CURRENT LITERATURE.
The British Quarterly Review.—January. (Hodder and Stoughton.) —Not one of the longer articles in this number is, properly speaking, a "review." The accotint of "Contemporary Literature" is, as usual, satisfactory, but we miss the careful and complete essays which the British Quarterly often gives us on literary subjects. The first article is an able history, evidently written by an expert, of the Gas Companies, ending with a notice, brief, but sufficiently indicating the writer's own expectations, of the electric light. This is followed by a most interesting account of the life and character of Daniel Manin, one of the many labourers in the field of Italian freedom to whont it was not permitted to see the harvest. Mr. Matthew Arnold's comparison of French and English secondary education is discussed in a reasonable and candid way, and the article on "Reli- gions Equality and Theories of Comprehension" is all that could be desired for tone and temper. That it disappoints us we can hardly say-. We do not expect that any schemes of comprehension will meet with acceptance. But Broad Churchmen may yet be able to do a work somewhat analogous. They, or the principles which they repre- sent, may be accepted as a "middle term," which will have its import- ance in the religious history of the future. We cannot commend the article on "Restorations." If you are restoring a church, you _must furnish it with what is appropriate for the form of worship to be oele- brated init. The writer sneers at what he calls "priestly tackle," but he does not mention anything worse than what would be found in four churches out of five,—" a velvet skirt" for the altar. The other articles are mi " What is Science ?" and "The Viceroy and the Amir."
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