26 DECEMBER 1874, Page 23

unreal to the reader as the designing foreigner of one

of Mrs. Radcliffe's obsolete romances, and his brutal tyranny, dense ignorance, and extrava- gant violence injure the general effect of the book, in which the colours are indeed all either too bright or too dark. The tale is one of the Chartist times, and it has considerable merit, especially in the home scenes among the operatives, and in the development of the venal and treacherous agitator, Mr. Sleary ; but the heroine's manners and mode of talking are mach too refined for the possibilities of her position in life. The author has a good deal of ability, but is quite deficient in skill, not only of the sort which comes of practice, but of that which might result from careful observation of methods of construction.