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look at Dora, as her father spoke about White Connal, and as she replied; but there was something so unfeminine, so unamiable, so decided and bold, he thought, in the tone of her voice, as she pronounced the word marriage, that he then, without reluctance, and with a feeling of disgust quitted the room, and left her to manage her own affairs, and to take her own way.' pp. 24-25.

Corny had long ago, and ten years before Dora was born, promised her to the eldest son of Connal of Glynn over a bowl of punch. This eldest son, a cowardly, clumsy, lowspirited fellow-in Mademoiselle's phrase une grande bete-demands the fulfilment of this promise, and Corny, though a very kind father, is a faithful performer of his engagements, and when he has once squeezed a friend's hand on a promise, 'tis as strong as if he had squeezed all the lawyers' wax in creation upon it.' This embarrassment is disposed of; for Connal, ‹ who can ride no better than the sack that is going to the mill,' is thrown from his horse and killed. A new difficulty then springs up; Connal's surviving twinbrother succeeds to the claim of Dora's hand. Black Connal, so he is called, who has been metamorphosed from an Irishman into a French officer, appears all flaming in gold. His cabriolet and French servant give a new turn to Mademoiselle's ideas. If Connal is the happy man, she sees her way clear to Paris. 'What,' says she to Dora, as Connal was approaching the castle, are you twisting your neck, child—I will have no toss at him, now-he is all the gentleman as you shall see-so let me set you all to rights.' • I do not care how I look,' was the reply, the worse, the better.' Connal is introduced, and proves to be all the gentleman, according to Mademoiselle O'Faley's notions.

'At dinner he talked and carved-all life and gaiety and fashion; he spoke of battles, of princes, operas, wine, women, cardinals, religion, politicks, poetry, and turkies stuffed with truffles ; and Paris forever! Dash on! at every thing! hit or miss, sure of the applause of Mademoiselle; and as he thought, secure of the admiration of the whole company of natives, from le beau père, at the foot of the table, to the boy who waited, or who did not wait, opposite to him, but who stood entranced with wonder, at all M. de Connel said, and all that he did, even to the fashion in which he stowed trusses of sallad into his mouth, with his fork, and talked through it all. p. 56. vol. ii.

He does not at first take any notice of Dora ; whose vanity is piqued at this, and she determines to show him that young ladies, in this country, are not cyphers.' This disposition seconded by the contrivances of Mademoiselle soon overcomes her affection for Ormond. She is married to Connal, and away they drive with Mademoiselle to Paris.

Good king Corny is soon after killed by the bursting of his gun, and Ormond is left to himself, to Doctor Cambray and Middleton's Cicero. The death of lady O'Shane opens Castle Hermitage to him again, where parties and balls recommence, and he consoles his regret for Dora, by falling in love with three several ladies in the course of nine days. He does not so soon recover from his fourth passion, inspired by a certain lady Mellicent; but this does not prove fatal.

The death of his father had before this time sent him a world of money from the Indies, and it becomes his proper business to be a gentleman. He then begins to think in sad earnest of Miss Annaly, one of Miss Edgeworth's pattern women,' to whom the reader was long ago introduced and made to understand that she would turn out to be Mrs. Ormond in the end. He proceeds to a proposal which though not rejected, was, as he supposed, treated little better, being, as he thought, wholly neglected. This happened through a mistake, which is afterwards rectified to the satisfaction of all parties.

We

Ormond does not make the supposed neglect of his passion, an occasion of vain repinings, but partly from resentment and partly for other reasons, hastens away to Paris. there meet again with Connal, and Dora and Mademoiselle, and have a picture of Parisian Society, which has become as familiar to us as Voltaire's profile was to the artist, who, it is related, could draw it in the dark and even make his dog describe it by gnawing a biscuit. But Miss Edgeworth draws this picture to the life; the only objection is the commonness of the subject.

Sir Ulick is a speculator in business and politicks, whose schemes come to nothing in both, and he is very near sinking Ormond's fortune in his own ruin. He dies of chagrin-a warning against a plan of life that places one in dependence on the smiles of fortune, or the favour of the great or the small.

This tale is not so highly wrought as Belinda, Ennui, or the Absentee, and does not contain so many ingenious and sprightly allusions; but in one respect it is superiour to either of them, as it has not as we recollect any unsuccessful attempts at being smart. The interest does not continue to increase to the conclusion, but flags considerably after the scene is changed from the Black Islands, yet not so as to amount to any thing like a failure.

The persons are conceived with clearness and vivacity, and the performance is marked with the author's peculiar felicity in displaying manners. We are not presented with merely a few prominent and striking traits, but in this, as in her other works, she unravels with delicate ingenuity the complication of propensities within and influences from without. You have not the gross of what is said and done, but you vividly and distinctly perceive the circumstances and manner.— The conversations are enlivened, and action is every where characterised by the significant silence, look and gestures, and the meaning changes of countenance, which constitute the language of nature, and without which the conventional language of sounds is a poor and imperfect medium of communication. These and similar qualities of Miss Edgeworth's writing, as well as their philosophical turn, make them even more pleasing to a reader of taste on a second perusal. He has then less eagerness to press forward to events, and his attention is left more at leisure to search out the finer beauties and less obvious trains of thinking.

The tale we have been noticing is free from striking faults, and contains, besides what we have extracted, many passages that are exquisitely finished, such as the dialogue between Sir Ulick and Corny-Connal's conversation with Ormond respecting the approaching marriage of the former-and the funeral. But the finest part of the novel-and we know of nothing superiour in any novel-is Ormond's reflections after the sparring at the tea-table, and the scene between him, and Dora and Shelah in the eleventh chapter. Towards the conclusion of the chapter, there is a simple but affecting and perfectly natural touch, which, however, to be fully felt should be read in its connexion-it is where Shelah, observing Harry's countenance to brighten, as she thought with affection for Dora and hope of their future union, says, I don't doubt but all the world will smile on ye yet. If it was my world it should.' There are two instances-one at Vol. VII. No. 2.

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taking leave in Ireland, the other a conversation at Parisin which Dora is very happily made to pay a just tribute to Ormond's worth, when she betrays the workings of a real attachment founded on personal respect, which is in general suppressed under the frivolity of her character and the vanity of her pursuits.

It has been sometimes objected to Miss Edgeworth that her works present no sketches of the great features of nature; it would certainly be an improvement if she would give the reader more hints for imagining the scenes of action; it makes him more at home and more familiar with the transactions. But she makes amends for this deficiency by her graphical exhibition of particular objects and her lively and almost sensible display of persons and actions.

The agreeable employment of remarking upon these volumes has led us on beyond our proposed limits; we take leave of Miss Edgeworth, with the wish that we could have made her a better return for the pleasure and instruction her writings have given us, by doing them greater justice in our remarks.

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ART. VI. Geschied en redekunstig gedenschrift van Nederlands Herstelling inden jare 1813, door J. H. Van der Palm. Amsterdam, 1816, pp. 172. Historical and rhetorical account of the emancipation of the Netherlands, in the year 1813, by J. H. Van der Palm.'

THIS work is an offering, made to his country by Lieutenant Admiral Van Kinsbergen, of whom we are told in the preface, that he is the oldest of the naval heroes of Holland, and having spent his youth with distinction in the service of the state, is now enjoying, in the repose of an opulent old age, the respect and gratitude, which have attached to a life of usefulness and virtue. But his publick spirit is still active in retirement. He has only betaken himself to more tranquil modes of doing good. He is a friend of literature and the arts, as well as a sincere and enlightened patriot. He contributed in many ways to the late emancipation, and no one welcomed this event with more heart-felt joy. Nor was he contented with mere rejoicing. He seems to have considered, that posterity may claim to have transmitted, in all their warmth and freshness, the feelings, which at

tend important revolutions. He wished to commemorate, by some imperishable monument, this second deliverance of the Netherlands from foreign oppression. To this end he invited the most celebrated orators and scholars to become competitors for producing a work, in their native language, which should serve to give to succeeding generations a lively and distinct impression of the recent occurrences, and should, as it were, embody in a lasting form, the very spirit of the times. The essay before us was written in compliance with this invitation. The author is a professor in the University of Leyden, and is reputed to be the most elegant writer, that has yet appeared in the Dutch language.

Before we proceed to give an account of this work, it will, we think, be neither uninteresting nor useless to look a little back into the history of the Batavian Commonwealth, and to notice the principal changes of those parties and factions, which have maintained a restless activity within it.

The existence of the United Provinces as a distinct and independent nation may be dated from the Union of Utrecht in 1579. An alliance for some purposes had subsisted long before that time between Holland and Zealand. The glory of extending this confederacy, and of making it the basis of a new commonwealth, belongs principally to William I. Convinced of the necessity of union in opposing the arms of Spain, he was unwearied in his efforts to add other members to the league, and to establish some principles of association, by which they should be made to feel a common interest, and assume the form and character of a regular and integral state. He succeeded in 1576 in uniting the whole seventeen provinces by the pacification of Ghent. But he foresaw that this union would be of short duration, and that Holland and Zealand would be left to sustain the whole weight of the war. To obviate this, he sought to unite still more closely such of the provinces, as lay nearest together, and were most in condition to afford mutual aid. The union of Utrecht happily effected this end by establishing a more intimate connexion between the seven northern provinces, while it professed to leave unimpaired the articles of the former pacification. But the remaining ten provinces being soon reduced by the arms and address of the duke of Parma, that separation was accomplished, which has continued until very recent times. Some districts and towns of the ten southern provinces were at first comprehended in the union, but they soon fell off, and returned to their allegiance to Philip.

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