The Shadow on the Quarterdeck. By Major W. P. Drury
(Chapman and Hall. 6s.)—There is a certain smartness, we may say 'vigour, in Major Drury's way of telling his story, if only be had a story to tell. This is the weak point of his book. There is amusement to be got out of the book, out of the humours of Amram Puddifin, for instance ; and if any one desires to work a reform in the relation between Marine officers and Post-Captains, he may learn something from Major Drury. Beyond this we cannot go. Do the members of a mess on board ship—not a mid- shipmen's mess, it must be understood, but one of the seniors— talk to each other and behave generally as the officers do here ? Imagine the members of a College common-room " carrying on" in such a fashion! And yet they are of the same social rank and, on an average, of the same age.
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