2 NOVEMBER 1878, Page 23

The Westminster Review. October. (Triibner.)—Most readers will probably think that

the most interesting article in this number is the review of Mr. Torrens's "Memoirs of Lord Melbourne." Ho was not a statesman after the heart of the Westminster Review, but he was probably well suited to the times in which he was called to power,— when the Liberal impulse had spent itself, and tact and management and administrative ability were more wanted than creative energy. The critic in the Westminster appreciates Lord Melbourne justly, and even generously, pointing out, among other things, how groat was his industry, a quality for which no one gave him credit, and which, in- deed, he studiously concealed. The character of the essay on" The Situation in the East and the Future of Russia" may easily be imagined, by those who have followed the course of the West- minster on this question. The writer would have possibly, in some respects, moderated his tone, if he had written two months later. The charge of "Austrian atrocities" which Turkey, find- ing, not without surprise, that the Giaours object to "atrocities," so ingenuously produced, and would doubtless have proved, if occasion had served, should enlighten any one in the matter of such accusations proceeding from such a source. The article on the "Australian Colonies " is full of information, carefully collected and skilfully com- pressed. It seems to us worthy of a more permanent shape, not for any particular literary merit, but from the variety and pertinence to the probable wants of an inquirer of the information which it supplies. Three purely literary articles have for their subjects " The Later Novels of Berthold Auerbach," "Bulgarian Literature," and "The Troubadours."