The Story of Stephen Compton. By J. E. Patterson. (W.
Heinemann. 6s.)—Mr. Patterson takes himself seriously, and leis solid work deserves consideration. His hero wins his way from the lowest poverty to a partnership in a gurnley mill. After that he becomes a barrister, socialist M.P., and prime- minister in a Liberal-Labour Government. At the end hii wife, the daughter of rich parents, dies ; he marries the Burnley girl who refused him as a Socialist agitator, and he retires from politics comparatively young and apparently well-to-do on the profits of the mill and "tilling the lands that he rented from the State" under the laws of gradual nationalization which he had carried. It will be seen that this meteoric career is not life-like, nor is the rapid advance of his friends and foes to the front benches. It is equally hard to believe that even such a paragon of ability and high character could have shown such patient loyalty as he does to an _ intolerably mean and dissolute brother. How far the author's purpose is to sub- ject romance to political preaching it is hard to say, but Steve's ideas are curiously mixed. He calls himself a Socialist, believes in nationalizing land and houses, State inspection all round, and compulsory payment to the State of all commercial profits above a fixed precentage. Yet he favours voluntary co-operation, he is alive to the tyranny of democracy and trade unions over minorities, he desires overwhelming British arma- ments and recognizes the moral and commercial value of individual character. Both the politics and the superficialities of the social life of the well-to-do are crudely drawn, but with evident earnest- ness, and the Burnley scenes are really good exercises in drab colour.
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