2 NOVEMBER 1889, Page 21

Life and Letters of Mrs. Sewell. By Mrs. Bayly. (James

Nisbet and Co.)—Mrs. Sewell—her maiden name was Wright—came of a family of Friends. In afterlife she left this community, but did not find satisfaction for her religious feelings in any denomination, though she always retained a kindly feeling for the Quakers. She devoted much time and thought to the service of her fellow- creatures, and quite late in life developed a literary ability which in its way was extraordinarily successful. One of her simple ballads, " Mother's Last Words," reached a sale of more than a million copies, and other works met with a public approval scarcely less emphatic. The volume begins with an autobiography of between seventy and eighty pages. It describes in a very pleasing way the country life of about a century ago. We do not mean to disparage Mrs. Bayly's work when we say that we wish there was more of Mrs. Sewell's own story.