A Set of Rogues. By Frank Barrett. (I. D. Innes
and Co.)— A very attractive "set of rogues" Mr. Frank Barrett contrives to make them. There is something almost immoral in the sympathy which he somehow creates between his readers and his quite unprincipled heroes and heroine. The "Wicked Conspiracy," of which Christopher Sutton, one of the accomplices to the plot, tells the story, is an attempt to palm off Moll Dawson, daughter of John Dawson, another of the rogues, as the heiress of a fine property in Kent. The arch-plotter is a Spaniard, who is allowed to depart with his share. Moll, who may be said to earn her pardon, is left in possession of her happiness, with Christopher to witness it ; the author has reluctantly to sacrifice poor Jack Dawson to poetical justice, which must not be baulked of all its victims. The first part of the story, when the conspirators are preparing for their coup, moves somewhat slowly, perhaps because it is somewhat complicated. When the proper action of the tale really begins—i.e., when the fair claimant and her abettors have arrived at Chislehurst —all goes well. We have not often seen a better story.
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