... LORD CHARILES BERESFORD, in the Nineteenth Century, brings forcibly before the mind the dangers incidental to our present position of national naval unpreparedness, under the heading The British Fleet and the State of Europe. He thinks the danger of a rupture between France and Germany a remote possibility; while the temptation we afford our neighbours to attack us he regards as a great one ...

... MESSRS. OSBORN AND TUCKWOOD.- The Soldier of the Cross, written and composed by Wilfrid Mills and M. Piccolomini, is a song which refects much credit on both poet and composer, it is published in three ?? pleasing love songs are, Waiting for Thee, a simple serenade, words by Claxon Bellamy, music by D'Auvergne Barnard, and Yesterday, To-day, and for Ever, written and composed by Knight ...

... R M ?? I -r/- ?? -1 ?7 P, - I -1- NE r_- ?? . ? Im, It THEATMES k E Si M. SAR[DOUS a Tosca i; not in the category of plays that bathe the drooping spirits in delight. Terror and pity rather than pleasurable emotion are the passions that it awakens ; and there is undoubtedly some ground for the complaint that it more than once oversteps the limits which true art imposes in depicting painful ...

... ?Vx AI ?? I 1? %44? 2 MIR. C. L. PIRSIS, some of whose former novels are favourably known, has in At the Moment of Victory ?? vols.: Ward and Downey), written a story which had, at any rate, the merit of being unexpected enough to excite curiosity and maintain attention. It is absolutely impossible ; but this we hold to be no demerit, so long as the story-teller is the master, and not the ...

... ?? . . . e WHAT appears to be a very fair and impartial presentation of American life and activity is given by Mr. J. C. Firth in Our Kin Across the Sea (Longmans). Mr. J. A. Froude, who writes the preface, tells us that Mr. Firth is one of the oldest of the New Zealand colonists, and settled in the North Island of New Zealand between thirty and forty years ago. The historian writes in warm ...

... I~ TI*E t.s f ~ ~-,s -- MR. lRvrNG'S complete recovery from the severe attack of congestion of the larynx, which compelled him a fortnight since to seek rest at Bri hton, has given great satisfaction to his admirers. Nothing could have been more enthusiastic than the welcome accorded to him on Saturday evening, when he suddenly presented himself on the dismal waste of the Harmuir. It was ...

... VI. SLAVONIAN folk-lore has not been investigated so completely as the popular traditions of most countries, so the Sixty Folk-Tales (Elliot Stock), gathered by A. H. Wratislaw, include many novel and unfamiliar legends. Mr. Wratislaw draws his material chiefly from a collection by the late Bohemian writer, Erben, and his book is an excellent companion to the late Mr. Ralston's Russian ...

... DRAWN BY W. SMALL With his forefinger the keeper indicated the stag at which Lionel was to fire. BY WILLIAM BLACK, AUTHOR OF A PRINCESS OF THULE, MACLEOD OF DARE, &C. CHAPTER IX. VENATOR IMMEMOR AND why was it, when in course of time it became practicable to arrange a deer-stalking expedition for him, why was it that he voluntarily chose to encounter what Lord Rockminster had called the ...

... .:PI?- , I I xusl?) )W,?gffi HER MAJESTY's THEATRE.-The Promenade Concerts at Her Majesty's began on Saturday last with every prospect of a successful season. We last week briefly described the alterations which have been made in the theatre, thus practically converting it into a sixteenth-century nmarket-place, with tall timber, brick, and plaster houses of the Elizabethan period, a ...

... ?t6 XMiss SHAFTO (3 vols. : Bentley and Son), comparee favourably with any of Mr. W. E. Norris's later works, and makes a capital pendant to The Rogue. If he had called Al Shafto T he Flirt, or A Coquette, the two would be admirable companion pictures in the gallery of fiction. Not that Mis, Shafto herself is a coquette, by any means-quite the contrary but a certain Madge Wilton, who ...

... I, l ?? \ r. Paul Veronese-Greene, a Parisian A rt-Sludent, resolves to go in for legitimate art at the Louvre, and * not wholly unbiassed in his choice of a subject to copy I.- 4. But here is the result of his machinations. Indfiture Monsieur accom- - eanies Madame and she 4orrows Paul's colours no more I In I f ?e- ? f?l ?? 9X The loch has been worshipped in this mannerfrom time immemo- ...

... HIONS I I THE first Drawing-Room of the season was noticeable for two features, the half-mourning toilettes worn by the Royal Family, from -respect- to -the widowed Empress Frederick, and the slight modifications in the orthodox Court costumes, which, by the way, were only adopted by those who were in delicate health, or past the heyday of youth. Half-mourning was taken in its broadest sense, ...