10 OCTOBER 1868, Page 24

The Sues Canal, the Eastern Question, and Abyssinia. By W.

Vesey Fitzgerald. (Longmans.)—Mr. Fitzgerald seems to have something to say that is worth hearing, but in attempting too much he fails to do jus- tice to himself. A good book about the Suez Canal, telling us what sort of a work it really is, giving us, for instance, a map of its course, with a section of it, furnished with scales of size, &c., and containing a trust- worthy estimate of its cost and of the trade which it may be expected to do when it is finished, would be very useful. But the Eastern question is enough to fill a book, nay, many books, of itself.