12 MARCH 1864, Page 25

Gascoyne, the Sandalwood Trader. By R. M. Ballantyne. (Nisbet.)— One

of those boys' stories of which the best existing in literature,

perhaps, is Marryat's " Masterman Ready." This one is full of adven- ture, very simply written, and with a very fair moral ; and we do not know what boys can want more. There are pirates, and sailors, and savages, and everybody tries to kill somebody else, but is prevented , and the natives are odd and faithful, and the wicked people reform ; and there is a sailor to do the comic business, and plenty of narrow escapes from wild men and precipices, and rough and ready dialogue, a little manufactured, perhaps, as to dialect, but none the worse for that. Boys from ten to fifteen will be very glad to read " Gascoyne," and will look at the coloured lithographs with a proper amount of pleasant fear and trembling. We do not know that they can do better ; and Mr. Ballantyne will certainly do them more good than most of the " infor- mation" crammed into them.