... RECENT DIPLOMACY.' THERE is a peculiar interest in this book at the present moment. Indeed, it is almost worth translating. Not that it is particularly pleasant reading for an Englishman ; but neither its use nor its merit need be the less for that. It brings out in a very clear and striking manner the con- nection between the dangers of to-day and our policy on the Danish question, which was ...

... DEAN MILIMAN'S TRANSLA TIONS.* TiiE respect with which all men of letters always mention the name of Dean Milman has been earned by a long, laborious, and honourable life. He is one of our glories, and we are proud of his candour as well as of his scholarship. An ornament to the Church, he is also, and on grounds that make him somewhat exceptional among Church- men, an ornament to literature. ...

... A DICTIONAR Y OF BRITISH INDIAN DA TES.* IF there be one description of literature over which we sometimes, in bitterness of spirit, wish to see a rigorous censorship established, it is that which is perhaps generally regarded as the most innocuous. Books of easy reference, such as Dictionaries of Dates and Historical Compendiums, especially if theybe portable and cheap, ought assuredly to ...

... SIR. FROUDE'S NEW VOL UMES.' [SECOND ARTICLE.] WE have noted already Mr. Froude's wistful eagerness to enter sympatheti- cally into the arcana of individual character; and it is curious to compare the subtle refinement of his analysis with the bold and decisive partisanship of a writer like Lord Macaulay. Towards Mary he is a confessor dealing with a criminal, and drawing her secrets out. ...

... IT must be very pleasant to be a painter, young, handsome, celebrated, wearing a velvet paletot, and sat to by brilliant young countesses, lui se Zaissent (iner. The keenness of this pleasure will be sharpened by the ugly little fact, kept carefully in the background, that you are a serf, and not a free man; and that although you are now in Paris, courted and petted, you may at any moment ...

... THE LIFE OF A SALMON. TI-n life of the salmon is a subject which has undergone a good deal of enlightenment within the last few years, but there are still many points in it upon which we are but very ill informed, and there are some upon which the best authorities are at issue. Fully one-third of a salmon's life is spent in the sea and beyond our ken, and all that we know of what passes ...

... THESE concerts show no falling off in the interest and importance wlhiclh have always attached to them. Since the commencement (on January 25) of the presenit series they have gone on increasing in attraction; tile fi rst performance of Schubert's Tragische Sinfonie on Saturday last being the climax to a succession of really noteworthy events. These we ?? tO pass in review. Our retrospect ...

... JEANIE DEANS. FEw novels can have furnished more frequent occupation to the playarlghS than Scott's Heart of Midlothian. Soon after] publication it ?? dramatized by Terry for Covent Garden Theatre, and by Thomas IDibd; for the Surrey, the success of Dibdin's version subsequently leadfingcr it its promotion and transfer to the stage of Drury Lane. play on the same subject was arranged by ...

... .GARDENING is more and more becoming an art in which the highest cultivation, taste, and even genius of a kind, may find full scope and employment. Though in point of expression horticulture cannot, of course, compete with a fine art, yet it has its triumphs too, for no colours of the painter can vie with the exquisite and gorgeous tints of some of the productions of the florist's skill, ...

... M14ABEL DEAS. 2 To write a novel in order to propagate a theory or expose a grievance is not a proof of the author's wisdom, but it is always a test of his capacity. Dicklens, Charles Reade, and Kingsley have occupied this ground, and have succeeded by sheer force of originality, imagination, and graphic descrip- tive power, but of these qualities wve perceive no trace in M Aabel Dean; or, ...

... NEWV BIIS AN]D NEW EDITIONS, I)eslnosiuss Weapons of War, translated by xMr. ?? C. Black (]'ell and Daftly), is an interesting and excellent publicatioll, contailing urarly 2,000 very serviceable drnawings of arms and arn-our from the stone age down to ixrsipli and Arnstrong. It is well arranged, vell indexed, and] cc-utalns faesimiles of great numbers of the marlks and nuossogranis of ...

... WE lately printed a letter from Azamat ?? k pointing out that really popular musical eat tailjments are unknown inl England, anid, wvhat is worse, there is even no thought of arranrig. them in any way. In another part of gtl same paper our correspondent found evidc IC confirmatory of his opinion. Ol WVedilesda afternoon a deputation had an interview With tloW First Commissioner of W Torks ...