LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 276, 18 November 1905, Page 10

LITERARY.

"The Household of Peter" (Macmillan's Colonial Library) is one of those delightful social sketches that have gained for Mrs. Rosa Nouchette Carey's books such an assured popularity with readers of wholesome tastes. Peter is a young medical practitioner in a rural district, and his household consists of three young sisters, who are resolved to play the part of guardian angels to him, caring for his physical wants and exercising a ceaseless watchfulness lest his wayward steps should lead him into some undesirable matrimonial entanglement. But Fate, with a big F, is apt to thwart sisterly designs, no matter how artful, and thus it happens that the doctor becomes enamoured of Hannah Burke, the attendant upon one of his well-to-do old lady patients, who at her death leaves her fortune to the faithful nurse. Hannah is neither well-born nor highly educated; but she possesses good looks, and has also the qualities of a really good woman. She by no means takes very kindly to her altered circumstances, being modestly doubtful of her ability to sustain the part of a lady of property with credit or comfort to herself. The local magnates stand altoof, and when Peter urges his sisters to call they hesitate, and would have absolutely refused but for the fear of alienating the affections of their adored brother. The second sister undertakes to reconnoitre, and is forthwith charmed, the resultant intimacy engendering a strong friendship. But at this time a frivolous young widow, the 6ister of a baronet, is laj ing a net for the young doctor, and the Council of Three decidedly favour her designs, being dazzled by her rank and believing her to be well off, which turns out to be the reverse of the truth, as she is really dependent on the bouniy of her brother. Into the current of this interesting family's affairs comes in emotional and timorous young woman, riding a bicycle, which lands her in a rather dilapidated condition in the vicinity of the doctor Peter's door, and she is borne into the house to be nursed back to health by the three sisters and Hannah Burke. Her father, Mr. Ashton, a widower, and a man of wealth, is in sublime ignorance of the fact that his daughter has been beguiled into a secret marriage. The intercourse which follows has important consequences to all concerned. The story flows very pleasantly along its various channels to terminations which accord generally with the eternal fitness of things, conclusions which are not usually reached so happily in ordinary life.

"The Fronde," by George Stuart Gordon, of Oriel College, which formed the theme of the Stanhope essay for 1905, has been published by B. H. Blackwell, of Broad street, Oxford. It deals with one nf the most interesting periods of French history, the interval between Richlieu and Louis XIV., when the impotent truggles of the Parliament of Paris ended in the triumph of the Court, and the bondage of France in fetters that were only broken by the violence of the French Revolution, more than a century later. The writer traces the course of the complex influences and intrigues out of which this mimic civil war arose. "Society in France at the time of the Fronde," he says, "presents circumstances which can scarcely occur more than once in the history of the nation: a little people, interested only in itself, brilliant, accomplished, talking and writing with a verve and never known be? fore, and which could not last out the century, proclaiming in every movement of it the departure of the middle age, and the beginning of that -division of France into two peoples, which Michelet dates from the Peace of Westphalia, which is to go on growing for a century more until they unite agiin in tho thunderclap of the French Revolution."

"The Seafarers," by Charles D. Websdale, is a marvellous peries of adven- . tures of the Jules Verne type which bei fall the chipf officer of the ship Flying Venus. The vessel, after several dnys of terrific storm, sights a burning ship, and the mate, with a volunteer boat's' crew, rescues the sole survivor from the bowsprit. The Flying Venus afterwards becomes entangled in an ice floe, and is carried into Antarctic regions. Fearing the destruction of the vessel, all the crew land, except the chief officer and a seaman, who are left aboard through the vessel drifting away. They safely weather the perils of the ice. and come across the WTeck of a Spanish treasure ship, which for • more than a century has been embedded in the ice. Transferring her gold and precious freight to the Flying Venus, they make sail with that ship, but are ultirantely wrecked ; upon another wonderful island, where they discover, high and dry, the hull of an old Indiaman. and find a girl and i three boys, who represent the solo survivors of that sea tragedy. These are only a tithe of the marvels which come in ' the way of this pair of young sea dogs, and when they are Onnlly rescued with , their hoard, one feels that they well deserve all'they have won. The book is published by the States Publishing Company, Sydney.

The "National Review" for October contains an article by -Tgnofcus." in which the writer scathingly denounces the attitude of tho-e statesmen and writers who look with indifference upon Germany's naval development. He declares that the idea of a naval coalition against England has haunted the Kaiser's dreams for years, and is responsib'e for the recent state of the relations between the two countries. He further, shows that the charges for debt, army, and navy in Germany are now only 45.8 million pounds, whereas the charges under the same heads for Britain are 93.3 millions per annum. The population of Germany is nearly 50 per cent, greater than that of the United Kingdom, her trade and wealth are growing faster, and if she spent as much upon her fleet as we do now upon ours her total burthen for debt and armament would only be. £71.000.000, against our £93,000,000. He be'ieves Mr. Chamberlain's policy directed towards securing the help of the colonies for the raaintainence of Britain's sea power is a matter of life and death to the Empire. Lieuf.-General Sir E. G. Harrow, reviewing tlie new balance of power in the Far East, considers that though the new alliance with Japan is to our present advantage, it is not without dangers, and the alliance should be strengthened by the admission of the United States and France. The Hon. and Rev. James Adderley, in an article on "The Clergy and Commercial Morality," cites a number of causes contributing to fraud in trade He suggests as a remedy that commercial leaders should frankly confess that there is dishonesty going on, and thnt they should combine and come out boldly with regulations against misrepresentation and so on that will set the standand for the rest. The Earl of Ronaldshay gives an interesting account of "A Visit to Baku," tbe scene !of the recent Tartar outrages. The number contains, other articles on topics of curront in-

i The semi-barbaric life of the American I frontiersman, recalling the blood feuds! of the Celtic clans in bygone leenturies, | is the groundwork of "A Cumberland Vendetta," by John Fox, junr., author of i "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come." It is a story glowing with the fierce passions of primitive man. Two pioneer families, the Stetsons and the Lewallens, occupying opposite sides of the Cumberland River, nurture a hatred made undying by the memories of murder on both sides. A lull has come in active hostilities through the violent death of the head of the Stetson family and the flight of his brother, but now the only son of the murdered man has come of age, and his uncle has returned from the West resolved upon vengeance. Tlie son, Rome, is sworn to kill old Jasper Lewallen, who had shot his father from ambush, and also his son; but his hand is restrained by love for Martha, the daughter of his enemy. The tide of feeling among his kinsmen is too strong to allow the feud to die, and in one final battle the leaders are swept away, and the two survivors, Rome outlawed, and Martha homeless and friendless, join hands and turn their faces westward. An English edition of the book has been published by Archibald Constable & Co.

"The Quakeress," by Max Adeler, will never take rank with the author's sequence of humorous stories, from "Out of the Hurly Burly" to "In Happy Hollow." It is a somewhat serious and occasionally rather prosy story of the American Civil War, though the incidents of that great national struggle enter very slightly into the current of its events. It is really the love story of a pretty little Quakeress, who has settled down comfortably to the prospect of a sedate marriage with a worthy farmer of the same religious persuasion, when she is suddenly swept away by a gust of emotion, excited by Clayton, a handsome young Marylander who has come to the neighbourhood on a visit to his aunt. Clayton had contracted a secret marriage in Mexico, and this fact was brought to the knowledge of Abby's Quaker lover, who reveals it to her friends. Clayton professed to believe that his wife was dead, and tried to persuade the girl that this was the case. She disbelieved the excuse, nevertheless, despite her strong religious convictions and upbringing, and her consciousness that the Quaker was much the truer man of the two, she consented to elope with Clayton, and set out with that intention, only to discover that she had mistaken the appointed night. The ending is a tragio denial of happiness to all the principals in the story. We have received the book from Ward, Lock and Co- through Wildman and Arey.

The Baroness Orezy is one of the most fertile and ingenious among living writers of what may be broadly classed as detective stories. A collection of twelve of these mysteries of crime, well illustrated, has just been issued in Unwin's Colonial Library, under the title of "The Case of Miss Elliott." This initial story turns upon the murder of a clever young lady doctor, who holds a position of responsibility in a London hospitaL The motive of the crime, it is suggested, is founded in certain large defalcations by the president and treasurer of the institution. The Dlot is cleverly handled, a remark that may be applied with equal truth to the. other absorbing stories in the book, and the reader with detective proclivities will find ample scope for his genius in ..solving the riddles which in some instances baffled the ingenuity of the detectives.

"Cassell's Magazine" for October contains an illustrated article on "Famous Stock Exchanges of the Worid," in which the writer declares that John Bull retains his heritage of leading the world's financial operations by the power of London's pre-eminence in this respect. A brief biographical sketch of the clever English violinist. Miss Marie Hall, narrates how she was compelled to re'inquish a Royal Academy scholarship she had won because a lack of means prevented her from leaving her home at Bristol, md how she attempted to eet up a lowil concert by personally sel'ing the tickets, but failed, and went round to return the money. It was the latter act which brought her under the notice of some people, who undertook to secure her a good musical education, their kindness being so completely justified that s-he has lately completed record-break-ing tours of the United Kingdom, and is now bound for America at a fee that is four times greater than has ever been paid to a lady violinist. Moreover, the violin on which she plays is a Sbradivarius, for which she lately paid £1600. The writers of short stories in this number inchide Tom Gallon. Henry A. Herin_. Sir E. C. Cos., and other favourite writers.

In the "Monthly Review" for October, L. Cope CornfoTd reviews the condition of the Imperial German Navy, and describes the conditions of service imposed on its officer' and crews. He concludes: "The official sfatfwnt of the naval policy is to the effect that it is purely defensive. To venture upon a last expression of personal opinion at the end of a somewhat close study of the navy itself, 1 see no reason to doubt that statement." In an ar'icle on the same subject, signed "V.," which follows, the writer arrives it an exactly opposite conclusion, tie shows that since 1888, when William TI. came to the throne, the navy has been increased by SI 1,757 tone, that vessels representing a tonnage of 174,----450 tons -are now building, that during the same period the crews have been increased from 15,573 men to -10,86----men. He quotes tho commander-in-chief of the navy, Admiral yon Stosch, who wrote in 1888: "The North Sea harbours defend themselves. If the buoys are removed from the endle s sandbanks, which change their shape from year to yeaT, even the most expert pilots would not dare to take a ship through the tortuous channels; and the Secretary of State, Admiral llallm-ann, who declared in March, 18U7, before the Committee of Ways nndj M?ans: "We require no navy for coast defence; our coasts defend themselves." He says it is .perfectly clear that the German navy is being strengthened for foreign aggression, and in the opinion of many competent , authori ies, concentrated as it is, while the British fleet is widely scat-: tered, an invasion of Britain is by no means so impracticable as optimists : imagine." Miss A. M. Gierke .contri- j butes an interesting article on ' _vo- | lution in the Heavens," dealing wi h j changes that are traceable in the ■ stellar world. The English law as affecting workmen's trains is discussed by E. A. Pratt, who shows that the i advantages secured from railway companies under legislative compulsion! have been swallowed up by landlords in; increased The literary artidea include Tacturesque note* on Pis*

and a tomb at Ravenna, and the Hon. Emily Lawless, taking as tier text Mr Gold win Smith's statement, "in thee venth, and ninth centuries Ireland played a really great part in European history; it was the bright morning of a dirk day," offers' 39"quatrain verses questioning the "wherefore" of this sad relapse, and closes thus—

Island of faith, of hope, of pain, Home of a thousand varying fears, See you no light bejond your rain! Across your tears?

ForMd It all. the good, the strong. True friends, true lovers, grave or gay, Hatred and wrong endure for long, But not for aye.

And not for ever bare and brown, The boughs despoiled by autumn swing, Time, which draws down the Winter's frown, Restores the Spring.

Brings comfort to the wreck-strewn strand. To men long pressed dt evil rigih-t. And to a weary cloud-girt land, At evening. Tight.