The Lore Adventures of Al-Mansur. Translated from the original Persian
by Omar-el-Aziz. Edited by Archibald Clavering Gunton. (G. Routledge and Sons.)—We need not inquire too particularly into the nationality of " Omar-el-Aziz," or of his original. Mr. Gunton has " edited" both into a very good imitation of English after the mode of New York. He gives us a very lively set of adventures ; for our own part we prefer the more deliberate movements of the "Thousand and One Nights."
Teuton Studies. By Sidney Whitman. (Chapman and Hall.) Mr. Whitman is an observant and thoughtful person, from whom much may be learnt. " The Germany of To-Day " is not very
pleasant reading, because it makes an Englishman feel that he is being outstripped and beaten. Mr. Whitman is a strong believer in a conscript army. The army, he thinks, intead of being, as many economists would have it, a ruinous expense, is one of the great motive-powers of German prosperity and progress. There is a seamy side, indeed,—Socialism, with all the discontent which it indicates, may be taken to stand for it. We do not quite see how this is to be harmonised with the theory to which Mr. Whitman devotes one of his chapters, the advantage of the working man in Germany over the same class in England. One of the best papers in the volume is the "Anti-Semitic Move- ment in Germany." It will be found distinctly enlightening. There are two excellent sketches, Count Moltke and Prince Bismarck. An amusing illustration of the former's dislike of talka- tive men is given. A gentleman entered the railway-carriage in which he was travelling. Recognising the great man, he said, as he got in," Good morning, Excellency ; " and as he got out," Good afternoon, Excellency." "Insupportable chatterbox !" Moltke cried, when he was out of hearing. The one thing which makes us hesitate a little in giving full credence to our author's observa- tions is the nonsense that he talks on a subject about which it was easy to be well-informed. We do not believe that English chaplains at Continental health-resorts — " aggressive, psalm- intoning, free-boarding," are Mr. Whitman's courteous epithets —are the most objectionable of Englishmen abroad. But let that pass. Our author's standard of manners is clearly not the same as ours. But the wealthy and aristocratie parson who "pays his curate £80 a year to do his duty ten months out of twelve," is an impossibility. Non-residence and the payment of curates are matters regulated by Act of Parliament, and such things cannot be done. ,
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