The Rector of Oxbury. A Novel. By James 13. Baynard.
(Samuel Tinsley.)—Mr. Baynard strictly confines the action of his story to the sayings and doings of a small Dissenting community, and the upshot of sit all is the secession to the Church of England of the long-suffering minister of the Grange-Street congregation ; to which step he is won partly by his own experience of the workings of Dissent, and partly by the example and influence of the Rector of Oxbury. Regarded merely as a story, this book is not very attractive, though it is readable, and the author's style is good ; but it has considerable interest as a testimony against Dissent in its social aspects, and a revelation of the interior life of certain sects, whose ministers are their servants in a servile and irri- tating sense unsuspected by the world outeide these communities. Poor Philip Holland's sufferings cannot fail to awaken commiseration, and there is something pitiable as well as ludicrous in the proscription which is directed against his good and charming wife, booanso she belongs to another sect, and had her banns called "in church." The " deacons " are perhaps not so amusing as Mrs. Oliphant'e Carlingford worthies, but Mr. Copperfox and Mr. Flint are well drawn, in their sturdy narrow- mindedness, and the bitter badness of their deeds hi the supposed course of their duty. We do not, however, think Mr. Baynard need have drowned the two obstructivos, merely to add a touch of mag- nanimity to Philip Holland's character,
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