11 JULY 1885, Page 23

CURRENT LITERATURE.

Time. (Swan Bonnenschein and Co.)—Time is one of the more serious magazines. It contains this month three noticeable political articles. In "Ethical Socialism," Mr. A. Fabian expounds a very advanced creed. Anarchy is his ideal. That it is "a perfect ideal no one can seriously deny." But we mast not hope to reach it all at once; and Socialism—probably in the form of collectivism—is to be the introduction to it. Mr. H. D. Traill is moderately hopeful in "The Outlook for the New Government ;" bat, as might be expected, more at home in abasing the old. All the old arrows are

sharpened up and dipped in new venom, as Mr. Traill 'mows how. Mr. T. P. O'Connor takes the same subject, but descends on par- ticulars, in "The New Ministry." Accordingly, he can hardly help being less hopeful, though we should suppose that a Cabinet so constituted ought to please the followers of Mr. Parnell. Mr.

O'Connor says some very sharp things, as when, for instance, he finds it a great misfortune for Lord Salisbury that his political education was gained in journalism, and especially in the journalism of the Saturday Review. Ho has, too, the drawback of being able to say things that are remembered. There are orators whose attacks resemble a "sousing with bilge-water," but Lord Salisbury's are the stab of a "poisoned stiletto." Lord Randolph Churchill may read here some home truths, though Mr. O'Connor hardly expresses as strongly as he might the absurdity of the situa- tion which puts such a politician in power. Absurdity, we say, but it is really much more serious. Fancy Cleon being set to rule two hundred millions of human beings ! Government by party cannot long stand such shocks. In social politics we have an interesting article, by Mr. D. F. Schlon, on "Homes of the Poor." Professor Lewis Campbell writes on "The Higher Humanism," an article which we cannot attempt to appreciate here. In the belles lettres, we have "The American Stage," by Mr. F. Daly ; "The Garrick of the North," by Mr. J. Coleman ; and "Style in Literature," by Mr. John Dennis.