19 JANUARY 1884, Page 21

A Newport Aquarelle. (Roberts Brothers, Boston, 1:1.8.)—We have here a

vivid sketch of fashionable life at an American summer resort. The English reader may learn how the Upper Ten of the States amuse themselves, and he may also learn, so far as it can be learnt without practice, to distinguish Boston people from New Yorkers. It is interesting to know that the Boston ladies are less exigeantes than their New York sisters. They are very numerous, it seems ; numbers increase competition, and competition lowers the claim on attention. "The male sex," says one of their number, " are, in our community, the privileged class. They are exempt from every social duty, and included in every social pleasure. The charities and the reforms are carried on by ladies, who minister to the sick and uphold the privileges of the criminals. We visit the hospitals and the prisons, pay the taxes, give the parties, oversee the schools, and keep up the churches." Into this social picture is introduced a love-story of the anal kind, save that a " Claimant " figures in it. American writers cannot know what a shudder this personage produces in English readers. We do not forget the hundred and seventy days (if that is the right number) of that most intolerable trial.