“A peculiar interest attaches to sketches of colonial life, and readers could not have a safer guide than the talented author of this work, who, by a residence of half a century, has practically grasped the habits, manners, and social conditions of the colonists he describes. All who wish to form a fair idea of the difficulties and pleasures of life in a new country, unlike England in some respects, yet like it in many, should read this book.”—_John Bull._ ------------------ XIII.—DARIEN; OR, THE MERCHANT PRINCE. BY ELIOT WARBURTON. “This last production of the author of ‘The Crescent and the Cross’ has the same elements of a very wide popularity. It will please its thousands.”—_Globe._ “Eliot Warburton’s active and productive genius is amply exemplified in the present book. We have seldom met with any work in which the realities of history and the poetry of fiction were more happily interwoven.”—_Illustrated News._ ------------------ XIV.—FAMILY ROMANCE; OR, DOMESTIC ANNALS OF THE ARISTOCRACY. BY SIR BERNARD BURKE, ULSTER KING OF ARMS. “It were impossible to praise too highly this most interesting book, whether we should have regard to its excellent plan or its not less excellent execution. It ought to be found on every drawing-room table. Here you have nearly fifty captivating romances with the pith of all their interest preserved in undiminished poignancy, and any one may be read in half an hour. It is not the least of their merits that the romances are founded on fact—or what, at least, has been handed down for truth by long tradition—and the romance reality far exceeds the romance of fiction.”—_Standard._ ------------------ XV.—THE LAIRD OF NORLAW. BY MRS. OLIPHANT. “We have had frequent opportunities of commending Messrs. Hurst and Blackett’s Standard Library. For neatness, elegance, and distinctness the volumes in this series surpass anything with which we are familiar. ‘The Laird of Norlaw’ will fully sustain the author’s high reputation. The reader is carried on from first to last with an energy of sympathy that never flags.”—_Sunday Times._ “‘The Laird of Norlaw’ is worthy of the author’s reputation. It is one of the most exquisite of modern novels.”—_Observer._ ------------------ XVI.—THE ENGLISHWOMAN IN ITALY. BY MRS. G. GRETTON. “Mrs. Gretton had opportunities which rarely fall to the lot of strangers of becoming acquainted with the inner life and habits of a part of the Italian peninsula which is the very centre of the national crisis. We can praise her performance as interesting, unexaggerated, and full of opportune instruction.”—_The Times._