... THE THEA TRES. Tml second and last fortnight of Mdlle. Bernhardt's engagement was rot distinguished by the production of any important novelty. Coppee's l'ttty little one-act, Le Passant (i869), was announced, but was not al)(, and during the whole of the week before last Mdlle. Bernhardt IIOPlITcrd in but one new part, the Th&rhse of Andre Theuriet's Jean- Marie (IS,7) Last Wednesday, ...

... HANDEL'S OPERA SONGS.I IT has been suggested elsewhere that the revival of one of Handel's operas, in spite of practical difficulties attending it, would be an experiment worth making. The publication of a volume of selected songs from these now forgotten works may enable many persons to form a better idea than at present exists of the amount of fine vocal music which they contain, and - ...

... 1 Round Europe with the Crowd. By J. Maggs. (London: W. H. Allen and Co.) This is a harmless book. The writer has been quite successful in his purpose, which apparently was to show busin ss people who mope at home what fun it is to travel, how instructive also travellin7 may occasionally become, and what openings it affords, when you are tired of seeing the comic side of things, for moral ...

... THE BRAIN AS AN ORGAN OF HIND.* AMONG the scientific problems of the hour those of nervous physiology have a special interest for the general reader. This seems to be clearly illustrated in the fact that men of science not engaged in this branch of inquiry are now and again tempted for the sake of popular effect to enlarge on the subjects belonging to it. To discourse learnedly on the ...

... * 'THE last instalment of the Wellington papers deals with the most important political crisis of this century-the passing of the Reform B3ill; but it is far from agreeable reading. Nowhere have the remark- .able powers of the Duke of Wellington been presented to so little advantage as in the volume before us. There is the same sim- plicity and precision of language which characterize the ...

... AILe STORY OF ADRIENNE LECOUVREUR. A DENT words may not be out of place concerning the great actress and chirr woman whom Scribe made the chief character of the drama row often played in London by the French company at the Gaiety Theatre. Scribe's departure from the truth of history is not perhaps above the average in such cases; but his play is unsatisfactory and even somewhat repulsive to ...

... ENGLISH LETTLrPS.* A CRITIC is supposed, if only by etymological courtesy, to be a judge; and a judge ought to be entirely unprejudiced in his decisions by any pleasure or benefit which he receives from the case under his consideration. Fortu- nately, however, the mere fact that a book can give pleasure to its readers is sufficient ground for speaking well of it; and this ground exists in ...

... MR. BARDSLEY has done himself some injustice by the title he has chosen for his book. The reader takes it up with the expectation of finding a collection of such baptismal eccentricities as Tribulation Wholesome, Zeal-of-the-Land Busy, ?? damned Barebone, and so forth. A little of this extravagant outcome of fanatical piety goes a long way. A volume of such Curiosities could hardly ...

... ' ANGLO-INDIANS have been declared by the general consent of the rest of miankind to be bores. To themselves, no doubt, this opinion appears somewhat unreasonable, and founded on nothing more than an imperfect sympathy with the conditions of life in a country where Europeans have to experience all the drawbacks and none of the advantages of civilization. But whatever may be said for the Anglo ...