A powerfully written, nervous story. *** With these picturesque materials Mr. Gibbon has constructed a story which presents a marked contrast to most fictions of the day, in that its merit lies in the extreme simplicity and strength both of the plot and the characters. The lack of gold, which forms the title of the book, gives rise to bitter results, culminating in dire passions and a fatal crime. Yet nowhere, even when the worst suspicions are excited of the hero's conduct, is there any thing hideous or corrupt, mean or sordid, in the transactions of the persons involved.-Athenæum, London.

"For Lack of Gold" is a piece of very genuine workmanship, and its effect upon us is that we have to restrain our strong inclination to eulogize instead of criticise. *** The writing is good, and the little descriptive bits evince the keen and careful eye as well as the skillful hand of an artist. The beautiful and tender touches with which the work is inlaid; the genuine pathos of even the most intense feeling is very powerful; the well-regulated freedom of the artist's hand, the carefully studied tone of the dialogue, the constructive skill of the plot, the fine moral atmosphere of the whole, even the humor of the mere Scottish dialect-all are accessories essential to the best work, but in one or more of which even very good work is sometimes lacking. But the prime quality of every novel is its characterization, and in this Mr. Gibbon has been eminently successful.-British Quarterly Review.

For a long time now fiction has thriven in Scotland. Since our great father in the craft arose to make the oncedespised novel one of the high instruments of art, full of patriotic use as well as delight to the world, the tradition has never departed from his country, and here is a new writer who may help to carry that tradition on.-Blackwood's Magazine, London.

Mr. Gibbon has achieved a great and thoroughly legitimate success. It is not too much to say of this novel, that it is a valuable contribution to the permanent literature of the country, entitling the author to a high place among contemporary writers of fiction. As a story, there are few recent novels more powerful and engrossing. The plot is admirably conceived and skillfully developed, and there is a constant succession of stirring incidents and striking situations; but the action of the novel is only one of the elements on which the author relies.-Examiner, London. Mr. Gibbon's strong point lies in taking advantage of situations which, as long as the world endures, will be ever new, working them out with boldness and skill, and showing that, however similar the circumstances, the human character is so infinite in variety that no good or evil fortune affects any two individuals in precisely the same way. Small as the difference may be at first, it becomes immense as passion after passion comes into play, and fate still drives relentlessly onward each man in his career.-Pall Mall Gazette, London.

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