THE BOOS OF THE BERESFORD HOPES. By Henry William Law
and Irene Law. (Heath and Cranton. 12s. 6c1.)
IT is a thankless and absurd task to defend a family against itself, yet we think that all readers of this book about the Beresford Hopes will feel that Mrs. Law, even upon her own showing, has been exceedingly.hani upon her grandfather and
.great-grandfather. A tone of scorn runs through her pages which is rasping in its want of. variety. Thomas Hope, a Dutch merchant born in Amsterdam in 1769, and A. J. Beres-' ford Hope, the champion of the High Church Party, are the real heroes of the book and stand among their lesser relations as targets for severe criticism. The Dutchman is set before us as " a disagreeable man, fastidious and conceited," but useful as a great patron of the arts and celebrated as the author of
one novel, Atiastasius, which BYron declared he would have given two poems to have written. The authors are able to see nothing but what is ridiculous and petty in the phase of High Churchism to which A. J. Beresford Hope devoted his energieS and his money.
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