The Dis - Honourable. By J. D. Hennessey. (Sampson Low, Marston, and
Co.)—This is an Australian story, the scene being laid in Queensland, and the most striking feature the description of a flood in Brisbane, a description which has every appearance of having been drawn from personal knowledge. The plot is of a common kind, not made quite as plain to the average reader as it might be. However much we may be kept in the dark as to what is going to happen, the reader should be able to understand what has happened without being called upon for any special effort. Its interest, however, does not flag, and it moves on briskly, while the characters have a look of reality. Mr. Hennessey has added what is really almost a " record " to the already portentous list of "authors' blunders." An honest minister is requested to preach the funeral sermon of a very worthless man, the " Dis- Honourable " of the story, who has left, it is supposed, a large sum to the community over which he presides. He takes for his text, "And they took up the body and buried it." He "reviewed the circumstances of Herod's birthday," then "followed a lifelike description of Herod the Great," of his great work in rebuilding and adorning the Temple, and at the same time, of his luxury and profligacy. "At last he died," said the preacher, "died on a set day ; died by the judgment of God,—eaten of worms." This is pretty good. The Herod pedigree is not familiar to everybody, but a minister ought to have known that it was not Herod the Great who killed the Baptist, and that the Herod who killed the Baptist was not "eaten of worms."
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