6 JUNE 1874, Page 22

Byeways of Two Cities. By the Author of " The

Romance of the Streets." (Hodder and Stoughton.)—The " two cities " are London and Elinbargh, the former having naturally allotted to it the greater portion of the volume. " Golden Lane," " The Taverns of Paddington " (a very liberally written paper, which seems, by its hopeful expressions about the possible spiritual condition of publicans, to have exhausted the editorial patience of Mr. Spurgeon), "Jews and Sabbath Marketers," are the principal and most interesting sketches. They present, as might be expected, a curious combination of tragedy and comedy, leaving, perhaps, on the whole, a somewhat hopeful impression on the mind_ Terrible as is the mass of accumulated evil which has been collected in our great cities, yet there are, it would seem, ways of dealing with it. There are men bold enough to grapple with it in its worst forms, and not failing to win some successes in the contest. One writer—our hopeful friend, it is, by the way, who sees so much good in the " Taverns of Paddington "—remarks, "How much civilisation has progressed even among the masses since the times of early Methodism, when ribald mobs sought every opportunity of opposing- and maltreating those who desired their present and eternal good."' There may be something in this, but, on the other hand, these anti- Methodist mobs acted from a vague feeling of attachment to the Church, not a very valuable feeling, certainly, but better than the ab- solute indifference or ignorance which shows itself in the tolerance of modern days. There is, as we have hinted, plenty of the amusing in the book. There is the description of the boys' sewing-school, where young ragamuffins are permitted to patch up their clothes, and where we find a young gentleman of eight speculating whether it would not be fine to do without clothes altogether. "Couldn't you get lots of browns from the coves on the homblibustesl They idlers pitches at yer when your trowsis is tore. They'd pitch more if you give 'em more to pitch at,.

be bound." The sager friend replied, "Where'd you put the browns. wot they pitched yer, if yer didn't have no pockets on?" Then there is the purchaser of a wedding outfit in Rag Fair, where the bridegroom was clothed for three shillings and threepence, while the bride's trous- seau cost twopence less, this latter including a wedding dress for ten- pence, and "a lady's green silk paletot, lined with crimson silk,. trimmed with black velvet, quilted and wadded throughout," for the same sum. On the border between the comic and the tragic, is the incident of the Scripture-reader who, visiting a neighbourhood of Jews, and having been entrapped into an empty house and then looked up, takes his revenge by reading the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah out of the window. Things wholly serious, which any one may be the better for reading about, are to be found in plenty.