24 OCTOBER 1896, Page 25

Across an Ulster Bog. By M. Hamilton. (W. Heinemann.)—It would

have been better, we think, in view of the situation of affairs in Ireland, if Mrs. or Miss Hamilton had not chosen for the plot of her story this shameful business of sin and treachery. What would she say herself if some other novelist had pictured a .Catholic priest in the same colours, had drawn him a brutal, lying profligate ? If these things were typical of a class, then the picture would be fair; if they are exceptional, then it is contra bonos snores to give them the emphasis which is given to them here. The undeniable literary merit of the book makes us feel the more strongly how grave a mistake has been made.