the opinions and reflections thrown out by the authoress is an admission that the intellectual faculty of woman is inferior in quality and calibre to that of inan:

If, as we believe, under no system of training, the intellect of woman would be found as strong as that of man, she is compensated by her intuitions boug stronger -f her reason be less majestic, her insight is clearer-where man reasons, she sees. Nature, in short, gave her all that was needful to enable her to fill a noble part in the world's history, if man would but let her play it out, and not treat her like a fullgrown baby, to be flattered and spoiled on the one hand, and coerced and restricted on the other, vibrat.ng betwixt royal rule and slavish serfdom.

In 1848 Mrs. Crowe issued two volumes representing The Nightside of Nature, or Ghosts and Ghost-seers.' Some of the stories are derived from the German, and others are relations of supernatural events said to have happened in this country, some of them within the author's knowledge. A three-volume novel from her pen appeared in 1852, 'The Adventures of a Beauty,' describing the perplexities arising out of a secret marriage contracted by a wealthy baronet's son with the daughter of a farmer; and another domestic story, Linny Lockwood,' two volumes, 1854, appears to complete the round of Mrs. Crowe's works of fiction. The novelist, we may add, is a native of Borough Green, county of Kent; her maiden name was Catherine Stevens, and in 1822 she was married to Colonel Crowe.

Stages in the History of Crime.

It is in the annals of the doings and sufferings of the good and brave spirits of the earth that we should learn our lessons. It is by these that our hearts are melowed, our minds exalted, and our souls nerved to go and do likewise. But there are occasionally circumstances connected with the history of great crimes that render them the most impressive of homilies: fitting them to be set aloft as beacons to warn away the frail mortal, tossed on the tempest of his passions, from the destruction that awaits him if he pursues his course; and such instruction we hold may be best derived from those cases in which the subsequent feelings of a criminal are disclosed to us; those cases, in short, in which the chastisement proceeds from within inst ad of from without; that chastisement that no cunning concealment, no legal subtlety, no eloquent counsel, no indulgent judge can avert.

One of the features of our time-as of all times, each of which is new in its generation is the character of its crimes. Every phasis of human affairs, every advance in civilisation, every shade of improvement in our material comforts and couveniences, gives rise to new modes and forms-nay, to actual new births-of crime, the germs of which were only waiting for a congenial soil to spring in; whilst others are but modifications of the old inventions accommodated to new circumstances.

There are thus stages in the history of crime indicative of ages. First, we have the heroic. At a very early period of a nation's anuals, crime is bloody, bold, and resolute. Ambitious princes make qui: k conveyance' with those who stand in the way of their advancement; and fierce barons slake their enmity and revenge in the blood of their foes, with little attempt at concealment, and no appearance of remorse. Next comes the age of strange murders, mysterions poisonings, and lifelong incarce rations; when the passions. vet rife, nusubdued by education and the practical influence of religion, and rebellions to the new restraints of law, seek their gratification by hidden and tort ous methods This is the romantic era of crime. But as civilisation advances it descends to a lower sphere, sheltering itself chiefly in the squalid districts of poverty and wretchedness: the last halo of the romantic and he roic fades from it: and except where it is the result of brutal ignorance, its chief characteristic becomes astuteness.

But we are often struck by the strange tinge of romance which still colours the page of continental criminal records, causing them to read like the annals of a previous century. We think we perceive also a state of morals somewhat in arrear of the stage we have reached, and. certainly, some curious and very defective forms of law; and these two causes combined, seem to give rise to criminal enterprises which, in this country, could scarcely have been undertaken, or, if they were, must have been met with immediate detection and punishment.

There is also frequently a singular complication or imbroglio in the detalls, such as would be impossible in this island of daylight-for, enveloped in fog as we are physically, there is a greater glare thrown upon our actions here than among any other nation of the world perhaps an imbroglio that appears to fling the narrative back into the romantic era and to indicate that it belongs to a stage of civilisation we bave already passed.

MISS PARDOE.

JULIA PARDOE (1806-1862), born at Beverley, in Yorkshire, the daughter of Major Thomas Pardoe, was an extensive writer in fiction, in books of travels, and in historical memoirs. Her most successful efforts have been those devoted to Eastern manners and society. She is said to have produced a volume of Poems at the age of thirteen. The first of her works which attracted any attention was 'Traits and Traditions of Portugal, published in 1833. Having proceeded to the East, Miss Pardoe wrote The City of the Sultan, 1836; which was succeeded in 1839 by The Romance of the Harem' and "The Beauties of the Bosphorus.' In 1857, reverting to these Eastern studies and observations, Miss Pardoe produced a pleasant collection of oriental tales, entitled Thousand and One Days.' A visit to Hungary led to The City of the Maygar, or Hungary and its Institutions,' 3840, and to a novel, entitled The Hungarian Castle.' Another journey called forth Recollections of the Rhône and the Chartreuse;" while studies in French history suggested Louis the Fourteenth and the Court of France in the Seventeenth Century,' 1847. The novels of Miss Pardoe are numerous. Among them are Reginald Lyle,' Flies in Amber,' The Jealous Wife,'Poor Relations,' and 'Pilgrimages in Paris'—the last published in 1858, and consisting of short romantic tales which had appeared in various periodicals. Her bistorical works include The Court of Francis I.,' 'Memoirs of Marie dé Medici,' Episodes of French History,' &c.

MRS. ANNE MARSH-LADY GEORGIANA FULIERTON.

The domestic novels of these ladies have been received with great favour. They are earnest, impassioned, and eloquent expositions of English life and feeling-those of Lady Fullerton, perhaps too uniformly sad and gloomy. MRS. MARSH (1799-1874) was a Staffordshire lady, daughter of Mr. James Caldwell of Linley wood, Recorder of New-castle-under-Lyme. She does not seem to have entered on her career as an authoress until 1834, when she published Two Old Men's Tales.' Between that year and 1836 she had issued several publications-Tales of the Woods and Fields,' he Triumphs of Time, Amelia Wyndham,' and Mount Sorel.' These she followed up some years later by 'Father Darcy,' an historical romance:

'Mordant Hall,' 'Lettice Arnold,' 'The Wilmingtons,' 'Time the Avenger,' 'Castle Avon,' The Rose of Ashurst,' Evelyn Marston,' and Norman's Bridge,' a family history of three generations. Besides these works of fiction, Mrs. Marsh published one work of an historical character relating to the Protestant Reformation in France, but it was never completed. The death of her brother about 1858 devolving on her the estate of Linleywood, Mrs. Marsh took the additional name and arms of Caldwell.

LADY FULLERTON, daughter of the first Earl Granville, was married in 1833 to A. G. Fullerton, Esq. of Ballintoy Castle, County of Antrim, Ireland. In 1-44 she published Ellen Middleton,' a domestic story, which was followed by Grantley Manor,' 1847; Lady Bird,' 1852; the Life of St. Francis of Rome,' and 'La Comtesse de Bonneval,' 1857; 'Rose Leblanc,' 1861; 'Laurentia,' 1861; Constance Sherwood,' 1865; 'A Stormy Life,' 1867; Mrs. Gerald's Niece,' 1869, &c.

MISS KAVANAGH.

A series of tales, having moral and benevolent aims, has been produced by MISS JULIA KAVANAGH. In 1847 she published a Christmas book, The Three Paths;' and in 1848, Madeline, a Tale of Auvergne; founded on Fact' The fact that gave rise to this interesting story is the devotion of a peasant-girl, who by her labour founded a hospital in her native village. 'Women in France during the Eighteenth Century,' two volumes, 1850, was Miss Kavanagh's next work-an ambitious and somewhat perilous theme; but the memoirs and anecdotes of the belles esprits who ruled the Parisian courts and coteries are told with discretion and feeling as well as taste. French society and scenery supplied materials for another fiction, Nathalie,' 1851; after which Miss Kavanagh gave short biographies of women eminent for works of charity and goodness, entitling the collection Women of Christianity,' 1852. She has since

published Daisy Burns,' 1853; Grace Lee,' 1855; 'Rachel Gray.' 1856; Adèle,' 1858; A Summer and Winter in the Two Sicilies,' two vols. 185; Seven Years, and other Tales,' 1859: 'French Women of Letters,' 1861; English Women of Letters.' 1862; 'Queen Mab,' 1863; Beatrice,' 1865: Sybil's Second Love.' 1867: 'Dora.' 1868; Sylvia,' 1870; &c. In fiction and memoirs, Miss Kavanagh is always interesting, delicate in fancy and feeling, and often rich in description. She is not so able in construction as some of her contemporaries, but she has dealt with very various types of character, and always with a certain grace and careful decision. This lady is a native of Ireland, born at Thurles, in Tipperary, in the year 1824; but she was educated in France.

MRS. GASKELL.

About the same time that Charlotte Brontë was drawing sceres and characters from Yorkshire, another lady novelist was depicting

the condition of the manufacturing classes in Lancashire. MRS. ELIZABETH CLEGHORN GASKELL (nee Stevenson), wife of the Rev. W. Gaskell, Unitarian minister, Manchester, in 1848 published anonymously Mary Barton, a Tale of Manchester Life.' The work is a faithful and painfully interesting picture of the society of the manufacturing capital. The heroine is the daughter of a factory operative; and the family group, with their relatives and friends, are drawn with a distinctness and force that leave no doubt of truth. The authoress says she has often thought how deep might → the romance in the lives of some of those who elbowed her daily 13 the streets of Manchester.

I had always,' she adds, felt a deep sympathy with the care-worn men, who looked as if doomed to struggle throug their lives in strange alternations between work and want: tossed to and fro by circumstances apparently in even a greater degree than other men. A little manifestation of this sympathy, and a little attent on to the expression of feelings on the part of some of the work-people with whom I was acquainted, had laid open to me the hearts of one or two of the more thoughtful among them; I saw that they were sore and irritable against the rich, the even tenor of whose seemingly happy lives apper.red to increase the anguish caused by the lottery-like nature of their own. Whether the bitter complaints made by them, of the neglect which they experienced from the prosperous-especially from the masters whose fortunes they had helped to build up-were we'l founded or no, it is not for me to judge. It is enough to say, that this belief of the injustice and unkindness which they endure from their fellow-creatures. taints what might be resig nation to God's will, and turns it to revenge in too many of the poor uneducated factory-workers of Manchester.'

The effects of bad times, political agitation, and 'strikes,' are depicted and brought home more vividly to the-reader by their connec tion with the characters in the novel. The Lancashire dialect is also occasionally introduced, adding to the impression of reality made by the whole work; and though the chief interest is of a painful character, the novelist reflects the lights as well as the shades of artisan life. Her powers of description may be seen from the beauti ful opening scene:

Picture of Green Heys Fields, Manchester.

There are some fields near Manchester, well known to the inhabitants as Green Hovs Fields,' through which runs a public footpath to a little village about two miles distant In spite of these fields being flat and low-nay, in spite of the want of wood (the great and usual recommendation of level tracts of land), there is a charm about them which strikes even the inhabitant of a mountainous district who sees and feels the effect of contrast in these commonplace but thoroughly rural fields, with the busy, bustling manufacturing town he left but half an hour ago. Here and there an o'd black and white farm-house, with its rambling ontbuildings, speaks of other times and other occupations than those which now absorb the population of the neighbourhood Here in their seasons may be seer the country business of haymaking, ploughing. &c., which are such pleasant mysteries for towns-people to watch and here the artisan, deafened with noise of tongues and engines, may come to listen awhile to the delicions sounds of rural life-the lowing of cattle, the milk. maids' call. the clatter and cackle of poultry in the old farm-yards. You cannot wonder, then, that these fields are popular places of resort at every holiday-time; and you would not wonder. if you could see. or I properly describe, the charm of one partic ular stile, that it should be, on such occasions, a crowded halting-place. Close by it

is a deep, clear pond, reflecting in its dark-green depths the shadowy trees that bend over it to exclude the sun. The only place where its banks are shelving is on the side next to a rambling farm-yard, belonging to one of those old-world, gabled, black and white houses I named above, overlooking the field through which the public footpath leads. The porch of this farm-house is covered by a rose-tree; and the little gaiden surrounding it is crowded with a medley of o.d-fashioned herbs and flowers. pnted long ago, when the garden was the only druggist's shop within reach, and allowed to grow in scrambling and wild luxuri nce-roses, lavender, sage, balm (for tea), 10kemary, panks and walflowers, onions and jessamine, in most republican and ind.scriminate order. This farm-house and garden are within a hundred yards of the stile of which I spoke, leading from the large pasture-field into a smaller one, divided by a hedge of hawthorn and blackthorn; and near this stile, on the further s.de, there runs a tale that primroses may often be found, and occasionally the blue sweet violet on the grassy hedge-bank.

I do not know whether it was on a holiday granted by the masters, or a holiday seized in right of nature and her beautiful spring-time by the workmen; but one afternoon-now ten or a dozen years ago-these fields were much thronged. It was an early May evening-the April of the poets; for heavy showers had fallen all the morning, and the round, soft white clouds which were blown by a west wind over the dark-blue sky, were sometimes varied by one blacker and more threatening. The softness of the day tempted forth the young green leaves, which almost visibly fluttered into life; and the willows, which that morning had had only a brown reflection in the water below, were now of that tender gray-green which blends so delicately with the spring harmony of colours.

Groups of mery, and somewhat loud-talking girls, whose ages might range from twelve to twenty, came by with a buoyant step. They were n.ost of them factorygirls, and wore the usual out-of doors dress of that particular class of maidensnamely, a shawl, which at mid-day, or in fine weather, was allowed to be merely a shawl, but towards evening, or if the day were chilly, became a sort of Spanish mantilla or Scotch plaid, and was brought over the head and hung loosely down, or was pinued under the chiu in no unpicturesque fashion. Their faces were not remarkable for beauty; indeed, they were below the average, with one or two exceptions; they had dark hair, neatly and classically arranged, dark cyes, but sallow complexions and irregular features. The only thing to strike a passer-by was an acuteness and intelligence of countenance which has often been noticed in a manufacturing population.

There were also numbers of boys, or rather young men, rambling among these fields. ready to bandy jokes with any one, and particularly ready to enter into conversation with the girls, who, however, held themselves alccf, not in a shy, but rather in an independent way, assuming an indifferent manner to the 1oisy wit or obstroperous compliments of the lads. Here and there came a sober. quiet couple, either whispering lovers, or husband and wife, as the case might be; and if the latter, they were seldom unencumbered by an infant, carried for the n cst part by the father, while occasionally even three or four little toddlers have been carried or dragged thus far, in order that the whole family might enjoy the delicious May after.con together.

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In 1950 Mrs. Gaskell published The Moorland Cottage-a short domestic tale in 1853, Ruth,' a novel in three volumes, and Cranford,' a collection of sketches that had appeared in a periodical work; in 1855, North and South,' another story of the manufacturing dis tricts, which had also been originally published in the periodical form: and in 1859, Round the Sofa. In 1860 appeared Right at Last;' and in 1863, Silvia's Lovers.' These novels were all popular. The authoress was a prose Crabbe-earnest, faithful, and often spirited in her delineations of humble life. By confining herself chiefly to the manufacturing population, she threw light on conditions of life, habits, and feelings comparatively new and original in cur fictitious literature. Her Life of Charlotte Brontë,' 1857, has all the in