It would be idle to tell anything about the story of a work which is, or soon will be, in all our readers’ hands; we only render our tribute to it as a great novel, leaving to others the task of weighing it in the political balance.

Close upon Dred we have read Mr Charles Reade’s novel – It is Never Too Late to Mend; also a remarkable fiction, and one that sets vibrating very deep chords in our nature, yet presenting a singular contrast with Dred, both in manner and in the essential qualities it indicates in the writer. Mr Reade’s novel opens with some of the true pathos to be found in English country life: the honest young farmer, George Fielding, unable to struggle against ‘bad times’ and an exhausted farm, is driven to Australia to seek the fortune that will enable him to marry Susan Merton, the woman he loves. It then carries us, with a certain Robinson, a clever thief, who has been rusticating as George Fielding’s lodger, to the gaol, and makes us shudder at the horrors of the separate and silent system, administered by an ignorant and brutal gaoler, while we follow with keen interest the struggle of the heroic chaplain against this stupid iniquity – thus bringing home the tragedy of Birmingham gaol to people whose sympathies are more easily roused by fiction than by bare fact. Then it takes us to Australia, and traces George Fielding’s fortunes and misfortunes – first through the vicissitudes of the Australian ‘sheep-run’, and then through the fierce drama of gold-digging – bringing him home at last with £4,000 in his pocket, in time to prevent his Susan from marrying his worst enemy.

In all the three ‘acts’ of this novel, so to speak, there are fine situations, fine touches of feeling, and much forcible writing; especially while the scene is in the gaol, the best companion who drops in you will probably regard as a bore, and will become earnest in inviting to remain only when you perceive he is determined to go. Again, honest George Fielding’s struggles, renewed at the antipodes, and lightened by the friendship of Carlo the dog – of the reformed thief, Robinson – and of the delightful ‘Jacky’, the Australian native – are a thread of interest which you pursue with eagerness to the dénouement. ‘Jacky’ is a thoroughly fresh character, entirely unlike any other savage frotté de civilisation, and drawn with exquisite yet sober humour. In the English scenes every one who has seen anything of life amongst our farmers will recognize many truthful, well-observed touches: the little ‘tiff’ between the brothers George and William Fielding, old Merton’s way of thinking, and many traits of manner in the heroine, Susan Merton. In short, It is Never Too Late to Mend is one of the exceptional novels to be read not merely by the idle and the half-educated, but by the busy and the thoroughly informed.