BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10223, 29 August 1896, Page 1 (Supplement)

BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Rust of Gold : By Francis Prevost. Ward, Lock, and Bowden, Limited, Warwick House, Salisbury Square, E.C. 'Francis Prevost' is the pseudonym under which Mr. H. F. Prevost Battersby has written more than one striking story. His volume of stories under the above title, published last year, met with a good deal of appreciation. The author had the compliment of having his work pirated. Five of his stories first appeared in Black and White and Temple Bar. The author of' Rust of Gold' ha? now published a new collection of stories entitled 'On tho Verge,' some of the characters being cleverly limned. The serios in this volume are, 'A Great Forsaking,' 'Qui Regis Israel,' 'Head Winds,' 'A Modern Instance,' 'Derelict;,' and 'Honor's Pawn.' Mr. Battersby does not confine his effortß to prose. Ho has written some poems which have attracted attention.

A Fikst Fleet Family : By Louis Becke and Walter Jeffery. T. Fisher Unwin, Paternoster Square, London.— tale is said to be a hitherto unpublished narrative of certain remarkable advontures compiled from the papers of Serjeant William Dew, of the Marines. In the preface the editors say 'any attempt made now to disguise the principal characters in the story would be futile, for the New South Wales Government has published, in a work called 1 The Historical Records of New South Wales' nearly every fact hero related.' We have here a record of the joys and sorrowsof the 'First Fleet Family.' Wm. Dew, is one of the heroes of the story, and confesses at the outset that his father ' was a good, honest farmer, with a fine turn for smuggling.' Dew loves a smart servant maid, Mary Broad, but she prefers Will Bryant, who has served in the navy. Dew sets inveigled into a smuggling expedition by Bryant, and only escapes the penalty of the law by volunteering into the marines as one of the convict guard for the Botany Bay enterprise. Among the prisoners are Will Bryant, Mary Broad's lover, and Mary herself, who elected to share the convict's future. JOn the passage out Commodore Philip determined to marry the single female convicts or widows to suitable male prisoners on arrival and thus commence the infant settlement. A committee of selection was appointed, consisting of the commodore, the doctor, and the clergyman, and all the unmated members of the convicts' expedition, (save the heroine and her erstwhile smuggler lover and admirer) were wedded in accordance with the decisions of the ' selection committee.' In this fashion was ' The First Fleet. Family,' as the first expedition to Botany Bay, made up, Shortly after the expedition landed Will Bryant and Mary Broad got married, beinp paired at the influence of Lieutenant Fairfax by the selection committee. Mary had been his sister's maid in the old country, and he had a sneaking regard for Mary himself, but llary s good sense told her that the disparity of position would only bring unhappiness. . Alter sonio years, Bryant and his wife and family, and some other convicts, escaped in a boat, suffering great hardship?, reaching Coupling after half the boat's crew, including Mrs. Bryant's two children, had died. Mrs. Bryant is sent to England, a prisoner, and pardoned. Lieutenant Fairfax, faithful to his old love, woos and marries her. Sergeant Dew, the unsuccessful lover of early days, also returns to England to his native village, obtains his discharge, and settles on the farm of his father (who in the interval has died), and becomes a prosperous yeoman. He marries Lieut. Fairfax' 3 sister, and thus the story ends. In a postcript there are some kindly references to Governor Philip and Captain Hunter by Sergeant Dew—

By such men as these were the settlers in the early days of New South Wales governed, and when you hear people, as is often the case nowadays, saying that the prisoners were cruelly treated, just take this journal of mine and read this postscript to them, that all may know what manner of men they were who founded New South Wales.

The story of Dew is graphically narrated, and throws «i flood of lights on the history of 'A First Fleet Family.'

Thic Little Duchess; and Other Stories :By Ethel Turner. Ward, Lock, and Bowden, Limited, London.—The author of the ' Seven Little Australians' has in this volume (colonial edition) given nearly a dozen chatty storios, the best of which are 'The Little Duchess,' ' Wilkes of Waterloo,' and ' Almost an Idyll,' bub all of them are interesting and readable. A Hcmblk Enterprise : By Ada Cambridge. Ward, Lock, and Bowden, Limited, London.—The scenes are laid in Melbourne, and depict the usual characteristics of colonial life. The present volume is the colonial edition. The plot is very simple, but is very well worked out. Mr, Joseph Liddon was an accountant in the firm of Churchill and Son, and while on a holiday was killed by a passing train while crossing the line. The widow, with her young 30ii (in the employ of the firm) and her two daughters, wero left to face the world, with a few hundred pounds, the fruits of Liddon'* life policy. She declines the £100 offered by the firm, but sots about a policy of self reliance, and with her daughters starts a kiosk— tea place for ladies. Her place of business, through good cooking and politeness and attention to customers, becomes a favourito resort at lastt. Mr,. Churchill, sen., had made a private note of the excellent qualities of the Liddon family, and some members of his family drop in for tea, and bring their friends. The merchant and his son also drop in. As the upshot the son falls in love with one of the daughters, and after various adventures marries her with the full consent of his father and sister, although Mrs. Churchhill, thoold gentleman's second wife, is greatly opposed to it. Young Churchill remembered how h's own mother had toiled for bread in the early days, and weds the girl of his etwee, ' money or no money,' and the Liddlpfamily are removed from any further apprehensions as to a means of subsistence. The tale is pleasantly told, the characters carefully delineated, and some phases of colonial life truthfully outlined. A wholesome moral, like a golden thread, runs through the whole story.

Tin: Vanished Emperor: By Percy Audreae. Ward, Lock, and Bowden (Limited), Warwick House, Salisbury Square, London. — The names are very thinly disguised, the Emperor Willibald of Arminia, is tho Emperor William of Germany ; the Duke of Cumbermere the Duke of Cumberland ; Franconia, France; Branderberg, Prussia; Noveria, Hanover; Prince Ottomark, Prince Otto von Bismarck ; and so forth. That he has not been specific, the author says, is ' merely for the reason that although everything that is true of the German Emperor William 11. is also true of the Arminian Emperor Willibald, notall that is true of the Arminian Emperor Willibald can be said to be truo of the German Emperor William ll.' The author in his romance about German affairs built it upon a mosaic basis of fact) and fiction, and in that spirit it must in fairness bo regarded.

The Dwarf's Chamber and Other Stories : By Fergus Hume, Ward, Lock, and Bonden, Limited, London.Wo have to hand tho colonial edition of tho above work of fiction. The story is cleverly told and the interest sustained to the closo. The other stories are also very readable, namely, 1 Miss Jonathan,' 'The Dead Man's Diamonds,' ' The Tale of the Turquoise Skull,' ' The Greenstone God and the Stockbroker,' 1 Tho Jesuit and the Mexican Coin,' 'The Rainbow Camellia,' 'The Ivory Log and the Diamonds,' and ' My Cousin from Franco.'

The Poetical Works of John' Milton: Frederick Warne and Co., London.—Tho present new edition of Milton's works has boon re set,and re-edited by Mrs. Valentine. There is given an introductory memoir, with notes, bibliography, etc. The notes explain Milton's allusions to the astronomy and philosophy of his age, and gives some account of the persons to whom his sonnets are addressed, or, to vjhom reference is nude in his minor poems. The punctuation of this edition is kept as near to that of the poet as is possible for modern readors, The text) is cloarly and uicely printed, and tho volume tastefully pot up. Religious Curtaintv : New Zealand Bible, Tract, and Book Society.We have o acknowledge receipt) of a brochure from the mauler of the Auckland Sunday-

school Union (Mr. J. Edmiston), being 11 course of lectures by Professor Dunlop, D.D., of Duncdin, on ' Religious Certainty: Vindication of some Fundamental Religious Beliefs.' Tlio subjects of the lectures arc: ' Religious Certainty,' ' Religious and Scientific Beliefs,' 'Arguments from the World's Order,' 'Arguments from Intelligence anil Conscience,' 1 The Internal Witness of ihe Spirit,' and 'Self-evidencing power of the Christ of the Gospels.' Professor Dunlop states that

The main object of tlijs course of lcctnres is to vindicate the reasonableness of religious belief, by reference to the laws and grounds of legitimate credence. That the object proposed in in the last degree important, does not need to be proved to those who have heart enough and insight enough to feel and see that the questions of supreme interest and importance for humanity are such as .-—What is our origin and destiny ? and how do wo stand related to the person or thing which we must hold to be the ultimate reality.

The lecturer has kept the object he has indicated in view, in a series of thoughtful and well prepared lectures, which will repay careful perusal, as boing at once forcible, liberal, and logical. In the hot pursuit of gold, which characterises colonial life, it is well at times for its devotees to bo reminded that' Man does not live by bread alone.'

Social Odsekvances : Frederick Warno and Co., London.— nicely got up work is a series of essays on 'Practical Etiquette, 1 by lAu Fait.' The work has been written on social observances in the hope that this practical form of placing before tho public the results of close observation, allied to an intimate knowledge of the usages of society will commend it to the majority of readers, and prove of service and advantage to them in many ways. The little volume describes tho' whole duty of socially.

Hkrreht Vanlenn'f.rt : By C. F. Keary. Wm. Heinomann, London.—This novel is jne of the series of Heinomann's Colonial Library. The i /iry contains seme sketches uf English county .ad middle life, and also phases of London iife. The hero of this rmrortaining story : 'ias numberless adventures, not only in England but on the Continent and in India. As usual, the ' grand passion' forms the staple of the tale, and it closes with Herbert Vanlennert getting happily married.

Bacon's Kdu \tiosal Series: (}. W. Bacon and Co., Limited, 127, Strand, London.—Wo have to acknowledge receipt of ' Tho Infant School Readers,' ' A Tiny Tale,' illustrated. Book 1. is 'Off to the Sea,' in words of three letters. Book 111. is 1 Home from the Sea,' in longer words, a Tiny Tale, by Charlotte Waters, of Birmingham. Both Infant Readers are nicely illustrated, and are well adapted for the pnrpose intended by the above firm of educational publishers.

Thk Ciujtuky Magazine : Macmillan and Co., Limited, Bedford-street, London.— The opening article is on St. Peter's, by F. Marian Crawtord. 'Old Lady Lazonbury' is an amusing sketch of a widow 'on the marry.' 'An Open-eyed Conspiracy' is an idyl of Saratoga, the fashionable watering place. There is an excellent article entitled, 'Glimpses of Venezuela and Guiana,' which gives a good deal of useful information concerning these countries. Mr. William M. Sloane contributes another of his admirable papers on ' Life of Napoleon Bonaparte: The Western Emperor on the Defensive,' ' An Arctic Studio' is a description of life in an Arctic winter, and ' A Family Record of Ney's Execution,' gives the life and death of' the bravest of the brave.' Mrs. Humphrey Ward's novel, ' Sir George Trossady,' is continued. Mr. Bryce, M.P., comribntes an excellent paper, 'Impressions of South Africa.' The writer is ot opinion that) all South Africa with the Transvaal, seems destined in the future to belong to the English type of civilisation, and to speak the English tongue. 'The Comedy of War', is a story of the American Civil War, ' Recollections and Anecdotes of Bulow,' the musician, 'Topics of the Time,'and ' Open Letters,' complete the number of this entertaining and instructive magazine,