The Treasury of Modern Anecdote. Edited, with Notes and Intro-
duction by W. Davenport Adams. (Tho Edinburgh Publishing Com- pany.)---The compiler claims for his collection the merits of being " new " and " true." His anecdotes are modern, and they are authentic. Of course, any one who has been at the pains to keep himself acquainted with the " memoirs " and "recollectione " which have appeared during the last twenty-five years, will recognise many of them. As to their quality, there is but one thing to be said of such collections, what Martial said long ago of his epigrams. Two- thirds of them might have been retrenched with advantage. Of course, however, padding must be allowed. If we could get together " the hundred best things that lied been said," it would make a very slender volume, the sale of which could hardly repay the vast trouble of collecting and choosing. Mr. Adams's " volume" may fairly be described as good of its kind.
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