CURRENT LITERATURE.
The conductors of Chambers's Journal, unmoved by the fierce competition of younger periodicals full of " smart " writing, and, if possible, "smarter" illustrations, continue to supply whole- some and not too sensational fiction, and information which is valuable though not heavy. The April number is an admirable example of the combination of what is best in the old and the new style of periodical. Thus it contains a number of excellent papers, such as Mr. F. Whishaw's, " How Russia Amuses Itself," " The Literary Associations of the Temple," and " More Light on the "45,' " which last is based on a number of books that have recently appeared, and of which Mr. Andrew Lang's " Pickle the Spy " may be regarded as an example. " The Artist of the Street" tells a very familiar story very clearly, and there is a good paper entitled " Bruges for the Britisher," in which we are told inter alia that " money certainly goes farther in Bruges than in some places ; a franc, as a rule, does the work of a shilling." "Journalistic Remuneration," by E. Phillips, contains good, cautious advice to beginners in news- paper work. Thus the occasional contributor is warned that if he "seeks to make a living as a ' free-lance' he will find, unless he has influence and connections, that he has taken a step which oftener leads to adversity and poverty than to prosperity and affluence." Otherwise, however, the article is rather slight. Several of the short stories are exceptionally good. " At the Rising of the Waters," by Mr. John Buchan, a young and very promising writer, is one of the best and most moving Scotch stories we have read for a long time. Mrs. Cunninghame Graham's "The Tapestries of Altrana " introduces the reader to a new and untrodden field, and Mr. Walter Wood's " No. 90's Last Torpedo" is a most stirring story of naval adventure, courage,—and a waterspout.
The April number of the Argosy is under the average. The literary treasures of the late Mrs. Henry Wood seem to be in- exhaustible, but certain of her smaller stories are hardly worth printing. " The Prebendary's Daughter," which appears in this number, is a case in point. Some of the other minor stories are pleasant, but too conventional in their main ideas, such as " My Revenge," which teaches one of the oldest — though also soundest—of morals, and " The Result of an Interview," in which a male and a female journalist are brought together in the first instance for a few minutes, and, of course, ultimately for life. " The Plot of the Pink," by C. E. Meetkerke, which professes to tell the story of one of the numerous Royalist conspiracies entered into at the time of the French Revolution, is much better in sug- gestion than in execution. Mr. Charles W. Wood gives one of his interesting "travel-papers." It deals, however, with a dis- trict—the Valley of the Rhone—which unfortunately is the haunt not only of the globe-trotter but of the literary artist, and in consequence he appears to have little to say that is fresh. It is rather a pity that, in the country of Calvin, Mr. Wood's eloquence should not rise above the level of such a commonplace sentence as : "You enter the Cathedral and the building rings with the voice of Calvin ; his presence fills the pulpit ; his eloquence, his earnestness, his indomitable will carry the people with him, as a rushing stream sweeps down all obstruction upon its bosom."
Since its transformation Cassell's Magazine has attained a high reputation, as holding a place midway between periodicals of the good old-fashioned school such as Chambers's Journal, and modern " up-to-date " and eminently " smart " magazines of the Strand type. The April number is one of the best of the new series that have yet appeared. It is literally true that there is not a dull page in it from the first article, " Some Escapes of My Life," in which Mr. Archibald Forbes draws once more upon his apparently illimitable resources of adventure, to the last, "American Belles of London Seasons," in which Mrs. F. Harcourt Williamson prattles pleasantly of subjects and persons dear to many feminine minds. The informing papers are seasonable without being too serious. Mr. Theodore Andrea Cooke tells all that is worth telling, if not all that can be told, about a favourite topic, under the title of " Blues, Old and New," and in "The New Railway to London," Mr. R. Fletcher Robinson gives an excellent account of the invasion of the Metropolis from the North of England. The stories, too, are of the best. Mrs. Flora Annie steel shows greater versatility and variety of resource in her fresh serial, " The Gift of the Gods," than in any of her previous books. Mr. Edwin Pugh, the new and conscientious artist in slum fiction, is seen to much advantage in his powerful, if also too fanciful, sketch. " The Poor Idealist." We have, too, the Mr. Grant Allen of the old and ante-Hill-Top days in a piquant story of jealousy and light comedy, " A Lady of Florence." There is no outstanding article in the April number of the Gentleman's Magazine; but the contents are varied and interest- ing. Such widely different topics as "Ceramic Art at Derby," ' Goethe and Weimar," and " Historical Monuments of Calcutta," have papers—and, on the whole, interesting and well-written papers—devoted to them. "A Bookman's Romance," by Charles Lusted, will not quite please the ordinary lover of romance. It begins well, but the close seems unnecessarily tragic. Besides, the little misunderstanding between Raymond and Florence could have been so easily cleared up ! The brightest of the con- tents of this number in every sense is Mr. Werner's vivid and yet not too realistic African sketch, "Kambula's War-Club." The death of the herculean Kambula, and of the flower of his tribe, at the hands of Arab slave-traders is told with much skill.
The April number of the Sunday Magazine is notable mainly for the large number of interesting and useful " miscellaneous " papers which it contains. Of these the most picturesque is the first of a series of papers on Jewish festivals by Lady Battersea. It is entitled " The Seder' Evening "—" Seder" means arrange- ment, or in this case, order of service and ceremony—and gives a description, which is beautifully illustrated, of the Hebraic celebration of Easter Eve. " An Evening with A. K. H. B. at St. Andrews" deals with an almost too hackneyed subject, but is written with great good taste, and proves, what is not generally known, that in his youth Dr. Boyd was a not undistinguished scholar. "An Ulster Divine of Last Century" is a graphic and commendably short sketch of the Rev. Philip Skelton, a clergy- man undoubtedly of the sort that would bring grist to the mill of what his present biographer terms "the Irish Sir Walter Scott." Of the papers of the kind that are supposed to be characteristic of the Sunday Magazine, the best written is the Rev. W. J. Dawson's on " Unconscious Character."
The new series of the Leisure Hour sustains the promise of its start. The April number contains several readable papers dealing with subjects of present-day—or at least of yesterday— interest, such as Mr. Edward Whymper's on " Nansen's Farthest North,' " and Dr. Macaulay's " Lord Roberts on India," while the abundantly illustrated " Kidderminster" is one of those half- industrial, half-geographical articles which are so much in vogue at the present time. Mr. John Dennis treats an interesting sub- ject in an interesting fashion in " Methods of Literary Work," although the aspirant after honours in letters may as well be told at once that it does not offer a royal road to fame. " The Last of the Klephts," by Isabella Fyvie Mayo, is a good sketch of the forgotten Greek, Kolokotrones, who was not only a patriot, but a level-headed man. There is Scotch humour and pathos—and neither in excess—in the anonymous story of "Donal' Scrimgeour's Conscience."
The most notable article in the new number of the Expositor is a felicitous appreciation of the late Henry Drummond by the Rev. Dr. James Stalker, of Glasgow, the note of which may be gathered from this sentence :—" He had not much of that humility which consists in a lowly or penitential estimate of self; but he had a great deal of the humility which forgets self, because the mind is habitually and intensely occupied with other sub- jects." All the papers in this month's Expositor are good. The Rev. G. E. Matheson's " The Lamb on the Throne " is an excellent specimen of a sermon that is calculated to be popular only in the best sense of the word. Mr. Conybeare's " A New Second-Century Christian Dialogue" is, on the other hand, a good example of old learning—or of learning of the old type—in modern dress.
Although there is no very remarkable essay, there are many interesting articles and notes—especially notes—in the April number of the Antiquary. Mr. George Bailey's " Ramblings of an Antiquary" contains much out-of-the-way information about Hardwick Hall, and Mr. G. M. Godden in his " Notes on Some Annual Customs of the Abruzzi Peasantry" brings out certain curious parallelisms between Italy on the one side, and Wales and North England on the other.
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