A Secret of the Sea. By T. W. Speight. (Bentley
and Son.)—Mr. Speight is more than generous, be is positively lavish and waste- ful. There is sufficient material in A Secret of the Sea for three ordinary novels of the nearly-exploded sensational type. Only a little of it is of a novel kind ; murder, robbery, personation, re- venge, carried out under surprisingly advantageous circumstances, police disguises, escaped criminal lunatics, about whom no inquiries are made, and who resume their places in the social system, have been heard of rather frequently; but we do not remember to have met with a specimen of the genus poisoner on Mr. Speight's pattern before. A young woman who resorts to the slow poisoning of a gentleman who is indifferent to her affection, and reduces him to the brink of the grave, in order to induce him to propose to her out of gratitude for her nursing of him, is a decided novelty in fiction. We incline to believe that Mr. Speight will not find it necessary to defend his monopoly of it.
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