CTIRRENT LITERATURE.
The English Historical Review continues, in an admirable manner, to discharge its proper function,—that of providing reliable material, in the shape of papers giving the results of patient investigation into points of detail, for the building up of future historical works of importance. The new number is parti- cularly interesting, owing to the popular character of several of the papers it contains. Thus the article of Mr. Baden-Powell, entitled "Permanent Settlement in Bengal," is worthy of study at the present day, if only because it proves that the root of all the early tenant difficulties in Bengal, as in Ireland, was the inability of the authorities to contemplate a relation which they might call a " tenancy " if they pleased, but which was founded on status, not on contract. The English Historical Review also contains a most readable paper, entitled " Vanini in England," by Mr. Richard Copley Christie, reviving the experiences of a priestly observer of British manners and customs in the very beginning of the seventeenth century, who, if not so philosophical as Giordano Bruno, was perhaps keener of eye, and certainly more audacious. Among the more valuable of the "Notes," or shorter papers, are Professor Maitland's on "The Murder of Henry Clement in 1235," and "The Assassination of the Guises as Described by the Venetian Ambassador," from the pen of Mr. Horatio Brown.
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