5 APRIL 1884, Page 24

Dark Rosaleen. By Mrs. O'Shea Dillon. (Tinsley Brothers.)— Mrs. Dillon

introduces the familiar characters of Irish fiction,—the Protestant rector and the parish priest—here bound together by a friendship which is now, we suppose, very seldom to be found— the plotters of revolution, scheming or enthusiastic, and the beautiful heroine, in this case niece to the priest. "Dark Rosa- leen " herself we only bear of, and do not bear much. The story is not difficult to read. The author contrives to arouse and maintain an interest in her characters, and she has a certain power of easy dialogue, and a facility in description. At the same time, the person- ages that figure in her pages are of a somewhat conventional kind. Perhaps the Irish editor is the best among them. Peter O'Brady, who never quite knows whether he is in earnest or not, is a type of a good many Irishmen, who are very emphatic in their talk, both in their own island and rn "the alien chamber by the Thames " ; just as the words; "Sure he's goin' to be our new Mimber, an' we're to have mate, an' land, an' houses, an' iverythin', an' nothin' to pay at all, at alb"- represents the hopes of a very large class below them.