Cries - Cross Lovers. By the Hon. Mrs. H. W. Chetwynd. 3
vols. (F. V. White and Co.)—Colonel Douglas is introduced to a young lady of the name of Alison Burt, who receives him with a most un- flattering expression of dismay, and even disgust. She thinks, it turns out, that he has behaved very badly to her brother. The experienced novel-reader knows that a little "wholesome aversion" is not a bad thing to begin with, and he is not disappointed when he reaches the end of the third volume. The real raison cl' etre of Mrs. Chetwynd's book is, we fancy, not to relate the love-affairs of Colonel Douglas and Alison Burt, nor to expose the machinations of Lady Scrimpton, nor to amuse us with the weaknesses of Mrs. Morrison, the minister's wife, but to give us her views on the crofters' question. The friends of the crofter have done him, she thinks, a groat deal of harm. And, indeed, it is a premium on indolence and improvidence if he may always count on getting
his arrears wiped out. A more curious will than Sir James Douglas's (III., 114-116) we have never seen, even in fiction. It leaves an estate to a certain Charles Burt, then revokes this, and leaves it to his sister, on the condition that she shall not marry Colonel Douglas. If she does, it is to go to an orphanage. Of course the alternative bequest to the orphanage was void by mortmain.
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