CURRENT LITERATURE.
The City and the Land. By Colonel Sir Charles Wilson and others. (A.. P. Watt.)—Last year the Committee of the Palestine Fund arranged for the delivery of certain lectures which were to set forth the principal points of the work that had been done by aid of the Fund, and that still remained to do, The lectures were seven in number, and were given by acknowledged experts. Sir Charles Wilson treated of "Ancient Jerusalem," Major Conder of "The Future of Palestine," Canon Tristram of "The Natural History of Palestine," Dr. Wright of " The Hittites," Ur. W. M. Flinders Petrie of" The Story of a Tell" (the "Tell" is the accu- mulation of soil, &c., amounting in this case to as much as five feet per century, as against one foot in London), and Canon Dalton of "The Modern Traveller in Palestine ; " while Mr. Besant, who as secretary has done so much for the cause, lectured on "The General Work of the Society," and gave a most interesting expo- sition of what had been done. One remark that he made we cannot resist the impulse to repeat,—the disgraceful neglect with which Major Condor has been treated. To look over the lists of New-Year and Birthday honours, and to compare the absolute triviality of the services of many of those rewarded, with the value of what Major Conder has done absolutely without recognition, produces a curious feeling. Lord Salisbury is, of course, in such matters an absolute Philistine, but of Mr. Gladstone something better might have been expected.
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