REGENCY WINDOWS. By Mr. David Emerson. (Samp- son Low. 7s.
6d.)—Taking as his epigraph Lord. Chesterfield's opinion that " modes and customs vary often, but that human nature is always the same," Mr. David Emerson has given in Regency Windows a portrait of a period which is at the same time a reflection of the life of humanity. Beginning in the clubrooms of London and the colleges of Cambridge in the eighteenth century, his story follows in graceful meandering fashion the changing fortunes of Richard Langley, younger son of a newly created Peer. Richard is destined by his mother to be Prime Minister. But although he introduces tbe Prince Regent in person, Mr. Emerson touches only the fringe Of politics, telling just enough of the troubled story of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars to keep- us within historical bounds, and concerning himself rather with purely human misfortunes : Richard's marriage ; the relations between his wife and mother ; and the ill-effects of indecisive character on a man thrown into a society where only the trivial matters. Of these things he writes in a measured style matching his measured sympathy. Except for some unfairness to Byron, he is true to history ; and his leisurely narration is a welcome relief from the bare journalism of most Modern novels.
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