim to genius gives promise of a bright and useful career.

Love and Mesmerism is not, as its title seems to declare, one tale, but two. Love occupying two volumes and a third, and Mesmerism the remainder of the three devoted to both the stories. Mr. Horace Smith tells us in a preface, gracefully taking leave of his old friend the public, that on closing these volumes he lays down the pen ; and adds what we are glad to hear, that he has derived solid advantages from his works, and success beyond his expectations. To him who can beguile the weary time, or withdraw the attention of the careworn from painful thoughts by a fine and wholesome fiction, the reader so benefited ought to feel the intensest gratitude, and with such a feeling, a large portion of the reading public will take leave of Mr. Horace Smith; and the same parties will be ready to make an advance of gratitude, and cordially greet Mr. Thornton Hunt.

Love is a story of modern Venice, and we cannot say that it possesses the usual vigour of the author's conceptions and delineations. It was originally planned as a drama, and much of it reads with the lightness, not to say flimsiness, of the libretto of an opera. The characters and incidents are common-place, and the story neither interesting nor original. Notwithstanding these defects, there is much in it from the scholarship and descriptive powers of the author that render it readable. We should have been sorry to have parted with the author with the reminiscences this story might have left; but he has acted wisely in finishing with Mesmerism, a tale which, though short, is worthy to be ranked with those gems of the language that are printed and reprinted for suc

"the

cessive generations, and upon which Walker, and Sharpe, and such publishers, confer immortality by ensconcing them amongst British Classics" and the "Standard Authors." It is beautifully conceived and gracefully developed: uniting the fanciful, the spiritual, and the real, in a manner not exceeded by Fouqué himself. Its object is amiable and just, being an exposition of the sufferings engendered by the homage paid to conventional forms and the neglect of the realities of goodness. The prejudices and vulgar misjudging violence of the many are admirably exposed, and the physical suffering, but spiritual triumph, of the truly good are beautifully pourtrayed. To produce this effect, nothing is overstrained; there are no violent diatribes against the rich; no maudlin sentiments towards the poor. It is the production of a man well versed in the world and mankind, and who having acquired feeling has lost none of his sensibility and humanity. It is the work of a wise old man, who satirises without malice, and who comprehending the weakness and errors of human nature, still sympathises with it. Mesmerism is but lightly touched upon in it, though there are some dialogues respecting it which convey much information, and which will tend at least to procure for this wonderful subject a patient investigation. Every work of Mr. Smith's shows him to be a diligent reader and scholar, and he always applies his learning gracefully and judiciously. This tale shows him also wise and beneficent, and thanking him for it, in the words of the theatre, we "respectfully bid him farewell."

The Foster Brother is also a tale of Venice, but of the middle ages, and ere her Doges had become but "Lord Mayors," her commerce a mere coasting trade, and her gorgeous palaces lodging-houses for foreigners. The author has at once flown at the loftiest quarry-the historical novel, which to all the powerful delineations of the human passions should add the interest of great events and momentous struggles. To say that he has perfectly fulfilled the great claims thus selfimposed, would be to flatter him: but if he has not done this, he has shown great capacity, and given strong assurance of future excellence. He scorns all vulgar arts; is above all common-place trick: he disdains to fascinate the attention and move the feelings by any of those arts of exaggeration with which the commonest romance writer can trepan his .reader. His aim is to delineate human character; to trace with a firm hand human creatures, and by legitimate means place them in situations to dramatically pourtray them. He has a picturesque and lively imagination, and draws with the hand of a painter the scenes wherein his characters are set. He has a nice and delicate perception, and occasionally a felicity of language, especially in description, which shows he is mentally as well as bodily the descendant of his father. Happy phrases and expressions burst out which remind one of the .old and highest writers of fiction. The story is interesting, and the passion high, and the whole sentiment liberal and noble as one should expect from one connected with the producers of our finest

recent literature. He has made a good beginning, and must proceed, and we should like to see him try English ground for his next production, feeling assured that his delicate perception of character and powers of delineation, will enable him to throw aside completely the factitious aid which distance of scene and remoteness of time afford the romance writer.

THE FALL OF NAPOLEON; an Historical Memoir. By LIEUT.-COL. J. MITCHELL, H.P., &c. 3 vols. post 8vo. G. W. Nickisson.

To examine with the acumen and impartiality of a philosopher into the claims of those who have engrossed an unusual share of notoriety; to separate the false applause given by the idle, the impassioned, and the interested, from the award made by the competent and the disinterested, is a very valuable service. It is fulfilling the office of time, and rendering that justice which posterity is supposed to perform towards its progenitors. In so far, Colonel Mitchell's book will be taken up with unusual interest; his theme is a fine one: extending over a long period, and embracing a wide circuit of human circumstances. The subject is well worthy of elaborate consideration, and as nothing is more injurious to morals than misapplied praise, it is of the greatest advantage to strip the laurel from the brow of the impostor, and thus remove the incitement to erroneous emulation and misdirected energy. There are several modes of pursuing such an examination. But the fairest, and therefore the most effectual, is the one pursued by Colonel Mitchell, and that is to test the examined by his own creed of morals and his own standard of merit. It is hardly just to make the individual the stalking horse for an attack on a set of principles, and compare Alexander to a highwayman, or Napoleon to a brigand. There can be no doubt that war is an evil of the greatest magnitude; that it corrupts the individual, and is deeply injurious to the cause of justice and virtue but these questions had better be settled on their own merits, for the question with the individual is not what is actually right or wrong, but what he esteems so. A man may be very erroneous without being criminal, and doubtless this is the case with most warriors, who shed human blood rather as mistaken barbarians than villains. In so far as the principle of Colonel Mitchell's book goes, he is right. Here is a military man examining the military proceedings of another military character, and testing his abilities and conduct by a standard which he himself would acknowledge. So far the admirers of Napoleon can have nothing to complain of, nor can they pass over the book as the production of a tame civilian, who, without passion or sense of glory, indulges in the vain idea that human nature can be sobered to the utter extinction of warlike furor. Colonel Mitchell has shown, in his interesting life of Wallenstein, that he is deeply imbued with martial feeling, and full of the esprit du corps. He has also great ability as a writer; he is exceedingly well informed: has a warm, animated style, a clear

and concise mode of relation, and competent knowledge of technical matters. But although he has these and other excellent qualifications for his task, we cannot think the work on the whole satisfactory. It is exceedingly interesting, and should be read by every one who takes an interest in Napoleon or the history of the times; and more especially as a counterpoise to the absurd enthusiasm of Mons. Thiers; but still it has the great fault of appearing to be based on a paradox. The question of Napoleon's genius is not dispassionately argued, but a case is made out against him; often with appearance of truth; but also often with the appearance of summing up against him in opposition to the evidence.

The blindness attributed to fortune is a sufficient evidence that the position of a man is no proof of his qualification for it and in situations where much or all can be performed by deputy, no doubt men of very little capacity have "had greatness thrust upon them," and the world has given them credit for talents they never possessed. Every man must be aware of this wherever there is a kind of machinery or routine established, and know instances of it from the meanest manufactory to the throne. But Napoleon had no such aids: he started with hundreds of thousands of others, equally ambitious and even more unscrupulous. Colonel Mitchell, though the great aim of his book is to disprove the superiority of his genius, and to attribute his exaltation to the conjunction of a variety of fortunate incidents, hastens over the early portion of his career, which of course, in the progress of such a man, is the most difficult and the most likely to elucidate his particular genius. To judge by the result is frequently delusive, but still conviction cannot hold out against a series of results all tallying with the aim of the actor, and all leading on to still greater performances. It is surely not sound logic to see a man making continued efforts that result according to his wishes, and deny that they are consequences of his exertion. That Napoleon was not a nobleminded philanthropic character every one is ready to allow, but that he had not great powers of mind, forethought, penetration, largeness of thought, firmness of purpose, and an energy of will, that place him amongst, and even before, the Alexanders, Cæsars, and other warlike heroes, it will require a much more profound work than Colonel Mitchell's to prove. In this point of view, it may almost be ranked with Archbishop Whateley's clever jeu d'esprit, proving that no such man as Napoleon Buonaparte ever existed.

The work of Colonel Mitchell, however, as already said, will amply repay careful perusal, and it is hardly to be regretted that it is so onesided, as it will in some measure counteract the mischievous enthusiasm which so large a portion of the world feel towards military success, and the mere panoply and barbarism of war. War, as a pastime is horrible, though no doubt many, and indeed most of its followers, pursue it as such. As at the head of this detestable game, Napoleon was most detestable, but it will by no means increase the proper hatred towards

such pursuits, to deny him ability, nor to consider him always in the wrong. His opponents were as fond of the game as himself, though they followed it more from vengeance than glory.

Doubtless many greater men than Napoleon perished in the revolutionary struggle :

there is not one in dangerous times
Who runs the race of glory, but than him
A thousand men more gloriously endowed
Have fallen upon the course: a thousand others
Have had their fortunes foundered by a chance,
Whilst lighter barks pushed by them.

*

*

The world knows nothing of its greatest men.

This is indeed true, and the French revolution, of which we know only the coarse outline in its public demonstration, could, and will. when truly and minutely written, show proofs of a heroism which only require a Livy or a Tacitus to make the names of the actors therein as much the synonymes of glory as the legendary heroes of Rome; and that too of true glory, arising from a passionate patriotism and intense benevolence and love of justice.

Notwithstanding all we have thought it our duty to say in opposition to the book, we earnestly entreat the reader to judge for himself; he will find it extremely interesting; as regards mere literature most agreeably written; and he will also find much new information gathered from innumerable sources. It is a book which will, and deserves to, find a permanent place in every sound library.

THE LIFE OF LORD HILL, G. C. B., late Commander of the Forces. the REV. EDWARD SIDNEY, A.M. 8vo. J. Murray.

By

THE Life of Lord Hill, although he could not be considered a great general, was well worth inditing. He was a good man, and his course one which it is advantageous to trace, as it is beneficial to have proofs of how much a man benefits by principle and perseverance, though he have not brilliant talents. Lord Hill, too, forms a part of the history of the Peninsular war; and in these memoirs we have many minute illustrations of that campaign which it is beyond the scope of history to narrate. He saw an immense deal of service, having commenced his energetic career in 1791, and having in 1800, by his excellent conduct, joined to a little family interest, been ranked as colonel. He was also in Egypt, and took a large share in the Peninsular war, and was his "Moorship's ancient" in the Netherlands. The memoirs of such a man must abound in numerous anecdotes of all the illustrious and political personages of the time, and the work consequently will be found as necessary to the reader of history as to the military student. The