A London Life. By HENRY JAMES. (London: Macmillan and Co.) 1 vol.-It would be time, indeed, that this old country was "played out" if we were compelled to accept this clever but very unpleasant story as a typical picture of the life of London of to-day. American wives we have, it is true, in abundance, if not in superfluity, but we should be loth indeed to think that they were all as callous, as sensual, as utterly selfish as Selina Berrington, the sorry heroine of this romance. Nor would we willingly accept Lionel Berrington, the little red-faced, vulgar, brutal husband as representative of the average male to be met with in Belgravia or Mayfair. In truth, a husband who speaks of his wife as a "-- brute," giving, ore rotundo, a prefix which is common in our slums and familiar to the lips of our lowest blackguards; and a wife who describes her husband as a "disgusting beast," are happily rare animals even in that odd Noah's Ark known as modern society. Sketches of Lady Davenant, a charming, cheery old woman of the world, and the study of Laura Wing, the pure, sensitive, high-minded younger sister, who strives with so much courage to save her sister from herself, are sympathetic to a degree, as well as showing all the subtlety and insight into the intricacies of human character which render Mr. James's books an intellectual pleasure. None the less, this story of fashionable libertinism is an unhealthy and unfair picture if it professes, as it does by its title, to be a faithful reflex of a London life, even in "rapid" circles. The principal actors are exceptional people altogether, or society would be a quite impossible thing. Of course, "A London Life" is full of bits of characteristic humour, as where the author, speaking of the dampness of a quaint old dower-house, says: "Iniquities in such a country somehow always made pictures"; or where he says that his countrywomen "Wear' their very features," and that their eyes "look as if they had just been sent home." The possession of sisters, neither of whom "seemed destined to go into the English Divorce Court," as being almost sufficient to constitute happiness, is a curiously happy blending of the humorous and the pathetic; and the social axiom that "frivolity that was never ashamed of itself was like a neglected cold-you could die of it morally as well as of anything else," is distinctly smart. But even Mr. James's style and humour cannot redeem the story from being painful, unhealthy, and, in at least one instance, unpardonably coarse. Three other stories complete the volume. In them Mr. James, if less striking and unconventional, is at least unobjectionable, but it is for the title-story that the book will be read, and that largely, for in many opinions the undoubted cleverness of most of the workmanship will atone for the occasional lapses into vulgarity and the cynical mood which must have prompted the selection of the title. Greifenstein. By F. MARION CRAWFORD. (London: Macmillan and Co.) 3 vols.-The colourful diction and the charm of style which makes Mr. Marion Crawford's works such pleasant reading in an era of pork-butcher fiction, are conspicuously present in this powerful and picturesque story. Taking for his central point of interest all the horror of a woman's treachery in marrying the halfbrother of her living husband, with its tragic consequences of bastardy and an inheritance of shame, the author has surrounded it with so graceful a love-story and so many chivalric incidents, set in such vividly painted and picturesque scenery, that the terror and pain of the plot are never intolerable, although in a sense they gain in intensity by contrast with their setting, and also from the fact that the majority of sufferers for the sin of Clara Kurtz are men and women of the noblest type. The action takes place for the most part in and about two quaint old German castles-Sigmundskron and Greifenstein-from which the principal actors in the tragedy take their names. It is impossible to treat in detail of the ingenious and fascinating plot of Mr. Crawford's story. We must content ourselves with referring our readers to the novel itself, promising them that in Hilda, the heroine, whose love rises far above what the world calls dishonour; in Greif, the manly, high-minded hero; in the clever, cynical but unselfish Rex, who would seek death rather than harbour a love dishonouring to his brother; in the aristocratic, half-starved Baroness, mother of Hilda; in the stern, chivalrous Baron von Greifenstein-they will find characters full of life and reality, and invested with all the Margaret Maliphant. By Mrs. COMYNS CARR. (Edinburgh and London: Wm. Blackwood and Sons.) The author of this pretty and well-told story is happily gifted not only with the artistic temperament which is so quick to recognise the beauties of inanimate nature, but also with the training which enables her to reflect in words for the delight of her readers the scenes and conditions which "Marhave impressed themselves upon her own mind. garet Maliphant" is a country story, sometimes idyllic, sometimes imbued with the touch of passion, which is never remote wherever human hearts are beating, and the simple joys and pungent sorrows of Meg and Joyce, the fair daughters of Farmer Maliphant, will be followed with sympathetic interest. Mrs. Comyns Carr's hero-lover, Captain Forrester, is somewhat of a lay figure; but the Sussex farmer, Laban Maliphant; Trayton Harrod, the young bailiff; Mrs. Maliphant, with her shrewd, homely wisdom; the faithful "Deb," and sundry bucolic individuals who labour on the land, are drawn with life-like fidelity to nature. There is no terrible tragedy, no startling sensationalism in the story, yet we venture to think that it will be read widely, and with considerable pleasure, as it is instinct with refinement of feeling, and the diction is always well chosen, and often glowing and eloquent. Mrs. Comyns Carr has produced a story of country life, which is positively refreshing in its breezy, wholesome style, and the love-interest is sufficiently strong to please the average devourer of three-volume fiction. CAPEL COURT. The Money Market.-London and the country must not be taken by surprise. To-day they may turn to their favourite money articles and financial journals, without learning that once more, to the exclusive benefit of bankers, but to the moral if not also to the criminal wrong of the commercial and industrial classes, the Long Firm Bank Acts of 1844-5 threaten us, once more, with a 10 per cent. discount rate, as the minimum rate of the Bank of England. The dismay of expectant London would be great; and the stagnation of commerce with the industrial ruin of provincial England would shake to its foundations the commercial world. The country generally has been slowly recovering from long years of trade depression and social discontent, when now, with three years of assured prosperity before it, it is brought face to face with a foreign drain of gold, against which, on the one hand, it finds that its hands are tied behind its back, and against which, on the other hand, it finds that the banks, with their boasted £800,000,000 in deposits, are as poor as church mice. The banks now watch with dismay, but also with delighted greed, each paltry despatch of gold to Egypt, Brazil, and the Argentine; and while thus shedding crocodile tears over the loss of gold, and rubbing hands with delight over 6 per cent. for present discounts, with the prospect of a rising increase to 10 per cent., what must the feelings be of bank depositors? Here we give bankers and the Chancellor of the Exchequer fair warning that this is not 1866, nor 1857, nor 1847; that the commercial classes of Great Britain are not as they were; and that if a financial panic is now forced upon the country, our long-firm banking system will have to face the music of organic change; in other words, the commercial public will insist and enforce this upon the banking system, that hereafter it shall be conducted in a straightforward manner, with suitable guarantees for the protection of those who pass their means across a banker's counter. In the present critical position of affairs the proper thing to be done, whether it is now done or not, is for the com mercial classes to at once memorialise Her Majesty's Government to transfer to the banking department of the Bank of England, from the issue department of the Bank of England, the sum of £19,956,965 in goid and bullion, that the present drain of gold may be met without further action on the rate of discount, and that the banking system of the kingdom may, on the assembling of Parliament, be forthwith placed upon an honest and honourable commercial footing. With these remarks we take leave of the subject, but for the present only. Bank rate nominal 5 per cent.; Bank rate actual 6 per cent. ; open market rate irregular. The Stock Markets.-Elsewhere will be found a summary of these markets for the end of the month, for the figures of which we are indebted to advanced slips from the Bankers' Magazine. There is no boom in these markets, but throughout them there is an unsettled if not a despairing tone. With a succession of recoveries and reactions there is a steady downward trend, the old-time permanent investor living on an income not knowing what to do; selling out to-day, but buying back to-morrow, and losing grievously by the change. Whether with a cessation of the gold drain to Egypt, Brazil, and the Argentine, confidence would be restored to these markets is for the present doubtful; indeed, it is unnatural to expect. Generally persons are as sensitive in matters of money as in matters of love, and under the circumstances we have no advice to give. Holding on may be sorry work, its implication being a loss of income, but the proverb of the frying-pan and the fire is a thing to be remembered. The Rail Market. The foregoing remarks apply equally to rails. They are an unsettled, declining market, and they would suffer at once, and seriously, were a financial crisis now forced upon the country through the cupidity of the bankers. Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Glasgow, the Tyne, the Tees, and the Mersey, as the great mechanical centres, could not then conduct their business under a 10 per cent. rate of discount, inasmuch as the local bankers would be afraid to discount their bills, and inasmuch as there would be an immediate ruinous loss on all business carried through on such discount terms. Still, as the unexpected often happens, the relatively higher rate now charged here for money than in Paris and Berlin, may attract sufficient gold from those centres to meet all the export demands for gold, present and prospective, in which case nothing would go wrong. On the contrary, should threatened evil now befal us, we have but this to say-do not part with English rails for American, nor for Canadian, but stick to them, whatever their passing depreciation. They are not worth their present money, but nevertheless they may continue to command it for long years to come. Again, while there is no probabilty of a present rise, there certainly would be great risk in opening a bear account for a fall. The Mining Market. So far as this market is concerned, aud in so far as it relates to Africa, it may be said to have nothing to do with the Bank of England discount rate. It is a market external to us, which may thrive without us just as the gold export demand for Egypt, Brazil, and the Argentine is for a market external to us and independent of us. Those latter markets seek gold from us just as we seek gold from Africa, and if they persist in seeking it we are completely in their power. There is much speculation in the African market, and we cannot assume the responsibility of advising one way or another. The outside brokers are the men to apply to. As a class, they are most reputable, although here and there, as among all bodies of men, there may be a black sheep or two. Quite as much may be said, if not more, against members of the Stock Exchange, many settling-days seeing some fellow or other kicked out. Our sympathies are with the outside brokers, as they make frank announcements of their modes of business, and refer the public to their bankers. is being obtained readily in Queensland and in South Africa, in the simple and satisfactory manner in which it was obtained in Greece some centuries before the Christian era. It exists everywhere in combination with dirt, in some form, which being treated under stamps or in mills, mere washing afterwards in water usually serves to float off the dirt and leave the gold behind. Occasionally the dirt is more refractory, when complex operations have to be resorted to, which however need not be hydrogen, nor oxygen, nor Liebig's Beef Tea. The next process of gold extraction which will be put before the public will, we presume, be with the scrip of the unfortunate among the gold mining companies, whose mission was the benevolent one of providing for promoters and inventors. et the directors of the Economic Gold Extraction Company, Limited, first export hydrogen with their own money before the public assume the risk for them. Imuris Mines, Limited-This is a Mexican affair, and it seeks £175,000 in 175,000 shares of £1 each. It is to give us silver, copper, and gold. It is just as likely to give us nothing; indeed, more likely. Besides, who wants silver, it having been demonetised throughout the Latin Union, and become a nuisance to the United States Treasury? Mackerel from Dover would be infinitely more desirable. Again, who wants copper, after the hard measure which the French Courts have just meted out to the wirepullers of the burst-up copper corner? There will not be another copper corner as long as the Imuris Mine man lives, and what henceforth may be produced the wide world over will barely pay expenses. Last, gold we do want, but Mexico is a far cry for it. Were we mad enough to invest in gold mining, we should be content with South Africa, where it abounds, where there is security for life and property, and where the English language is spoken. The West Randt Estates and Land Company, Limited.— This is an affair of £150,000 in 150,000 shares of £1 each. No doubt £175,000 was in the promoter's mind, but on second thoughts his conscience troubled him, It was too much. It besides would overload the thing. So £150,000 is only sought; and let us ask for what? When we have waded through the long-winded prospectus, we find just this little omission which, however, we take to be fatal. There is more law in the Transvaal than in any other place of the same size in the world, and there are also more punishments for sins of commission and omission in connection with mining property than anywhere else of which we have present knowledge. A Transvaal trust will, if investors are to be protected, require the services of too many lawyers to give a chance for a return, not that searches for titles or for rights to claims need occupy much time or require Queen's Counsel skill, but that on the face of the orders and laws which are in force, safe dealing in mining rights, especially on a trust scale, must be a most risky thing. In short, gold mining in the Transvaal, at least for the present, is not a thing for trusts, but for personal effort, with the help of blacks, or by companies of moderate size on farms. We therefore cannot recommend the present scheme, because it says too much about nothing, and nothing at all about what should be shown, namely, about safe investment without much law. The Oriental (Transvaal) Land and Exploration Company, Limited. This is a proposal to fools, who proverbially easily part with their money, to buy, among other things, certain undivided parts or shares in lands in the Transvaal, of which the promoter dare not say more than that they are believed to be auriferous. Who believes it, the prospectus does not say, but the promoter undoubtedly hopes that the class of persons who readily part with their money will be glad to believe anything. If they swallow this pill, which is not even gilded with anything better than a vague statement of "it is believed," they deserve no commiseration. We shall be curious to see how much of the £110,000, which is the nominal capital, is applied for. The property, we are told, belonged formerly to the Oriental Bank Corporation. It certainly does not seem to have been of much use to this corporation, nor did it save them from bankruptcy. Why did not the promoter tell us how much, we ought rather to say how little, it ranked as an asset in the affairs of this bankrupt corporation ? MERCATOR. VOL. IX. Pump Court LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1889. PUMP COURT. The Temple Newspaper and Review. CURRENTE CALAMO De Lege; de Omnibus Rebus et Quibusdam Aliis. -:0: WE are glad to be able to announce to our readers that that eminent Counsel, Mr. Poland, Q.C., has prepared a second article on Criminal Appeal for this journal. We propose to publish it in our issue of 30th October, at which date the Courts will be in full swing. Non-subscribers had better order their copies through their newsvendors at once, as there will be a very great demand. The widespread interest in the subject which the Maybrick case has created, will ensure universal attention among laymen as well as lawyers, for the opinions of a Counsel whom Lord Bramwell justly described in the Times of last month as having more experience than all our judges and exjudges put together. WHILE we are on the subject, we may as well warn a certain paper that that article is copyright, and any infringement will be met with process. We may just as well mention to our supporters the very shabby trick that was played us by said paper, which shall remain nameless, unless of course it offends again. When Lord Bramwell wrote to the Times, and referred to the article which had appeared in PUMP COURT, there was naturally an enormous demand for that issue, which being a back number commands an increased price. What does the paper we complain of do but procure the back number of PUMP COURT alluded to, print it in extenso, and to prevent possibility of any error, print also above it Lord Bramwell's letter to the Times on the subject. Thus to endeavour to divert the demand to itself is not legitimate, and if we were people inclined to the use of strong language we might find a stronger and equally applicable term to characterise such conduct. Every journalist will recognise the difference between this proceeding and the quoting from a current issue in the ordinary way, which is a compliment to the paper quoted from, and a valuable advertisement and recognition. But when it is seen that there will be a large demand for a certain issue, to take the whole article bodily, and say in effect :-"This is the article you want, come and buy it from us for so much less than you can get it legitimately," is-well, is not quite fair. No. 156. WE have a promise from the Home Secretary to contribute to this journal, but we are not able to speculate as to what the subject will be. MR. GLADSTONE, on being asked whether it is true, as stated in the Daily News, that he is the author of the article in the Contemporary Review, says that the Daily News had no authority to make such a statement. Thereupon a lot of unthinking people rush to the conclusion that this is a denial of the authorship. They will be much confounded when, later on, Mr. Gladstone denies that he denied the authorship, and explains that all that he meant, and indeed all that he said, was that the Daily News had no authority from him to disclose the fact. Of course it is for these very unthinking persons that Mr. Gladstone's ambiguous utterances are intended. He wishes them to believe that the statement in the Daily News is untrue, though he dare not say so explicitly, for conviction would be too easy. Litera scripta manet. This may be adroitness, etc., in Mr. Gladstone, but an uglier word would be applied to it if any humbler person were so to act. Not that we disagree with the article in the least; far from it. THE Attorney-General and Mr. Charles Hall, Q.C., M.P., have become vice-presidents of the Bethnal-green Free Library. CAREY-STREET, Lincoln's-inn, will be an agreeable surprise to the legal profession when the vacation days have ended. The dreadful row of habitations which stood between the Hospital and the Law Courts garden has been swept away, and there is now a clean enclosed footpath into Carey-street from the Inn. The new Bankruptcy Court will fill up, and let us trust also adorn, the vacant space. Mr. THE Aboukir Bay Treasure Recovery Company, whose absurdity we pointed out when the public were asked to supply money, have a decidedly thin concession. Alexandre G. Ardib received, it appears, a personal authorisation for the recovery of what was lost in 1798, and was specially debarred "under any circumstances " from transferring the authorisation to others. Further, and as an additional limitation of authority, the Minister of the Interior reserved to himself the right "to stop the search at any time without compensation." Assuming the facts to be as stated, we are at a loss for a fair principle of allotment of pity between Mr. Ardib, the directors, and the persons who supplied the money. No doubt Mr. Ardib meant well for himself, and also for the shareholders. No doubt, also, the directors had hopes of fairness beyond their fees. As for the shareholders, their risk was the common lottery one for which, even at Lloyds, there is no underwriting. How far there was disclosure to the shareholders by Mr. Ardib of the thinness of his rights, we, in the absence of knowledge of the facts, forbear to pronounce upon. A NEW banking experiment is in contemplation in Glasgow; the name, the "People's Bank of Scotland;" the capital, £100,000. Supposing, as not merely probable but as certain, that, if subscribed at all, the capital would be in £1 notes, the question thence arises, Would the £100,000 be in any sense capital to the "People's Bank of Scotland," seeing that it is capital already of such banks as are the issuers of the notes? As the Cambridge Professor of Political Economy has on various occasions pointed out, this is a question which is coming to the front. A somewhat coarse but forcible parallel would be the contention that the wife of A. is also the wife of B. The capital of bank A. cannot also be the capital of bank B. Yet, in such addition to the capital of the Bank of England, its own notes have been received as capital; and more remarkable still, the same notes have served as the capital of the London joint stock banks, and of ever so many other banks. That so far the thing has answered well is felt, if not pleaded, in wife cases, which eventually come up in the Court for Divorce causes. THE Chard Guardians have raised a hornets' nest which is now stinging wildly. They have made a new rating of the premises of Messrs. Gifford, Fox, and Co., throwing in the machinery which hitherto has been exempt, and thereby raising the rateable value from £290 to £1,097. There was an appeal to Quarter Sessions, with the result that machinery is as rateable as buildings or lands, but a reduction was made in the assessment from £1,097 to £895. Messrs. Gifford, Fox, and Co. feel aggrieved, and the machinery interests throughout the kingdom are buckling on their armour. There is a lively time before us, as the trawl net of local taxation is destined to rope in everything that will admit of roping in. Theoretically, decentralisation and local government are fine things, but they would have been less popular had the paying for them been taken into account. Oddly enough, Scotch law exempts machinery, the Court of Session in 1877 having so decided. Messrs. Gifford, Fox, and Co. and others threaten to take early leave of Chard, and to domicile themselves across the border. THE proposed watering of the Caledonian Railway stock is exercising not only the railway investing mind, but also the general public mind. The morality of the proceeding is not the knotty point, no one apparently caring whether it is moral or immoral. The moot point is whether one sixpence in a shilling should be shunted into deferred stock and the other sixpence made a preferred stock, with the gains and contingent but present considerable rise on the Stock Exchange, or whether the watering should take the form of a doubling of the share capital, which would give a splendid Stock Exchange opening for bear accounts to those in the "know." As the course to be finally resolved on is to form a precedent for the other railways, it would not be easy to exaggerate the importance of the issue of present deliberations. We have only this to add, that were an ordinary debtor to set about watering the rights of his creditors, he would find various obstacles in the way of maintaining his solvency, the ordinary debtor case of stock-watering resolving itself into so much only in the pound. We see no reason why a corporation-be it a railway or anything else should not forthwith come under the jurisdiction of the Court of Bankruptcy, whenever it feels itself in so tight a place that stock-watering suggests itself as the one, and only one, remedy proper to the case. There can be no distinction between personal and corporate obligation and morality. MR. T. JAQUES MARTIN, the managing director at Melbourne of the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society, is at present on a visit to London, and can be seen at the offices of the society, 33, Poultry, Cheapside, or at the Langham Hotel. Australians in London will be glad to know this. THERE seems to be a likelihood of a change in the personnel of the London office of the Colonial Mutual. Already we know of the appointment of Mr. B. H. Dames as assistant secretary. This is an excellent appointment. Mr. Dames has filled the position of chief clerk in the Colonial Mutual Office from the time the society commenced operations in England. Previous to this he was in the Standard. His insurance training, aptitude, and tact are such as to guarantee such in his new duties. We shall watch the upward career of this gentleman with interest. THE immense profits which accrue to the owners of proprietary medicines have from time out of mind excited the envy of all wealth-seeking people. From Holloway's Pills to Warner's Safe Cure, through a catalogue of some dimensions, the history of gigantic fortunes accumulated by the fortunate proprietors is matter of common knowledge. We have information that the public will shortly have a chance of acquiring the most successful business of this class. To mention the name of "Warner's Safe Cure" is but to repeat an almost universally-known household word. In the United States as well as in Great Britain, in Germany as in far Australia, Warner's Safe Cure is known and believed in. The proprietor, H. H. Warner, possesses the finest testimonials we have ever seen, and they throw into the shade anything that even Holloway could show. HERE is a tip for insurance agents which we extract from The Review of New York :-A St. Louis man mentions the following method which proved a bonanza for a life insurance canvasser until others discovered it and adopted the same method. If you happen to be a newly-married man, you will be honoured by the visits of some dozen men within as many days of your wedded bliss. Each tries to prevail upon you to insure your life for the benefit of your wife, and takes you at a time when the honeymoon is brightest, as then it is easiest to show you how terrible it would be to leave a widow unprovided for. Of course, if you have a wedding that is described in the society columns; you easily imagine how you attracted the attention of the agents; but any agent who would wait for such account would arrive too late. Every day some of these worthy agents visit the marriage licence office, and copy the names of those who have taken out licences, knowing that young men about to be married are good subjects for life insurance. Mr. William John Down, solicitor, has been appointed Secretary to the Dorking Gas Company, in succession to his father, the late Mr. James Dundas Down. Mr. Down is clerk to the county magistrates at Dorking. Admitted in 1884. Mr. Andrew Ross, solicitor, has been appointed Assistant Clerk of the Court of Session in Scotland. Mr. James Gordon Wenden, solicitor, has been appointed Clerk to the Dursley Board of Guardians, Assessment Committee, School Attendance Committee, and Rural Sanitary Authority, on the resignation of his father, Mr. George Wenden. Admitted in 1880. LAW AND POETRY. IN days of old did law and rhyme The Hindu statutes tripped in feet And law in Wales to be complete Was versified in triads. But law and rhyme were found to be A trifle inconsistent, And now in statutes poetry Is wholly non-existent. Still here and there some advocate, Let him that has been honoured so- Find precedents in Cicero, And our Chief Justice Davis; And more than all in Cino; he, So plaintive a narrator Of fair Selvaggia's cruelty, MORALS OF CASES.-I. HAMPDEN. WALSH, 1 Q.B.D. 336. "FIVE hundred pounds as stake I'll lay," "Proof me no proofs," quoth Hampden, "nay, Let him remember Thomas More And Scott and Alciatus, And Grotius with ample store Of most Divine afflatus. But let him, if his bread and cheese A richer price is set upon 'Tis well that some bold spirits dare or a rapid chronicling of the small-beer of society. There is strong and stirring work in the story of the Duries of Durrisdeer, and there is, too, much facile limning of the lights and shades of human character as exemplified in the strongly contrasted creations, the Brothers James and Henry Durie-a Scotch Esau and Jacob, as the devil-maycare elder brother would have the world believe-the proud, sensitive Alison Graeme; the reserved, prematurelyold and peace-loving Lord Durrisdeer; and the calm, devoted factotum. Mackellar. The story opens in the romantic days of 1745, and the seed of all the coming trouble for the little household on the Solway Firth is sown by the departure of James Durie, the "Master," to take sides with Prince Charlie, while Henry stays at home with Lord Durrisdeer, and keeps in good odour with King George. Alison Graeme, a rich ward of the Durrisdeers, is in love with the handsome, dashing, unscrupulous rascal, James Durie, but he is reported dead, and after a while she marries Henry, a solid, decent fellow, but hated by those about him who do not know the truth of the case, because they think him guilty of supplanting this brutal but well-beloved "Master." Of course the "Master" is not dead, and turns up, as full of his devilry as ever, and, polished by a sojourn in Paris, with the deliberate purpose of alienating Alison's love from her husband. Then follow a duel between the brothers, and many adventures by land and sea, which must be read to be believed. Suffice it that the volume is crammed with interesting incident, and even more interesting character-study, from the first page to the last, and that it is rich in that quiet humour so peculiarly characteristic of the Scotch. Pathos, humour, tragedy, adventure, all crowded into one small volume, and cemented with a diction in itself admirable and fascinating, combine to make "The Master of Ballantrae" quite one of the best books of the year. The Day will Come. By Miss BRADDON. (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 3 vols.)-One of the most interesting people in this well-written story is a certain old legal peer, Lord Cheriton, and the plot turns chiefly upon a crime which is, in a measure, the result of an indiscretion committed when his lordship was plain James Dalbrook, a hard-working barrister, with a little private ménage in Camberwell-grove, where he lived with and loved a woman whom he could not marry, but who became the mother of a child, for whose sake the murder, which strikes the keynote of the story, is committed. Miss Braddon's sketch of the hard-working barrister and the one romance of his life, and of the courtly and always kindly Lord Cheriton, whose conscience is as tender as his heart is good, and who, in his later married life, never forgets the claim of the woman he loved but could not wed, is admirably done. So also is that of the mysterious Mrs. Porter, who lives at the rich man's gates; and the heroine, Juanita Carmichael, is a sympathetic and charming character, despite her almost unwomanly craving for revenge upon the murderer of her young husband. Lady Cheriton, Mercy Porter, Miss Newton (a Lambeth philanthropist), Theodore Dalbrook, and other comparatively minor characters, are all strongly individualised and very real, and the author, with her usual skill, weaves every one of them into the warp and woof of the ingenious plot. Rarely, indeed, has Miss Braddon displayed more finesse than in the clever way in which she has worked the murder episode, and its sequent search. The finger of suspicion is pointed first at this person, then at that, the reader being kept all the while in a delightful state of uncertainty, by means of which his interest is sustained, unweakened, throughout the three volumes, and the author of "Lady Audley's Secret" succeeds in fully vindicating her claim to a place in the front rank of contemporary novelists. THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT, 1888. THE following order has been issued by the Local Government Board : Whereas by sub-sections (1), (2), and (3) of section 57 of the Local Government Act, 1888, it is enacted as follows: "57.-1. Whenever a County Council is satisfied that a prima facie case is made out as respects any county district not a |