Master John Bull. By Ascii:1U R. Hope. (Nimmo.)—Mr. Hope will ,
probably pillory us, with other critics who may happen to displease him, in a future preface. Even in sight of this danger we shall take the• liberty of saying that Master John Bull is a very indifferent specimen of book-making. First, we have "Introductory Remarks " and a "Pre- face," written in a queer mixture of flippancy and dogmatism which is most distasteful. Here, for instance, is a note appended to a series of remarks, the gist of which is that the more stupid a man the more likely he is to be preferred for a schoolmaster : "In such sackcloth and ashes as may seem necessary, I hereby repent of this paragraph. Since it was written, Mr. Farrar has been made Head Master of Marlborough College." No one, we are sure, will be more disgusted than Mr. Farrar at the fulsome compliment that is paid to him at the expense of the illustrious men, both living and dead, who have adorned the profession. Has Mr. Hope ever heard the names of Arnold, Temple, Cotton, and Bradley ? Then comes an " autobiography," prolix and tedious, with here and there a gleam of the felicity which made Mr. Hope's reputation ; and then a quantity of padding in the form of various essays, jeux cl 'esprit, dm., the best thing being an outline of study for the schools of the future, a just and lively satire on the absurd schemes of some reformers of the present day ; the worst, an elaborate joke on that very threadbare subject, the biography of the Balboa of the exercise-books.
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