11 NOVEMBER 1893, Page 22

Winning his Freedom. By M. Bramston. (National Society.)— Miss Bramston

has had so much experience in tale-writing, and has shown such skill in the department of character-drawing, that we can scarcely feel Winning his Freedom to be worthy of her. She knows perfectly well how to use light and shade ; but she has not made use of her knowledge, for Henderson Aylward, the bully of the story, from whom his cousin Piers has to "win his freedom," is altogether too black. The tale produces an impres- sion of almost unmitigated painfulness. Few readers, we imagine, will care to go over it a second time. This is certainly not gene- rally the case with Miss Bramston's books.