29 JANUARY 1881, Page 25

An Actor Abroad. By Edmund Leathes. (Hurst and Blackott.) —Mr.

Loathes made a dramatic tour pretty well round the world, and liked it so well, for various reasons, that ho intends to repeat the experiment. We will not go so far as to say that we wish that he had not written this book, but we may venture on suggesting that lie should not write another. Some of his dramatic) experiences have a certain interest. He tells two or three carious stories, notably one illustrating the curious power which the Polynesians seem to have of " willing " themselves to death ; and a tragical tale, which somehow reminds us of one of Ingoldsby's heroes, who was poisoned by his own thumb. But perhaps the most striking thing in the book is the generalisation, which we hope, for the sake of man- kind, is too sweeping,—" There is not an oyster worth eating in the whole of the Pacific."