CURRENT LITE RAT [IRE.
The Edinburgh Review.—The number of the Edinburgh Reriets for January is a most attractive one. With one exception—the critique on Mr. Rudyard Kipling's works, which strikes us as weak though thoughtful—every paper is of that gravely interesting and nutri- tive kind which we expect in a quarterly Review. There is an admirable account of the invasion of France in 1792, in which the unlucky Duke of Brunswick commanded the Prussian army, and a convincing explanation of the causes which produced the defeat of that great General. His army, to begin with, was inferior to that of his foe, which included all that was left of the old Army of France, and he was paralysed by an inveterate reverence for the King of Prussia, who interfered with him at every turn, and always to the destruction of his plans. It is curious to notice that the explanation which Dr. Croly guessed at. and offered in " Marston ; or, The Memoirs of a Statesman," the abscrption of the Eastern Sovereigns in the second parti- tion of Poland, is partly proved by documents which that in- sufficiently appreciated novelist can never have seen. There is an admirably full account of Dongola, with the information, to us
new, that the province is full of most interesting antiquities. in- cluding pyramids by the score. The province, it is clear, if we possessed it, would be a garden. The account of the Blackwoods is by far the best which has yet appeared, and though we differ from all its conclusions, we recognise heartily the moderation and acuteness of the article on the Indian Frontier. If Lord Roberts did not write it, it expresses very nearly his opinions. "The Success of the Anglo-Saxons" is very pleasant reading, though the writer is too tolerant of the rather nonsensical speculations of the disciple of Lombroso. Sexual precocity did not prevent the Arabs from building a mighty Empire. "The Birds of London" interested us mainly for the evidence which its pleasant writer furnishes that birds, wood-pigeons excepted, are gradually quitting London. It is too smoky for anything created to float through air.
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