Zwart Conroy. By Harcourt Powell. 1 vol. (M. H. Gill
and Soul Dublin ; Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., London.)—A young clerical tutor wins the heart of a fair pupil; her mother objeets to the mar- riage, and suppresses and forges letters. The fair pupil is half- married, when the lover, who has found out the plot some time before, interrupts the ceremony, denounces the mother, and all ends happily. E why', in the name of common-sense, did he wait for the day of the marriage ? A careless cabman or a mere chance of any kind might have lost him his Constance. The plot of this story is, perhaps, deficient in freshness, and might have more vraisemblance, but the talk is good. Mr. Powell has a fair knowledge of some of his subjects, and writes pretty well, though he does not seem quite at ease with the English idiom, and has no grip of character. Any educated man can write conversations on current topics and tack a name to each paragraph, and the result may be full of merit, except the merit of representing the speech of living people. Mr. Powell's names are the queerest collection we have seen for some time ; among them are Mrs. Legush and daughter, Lord Nepia Large, Mr. Astel Waynie, Earl Snaffle, Sir Jean and Lady Twitchia Templeton, and Miss Brazengibe. There are other signs that the anther has a peen liar idea of humour, and on the whole, we should advise him to devote his incontestable literary facility to the production of another species of literature, for neither nature nor art has destined him to earn fame as a novelist. There is said to be an objection to political novels ; why, we do not know ; only gentlemen like Mr. Powell and Mr. Percy Greg must not complain if they find that the writing of political novels is a game that both sides can play at. Certainly, the Liberal party is strong enough to survive and even to welcome the publica- tion of novels au& as Etoart Conroy, which are apt to manifest a boomerang quality fatal to the inexpert.
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