The Earl of Carabas. By Aaron Watson and Lillian Westermann.
8 vols. (Chatto and Windus.)—We have here a curious combina- tion of the old and, the new. The story is constructed on very familiar lines. A profligate young noble who marries in secret and deserts his wife, an heir who turns up to the discomfiture of the supposed successor to the title and estates, are well-known characters ; nor has the machinery by which the due result is brought about much novelty about it. But the personages of the story are of the newest. Every one will recognise the editor of the Drury Lane Gazette, animated by a profound consciousness that he is the teacher of the world in general, and of Emperors, Popes, &c., in particular ; Lord Cranbury, the bilious philan- thropist; Lord Ronald, who secedes from the Ministry without producing the effect which he hoped ; Mr. Halliwels Romaine, author of "several gossiping articles in the Quarterlies;" and others that figure in these pages. The anecdotes, too, which en- liven the tale are certainly fresh, and so are the incidents of a labour demonstration, a trial of political offenders, and the like. The two authors ought to have been able to find out between them that a peer does not take his seat for the first time in the unceremonious way in which the new Marquis of Carabas (wby this "Puss-in-Boots" name?) is represented as doing. The error is trivial, but when one undertakes to paint society, it is as well to have its incidents correct.
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