Between Two Loves. By R. J. Griffiths, LL.D. 3 vols.
(S. Tinsley.) —This is the story of a young man who comes to Liverpool with the customary half-crown in his pocket, and who makes his way to be one of the first merchants of the town. There is nothing peculiarly good or great about him, but then there does not need much goodness or greatness for making vast sums of money. However, he is honest, except so far as the engaging himself to two young ladies at once is not honest, and courageous, and he has his wits about him. The love episode, from which the novel gets its name, is of the most flimsy kind. Any interest which the tale possesses is to be found in the machination, by which certain enemies try to ruin a Liverpool merchant, and in the events which bring them to nothing. All this is, as might be expected, highly improbable. The hero overhears the enemies aforesaid plotting the ruin of the merchant, as if men com- monly talked of such things in such a fashion. Then, again, one of these enemies makes his way into the counting-house as confidential clerk to the (loomed merchant, who, of course, is made to receive him on the very vaguest kind of recommendation. The reader is staggered by this fellow's Proteus-like power of assuming different forms. In some capacity he is related to all the characters in the story, and is about the most versatile villain that we ever had the pleasure of knowing. There is one incident that writers of a certain class are fond of introducing, about which we shall take this opportunity of saying a word. The villain, after the fashion of his kind, is seen to press his face against the window where his tool and victim was lying sick to death, " a face so full of evil passion and hate that it was fearful to con- template." Now, if a man presses his face against a window and fattens the tip of his nose, and gives to his eyes the vacant expres- sion of a very intense stare, he cannot possibly, treble-dyed villain as he may be, put much evil passion and hate into it. Let Dr. Griffiths get a friend to look in at a window at him ; it will be a beginning of studying from nature.
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