Young Lord Penrith. By John Berwick Harwood. 3 vols. (Hurst
and Blackett.)—Mr. Harwood works up with moderate success some of the stock incidents of fiction. That a nobleman's son should have to fly his coantty under the false charge of having- murdered his brother, and that a baronet should hire a ruffian to put a humble rival out of his way, are occurrences which we do not expect to find matched in real life, but which have come to have a kind of conventional acceptance for the purposes of a novel. We are not too careful to measure them by the test of probability, if the writer can only combine them in a thrilling story. We cannot call Young Lord Penrith thrilling, but a reader who is not too exacting will be able to finish it. A real merit it possesses in some pieces a description, as, for instance, of the pilchard fishery (which is by far the best thing in the book) and of Corniah scenery. Is not this a somewhat curious combination,—" Sullenly, but with courteous politeness, he took off his hat and left her " ?
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