... CRIZTCAL AND SOCIAL ESSAYS.* THiEsr essays are a reprint from the New York Nation-a newspaper which has done much to show that American journalism may attain a far higher level than that to which we have been hitherto accustomed. It is written by men of ability for a cultivated audience, and is free from those appeals to popular ignorance and prejudice which deface the pages of most of its ...

... TELL WITH A VENGEANCE.' WHETHER the public has or not begun to weary of burlesques may perhaps be open to question, but there can be little doubt that the pro- viders of such entertainments are showing unmistakable signs of fatigue and exhaustion. Mr. Byron's latest production at the Strand Theatre is founded on the story of William Tell, although the Strand had been already furnished with a ...

... * SPECULATIVE psychologists who hold that the works of every genuine artist are a reflection of his personal character will find in this fresh collec- tion of musicians' letters a certain amount of confirmation of their favourite theory. From Gluck's letters, it is true, not much is to be gleaned as to the special type of his mind, except that he was unquestionably a man of considerable force ...

... WHETHER the Egyptian Hall received its name in commemoration of the height to which Egyptians carried the magical art, it is hardly worth while to inquire but a great deal of modern magic has been performed there, as if it were a peculiarly appropriate place, and now we have more. The performer announces himself as Rubini, without any Colonel or Mr., or Master before the name; just as we say ...

... THE representations of King John and Macbeth at Drury Lane Theatre, although they cannot be expected to arouse enthusiasm, inasmuch as they comprise no display of histrionic genius of a high class, are yet creditable enough to the management, and deserving of public support. Mr. Chatterton's company is by no means strong, but the stage manage- ment is carefully regarded, and in special ...

... A FATHER melancholy view of British dominion in Asia is presented in an ill-printed little pamphlet of twenty-two pages which lies before us. This unwelcome production bears no publisher's imprint. It is entitled, Papers relative to the proposed Establishment of Licensed Public Gambling Houses. Printed by De Souza and Co. Elsewhere we gather that it was published in Hong Kong, and was ...

... HANDBOOK OF ABIYSSINVIA.; COMPARATIVELY limited as is our knowledge of Abyssinia, there are abundant materials available, both from ancient and modern sources, for COlvpiling a popular account of that country which might be at once nteresting and useful. MIr. Peacock, who is the first in the field to under- talze this task, tells us in his preface that the object the writer had in View in ...

... YONGE'S HORA CE.r *THE author of this translation is not that Mr. Yonge with whom the scholastic world is familiar through the medium of his classical dictionaries. Mr. J. E. Yonge is, we believe, that gentleman's brother; nor, indeed, is the Horace now before us the kind of work that would have been published for the use of schools; and its merit must be sought rather in its ...