Zachary Brough's Venture. By Elizabeth Boyd Bayly. (Jerrold and Sons.)—This
might be described as a " temperance story." Undoubtecily the author has this purpose in view ; but she pursues it with an amount of literary skill, tact, and insight into character, which are not often found in tales of this kind. Zachary Brough is a hard-headed man of business, who has, however, a thread of what many people would call Quixotry in the web of his character. He has had " ventures " of the kind here described, and has not always succeeded in them. In this instance his subject is of a kind which would commonly be pro- nounced hopeless,—a man of fine artistic temperament who has ruined himself by drink. The story of how the work is carried out is finely conceived, and admirably told. We have not seen anything of the kind that has pleased us more.
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