NOVELS.
A LITTLE REVOLITTION.t Or late there has been a decided falling off in the production of those mock-Royal romances of which the original exemplar was R. L. Stevenson's Prince Otto, and the most resoundingly successful specimen Mr. Anthony Rope's The Prisoner of Zenda. The anonymous author of A Little Revolution gives us a new variation on this theme, in which, while not discarding the aid
• Human Justice for Thou at the Bottom : an Appeal to Thou at the Top. A Fragment by C. C. CotterilL London : Smith, Elder, and Co. [za. 6d. net].
is A Little Revolution. London: Longman and Co. [Gs.] of incident and adventu're, his primary aim is to direct a battery of mild satire against the tendencies observable in home politics and society. As • usual, the scene of the imaginary kingdom is somewhere in South-Eastern Europe; but the anther allows himself a latitude in regard to nomen- - elatare and geography which, though doubtless adopted of set `1 -I:hall:Mae; accentuates instead of mitigating the unreality of the narrative. His kingdom • is called Campania, while the capital, Malaga, is on the banks of the Arno, and the names of the principal Campanian characters—Herr Stichel, Prince Otto, Prince von Hiblets, Professor Friedlander, &c.—have a frankly Teutonic ring about them.
Campania is not merely a small State which owes its con- tinued existence to the rivalries and jealousies of its big neighbours. It also illustrates in a simplified, cruder, and more primitive form the working of the political, social, and economic forces which are uppermost in our midst at the -moment. Thus we - have the triangular duel of the Liberal, Tory, and Labour Parties ; the campaign against the House of Lords; the movement in favour of old-age pensions ; and the substitution of combination for competition. But, after all, it is the men rather than the measures who interest the reader,—the demagogue Stichel, an ex-shoemaker, whose high professions of disinterested service are combined with a thirst for power and personal advancement ; King Orlando, the ornamental but obstinate Monarch ; and Dr. Ferguson, a "son of, the manse" who, by a mixture of good luck, ability, and courage, has made his way to the front in Campanian politics. There is no woman suffrage in Campania ; none the less the influence exerted by two ladies on the party leaders is a factor of prime importance. One of these is the Countess Clementine, daughter of the Prime Minister; the other is a prima donna of world-wide reputation. The Countess is in love with Dr. Ferguson, and the Labour leader in love with the Countess. The prima donna is courted by a rascally Scots adventurer, by a susceptible Professor, and by the King himself. She has also a disreputable, blackmailing husband in the background. The effect of this tangle of romantic cross-purposes on the political situation is rendered acute by the divulging of a State secret, which focusses suspicion on Dr. Ferguson, and induces the Countess, by an act of . splendid mendacity, to confess to an indiscretion of which she is innocent. Finally there comes the "little revolution," after which the claims of poetic justice are satisfied by the triumph of the strong, honest man and the elimination of the scoundrels, adventurers, and blackmailers. Although the interweaving of political and personal romance is not con- trived with any special skill, the general result is distinctly entertaining. Our gratitude to the anonymous writer, how- ever, for his ability to mingle amusement with instruction cannot blind us to the constant solecisms and inaccuracies by which his style is disfigured. Why, to take an example, should Count Rodeleskie speak in broken English to the Countess Clementine ? And why should the Countess dilute Lincoln's historic saying into " it is awkward to change horses while crossing the ford " ? The author's spelling is at times quite astonishing—e.g., we read on p. 184 that " there was to be no slow broadening down from president to president "—and indeed the whole book presents a mixture of culture and semi- - illiteracy which is most unusual in contemporary fiction.
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