6 APRIL 1895, Page 25

The Sunday Magazine, like its companion magazine, Good Words, has

changed its appearance for the better, or at least the brighter, although the general character of its contents remains the same. The April number can hardly be said to contain any articles of outstanding merit, but it gives several, chiefly historical and gently didactic, that are of at least average excellence. Two of the best are Mr. Baring-Gould's "Country Remedies "—which, by the way, does not deal with schemes of agrarian reform, but with the cures for ailments prescribed by the country herbalist and other irregular practi- tioners—and a sensible and appreciative paper by Mr. A W. W. Dale, on Sydney Smith and Social Reform. It is well to be reminded that Smith was a practical philanthropist as well as a wit.