terest of a romance, and is worthy of the authoress of 'Mary Barton.' Mrs. Gaskell died at Alton, November 12, 1865, aged fifty-four.

Yorkshiremen of the West Riding.--FromLife of Charlotte Bronte.'

Even an inhabitant of the neighbouring county of Lancaster is struck by the pecu iar force of character which the Yorkshiremen display This makes them interesting as a race; while at the same time as individuals, the remarkable degree of self-sufficiency they possess gives them an air of independence rather apt to repel a stranger. I use this expression self-sufficiency' in the largest sense. Conscious of the strong sagacity and the dogged power of will which seem almost the birthright of the natives of the West Riding each man relies upon himself, and seeks no help at the hand of his neighbor. From rare y requiring the assistance of others, he coines to doubt the power of bestowing it: from the general success of his efforts, he grows to depend upon thein, and to over-esteem his own energy and power. He belongs to that keen, yet short-sight d class who consider suspicion of all whose honesty is not proved as a sign of wisdom. The practical qualities of a man are held in great respect; but the want of faith in strangers and untried modes of action, exte: ds itself even to the manner in which the virtues are regard d; and if they produce no immediate and tangible result, they are rather put aside as unfit for this busy, striving world; especially if they are more of a passive than an active character. Their ffections are strong, and their foundations lie deep; but they are not-such affections ldom are-w.de-spreading, nor do they shew theinselves on the surface. Indeed, there is little display of any of the amenities of life among this wild, rough population. Their accost is curt: their accent and ton of speech blunt and harsh. Something of this may, probably, be attributed to th fre dom of mountain air and of isola:ed hill-side life so net ug to h: derived fro a their rough Norse ancestry. They have a quick pre prion of character, and a keen sense of humour; the dwellers among them must be prepared for certain uncomplimentary, though most likely truo Observations, pithily exp: ssed. Their feelings are not easily roused, but their dnrata is lasting. Hence there is much close friendship and faithful service. From the si a cause also con enduring grudges, in some cas s amounting to hatred, which Occasionally has been b queathed from generation to generation. I remember Miss Bronte once telling ine that it was a saying round about Haworth: Keep a stone in thy pocket seven year; turn it and keep it seven year longer, that it may be ever ready to thy hand when thine enemy draws near.'

The West Riding men are sleuth-hounds in pursuit of money.. These men are ke u and shrewd; faithful and persevering in following out a good purpose, fell in tracking an evil one. They are not emotional; they are not easily made into either friends or enemies; but once lovers or haters, it is difficult to change their feeling. They are a powerful race both in mind and body, both for good and for evil.

The woollen manufacture was introduced into this district in the days of Edward III. It is traditionally said that a colony of Flemings came over and settled in the West Riding to teach the inhabitants what to do with their wool. The mixture of agricultural with manufacturing labour that ensued and prevailed in the West Riding up to a very recent period, sounds pleasant enough at this distance of time, when the classical impression is left, and the details forgotten, or only brought to light by those who explore the few remote parts of England where the custom still lingers. The ide of the mistress and her maidens spinning at the great wheels while the mas ter was abroad ploughing his fields, or seeing after his flocks on the purple moors is very poctical to look back upon; but when such life actually touches on our own days, and we can hear particulars from the lips of those now living, there come out details of coarseness-of the uncouthness of the rustic mingled with the sharpness of the tradesman-of irregularity and fierce lawlessness-that rather mar the vision of pastoral innocence and simplicity. Still, as it is the exceptional and exaggerated characteristics of any period that leave the most vivid memory behind them, it would be wrong, and in my opinion faithless, to conclude that such and such forms of society and modes of living were not best for the period when they prevailed, although the abuses they may have led into, and the gradual progress of the world, have made it well that such ways and manners should pass away for ever, and as preposterous

to attempt to return to them, as it would be for a man to return to the clothes of his childhood.

A uniform edition of Mrs. Gaskell's novels and tales has been published in seven volumes.

WILLIAM WILKIE COLLINS.

This gentleman's first work was a Life of his father, William Col lins, the celebrated English painter. It was published in 1848, and was universally recognized as a valuable addition to our art biography. Mr. COLLINS then tried another field. He turned to fiction, and in 1850 published a classic romance of the fifth century, entitled 'Antonina, or the Fall of Rome.' Though much inferior to Bulwer's historical romances, the work evinced Mr. Collins's art in constructing an interesting story, and this dramatic faculty-rather than skill in depicting character-has distinguished his subsequent productions. These are Rambles beyond Railways, or Notes in Cornwall,' 1851; 'Basil,' a novel, 1852; Mr. Wray's Cash-box,' 1852; Hide and Seek, 1854; After Dark,' 1856; The Dead Secret,' 1857. The last of these tales appeared in Household Words,' and kept its readers in breathless suspense-the delight of all lovers of romance-until the secret was unfolded. Mr. Collins is author also of a drama, The Frozen Deep,' performed in 1857 by Mr. Dickens, by the dramatist himself, and ot' er friends, amateur actors, in aid of the family of Douglas Jerrold, the Queen having previously witnessed a private representation of the piece. The late works of Mr. Collins areThe Queen of Hearts, 1859; The Woman in White,' 1860; No Name, 1862; My Miscellanies.' 1863; Armadale,' 1866; "The Moonstone,' 1868; Man and Wife,' 1870; 'Poor Miss Finch;' 'The Law and the Lady,' &c. This popular novelist is a native of London, born in January, 1824. He was intended for a commercial life, then studied law in Lincoln's Inn; but in his twenty-fourth year he entered on his natural field-the literary profession.

CAPTAIN MAYNE REID.

In the description of daring feats and romantic adventures--scenes in the desert, the forest, and wild hunting-ground-CAPTAIN MAYNE REID, of the United States army, has earned great popularity, especi ally with the young. He seems to have made Cooper the novelist his model, but several of his works are more particularly devoted to natural history. This gentleman is a native of the north of Ireland, son of a Presbyterian minister, and was born in the year 1818. In his twentieth year he went abroad to 'push his fortune.' He set out for Mexico, made trading excursions with the Indians up the Red River, and afterwards sailed up the Missouri, and settled on the prairies for a period of four or five years. He then took to the literary profession in Philadelphia; but in 1845, when war was declared between the United States and Mexico, Mr. Reid obtained a commission

in the American army, and distinguished himself by his gallantry. He led the forlorn-hope at the assault of the castle of Chapultepec, and was severely wounded. The Mexican war over, Capt in Reid organised a body of men to aid the Hungarians in their struggle for independence, but the failure of the insurrection prevented his reaping any fresh laurels as a soldier. He now repaired to England and resumed his pen. His personal experiences had furnished materials of a rare and exciting kind, and he published a series of romances and other works, which were well received. In 1849 appeared 'The Rifle Rangers;' in 1850, The Scalp Hunters; in 152, The Desert Home' and Boy Hunters;' in 1853, The Young Voyageurs; in 1854, The Forest Exiles; in 1855, The Bush Boys,' The Hunter's Feast,' and 'The White Chief;' in 1856, 'The Quadroon, or a Lover's Adventures in Louisiana;' in 1857, The Young Yägers; in 1858, 'The Plant Hunters' and 'The War Trail;' in 1859, Oceola;' &c. As a vivid describer of foreign scenes, Captain Reid is entitled to praise; but Iris incidents, though exciting, are often highly improlable.

.

SAMUEL PHILLIPS-ANGUS B. REACH-ALBERT SMITHI.

The author of 'Caleb Stukeley' and other tales, MR. SAMUEL PHILLIPS (1815-854), was for some years literary critic of the 'Times,' and afterwards literary director of the Crystal Palace. The only works to which he put his name were certain guide-Looks to the Palace. Mr. Phillips was by birth a Jew, son of a London tradesman. In his fifteenth year he appeared as an actor in Covent Garden Theatre; but his friends placed him in the London University, and 'whilst there, he attracted the attention of the Duke of Sussex by an essay on Milton. Through the Duke's assistance he was sent to Göttingen University. His novel of Caleb Stukeley' appeared originally in Blackwood's Magazine,' and was reprinted in 1843. Its success led to other contributions to Blackwood'—'We are all Low People There,' and other tales. He occasionally sent letters to the 'Times,' and ultimately formed a regular engagement with the conductors of that paper. His reviews of books were vigorous and slashing; Dickens, Carlyle, Mrs. Stowe, and other popular writers were boldly assailed by the anonymous critic, and his articles became the talk of the town. Two volumes of these literary essays have since been published. The tales of Mr. Phillips all bear the impress of his energetic mind and shrewd caustic observation. With better health, he would probably have been more genial, and have accomplished some complete artistic work.

As a first-class journalist and happy descriptive writer, few young men rose into greater favour and popularity than MR. ANGUS BETHUNE REACH (1821-1856). He was a native of Inverness; but before he had reached his twentieth year he was in London, busily employed on the Morning Chronicle,' as reporter and critic, and let us add, honourably supporting his parents, on whom misfortune had

PHILLIPS.]

fallen. Besides contributing to the magazines, Mr. Reach wrote two novels-' Clement Lorimer," one volume, 1848; and Leonard Lindsay,' two volumes, 1850. He wrote also a number of light satires, dramatic pieces, and sketches of social life- The Natural History of Bores and Humbugs,' The Comic Bradshaw,' London on the Thames,' The Man of the Moon,' &c. Being despatched to France as a Commissioner for the Morning Chronicle,' he enriched his note-book with sketches social, picturesque, and legendary, published with the title of Claret and Olives, from the Garonne to the Rhone,' 1852. The disappointment he experienced in traversing what is considered the most poetic region of France, he thus describes:

The South of France.

We entered Languedoc. the most early civilised of the provinces which now make up France-the land where chivalry was first wedded to literature-the land whose tongue laid the foundations of the greater part of modern poetry-the land where the people first rebelled against the tyranny of Rome-the land of the Menestrals and the Albigenses. People are apt to think of this favoured tract of Europe as a sort of terrestrial paradise-one great glowing odorous garden-where, in the shade of the orange and the olive tree, queens of love and beauty crowned The literary and historic associations have the heads of wandering troubadours not unnaturally operated upon our common notions of the country; and for the south of France.' we are very apt to conjure up a brave. fictitious landscape. Yet, It has b en admirably described in a single phrase, the this country is no Eden It is austere grim-sombre It never smiles; it is Austere South of France.' scathed and parched. There is no freshness or rurality in it. It does not seem the Let us glance from country, but a vast yard-shadeless, glaring drear, and dry. A vast, rolling wilderness of our elevated perch over the district we are traversing. clodded earth, browned and baked by the sun; here and there masses of red rock beaving themselves above the soil like protruding ribs of the earth, and a vast coating of drouthy dust, lying like snow upon the ground. To the left. a long ridge of iron-like mountains-on all sides rolling bills. tern and kneaded, looking as though frozen On the slopes and in the plain, endless rows of scrubby, ugly trees, powdered with the universal dust, and looking exactly like mopsticks Sprawling nd straggling over the soil beneath them, jungles of burnt-up leafless bushes, The trees are olives and mulberries-the bushes, tang'ed and apparently neglected vines. Glance again across the country. It seems a solitude. Perhaps one or two distant figures, gray with dust, are labouring to break the clods with wooden hammers but that is all. No cottages-no farm-houses-no hedges-all one In the distance you may espy a rolling sweep of iron-like, burnt-up, glaring land

village. It looks like a fortification-all blank, high stone walls, and no windows, but mere loopholes. A square church tower gloomily and heavily overtops the houses, or the dungeon of an ancient fortress rears its massive pi.e of mouldering s one. Where have you seen such a landscape before? Stern and forbidding, it Jas yet a familiar look. These scrubby, mop-headed trees-these formal square lines of huge edifices-these banks and braes, varying in hue from the gray of the dust 1. the red of the rock-why, they are precisely the backgrounds of the pictures of renaissance painters of France and Italy.

With his various tasks and incessant labour, the health of the young littérateur gave way. Mental disease prostrated him, and for the last One eminent and generous two years of his life he was helpless.

man of letters-Mr. Thackeray-by special lectures and personal bounty, contributed largely to the comfort of the sufferer; and another Mr. Shirley Brooks-undertook, and for many months cheerfully fulfilled, some of his friend's literary engagements. The Liter

ary Fund also lent assistance. It is gratifying to note these instances of sympathy, but more important to mark the warning which Mr. Reach's case holds out to young literary aspirants of the dangers of over-application.

MR. ALBERT SMITH (1816–1860), born at Chertsey, is best known for his illustrated lectures or amusing monologues in the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, in which he described ... visit to Constantinople, the ascent of Mont Blanc, and a trip to China in 1858-9. Of these tours he also published accounts. Mr. Smith studied medicine both in London and Paris, but began early to write for the magazines, and threw off numerous tales and sketch s-as 'The Adventures of Mr. Ledbury, The Scattergood Family,' Christopher Tadpole,' The Pottleton Legacy,' several dramatic pieces, &c. His lectures-somewhat in the style of Mathews's At Home,' but with the addition of very fine scenery-were amazingly successful: Mont Blanc' was repeated above a thousand times, and a.most invariably to crowded houses.

MRS. ELLIS.

This lady is the Hannah Moore of the present generation. She has written fifty or sixty volumes, nearly all conveying moral or religious instruction. Her principal works are- The Women of England,' 1838; A Summer and Winter in the Pyre ees,' 1841; The Daughters of England,' 1842; The Wives of England,' and 'The Mothers of England,' 1843; Prevention Better than Cure,' 1847; 'Hints on Formation of Character,' 1848. Several short tales and poems have also been published by Mrs. Ellis. This accomplished and industrious lady (nee Sarah Stickney) was in 1847 married to the distinguished missionary, the Rev. William Ellis, author of Polynesian Researches in the Society and Sandwich Islands,' four volumes, 1832.

MISS C. M. YONGE-MISS SEWELL-MISS JEWSBURY.

A not less voluminous writer is CHARLOTTE MARY YONGE, a native of Hampshire, born in 1823. Her novel, The Heir of Redclyffe,' 1853, at once established her reputation. She had, however, previous to this date written several other tales-Henrietta's Wish,' Venneth,' and Langley School,' 1850; The Kings of England,' "The Two Guardians," and Landmarks of Ancient History, 1852, &c. The popularity of The Heir of Redclyffe' induced the authoress to continue what may be called the regular novel style; and in Heart's Ease,' 1854; Daisy Chain, 1856; and Dynevor Terrace,' 1857, we have interesting, well-constructed tales. Since then she has produced several other works-The Young Stepmother,' 'Hopes and Fears,' 'The Lances of Lynwood,' 'Clever Woman of the Family,'Prince and the Page,' &c. The children's books of Miss Yonge have also been exceedingly popular; and all her works, like those of Mrs. Ellis, have in view the moral improvement of the