THE PRIORS OF PRAGUE.
IN the course of the correspondence between Mr. NEALE and Captain MARRYAT, the latter declared that the author of Caven- dish had "expended his whole portfolio of ideas" upon his first production. At that time this assertion was not perhaps strictly accurate; for both in the Port Admiral and IVill It there were persons and scenes whose origin had been drawn from reality, although exaggerated for the sake of effect. But the Captain was a prophetic critic. The first three works of Mr. NEALE have exhausted the materials he gathered from observation, and he has now no resource but to draw upon fancy, and other writers. The Priors of Prague professes to be an autobiography of the son of Lady Mary Wortley Montague; an eccentric if not an in- sane person, who led a life of more variety than respectability. Whatever may have been the real adventures of the man, the most ardent admirer of the marvellous will be satiated with those of the fictitious hero. Mr. NEALE makes him twice run away from Westminster School ; turn chimney-sweep, itinerant fish- carrier, sailor, knight of the post in Spain, lover in a country vil- lage in England, medical student or apothecary's apprentice at Bath, and a variety of other characters which can readily enough be found when vraisemblance is set at defiance. The innate unfit- ness of all this for fiction, is not redeemed, so fir as we have read, (for we candidly confess to not having gone through it,) by being made the vehicle for any humorous events, knowledge of life, or striking descriptions. The manlier of the author is gene- rally plain and matter-of-fact, with considerable facility, in style and incident; both which qualities, however, we find to be comman enough where little thought is bestowed upon the justness of the sentiment or the probability of the story.
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