CURRENT LITERATURE.
The English Illustrated Magazine. Vol. I. (5facmillan.)—We have noticed this magazine from time to time during this first year of its existence. The volume containing the whole year's issue is now before us, and helps us to realise, as it was scarcely pessible to do before, the really surprising amount, both in literary matter and illustration, that the publishers give the public for their money. Miss Yonge's " Armourer's Prentices " may not stand in the front rank of her novels, but it is above the average of magazine fiction. The "Unsentimental Journey in Cornwall" is a particularly pleasing account of travels at home, whilst the miscellaneous papers show remarkable variety and equality of interest. That which may be taken as the speciality of the magazine, the illustrations, are remark- able both for goodness and number; they really put it on a level with the professedly artistic publications. So much certainly cannot be said of the pictures with which some of its predecessors have endeavoured to attract the public. It has always been a puzzle why publishers should have spent money on drawings which no one would care to see for their own sake, and which did not help to explain the letter-press. The pictures in this volume are really an addition to its value.
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