21 DECEMBER 1895, Page 23

Master Wilberforce. By " Rita." (Hutchinson.) — " Rita " dedi- cates

this story, which is described as " A Study of a Boy," to "the Boy," a creature whom she considers to have been misrepre• seated by " historians and romancists." Master Wilberforce, her hero, seems to us not by any means typical, not impossible, in- deed, but as far as may be from being representative. But he is obscured by the heroine, a gipsy child, who is intruded into the tale and is a creation very much more after the writer's heart than any other of the characters in the book. We do not think much of " Rita's " knowledge of the natural history of " the Boy," or of her interest in it.