after his imprecation, to expect from the entreaties of his mo ther, ftrove to forget the perfon of lady Mary, and think only of her mind.- Her ladyfhip, a little chagrin'd Sir James's proposals were not feconded by Mr. Powis, pretended immediate bufinefs into Oxfordshire.- -The Baronet wants not difcernment: he faw through her motive; and taking bis opportunity, infinuated the violence of his fon's paffion, and likewife the great timidity it occafioned: -he even prevailed. on lady Powis to propofe returning with her to Brandon Lodge.

The confequence of this was, the two ladies fet out on their journey, attended by Sir James and Mr. Powis, who, in obedience to his father, was ftill endeavouring to conquer his indifference.

Perhaps, in time, the amiable lady Mary might have found a way to his heart,—had she not introduced, the very evening of their arrival at the Lodge, her counter-part in every thing but perfon :-there Mifs Whitmore outfhone her whole sex. This fair neighbour was the belov'd friend of lady Mary Sutton, and foon became the idol of Mr. Powis's affections, which render'd his fituation ftill more diftreffing. His mother's difinterested tenderness for lady Mary; her own charming qualifications; his father's irrevocable menace, commanded him one way:-Mifs Whitmore's charms led him another.

• Attached as he was to this young lady, he never appear'd to take the leaft notice of her more than civility demanded;

though he was of the highest confequence to his repose, yet the obstacles which furrounded him seem'd infurmountable.

Sir James and lady Powis retiring one evening earlier than ufual, Lady Mary and Mr. Powis were left alone. The latter appeared greatly embarraffed. Her ladyship eyed him attentively; but instead of sharing his embarraffinent,began a conversation of which Mifs Whitmore was the subject.— She talk'd fo long of her many excellencies, profefs'd fuch fincerity, fuch tenderness, for her, that his emotion became vifi. ble: - his fine eyes were full of fire'; —his expreffive features spoke what he had long wish'd to discover.―――You are filent, Sir, faid fhe, with a smile of ineffable sweetness; is my lovely friend a fubject that displeases you?

How am I fituated! replied he.Generous lady Mary, dare I repofe a confidence in your noble breast ?

-Will you permit me that honour? Will you not think ill of me, if I difclofe No, I cannot prefumption—I dare not

She interrupted him:

Ah Sir!-you hold me unworthy,-you hold me incapable of friendship. Suppofe me your fifter:if you had a fifter,

would

would you conceal any thing from her?

Give me then a

brother-I can never behold you in any other light.

No, my lady;-no, returned he, I deferve not this ho nour. If you knew, madam,-if you knew all,-you would, mai you must defpife me.

Defpife you, Mr. Powis!fhe replied;-defpife you you for loving Mifs Whitmore!

Exalted goodnefs! faid he,approaching her with rap-.. ture take my heart ;- -do with it as you please ;- it is

devoted to your generosity.

Well then, faid fhe, I command it, I command it in-. ftantly to be laid open before me.-Now let it speak ;—now let it declare if I am not the bar to its felicity;-if—

No, my good angel, interrupted he, dropping on his knees,—and preffing her hand to his lips ;-I see it is through you, through you only,-I am to expect felicity.

• Before lady Mary could prevail on Mr. Powis to arife, Sir. James, whom they did not expect, and who they thought was retir'd for the night, came in queft of his snuff-box ;but with a countenance full of joy retired precipitately, bowing to lady Mary with the fame reverence as if he had been a molten image caft of his favourite metal.

In this converfation I have been circumftantial, that you might have a full view of the noble, difinterested lady Mary Sutton: you may gather now, from whence sprang her unbounded affection for the incomparable, unfortunate Miss Powis.

• You will not be surprised to find a speedy marriage took place between Mr. Powis and Mifs Whitmore, to which none were privy but the dean of H- who performed the cere mony,-Lady Mary,-Mrs. Whitmore (the mother of Mrs. Powis)-Mr. and Mrs. Jenkings. Perhaps you think lady Powis ought to have been confulted :—I thought fo too; but am now convinced the would have been the wretchedest woman in the world, had fhe known her fon acting diametri. cally oppofite to the will of his father in fo material a point.

To put it out of the power of every person intrusted with this momentous fecret to divulge it,—and to make Mr. Powis perfectly eafy, each bound themselves at the altar where the ceremony was performed, never to make the least discovery 'till Mr. Powis thought fit to declare his marriage,

What an inftance have I given you of female friendship -Shew me fuch another :-our fex are a teft of their fiend: ships.

How many girls have I feen, or ever together arm in arın,whifper ng their own, perhaps the fecrets of all their neighbours;

neighbours when in fteps a young fellow of our cloth,or any other, it fignifies not the colour, and down tumbles the tottering bafis.Inftead of my dear and my love, it is y creature, false friend; could any one have thought Mifs Such-aone poffeffed of fo much art? then out comes intrigues, family-affairs, loffes at cards,in fhort, every thing that has been treasured up by two industrious fair ones feven years before.

Don't think me fatyrical:I am nice ;—too much fo, perhaps.The knowledge of fuch as conftitute this little. narrative, and fome other minds like theirs, has made me rather too nice, as I faid before:: a matter of little confequence, as I am fituated.- Can I look forward to happy. profpects, and see how foon the faireft felicity is out of fight ?

This afflicted family, Molefworth, has taught me to forget—that is, I ought to forget.. But no matter; never again let me fee lady Sophia ;-never lead me a fecond time into danger:fhe is mortal, like Mifs Powis.Lord Darcy! poor lord Darcy!

"If recollection will afiift me, a word or two more of Mr. and Mrs. Powis.

Lady Sophia-the deuce is in me! you know who I mean; why write I the name of lady Sophia ?——upon my honour, I have given over all thoughts of that divinitylady Mary I should have faid, a few months after the nuptials of her friends, wrote to Mr. Powis, who was then at Barford Abbey, an abfolute refufal, in confequence of a preconcerted plan of operation. Immediately after this, fhe fet out with Mrs. Powis for London, whofe fituation made it neceffary for her to leave Hillford Down.

• You will fuppofe, on the receipt of this letter, how mat. ters were at the Abbey: -Sir James rav'd; even lady Powis thought her son ill used; but, in consideration of their former intimacy, prevailed on Sir James never to mention the affair, though from this time all acquaintance ceafed between the families.

• In order to conceal the marriage, it was inevitable Mr. Powis muft carry his wife abroad ;—and as he intended to travel before the match was thought of with lady Mary,his father now readily confented that he fhould begin his four. -This furnish'd him with an excufe to go immediately to town, where he waited 'till the angel we all weep for made her appearance.

But what, you ask, was Mrs. Powis's excufe to leave England, without being fufpected? Why, I'll tell you by -the contrivance of lady Mary, together with Mrs. Whitmore,

it

it was believed fhe had left the world; that she died in town of a malignant fever;-that-but I cannot be circumstantial,

Mifs Powis, after her parents went abroad, was brought down by lady Mary, and confign'd to the care of her grandmother, with whom she liv'd as the orphan child of fome diftant relation.

Whilft Mr. and Mrs. Powis were travelling through Italy, he applied to his friend the lord-lieutenant, and by that tereft was appointed to the government of. It was here my acquaintance with them commenced: not that I fufpected Mifs Glinn to be Mrs. Powis, though I faw her every day. Glinn was a name the affumed 'till fhe returned to England. A thousand little circumftances which rendered her character unfufpected, I want fpirits to relate.-Suffice it to fay, -the death of Mrs. Whitmore; a daughter paffing on the world for an orphan;--and the absence of lady Mary Sutton;made them refolve to hazard every thing rather than leave their child unprotected. - Alas! for what are they come home?

Nothing is impoffible with a Supreme Being.-Lord Darcy may recover.-But why this ray of hope to make the horrors of my mind more dreadful?-He is past hope, you fay.

RISBY.'

In the next letter Mifs Warley comes to life, and is found at the houfe of Mr. Delves, a banker, where she had just lain in— of the finall-pox; and from which she had recovered without any blemish to her beauty. Here we are entertained with a harlequinade, which is the moft exceptionable part of the work. Mr. Smith, in carrying our heroine to Dover, where his wife was to receive them, makes love to her on the road; and concealing himself in her room at the inn where they lay, attempts to ravish her, but the fcreams out, and is rescued by Mr. Delves, who was banker to lady Mary Sutton, and who carries her to his house. On the road, fhe throws her eyes on a child newly recovered from the fmall pox, and catches that diftemper. The packet certainly went to the bottom; but the body thrown on fhore was that of one Mifs Frances Walsh, whofe linen was marked with the initial letters of Mifs Warley's name. The revealing fuch floods of good news to Darey and the afflicted family at the Abbey, proves a matter of almost as much difficulty and delicacy, as the disclosing the former melancholy tidings. The reader may easily imagine that Darcy recovers, though flowly, and that his hand is joined in marriage with his amiable Mifs Powis. Lady Mary Sutton returns to England; and towards the clofe. of the novel, we are

introduced to a lord and lady Hampstead, their fon lord HalTam, and their two daughters; one of whom captivates Mr. Molefworth; and lord Hallum falls in love with Mifs Delves, a fprightly black-eyed girl, daughter to the banker. Here the curtain drops, to be drawn up, perhaps, in a third volume. We cannot help making an exception of this novel from the common run of fuch publications. Few or none of the incidents are, indeed, new; but they are well wrought up. There is great delicacy in all the characters, except that of Smith; which we wifh had not been introduced, because the part he acts might have been fupplied with more propriety and probability.

IV. The Force of Nature; or, the Hiftory of Charles Lord Sommers. In 2 Vols. By the Editor of the Wanderer. 12mo. Pr. 5 s. Noble.

ANOTHER foundling! and far from being deftitute of merit

The story is carried on, like the preceding novel, in the epiftolary manner; the advantages of which for novel-writing, we have more than once pointed out. The hero and the heroine of this piece are two faultless monsters. The former goes under the name of Gower, and, for aught that appears to the contrary, was never guilty of a weak, imprudent, or wicked action, except that of debauching a young woman, to whom he gave a pecuniary fatisfaction, which procured her a husband. This lady, who is known by the name of Mrs. Arden, acts the part of a fury incarnate, and is Gower's implacable enemy on all occafions. The name of the heroine is Mifs Charlotte Carleton, who is one of thofe notable bits of all-perfection ftuff, whom we have fo often defcribed. She is the ward of Sir John Gretton and Sir George Arnold, and conceives an early affection for Mr. Gower. She refides with Sir George and his amiable fifter Harriet, and her correfpondent is Mifs Arabella Hale.

This admirable young lady's ruin is refolved upon by a knot of villains, at the head of whom is an earl of M-, who profeffes a mortal antipathy to Gower, and one Mr. Leland, who pretends to make honourable love to Mifs Carleton. We must be excufed from entering into a detail of all the diabolical improbable traps which are laid by this club of wretches, for the ruin of Gower and his mistress. Sometimes a footman or a low retainer is dreft up to court her; fometimes Gower is traduced and mifreprefented. Other machinations are employed at the fame time, and even an affaffination is talked of, if every