India. By Victor Surridge. (T. C. and E. C. Jack.
60. not.)— India is, indeed, an "inexhaustible mine" for those who seek the treasures of historical romance. Mr. Surridge begins with Siveji, and he could not have done better. What a wealth of picturesqee incident is herel The Maritha hero at the Court of Aurangzebe, for instance, his defiance of the Emperor, and his escape in what looked like a flower-basket. Then we have the strange pirate family of the Angrias ; the Angrias bring us into contact with Clive, and Clive with many persons and things of surpassing interest, Dupleix, for instance, and the struggle which was to determine whether England or France was to be dominant in India. So we are am. ducted down the historic way till we come to the Mutiny and the end of "John Company." It is a groat story, and Mr. Surridge is not unequal to the task of telling it ; and he has been nob a little helped by the pencil of his illustrator, Mr. A. D. McCormick. The volume belongs, we should say, to the "Romance of Empire Series, appearing under the editorship of Mr. John Lang.—In the same series we have New Zealand, by Reginald Horsley, a story whiqh has, of course, some resemblances to that told above, but exhibiting more marked contrasts. It was not an ancient civilisation that we found there, nor was it a barbarous tribe. The Maori was more like the poet's dream of the "noble savage" than any being that hoes been found elsewhere. This fact has modified our relations to the tribe, and there is also the fact that colonisation on a largo scale was not begun till there had been a certain sevakeniag of the public conscience. It can truly be said that the story of 'New Zealand, as regards the conduct of the white man, is honoer- ably distinguished from that of most other Colonies. It has had some very tragic passages ; the Maori was not one to let his rights be infringed upon without protest. Bet there late been very little shame or meanness about it. Mr. Horsley tolls it in an interesting way, and he has the help of Mr. McCormick's pencil.
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