3 JULY 1886, Page 25

The July number of the Scottish Church. wears a vacation

look. There are no polemical papers in it—unless this description can, by straining words, be given to a historical article on "The Claim of Right "—and the most readable of all bears the eminently holiday title of "Ashore at Christiansand." It is lively and humorous, and abounds in graphic descriptions. There is in it an interesting passage on Henrik Wergeland, perhaps the first Norwegian poet of the nine- teenth century, in which this occurs :—" His claims upon England, again, are that he had an enthusiastic admiration for that country, its people, its institutions, and its history. It is safe to say that next to his native land, and at only a little interval, he loved England. His best poem, as it was his last—it was published only a few weeks before his death, which occurred at the early age of thirty-seven— is upon an English subject, with the scene now in England and now in Norway. His descriptions of the scenery of Kent and the Hampshire coast in his narrative poem, The English Pilot,' while heightened rather by feelings amounting well-nigh to adoration for England than by an artistic desire for mere effect, are a worthy tribute of praise from the old Northland to its ancient colony." Among the other articles in this number of the Scottish Church is an interesting paper on Sarawak. The scale of importance as regards subjects of conversation there seems scarcely the same as it is here :—" If the steamer from Singapore brought the news of the death or resignation of an English Premier, men would ask each other languidly,—' Let me see,—who was he ?' But if, on the other hand, there was a parcel on board addressed to a Sarawakite, and having the appearance of a hat-box or bonnet-box, great was the excitement in the club that day, and much speculation took place as to the shape, colour, and price of the head-gear, and as to the pro- bability or improbability of its being worn in church next Sunday." What a delightful place Sarawak would be to flee to while a General Election was in progress in these islands !