5 OCTOBER 1878, Page 24

Brave Men in Action. By Stephen J. MacKenna. (Sampson Low

and Co.)—Mr. MacKenna has collected a number of "Stories of the British Flag," taking much pains to find such as were not hackneyed by constant repetition. These he has told in a graphic and vigorous manner. Altogether, for the interest of the subjects and the force with which they are treated, the reader will have no reason to find fault. If there is anything to criticise unfavourably, it is a somewhat absurd habit that Mr. MacKenna has (probably he thinks it due to Irish parentage) of using the language of a Jacobitism which is now quite out of date.