NEW NOVELS. * Din author of "Two Old Men's Tales" has

made in Evelyn Marston a considerable advance over her later fictions ; which, Booth to say, have often passed to the very verge of extra- vagance, and confounded violence with force. The old pecu- liarity of all the writer's tales is present : the story and. charac- ters are rather creations than a reflex of the incidents of life or' 'Evelyn Marston. By the Author of "Emilia Wyndham," "Two Old lien's Tales," ite. In three volumes. Published by Hurst and Blackett. The Linesman; or Service in the Guards and the Line during England's Long Peace and Little Wars. By Colonel Eters Napier, Author of " Gleanings from British Battle-Fields," 40., 4-c. In three volumes. Published by Hyde. . Agnes Waring: an Autobiography. Edited by the Author of " rate Vernon.' In three volumes, Published by Newby.

of individual types. She has, however, chosen a new field for the subject of her tale, and conceived her principal actors with her pristine skill, as well as executed them with her pristine finish.

The early scenes of _Evelyn Marston are laid in Spitalfields, during one of the periods of distress which assailed that region towards the close of the last century, when protective laws could shut out foreign products, but could not prevent the changes of fashion. The suffering is vividly painted, but less for itself as a part of the tale than to introduce some of the principal actors. These are the family of Du Chastel, noble Huguenots, who after undergoing the persecutions which took place in France even till the accession of Louis the Sixteenth, found refuge in Spitalfields, where a brother had established a factory. The three persons, father, mother, and son who take a part in the story, are very re- markable delineations. he parents are gentle by nature courteous by nation and by training, devout and charitable through their piety ; but tempered to firmness if not to hardness in the fire of persecution, and bred. as was the custom of the time to look to om, they have a quiet resolution to put aside every feel- !ilnigartZialinterferes with duty. And this nobleness contrasts strik- ingly but not incongruously with the position of M. Du Chastel as a master weaver in Spitalfields, striving to assist his workmen, and at last failing through his philanthropy. Their son Armand Du Chastel, with his modest courtesy, but his inward loftiness of feel- ing, and his devotion to his parents, even when forced to sacrifice the bias of his nature towards art and the cherished hopes of his life for distinction, is a good portrait, but not so rare or so original as his parents.

The greater part of the events with which the Du Chastels are connected, after the opening of the tale, derive their novelty and interest from their concomitants. In themselves they are not new. After struggling to support himself by mechanical employment for dealers and devoting such leisure as he can get to the pursuit of high ail, Armand comes into notice, and is employed by a Mr. Mars- ton, a Manchester manufacturer, to adorn his mansion. It so hap- pens that Armand has saved the life of Evelyn Marston, without knowing who she was: an attachment and marriage ensue of course, followed as an equal matter of course by the anger of Evelyn's father. The struggles of obscure genius and poverty en- sue ; but when Mr. Marston is ruined, and in prison on some charge of fraud, Armand and. Evelyn are yielding in different ways to the effects of anxiety and poverty, and the elder Du Chas- te', sunk to the situation of a clerk but still maintaining his Christian character and quiet dignity, is the mainstay of the family, the scene suddenly changes. he family of Du Chastel are restored to their honours and estates.

The struggles of a genius with poverty, want of patronage, and the inherent difficulties that impede the aspirant for fame, have been a frequent topic with fictionists of late. There is as little novelty iii an unequal marriage with its consequent results, though circumstances in Evelyn Marston may remove it from the trite. We are not sure, however, but that more mastery would have been shown in carrying an imprudent marriage to its usual results, than in curing all evils by a sudden stroke of fortune. There are scenes and incidents in the tale with many "situa-

tions," where the interest arises from character and dialogue and the conjoint influence of the two upon future events. There is perhaps more disquisition than is usual in novels, but of a power- ful thoughtful kind, and various in subject. Philanthropy in motive and action' political economy judiciously handled, and art, are all touched upon. Art especially has some solid reflec- tions well expressed. Here is one on the necessity of training.

"There is a something mechanical and rudimental which must be ac- quired before anything of real merit in art can be produced ; and life, with- out the assistance of others, is wasted in vain attempts at (Hoovering that for a man's self, which frequently could be taught him in a week, in an hour. For the individual to have to go through what has been the work of ages, and bring himself unaided up to the mark of his time, is the destruc- tion of all rational aspiring."

This on the difference between study and practice is still better, and we think new.

"Everything smiles upon the young determined student. Difficulties vanish before his vigour and courage ; for the difficulties he has to contend with are honest ones, arising from the nature of the task itself ; absolute and positive in their form, and to be vanquished by the same means with which others have succeeded in overcoming them. It is a race in which the best and most determined runner invariably wins.

"Whilst we are learners, our way is marked out plainly before us. The ascent may be steep, the path rugged, but every step we take brings us near- er to our end. Even- night closes with the cheering reflection of an ad- vance, however small, effected. "But different is it when once the gate is opened, and the threshold passed which separates acquirement from execution.

Gentlemen I perceive you are not cabbages,' began the stammering lecturer—and stopped short. He had long been preparing himself to ad- dress the public by haranguing the vegetables in his garden ; and something of the same sort takes place when the student passes into the producer—be it in art, one of the professions, statesmanship, or life.

"The moment of trial comes when we cease to follow, and step forth to do as best we can, alone."

Colonel Elers Napier's novel of The .Linesman is mainly re- moved from commonplace by the author's knowledge of the sub- ject. His sketches, not of military studies but of the life of a student designed for the army, have a certain vraisemblance. So have the subsequent adventures in the barrack, on the voyage, on Indian or Colonial service and in the first Burmese war. Fiction, however, is not exactly the Colonel's forte. He wants greater closeness in -narrative and description, and the dra- matic gift of infusing more characteristic traits into his persons and discourse. The absence of a native bent, which would uncon- sciously have inducted him to throw his own experience into a more appropriate form, is a greater deficiency. The Colonel is too imitative in his plan ; too much like Harry Lorregtter and other novels of the rattling school of military and adventurous fiction.

The object of the author, however, is not so much a romance as a book on Army-reform in the disguise of a story of adventure— "truth severe in fairy fiction dressed." His original idea was not bad. One actor is the son and heir of a nobleman, idle, stupid, pro- fligate, and escaping expulsion from the military school by a broad hint to retire : yet this vile and wicked youth is by interest put into the Guards, and by dint of interestand money can rise rapidly in his profession. The cousin—the reverse of this medal—is a poor rela- tion of the peer's son, not exactly a saint, but tolerably steady., studious of his profession, passes a creditable examination, and gets a -commission in the Line. The idea is not so dramatically developed as it might be, but the upshot is distinct enough. The Linesman, after many years' Colonial service, three campaigns, injured health, and wounds, is a lieutenant, who is graciously permitted to purchase an unattached captaincy. The fortunate Guardsman has become a general and K.C.B. • his only service having been in the Crimea, where the only Military quality he exhibited or could exhibit was pluck.

The same peculiarity is visible in the general exhibition of abuses as in the respective fortunes of the two cousins. The ex- hibition is not connected with the story, but shown in incidents that lead to nothing, or told by examples, or disquisitions. Per- haps the feelings of the military reformer are too warm for the effective exposure of the evils. He falls back upon old abuses that have now been remedied, and probably makes too much of mere professional grievances, at least for the public at large. The disquisitional form has this further disadvantage : the numerous discussions of late upon Army-reform have familiarized the public with the topic, which therefore appears to want novelty.

In Agnes Waring we have somewhat of a novelty—a first-rate circulating-library novel with a socially-didactic purpose ; not, however, very skilfully carried out. The object of the writer is to warn women from the fatal errors they are led to commit on the momentous question of marriage, "through weakness, tender- ness, mistaken self-devotion and virtues grown beyond all ra- tional bounds." Whether the warning is needed we do not know. In this story it is altogether too extreme to point a general lesson. Agnes Waring is the sister of a gay, neglectful youth, who so misconducts himself as to be expelled from college. Her father, a once wealthy manufacturer, dies suddenly, insolvent; her mo- ther is an amiable but helpless lady, of the landed interest. On the death of Mr. Waring, his family establish Agnes in a school. So many troubles coming all together is not particularly agreeable either to herself, her mother, or -her best friends. A Mr. Millar, a widower, who had formerly been struck with Agnes, pays her attentions, and Agnes is persuaded to accept him. To marry for an establishment is wrong ; but the cause of this marriage was the previous accumulation of misfortunes ; and the first moral pointed by Agnes Waring, like that of Fredrika Bremer's Hertha, is against paternal insolvency. Mr. Millar turns out badly, according to the feminine point of view, from which everything in the novel is drawn ; but there are really worse men in the world. He is stout, elderly, and not well-booking; his manners are not polished, nor his taste very refined ;

his way, too, is hard, and his voice loud ; but he is proud of his young wife, and pretty liberal in his housekeeping. However, what with real and sentimental troubles from her husband and his daughters, the life of Agnes becomes unbearable. She determines to feign suicide, on a journey in Switzerland, and begin life anew. This we conceive to be a far more momentous error than even the error of the marriage, great as that might be. It was the abandon- ment of a duty voluntarily undertaken. Had Mr. Millar married again, it would have led. to grievous injury to his supposed wife and her children. In the novel, the scheme simply produces the death of the guide; whose connivance she has obtained by her influence over him, and who pines away under suspicion of mur- der. In a few years Mr. Millar likewise dies, his death being seemingly hastened by remorse. The feminine exaggeration of the fundamental idea, as well as of the troubles which Agnes suffers, mars any didactic effect. The story is well told, and something of novelty ensues from the peculiar position of the heroine after her supposed death.