The Whip Hand. By Kehl° Howard. (Chapman and Hall. 6s.)—In
his new novel Mr. Kehl° Howard describes the secular conflict between mother-in-law and son-in-law. He hardly possesses, however, the delicacy of touch with which Thackemy painted that admirable figure Mrs. Gashleigh, and his " Mumsey " is a caricature rather than a portrait of a possible middle-class woman. Mr. Howard's theories of matrimony are pronounced and definite. He considers that every marriage begins with a struggle between man and wife for tho possession of what he calls the "whip hand." The idea of a partnership with equal rights and equal sacrifices apparently does not occur to him, and all his married pairs are either engaged in a band-to-hand conflict or have settled down to a life of tyrant and slave. The book does not pretend to be anything but a sketch of vulgar people with vulgar manners, and when we have said that it is spirited we have applied to it the only favourable adjective which it deserves.
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