The Duke of Albany's Own Highlanders. By James Grant. 3
vols. (Routledge.)—Mr. Grant occupies himself with his usual themes of love and war, the war, in this case, being that which is now being waged in Afghanistan. We are glad to see it called "wanton and most useless," but then Mr. Grant is of no politics ; at least, of none that have any modern significance. If it were possible, now- a-days, to be a Jacobite, we should say that he was one. Anyhow, he has a strong sympathy with the past generation, which "believed in James VIII. and Charles IX." (why the Fiinth ?) As things are, he has to content himself with being intensely national, abusing the Scotch Members (who seem to Southrons quite national enough), and once or twice using " would " and " should " after the Northern fashion. He has also a steady aversion to short service and linked battalions. These notions are obtruded on the reader in a rather tiresome way, and spoil, to a certain extent, what is a fairly good novel. Mr. Grant's style is a little care- less. He ought to leave it to young ladies publishing a first novel on commission to speak of an easy chair as "luxu- riant." But he carries his readers with him in his story, and he has got up the scenery and surroundings of the narrative with praiseworthy care. But if his mind is so full of national and pro- fessional grievances that he must give them utterance, had he not better publish a pamphlet, and let us enjoy our "Romance of War," as we used to have it from his pen, unmixed.
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