The Chest of Opium. By Mr, M—. The New Vagabond Library. London: Neville Beaman, Ld., 1896.
Mr. M—, the hero of the abortive rising in Chinkiang, and author of The Shen's Pigtail, etc., has utilised his knowledge of China as gathered at Chinkiang, of the working of the Imperial Customs Service, in this short story, an anything; but pleasant account of the discovery of the body of a murdered, headless Chinese in a chest supposed fo contain opium. One chest out of a consignment from Hongkong is found, when delivered at the Customs godown, to be so much overweight that it is opened and then the gruesome discovery is made, Well told as the story is, it is a very repulsive one but it may be said for it that it is not quite so repulsive as the story which is tided to make the volume sufficiently long, A Chinese Horror. It is a pleasure to.turn from these grisly nightmares to a breezy, fresh, West country tale Anthony Jasper:-—By Ben Bott. The Pseudonym Library, London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1896.
This is a delightful little story, which can be read through in something over half an hour, of smuggling, and prevention, and fighting, and true love; and anybody who does not enjoy it must be very hard please. Anthony, the hero and smuggler, Captain Thrapstone of King George's Dragoons, the preventive officer, and Kitty Tregelles, the heroine, are all three people whom one would be glad to have known personally, and their adventures, which end in the orthodox way, are interesting in themselves and very well told.
But here is a more solid book, one of the Story of the Empire" series The Rise of the Empire. By Sir Walter Besant. London: Horace Marshall & Son, Temple House, E.C. 1897.
The publishers preface this attractive little book of 125 pages, in red cloth and old, with extracts from a number of jetters from prominent politicians, Mr. Balfour, Mr. Asquith, Mr. Chamberlain, the Duke of Devonshire, and Mr. J. Bryce write commending the idea of the series of which this by Sir Walter Besant is the first. The volumes are to be small as well as attractive, so as to place the essential facts of colonial life and history within the reach of all classes. In a letter to the publishers Mr. Bryce says Qur people know less than they ought of the history and growth of our greater colonies, and have not yet realised how much of interest the annals of those colonies contain, Nothing will do more
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.