30 JUNE 1906, Page 40

Parson Brand. By L. Cope Cornford. (E. Grant Richards. 6s.)—Of

these short stories, the first, "Parson Brand," is the best The story of Parson Brand can hardly perhaps be called a short - story, as it occupies nearly half the volume, and has really as much in it as many full-fledged novels. Parson Brand himself is

a remarkable figure, and the accounts of the doings of the press- gang will make most people very thankful that they live in more civilised times. The accounts of the slave trade are also horrifying, and Brand himself gives them in such vivid detail that the reader has an opportunity of realising to the full the • terrible nature of the traffic. The writing of the story, as was to - be expected in anything from Mr. Cope Cornford's pen, is above the average, but although the other tales in the book are adequately rendered, they do not all attain to quite the same level.