4 APRIL 1863, Page 22

Tales and Sketches of Lancashire L. By Benjamin Brierley. Vol.

II. (Manchester: Heywood.)—This second instalment of Mr. Brierley's Lancashire tales tends, on the whole, to justify the praise which we have already bestowed on the first. Being himself a Lancashire opera- tive, he is, of course, thoroughly acquainted with the habits, thoughts, and feelings of that class of men, and reproduces them with an accuracy and vigour which give to his sketches a character peculiarly their own. As this particular kind of reproduction is, beyond doubt, Mr. Brierley's special forte, it is to be regretted that the longest and most ambitious tale in the present volume should be a mere amplification of a most threadbare incident, which is, from no conceivable point of view, peculiarly illustrative of Lancashire life.