The Means and the End; or, the Chaplain's Secret. By
Mrs. Henry H. B. Paull. (Houlston and Wright.)—A line on the title-page of this book promises to trace Ritualism and its errors to their source. We confess that on closing the book we were not at all enlightened on the subject. Indeed, the only connection that we can trace between Ritualism and Mrs. Paull's story consists in their mutual folly, bat the story is the more foolish of the two. A great deal of it turns on the plots of a Jesuit to win over the heir of a title to his Church, and as the heir in question is supposed to be dead, and is wandering about under an assumed name, with a locket, a pair of eyes, and a mark on his arm as a future means of identification, the Jesuit seems to think that if he can once be identified by the right person he is sure to become a Romanist. However, he is identified by the wrong person in a scene strongly reminding us of Box and Cox; the Jesuit has a paralytic stroke, and all his schemes are overthrown ; and a general reliance on Proi- vidence is inculcated, as likely to save the world from being uncon- sciously diverted from Protestantism. As a sample of Mrs. Paull's- style when she is not guarding us against the machinations of the Jesuits, let us quote the following sentence :—" Some modern writers, Mrs. Beecher Stowe more pre-eminently, have the power of making a tea or a supper, or even a description of the delicacies with which the table is loaded, a beautiful addition to a chapter full of feeling and in- tellectual power."
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