A Trick of Fame. By H. Hamilton Fyfe. (Bentley and
Son.) —This is a novel of politics, the politics, it must be understood, of the future. One of the great parties, anxious to out the ground from under the feet of their rivals, appoints a Minister of Labour, who has a seat in the Cabinet. He has been a Labour Member, paid by the Unions which he represents, and he finds his place a hard one, all the harder because his head is just a little turned. He has two secretaries. One has risen from the ranks ; the other is a young aristocrat, an Irish Peer who has contrived to obtain, very easily, it would seem, a seat in Parlia- ment. Then he has a daughter; and there is another heroine, belonging to a noble family with which in the days of his Labour Membership he has waged successful war. Here, then, are the threads of a plot in which public and private interests are mingled. It is a distinctly good story, and the dialogue is written with some smartness. But the author of a political novel ought to know that the property of an intestate would be divided between a brother and a sister's son. If it consisted of realty only this should have been expressly mentioned, for the circum- stances make it unlikely.
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