Sweet Inisfail. By Richard Dowling. (Tinsley Brothers.)— This is not
one of Mr. Dowling's best stories ; indeed, it has every appearance of having been written in a hurry. Other- wise, nearly one-half of a volume would not have been devoted to a conflict in a bedroom between an Irish carman and Frederick Manton, murderer in intention, and chief villain and nuisance of the story. The heroine is a mere phantom ; we obtain no in- formation about " sweet Inisfail," and have but little that smacks of Ireland, except the humour of the carman Doherty, and the egotism of a constable ambitious of promotion. Yet there are scenes and situations in Sweet Inisfail marked by that peculiar descriptive power which Mr. Dowling has at his command, and it would have been in every way enjoyable had it been compressed within the limits of one volume.
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