SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading notice such Books of the week as have net teen rsserved for resins in other forme.] The Autobiography of Alexander Carly/e. (T. N. Poulis lis. net.)—We are glad to see a new edition of the Autobiography. A more vivid, one might say a more astonishing, picture of manners and morals never was drawn. The leader of the High- flyers (the "fanatical" party in the General Assembly) is a five-bottle man : the Headmaster of a School rents windows for his pupils that they may see an execution : a judge has a troublesome wife imprisoned in St. Kilda every one knowing about it, but no one interfering. These are some of the wonders. Here is a simple tale which is perhaps as significant as any. Carlyle, who is about twenty years old, is called in by a lady friend to help her in dealing with her father, the Rector of a School. The man was incessantly drunk, and, convinced that he could not keep from drams, is determined to resign. Carlyle persuades him to take a ride, keeps him out of taverns by promising him wine, shares a bottle of claret with him at lunch and another at dinner, gives him the same diet on the next day (Sunday), and brings him home quite cured on Monday : "he attended his school on Tuesday in perfect health." He had not been there, we are told, since the Saturday week before; but this excited no comment. Where a bottle of claret meant exemplary sobriety, the average of drinking must have been high. This new edition contains John Hill Burton's supplementary chapter and some additional notes, together with an interesting series of portraits.
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