The Divers. By Hume Nisbet. (Adam and Charles Black.) —This
is as good a story of its kind as we have seen for some time. The colouring is brilliant—it is a " romance of Oceania "—the action vigorous, the plot well contrived, and the characters drawn with force and precision. " There is no moral in this romance," says the writer, " unless it may be dragged in by some from the fact that man must make slaves when he can, be ho savage or civilised." That seems very much to the point. The testimony which Mr. Nisbet bears to the evils of the Kanaka labour-traffic is emphatic, not the less so because he does not seem to have any set purpose in doing it. The islands are depopulated ; those who came back are demoralised in mind and body. The gruesome picture of the divers among the drowned passengers of the wreck does credit to Mr. Nisbet's power of drawing.
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