kind of excess.

Which system goes on for ages, unless one of the tribes should become extinct, or the other be perfectly appeased by money, blood, or intermarriage."

After waiting three months for a ship, he embarked on August 12th, 1832, and, returning to London, somewhat to his surprise found himself a lion. The remainder of 1832 and the whole of 1833 were devoted to drawing up papers, preparing maps, and trying to interest people in the question of overland communication with India. As a sample of the objections he met with may be cited the remarks of the East India Company's directors on listening to an account of the advantages to be derived from more rapid intercourse with India :

"Ah! but that is the very thing that we do not want. What is to become of us if you give us a monthly mail to India? No, no, now we write our letters, and get our answers every six months, and have peace and leisure between whiles; life will not be worth having if you get your way.'"

Chesney advocated steam navigation with India both by Egypt and the Euphrates. As to Egypt, he leaned to a route from Koseir to Kinè, and thence down the Nile to Alexandria, rather than to one vid Suez. He strove to interest Lord Palmerston-then Foreign Secretary-in the scheme, but the latter avoided committing himself for fear of foreign susceptibilities. The king, however, supported the idea of the Euphrates route. A Committee of the House of Commons recommended that the experiment should be tried, and in August, 1834, it was decided that an exploring expedition should be sent out under Chesney. After many delays the party started on the 5th of February, 1835, from Liverpool. On the 8th of August, 1837, he returned to London, having accomplished his task.

"He had proved the Euphrates to be navigable; he had demonstrated that it was the shortest route to India; he had shown that a very extensive commerce exists along its banks, which might with very slight encouragement be rendered exceedingly valuable; while he had also proved that, with proper management, there was nothing to be feared from the Arab tribes." For the details of his adventures we must refer the reader to the book, which supplements in an interesting manner the original narrative of Chesney. From 1837 to 1841 he remained chiefly in London, occupied with the history and maps of his expedition. In the latter year he was sent back to regimental duty at Woolwich-he had become a lieutenant-colonel-and in 1843 he was dispatched to Hong Kong as officer commanding the artillery. There is not much interest attaching to his stay at Hong Kong. In 1846 he was relieved, but as the attack on the Bogue Forts was at that moment undertaken, he accompanied the expedition as a volunteer. In 1850 the first two volumes of the history of the Euphrates expedition were published, and were received with enthusiasm by men of science all over the world, the University of Oxford conferring on him the honorary degree of D.C.L. In 1852 he published a work on the past and present state of firearms, and the same year brought him, after forty-seven years' service, promotion to the rank of colonel. This promotion terminated his active connexion with the

army, for, though offered a command in

Canada, he declined it on account of the cold. In the beginning of 1854 he brought out a history of the Russo-Turkish war of 18281829. In January, 1855, he became a majorgeneral, and at the end of the month the Duke of Newcastle offered him, and he accepted, the task of organizing a foreign legion; but Lord Panmure, who succeeded the Duke of Newcastle immediately after, cancelled the appointment, not, however, on personal grounds. In 1856 there was a revived interest in the Euphrates question, but this time Chesney proposed that a railway should be substituted for a line of steamers. He seemed at length about to have his own way. Indeed, matters had advanced so far that he again visited Syria and Constantinople, obtaining at the latter place a firman from the Porte. On his return every one appeared to be favourable to the scheme; even Lord Palmerston gave in and promised to apply to Parliament for a guarantee of interest. Chesney went to the House for the purpose of hearing the motion, but as soon as Lord Palmerston rose his sanguine hopes were dashed to the ground. Lord Palmerston had seen Louis Napoleon that morning, and to the French alliance the railway was sacrificed. Again in 1862 Chesney made another attempt to carry out the object of his life; once more he visited Turkey and obtained another firman. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe favoured the idea, but again the Government refused to help.

In 1868 he published his Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition' (the previous work had been only geographical and historical); and on the 30th of January, 1872, he died, not having received a single mark of the approval of the Government for all his exploits, not even a brevet, or the, in modern days, lavishly bestowed decoration of the Bath. His fame will, however, live as a great explorer, and there is every reason to believe that had fortune been kind to him he would have achieved a considerable reputation as a soldier.

At the Sign of the Lyre. By Austin Dobson. (Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.)

THIS charming volume is composed partly of pieces reprinted from 'Vignettes in Rhyme' and Proverbs in Porcelain,' and partly of poems that hitherto have lived only with the life of the magazines in which they have appeared. With 'OldWith OldWorld Idylls' it contains, says the author in a prefatory note, all those pieces which at present he desires to preserve." That the whole selection is worthy of so honourable a fate is at least disputable. We could have spared the "intense" note which is struck in Palomydes' and 'André le Chapelain,' the Locker-like smartness of Dora versus Rose,' the pleasant "society" airs and graces of Incognita'; we should not have regretted the absence of A Story from a Dictionary' and 'The Tale of Polypheme,' nor of the 'Jessamy Bride' and the Fairy Tale' and 'Little Blue Ribbons' and The Last Despatch. But by far the greater number of the poems here presented are in the poet's happiest and neatest vein.

6

distinction, that classic urbanity, that clearThe style, as always, has that touch of

ness and precision, peculiar to the p
work. Of its kind it is as nearly as
sible perfect. One thinks of Horace as
reads; and one thinks of those of our
eighteenth century poets to whom Ha
was an inspiration and an example,
epithet is usually so just that it seems
have come into being with the
it qualifies; the metaphor is usually
appropriate that it leaves one in doubt
to whether it suggested the poem or
poem suggested it; the verb is sli
in excess of the idea it would com
the effect of the whole is that "
thing has here got itself uttered,"
that once and for all. Could anything,
instance, be better, or less obtrusively,
than the author's remonstrances To
Intrusive Butterfly'? The whole thing
instinct with delicate observation, and i
so aptly and closely expressed as to s
natural and living as the fact recorded:-
I watch you through the garden walks,
I watch you float between
The avenues of dahlia stalks,

And flicker on the green;
You hover round the garden seat,
You mount, you waver......
Across the room in loops of flight
I watch you wayward go;
Before the bust you flaunt and flit-

You pause, you poise, you circle up Among my old Japan. And all the rest of it. The theme is the vagaries of a wandering insect; but h just and true is the literary instinct display in its treatment-how perfect the litera savoir-faire! The words we have italicize are the only words (it seems) in the languag that are proper to the occasion; and yet ho quietly they are produced, with what app rent unconsciousness they are set to do the work, how just and how sufficient is the effect! An inferior artist would he strengthened them with glittering adjecti and nouns ingeniously explanatory; o have shrouded them in a tissue of the fin (and the most superfluous) expletives in t Dobson has written it, is disappointing, dictionary. The end of the poem, as true: the reader feels no sympathy Amanda, and declines to take an interes her "dream of baby bows and frills." for the introduction he cannot choose but grateful. In writing of this sort there certain artistic good breeding the like which is not easily enjoyed in these day We have lost the trick of it: we too eager to make the most of our contributions to the sum of art; are too ignorant to do the best for the we are too egoistic and "individual," clever and skilful and well informed, to content with the completeness of simplic Even the Laureate is addicted to glitter glitter's sake; and with the Laureate keep them in countenance there are a the sand minor poets whose "little life" is i a giving way to the necessities of what after all, a condition of intellectual potence but poorly redeemed by a habit artistic swagger. Mr. Dobson is of anot race. Unnatural as at first the associat may seem, he is the co-mate and brot in exile of Mr. Matthew Arnold and among modern English bards they keep poet of The Unknown Eros.

Alo

tions.

It was elaborated about 573 B.C., and is designated by the letters RQ The Pentateuch in its present form was not publicly accepted as authentic till the reformation of Ezra, circa B.C. 444. Many

minor amendments and considerable additions may, however, have been made at a later period.

This outline will enable the student to follow Prof. Wellhausen's analysis of the institutions recorded in the Pentateuch. Thus, in chap. i., which is devoted to the history of worship, he shows that the Jehovist (JE) sanctions a multiplicity of altars; the Deuteronomist (D) demands local unity of worship; whilst the Priestly Code (RQ) presupposes that unity, and transfers it by means of the Tabernacle to primitive times. In chap. ii., which treats of sacrifice, he shows that according to RQ the ritual is the main subject of the Mosaic legislation; according to JE it is preMosaic usage; according to RQ the main point is how it is offered; according to JE and D the main point is to whom it is offered. The historical books agree with JE, whilst the prophets down to Ezekiel contradict RQ. To the same searching criticism and microscopic analysis Prof. Wellhausen subjects the remaining Pentateuchal legislation, and arrives at similar results, showing that the variations in usages correspond to the three great strata apparent in the Mosaic law.

Prof. Wellhausen himself does not claim to be the originator of this system of criticism. He frankly refers to Graf and others as his predecessors and pioneers in the endeavour to disentangle the different documents of which the Pentateuch is composed. No one, however, has treated the difficult problem in so lucid, popular, and on the whole satisfactory a manner as Wellhausen. Hence the remarkable success of his work

on the Continent, and especially in Germany, where the leading Hebrew teachers seem inclined to accept Wellhausen's arguments as conclusive.

Dr. Edersheim, in the work which stands second in the heading of this notice, has undertaken to prove that all the canonical books of the Old Testament were written by the writers whose names have been handed down to us by tradition, and that the Mosaic legislation and all prophecy are the outcome of the Spirit of Christ." Hence not only the prophets, but also Moses in the Pentateuch, point to the vicarious sufferings of the Messiah. He therefore declares that if Wellhausen's theory be true, "it would seem logically impossible to maintain the claims of Christ as the Old Testament

Messiah of Moses and the prophets," and that, in fact, "the claims of the New Testament cannot be long or seriously sustained."

This view, he assures his readers, imparts to the Pentateuch and prophets "the impress of falsification," and "stamps them as later forgeries." But surely Dr. Edersheim must be aware that Biblical criticism now

recognizes the fact that the sacred writers, who use the figures of speech common to all secular writings, also use the form of personated authorship which obtains in classical compositions, where there is no animus decipiendi. The most orthodox scholars in

Solomon claim Solomon as their author, and though the unanimous voice of both the Synagogue and the Church has transmitted them as such, they are striking examples of personated authorship. Yet only a generation ago the same cry of "falsification" and "forgery" was raised against this view about the Solomonic writings, as may be seen in the introductions to the standard commentaries on the Solomonic books. We have, therefore, no hesitation in saying that the claim which Dr. Edersheim puts forth, that "the Old Testament and its Messianic hope have been viewed by him from a new aspect," like many another new view, is not true. Canon Driver, the Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford, who

is as orthodox as Dr. Edersheim and an immeasurably better Hebraist, says of Prof. Wellhausen: "It cannot be denied that the arguments by which the theory is supported are forcible, and that the explanations which it offers of the genesis of institutions and ideas are often just such as analogy would ideas are often just such as analogy would lead us to expect. The analysis of the Pentateuch, so far as the two main sources Q and JE (which alone are here of importance) are concerned, is, and has been for some time past, accomplished beyond reach of reasonable dispute." When Dr. Edersheim has mastered Prof. Driver's excellent treatise on the Hebrew verb and the canons of historical criticism, and when his faith becomes more intelligent, he will see, as other good and pious men "see, the hand of God as clearly in a long providential development

as in a sudden miracle."

By

grams, both from monuments and printe books. Students of the Commonwealt period of English history will be glad find their attention drawn by Mr. Hi to the little-known "Pell Papers." Thes papers form five MS. volumes in the Britis Museum (Lansdowne 751-55), and cortin a great variety of letters and documents re lating to the affairs of the Swiss Protestant John Pell was an English mathematici who resided some years at Zurich cri Geneva, as the agent of England, appoi by Oliver Cromwell, to assist the Protesta cantons of Switzerland. Several of his structions are signed by the Protector. On of the papers is an order to attend Cromwell funeral, printed on a small slip of peer with the agent's name in writing:

"Pell, Esq., you are desired to attend the Funeral of the most Serene and renov Oliver, late Lord Protector, from Somers House, on Tuesday the 23th [sic] Nove instant, at Eight of the clock in the morning a the furthest, and to bring with you this Ticket Heralds Office, near Pauls, the Names of you and that by Friday night next you send to th Servants that are to attend in Mourning, wh out which they are not to be admitted; and also to take notice that no coaches are to pa on that day in the streets between Somerset House and Westminster." (Seal.) Another paper signed by Pell concerns cloth assigned to him for mourning:—

"I doe hereby request, that the proport of cloth allowed unto me by the Right Ho the Council as mourning for his late Highnesse the Lord Protector, may be delivered unto my neighbour, Mr. Samuel Hartlib the younger." Among Pell's correspondents was one John Rudolph Stuki, a man of some note in Chronograms Continued and Concluded. Switzerland. In two of Stuki's papers, James Hilton, F.S.A. (Stock.) written in Latin, are thirty-seven chronoTHREE years ago Mr. Hilton succeeded in producing a readable and interesting volume and 1656. They are all of them expressions grams, giving respectively the dates 1655 of 570 pages on the almost unknown sub- of sympathy with England or of hostility ject of chronograms. Such a volume might to the Pope. Four of these chronograms. fairly be considered exhaustive; but now he that make the year 1656, are headed has put forth a second, of equally handsome" Omina Papæ," and run thus:appearance, and containing no fewer than 632 pages. It is somewhat of a satisfaction on opening the volume to find that, though it is lettered on the back "Chronograms Continued," on the title-page this is expanded to "Chronograms Continued and Concluded." More than 5,000 chronograms hitherto unchronicled are placed on record in these pages, and there must be few anywhere in the world that have escaped the diligent research of Mr. Hilton.

This, like its predecessor, is not a volume that any save those already interested in such a subject will be likely to read through with eager or absorbing interest; and yet it is undoubtedly a book of considerable attractions, full of out-of-the-way information, conducting the reader into many an unfrequented by-path of history, valuable as a chronicle of extraordinary human ingenuity, and commendable as an example of patient research.

Papa MaLeDICVs, Papa MaLeDICtVs, Labes obsCona MVnDI, Ca Dat MaLIS oppress Vs. By far the most remarkable instance of extraordinary ingenuity, either in this or the previous volume, in the art of chrono gram making, in unison with other like com ceits, is to be found in a thick folio book printed at Louvain in 1663. This work is a bibliographical dictionary of all the writers up to that date in support of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The book may fairly be described as "most rare, "for only two copies are known to be extant. Mr. Hilton was fortunate enough to find it in the town library at Frankfort. From this th book we learn that one Johannes Baptista power of memory alone, composed a psalter of 150 entirely pure anagrams on the work of the angelic salutation, "Ave Maria gratia This volume is chiefly devoted, as is stated plena Dominus tecum," together with the in the preface, to the literature of chrono-like number of chronograms in words t grams, and brings into prominence a great from the anagrams, each making the ye

of T

adoption variety of curious and remarkable works. 1662, in which year Pope Alexander VIL have chiefly flourished in the Flemish pro- the dogma then published in Belgium. vinces and in the central part of Germany, ingenuity and memory required for such I variety of fresh instances of English chrono- | Hilton, are simply marvellous. We cannot

England and on the Continent now admit that though Ecclesiastes and the Song of

r taking the following pathetic senfrom the blind author's introductory ss to the Virgin :—

ee.

Mary of light, accept these stars of my Thus may this, the long night of mine be an illumination for my happiness, whilst vill be as an eye to thy blind one; for, be hy praise, as thou seest so also do thy blind For with the love which is not blind thee in the eyes of my heart, which is ind; whilst through thee, who art full of here by the light of thy grace I may, as rly, have the power of sight by the light glory. It is, O Lady, that in these 150 ams, as if so many psalms of thine (my ailing me), I sing, saying, O Lady, when hou console me? Behold, the very light eyes is not with me, but it is with thee the Lord is with thee. The Lord is my and my salvation. This is what I cry along th, being blind; O Lady, grant that I may y Son in His kingdom, then will the light 7 eyes be again my own

rare tract printed at Bruges in 1684 s, in a series of 150 chronograms, an ne history of the life of St. Charles

omeo.

means

we have

it chronograms were by no ned to the orthodox, as dy seen in the instances from the Papers. A canon who abjured Roman olicism and joined the Lutheran Church le year 1683 celebrated his change of in chronogram verse, composing Latin couplets descriptive of the t, each of which gives the year in h it occurred.

later and more remarkable instance ronogram making occurred in 1750, a canal was begun from Louvain to river Senne. The first sod was cut

harles Alexander, Duke of Lorraine, 'ebruary 9th, 1750. The silver spade on the occasion was highly ornamented

both sides with emblems and armorial

ings, and the date was commemorated 1e four following chronograms :

HæC Dat Cana LeM.
Con Do Cana LeM.
Cana Les Dant MerCes.
ECCe tan DeM fLorebo.

le two sides of this spade there are good s; the volume throughout is well illus

ed.

n the reverse of the title-page of Mr. con's last work, done by the hand of an reciative friend, is this chronogram in ish; most heartily do we endorse the iment-another qVIte neVV book of it eXCeLLent ChronograMs IssVeD by ILton, F.S.A."

alty Restored; or, London under Charles II. y J. Fitzgerald Molloy. 2 vols. (Ward Downey.)

Fould be useless and perhaps not altoler gracious to criticize in any very ous spirit a compilation which, although result, as its author claims, of "careful y and untiring consultation" of diaries, moirs, and the like, was probably inled to serve no higher purpose than of helping to while away a couple of rs in a railway carriage. To what ent it will satisfy even this modest rerement will depend, however, entirely n the previous ignorance of the reader; those to whom the period is in any degree miliar will find much to annoy them, and

but little to instruct them, in these crude and sketchy volumes.

Mr. Molloy states with evident satisfaction that he has drawn his materials "as far as possible from rare, and invariably from authentic sources." It is impossible to agree with his implied assumption that the rarity of a source is an index of its value; nor, if by authenticity he means trustworthiness, can we recommend our readers to place themselves unreservedly in his hands. Mr. Molloy, indeed, gives at the beginning an imposing array of authorities, amounting to somewhat over a hundred, from which he has built up his work; but he does not, unfortunately, always refer to them by name in his numerous quotations, so that the reader is thrown back upon his own judgment-if, that is, he is reading critically, which Mr. Molloy would probably deprecate in considering their value. It is, for instance, obvious that an extract from Sedition Scourged,' or 'The Machivilian Cromwellist,' or the Public Intelligencer, or 'The Secret History of Whitehall,' can scarcely expect to meet with the same deference as one from Ludlow's 'State Papers,' Evelyn's Diary, the Athenæ Oxonienses,' or Aubrey's 'Lives.' Mr. Molloy, however, would have been sorely hindered had he felt obliged to stop and weigh evidence; it was simpler, all his witnesses were of the same crediand equally to his purpose, to assume that bility. Sometimes, indeed, he does mention the authority-as when, wishing to give point to his theory that the holiest Puritans were subject to the very frailties they denounced, he quotes unhesitatingly and with out reserve a blackguard boast regarding Bridget Cromwell, which disgraced, as far as anything could disgrace, the shameless lips of the Duke of Buckingham; or as when he cites, in support of his charge of adultery, Burnet's gossiping repetition of what was, in all probability, a gossiping libel Cromwell himself.

upon

It is difficult not to think that in choosing this particular period of history for his treatment Mr. Molloy made a great though pardonable mistake. In common with many others we read with considerable interest and amusement his former work upon 'London under the Georges.' The attempt to repeat this success has, as we think, failed for the very reason which at first sight might seem to promise well for it-the wealth of the material at disposal. bright surface play of the time evoked keen and vivacious observers. It called forth, in addition to the scores of diaries and me

The

moirs referred to by Mr. Molloy, the brilliant sketch of Hamilton, and that matchless record of bourgeois life and thought, the immortal 'Diary' of Pepys. Any attempt to adapt these, to "do" them into the language of modern magazine writing, could not but end, even in Mr. Molloy's experienced hands, in disappointment. Decanted champagne, when liberally mixed with water, is but an insipid drink. The boiling down of the anecdotemongers of the Hanoverian times demanded patience and deserved gratitude; but to touch Pepys in the same manner, or with a similar object, savours of sacrilege, not to say audacity. Mr. Molloy, however, doubtless assumed, as he was justified in assuming, that no one who had read Pepys and Hamil

ton, unless, indeed, it were the hapless reviewer, would read him, and so went to the work with an easy conscience. We wish him all possible success among the class for whom he wrote. The book is easy to hold, easy to read, and easy to forget, and thus fulfils the three chief requirements of railway literature. It is, too, duly illustrated with the luscious portraits of the frail beauties of Charles's seraglio, which are so wearisomely familiar on the pages of Hamilton's memoirs of De Grammont.

While feeling bound to mark as clearly as we can the limits within which, as it appears to us, Mr. Molloy's work falls, we are quite prepared to recognize in it the "brisk and fluent style," the "ease of narration," and other qualities of like nature, which, as was pointed out in this journal,

characterized his former book. As an illustration of them we may quote his somewhat florid rendering of the anecdote describing the scene which is said to have taken place his upon when Charles forced the queen hated company of Lady Castlemaine :"It happened on the afternoon of the day on which the favourite arrived, her majesty sat in the great drawing-room, surrounded by a brilliant throng of beautiful women and gay and The windows of the apartment gallant men. stood open; outside fountains splashed in the sun; music played in a distant glade; and all the world seemed glad. And as the Queen murmuring around her, the courtiers at sound listened to pleasant sounds of wit and gossip of a well-known footstep, suddenly ceasing their discourse, fell back on either side adown the

room.

Her

leading a lady apparelled in magnificent attire, At that moment the King entered, the contour of whose face and outline of whose figure distinguished her as a woman of supreme and sensuous loveliness. His majesty, exceedingly rich in waving feathers, glittering satins, bows of his courtiers to right and left; and, unand fluttering ribbons, returned the gracious conscious of the curious and perplexed looks they interchanged, advanced to where his wife sat, and introduced my Lady Castlemaine. majesty bowed and extended her hand, which the Countess, having first courtesyed profoundly, raised to her lips. The Queen either had not caught the name, or had dissociated it from that of her husband's mistress; but in an instant the character of the woman presented, and the insult the King had inflicted, flashed upon her mind. Coming so suddenly it was more than she could bear; all colour fled from her face, tears rushed to her eyes, blood gushed from her nostrils, and she fell senseless to the floor.”

It is, of course, unnecessary to remark that this, like most other books dealing with the same subject, while it is evidently intended to lie upon drawing-room tables, is by no means suited to the perusal of the spared his readers some of the filthiest and young person. Mr. Molloy has, indeed, most brutal of the stories which remain of the profligate court, the life in which he has endeavoured to depict. This perhaps is in recompense for the total omission to mention both men and women of stainless name and life who lived, not discontentedly, in the very focus of that wondrous society, and in whose company Charles spent one part of his curiously two-sided existence. But the story of the time is not favourable to the expurgator; to be properly expurgated it had best be left alone.

NOVELS OF THE WEEK.

Thro' Love and War. By Violet Fane. 3 vols. (Hurst & Blackett.)

A Prince of Darkness. By Florence Warden. 3 vols. (Ward & Downey.) The Mystery of Allan Grale. By Isabella Fyvie Mayo. 3 vols. (Bentley & Son.) By the Cornish Sea. By the Rev. John Isabell. 2 vols. (Sampson Low & Co.) Where the Battle was Fought. By Charles Egbert Craddock. (Trübner & Co.) The Will. By E. Eckstein. Translated from the German by Clara Bell. 2 vols. (Same publishers.)

66

Ir is possible to be quite as miserable upon Clapham Common, Violet Fane reminds us, as anywhere else. Her heroine is miserable on the common and elsewhere; for she meets a handsome colonel in a railway carriage, falls in love with him, believes him to be a vet," ," is hit in the eye by his tennis bat, discovers that her affection is returned, and finds that the object of her idolatry is bound hand and foot to another woman, whom in early youth he had trusted not wisely, but too well. The discipline does her good-that is what the story is intended to show. It is a commonplace moral, and the author enforces it all over again in a commonplace way. It would be well if every young woman who admires a handsome man in a railway carriage could end by leading him to the altar after many months-though this might make railway travelling somewhat unsafe for single men. The author paints with much fidelity, in the person of a subordinate heroine, the kind of woman who hunts, tracks down, befools, and, if possible, marries, wealthy men and heirs to titles. The picture is repellent, and would not have been worth reproducing except as a warning to others. On the whole, Violet Fane's story is readable. She does not err on the side of over-refinement; she writes down to the line of lowest culture; but in following the main threads of her narrative she is distinctly pathetic and fairly philosophical.

Miss Warden's readers cannot complain of short measure in the supply of crimes which she has furnished in A Prince of Darkness.' The idea of making the principal villain play the parts of three gentlemen at once is not quite novel, but it is carried out with the successful result of causing a good deal of mystery. Miss Warden's facility is her bane; she goes from one crime to another so rapidly that she has no time to think how they must strike the reader. Her book has one of the

characteristics of penny fiction pointed out by Mr. James Payn in 'Private Views' the characters take things most calmly. If, however, all the crimes had their due effect of horror given to them, three volumes would not be half enough to contain all that might

be written about them.

If Mrs. Mayo had kept the scene of her novel entirely in the Highlands, instead of shifting it to an English provincial town, the Gaelic melancholy which broods over most of her characters would at least have been in keeping with its surroundings. The Mystery of Allan Grale' is an earnest but depressing story. The reader is long unable to conjecture why Allan Grale buried a hamper in the bushes or the mysterious

"yellow woman kept dodging about on the high road. There is none of the high art of suspense about the author's method, notwithstanding her employment of omens, dreams, and supernatural warnings. An formalities of society is often noticeable. ignorance of the ways of the world and the Mrs. Mayo alludes to young men as Mr. Grale or Mr. Vivian, and there is an essentially feminine vagueness about the following description of a university career: "Edgar!" echoed the irate general; Edgar was never good for anything but his books and his boating: and now apparently he isn't good even for them, for he comes home without a single honour, and was on the losing side at the Putney race. "" In another passage it is said that Allan Grale lifted up his voice "in a vigorous Coo-ee!" which the author is careful to inform us "he had learnt from a returned Australian." Now and then, on the other hand, the writer hits upon a really good saying. And there is one well-drawn character in the homely Mrs. Grale, "who had all the instincts of a peasant race which keeps its wealth stored in a stocking. She liked to own grand things, but she preferred looking at them to wearing them." With those

readers who seek moral instruction rather

than amusement in a novel, the excellent tone of Mrs. Mayo's book will make up for its uniformly sombre character.

also prolix and over-laboured. There many fine touches scattered through volume, which alternate with such smartness as the following. The here broken his arm, and one of the do set to make the running for a joke:—

"It's-a-um-humerus '--with a medi smile-'humerus-don't you know.' A country lout who was assisting in the qua a curious spectator, stepped suddenly on room with a surly, lowering brow. I ter beat that derned Yank inter a je

declared to a crony outside. Mighty ter him, I reckon. Humorous-hey!' But the author can do much better than when she is not trying to be witty.

Mrs. Bell was scarcely well advise choosing for translation the weakest of stein's many novels. Nor has the happy in the choice of her title. German runs 'Ein Vermächtniss in this case is nothing more than "an at tion," the person in question having no stantial goods to leave behind him. story is a combination of all the most worn incidents in the novelist's stock-in-t illegitimate birth, murders, love a mysterious persecutions, and so forth certain modern colouring is imparted by introduction of Socialists. English rea will probably not abandon the pers home products for novels such as this it is sincerely to be deplored that transis are so ill advised as a rule in their cha German novels are rarely to English ta but there are some-some even by Eckstei that could be translated with pleasure a profit to all concerned.

CHRISTMAS BOOKS

'Sketches of Peasant Life in Cornwall' would have been a truer index to the contents of Mr. Isabell's book than the title he has chosen. A good acquaintance with the dialect and industries of the county has enabled him to give a realistic description of the hardships and pleasures of Cornish life. A slight and hackneyed plot serves merely as a thread whereon to string a number of episodes, perilous or the reverse. The author appears to have drawn consider-Through a Refiner's Fire: a Tale. By Elear ably upon personal experience for the incidents of his story, which is of the homeliest texture and the most wholesome character throughout.

"Mr. Craddock's" story was better worth reprinting than many of the American fictions which have found their way into the hands of English readers. Its good points predominate; the characters are strongly marked, and stand out distinctly after the narrative has come to an end. This is undoubtedly an indication of power in the author's method and execution; but it is not easy to detect proof of the exceptional merit which has been discerned in ‘Where the Battle was Fought' by the author's own countrymen, and by one or two critics amongst ourselves. We have the typical American hero of fiction, indolent, fine rather than refined, self-studious, cynical and emotional by turns, with little steadfast effort, but a great deal of explanation to account for his want of steadfastness. He is not particularly interesting, and not at all original, but this drawback is compensated for by several of the minor personages, who have been carefully studied and well drawn. The plot is involved, and turns on occurrences which, though ingeniously contrived and not objectionably sensational, are certainly improbable. The author's reflections are the most noticeable part of her work. That they are subtle and metaphysical need scarcely be said; they are

A Generous Friendship; or, the Happenings a New England Summer. (Griffith, Farra & Co.)

Holmes. (Same publishers.) Fearless Frank; or, the Captain's Children. Cassandra's Casket. By Emma Marshall. ( Mary E. Gellie (M. E. B). (Same publisher & Co.)

Grace Murray: a Story. By Ella Stone. (Sa

publishers.)

Widow Winpenny's Watchword. ("Kapsa Series.") By J. Jackson Wray. (Same lishers.)

Keyhole Country: a Story about This certainly see if you went through the Key By Gertrude Jerdon. (Sampson Low & C The Adventures of Jimmy Brown. Written Himself and edited by W. L. Alden publishers.)

When I was a Child; or, Left Behind. By Lir
Villari. (Fisher Unwin.)
Marie's Home; or, a Glimpse of the Past.
artery of the Red Cross Knight. From on
Caroline Austin. (Blackie & Son.)
ser's Fairy Queen.' By R. A. Y. (Nelson
NS. III.; or, the Story of the Lost Vestal
Emma Marshall. (Cassell & Co.)
Bound by a Spell; or, the Hunted With

Sons.)

Forest.

By the Hon. Mrs. Greene. ( publishers.)

Us: an Old-fashioned Story. By Mrs. Mel

worth.

With Illustrations by Walter Cra (Macmillan & Co.)

Two Thousand Years Ago; or, the Advents of a Roman Boy. By Prof. A. J. Churc

(Blackie & Son.)

Routledge's Every Girl's Annual. Edited
A. A. Leith. (Routledge & Sons.)
'A GENEROUS FRIENDSHIP' and 'Through
Refiner's Fire' seem to be meant to warn your