Merry-Mount, a Romance of the Massachusetts Colony, is an at-
tempt to exhibit the manners of the Puritan founders of New England, contrasted with the reckless and riotous conduct of some adventurous Cavaliers who had gone to the New World as an escape from ruin at home. Mixed up with the writer's idea of the historical characteristics, is a love- tale of course, where differences of religion and temperament keep the parties asunder till the end of the work ; the villain of the story endea- vouring to take advantage of this state of things to carry off the lady. The subject is not a bad one; but the writer is deficient in the requisite skill and imagination. He has a fluent style, with a borrowed air of power which promises more at first than is afterwards fulfilled. The story, as he presents it, has little interest; the principals being tag eight of, while he is occupied in getting up scenes among subordinates, which are too obviously artificial to be received as pictures of anything save the regular novelist's irks of deboshed Cavaliers. The more romantic parts of the tale are derived from the same source, rather crudely put together, but deriving a little novelty from New England scenery. Merry-Mount is an importation from America.
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