BOOKS RECEIVED. — True Royalty, by John W. Keaton, LL.D. (Ward, Lock,
and Co.), describes itself in its second title as "the noble example of an illustrious life as seen in the lofty purpose and generous deeds of Victoria, as Maiden, Mother, and Monarch." It belongs, therefore, to the copious "Jubilee" literature of the year, and is a good specimen of its kind.—In the Wars of Queen Victoria's Reign. (Sampson Low and Co.)—Mrs. Armytage gives a brief chronicle of our wars, from that in Canada to that recently brought to an end in Burmah. It is, we think, too brief to be of much use or interest.—The Brunswick Accession, by Percy M. Thornton (W. Ridgway), gives "a succinct account of her Majesty's family, and of the accession thereof to the British Throne." Mr. Thornton has had access to the unedited Hanoverian Papers, and has gleaned some material for history from them. — Australasia, by W. Wilkins (Blackie and Son), is a "descriptive and pictorial account of the Australian and New Zealand Colonies, Tasmania, and the Adjacent Lands," and should be a useful manual. Young people are not less in- terested in the Colonies than in the Mother-country itself. Actually they know less about them, it is probable, than they do shoat the countries of Europe.—South African Traits, by the Rev. James Mackinnon (James Gemmell, Edinburgh), records the experiences of the author gained during a residence of three years and a half at the Cape. Mr. Mackinnon's views on the Afrikander question are clear and definite. He does not hold with Mr. Fronde as to the policy of handing over South Africa to the Boers. Reactionary at home and merciless to the native tribes, their rule would be a misfortune of the worst kind.— In The State Purchase of Railways (Chapman and Hall), Mr. Charles Waring accumulates, so to speak, round essays which he republishes from the Fortnightly Review, a number of facts and suggestions which together give an interesting view of this important question. His proposal, as far as we can compress it into a very few words, is to buy the railways by issuing a Government railway stock (say, 21,000,000,000), and afterwards manage them for the benefit of trade. But readers must see for themselves what he has to say.— Wintering Abroad, by Dr. A. Drysdale (Virtue and Co.), is a second edition. The author does not believe in long sea-voyages, nor in high-altitude resorts. But he does believe in the Riviera, and discusses the aptitudes of the various plates included under that name.—The Grievances between Authors and Publishers (Field and Tuer) contains a report of the conferences of the Incorporated Society of Authors held in the March of last year.—Ceylon in the Jubilee Year, by John Ferguson (Haddon and Co., London ; Ferguson, Colombo), "a third edition, revised, enlarged, and brought down to date," gives an account of the present condition of the island, its resources, and the prospects which it holds out for the remunerative investment of capital.—The South Isles of Aran, by Oliver J. Burke (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co.), is a contribution of facts by an observer who was connected with the Land Commission ; and facts are always welcome. The Isles of Iran, it may be observed, are in Galway Bay.—In the series of "The World'is Workers" we have a volume containing the Biographies of Thomas E. Edison and Samuel F. B. Marsh, by Van Buren Dunlow, LL.D., and Jane Marsh Parker. (Cassell and Co.)—The Historical Record of the Forty-Fourth, or "East Essex" Regiment, compiled by Thomas Carter (Gale and Polden), a "second edition," records in chronological order the achieve- ments of the regiment. It was raised in 1741 (originally as the 55th). It was present at the disastrous battle of Preston Pans (where twelve of its officers were taken prisoners). Its next service was still more unfortunate, for it formed part of Braddock's force in the expedition against Fort du Quesne. On this cccasion seven officers (including the Colonel) were killed and nine wounded. It was not before this century that it acquired its chief distinctions. Then they came thickly, as the names on its colours —Egypt, Badajoz, Waterloo, Inkerman, among others—suffice to show. In the Waterloo campaign, it lost two officers killed and nineteen wounded, and twenty-one non-commissioned officers and men killed and one hundred and forty-four wounded. At Inkerman it was engaged, partly in defending the trenches and partly at Cathcart's Hill.—The Struggle between England and France for Supremacy in India, by E. J. Ranson (Triibner and Co.), is the "La Bas Prize Essay for 1896," and will take its place as a valuable discussion of an important period.
Another contribution to Indian history is a "new edition, with corrections and additions," of The Fall of the Moghul Empire, by H. G. Keene, C.I.E. (W. H. Alien and Co.)—Then and Now ; or, Fifty Years of Newspaper Work, by William Hunt (Hamilton, Adams, and Co.), is a reprint of letters published originally in a Hull newspaper. They contain a vast number of facts and names, so vast that the reader is apt to get lost among them, and miss the real interest whieh attaches to some of them. We find it mentioned as a test of skill in a shorthand writer, that he was "able to take Sir Stafford Northcote." Mr. Hunt writes, —" I heard Sir Stafford deliver many speeches at about this time (1860), and my idea was that he spoke fully 150 words a minute, and possibly sometimes even exceeded 160."—The Vegttable Lamb of Tartary : a Curious Fable of the Cotton Plant, by Henry Lee (Sampson Low and Co.), discusses a curious instance of the fictions that accumu- late round fact. Mr. Lee's conclusion is summed up in the sentence,— "It seems to me to be clear and indubitable that the fruit which burst when ripe, and disclosed within it a little lamb,' was the cotton pod, and that the soff, white, delicate fleece of the Vegetable Lamb of Scythia' was that which we still call 'cotton wool.'" But the processes by which he arrives at this conclusion show mach industry and reading, and are full of curious information.
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