John Hailer's Niece. By Russell Gray. (Tinsley.)—These vol- umes contain
some isolated scenes that are fairly conceived and executed, but the book, as a whole, is very weak. John Haller is a gentleman who has been jilted, and vows that he will never forgive the lady till she comes to beg to be forgiven ; she never comes, and there is an end of it. His niece's love affairs seem likely to be equally unlucky. Of course, if three volumes are to be filled, some obstacle must be invented, but that which Mr. Gray has selected is a well worn absurdity which might be now discarded. The lovers part after mutual vows. A jealous cousin intercepts the gentleman's letters—all of them,. it must be observed—from the very first. Hence an estrangement. Now, as it is extremely improbable that a lady, however fickle, should take no notice of her lover's first letter, and as that lover was not in India, but with his regiment some fifty miles off, suspicion would eer- tenly be aroused. Any man, in fact, who was not bent on making the complications which are convenient to an uninventive novelist, would come over and see what had happened. It is impossible to read with Any interest a tale which provokes one with so obvious an absurdity. The writer ought to be told that "To love her was a liberal education is not a verse, though it certainly scans after a fashion.
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