THE CHANNINGS.*

Tire Channings will not increase the reputation which Mrs. Wood acquired by ` East Lynne." The latter story, though morbid ins tone, showed power in the delineation of character; and, despite the; impossibility of its principal incident, kept the reader's attention fixed. The Channings is almost as morbid, though in a very different * The Charming& By the Author.= oC " East Lynne." Bentley. oare1—lest any of you should lose this inconceivable 'blessing."

expiated, for they condemn her to listen to this sermon, delivered. accusation meekly, and even his father finally concludes that he has this time by Mrs. Chinning:

fallen into a sudden temptation. The town is full of gossip, and one " I it does, indeed, Lady Augusta. God's laws everywhere proclaim it_ by one the family fall under the influence of this misfortune. Con- Look at the productions of the earth. Dig out a rough diamond from a stance, the sister, who acquits Arthur, still breaks off an engagement mine—what is it, unless you polish it, and cut it, and set it ? Do you see rather than let her lover investigate further, and Tom at school is its value, its beauty, in its native state ? Look at the trees of our fields, the persecuted by the boys as the "thief's brother," and loses the senior- flowers of our parterres, the vegetables of our gardens—what are they, unless. ship for which he had striven so bird. The school would not suffer they are pruned, dug about, cared for ? It is by cultivation alone that the master to bestow it on a thief's brother, a bit of injustice to they can be brought to perfection. Compare those which have grown up in English schoolboys against which we protest. They would have a wild, rude state, with others that have been sedulously reared and tended; abused Tom Channing, nicknamed him, and harassed his life out, but You can scarcely believe them to be of the same species. And, if God made- they would not have robbed him of his fair place. Arthur, however, the productions of the earth, so that it is only by our constant attention

organist, the makes no sign, but accepts the post of assistant to an

us evince less care for that far more important product, our children's. father goes to a German Spa, and the whole family, with one excer minds? They may be trained to perfectness, or they may be let run. to, tion, live from different motives in a kind of agony, wholly improbab e waste by neglect." in characters so young. The exceptionis Hamish, in the first part of Teaching, one would think, might at least in a novel be a little less the book a careless, cool young fellow, who does his father's work in like Mr. Bellew's preaching without much injury either to literature' office, gets into debt., and generally laughs at the world, and in a few or morality. As it is it cannot improve the pious, and those who read chapters farther on is devoted to literature, secretly working through for amusement simply skip it. half the night. He is cool and composed, and his air, coupled with the We have not touched on the schoolboy scenes, for we really have nocturual work, an appearance of ready cash, and his presence in the nothing to say on them. They seem to us very pale and thin ns if office just before the note disappeared, has induced Arthur and written by one who had observed a few lads very carefully without Constance alike to believe him guilty of the theft. For this, there- precisely comprehending them, but they are true enough in externals fore, Arthur endures his employer's disiiiissal„ and his father's to make the book pleasant to the boys and girls for whom, we suspicions, the destruction of his brother's hopes, and the cancelling suppose, it was written. Descriptions of schoolboys, Toni Brown's of his sister's engagement. For this he has endured struggles such excepted, are never remarkably good, and we confess to reading of as are represented in this passage : boy plots, squabbles, and games with a decided feeling of weariness. " But a few minutes had elapsed since Mr. Channing had repeated aloud That, however, may be but a question of taste, and we confine our the petition in the prayer taught us by our Saviour—' Lead us not into present objection to the morbid morality which Mrs. Wood tries to temptation !' It had come quickly to one of his hearers. If ever tempta- inculcate.

tion assailed a heart it assailed Arthur's then. 'Not I, father ; it is Hamish who is guilty • it is for him I have to bear. Hamish, whom you ' GERMAN THEOLOGY.* are caressing, was the tine culprit ; I, whom you despise, am innocent.'

Words such as these might have hovered on Arthur's lips ; they were near FIRST NOTICE. doing it, but for the strangely imploring look cast to him from the tearful THERE seems now to be little doubt that the Established Church eyes of Constance, who read his struggle. Arthur remembered One who of England is likely, during the next few years, to be the scene had endured temptation far greater than this ; who is ever ready to grant of very angry controversies, -Between two large, and for this purpose the same strength of patience to those who need it. A few moments, and

the struggle and the temptation faded away, and he bad not yielded

to it." historical theology of that Church, and a smaller, but vezelle,

That passage is the key to the theory of the book, and, as it were, a synopsis of its over-strained sentiment and unsound morality. opinions. Mrs. Wood utterly forgets that the " temptation" which she so But what are " German opinions " ? Who, of the many who use necklessly likens to that of Christ is neither more nor less than a

temptation to tell the truth! Arthur's conduct may be very fine opinions of Strauss or of Paulus, of Karl Vogt or H euberg, of from the schoolboy point of view, but in strict morality he was Schwarz or Kahnis ? For about a hundred.years aenfistrge number

simply acting a lie. Not to tell tales is an excellent maxim for children, but what would become of the world if all men made it a

point of religious duty not to give evidence, and thought a frank 4, Osthichte der Neuesten Theologie. Von Karl Bohm= Leipzig: Brecdilieus. way, and not a little tedious besides. Much of the tale is concerned 1 impulse to honesty a temptationfrom Satan himself. An act of with schoolboys, and though women can do many things which they the kind done for a brother may be very excusable, but only if do not often attempt, to describe the iuternal life of a collection of suspicion be not directed upon the innocent. In any event Arthur's schoolboys, with their special morality, ideas, laws of honour, and reticence is exceedingly unnatural. Half the brothers in England nation o fun, is not a faculty included among them. They can never would refuse to "tell. tales " of each other, but who doubts that a' comprehend or perceive the unconsciousness which is the distinction lad like Arthur, while screening his brother to the utmost, would between boyhood and maturity, and always describe them as if they still burst into fierce assertions of his own innocence? Arthur not were men minus judgment and plus a strong spice of bedevilment. only hesitates, but throughout all these scenes, and under all this Bywater, for example, in The Channings, by far the best sketch of a misery, he never once intimates to Hamish that he suspects him real boy who loves play and detests fat, plans an expose with the skill He even sees him present ten pounds to his mother, the proceeds, and patience of a detective, while the whole school dictates an act of as he thinks, of the robbery, and receive her kiss for thoughtful injustice of which only a very " genteel" private school with an in- kindness, without a word. Ilamish would have been in no greater

competent master and no public opinion could possibly he guilty. danger from his brother's knowledge than from his brother's suspicion, The interest of the story centres in two families, the Channings but throughout he remains ignorant till the affair is explained. One and Yorkes, residing in an ancient Cathedral town. One has for its word to him would have cleared up all, but Arthur goes on with head a wise and pious man afflicted with rheumatism and a tendency his mental trials, and Constance rejects investigation, and both grow towards moralities, which read as if they had been clipped out of a cool to Hamish, and everybody is at cross purposes, and vet no bad sermon. He is going on. the Continent, and these are his final word is said. The explanation is cleverly managed. RolandIorke, remarks : another clerk in the proctor's office, has taken the money, and is the " I Children, I do not like these partings. They always sadden my only one never suspected, either by his office mates or the reader. We

heart. They make me long for that life where partings shall be no more. have some doubts as to whether Mrs. Wood has failed or succeeded in Oh, my dear ones, do you all strive on to attain to that blessed life ! Think this character, but incline to the latter theory. He represents uo class,. what would be our woeful grief—if such can assail us there ; if memory and is therefore faulty, but taken as an utterly exceptional being of the past may be allowed us—should we find any one of our dear ones Roland Yorke is well drawn. A thoughtless good-natured lad, with absent—of you who now stand around me! I speak to you all—not more noprinciples and no training, he has taken the money, and when to one than another—absent through his own fault, his own sin, his own Arthur is accused is only furiously angry at the injustice done to. carelessness! Oh, children! you cannot tell my love for you—my anxious

his friend. Most men would be repentant, but we can imagine a nature on which crime leaves but little stain, because it is too The other family has only a mother, Lady Augusta Yorke, silly and shallow to retain any impression whatever. It is hard to soil in.dia- extravagant, loving her children and despised by them, always in rubber. Yorke accompanies his friend before the magistrates, velie- treuble, and always when excited talking the conventional Irish mently defends him, attacks the proctor for cruelty, and conducts. brogue. The "moral" of the book, therefore, is to display the value himself as an impulsive generous Irishman might be expected to of training, and as the authoress has it all her own way, of course the do. He even returns the money in an anon.yrnous letter, and that moral is very effectively displayed. As a matter of fact, spoiled not succeeding, betakes himself to Port Natal, and in a rattliig

children generally do exceedingly well, the absence of training being Irish letter confesses his crime, without a thought of contrition, but compensated by increased originality and strength of will; but we with a promise to " cut " the proctor for disbelieving his friend! may let that pass. Mothers always 'believe in training, and who are It is just possible that character, and being possible it is very cleverly we to impugn their august decision P As the story opens the drawn, though Mrs. Wood has added an unlikely incident or two,, Channings have just lost a suit upon which they had built expects- just to deceive the reader. A character like Roland Yorke would. tions for years, and its members resolve, in a well-told scene, to do not accuse an innocent man, as he does when he tries to throw the what they can to help their father to visit a German Spa. The eldest blame on theproctor's cousin. That suggestion, which seems to girl goes out as governess, the eldest boy takes to some secret °cell- clear up the riddle, is exceedingly clever, and helps to keep the pation, the second gives up the idea of buying his articles, and the reader's attention diverted, but it injures the picture the authoress. third resolves to win a sernorship which carries an exhibition. The was trying to draw. Of course the confession once made the cloud second, however, Arthur, is in a proctor's office, and a 201.-note which blows over, Mr. Channing returns cured, Constance's lover begs. the proctor was posting to a cousin disappears under circumstances her forgiveness, and everybody is exceedingly happy, except Lady which throw a gloom over the whole family. Questioned like the rest Augusta, whose horror at her children's peccadilloes quite overcomes of the clerks, Arthur answers hesitatingly, and is declared by his em- her usual carelessness. Her sins of omission, however, are terribly ployer, an old friend of his father's, to he guilty. He bears the.

and labour they can be brought to perfection, would He, think you, have