The Finger of Fate. By Captain Mayne Reid. 2 vole.
(Chapman and Hall.)—This novel has caused us a shudder, but not such a shudder as in old days Captain Mayne Reid knew well how to cause, when he surrounded his hero with pitiless Indians, or hung him by the hands over precipices of a thousand feet sheer descent. A nearer, may we not say a more dreadful, horror assails us. We see the first appearance of "the Claimant," who is probably fated to occupy as much space in the realms of fiction as he has already in the realms of fact. The story, as is usual with the writers of Captain Reid's class, is but an indifferent one while the scene is in England ; the characters strike us as being very poorly and unnaturally drawn ; but the interest increases when he gets among the brigands in Italy. They are not, indeed, as good to our mind as the Apaches or Sioux with whom we made fearful acquaintance in our youth,—perhaps we are more exacting about Italians than about Indians, as supposing that we know more about them. Still it is an in- teresting tale, told with spirit, which few readers will have any difficulty in getting through.
We have received from Mr. Mitchell an engraving of Mr. Richmond's latest portrait of the Bishop of Winchester. Considering how many different times Mr. Richmond has painted the same head, we might have expected greater fidelity and lees desire to produce a flattering likeness. The main defeat of the present portrait is that it makes the subject at least ten years too young, and that, in the process of softening- down, some of the most striking characteristics of the face are sacrificed. If anyone takes the trouble to compare this portrait with photographs of a much earlier date, he will find that even then the lines of the few were far more marked than they are here represented. Above all, Mr. Richmond does not catch the humour whioh is so conspicuous in the Bishop of Winchester's expression, and in which we have such a striking index to his character. All that we can say in favour of the portrait is that it presents a superficial likeness, and one which is pleas- ing in some respects, though deficient in the higher qualities of the art.
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