LEAVES FROM A MADEIRA GARDEN.
• Leaves front a Madeira Garden. By Charles Thomas-Stanford. . (John Lane. Gs. net.)—Mr. Stanford tells 11B about various 'things • besides -gardenirrg, about the -Portuguese people, for 1 instance, and about _Portuguese government._ Of this last he has a very bad opinion ; he regards it as a thoroughly corrupt system, by which the two parties took turps in the spoils of office. He attributes the death of King Carlos to his determination to put an end to it—he seems to have had an arbitrary method of going about it—and blames Senhor Franco, not for what he did, but for what he failed to do,—hold on. We must say that we cannot always agree with Mr. Stanford in his judgment on moral matters. He tells us about roulette, for instance, prohibited by law in Madeira, being played without actual hindrance. His apology is,—people gamble on the racecourse ; they gamble in the City; why not gamble at the roulette-table ? And he winds up thus: "And the unco' gold who find in the vices, venial or otherwise, of their neighbours an occasion for self-complacency, are enabled to gird at the iniquities of this sinful establishment ; and so everybody is pleased !" The simple truth is that public morality is improved by the prohibition of gambling, but that the task of doing away with it is difficult in the extreme, and impossible of any complete achievement. Still, who can doubt that England is better now that the open scandals of Crockford's and the Lottery are done away with ? There is much pleasant reading in the book.
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