For Life and Liberty. By Gordon Stables. (Blackie and Son.)
—We are sorry to say that our hero, fired by the glowing descrip- tions of some cousins who are fighting on the Confederate side, runs away on a blockade-runner, and undergoes many perils and hardships fighting for the Southern States. Dr. Gordon Stables regrets it as much as we do, and raises a warning voice for the benefit of those of his readers who may ha tempted to do likewise. For the rest, the details of the fighting and some of the horrors of the ever-varying and stubbornly-contested struggle are pic- tured to us with vigour and reality. Certainly the author will have done good by bringing home to his youthful readers the peculiarly ruthless and brutal nature of the struggle waged on a very ill-defined frontier, and something of the useless and blun- dering waste of life that marked the cruel war. His story abounds with plenty of moving accident by flood and field.
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