Robert Reid, Cotton-spinner. By Alice O'Hanlon. 3 vole. (Tinsley Brothers.)—Robert
Reid takes to his home two nieces, whom the death of their rascally father (happily removed before the tale opens) has left orphans. The younger has a small fortune, and is, besides, , a fool. Of course, she marries badly. The elder has the extra- ordinarily bad fortune of being engaged to a lover who goes out of his mind. This is something of a novelty, though we cannot call it a very pleasing novelty, in fiction. Fortunately, there is another young gentleman, who is perfectly sane, and withal virtuous and rich Things are made right ; and then the old miser, who has kept us all anxious to see what he was going to do with his money, dies, and leaves a reasonable will. There is not much, it will have been seen, of a tale here ; and we can find no particular merit in the telling of it. The time is that of the cotton famine in Lancashire ; but even this circumstance is not effectively utilised. There is no harm in Robert. Reid; but these three-volumed inanities, born to fill Mr. Mudie's book-boxes, " vincti at mittantur Ilerdam," provoke the moat long-suffering of reviewers, especially " cum pituita molesta est."
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