LADY DLESSINGTON ' S GOVERNESS.

Tun distinguishing characteristia of Lady BLEssixoTos'a mind is a considerable worldly cleverness, with a sly perception of weak- ness or absurdity. She has also a glib pleasantness of style, which lies flatterers call elegance, though it makes no approach to it ; and she is very plaiu—she that runs may read, though the matter may not always be worth the reading. Her defects, or rather i her wants, are great. Destitute of magination, she is lost as soon as she quits the model before her; sinking into mawkish twaddle, or deviating into caricature, when she attempts what she has not seen. Her knowledge of the events of life seems limited; so that her story is often not well connected or probably carried on : and her ideas of pattern religion or morality are the drollest imaginable. Of works that vary with the varying nature of their origin,— being lively, real, and humorous when transcribed from actual life ; -extravagant, though still laughable, when the author attempts to invent the comic ; but flat, poor, or ridiculous, when she attempts the sentimental or the serious,—The Governess is one of the best. Rigorously considered, it would not bear out its title ; for it is not .a picture of the lives of governesses in general, but of a very pecu- liar governess. The true misery of the class, we conceive is shown in the isolation of heart and the depression of spirits which their " situation" is liable to induce ; in the chilling monotony of their existence ; the cold and forced civility which others throw to them rather than pay them ; and the necessity they are often placed under of suppressing all the spontaneous emotions till they even- tually dwarf or wither away. The distresses of Lady BLEssnsen- assx's governess are of a grosser, and we must think a less general kind,—the open insolence of servants, the broad brutality of em- ployers, the jealousy of wives, the undisguised persecutions of a Creole gallant ; besides a variety of interesting little difficulties, springing from sudden death, loss of letters, a charge of robbery, with other gratuitous touches to deepen the pathetic.

Putting these things aside, The Governess is a very agreeable story, for those who will shut their eyes to the necessities of Lady BLEssiNoToN's fiction. It contains a good many ludicrous scenes, ivith some truth and some extravagance ; it abounds with sensible reflections, and occasionally makes some capital hits ; and more than all, it is a very pleasant book to read. Miss Mordaunt, the daughter of a supposed mercantile Crmsus, wino failed and committed suicide, is the heroine of the tale, and a paragon of beauty, virtue, and accomplishments. Her father's foible was fashionable company, which left hint in his misfortunes ; and, rather than be a burden to her aunt, Miss Mordaunt resolves to get her bread as a governess. Her first "situation" is in the family of a rich citizen; the husband a quiet andfeeling man—very well sketched, the wife a violent and vulgar pretender to fashion. In this do- micile the governess has to endure the (overdrawn) insolence of servants, the vulgar tyranny of the mistress, the freaks of spoiled ,children, antl'the :ill banavlour of' most of tine .guests; awl is ,at last dismissesistlarough Mrs. Williinas's jealousy. lvr next pond-

tion is as companion to a lady' of -fortniiesa pretender to literitinie;" and a '4. :feeder of lions, The person is. a caricature though .pos'= sibly intended' for the late .LYDIA WRITE. ; but the incident gives rise to some very clever hits at album-writers and toadying littera.. tents. On the death of this lady, brought about by the public dis- covery that her Sapphic hair is a wig- and by the bite alter lap-. dog, Miss Mordaunt enters a noble family. Here every thing in the furniture, attendance, and provender is capital, (Lady Bus- SINGTON being very attentive to these matters) ; the pupil also is docile, the mother amiable, and the papa a gentleman, though somewhat stiff. But the middle-aged husband is jealous of his young wife, and not without cause ; Miss Mordaunt is mixed up with some assignations; and is summarily dismissed, but not before she has saved Lady Axminster, and preached her into repentance. Her next situation is with a country squire and his wife, whose whole occupation is eating and drinking : but before she is well do- miciled with them she is removed on a charge of robbery ; to which absurdity a colour is given by her striving to avoid an encounter at an inn with ...11r. Hercules Marsden, her Creole lover. Lord Ax. minister has now, however, discovered her merits, and interferes to protect her ; the true thief is discovered ; a distant connexion dies, leaving Miss Mordaunt a fortune ; and the governess ends by marrying a lord.

The more elaborate characters are not so successful as the sketches, being somewhat daubed and overdone. Of the sketches, Mr. Hercules 'Marsden, the young Creole,* is perhaps the best in conception and execution, extravagant as he scents ; but though the character is in keeping, the conduct is out of place : his impudent ignorance would have prompted him to do all Inc does, but scarcely amongst the company represented. His mother too, a Coloured person fresh from Jamaica, doing absurd things without a con- sciousness of their absurdity, is also very good, though very slight. Some of' the minor persons, who come like shadows, arc well hit off. This, for instance, reads like an actual dialogue of two elderly tabbies.

" Is she not too pretty for a governeas ? " demanded Lady Elizabeth Mere- dith. I have known such mischief arise from having pretty governesses ass ladies' maids, that I always advise my friends to beware of engaging them." " Why, it was only last season," interrupted Lady Arabella Meredith, "that our poor dear friend 'Mrs. Milner Hampden had that dreadfnl affair occur in her house : you surely must have heard of it. Only think how shocking! Her husband wan literally found walking with the governess in Hyde Park be- fore breakfast. Fancy how smocking! And then the creature had the imp. &nee to say that Mr. 'Milner Hampden, being on horseback in the Park, joined his children, two of whom he gave his hands to, while the other walked with her. Of course he told the same story, for men are capable of any thing on such occasions; and, would you believe it, poor Mrs. Milner Hampden was so weak and credulous, that she would have believed the artful tale, and not have discharged the abominable young person, had not Elizabeth and I advised her to do so."

" But now," resumed Lady Elizabeth, "we have opened her eyes; and her husband, though a very designing man, can no more deceive her ; and they are, consequently, on very bad terms. Have you not heard about Laity Faung Eltons' femme de ehambre? 0! it is a horrid affair, I assure you ; but, if people will take beauties into their families, they must take the consequence; it IS not every woman who has the good fortune to possess such a husband as Lord Axminster. Did you observe, Arabella, how dignified he looked when he prevented that young person from walking with him and. Lady Isabella?"

There is much sense, too, at the bottom of this TALK OF THE SECOND TAULE.

The story of Miss Mordaunt's former state had spread through the whole

household of Mr. Williamson. Walker had left untold nothing of the . splendour and elegance of her father's mansion in its palmy days.

"I have seen," repeated he, warming with his subject, "my young mistress sparkling in diamonds, doing the honours of her father's table to sonic of the highest nobility in the land, ay, and to royalty too. I wonder, do they ever recollect the poor orphan their hospitable host left behind Mill ? "

"Not they, I warrant," said the housekeeper. "Eaten bread is soon for- gotten, brother; and the grand folk have so many engagements of pleasure on their hands, that they have not time to think of those who can no longer offer them new ones."

"Wiry, as to the matter of that," said the femme de chambre," I don't see that the nobility are so much to be blamed in such cases. They know well enough that a rich merchant like Mr. Mordaunt, who is not of their own rank, only asks them out of sheer vanity, on account of their titles. They condescend to eat his good dinners and drink his rare wines, thinking all the time that they confer a high honour on him, and that when a paid paragraph is inserted by his desire in the fashionable papers, giving a long list of theit names as having partaken of the splendid diuner at Mr. Mordaunt's on such a day, all obligation is at an end."

" Well, perhaps there may lie some truth in that," said Walker, with a sigh. "But never was there a more hospitable gentleman than poor Mr. Mordaunt Grand dinners five days out of the seven, the tables covered with gold and silver plate, well filled with the choicest dainties, and the guests the highest in the land."

"Had he many of his equals at these grand dinners ? " asked the femme de chambre.

"I can't say he had," replied Walker "it was his only fault that he liked to have Dukes, Marquises, and Earls about him, neglecting the friends of his own station." y,,, sail the housekeeper, "your poor master was what I call a hosten- tations more than a ospitalde gentleman, and he paid dearly for it ; for there is no doubt hut that if Inc had given hie good dinners to bankers and merchants, like himself; they might have helped him in the hour of need, propped up his credit with theirs, or, at all events, behaved kindly to his poor daughter: but 1 warrant me., the nobility, who ate so many of his good dinners, won't trouble their heads about her."

" They won't trouble their hearts, at any rate," said the pert ahigail, " be- cause they have none ; " a witticism which was applauded by n general smile, though Walker dissented from the assertion, by declaring that he knew seve.

* Lady Beessienvox falls into the common error of misconceiving the meaning of " Creole,"—which signifies a native colonist born of European parents. Neither is the term half-caste, we suspect, used in the West Indies. The Creoles are more precise, having five or six distinct terms to denote as many intermixtures or crosses of !AAA, each el which a /naive eye can detect at °um, eft eribe nobility who not Mily hail. hearts but as good ,hearts as ever existed, '" 'ton have been more lucky; then,. than I have," retorted Mrs. rept:ins ; for I: hare lived in four noble faMilies, in which I saw many proofs Of good animas; but few of good hearts.'.'

. rasmoNABLE..PELLINC. • ,Tlic.,sttinmer friends who had fluekod .round the hospitable board of Mr. Mordaunt during his proSperity, were the first to censure his profusion now that they could no longer profit by it : they discovered a thousand fault's in him whom they bad so lately flattered, until, tired of the subject, they agreed that his ruin and death, with the horrid manner of it, were such shocking in- cidents, that it made them uncomfintalde to think of him: and, const•quently, ikt ceasing to remember the litther, they also forgot his child.

Some parts of the literary toadyism at Mrs. Robinson's appear overdone; but, no doubt, Lady Bussuererox has had more experi- ence of the reality than we can pretend to. Several of the touches, however, are very good. The following lines are as excellent a satire on complimentary verses as we ever met—litr better than Sunni- naN's ridicule of the VerS de &midi; in the Schaal fur Scandal, which are rendered rather too obvious by their want of matter. Indeed, we know of nothing equal to these, in subdued ridicule, except Lady BLEssiNcerox's own panegyric on the (lace's.

VERSES ON MRS. R013INSON'5

O'filioughnessy real the fullowin.; effusion with a brogue that rendered eau! still more :ionising; the lady playing with her fan all the time. " Ne'er spike el orient p,arls front it the briny deep —

Far fairer ;Ire the .nnwv ones your coral lips ;loth heop

Prisoners. mail a rosy *smile reveals them to the light,

;littering as dth the iniiky way ii; sooty it:,elateiell night.

lad Cadinas, 'steal of drago:ts teeth, yom party treasmys sown. Not a rni..d men hit Cupids front the bright seed had grown ;

And they'd !lava !Ought to share your smiles, vs all us poets du,

For you re the Queen of Wit and firaee, as well as Beauty too,"