The author of this remarkable book isthe celebrated physician whose name has been given to the well-known treatment which has proved so successful in alleviating certain nervous disorders, and the work isa striking instance of the truth of the paradoxical adage that the busiest man has the most leisure. It is a story of the American War of Independence and gives evidence of an intimate knowledge of the men, manners, customs, and feelings of the time, which can only have been acquired by special study and thought. The plot is impiest and, although interesting and even exciting incidents are not wanting, the principal attraction in the book will be found in the charming people'to whom we are introduced, and who are portrayed with such unusual skill that they really seem to live. 'The hero of the story is the grandson of a Welsh Squire, who gave up position and property for conscience' sake, and who having become a Quaker preferred exile to paying tithes and so settled in Pennsylvania where he raspered in trade, Hugh Wynne has in-hented the firmness of hiv "grandfather, but gentler qualities derived from a French mother have fortunately gifted him with a character in pleasing contrast to that of his stern and unbending father, whose disposition has been rendered, by the fight between natural impulses and the rigid tenets of his sect, harsh almost to cruelty. The most charming porson'in the book is, our mind, Hugh's mother, although she is sketched in with but few touches and fills a comparatively small place in the story. Afcor a few words of delightful description of her person, her son, who is represented as writing the book, says Her goodness seems to me to have been {instinetive, and to have needed neither thought nor effort. Her faults, as I think her, were mostly such as arise from excess of loving and of noble moods. She would be lavish where she had better have been merely generous, or rash where some would have lacked even the commoner the feared no one—neither my grave father alities of courage. Indeed, as to this,
nor the grimmest of inquisitive committees of Friends.
It is easy to understand the adoration of her gon and the gentle influence she exercised over her iron-willed husband. Hugh is a fine follow and a fit hero for a novel. He reminds one of Amyas Leigh, being large of frame, brave, and honourable. His devoted friend, Jack Warder, is so altogether lovable and perfect that it ig rather surprising ho, survives the trid of the book. Hugh has also a delightful aunt possessed of all the firm qualities of her race, but alive to her brother's faults and mellowed by kindness and humanity. To her is due Hugh's introduction to the society of the gay British officers of the filling away from the strict propriety of arrison, the result of which is a sad
conduct demanded by the grave sect to which his family belongs, and which leads him into escapades bringing down upon him the wrath of his father. The heroine is Darthea Peniston who is so irresistible that she has three lovers at once, all equally devoted, but, with that strange perversity which novelists, perhaps with reason, teach us is the natural bent of the best of we! she falls in love with the villain of the book from whom she is happily rescued. It is no part of our purpose to spoil the interest "of the book, which will be widely read, by giving a detailed account of the story. The book is admirably] written and is pervaded by
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.