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    situation : A young Berkshire farmer , George Fielding , m love with his Zusia Susan Merton ,. is in difficulties with his farming , and has a wealthy rival , whose pretensions are secret . This rival—of course a rascal , ^ and auite respectable—betrays the state of Fielding ' s difficulties to old Mertdn to make him break off the match . Merton , though a father , is a farmer ,-and won't give his girl to a beggar . George , however , extorts his promisethat , if in Australia he can make a thousand pounds , Susan shall be his . In the hope of getting his thousand pounds , he goes : leaving the-field clear for his rival ' s machinations . There is nothing

    away new in this , but the freshness of treatment and the happy perception of character make it very interesting . Susan Merton is-in these earlier scenes capitally drawn ; in spite of an occasional inaccuracy in the drawing , we feel that a flesh-and-blood woman is before us . George Fielding is also flesh and blood ; so is Jacky the Australian , in many happy details . The rest of the characters are lay figures—the conventional perfect parson , the conventional hypocrite , of respectability ; the conventional lawyer-villain used as a tool by the hypocrite ; the conventional clever fellow ; but not the conventional Jew : Isaac Levi is an " Asian mystery" compounded of

    Shylock , Sheva , and Disraeli ' s great race . Mr . Reade is a playwright rather than a . dramatist . He shows us some of the dramatist in Susan and George ; but the playwright predominates throughout the volumes . It is . seen , in the constant and irritating striving for ' effect . ' He not only shows us that he is working up to a situation—a tableau on which the curtain may fall—but he shows us the puerile efforts at effect in ; , devices- of printing—in tirades of rant—in foolish ¦ woodcuts meant to be impressive . He can write so simply , and writes so well when he writes simpl y * that his friends should warn him . against unworthy imitations of the inferior French novelists . Short chapters of a few lines , and paragraphs of a few words , or sentences in capitals really Are not effective , but only show-that they were meant to be so . When he < ioes not show that he is trying to be effective , few writers are more so .

    " When he is not indulging in small affectations , which surely can please no one and certainly displease those whose admiration he would prize highest , he writes clearly , eloquently , picturesquely . He has seen varieties of life , and has had his eye open .. His style is graceful and strong . His power of telling a story , not descriptively but dramatically , is considerable ; and he has a nice perception of what is healthy and hearty in human nature—especially in women . With these qualities we ought so see him produce a novel which would not simply amuse that unfastidious . class of readers subscribing to circulating libraries , but also the other class , larger and more cultivated , which reads with gratitude a good novel but seldom troubles the library . It is Never too Late to Mend is such a novel , though not ranking high in the class . No one will re-read it . The author has bestowed great pains on it ; he has put into it . more solid worlc than goes to make a dozen novels ; but he

    has been less careful with his characters than with his details , and more solicitous of effects' than of effect . Had some real friend gone carefully over the proofs , he might have weeded the pages of their affectations , but the most serious drawback would have still remained , and we call Mr . Reade ' s Attention to this because he is a young writer capable of hi g her things , we believe , than any he has yet-written . What are the qualities which make the Vicar qfWakefield—Tom Jones- —Pride and Prejudice—Ivanhoe—the Scarlet Jjetter ( we select intentionally very dissimilar fictions ) works so memorable , works so re-readable ? Not their incidents , not their * effects , ' but their 4 juiet , stealthy grasp of the imagination and the affections , their characters , which seem so real . Something of what they have Susan Merton has , when she does not wamlerinto rhetoric ; and after all the hurry and agitation of the incidents ,-after ; all the villanies , and perils , and successes of this story , the mind goes back to Susan Merton , and the bucolic scenes of the early chapters . This is a fact which should be a lesson .

    Untitled Article

    OLD ENGDISH MANNERS . The Social History of the People of the . Soutlurn , Counties , of England in Past Centuries . By George Roberts . Longman and Co . Mb . Roberts has had . some rare opportunities of research in the social clmmicles of England—the southern counties especially .. These opportunities , however , have been tho result ,. not of aocident , but of a rare enthusiasm .. Hia . expenses ,. he tella us , have resembled . those of a man carrying ona devouring lawsuit , in . the expectation , of a largo inheritance . He has paid a staff of clerks and copyists , has travelled long and far , has explored the forgotten archives of ancient . boroughs , . has amassed a valuable documentary collection , . and . haa published a work which can . never pay the cost

    ¦ of its production . We assume that he haa fair grounds for thid calculation ; but the volume bears , no comparison to many we have met with that must have been a . loss , to . their authors . A late Engjish epic , of more than . a quarter of . a million of linos , was bequeathed to its editor with a guarunteo tund of two thousand guineas . But Mr . Roberta ' s book ia particularly readuble , and likely to bo popular . Hois an antiquary ; but his antiquaxxdnism is not obtruaoi ; he is special , but not monotonous ; he haa produced , in fact , a . practical key to Mr . Maoaulay ' s remarkable chapter omthe manners of our ancestors ! .. Whoever was interested in that chapter will bo interested in this volume—a genuine labour of love , abounding in well-selected

    miacellaniee and pictures of old English life . Many writers huvo discoursed of tho aame topics ; but few , if . any , Tiave ppsseased . the minute knowledge , tho conn ^ tentiaua . zoal , or what \ Vte may term tho archaeological intelligence of . Mr-Boberta ^ who applies his testimonies anil anecdotes to the illustration of tho general ,, ooojuiL habits , municipal laws ,, and civil progress of the southern counties a £ . li&glaud . Tho presents formally mado to great men , the bribea given tojudo ^ , thofeos . claimed by servants , formed , scarcely more than ivcontury ago , A > kind , ' o € . secret circulation , penetrating and vitiating almost every < naa » ot society , Ero . ia a-. pottlo of Gaacon wine , or a basket of shrimps , to a heavy purse of money , bribery , « that princely sort of thieving , " waa gratutui , to . justices , J uru » ,. wuljnambQrs of parliament , though it was eoldom p raotiaedwith ao , nmch ., effect . a by Mv . John Trevor , tho Speaker of tho House of Commons , who , in , 1605 * wra compelled , to put tho question that ho

    himself should be expelled . In fact , the Speaker ' s support of a private bill was fixed at a thousand guineas . Sir Basil Firebrace , however , though not a Speaker , valued himself at 40 , 000 ^ ., and was paid by the East India Company . Other great men were corrupted by corporation dinners , by treats of " cophee" and tea , " that excellent and by all physicians approved China drink , called by the Chineans Telia , by other nations Tay , alias lee " which Pepys " did fancy" so well . There are curious chapters on our early maritime progress , on the slave-trade , and of theSalee , Turkish , and English rovers in . the channel . Mr . Roberts says : — ° Thucydides describes the ancient state of the coasts of Greece in language that would be suitable to a picture in olden time of the coasts of England . The old towns of both countries , owing to tho long continuance of piracy , were built farther off from the sea , or inland . The later towns were built on the sea-shores and on isthmuses surrounded by walls for protection .

    And was not this the case in England ? The first church , the parent church of many towns , is from the sea . Towns that quite eclipse the original village exist , hut are much more recent . Thus , for example , see Wyke , the parent of Weymou th-Sutton Poyntz , of Melcombe ; Littleham , of Exmouth ; Broad-water , of Worthing-Tor , of Torquay ; Brixham , of Brixham-quay , for shortness Brixham . See Bridport , Abbotsbury with its monastery , and Charmouth , placed back from the sea . Our old Cinque-Port and sea-side towns were walled , and they needed that protection . When our traders hired Dutch privateers to protect them , when our government paid an annual ransom to the King of Morocco , when pirates landed at Studland and cut down the gallows , when beacons blazing from cape to cape warned the coast-dwellers to fly inland , when the fortification of

    maritime towns was left to the burgesses , and when the soldiery were more offensive than useful to the inhabitants , when Captain Wolsely encouraged his troopers to toss the mayor of Scarborough in a blanket " to make him know that the military power was above the civil , " the good old times wore no very fascinating aspects . Meanwhile , though " the stnte" was helpless , it was intensely meddlesome . In 1 ( 550 it punished John Bry ne , oC Piddletrenthide , with fine and imprisonment for being " litigious ; " it shut up John Barton , of Beaminster , for three days , for being " a discontented politician ;" Robert Hancocke , for being arailer was committed to the Dorchester House of Correction , to be chastised at the discretion of his keeper . Every assize was a rei < rn of terror : —

    In Somersetshire alone , in 1596 , forty persons were executed , thirty-five burned m the hand , and thirty-seven severely whipped ! Tumbrels for disgrace and infamy—ducking-stools for the punishment of scolds , witches , and naughty women—whipping-posts for the discipline of women , men , and boys—halters , pillories , stocks , and branks , or gags , for taming shrews , were among the essential implements of borough government . Mr . Roberts has discovered , however , that so late as 1708 there was a woman at Lewes who would whip anybody for a shilling : — The charge of fourpence made for whipping a boy continued for many years the same . The whipping of a woman who was a stranger was little more costly ; but the inflicting such a punishment upon a townsman was remunerated at a higher rate , as may well be supposed , from a consideration of several circumstances . To take a violent , noisy woman from her chamber , tie madam to the tumbrel and wbip her round the town , was an undertaking that demanded assistance and protection to the official or hireling that wielded the thong .

    Incorrigible vagrants , after being hardened at the whipping-post , were sometimes hanged : — At the Michaelmas sessions held at Bridport the following entry occurs : — " EUzabetha Johnson , alias Stevens , jiro vat / rant tanq . vaijabund . incorriyibil . su . yend per collu . usque dm . mortua sit . ' " The records of the colony of Massachusetts Bay contain nothing so frightful . This being a book of gleanings , we shall best illustrate its character by gleaning from it . In a chapter on the paucity , in former times , of many articles of great convenience in daily life , Mr . Roberts observes : — Instead of pining and whining over the decline of hospitality , the diau . se of what are called the good old customs , if we pursue the subject we shall discover how comfortless tho past was by comparison with tho present ; that tho days of Good Queen Bess were bonny for tho great , but miserable for the smaller folk . The evidence is forcible : —

    Inspect tho archives of boroughs about tho beginning of tho sixteenth century-On how small a scale was everything conducted . How poor most men must huvc been . Everything did not stand iii due ratio to each other . The comparative value of money has not been accurately assigned ; and though many things wore tolerable , taken in reference to men and manners of the time , much misery had to be endured in various ways . When William of Wickham was building Windsor Castle , Adam « lo Huntingdon had the control of tho work , lie was compelled to have all the metal work executed on the spot , to build forges and furnaces , to fetch coals from Durham . The bontbuilder had to make nails fur his own use . Tenants of manors were forced to grind their com at ' tho lord ' s mill , " oven in the sixteenth century traces of ancient barbarism remained in the west : — -

    Ships were small ; carts and carriagos rare ; clothing dear ; many vegetables unknown . The . shops were open to the streets , und not glazed ; books were Hoarce , uud very dear . Hundreds of articles , each n groat convenience , saving of time , mill promotors of elegance und neatness , hud never bucu heard of . Tho nliauk bones ol sheep were formorly used for skates . For variety ' s sake , turn to a gossip on cider : — Tho excellence of tho cider made throughout tho breadth of the eider-M -rowing West i « very great ; the quantity-is enormous . Soino localities , which liiivu a good name fort their cider , send out much mure cider than is produced therein , like »<> wino countries , ho . much dooa man rouombla man iu all countries and ugos . The growers in tho localitiea in question buy Norman apples at a cheap rute , and mix them with their own fruit .

    Could tho monks of Montobourfr luive dreamt of cider soiling at ten guineas n bogshead for bottling ? A wide ( laid for improvement of tho fruit trees for oidianln wtill lies before tho negligent cultivator . The cookygoe , or any other famous upplo tree , covers no more opuco than n worthloaa tree . Fine cider , properly bottled , in u drinkthat may compete with much of tho sparkling Gorman wino . Those who have J « o 1 - with tho following statement will excuse ito introduction bore :

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    m THE L-EAD'EB , [ No * 338 , Saturday

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 23, 1856, page 810, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2155/page/18/