h century, winding up with more general
notice of two remarkable writers who represent--though at least one of
them lived far later--the period before Scott, and who also, as it
happens, represent the contrast of novel and romance in a fashion
unusually striking. The description, as some readers will have
anticipated, refers to Miss Edgeworth and to Maturin. But the smaller
fry must be taken first.

It is not uninteresting to compare two such books as Mrs. Bennett's
_Anna_ and Mrs. Opie's _Adeline Mowbray_. Published at twenty years'
distance (1785 and 1804) they show the rapid growth of the novel, even
during a time when nothing of the first class appeared. _Anna, or the
Memoirs of a Welsh Heiress, interspersed with Anecdotes of a Nabob_, is
a kind of bad imitation of Miss Burney, with a catchpenny
"interspersion" to suit the day. _Adeline Mowbray_, written with more
talent, chimes in by infusing one of the tones of _its_ day--Godwinian
theories of life. The space between was the palmy time of that now
almost legendary "Minerva Press" which, as has been said, flooded the
ever-absorbent market with stuff of which _The Libertine_, masterpiece
of Mrs. Byrne, _alias_ Charlotte Dacre, _alias_ "Rosa Matilda," is
perhaps best worth singling out from its companions, _Hours of Solitude,
The Nun of St. Omers, Zofloya_, etc., because it specially shocked the
censor of the style who will be mentioned presently. It is pure (or
not-pure) rubbish. Angelo (the libertine) seduces the angelic Gabrielle
de Montmorency, who follows him to Italy in male attire, saves him from
the wicked courtesan Oriana and her bravo Fiorenz_a_ (_sic_), is married
by him, but made miserable, and dies. He continues his misbehaviour to
their children, and finally blows his brains out. "Bah! it is bosh!" as
the Master observes of something else.

It may seem iniquitous to say that some tolerably good novel-writers
must be more summarily treated than some bad ones here: but there is
reason for it. Such, for instance, as Charlotte Smith and the Miss Lees
are miles above such others as the just-mentioned polyonymous "Rosa," as
Sarah Wilkinson, or as Henrietta Mosse-Rouviere. The first three would
make a very good group for a twenty-page causerie. Charlotte Smith, who
was tolerably expert in verse as well as prose; who anticipated, and
perhaps taught, Scott in the double use of the name "Waverley"; and
whose _Old Manor House_ (1793) is a solid but not heavy work