True to the Core ; a Romance of '93. By
C. J. Hamilton. 2 vols. (F. V. White and Co.)—The Rebellion of '93 is not an attractive sub- ject. To an English reader, at least, it is difficult to know where one's sympathy should be given. The ruling nation was careless of justice, and brutally cruel ; that which was straggling against it was pursuing a phantom, and presented a miserable spectacle of internal dissension. Its honest men were mostly fools, and there were a ter- rible number of knaves in its midst. And then one has an uneasy feeling, as one reads, that the fires are by no means extinguished, and that the romance may be speedily turned into reality. But out of these unpromising materials, Mr.—or is it Miss F—Hamilton has constructed a story of some merit. Her heroine, Norah Buidh, "yellow Norah," so called from her wealth of amber-coloured hair, is a picturesque figure. She loves one of the Patriotic Brotherhood, whom she shelters when he is benighted on the hills near her home, and continues to do her best to help and shield him. The character- istic figures of the time are introduced into the story as it moves on. There is Lord Castlereagh, concealing his ambition under an exterior of languid indifference ; the brutal Major Sirr, representing the worst aspect of English ascendancy; the patriots, with their useless devo- tion to a lost cause ; and, of course, the odious figure, invariable phenomenon in any scene of Irish history, the traitor and informer. The author has made a careful study of the subject, and achieved a fair amount of success.
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