ART. IX. Family Secrets, Literary and Domestic. By Mr. Pratt. Vols. 12mo. Il. 58. Boards. Longman. 1797.

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A READER, on casting his eyes on the title-page of this work, might be induced to think that he was about to indulge an idle or a vicious curiosity; and he might feel an unwillingness to search into "Family Secrets," Literary or Domestic. A few pages farther will convince him that such apprehensions, though delicate and liberal, were totally unfounded. Under an inauspicious title, Mr. Pratt has introduced to a numerous set of readers a novel that has the merit of being at once tender, pathetic, and full of love; and, which may be a more uncommon circumstance, of love mixed with the greatest discretion: a novel which, however, will offend by its prolixity, its violations of probability, and its unchastized style. We will endeavour to develope the plot, in order to afford the reader some idea of the construction of these volumes.

In three neighbouring houses, named the Castle, the ManorHouse, and the Abbey, the chief personages of the story reside. The Castle belongs to Sir Armine Fitzorton, a clergyman of the church of England, whose only fault was a strong tincture of bigotry in religion. As a private gentleman, (adds the author,) his conduct and character might very justly be summed up in the words of the celebrated Lord Clarendon; "He maintained the primitive integrity of the English nation, and supported in his castle the good old manners, old good humour, and old good nature, of old English hospitality." Lady Fitzorten is delineated as elegant, sensible, mild, and benignant. Sir Armine's three sons, John, Henry, and James, are described with distinct and appropriate characters. John is a man of cool abstract reasoning, intrepid in his pursuit of what he thinks right, and with as much consistency of conduct as can be expected from a young man of an impetuous temper and ardent passions. The second son, Henry, possesses all the irritability of mind which is found in persons who indulge their imagination more than their rational faculties. His sensibility and its attendant miseries frequently cast a cloud over his goodness of heart and soundness of intellect: while his natural propensities are increased by his studies, which consist chiefly in romances and poetry; and he becomes in course of time "most musical, most melancholy." James, the third son, is represented as a man of calm passions and steady judgment. The difference of characters in the brothers produces a variety of disputes on literature and morals, in which their peculiarities of taste and disposition unfold themselves.

The Manor-House is inhabited by Mr. Clare and a young and lovely daughter. The close connection between the houses

of

of Fitzorton and Clare leads to the mutual hope of a still dearer one, by a future marriage between the fair Olivia Clare and one of Sir Armine's sons.

The Abbey is inhabited by Sir Guise Stuart, his lady, a son, and a daughter, the three latter all adorned with every grace of mind and person. The baronet is represented as a monster of iniquity and cowardice, and a savage tyrant to his wife and to his charming daughter; the great and good qualities of the latter of whom are exhibited by her tender care of her mother, her spirited defence of her against the violence of Sir Guise, her own filial submission to his stern commands, and her patient sufferings under his barbarous conduct. The son, though spirited and virtuous, appears to be the favourite of Sir Guise.

A deadly breach is made between the families of the Fitzortons and Stuarts, by the rude behaviour of Sir Guise, in consequence of a political conversation which one day passed between Sir A. Fitzorton and him, in which the brutal and harsh behaviour of Sir Guise becomes flagrant in his treatment of the venerable Sir Armine. At a former period of their acquaintance, Henry Fitzorton had frequently seen Caroline Stuart, and an early and immutable attachment to her was the consequence; this is the first family secret. The Clares and the Fitzortons, desirous of allying their families, view with pleasure the growing passion that appears to exist between Henry Fitzorton and Olivia Clare, though the former betrays a great unwillingness to meet with equal ardour the open and unreserved conduct of Olivia, and a repugnance to understand either the hints of old Clare, or the more explicit advances of his father Sir Armine. The secret of Henry Fitzorton's attachment to Caroline Stuart is confined to his own breast, and that of Charles Stuart her brother; who, in return, discovers his attachment to Olivia. John Fitzorton, the elder brother, is also deeply smitten with the charms of the fair Olivia: but, ignorant of his brother's attachment at the Abbey, and considering him as betrothed to Olivia, he smothers the passion in silent sorrows. As the friendship of the Clares and Fitzortons is of that kind which adopts common foes and common friends, Olivia Clare and Caroline Stuart, though acquainted in their childish days, are now strangers, and the secrets of their peculiar attachments are unknown to each other.

These Family Secrets of the Castle and Abbey compose the grand body of the story. Henry Fitzorton neglects, or rather shuns, the warm yet delicate overtures of Olivia, and passes his time among the forests near the Abbey, indulging his unhappy passion for Caroline Stuart; which is rendered still more

hopeless

hopeless by his utter exclusion from the Abbey, on account of the family quarrels of Sir Armine and Sir Guise.

In the second volume, the author, afraid of objections to his plot thus far carried, steps forwards with the following defence of himself addressed to the reader:

Now it may happen that before thou hast gained this stage of our history, we have put thee a little out of humour by a seeming violation of probability; it may have offended thy critical talents that we should, as it may seem to thee, have maliciously contrived to lock this family secret in our Henry's breast, although such a num ber of keys are ready to open it. Perhaps thou hast long since exclaimed, "Go to! can it be supposed an impetuous youth should pay his court to a lady in the neighbourhood, to the daughter of his fa- ther's bitterest enemy, for so long a period undiscovered; that many of the servants of her family and of his, that a brother of each house, and now perhaps of both, notwithstanding all the pri vate and public tumults, Can it be supposed that this matter should be any secret to half the surrounding parishes? And was there not to be found one officious enemy, or good-natured friend," or idle gossip, who, on the swift wing of foily or curiosity, or the yet more rapid one of malice, would have even panted to carry the tidings to the only two persons most interested in its truth or falsehood, namely, Olivia and her father? Or was the neighbourhood of Fitzorton-Castle the only spot in the world where no such friend, enemy, or gossip in petticoats or breeches, resided?"

Unrestrained by these objections, though obvious to himself, and unremoved, the author is determined to proceed onwards with his story. Sir Armine and old Clare continue desirous of a match between Henry Fitzorton and Olivia: but, on the former's having fixed the day, Henry discloses to his father the fatal secret,-his love of Caroline Stuart. Sir Armine still presses the match. In this dilemma, Charles Stuart sends Henry a letter deploring his fate, and proposing a deliverance to be wrought by him from this impending evil. Sir Armine, Mr. Clare, Olivia, and Henry Fitzorton, are on the way to a mansion belonging to Olivia, situated on an estate lately left to her by a distant relation ;-when, in passing through a forest a few miles from it, a party of armed and masked horsemen arrest Henry who was before on horseback;-and they prove to be Charles Stuart, attended with some friends accoutred and prepared to work the deliverance of Henry from the plans of the old people. At this moment, another party of armed men attack the coach in which Sir Armine, his lady, &c. are travelling in the rear; when sudden shrieks bring Charles Stuart's battalion to the assistance of the ladies, and a most furious rencontre ensues. Henry performs wonders, and his friends prevail. The vanquished party are discovered to be

Sir

Şir Guise and his myrmidons, whose scheme it was to assasinate the Fitzorton family. In the affray, Sir Armine, a very old man, receives a violent blow from his inveterate foe Sir Guise; whose party is secured, and carried prisoners to the next inn. The illness of Sir Armine brings on the gout, and detains him at the inn some time: the marriage is therefore deferred. Sir Armine, during his illness, swallows poison by mistake; and feeling his death approaching, he presses his son to conclude the marriage with Olivia; and he particularly enforces this command, as his friend Mr. Clare had lately assisted him with a large sum of money, and rescued the whole family from poverty. Henry despairingly consents to the match, and promises to endeavour to forget his former attachment to the daughter of his father's infamous adversary.

Previously to this event, John Fitzorton, the elder brother, and Charles Stuart, seek to dissipate amid the din of arms the thought of their unhappy attachment to Olivia; a family secret which they kept locked in their own bosoms, though they were in the constant habit of living together in the most unreserved manner. Henry Fitzorton, now the husband of Olivia, vainly endeavours to forget his old attachment to Caroline Stuart: but “ hæret lateri lethalis arundo,” and the conflict of passions renders him the most miserable of mankind. His melancholy is not even allayed by the fresh reasons of attachment to his wife, which gained existence in the family of children which Olivia had brought him. A change, however, soon takes place, and Olivia dies, in consequence of at tending on one of her children who had caught a contagious disorder.

During the cohabitation of Henry Fitzorton and Olivia, affairs at the Abbey had suffered a complete revolution. The infamous conduct of Sir Guise Stuart, who had been set free after his defeat by the party of Charles Stuart in the engage. ment in the forest, occasions the death of his lady, and the secession of his son and daughter to a foreign country; where, by the counsels of father Arthur, fa pious and confidential priest,) Caroline Stuart enters into a religious house as a no❤ vice, in despair of ever being the wife of Henry Fitzorton. Before the time of her noviciate is expired, Henry Fitzorton, now a widower, on receiving this account of Caroline's destination, repairs with His brother John to the convent on the very day in which her noviciate expires. Father Arthur, after some pious scruples, relates to Caroline Stuart the death of Olivia, and the visit of Henry Fitzorton. After some suspense, Henry has determined to take a monk's habit, and to bid

adieu to his family and the world: but, on approaching the altar at which he is about to renounce all his connections with mankind, he perceives Caroline Stuart; an eclaircissement takes place; and Caroline, who, in consequence of the information of Henry's widow'd state, had altered her resolution of becoming a nun, accepts the hand of Henry, and returns with him to England.

The author's very long details of Sir Guise have been omitted in this our summary, for obvious reasons; and we confess that the attempt to develope the story thus far has put our diligence to its full proof. If the curious reader be not satisfied without some illustration, we will quote two or three short passages.

When Henry Fitzorton, banished from the Abbey, indulged his melancholy passion for Caroline Stuart, by walking day and night among the adjacent woods, a faithful servant (who, unknown to Henry, had watched his frequent wanderings, and feared that his health might be injured by long fasting,) adopted the following stratagem: He it was who placed in the forest, which Henry so frequently haunted, those accommodations which the heated brain of his master sometimes attributed to magic and well he might; for sometimes a peach would ripen upon a barren thorn, a pine apple would enrich a bramble, and bunches of the grape be twisted with the May bush.' So much for nature and probability!

ers.

The following quotation describes the history which Mr. Page, the keeper of a circulating library, gives of the various tastes of his customers: I wish you could see the circulators at my friend Page's shop, and hear Page describe his custom"Five changes a day, Sir, (he has said to me-you know his quaint humour and shrewd brevity,) aye and come for the sixth at night. I say, read a book to the end; indeed, they begin with the end, return to the title, skip preface, jump to middle, dash again to end, and away for another volume! and as to my folio and quarto gentry, Mr. Dugdale and Domine Chillingworth, and Gaffer Clarendon, and such old Grecians, they don't come home for half a year.-Pray, dear Mr. Page, says a pretty lisper, who had been looking over the catalogue, is not that there Lady Dinjey, she who makes your books smell so horribly of spirits, and is so generous of her snuff? I declare my sister Bab and a whole party of us were the other evening almost poisoned in the first volume of "Delicate Distresses,' and sweet Jane Hectic was quite overcome before she had half got through "Excessive Sensibility."-So much for humour!

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The following words and phrases are peculiarly the property of the author of Family Secrets: 'sensical' and 'sensate,' for sensible; veritable, for true; and impayable obligations.'

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ART.