Misther O'Ryan. By Edward McNulty. (Edward Arnold.)— "There is no
intention," we are told in an author's note, " to dis- cuss in this story the merits of any form' of political opinion!' That may well be so ; but it will be strange if any reader reaches the end of the volume without receiving, if he has not already re- ceived it, a considerable bias in a particular direction. In the first chapter, Father Patrick Murphy receives a purse of sovereigns by way of testimonial on the completion of his five-and-twenty years of priestly labours in Ballychusha. That very day a tramp breaks into his house, and this tramp turns out to be his own illegitimate son, born before his going to Maynooth. How the two work to- gether, till O'Ryan is selected as a future M.P., is told in this story. But it is not here that the tragedy lies. It does not much matter who becomes an Irish M.P. It is the fate of the boycotted farmer Kennedy and his daughter Nora, that interests us so cruelly. Surely of all the ironies of fate there is none stranger than that which has doomed the most anti-clerical of English statesmen to become the supporter of such rulers as Father Pat. First Latin Translation Book. By A. H. Thomas, B.A. (Rivington, Percival, and Co.)—Mr. Thomas has carried out with satisfactory results the two principles of graduating the difficulty of passages to be translated, and of making them interesting. He has not selected or adapted passages, but written them. In one way this makes the task easier, but there is the risk of doubtful Latin. " Nullae comae ibi crescunt " is scarcely admissible for " no hairs grow there." " Nascuntur " is not admissible for another reason (deponents are not yet reached), but " aunt " would be better than crescunt, which is not found in good prose in this sense. It would be better to have "redibat " than " revertebat" for "was return- ing." "Reverteba,tur " is inadmissible for the reason given above. " Juvenem" as an adjective, applied to n000rent, is rare. " Belluae irruentis genu" would be better than " belluam irrnentem genu on the knee] vulneravit ; " "se fugae in praeceps dedit " hardly means "fled headlong,"—" in praeceps" meaning rather "into peril ;" and " familia° vetustas" is odd for "ancient birth."— No criticism of this kind applies to Exercises in Unseen Translation in Latin. By W. Welch, M.A., and C. G. Duffield, M.A. (Mac- millan.)—The Latin, except in the short sentences which form the earlier exercises, is from authors of the best class. But then there is a difficulty about the graduation. Whore is the pupil who will be able to proceed within the compass of seventy-one pages from " Impigros agricolas menuistis " to Tacitus P
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