HISTORY OF THE PUNJAB.*

THIS is an extremely well-timed work. Nor is it a superficial book got up for the nonce. On the contrary, it is in part a reprint of the well-known work by Mr. H. T. Prinsep, originally published in Calcutta, but long since out of print, and which was itself founded upon the official reports of Captain Murray, fifteen years political agent at Umbala, and of Captain Wade, the distinguished assistant at Lodiana. To this excellent original work there have been added five introductory chapters, and nine concluding ones, which latter contain the history of recent events. We have perused the introductory chapters, especially those which refer to the campaigns of Alexander, and his successors, with much interest, and we were pleased to find that they were up to the mark of recent discovery. The narrative of the late disturbed condition of the country, and of the glorious achievements of our army, will find readers of all classes, and now that Sir Henry Hardinge's consummate policy has divided the whole territory into a mountain and lowland monarchy, it forms the actual complement to the history of the Punjab as a distinct country.

MRS. MABERLEY'S "LEONTINE."+

LEONTINE Opens pleasingly. The orphan schoolboy disappointed of his holidays, the early indications of the wayward, stubborn nature of the young Guesclin de Fontenelle, come out in bold relief. Equally amusing and most pleasantly conceived are the scenes that pave the way to future days in the little town of La Ferté sous Jouarre. The old Jew banker, Anselm Guinot, and his dungeon-home tally well together, far more so than the plain and unostentatious usurer does with the extravagant, dressy, vain, and domineering wife of his bosom. There is already one fair protegée, Leontine, with whose history Madame Guinot has never been made acquainted, when to the infinite horror of the irascible lady another is announced under circumstances of similar mystery too well calculated to awaken the ill-natured surmises of the scandal-mongers of a small country-town. This is no less than the young Breton Guesclin, the last of the Beaumanoirs, sent thither by his uncle. To such an extent does the injured wife carry her indignation, as actually to quit the house and to seek refuge in a hotel, where dwelt, for the time being, the Duke of Richelieu, whom she had met at a ball the night before, but the lesson she gets while secreted in a closet of the heartlessness and profligacy of the young courtier and of the contempt he bore the banker's wife, makes her but too glad to regain her home without any evil coming from the escapade. But this is not all. The little party is soon increased by the society of a third beautiful young person, Antoinette, daughter of the fermiére generale. The childish group grew up together, the Duchess of Modena joins the circle and betrays feelings of unmistakeable maternal tenderness towards Leontine, who herself has given her innocent young heart to the wayward Guesclin.

Mademoiselle de Valois, the favourite daughter of the regent, had in early life contracted a secret marriage with Richelieu, and Leontine was

History of the Punjab, and of the Rise, Progress, and Present Condition of the Sect and Nation of the Sikhs. 2 vols Wm. H. Allen and Co.

† Leontine; or, the Court of Louis the Fifteenth. By Mrs. Maberly, Author of "Melantha," &c., &c. 3 vols. Henry Colburn.

the offspring of the ill-assorted alliance, but the connexion having been discovered, she was taken from her husband, scarcely against his will, to be forced into an unnatural marriage with the Duke of Modena.

Events progress rapidly with the young people. Guesclin has entered the service of the state under the auspices of the Duke of Richelieu, and acts as his aide-de-camp in that celebrated engagement of Fontenoy, which was announced by a pretty French actress from the boards of a theatre that stood in the midst of the camp. "Messieurs, demain relache à cause de la bataille. Après demain on donnera l'Amour Voltigeur."

The young warrior was also entangled in the any thing but silken chains woven for him by the Countess Hortense de Chateauneuf. Antoinette has become Madame d'Etioles, but Leontine has remained faithful to an attachment consecrated by Count Robert, the uncle, on his deathbed. She has also attached to her service François Damiens, whose attempted crime is made to spring from wounded pride and jealousy.

Then there is a third epoch. The beautiful Antoinette has succeeded to the Maillys, Vintimelles, and Chateaurous, as favourite of the king, and has assumed an historical name-that of Marquise de Pompadour, while the profligacy of Hortense has hurried Guesclin into a duel and the Bastile, whence he ultimately emerges at the fall of Richelieu to do justice to the faithful Leontine. The story is altogether a very animated and singularly truthful picture of France and its court during a very striking epoch in history.

THE BLACKGOWN PAPERS.*

A GLIMPSE of the western world introduces us to a mushroom city with a log church, where Eli Blackgown, doctor of divinity and farmer, ministers to the faithful in single-blessedness, but solaced by a fair niece, Emily. A young and mysterious stranger, of a very dark, sunny complexion, arrives, no one knows how or whence, at this remote settlement in the woods. Accomplished in literature and the arts, wise with travel, and experienced in the languages and knowledge of foreign countries, he wooes and wins the fair niece, when he turns out, to the horror of all concerned, to be the son of mulatto of a wealthy Tennessee, and the grandson of a slave! Nothing remains then, but to start for some country where the admixture of dark with white blood is not more disgraceful than crime itself, and, in return for his Emily, Walter, the half-caste, leaves the learned doctor these papers, which now hand down his name to posterity as associated with strange and eventful scenes of foreign-chiefly Italian-life. From gay to serious, from the humorous to the sentimental, these tales and sketches evidence a mastery over our language, combined with a variety of purpose and skilful portraiture, which have always characterised Signor Mariotti's literary efforts. Who will not be amused with the tricks played upon Milord Runebif, in the lively account of Carnival, or not sympathise with the progress of the little organ boy, Morello. Then there is Amelia, a strange story of an Austrian colonel, killed by a student of Pavia, who is sought out and wedded by his rival's love. And a legend of San Nicolo de Bari, a very successful imitation of Ingoldsby, and Maria Stella, a bandit story, told as one familiar with persons and localities alone could tell it. The Blackgown Papers deserve success.

* The Blackgown Papers. By L. Mariotti. 2 vols. Wiley and Putnam.

SOCIAL INFLUENCES.*

THIS is a strange book, the object of which is simple and meritorious -to trace some of the silent influences exercised over thought and action by the system of society as at present constituted--but the execution of which is wayward and more than usually embarrassed and obscured by the peculiarities or idiosyncracies of style.

PENINSULAR SCENES AND SKETCHES.†t

FULL well will this little work repay the reader. Any thing more various, or more entertaining, has not appeared in so homely a shape for a long time. The author apologetically says, "So many writers, both soldiers and civilians, have found materials for their pens in the Spanish wars of the last fifty years, that it may be thought the subject is waxing threadbare; and, with any other country, the supposition would, perhaps, not be far from the truth. Not so, however, with Spain, where the strange mixture of barbarism and civilisation, the wild and romantic character of the people, and their clinging adherence to ancient habits and customs give to every-day life all the charm of fiction." Never was apology less needed than in the present instance.

The feats and adventures of the Empeciada, and the passages, as the author terms it in his career, are far more romantic than aught fiction ever conceived, and at times almost partake of the marvellous. The sketches of the priest-soldier Merino and of Martin Zurbano, are equally graphic and characteristic. Indeed rambles, sketches, and tales, alike rival with one another in singularity and interest.

OUR LIBRARY TABLE.

UPON our library table are several new works, notices of which are unavoidably deferred. Among these are an admirable novel illustrative of the manners, customs, and superstitions of North Wales during the last century, published under the title of "Llewelyn's Heir;" a work of peculiar and most varied interest, entitled "Historical Pictures of the Middle Ages; a laborious and serious production, called "America and its Realities;" a domestic novel, yclept "Sybil Lennard;" a very curious trip in Western India, of which the title, "A Year and a Day in the East," gives no adequate idea; a Trans-Atlantic notion of Views and Reviews;" a tale concerning church principles attractively disguised as "Glendearg Cottage;" a second volume of an author who has earned distinction on the subject of "Modern Painting;" a second volume of Wilson's classic work on British India, and a new number of Bohn's Standard Library, being Roscoe's great work, "The Life of Lorenzo de Medici." To these we must add several poetical works, among which are Mrs. D. Ogilvy's "Highland Minstrelsy," "The Pleasures of Home," Sir Coutts Lindsay's "Black Prince," and other poems of distinguished merit.

Social Influences; or, Villiers. 3 vols. T. C. Newby.

† Peninsular Scenes and Sketches. By the Author of the Student of Salamanca. 1 vol. Blackwood and Sons.

NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

VALERIE.

A TALE.

BY CAPTAIN MARRYAT, C.B.

AUTHOR OF "PETER SIMPLE, THE PRIVATEER'S-MAN, &c."

CHAP. I.

I HAVE titled these pages with nothing more than my baptismal name. If the reader finds sufficient interest in them to read to the end, he will discover the position that I am in after an eventful life. I shall, however, not trespass upon the reader's time by making many introductory remarks; but commence at once with my birth, parentage, and education. This is necessary, as although the two first are, perhaps, of little comparative consequence, still the latter is of importance, as it will prepare the reader for many events in my after-life. I may add, that much depends upon birth and parentage; at all events, it is necessary to complete a perfect picture. Let me, therefore, begin at the beginning.

I was born in France. My father, who was of the ancienne noblesse of France, by a younger branch of the best blood, and was a most splendid specimen of the outward man, was the son of an old officer, and an officer himself in the army of Napoleon. In the conquest of Italy, he had served in the ranks, and continuing to follow Napoleon through all his campaigns, had arrived to the grade of captain of cavalry. He had distinguished himself on many occasions, was a favourite of Napoleon's, wore the cross of the Legion of Honour, and was considered in a fair way to rapid promotion, when he committed a great error. During the time that his squadron was occupying a small German town, situated on the river Erbach, called Deux Ponts, he saw my mother, fell desperately in love, and married. There was some excuse for him, for a more beautiful woman than my mother I never beheld; moreover, she was highly talented, and a most perfect musician; of a good family, and with a dower by no means contemptible. The reader may say that, in marrying such a woman, my father could hardly be said to have committed a very great error. This is true, the error was not in marrying, but in his allowing his wife's influence over him to stop his future advancement. He wished to leave her with her father and mother until

the campaign was over. She refused to be left, and he yielded to her wishes. Now, Napoleon had no objection to his officers being married, but a very great dislike to their wives accompanying the army; and this was the fault which my father committed, and which lost him the favour of his general. My mother was too beautiful a woman not to be noticed, and immediately inquired about, and the knowledge soon came to Napoleon's ears, and militated against my father's future advancement. July.-VOL. LXXVII. NO. CCCVII.

S

During the first year of their marriage, my eldest brother, Auguste, was born, and shortly afterwards my mother promised an increase to the family, which was the occasion of great satisfaction to my father, who now, that he had been married more than a year, would at times look at my mother, and, beautiful as she was, calculate in his mind whether the possession of her was indemnification sufficient for the loss of the brigade which she had cost him. To account for my father's satisfaction, I must acquaint the reader with circumstances which are not very well known. As I before observed, Napoleon had no objection to marriage; because he required men for his army, and because he required men, and not women, he thought very poorly of a married couple who produced a plurality of girls. If, on the contrary, a woman presented her husband with six or seven boys, if he was an officer in the army, he was certain of a pension for life. Now, as my mother had commenced with a boy, and it is well known that there is every chance of a woman continuing to produce the sex which first makes its appearance, she was much complimented and congratulated by the officers when she so soon gave signs of an increase, and they prophesied that she would, by her fruitfulness, in a few years obtain a pension for her husband. My father hoped so, and thought that if he had lost the brigade, he would be indemnified by the pension. My mother was certain of it; and declared it was a boy. But prophesies, hopes, and declarations, were all falsified and overthrown by my unfortunate appearance. The disappointment of my father was great; but he bore it like a man. My mother was not only disappointed, but indignant. She felt mortified after all her declarations, that I should have appeared and disproved them. She was a woman of violent temper, a discovery which my father made too late. To me, as the cause of her humiliation and disappointment, she took an aversion, which only increased as I grew up, and which, as will be hereafter shown, was the main spring of all my vicissitudes in after-life.

Surely, there is an error in asserting that there is no feeling so strong as maternal love. How often do we witness instances like mine, in which disappointed vanity, ambition, or interest, have changed this love into deadly hate.

My father, who felt the inconvenience of my mother accompanying him on forced marches, and who, perhaps, being disappointed in his hopes of a pension, thought that he might as well recover the emperor's favour, and look for the brigade, now proposed that my mother should return with her two children to her parents. This my mother, who had always gained the upper-hand, positively refused to accede to. She did, however, allow me and my brother Auguste to be sent to her parents' care at Deux Ponts, and there we remained while my father followed the fortunes of the emperor, and my mother followed the fortunes of my father. I have little or no recollection of my maternal grandfather and grandmother. I remember that I lived with them, as I remained there with my brother till I was seven years old, at which period my paternal grandmother offered to receive my brother and me, and take charge of our education. This offer was accepted, and we both went to Luneville where she resided.

I have said that my paternal grandmother offered to receive us, and not my paternal grandfather, who was still alive. Such was the case; as, could he have had his own way, he would not have allowed us to come