20 JANUARY 1877, Page 23

the old truth that " men's pleasant vices are made

whips to scourge them with." It strikes us that the tale is too long. The progress of events between the wrong-doing of which we are told in the " prologue " and the denouement in the third volume is somewhat lingering and tedious, nor is that denouement as striking and forcible as the character of the story seems to demand. If it be the object of a writer to show how vengeance, though of halting foot, at last overtakes the offender, he is bound to make that vengeance exemplary in its operation. The best thing in the book is the character of Seth Dumbrick, the cobbler of Rosemary Lane, who adopts the " Duchess " which is a very vigorous por- traiture. Sally, on the other had, with her trances, visions of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, dre., is somewhat tedious, more so because the account of her is irrelevant to the story, than because it has not some intrinsic interest