... A First Japanese Book for English Students. By John O'Neill (Harrison and Sons.) However praiseworthy the Japanese love of acquisitive- ness may be, it has at least tended to increase the difficulties in the way of gaining a knowledge of the written language of the country. The existence of certain ancient scrolls in some of the Japanese temples proves beyond dispute that at one time the ...

... IN connection with the opening of the new French Opera now nearly con. pleted, a discussion, which has the advantage of being interminable, has been started on the subject of nationality in music. Three State per. formances are to be given for the inauguration of the house; and it has been naturally decided that the works represented should be French. But the question then arises whether the ...

... THE GREVILLE lE/IIOIRS.* [SECOND NOTICE.] WE have spoken of the ability discernible in Mr. Greville's sketches; of contemporaries, as well as in his observations upon current events. But neither his judgments upon character nor his calculation of conse- quences were invariably correct, and were both frequently modified by his own hand. It is clear, indeed, that with him, as with most of us, ...

... THE GOVERNMENT OF LONDON. The Sa/rrday Review maintains that Mr. Cross exercised a sound dis. cretion in withholding all expression of opinion on the Municipality of London Bill. The scheme is in some respects plausible; and it world be rash to assert that it may not possibly produce some kind of pablic benefit; but it is always necessary to beware when all men speak well of a measure, or ...

... TIE l'/IL I RIit1OATi C TI/IA TIX XFlS. --:1 .A d A.S { t vA- . ;ef o ?? rrn; I'HrRE is little to be said about GirotLe-Girofla as given at t'le Pil> lairmcrnic T heatre, except that it is very well played, and better sung tbtn rrany would have thought possible at an English theatre. Mliss Jalil Mathews has a better voice than the lady who impersonated Gimbal2- Gihofla at the Opr&a Comique, ...

... TimE dull season in music, of which the dulness has been made only the more apparent by the forced liveliness here and there of a few operas boufies, is at last coming to an end. The Saturday concerts of the Crystal Palace began on Saturday; and a more interesting scheme than that of the new series has never been presented to the musical public. These concerts have long been distinguished from ...

... S UPERNA TURAL RELIGION. , IT is not often that the gifts and acquirements necessary to the composition of so masterly and exhaustive a treatise as the present are united in the same person. The vast erudition alone which its author displays woald be sufficient to place the work beyond power of imitation by all who have not devoted years to the close study of theological literature ; and of ...

... OLD SAILORS:' IqR. BYRON has written for the Strand Theatre a comedy in three acts, entitled Old Sailors, a sort of companion work to his Old Soldiers, there being, however, no connection between the two productions beyond that of similarity of title. But as Old Soldiers proved remarkably suc- cessful, there seemed to be sufficient reason for contriving a play to be called Old ...

... RICHARD CCUR DE LION. THE Talisman of Sir Walter Scott, which lately furnished the libretto, of Balfe's posthumous opera, is again serving the uses of Drury Lane Theatre. Mr. Andrew Halliday, who has turned so many of the Waverley novels to dramatic account, has taken the work in hand, and converted it into a grand spectacular military drama in four acts, bearing the new title of ...

... MERR Y ENGLAND. MR. HARRISON AINSWORTH, when he takes hold of some period of history ard writes what he calls a picturesque chronicle, reminds us of nothing so much as a child who has got to himself a large pumpkin, and scooping ie cut the inside and cutting the rind into some resemblance to a hideous face, keeps it till nightfall, and then sticking a candle into it, hopes to a scare, ...

... Birds: Their Cages and their Keep. Being a Practical Manual of Bird-keeping and Bird-rearing. By K. A. Buist. (Macmillan and Co.) A bird of some kind is to be found in almost every English home, and yet it is rarely that the feathered friend of the house has the attention paid him to which he is entitled. He is entirely dependent on his owner's care for the necessaries and comforts of life, ...

... THE BEST OF HUSBANDS.e THIS may be called a very striking book, if that name can be secured by unexpected events and thorough improbability. Its characters fall naturally into three classes, thus: the consistently bad, who drink, forge, or cheat at cards, and break the seventh commandment-this is represented by that worthy pair Richard Milbank and Dennis Blake; lay figures, capable of ...