the reader, however, is acquainted with these changes, | the passage extracted from his preface, that a small the Effinghams had known the truth from the first, and part of his original purpose has grown up into an inthe others remain in ignorance. Soon after the escape from the Arabs, Mr. Monday dies on board, from wounds received in the fight. When at the point of death he confides to Mr. John Effingham and Mr. Blunt some sealed papers, not to be opened until after his decease.

dependent plan. It might have been expected that a plan thus originated would lack completeness and copiousness. Then the conclusion is quite unsatisfactory. The cadence, if we may so call it, in the story, is not greater than might properly finish a chapter midway

in a tale.

In the process of stretching out his scanty materials to the necessary limits, the author has fallen into the error of introducing entirely too much of the technical operations of seamanship into his tale. He must have intended it principally for landsmen, and yet has swelled the narrative by a minute description, sometimes, indeed, expressly suited to the common reader, but oftener incomprehensible excepting by sailors, of every movement of the Montauk. We have an impression, though not certain, that Mr. Cooper has before been accused of pretending to too much nautical lore, and have even heard his authority, on, at least, one point of seamanship introduced into the present vo

The remainder of the voyage to New York is prosperous; but just off Sandy Hook appears the Foam! She recognizes her chase, and her commander, Captain Ducie, asks permission to come on board the latter, where he explains the object of his pursuit-a forger, who has escaped from England with a large sum of government money. The soi-disant baronet turns out to be the criminal, and is delivered up. Paul Powis also returns with Captain Ducie, under circumstances apparently disagreeable, but not explained to the other passengers, or to the reader. In his hurry, he carries off with him the sealed papers left by Mr. Monday, as before mentioned. The Effinghams, Sir George Tem-lume, seriously questioned. Perhaps he has had in plemore, and Mr. Dodge disembark safely on American view such a charge, and has sought to vindicate his ground, Here ends the story for the present; but a character as an "old salt." But we confess our ignosequel is promised. Mr. Cooper says in his preface, rance of all things ship-shape, or ship-pertaining, be"In one respect, this book is a parallel to Franklin's yond some few christian names of masts, sails and well-known apologue of the hatter and his sign. It yards. There is, however, a something in marine lanwas commenced with a sole view to exhibit the present guage very expressive, though one knows not exactly state of society in the United States, through the agen- what it means. We have, at times, watched the novelcy, in part, of a set of characters with different pecu-ist's manoeuvres with his ship, in perfect ignorance of liarities, who had freshly arrived from Europe, and to what was going on, yet with intense interest, sure that whom the distinctive features of the country would be every movement was fast hastening some important apt to present themselves with greater force, than to result; or, perhaps, affected sympathetically, as one those who had never lived beyond the influence of the who smiles when another laughs in his presence, withthings portrayed. By the original plan, the work was out knowing the cause of his mirth. There is a nerto open at the threshold of the country, or with the vous brevity in sea-phrases, which typifies prompt and arrival of the travellers at Sandy Hook, from which energetic action; in short, a something, which, like point the tale was to have been carried regularly for-pantomime, affords great play for the imagination. ward to its conclusion. But a consultation with others Captain Truck is an admirable character, and a chahas left little more of this plan than the hatter's friends racter of exactly that sort which Cooper can best porleft of his sign. As a vessel was introduced in the first tray. All his novels illustrate this remark. His fort chapter, the cry was for "more ship," until the work lies not in the description of refined and polished life. had become "all ship;" it actually closing at, or near, Courts and drawing rooms are not his proper field. A the spot where it was originally intended it should rough-hewn son of nature, whether wandering through commence. Owing to this diversion from the author's trackless wilds, a trapper or a scout, or standing on a design-a design that lay at the bottom of all his pro- ship's deck and raising his voice above the tempest, he jects a necessity has been created of running the tale depicts as none else with whom we are acquainted. through two separate works, or of making a hurried Even his well-dressed personages appear to most adand insufficient conclusion. The former scheme has, vantage, when thrown into circumstances calling into consequently, been adopted." action their more rude and hardy talents. Paul Powis is at no time so interesting as when commander of the ship's launch, either for escape or battle. He handles the wheel, or a swivel, or the sailor's lingo, much more effectively than the polite parts of speech. As evidence of the justice of these remarks, it will be noticed that almost every character of the story, not having some rugged peculiarities to support it, falls into comparative inanity. This is particularly observable in regard to the females introduced or we should rather use the singular, as Eve is the only prominent female character. We are told that she is beautiful, lovely, and

vous.

Mr. Cooper's style is as good in Homeward-Bound as in any of his previous novels-better than in some of them. It is easy and vivacious, spirited and nerWe have already commended, in general terms, the conversational parts, but in narrative certainly lies his fort. To the plot of this story we take more exception. The two faults above-mentioned as uncommon ones incompleteness and meagerness of plotare here exemplified. The work appears to us like the few first chapters of a novel spun out to the size of two volumes. It might almost be supposed that the author, finding his introduction growing too long, had deter-accomplished. It is sought to invest her with varied mined, instead of curtailing it, to lengthen it out, by insertions, prefixes and suffixes, to the dimensions necessary for a separate existence, A story founded on scenes of still life would not perhaps require such fulness of plot as one like the present, in which more stirring events are narrated. Mr. Cooper tells us, in

charms of mind, of person and of dress; but the reader is interested in her chiefly-perhaps solely-as beloved by, and loving Paul Powis.

Mr. Dodge is certainly a very amusing, though a very unfair specimen of Yankee newspaper editors and tourists. But his character is overdrawn, at least for

We have no doubt that foreign travel rightly improved, may be of great advantage to the traveller in many respects, and not least in polishing and refining his manners. We are also free to confess, that we think Americans, generally, rather deficient in point of good manners. If, as Lord Chesterfield asserts, courts are the only places where the laws of social etiquette can be successfully studied, then may our countrymen never improve in this science. But we think otherwise. The general rules of good-breeding are all founded on knowledge of the world and of human nature; this knowledge may be acquired under any one kind of institutions as well as under another. Then practice must fix these rules in the memory and the

the American reader; Englishmen may look at it with [miums upon every printed defamation of American more allowance. His mental and moral peculiarities, character, coming from this side the water, and to deem however, are of a coarse, rough kind; as strongly oracular every prediction unfavorable to American in. marked and salient as those of Captain Truck, though so stitutions, it could hardly have displayed more illiberal different in nature. The two cousins, Edward and John feelings toward that character and those institutions. Effingham, excite little interest. The former, though Mr. Dodge is not only a caricature, but a gross libel a man of "singularly correct judgment," is rather on the newspaper editors of our country; not because womanish, and takes little active part even in the quiet there are none of that profession equally despicable, scenes of the story. Mr. Sharp, who has nothing to but because he is held up as a fair representative of the recommend him, but his gentility, though evidently whole class, and the author's declared object is the corintended for a pleasing example of a polished gentle-rect delineation of the state of American society. man, leaves rather a disagreeable impression on the reader's mind, from the want of force in the delineation. Mr. Monday is quite a negative sort of character; and, if the sealed papers, which he leaves behind, are to disclose any thing very important to the narrative, we can only say that this part of the plot seems awkwardly introduced. If they contain nothing important, it bears an unmeaning aspect. At any rate, a mystery is thrown over the whole affair, which might better have been cleared up, at least so far, that the connection, if any there be, between Mr. Monday and the other characters, might have begun to appear. But perhaps we go beyond our depth in criticising what may depend on the unpublished sequel for its true bearing. We shall not meddle with Mr. Cooper's political opin-habit; and surely we have enough of good society in ions, and but little with his notions of American socie- the United States to afford practice in the forms of poty-our principal object being, to examine into the lite- liteness. True we have in force among us fewer of the rary merits of his work. We cannot, however, pass in mere conventional laws of good-manners, than they silence one prominent feature of the author's character, have in the old nations of Europe; but he that observes which is displayed on almost every page-his want of the general rules before mentioned, which are of unipatriotic feeling. We before knew that he often asversal authority, and those arbitrary laws which the sumed a querulous tone, when dwelling on the requital fashion of his own country has introduced, is a well-bred which his own services to the nation have met with; man; and if such an one travels in a foreign land, he but did not imagine that his soul had become so comseldom fails to discover and obey the peculiar legem pletely warped, by brooding over supposed wrongs. loci. The difficulty with us is not that our institutions Perhaps Mr. Cooper's residence abroad has thus alienare inconsistent with good-manners, or even unfriendated his heart; or, as is more likely, has led him into ly to them, though, certainly, monarchial and aristoa whimsical affectation of what he calls "cosmopolit-cratic establishments are more favorable to them than ism." He would doubtless say, in answer to a charge of his wanting nationality of feeling, that a person may be patriotic, and yet see clearly all the faults of his countrymen; that blindness to these arises from illiberal prejudice. Yes, the true patriot, in heart as well as principle, may see faults, but not faults only or chiefly; and he will naturally love to dwell on his country's honor rather than her reproach. He will not exaggerate her weak points, or expose them wantonly to the ridicule of foreigners, who gloat over every ludicrous representation of American character. In During his sojourn in Europe our author had several fact, no man of truly warm, ardent patriotism can free interviews with Sir Walter Scott; and, in his "Gleanhimself entirley from prejudice in favor of his own land. ings," has given an ample account of one of these All varieties of the emotion of love produce a degree of meetings, which Scott thus mentions in his diary :— blindness to the loved object's imperfections. But "To-day" (we quote from memory) "met Mr. Cooper there is something more than love in true patriotism. the American novelist. He has the manners, or rather There is in it a pride, mingled with affection, which want of manners, common to his countrymen." This identifies the citizen, in his own feelings, with the na-passage has, no doubt, inflicted a sore wound on Mr. tion; which makes him bear, as a personal reproach, Cooper's pride; and it is said, though we can hardly every stain upon his country's honor. "Cosmopolitism" credit the story-it has not, however, to our knowledge, is as inconsistent with patriotism, as omnipresence is been contradicted-that he asserts openly that Scott with finite being. Mr. Cooper seems anxious to repel died a drunkard! At any rate, he seems to labor hard the least suspicion of prejudice in favor of the United in the work before us, to disprove Sir Walter's accuStates, and he does it by exhibiting violent prejudices, sation, by demonstrating his intimate acquaintance thinly clad indeed in a mock garb of impartiality, with the science of manners. His countrymen he against his countrymen. If the book had been writ- leaves to vindicate their own honor, and, in fact, adds ten purposely to tickle the depraved appetite of those his voice in their condemnation, but would prove himEnglishmen, who, the last to acknowledge any Ameri- self a paragon of politeness. How he supports this can book worth reading, are the first to lavish enco-character we will not pretend to say, for fear of expo

ours.

But good-breeding, for reasons which we need not here particularize, is not sufficiently prized by the great mass of our countrymen, and, therefore, is not made such an essential part of education among us, as with the more wealthy and luxurious nations of Europe. But to assert that there is no such thing as a well-bred American, unless where the manners have been formed by education, residence, or travel, abroad, as Mr. Cooper virtually asserts, is to caricature the state of society among us very broadly.

sing our American ignorance; but certainly we were of the forest. Steadfast in their faith, they considered "taken aback"-to use what we believe is a well-ac-persecution a privilege; torture, beatitude; and mar. credited sea-phrase-when Paul Powis, on parting with tyrdom, glory; with spirits which oppression could not Eve Effingham and her father, whose lives he had saved crush, nor cruelty tame, they had learned in the school on the coast of Africa, by his bravery and skill, politely of adversity, the worth of that freedom they could not remarked, enjoy. They it was who brought to the western hemisphere the germ of liberty, out of which the independence of these United States was unfolded to the world.

ance."

"Chance has several times thrown me into your society, Mr. Effingham-Miss Effingham-and, should the same good fortune ever again occur, I hope I may be permitted to address you at once as an old acquaintProbably Mr. Cooper had found in his well-thumbed copy of the "Laws of Etiquette," with which he is, doubtless, as familiar as Captain Truck with his favorite author, Vattel, that passing acquaintances, formed at places of public resort, and in journeying by sea and land are not to be renewed, as of course, at after meetings!

Though history proper makes us acquainted with the grand features and general outline of those times, by revealing to us the persecutions and sufferings, and heroism of the noted few, we cannot catch from her formal manner, the spirit of the times. It is such works as the present, that complete the picture. Mr. Fontaine takes us familiarly by the hand, leads us to his home, points us to the ruins of his church, which bigotry had razed, and where persecution forbade him to minister. He conducts us thence with his neighbors to secret worship in the wood. And entering into their feelings, we follow him and them to prison, where we witness the sufferings, and are made fully acquainted with the condition of a Huguenot of the 17th century.

Mr. Cooper is soon to give us the sequel of his story, in which he will attempt a complete delineation of American society. We predict that this attempt will prove a signal failure. His cosmopolitism, or so-called freedom from prejudice, will be greatly in the way of a fair representation of our national characteristics. Be- Mr. Fontaine commences the annals of his family sides, as we have before remarked, his fort does not lie from his great grandfather, John de la Fontaine, who in the description of refined and polished life :-now bore a commission in "Les ordonances du Roy," in the we think that there is enough refinement and polish in household of Francis I. He conducted himself so the United States, to put him at fault in the endeavor honorably and uprightly, that even after his father and to personify them in a fictitious character. We pre- himself had embraced protestantism at its first preachdict that he will fail; yet with all our hearts-for his ing in 1535, he remained in his office, and continued in country's honor, his own reputation, and our entertain-it during the reigns of Henry II, Francis II, and until ment-wish him, even at the expense of the prophet's disgrace, the most abundant success.

An entertaining little story, plainly told, of one of the most interesting periods in European history. The naïveté with which Mr. Fontaine, in his old age, sits down to entertain his Huguenot children with a family tale-the simple manner in which he relates the stirring incidents and hair-breadth escapes of his adventurous life-carries the mind irresistibly back to the winter evening tales of childhood, and forcibly reminds us of the absorbing interest with which we used to devour the legends of the nursery.

Though it purports to be the tale of a family, the work before us is the story of thousands. Varying the detail, with slight alterations, many, besides his two thousand descendants, may read their family history in the auto-biography of Mr. Fontaine. The persecutions and oppressions which drove him from his belle France, drove our ancestors to the rock of Plymouth, and peopled the wilds of a new world with the champions of civil and religious liberty. The protestants of Germany, the Huguenots of France, with the dissenters and congregationalists of England and Scotland, fled from their father-land, to seek a place in an unexplored wilderness, where they might worship God, according to conscience and to reason.

The early protestants were dragooned from place to place in Catholic Europe, and hunted down like beasts

the second year of Charles IX.

At the edict of Pacification, called the January Edict, granted in 1562, the protestants were lulled into false security, and induced to lay down their arms. John de la Fontaine trusting to the immunities guarantied to them, deemed himself secure without the protec tion afforded by his office, and threw up his commission. But, continues our biographer, "Some of the sworn enemies of God and his gospel, who had long watched John de la Fontaine, and conceived a deep hatred against him, thought the time had now arrived when they might safely put him out of the way; and such a man being got rid of, it would be comparatively easy to disperse the rest of the congregation to which he belonged.

"It was in the year 1563 that some of these ruffians were despatched from the city of Le Mans in search of him; and in the night time, when he least expected such a fate, he was dragged out of doors, and his throat cut; his wife, within a few weeks of her confinement, had followed him, hoping by her entreaties, to save his life; but she shared the same fate.

"James de la Fontaine, my grandfather, then thirteen or fourteen years old, with Abraham, two years his junior, and another brother still younger, fled from the bloody scene, full of horror and consternation, without a guide save the providence of God, and no aim but to get as far as possible from the barbarians, who had in one moment deprived them of both father and mother, They did not stop until they reached Rochelle, then a very safe place for protestants, containing as it did, within its walls, many faithful servants of the living God. These poor lads were actually begging their bread when they arrived there, and were without any recommendation save their appearance. A charitable

shoemaker, who feared God, and was in easy circumstances, received James into his house, and into his affections also, and taught him his trade. They all three lived poorly enough, until James reached manhood; he then entered upon commercial pursuits, and his career afterwards was comparatively prosperous. In the year 1603, he married, and had two daughters and one son, (James,) my father. He married again, but had no addition to his family; and better would it have been for him had he remained a widower, for his last wife attempted to poison him; and though unsuccessful, the affair became too notorious to be hushed up. She was carried to prison, tried, and condemned to death. It so happened that Henry IV was then at Rochelle, and application was made to him for pardon; he said before he granted it, he must see the husband she had been so anxious to get rid of. When my grandfather appeared before him, he cried out, 'Let her be hanged, let her be hanged, ventre saint gris! he is the handsomest man in my kingdom.' I have seen his picture, and it certainly did represent him as a handsome

man.

"A rumor prevailed that there were meetings in our parish, and that I was the preacher; but we had no traitor in our ranks, and the papists were unable to discover any thing with sufficient certainty to make a handle of. Our holy intercourse continued without any drawback till Palm Sunday, 1684. On that day some of my neighbors came to my house as usual, and not finding me there they retired to the wood behind my house, and one of their number, a mason by trade, who read very well, officiated as their pastor. He read several chapters from the Bible, the prayers of the church, a sermon, and they sang psalms. This meeting having been open, it was noised abroad, and on Holy Thursday from seven to eight hundred persons assembled on the same spot, the mason again their pastor; and on Easter day the number increased to a thousand. ****

"Warrants were issued; and the Grand Provost and his archers were in search of us. I was absent; the country people, having had timely notice, hid themselves in the wood, and after scouring the country, the archers found no one but the poor mason, who had officiated; him they took, fastened to a horse's tail, and dragged to Saintes, a distance of fifteen miles. They threatened him in all kinds of ways, and assured him that he would be hanged as soon as they reached the capital. It was late when they arrived-too late, they told him for him to be hanged that night, and that one solitary chance for life yet remained to him, and that was to recant without delay; for if he once got within the walls of the prison, a hundred religions would not save him from death."

"I now proceed to my own father, who at an early age discovered great aptitude for study, and a very serious turn of mind. I was the youngest child of my parents, and have but little personal recollection of your grandfather, being only eight years old when he died, He was a man of fine figure, clear complexion, pure red and white, and of so dignified a deportment, that he commanded the respect of all with whom he came in contact. He absented himself on festive occasions, but never failed to visit every family in his flock twice Mr. Fontaine was also thrown into prison; and here a year. The sick and afflicted were visited as soon as commences the adventurous life of this singular man. their affliction was made known to him. When it was At the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, after he understood that he was praying with the sick, crowds had failed in the council of elders and ministers, to would flock to hear him, filling the house-for you must prevail on that body to resist persecution, and call on know that in that district all were protestants, save the protestants to take up arms in defence of their relifour or five families. He was most zealous and affec-gion, their lives, and their property, he found himself no tionate, and employed all his knowledge, his talents, and his studies in the service of God. He had great learning, quick and ready wit, clear and sonorous voice, natural and agreeable action, and he always made use of the most chaste and elegant language; and genuine humility, crowning the whole, gave such a charm to his discourses, that he delighted all who heard him. *** "I now return to my own history. I went to Saintes to reside, in order to have the assistance of two able and pious ministers, Mr. Mainard and Mr. Borillak, in pursuing my theological studies. After awhile they also were cast into prison, and I returned home.

"My brother Peter had been minister of my father's parish ever since his death, and about this time he was seized under a 'lettre de cachet,' and confined in the castle of Oleron. The church at Vaux was levelled to the ground, and most of the churches in our province shared the same fate; thus my neighbors could not reach a place of worship without great fatigue; and feeling compassion for them, as sheep without a shepherd, I felt myself called on to invite them to join me in my family devotions. The number who came soon increased to one hundred and fifty, and I then recommended to them not to come daily as heretofore. I frequently changed the days of assembling, giving previous notice to the people; and we continued this endearing intercourse uninterruptedly during the whole winter.

longer useful as a minister, and fled from France, he and his ladye-love, in an open boat, and passed as drunken fishermen, under the guns of a man-of-war that guarded the coast against the escape of protestant refugees. He landed pennyless in England; mortgaged the jewelry of his intended; engaged in commerce; married; became a schoolmaster; then a preacher; afterwards a weaver; then a manufacturer of calimancos, and a grocer. His skill and success in the two last excited the admiration, and soon the envy and jealousy, of those around him.

From England he retired to Cork, where he became a dyer and a manufacturer of broadcloths. Here he distinguished himself as a preacher, and was presented with the freedom of the city. But preaching from the decalogue, his sermon on the eighth commandment, "thou shalt not steal," applied with so much force to some of his congregation, exciting them against him, that he deemed it expedient to resign his charge as minister. He again engaged in commerce; entered into the tobacco trade of Virginia; removed to Bear Haven; turned fisherman; became a justice of the peace; was attacked by a French corsair; he, assisted by his wife and children, defended themselves against great odds; drove off the privateer, who recruited; renewed the attack; battered down the house; capitulated and carried his son off as a hostage. And he

himself became a pensioner of the British government. | brance, so that we may never degenerate from those mo

He retired from Bear Haven, always a poor man, and again became a schoolmaster.

Amidst all his misfortunes, he contrived to give his children good educations. His sons, James, Peter and Francis, and his son-in-law, Matthew Maury, emigra-ver the proof of it. For if we do spring from one stem, ted to Virginia about 1717; from whom have descended the Maurys and Fontaines of this country.

Mr. Fontaine's grandson, the Rev. James Maury of Albemarle county, was the tutor of our Jefferson and Madison, and the father of Mr. Maury of New York, well known in Virginia as the "Old Consul." Many years ago, when in Europe, this last gentleman wishing to trace the relationship between his branch of the family, and the celebrated Abbé Maury, opened a correspondence with that dignitary, from which we venture the following extracts.

The merit of rescuing this interesting little memoir "You see, sir, that in supposing yourself a descend- from the dusty shelf, where it had remained for more ant of one of these dispersed children, you will find no than a hundred years, belongs to a lady. In the office illustrious titles: we have little to boast of but the honor, of translator and compiler, she has acquitted herself with the virtues, and the reputation for honesty and upright- much grace, and deserves the thanks of the reading ness, which our ancestors always enjoyed in the neigh-public, no less than of her two thousand kinsfolk to borhood where they lived. Let us cherish the remem whom her work is dedicated.