In their _Outline-History of English Literature_ Otis and Needleman describe Meredith’s _Beauchamp’s Career_ as “a political novel suggested by the candidacy of Capt. Frederick Maxse of Southampton.” Published in 1876 and spanning the years 1850-1862, the novel highlights Commander Nevil Beauchamp’s return from distinguished service in the Crimean War to run for Parliament as a fire-eating Radical. With more descriptions of canvassing and elections, the novel also contains the frequently found criticism of the press, which is almost always regarded as an organ in which truth runs a very bad second to political expediency. Before the novel ends with Beauchamp’s tragic drowning, Meredith has given the reader his record of another aspect of English political life on the local level in the mid-nineteenth century. =Mrs. Humphrey Ward: Victorian Portraits= One of the chief values of Mrs. Humphrey Ward’s _Marcella_ (1894) in the study of English political currents is its catalog of types. The novel follows the erratic romance of Marcella Boyce and Aldous Raeburn. Grandson of Lord Maxwell, an old Tory politician, Raeburn enjoys a successful career in Commons, eventually becoming an Under Secretary in the Home Office. But the obstacle to true love is politics. Aldous is a Tory, and Marcella is a Venturist, defined as “a Socialist minus cant.” The love triangle is completely political, for Aldous’ rival Harry Wharton sits as a Liberal. He is, however, gradually drawing closer to the rising labor movement. At one point Wharton gives the complete Socialist program for the country districts. After a transitional period, he says, land and capital will be controlled by the state. The emancipation of the laborer will mean that “the disappearance of squire, State parson, and plutocrat leaves him master in his own house, the slave of no man, the equal of all.” Wharton presides at the Birmingham Labour Conference, speaking for graduated income tax and nationalization of the land. At this conference Mrs. Ward introduces the reader to the leaders of this new movement, from the moderates to the violent radicals. In a concession to the happy ending, the author has Wharton discredited for a rascal, thereafter reuniting Marcella and Aldous. =H. G. Wells: England in Transition=