... OPENING OF TIWJfl PHILADELPHIA UIZUTEf MAIL EXHIBITION. PHILADELPHIA, lAY 9, EvNIxa. Tho city io crowded. The Emperor of Brazil, PLtksident Grant, the members of the Cabinet, the judaies of the different courts, and the members of both Bouses of Congress, have arrived.. The In- depazdluce Eall wus illuminated, and the streets ace proiuely decorated. About 49D0 InvItations have been issued for ...

... ENTERTAINMENE8. COKTPLIMENTARY CONCERT AT CARDtrr.-A comiplimentary concert was given at the Stuart- ball, Cardiff, on Wednesday night, by Miss Clara N. Davies (pupil of Dr. Frost, M.D). Several well-known artistes were engagfed, and the audience thoroughly ap- ?? the entertainment given. The concert was opened by the Canton choir, under the con- ductorship of Mr. Jacob Davies, with the part ...

... GiR-AA'D (JONCEl12' AT THlE DRILL- HALL, CARDIFF. ]t is highlly aratitilly ' to find that, notwith- standil foour orl live montths of exoeedingly de- pressed times the public plnrce has tit yet been so ?? IS to leavi c Ito margin for the enjoy- mrent of iceally ittc'lleotu'd cusemeut, as witness the large gatherin-- at; the I rill-lhell, Cardiff, at MuIthey inihi ts coneirt. ?? this high-class ...

... LJPERATU1?E. The 2caake)rs' Handbook of thle Bible. By JOSmEPH PFLLIBz ANK, M.A. London: T Lonliaus. Green, and Co, When it is stated that this book is dedicated to C(anon Lightfoot, of St. Paul's, in consideration A of favours received during the long period of teL years we may fotrn some idea of the general tone of the work. There are many handbooks of the Bible, but Mr. Pulliblank's has thd ...

... MA CLEAN'S GALLER Y Tan twelfth annual exhibition of pictures at this gallery, wvhich wvas cpcned to the public on Monday last, contains a hundred and thirty-three examples by British and foreign rainters, all of which, it may be safely said, are above mediocrity, and many of which attain a high standard of excellence. A gallery of manageable size which can be viewed comfortably within a ...

... MADAME, by Frank Lee Benedict, author of St. Simon's Niece, &c. (3 vole.: Samuel Tinsley).-We are afraid that Mr. Benedict-whose characteristics point him out as evidently one of those good Americans who have died and gone to Paris--is producing at a rate too rapid for his strength. The man who could deliver himself of such a book as St. Simon's Niece gave evidence of powers which we ...

... ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ITALY FROM THE ALPS TO MOUNT ETNA (Chapman and Hall), translated by F. E. and edited by T. A. Trollope, is a volume to place side by side with works like Durd's Spain. It is a book of Italy, not for the road nor for the study, but for the drawing-room table-not a painstaking but dry itinerary a la Baedeker, nor learned handbook of descriptive research, after the style of ...

... ROYAL IjALIAN OPERA.-It is not very likely that Roeoa e Ciu/letta will ever become a popular work-that is, popular in . the Sense of the wide-spread favour attained and merited by its predecessor, Faust. It is too much spun out, and the attention excited by the earlier scenes, where the hero and heroine are immediately engaged, beginning to waver long before the end, eventually dies out. ...

... )t- MAGGIE ? by Frank Barrett, author of Fantoccini (3 vols. Tinsley).-Mr. Barrett is a clever writer, but he is perhaps a little too conscious of his cleverness to he altogether a good novelist. He gives us the impression of being apprehensive that his own personal claims may be overlooked in the interest of his story, and so we have him too often coming to the front to bid us note ...

... 3??Oxw A!v-, NORA'S LOVE TEST, by Mary Cecil Hay, author of The Squire's Legacy (3 vols: Hurst and Blackett).-Those who are content to take Miss Hay's statements of facts with a child- like simplicity and confidence, and without asking inconvenient questions, may find this tale as probable as it is certainly readable. The first volume is the best. The mystery that pervades it we of ...

... CHRISTMAS BOOKIS III. CtTATrCER and Spenser are not very popular poets with young people, their quaint spelling and archaic expressions forming serious stumbling-blocks to youthful students. A praiseworthy attempt to popularise the ' Father of English poetry has, however, been made bv Mrs. H. R. Haweis in Chaucer for Children (Chatto and Windus). The authoress, considering that ...

... ri?I?. (iI? ?RVVY aii O1JCA?I?j?? 'DEAD MEN'S SOES, by the author of Lady Audley's Secret (3 vols.: Maxwell and Co.).-Miss Braddon, we take it, is quite shrewd enough to know just as well as her critics that the ceaseless production of three-volumed novels at a rate which suggests to astonished onlookers that they must be the result of some purely physical process, rather than of ...