CURRENT LITERATURE.
The most interesting article in the Month is the editor's continua- tion of his account of "A Personal Visit to Distressed Ireland?' Several matters well worthy of note are to be found in it. There is a doubt, for instance, expressed whether it is tho distressed holders of small farms or the artisans that are getting the benefit of assisted emigration. The emigrants whom the writer camo across were artisans. There are some tent ibis stories told of evictions. Matters seem to be in a state of great tension in some parts, a tension in- creased by the operation of the Land Act. The landlords, enraged at the forced reduction of their rents, exact the diminished payment with relentless severity. Canon Shortland gives an account of the persecutions of the Christians in Tonquin and Annum, and criticises the action of France. In archroology, we have an article on "Recent Excavations in the Roman Forum ;" aud in science an essay on "The Botany of Albertus Magnus." Garibaldi and Henry VIII. are not persons who are likely to get jus- tice at the hands of Roman Catholic writers, and do not, we think, receive it here. The article on "Mr. Gladstone and Garibaldi" is, in particular, nothing less than discreditable to tho writer. It is strange that a man of education should condescend to use such language as we find in it.—Gentlentan's Magazine.—Mr. Buchanan continues his story of "The New Abelard," and introduces a couple of characters, "Professor Mapleleap, Solar Biologist," and his sister, Eustasia, a famous medium, who promise to be interesting. Mr. Allen C. Ewald tells the story of Sir Walter Raleigh, keeping the balance commendably fair. Raleigh had great faults, and Mr. Ewald does not extenuate them ; as for the conduct of the King, it seems difficult oven to suggest an excuse for it. Miss Gordon Cumming gives us the first part of "Notes of Two Wintry Cruises in the English Channel," telling us not a few things that are scarcely creditable to our English arrangements. There are some really amusing pages about "Hedgehogs," by Mr. E. Kay Robinson. The hedgehog poor creature ! is an animal that has fallen upon evil times; let us hope that this humane account of him may do something to rehabilitate his character.—The Melbourne Review (April) contains an account of the failure of Victoria to raise a loan in England in 1882, and deals with a matter which seems to have excited much indignation in the colony very fairly. Mr. Start, in his article, "Governor Gordon and the Maoris," criticises severely the conduct of the Now Zealand Government in reference to the natives. We should like on some future occasion to hear what he has to say about Queensland, in reference (1) to tho aborigines, and (2) the imported labour. One thing strikes us with envy, the delightful leisure which an Australian critic must enjoy. There is a list of" works published in Australia during the quarter ending March 31st, 1883," and it numbers seven.
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