CURRENT LITERATURE.

The Life of Lord Lawrence. By Bosworth Smith. (Smith and Elder.)—We have received a copy of the sixth edition of this biography, of tho merits of which we have previously said enough. It is, perhaps, the best biography of an Anglo-Indian ever written, its single fault being a certain want of condensation. The author has, however, added an appendix of thirty pages, intended to prove beyond all doubt that his attack upon the character of Major Hodson, of Hodson's Horse, was well justified. It had,. of course, been bitterly assailed by Captain Hodson's brother, who believes his relative to have been an admirable man. We have not entered into the controversy, the importance of which strikes us as a little exaggerated ; but it is impossible to read the evidence given by Mr. Bosworth Smith without coming to his conclusion. The statement that Major Hodson flogged an ayah with his whip and dragged a native at his galloping horse's heels, is confirmed by Mr. E. Thornton, C.B., who did not receive the facts, as he says, "through any tainted channel," and who affirms that Major Hodson did not deny them. The statement that be was accused of falsifying the accounts of his regiment to conceal peculations is justified by a letter from General Crawford Chamberlain, who sat on the Cburt of Inquiry, and testifies to one instance of malversation within his personal knowledge; by a minute from Lord Dalhousie, reluctantly declaring that Hodson was unfit to command a regiment ; and by a letter from Sir H. Daly, who declares that he saw plunder in Hodson's trunk, and took from it a file of papers which Hodson had abstracted from the regimental records. The charge of looting against Hodson is distinctly main_ tained by Sir Henry Norman, upon facts within his own cognizance, he having unconsciously helped him to remit some thousands of pounds. The only charge which is not thoroughly sustained is that of his having executed the native banker of the 1st Irregular Cavalry, Bisharut All —who bad assisted him with money—upon a false charge. This is not proved; but Mr. Bosworth Smith states that he has every detail in his hands from Bisharut's commanding officer, who investigated the case on the spot, and that, if further pressed, he will publish the whole ghastly story. We hardly see the use of condemning a dead man so bitterly ; but that Mr. Smith had solid evidence for his charges is placed by this appendix beyond all question. It speaks volumes. on the other band, for Hodson's repute as a soldier, that men who knew much, though not all, of this, felt compelled, in the deadly strain of the Mutiny, to give him a regiment again.

Writings by the Way. By J. Campbell Smith. (Blackwood.)— Apart from its intrinsic merits, this volume of lectures, speeches, essays, and newspaper articles, by an Edinburgh advocate, is of interest as proving that the historical and once close connection between the Scotch Bar and literature still exists. It is the most important volume of the kind that has appeared, north of the Tweed, since the "Essays and Reviews" of Professor Jowett's friend, Mr. H. H. Lancaster. If the papers iu it are not so ambitions or so elaborate in form as Mr. Lancaster's, they embrace a mach wider range of subjects, and their style is richer, more natural, and more distinctively Scotch. These Writings by the Way seem to be a product of the true CarlyEan spirit, —in other words, their author has written them, not to order, or against time, bat because he has had something to say. The longer essays, such as "Thomas Carlyle," "A Horoscope of Britain," "Sir Isaac Newton," and "Realism, Idealism, and Positivism," are the leisure reflections of a well-filled mind on subjects for which it has a natural aptitude. The two last-mentioned are exceptionally good. We have nowhere seen a jester estimate of Newton, or a better picture of him, alike in his strength and in his weakness. With very much, too, of what Mr. Smith says on the metaphysical and anti-metaphysical systems of the time, we thoroughly agree. The only fault we have to find with his observations on Positivism, and in another paper, " The True and the False in History," on Atheism, is that be expresses the truth too violently, too intolerantly. The suggestion that if Comte had been sent to a Scotch and not a French lunatic asylum, he would never have got out of it, is almost worthy of Lord Braxfield. There is a good deal both of prophecy— hopeful, not Carlylian—and of prose-poetry in "The Horoscope of Britain," and in "The True and the False in History." The prose. poetry is reverent, religious, mystical. We cannot quite follow all its flights ; but it is obviously the unaffected expression of what Mr. Smith terms "the meditative mood—the mood in which the inner mental light commingles with the light of stars ;" and there is no falsetto in it, as even in Emerson's rhapsody on "the laws, the good laws." To ordinary readers, the most interesting section of this volume will be the collection of biographical notices, mostly of eminent Sootchmen, origirally contributed by Mr. Smith to the leading newspaper in Edinburgh. It is quite a gallery of portraits, and by far the best portraits that hose been drawn, of distinguished Scotch lawyers of the recent past, such as Lord Neaves, Lord Ardmillan, Lord Colonsay, and Henry Glassford Bell. Mr. Smith has a quick eye for salient points of character, and can tell a good story quietly and effectively, like this of Lord Ardmillan, the Judge who managed to be at once a pillar of the Free Church and a worshipper of Burns :—" One of his clerical clients fee'd him by handing across to him at the bar of the General Assembly (he had previously apologised for having no agenf) a roll of something that looked in bulk like a fee of between fifteen and twenty sovereigns; but which, on being looked at after his eloquent counsel had got home, and ho himself had got prayed over and deposed, turned out to be six round peppermint lozenges of the kind that is most effective for stifling the smell of whisky." But apart from anecdotes and character-sketches: no volume more marked by honest thinking, variety of mood and humour, and mellow nineteenth-century Puritanism, has been published for many years by a Scotch layman than Writings by the Way. A City Violet. By M. E. Winchester. (Seeley and Co.)—This is a very pleasing story of the sorrows and struggles of a family of children who have to earn their own living in the midst of a great city. The heroine is a beautiful little child, and a particularly graceful dancer. Around her various personages, of more or less importance in the story, revolve. There is her half-brother, Eafaello—who is, so to speak, the head of the family— and Lottie Ann, a somewhat insubordinate young person, who is nevertheless capable of a very thorough devotion to duty. Then there are children of a higher grade who have to play "providence," so to speak, to those humbler beings, and who get much good out of the task,—especially one, Reginald, who is thus helped to develop the fine qualities which are in him. We must not forget in our enumeration of characters Sarah Faithful, the effective preacher—from the bed in which she lies a hopelessly crippled invalid—of the Law of Love. The patience and wisdom with which this woman—poor almost to the verge of starvation, but " making many rich "—does her work on the rough, untutored hearts and consciences of her neighbours are admirably described. Miss Winchester, whose power of delineating character is giving her an honourable place among the writers of serious fiction, has never done anything better than this. We do not know that her readers will find The City Violet long, though it has 472 closelyprinted pages ; but from the critic's point of view we may point out that she has put too much into her story. The episode at the seaside might very well have done service as a separate tale.

The Pulpit Lectionary. Part I., Advent to Quinquagesima. By John M. Ashley, B.C.L. (Skeffington.)—Mr. Ashley has collected these "Sermon Notes on the Old Testament Sunday Lessons" from various sources, patristic, scholastic and mediocre], and modern. We have no objection to make to his selection, except to wish that he had given his references a little more plainly, and prefixed or subjoined a statement at full length of the works (and editions) which he has consulted. " Origen : Peri Archon, lib. iii."; "S. Greg : Naz. Car. Jamb, ii.-40," are a little obscure. "Car. Jamb" presumably means " Carmine Iatnbica ; " why " Jamb " ? " Philo : De Opifi Mund," is curiously written. Nor will every one recognise at once the reference " Hon. Augustod. A.D. 1120, in Cana. C.D."

The Lost Tasmanian Race. By James Bonwick. (Sampson Low and Co.)—This is a deplorable record of English cruelty and cupidity. Here is a race that was flourishing, numerous, and contented in 1803, and in 1876 its last representative died. The story of this miserable process is familiar enough. The first settlers find themselves a few in the midst of many, mistake a perfectly friendly proceeding for a hostile demonstration, and fire upon an inoffensive crowd of natives. Outrages of every kind follow, aggravated in this instance by the character of the white population, largely consisting, as it did, of convicts escaped or time-expired. Retaliation on the part of the natives follows. That which was at first provocation on the part of the colonists becomes self-defence. All the while the local Government feebly remonstrates against the unjust and lawless proceedings of its subjects—remonstrates, but never acts ; publishes proclamations, but never punishes. And the end is what we have said, the absolute extinction of the race in the course of two generations. What, we wonder, will be the record of Queensland thirty years hence ?

The Countess of Albany. By Vernon Lee. (W. II. Allen and Co.) —" Vernon Lee " had something to say about Alfieri. As this could not conveniently be brought into the " Eminent Women Series," it was necessary to say it apropos of the Countess of Albany, who was, as the writer naïvely puts it, "in a sense his widow," that is, who had left her husband to live with him, and had continued to live with him, without the sanction of marriage, after that husband's death. That

Louise of Stolberg was in any sense "an eminent woman " we cannot see. She had the misfortune to make a particularly unhappy marriage. To be the wife of a Pretender can never be a fortunate lot ; it was peculiarly unfortunate to be the wife of such a Pretender as Charles Edward became in his later days. But Louise of Stolberg did not occupy her position with any kind of dignity. She had a sort of pleasure in playing the sham Queen, which, under the circumstances of her marriage, was worse than ridiculous. As to her relations with Alfieri, it will serve no good end to say much. She was not worse than many women of her time ; she was better than some. Still, we cannot but think that " Vernon Lee" is somewhat vague in her utterances on this point of morality. To make all the excuses and allowances for the individual, but to speak plain words of condemnation of the act, seems the right thing. On the whole, we think the book is a mistake. It is clover, well-written, giving many proofs of much industry and of acute and penetrating intelligence ; but it is hopelessly prejudiced by the unfortunate perversion of the subject. If Alfieri had been its nominal, as ho is the real, subject, and Louise of Stolberg had been kept in the obscurity which really befits her rather than tho " eminence " to which she is here raised, it would have been far better. The poet himself has never been better described and more justly criticised.

Dickens' Dictionary of the University of Orrord (Macmillan and Co.) is a book which deserves commendation. It gives most of the information supplied by the Calendar, and a good deal which that publication, now cut down to a minimum, does not supply. In the account of the examinations, tho distinction between the Honour. and the Pass schools is not made sufficiently distinct, at least for the outsider. A boy leaving school and looking forward to honours in Moderations will certainly be familiar with more than "one or two of the books which ho will have to offer." Some come up having read them all ; and half is not at all uncommon. "One or two" would leaven formidable balance to be grappled with. A list

of books that may be conveniently taken up for this and for the other Honour schools would have been useful. But the " Dictionary" is a very sensible little book, and as good a shilling's-worth as an undergraduate or undergraduate's guardian can possibly find.

Friend Ellwood. By Mrs. Hibbort Ware. 3 vols. (F. V. White and Co.)—This " tale of real life in the seventeenth century " shows some of the characteristic merits which belong to Mrs. Ware's writings, but not, perhaps, in their most attractive form. Ellwood himself was not a particularly engaging character, as ho certainly was an exceedingly dull writer ; and a tale that has him for its hero has a difficulty to contend with. Still, there is plenty of interesting matter in the particular phase of his history with which Mrs. Ware has busied herself, and she has worked it up with her usual industry and skill.

What is Art ? By James Stanley Little. (W. Swan Sonnensehein and Co.)—The spirit in which this work is written is very well explained in the preface. It "is an 'outcry against oppression and prejudice ; a demand for freedom and fair-play." Mr. Little defines Art as "a reflex of the thought of man ;" and in classifying artists, 'lie places the painter in the first place, the musician in the second, and the poet in the last. Such a, classification may possibly apply to a time when all shall have received the highest training in painting, music, and poetry ; but for ourselves, we think that these kindred arts speak each in their own way to diffcrently-constituted

Painting may be, abstractly, the most definite expression of the artist's thought ; it is not to every one the best means by which the artist's thought is communicated to his subject. Though the author deals fairly with many minor subjects connected with Art and the artist, such as " Mystery in Art," " The Artist in Society," " Realism in Art," "Art Cant," dc., the work is chiefly noticeable as taking np the forward position that true Art is as divine an agent in the intellectual elevation of mankind as Theology or Poetry. Mr. Little writes with boldness and originality, and his style is easy and pleasing.

A North-Country Maid : a Novel. By Mrs. H. Lovett-Cameron. 3 vole. (F. V. White and Co.)—This is the story of a simple, innocent girl, who is suddenly thrown into the whirl of fashonable London society, and forced, by a combination of most unlucky circumstances, to marry a reformed " rake " of a lord, whilst she feels a passionate love for another man. The whole tale is a severe satire upon a certain section of what is generally known as high life. It brings into forcible contrast the innocence and purity of the soul untutored in the ways of the world, and the sham life and hollow hypocrisy of the votaries of propriety, as fashionable folk understand it. There is some severe and very clever satire in the work upon the msthetic movement; and in her own way, Mrs. Cameron has tried worthily throughout her book to teach the old lesson, that the natural feelings of man's nature, rather than laws of fashion and considerations of money and title, are the true guidance of our lives. In the setting forth of the narrative there is no lack of descriptive power, and the dialogue is witty and always to the point. Tacittss.—Annals, Edited by H. Farneaux, M.A. (The Clarendon Press.)—This is an abridgment of a portion of the first volume of Mr. Furneaux's edition of the Annals. We took the opportunity of speaking at some length on the merits of that work, which has no doubt taken its place, for the present at least, as the standard edition. It is therefore only necessary to say of the volume before us that it is conveniently reduced in size and price. Four books, it will be observed, are dealt with, instead of six, the four being the portion which may be taken up as one of the subjects in the Honours Moderations at Oxford. Mr. Furneaux has, we see, taken the opportunity of iccorporating some of the suggestions which have been made with regard to various passages, and has so far given a few finishing touches to what was already a work of great merit and value.

Joy ; or, the Light of Cold-Hanle Ford. By May Crommelin. 3 vols. (Hurst and Blackett.)—We are sorry to have to say that Miss Crommelin falls here far below the standard which she set herself in "Orange Lily." The story in Joy is very slight ; and what there is of it is not very agreeable. Joy is the child of a very unhappy marriage; and she is herself the subject of a rivalry in love which at one time threatened unhappy consequences. There is some good description of nature in these volumes, and the style is not without merit; but the irremediable defect is the want of interest. We do not doubt that the author could tell a story well, if she only had one to tell.

Teresa Marlowe: a Novel. By Wynter Frore Knight, B.C.L. 3 vols. (Wyman and Sons.)—The central purpose of this story is not easy to discover, unless it be to show the ruin which women in different spheres of life can bring upon themselves and others by their obstinacy and pride. As a work of art, there is little unity about it, and the construction is clumsy. An introductory chapter is unnecessary, as the author does not show that it has any relation to the after-part of the story. With three or four exceptions, the male characters are either knaves or fools, sometimes both ; but there seems to us to be something inconsistent in the same characters at different stages of the story. The sequence of events, also, is unnatural without being startling. The work is essentially one of the day, introducing scenes connected with work in the East of London, and making mention of such men as Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Howard Vincent. It is sufficient praise to say of it that the plot is ingenious, that the dialogue is smartly written, and that it will interest the generality of novel-readers, who seldom stop to consider the artistic merits of their novels.

Peril : a Morel. 3 vole. By Jessie Fothergill. (Richard Bentley and Son.)—We must confess ourselves very much disappointed to find that so very inferior a story as Peril is written by the pen of Jessie Fothergill. So very poor is it, compared with any of the previous works of this author, that we should be glad to believe it an earlier production of hers, written before any of her deservedly popular stories,—" The First Violin," " Probation," and " Kith and Kin," by which she has made her reputation what it is,—and we should like to think that it had been published against her better judgment and at the instigation of enthusiastic, but too partial, admirers ; only in that case we should strongly advise her to be guided by her own judgment on such points in future. Peril is a thoroughly unpleasing, besides being a highly improbable, story. The wild passions of the heroine, Peril, and her insolent behaviour, are objectionable in the highest degree ; and the sudden reformation, brought about by the cutting, though perfectly just, reproaches of her husband, altogether fail to carry conviction to the mind of the reader. The vicious and sordid old grandfather is a detestable character; and the will which is to disinherit his grandson, but which is so easily set aside, is certainly not the will which such a man would have made. It is displeasing, too, to find no word of disapprobation expressed, either by the author or by any of her characters, of the deception which is practised upon the grandfather by his grandson, granddaughter, the manager of his great business, and his housekeeper. The end does not justify the means ; and we should have thought that Miss Fothergill would have said something, or put some words into the month of one of her characters, to save us from the inference that she regards the end as sometimes justifying evil in the means. We very much hope to be able to like the next story of Miss Fothergill's, as we have done her previous ones.

Paris : In Old and Present Times. By Philip Gilbert Hamerton. (Seeley and Co.)—The frontispiece of the "Sainte Chapelle," by Brunet.Debaines, is one of the best etchings by that artist which we know. Delicate and full of chic, it is drawn as perhaps only a Frenchman can draw, not only well, bat with a certain bright facility, akin to the manner in which a Parisian milliner praises a bonnet. One of the worst etchings in the book is by an Englishman, Mr. Jacomb Hood ; and the worst by an artist who ought to know better, M. Lalanne. This last etching, though technically skilful enough, is about as scratchy a piece of work as we have ever seen. It is the work of a master in his craft ; bus a master in his worst temper and under his least happy inspiration. But perhaps this illustration which is least admirable, from an artistic point of view, is the one of Parisian children in the Garden of the Tuileries by M. Lalauze. It is one of those unfortunate drawings of which it can only be said that the vulgarity of the conception is equalled by the spiritless mechanism of the technique. The only thing which is tolerable in it is the frilling around the little girls' dresses. There is an etching by Lhermitte which is noticeable for a very different reason than any of the other illustrations; and to those of our readers who are acquainted with this artist's perfect work in charcoal it will be interesting to note how curiously he -has failed in this etching process to obtain anything like his usual delicate gradation of light and shade. The plate in question, which represents the " Champs ElysiJes," is, to use a slang but expressive phrase, "all over the place." It seems absurd to use such a phrase of Llaermitte's work as " out of tone," but really that is the only phrase which can be used here.

The Rhyme of the Lady of the Rock, and how it Grew. By Emily Pfeiffer. (Kegan Paul and Co., 1884 )—This book is not a successful one as a whole. The long and, in parts, tedious narrative, which forms the background of a somewhat slight poem, should have been much abridged. And the poem itself, though containing passages worthy of Mrs. Pfeiffer's reputation, is not altogether pleasant reading. The history of the Maclean's baulked passion in all its details is not, to our mind, a wholesome subject ; and it does not become the more so from the vividness with which much is depicted which should have been only suggested. We extract some happily-expressed lines:—

the restless wind awoke her heart Where her love was laid asleep, And it rose up wild, like a startled child, It waked like a child to weep; 0 world ft rlorn iu the wan, grey weather, And yourm heart weeping end wailing together t For the wrestling wind recal:e I a time

When the grey, wa world was green,

When the sun was high, her lot lure nigh, And the ting of lore so keen

In the stroke that cleft her heart in twain

She knew not if it were joy or pain."

Fraud and Tracked; or, Memoirs of a City Detective. By James M`Govan. (John Menzies, Edinburgh.)—Mr. M'Govan continues to work with success the vein of fiction, or, we should rather say, of fact with fictitious circumstances, with which he has already done so well. One of his books has reached a ninth, another an eighth, a third a sixth edition; and these, with the volume before ne, "form," we are told, "the complete set of the author's detective experiences." It is a book which it is unnecessary to criticise. When we have said that it is eminently readable, written with good-sense and goodtaste, and deals with difficult subjects with much tact, we have not gone beyond the truth, nor done more than justice to a very praiseworthy volume.

The Homology of Economic Justice. By an East India Merchant. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co.)—The "East India Merchant" has a simple remedy for economic difficulties. His answer to the land problem is," No one is let anything." If you have a farm, you must cultivate it ; if you have amill, ycii must ran it ; if you have a mine, yen must work it. Descending to particulars, he says that an Act should be passed ordaining that, at the expiration of seven years, all tenancies of land, &c., must determine. As far as we can see, there might be just a little difficulty in working this. Let any one try toimagine the condition, say, of the Duke of Bedford in 1892, if the Parliament of 1885 takes the " Merchant's" advice. 'Better Mr. George a hundred times,' &s., would say the miserable owner of two hundred thousand acres.

By Mead and Stream. By Charles Gibbon. 3 vols. (Chatto and Windus.)—The plot of this novel turns mainly upon one of those extraordinary incidents by which novelists are accustomed, so to speak, to improve upon life. A rich Australian, who has reason to regard with affection and yet with a certain distrust a young man in whom he is interested, resolves to test the real value of his character by wealth, the arriores stimuli of prosperity, and accordingly makes him a little present of £100,000 to begin with. This is a little out of the way; but there is more behind. The donor sees fit to disguise himself ; in fact, gets a friend, who, by-the-way, is not a perfectly respectable character, to personate him, and so gives himself, it may be supposed, a better opportunity of watching the success of his experiment. We do not want to lay down too rigid limits for the incidents of fiction ; but is not this a little too much ? We really felt it difficult to maintain in Philip, Mr. Gibbon's hero, and in his other characters, the interest which, considering the skill which he brings to delineating them, and to telling the story of their fortunes, they ought to excite.

Icaria : a Studs in Communistic History. By Albert Shaw, Ph.D. (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.)—Dr. Shaw very rightly thinks that " too little diligence is given to searching for the facts of history, and to studying with minute attention the actual experiences of men." Accordingly he gives us a careful account of the Icarian community. This owed its origin in 1847 to the speculations of a

certain Etienne Cabet. Icaria had existed for some time in the imagination of this enthusiast, and it took actual shape in this year. The enterprise had very chequered fortunes ; it now exists in two communities, neither of which have made any considerable progress in revolutionising the world, but which enjoy a fairly prosperous existence. There is the "New Icarian Community," which, though it does not possess the old name, occupies the old domain, and may be said to be the direct representative of the original society. It consists of about 40 members, and possesses about £4,000. Its locality is Iowa. ' La Jenne Icarie " is in California, and has the title of Icaria-Speranza. It numbers about 52; it is three times as rich as the older community, and it has the advantage, we should suppose, of being situated in one of the most fertile countries in the world. The writer of this monograph wisely declines to prophecy, and we shall follow his teticenco ; bat it is not unsafe to remark that the history of Icaria shows the excessive difficulty of harmonious existence in a socialist community. Icaria has been subject to interior revolutions of a most disturbing kind, happily limited to legal disputes by the conditions of its existence, but significant of difficulties which, had there been no constraining peaceful force without, might have had a most disastrous termination.

Our Insect Allies. By Theodore Wood. (S.P.C.K.)—Weare bidden by this little book to be friendly and thankful to various little creatures which one commonly regards with something like aversion and disgust. The "burying-beetles," for instance, do us a good turn by getting out of our way a quantity of carrion which would otherwise gradually decay, to our no small inconvenience. It is not very easy to believe that our gratitude is due to the blow-flies. Ladybirds, which in every European language give some name indication of the favour in which they are held, we are prepared to admire ; but some of Mr. Wood's demands on our faith are really considerable. However, this is a very pleasant book, and one that we can largely commend to our readers.

The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. With Introduction, Translation, Notes, and Illustrative Passages. Edited by H. do Romestin, M.A. (Parker and Co.)—The SiSaxi Tiv Scassa AueerrAws has already called forth a considerable amount of literature, which Mr.

de Romestin has studied and compared. The result has been a useful little edition, which we would commend to our readers. We may give in brief Mr. de Rornestin's conclusions from the internal evidence of the document : —(1.) No sign of a Canon of the New Testament ; quotation not exact from St. Matthew or St. Luko ; no reference to the Epistles. (2 ) The office-bearers of the Church have New-Testament titles, Presbyter, however, being omitted. (3) The erydwa not yet disjoined from the Eucharist. (4) No trace of a long prepratiou for baptism or of a class of catechumens. (5.) No sign of yearly festivals. On the whole, the evidence of the aadxa is against the ecclesiastical developments which Christianity has received.