A Political Wife. By Mrs. H. Bourke. (Eden, Remington, and
Co.)—We cannot compliment Mrs. H. Bourke either on the con- struction or on the style of her story. Of course it is satisfactory, from our point of view, that a rabid Home-ruler should be con- verted from his errors by the combined influence of a visit to Ireland and the beauty of the young woman whom he loved; but we cannot hope for any distinct gain to the cause from the story in which this salutary change is related. It is constructed on the too familiar lines ; we have the high-minded Conservative candi- date and the unprincipled Radical; the adventuress of unknown birth intriguing to get into good society ; the misunderstanding between the true lovers ; the convenient brain-fever (when will novelists recognise the fact that a. disappointment in love is no more likely to cause a brain-fever than a broken leg ?) ; the reve- lation of long-concealed secrets made just in time, and the indis- pensable wedding. These might be made acceptable if told in admirable language ; but Mrs. H. Bourke is impartially incorrect in every language which she attempts. In English, we have "political-mongers ; " in French, recherche; in Latin—or what shall we call it ?—in propria personae. Is it usual for "naked boys wreathed with garlands" to form an ornamentation m Tudor architecture ?
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