The .Baronets and their Brides. By William Matthew Cox. (Nisbet.)—The
aim of the author of this work, who is a Yorkshire clergyman, is an excellent one ; it is, indeed, a good deal better than his performance. It is "to take a humble part with those who are endeavouring to turn to good account the growing rage for sensational novel reading." But, after all, The Baronets and their Brides is the old story of money, alcohol, the Paris Sunday, Monte Carlo, and suicide. Whether, however, the " affair " of one of the two Baronets—the wicked one—with Madame de Fonvielle, is quite of the kind that is calculated to edify " the younger readers whom the writer has kept prominently in view," may be doubted. The closing scenes of the life of the wretched Lady Hazledale, too, are almost too repulsive. Mr. Cox means well, and his descriptions both of persons and of places are obviously true to the life. But he should carefully study the novelist's art before he follows this book up with others, as seems to be his intention at present.
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