1 APRIL 1865, Page 21

Belial. No author. (Smith and Elder.)—A clover but scrappy story.

The author has, tried to describe an evil man of tbe world, a handsome voluptuary, "with full lips and bold blue eyes," but has scarcely succeeded. Men of the class he draws do not commit murder, for they have a dislike to be hanged which is stronger than their Passions. The story hal some incidents woll described, and the writ- ing is natural and sometimes epigrammatic, witness this remark :— "Bankruptcy fades into Insignificance before lumbago ; and who ever mourned for a lost love when he was maddened by a present mosquito ? " Of coarse the story is all about lovemaking, marrying, and being given in marriage, as if life had no interests deeper than the small intrigues which in novels constitute courtship.