4 FEBRUARY 1888, Page 22

Cassell's Family Magazine has so decidedly a character and a

constituency of its own, that all one needs to consider when a new number appears, is whether the character is sustained in such a way as to satisfy the constituency. This may, on the whole, be said of the February number, although some rather namby-pamby articles appear in it. The magazine would be improved by a few more papers like "Some Cats of a Larger Growth," by Mr. C. T. Buokland. The department of fiction also needs strengthening ; in particular, we should like to see more grip in the short stories.