_A Secret Inheritance_ is the title of Mr. B. L. FARJEON'S latest, and
only not his best, Romance, because his others have all been as
absorbingly interesting and as exciting as this. Yet because in this
the author adheres strictly to the point, without any carpenters'
scenes, of humour, which are distracting and irritating, I am inclined
to set this down as the best of all Mr. FARJEON'S,--in fact,--the
best-by-Far-jeon. He is, for many reasons, better than BOISGOBEY.
[Illustration: Sketch of a Review. The March of Intellect.]
In an admirably got up and well-arranged Jubilee volume about Pope LEO
THE THIRTEENTH, by JOHN OLDCASTLE, we find an item of information
which may be advantageously recommended to Emperors, Empresses,
Monarchs of all they survey, Princes, Lord Mayors, and Aldermen. It is
"the Pope's dinner." Listen, "A few minutes suffices for its
consumption." "He does not spend a hundred francs a month for his
table." Not one pound a week! Not three shillings a day on his food,
wine included! He dines "at two o'clock: his mid-day meal lasts not
longer than half-an-hour, and is very frugal, consisting of soup, one
kind of meat, two dishes of vegetables, some fruit, and, by the
doctor's orders, a glass of claret." His supper at 9.30 consists of
"soup, an egg, and some salad." Is there a Radical living who could
tax the Pope's bill of fare as exorbitant?
_The Red Spider_, by the Author of _Mehalah_, &c., is the _Un-read
Spider_ as far as I am concerned, for I could not manage to get
through it, and I did try.