THE UNKNOWN; OR, THE NORTHERN GALLERY. A ROMANCE. IN FOUR VOLUMES. BY FRANCIS LATHOM, AUTHOR OF THE MYSTERIOUS FREEBOOTER, THE IMPENETRABLE I'll read you matter deep and dangerous; SHAKESPEARE. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR A. K. NEWMAN AND CO, LEADENHALL-STREET. PREFACE. NOTWITHSTANDING the censors of literature continue to inveigh as warmly as ever against novels in the aggregate, the number of novel-readers increases every day; and this circumstance, of course, spurs on the writers of such compositions to greater vigour and animation: it would be as unnatural for them to lay down their pens, as for a candidate to decline an election when the majority of the suffrages were in his favour. I think that my opinion is not more arrogant than justifiable, when I say, |