CURRENT LITERATURE.
Kingcraft in Scotland, and other Essays and Sketches. By Peter Ross, LL.D. (A. Gardner, Paisley.)—Dr. Ross has written many books about Scottish history and literature, and can write well, but he ought to be aware that his arguments are not strengthened in proportion to the severity of his language. To call Charles II. a "leering, sensual, hypocritical, ungrateful scoundrel" and a "scamp and knave" throws no fresh light upon that Monarch's character. Because a certain Master Black declared that Queen Elizabeth was an atheist, the religion established in England an empty mummery, and "all Kings bairns of the Devil," we are asked to praise the preacher, although deficient in common-sense, as more kinglike than King James, who on another page is drowned under a flood of adjectives. Dr. Ross does not always abuse the right King, since, as all the world knows, the " Royal reprobate " who "rigged out his fat carcass" in Highland costume in 1822 was not George IL In an able paper on " Scotland under Crom- well" the author takes an estimate very similar to that of Dr. Samuel Gardiner ; but if it be true, as that distinguished historian asserts, that Cromwell "effected nothing in the way of building up where he had pulled down," it cannot be true to say that "he had all the highest qualities of a statesman." The contents of the volume are very varied. There is a paper on " Prince Charlie in Rome," another on Edgar Poe, who is styled "a genius of the highest type," and another on " Scottish Freemasonry in America." The story of "the Minister of Sport" who murdered his wife, and, like Eugene Aram, confessed his crime unwittingly, will be read with interest, and the essay on "American Songs and Song-Writers " is especially attractive. It is curious that the national hymn, " America," should be sung to the tune of " God Save the Queen," and still more curious that the author, Dr. Smith, did not know at the time what the tune was. "I do not share," he afterwards wrote, "the regret of those who deem it an evil that the national tune of Britain and America is the same."
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