A MAN OF MARK.*
A bon-mot, to which fate has since added an ironical comment, has been attributed to the ex-Emperor of Brazil. On being shown one of those mechanical wonders which always interested him more than the cares of government, a wheel that made we know not how many revolutions in the minute, " Why," said the monarch, " it actually beats our South American Re- publics." It is in one of these Republics—an imaginary Aureataland, which travesties, of course, but not extravagantly, the peculiarities of the reality—that " Anthony Hope," for we may conjecture this to be a pseudonym, finds a subject. Marcus Whittingham, a Virginian (we should have been inclined to locate his birthplace further West), has " made" the State, and is its first President. Mr. Martin, who has been appointed manager of a bank in the capital town of Whittingham, tells the story of how President Whittingham managed the affairs of the Republic, how he was overthrown by a military pronunciarniento, and how he recovered his power, the bank, in the person of its manager, having a considerable share in the evolution of these events. The President's character is worked out by the author with considerable skill. It is of a type with which we have been made familiar by Mr. Bret Harte, a strong man, in whom many vices—he is a loose liver, and utterly unscrupulous about money—are redeemed, or seem to be redeemed, by the virtues of courage and kindness. We may doubt the correctness of the ethical system by which this curious balance is struck, but we cannot fail to recognise the reality of the character. Such adventurers are not uncommon in history, and sometimes have contrived to secure very big places in it. Whatever his faults, Marcus Whittingham was at least not despicable. This is more than we can say of any other personage in the book. And we may be allowed to address a. serious remonstrance to Mr. Anthony Hope. He is a clever writer, who, to judge from the vigour shown in this, pre- sumably his first book, may well make his mark hereafter in literature. But the cynicism of his tone is nothing less than repulsive. Doubtless it is the cynicism not unfrequently affected by youth, and may well give place before long to a habit of mind not only more generous but more just. At present it is strongly pronounced, and, indeed, is not far off deserving the epithet of immoral. In a new Republic, ruled by an adventurer, and peopled by a set of profligate idlers, we do not expect to find any great de- velopment of moral qualities. But the people whom our author has chosen to depict pass all bounds of toleration. There is not a single honest or decent person from one end of the tale to the other, if we except a certain Johnny Carr, who is also unquestionably a fool, a bank clerk who deserves that title still more emphatically, and a very shadowy Donna Antonio, whom, as we see very little of her, we are left at liberty to believe a respectable woman. On the other hand, the bank manager, who tells the story, is a swindler of a very low type, and the "Signorina," who has a good deal to do with its working out, is nothing better than a harlot. The bank manager may be conceded. We would only caution the author, as a young writer, that if he chooses the autobio- graphical form and makes a scoundrel tell the story, he must be very careful in his management. But it is impossible to excuse the use which is made of the Signorina. She is really
• A Man of Mark. By Anthony Hope. London: Remington and 0o. 1890.
' the only woman in the story, and our sympathies are =Ili- '16stly asked for her This is bad enough, but the worst offence is reserved for the end pf the book; where she is represented aq deliberately proposing an intrigue. We have thought it right to speak plainly to the author. If this plainness offends him, he must at least give us credit for, a genuine desire that he may do hereafter real justice to his very considerable abilities.
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