Crotcborough Beacon. By Horace G. Hutchinson. (Smith, Elder, and Co.
6s.)—It seems to be a difficult matter for a novelist who lays the scene of his story in the county of Sussex to keep out of it the smugglers who once exercised something like a reign of terror in that region. Mr. Hutchinson has yielded to the temptation, for, indeed, the smuggling history is full of picturesque incidents, and he has not improved his tale thereby. The great scheme which Father Raymond endeavours to carry out, complicated as it is with the remarkable personality of the man, has in it the elements of a powerful drama. Mr. Hutchinson, makes a fairly effective use of it ; but it would have been better without the underplot of which the Miller, so curiously distracted between his religious convictions and his smuggling associations, is the principal figure. Mr. Hutchinson must look after his French, which is disfigured by some serious mistakes. His colloquial French-English is good enough.
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