CURRENT LITERATURE.
East and West, edited by the Countess Spencer (Longmans), is a little volume (the handsome exterior of which contrasts oddly enough with the squalor which it describes) telling us about some of the misery which is to be seen in the East of London, and of how the West may and does help to mitigate it. An association which calls itself "The Supplemental Ladies' Association" is part of the machinery at work for this end. A "supplemental lady" is, as it were, the tutelary goddess of a poor district, acting as the executive of a higher power, which is called "The Parochial Mission-Women Association." To give orders for hospitals, fib., to furnish linen-bags for lending, to fit out girls for service, to give an occasional tea-party in the mission-room, these are among the good works which they set themselves to do. It mast re- quire a purse somewhat deeper than most purses are to carry out this programme thoroughly. A number of ladies, however, bound together, say by the tie of belonging to the same congregation, might put the office, as it were, in commission, and find the burden, when so divided, not too heavy for them. In what interesting and tonohing experiences they will find a part of their reward this volume will tell them.
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