14 NOVEMBER 1896, Page 24

Kilboylan Bank ; or, Every Man his Own Banker. By

E M. Lynch. (Kegan Paul and Co.)-This is really a very clever, amusing, and perhaps not unprofitable combination or " stew " of the newer Italian economics and Irish humour, sentiment, and love- making. Father Callaghan comes back to Kilboylan with a red nose-that is the result, however, not of potheen, but of poverty of blood-a love for bursting out into little exclamations like " Gia, Gia," and a great love for M. Charles Rayneri's pamphlet entitled" Agriculture Financed by Co-operation and Unlimited Liability." Ss be sets to work to translate aloud the pamphlet in the parlour of the Kilboylan "hotel," soliloquising. Why cannot I conv;nce the neighbours here that it is to Co-operative Banks they should turn ? Havn't I seen the desert made to blossom Lke the rose by means of these very banks ? " Ile translated the banking pamphlet from French into Italian, "and then laboriously Englished it,-or to speak more accurately, turned/the matter into broken English muttered in the brogue." Finally, Father Callaghan gathered round him a number of the leading spirits of the place, including Wolff the schoolmaster, Murtagh the miller, and Phil Mooney, who has a reputation for " larnin'," and even in the long-run Stapleton, the landed proprietor, who represents "English domination." The female element in the place is well represented ; but the heroine is Miss 0 Rorke, the governess, who has the good taste to prefer Murtagh to Stapleton. We have, therefore, plenty of economics-the soundness or un- soundness of which need not be discussed here-Irish "bulls," laughter, and tears. The book is thoroughly enjoyable, and may even be conducive to thrift.