CURRENT LITERATURE.
GIFT-BOOKS.
The Captains of Cadets. By Henry Frith. (Griffith, Farran, and Co.)—Mr. Frith avails himself of a subject that is "in the air," and describes life on board the Britannia,' with a special reference to fagging. He makes out the best case he can, but does not, we must confess, convince us. There are different opinions about fagging, though there is a fairly general consensus among those who have gone through it. But the public-school system is the outcome of a long tradition, and is hedged in by a number of rules ; that on board the 'Britannia' seems to be of a very indiscriminate and haphazard kind, and far too much dependent on individual caprice. The adventures of Gerald and Le R,oi, when they get afloat, are more than usually interesting. The " Amazon " slavers are a decided novelty in fiction. It must be allowed, however, that the Captain was a little " green " in allowing himself to be so taken in. Mr. Frith amuses himself with some satirical remarks on the Admiralty. If he had actually allowed the Captain to meet with his end through trusting to the "blade supplied by a paternal Government," it would have heightened the effect of his satire.
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