South Africa. He began with nothing, and presented his fatherland with a territory five times as large as the British Isles.

The Deutsche Rundschau completes its twenty-eighth volume with this number, and intends having, as one of its chief features during its twenty-ninth year, a novel entitled "Refugium Peccatorum," by Ossip Schubin. Georg Gerland gives a very full account of the eruption of Mont Pelée in Martinique. He treats the subject from a scientific point of view and gives a great deal of useful information. Mont Pelée is covered with luxurious growth, and it is the wonderful fruitfulness of these islands which induces such comparatively large numbers to reside there; to live in such a volcano-strewn land seems, otherwise, quite foolhardy. August Fournier writes upon Marie Louise and the downfall of Napoleon, and Alfred Thumb upon the old Persian cuneiform inscriptions. The development of mankind is, he says, one of the first objects of scientific research; and Grotefend, by his researches amongst the inscriptions of old Persia, has done very much to increase our knowledge of the history of the human race.

THE DUTCH MAGAZINES.

TH

HE most attractive article in the current Elsevier is that on the art of printing on cretonne and other stuffs. Both animals and man have experienced the necessity or desire of decorating themselves, as the writer points out in the opening lines, and man has had recourse to coloring, or to designs affixed in some way or other to plain cloths. Colored decorations on cloth were brought to Holland by Portuguese navigators in the Middle Ages, and the Dutch set to work to copy them; in England, similar attempts were made about the same time; and in 1634, under Charles II.-which is probably a misprint for Charles I.-a patent was granted for "The Art or Mystery of Affixing Wool, Silk and Other Materials of Divers Colours on Linen, Silk or Other Cements; to Make Them Useful for Hangings, etc." In 1720, the wearing of these printed stuffs was forbidden. There is a good deal of interesting information in the article, both historical and technical, and several designs are shown in the illustration. There is a great liking nowadays to learn "how it is done" in respect of everything, so this article will be welcome. Among the other contents of this magazine is a description of a stay in the Berkel district, which forms pleasant reading, but contains nothing remarkable, and is illustrated with the usual country scenes. The art contributions are in evidence again, while a story and the monthly chats make up the list for this month.

Woord en Beeld has an account of a visit to a coal mine, written and illustrated by Mr. Oppenoorth and another better-known contributor, Mr. Krabbe. The illustrations show us the type of miners, the boring of a passage, and other incidents in coal mining. The writers give us a good description, with historical data. The portrait of Mr. Cort van der Linden, with a character sketch, makes us better acquainted with a prominent man in Holland; there is another descriptive sketch, this time of a country district,-a play, music, and an installment of a novel as a monthly supplement. Passing the novel of Augusta de Wit, previously noticed, the first contribution is Poetry and Labor," based on a German book called "Labor and Rhythm." The origin of poetry is a difficult problem to solve; but there seems to be some ground for believing that it

came into existence with the performance of tasks which were not pleasurable ones, and these tasks may be summed up in the word "work." To cheer the weary hours of labor the workers sang, keeping time with the movement of their hands or the strokes of the primitive tools or machines. The woman at the spinning wheel, the Chinese tea-pickers, and numerous workers in all parts of the world, have their songs or rhymes to accompany the movements they or their im plements make as the task is performed. The work seems to be done more easily when a song accompanies it, and this may well suggest that labor created poetry.

THE ITALIAN REVIEWS.

HE Nuova Antologia follows up the agitation

traffic, it courage

ously initiated some months ago, by an excellent résumé from the pen of Marquis Paulucci de Calboli, of the work accomplished by the international congress, held in Paris last July, at which sixteen countries were represented, and also of the progress made by the movement throughout Italy during the last year. It is gratifying to record that every section of the nation, -Catholic and Protestant, Liberal and Socialist.has joined in the movement, the need for action being emphasized by the geographical position of Italy, from whose ports girls may be shipped with deplorable facility to Cairo, Constantinople, Tunis, and other haunts of vice. Very much requires to be done before the traffic can be suppressed but at least, as Marquis Paulucci rejoices, the conspiracy of silence which hitherto has enveloped the subject has been broken down, and that, in itself, is a great step toward moral reform.

The fame of Mr. H. G. Wells has just spread into Italy, thanks to the recent translation into Italian of his "War of the Worlds." Both the Nuova Antologia and the Nuova Parola for September publish laudatory notices of his work, together with his portrait, and hail him as the creator of an entirely new type of fiction. The leader of modern thought to whom the Nuora Parola devotes its monthly biographical sketch is Mrs. Besant, whose life is described at length and with much enthusiasm. It is curious, in a paper otherwise accurate, to find the late Mr. Bradlaugh, of all men, spoken of throughout as "Lord Bradlaugh."

The Civilta Cattolica (September 20), taking as its theme the priceless astronomical instruments which Count Waldersee was pleased to transfer from Peking to Potsdam as part of his country's war-booty, gives a long account of astronomy as practiced by the Chinese, pointing out that they already possessed in the thirteenth century instruments which were not made in Europe before the sixteenth. It was the Jesuits' well-known superiority as astronomers which first secured for them in China the consideration they enjoyed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The erection of a new statue of St. Francis on the picturesque hillside of La Verna inspires the Rassegna Nazionale to devote two articles to the Saint of Assisi (September 1 and 15). G. Grabinski begins an elaborate study of the life of Montalembert, specially interesting at the present moment as showing how the Catholic party in the middle of the last century secured the right of freedom of education of which the authorities to-day have just deprived them.

AMERICAN HISTORY.

I'

N the department of history one of the most interesting of the season's publications is a volume entitled "The Struggle for a Continent," edited from the writings of Francis Parkman by Pelham Edgar, Ph.D. (Boston Little, Brown & Co.). It is possible to compile from Parkman's works an almost continuous account of the efforts of France and England to obtain possession of the American Continent, beginning with the colonization of Florida by the Huguenots in 1502, and ending with the fall of Quebec in 1759. The editor has wisely retained the language of the original, excepting in those cases where it was necessary to supply connecting links between successive historical episodes. Thus, the book represents not only a succinct narrative of early American history, but preserves the literary form of writings which, regarded purely as literature, are unrivalled among the works of American historians. The complete works of Parkman are in thirteen volumes, but they are quite beyond the reach of the multitude. In this one volume are included the more important and picturesque passages selected from the entire series, and the reader is enabled to get the historian's point of view almost as clearly as by the perusal of the entire set.

The greater part of the period preëmpted by the historian Parkman is also covered by the new volume of John Fiske, "New France and New England" (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.). This book was left by Mr. Fiske at his death in manuscript. The third chapter, entitled "The Lords of Acadia-Later History of Champlain," has been completed in accordance with Mr. Fiske's own memoranda indicating what incidents he proposed to include. The other chapters of the book were in the form of carefully prepared lectures delivered before the Lowell Institute in Boston during the last winter of the author's life. The work of the editors in preparing these chapters for the press has been chiefly confined to the making of side-notes and annotations calling attention to authorities. This volume completes the series of historical studies projected by Mr. Fiske many years ago, which have covered the whole story of the settlement and development of the colonies from the discovery of America until the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. The notable qualities of style which have made Mr. Fiske's books the most popular among recently published histories of America are present in this posthumous vol

:

ume.

A subject of such obvious interest that we wonder it has not sooner been treated has been chosen by Mr. Charles Knowles Bolton for a volume entitled "The Private Soldier Under Washington" (Scribners). The actual daily life of the private soldier in our Revolutionary armies can only be understood after a most painstaking search of military reports, letters, and other cortemporaneous documents. Mr. Bolton has performed this laborious task with much enthusiasm, and has afforded the reader every means of verifying his statements by giving the names of the authorities who saw

the conditions or events described. Pictures of ancient articles of equipment, reproductions made from plates, and fac-similes of rare posters and manuscripts illustrate the book.

"New Amsterdam and Its People" is the title of a volume of exceptionally thorough social and topographical studies of the old settlement on Manhattan Island under early Dutch and English rule, by J. H. Innes (Scribners). Much attention has been given by Mr. Innes to the character of the early population of New Amsterdam, and it may surprise many readers to learn from his pages that within the first thirty or forty years of the colonization of the place there were to be met with in the town representatives of every country in Europe west of the line of Slavonic peoples, although the Dutch greatly predominated. Says Mr. Innes in his preface: "About the only type which the author has been unable to meet with in his researches is the dunder-headed Dutchman of fictitious history and of historical fiction,-the embodiment of the popular idea of the Dutch phlegmatic temperament; a marvelous compound of Captain Bunsby and the Fat Boy in Pickwick." So thoroughgoing an investigation as Mr. Innes has conducted could hardly fail to dispel many traditions that have little more than antiquity to sustain them. But in partial compensation for the loss of some of these entertaining bits of folk lore, the reader is supplied with a great fund of accurate and well-digested information covering all the operations of the Dutch settlers on Manhattan Island, and much of the work of their immediate successors. The illustrations consist largely of old maps, plans, reproductions of ancient plates, and a few views of modern New York streets by way of contrast.

The fourth volume of Gen. Edward McCrady's "History of South Carolina" (Macmillan) completes the history of the Revolution in that State from 1780 to the conclusion of peace in 1783. Few persons, perhaps, are aware of the importance of South Carolina as the battlefield which decided the destinies of all the thirteen colonies during the last three years of the Revolution. No fewer than one hundred and thirty-seven battles were fought within the boundaries of the State during that time, and it was the author's purpose in the present volume to study the operations in South Carolina as part of the general British campaign, planned and directed by the War Office in London, and to discuss the effect of the defeat of that plan upon the fortunes of the whole country. As his work was written from the South Carolina point of view, the achievements of the partisan leaders,-Sumpter, Marion, Pickens, and their followers,-naturally have a large place in the story, while the volume, as a whole, may be said to contain the history of General Greene's campaign in the South.

In the second volume of Prof. J. P. Gordy's "Political History of the United States," now appearing in a new edition (New York: Henry Holt & Co.), which covers the period beginning with Madison's administration and ends with the election of Jackson, the author an

nounces two conclusions which he deems especially important: "That unwise financial legislation was primarily responsible for the dangerous position of the country at the close of the War of 1812, and that the public opinion of the North with reference to the negro prior to 1830 differed but little from that of the South, the greater readiness to free him in the former section having been due to the fact that if freed he would live at the South." In order to give the facts that led to these conclusions their proper setting, Professor Gordy has recast the entire volume, thus making virtually a new book.

A little book that should interest all Americans, and especially all Americans of Puritan ancestry, is "Milton's England," by Mrs. Edwin D. Mead (Boston: L. C. Page & Co.). Mrs. Mead begins with a graphic description of the London into which Milton was born. This is followed by several chapters of a biographical nature in which descriptions of localities have an important part, and these, in turn, by detailed accounts of various well-known haunts of English Puritans. Mrs. Mead has made a substantial contribution to our knowledge of the English environment of the Puritan forefathers.

In connection with the article on "The South and Her History," by David Y. Thomas, published in the October number of the REVIEW OF REVIEWS, it is interesting to note that Volumes IV. and V. of the "Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society" (University, Mississippi: Franklin L. Riley, secretary and treasurer) have recently appeared. These volumes include contributions to military, political, religious, and literary history. Many of the monographs contain much genealogical and biographical material, supplemented by entertaining reminiscences of pioneer life and stories of early events in the history of the State. There is a special chapter on political and parliamentary orators and oratory in Mississippi. Volume V. is a valuable report of the Historical Commission to the governor of the State, representing in part the results of the first systematic efforts that have ever been made to take an inventory of the historical materials relating to Mississippi.

In the "Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science" (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press) is presented Mr. George L. P. Radcliffe's monograph on "Gov. Thomas H. Hicks of Maryland and the Civil War." The importance of Maryland in the political struggle immediately preceding the Civil War was due, to a great extent, to her geographical position. It caused the course of events in that State to be anxiously watched, gave great prominence to the governor of the State, and drew unusual attention to his struggle with the so-called " Rebel Legislature." Mr. Radcliffe has based his accounts on contemporary newspapers, private correspondence, and State publications.

In the same series Prof. William E. Martin contributes a paper on "Internal Improvements in Alabama.” The author traces the development of the public highways of Alabama, and points out their influence upon immigration and settlement. He indicates briefly what has been done by the Federal Government in improving rivers and harbors and in aiding the construction of railroads, and discusses the policy of the State respecting public aid to such works.

her Johns Hopkins contribution to history is Mr. er Harry's paper on "The Maryland Con51." This monograph deals with an agita

tion in Maryland which resulted in the call of a constitutional convention known as the "Reform Convention of 1850." Mr. Harry traces the growth of the idea of constitutional experiment, giving the history of the Convention of 1850 and analyzing the constitution which it gave to the people of the State for their ratification or rejection.

BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS.

It is not likely that the character and career of Daniel Webster will ever cease to be intensely interesting to American youth. From time to time short biographies of Webster appear, few of which pretend to be more than convenient summaries of authoritative works which were written within a few years after his death. A brilliant exception to this rule is the illustrated life of Daniel Webster, by John Bach McMaster (Century Company), portions of which have been published during the past three years in the pages of the Century Magazine. In its completed form this life of Webster has many points of excellence which we think will cause it to be preferred to most, if not all, of the popular "lives" that have preceded it. Professor McMaster's long-continued researches in the sources of American political and social history have qualified him in a marked degree for the successful performance of such a task as the portrayal of a central political figure like Webster, whose political career was related so closely to the slavery agitation culminating in the middle of the last century. The reader will find, however, that while special attention has been given to Webster's political career, the personal side of his life has by no means been neglected. In fact, the whole treatment of Webster's personality is singularly well adapted to the wants of the youthful American approaching the subject for the first time. The illustrations,-partly drawings, partly reproductions of old paintings, are extremely interesting.

Although many lives of Daniel Boone have been published, there is only one library in the United States which contains the materials for an exhaustive biography of the famous Kentucky pioneer. The late Dr. Lyman C. Draper, of Wisconsin, spent a whole life-time in gathering materials for such a work, but he died before his manuscript had advanced beyond a few chapters. All his materials are now in the possession of the Wisconsin State Historical Society, and from them the secretary of that society, Mr. Reuben Gold Thwaites, has written a life of Boone for Appleton's "Life Histories." Mr. Thwaites is not disposed to claim for Boone all that his many admirers have attributed to him in years past. He does not even hail Boone as the founder of Kentucky; does not regard Boone's services in defense of the West during nearly a half-century of border warfare as comparable to those of George Rogers Clark or Benjamin Logan. As a commonwealth builder, Boone was surpassed by several. "Nevertheless, Boone's picturesque career possesses a romantic and even pathetic interest that can never fail to charm the student of history. He was great as a hunter, explorer, surveyor, and land pilot; probably he found few equals as a rifleman; no man on the border knew Indians more thoroughly, or fought them more skillfully, than he; his life was filled to the brim with perilous adventures.”

The late John G. Nicolay's "Short Life of Abraham Lincoln" (Century Company) is an admirable one-volume condensation of the elaborate Abraham Lincoln : A History" of Messrs. Nicolay and Hay. It is fortunate that Mr. Nicolay was able to complete his editorial

work on this volume shortly before his death. He seems to have included in it all the essential facts of Lincoln's life, and in the strictest sense of the word the book is an abridgment of the ten-volume history.

"Thoreau, His Home, Friends, and Books," by Annie Russell Marble (Crowell), while not strictly a new biography of the naturalist and recluse, still presents a striking picture of Thoreau's personality considered in relation to his environment. The book is in the fullest sense a character sketch, rather than a formal life history.

Two of the recent volumes in the "English Men of Letters" series (Macmillan) are "John Ruskin," by Frederic Harrison, and "Tennyson," by Sir Alfred Lyall. In his introductory estimate of Ruskin as a man of letters, Mr. Harrison makes the striking assertion, which probably cannot be successfully controverted, that "The writer of the Victorian era who poured forth the greatest mass of literature upon the greatest variety of subjects, about whom most was written in his own lifetime in Europe and in America, who in the English-speaking world left the most direct and most visible imprint of his tastes and thoughts,-was John Ruskin." Both the Ruskin and Tennyson volumes in this excellent series meet the demand for brief, reliable, and well-written sketches of two of the great English writers of the last half-century.

The first English woman to have a place in this "English Men of Letters" series is "George Eliot," whose life has been written by Leslie Stephen in a compact sketch of 200 pages. Two other recent volumes in the same series are "William Hazlitt," by Augustine Birrell, and "Matthew Arnold," by Herbert W. Paul.

In a new book on "Sir Joshua Reynolds, His Life and Art," by Lord Ronald Sutherland Gower, F.S.A. (Macmillan), will be found not only an authoritative sketch of the artist's career, but a rather remarkable series of half-tone reproductions from his most famous works. As these illustrations are in many instances made from photographs taken of Reynolds' pictures in private galleries throughout England, their collection in this volume is a matter to be noted by all admirers and students of Reynolds' masterpieces.

Jean François Millet was an artist in whom the American public has always felt a peculiar interest because of the great number of his paintings that have found their way to this side of the Atlantic. This may partly account for the fact that much of the best writing about Millet and his work has appeared in American publications. The latest life of the painter (Macmillan) is the work of an Englishwoman, Julia Cartwright (Mrs. Henry Ady). This writer has made thorough researches which have resulted in the accumulation of letters and recollections that have come from English and American pens since the death of the artist, and in many respects she has been able to make a more complete and well-rounded picture of the man than has before been presented in English. Several excellent photogravure reproductions from Millet's most famous paintings accompany the text.

"With Napoleon at St. Helena" is the title of a volume of memoirs of Dr. John Stokoe, naval surgeon (New York: John Lane). The purpose in publishing these memoirs seems to have been to controvert the arguments made by English writers in support of the conduct of Sir Hudson Lowe, the commandant of St. Helena, who was accused by Napoleon's friends of gross acts of cruelty. The statements made by this naval

surgeon, who was on the island from June, 1817, to September, 1819, are certainly derogatory to the reputation of the commandant.

"Samuel and His Age: A Study in the Constitutional History of Israel," by George C. M. Douglas (New York: E. & J. B. Young & Co.), represents the work of the school of higher criticism, so called, in England and America, and is a valuable study in the history and sociology of the Jewish people.

The first biography of Emperor Charles V. since the work of Robertson a century and a quarter ago is a twovolume life by Edward Armstrong (Macmillan). This biography is necessarily very largely a history of the times, and the author has not adhered in all cases to the methods of strictly chronological treatment, preferring to treat the main events of Charles the Fifth's life in the order of their occurrence, but to relegate to separate chapters the discussion of particular phases of policy or action.

A paper in the "Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science" entitled "The Political Activities of Philip Freneau," by Samuel E. Forman (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press), is an attempt to outline the career of Freneau as a politician and publicist. The writer has approached his task in a spirit of fairness, and believes that the facts of Freneau's life, -far from justifying the contemptuous epithets that historians have usually bestowed on him,-should really inspire the gratitude of posterity.

In a volume entitled "Sea Fighters from Drake to Farragut" (Scribners) Jessie Peabody Frothingham sketches the careers of Sir Francis Drake, Admiral Tromp, Admiral de Ruyter, Marshal de Tourville, Vice-Admiral Saint-Tropez, Vice-Admiral Paul Jones, Lord Nelson, and Admiral Farragut. Some of these names are not familiar, perhaps, to American youth, but two of the eight, it will be noted, can be claimed by America, and the English sea fighters Drake and Nelson are almost as well known in this country as 'Paul Jones and Farragut. There is enough of adventure in the lives of these worthies to make up a thick volume of thrilling sea tales.

In "Naval Heroes of Holland" (Abbey Press), Mr. J. A. Mets traces the careers of Van Heemskerk, Hein, Tromp, and De Ruyter.

BOOKS OF TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION.

The results of Mr. Henry Norman's observations in European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia are included in a substantial volume en titled "All the Russias" (Scribners). During the last few years Mr. Norman has made no less than four journeys in European and Asiatic Russia, one of which was of nearly 20,000 miles. He has lived in St. Petersburg for some time, made visits to other principal cities, and traveled in Siberia as far as Vladivostok and Lake Baikal, and in Central Asia as far as the frontier of Kashgar. The present volume is a rapid journalistic review of the most interesting aspects of contemporary Russia, with especial reference to industrial and commercial development and the possibility of closer commercial and political relations between Russia and Great Britain. The book may be said to have originated in the series of articles recently published in Scribner's Magazine, but the completed volume represents a great expansion of scope. Mr. Norman has included an important chapter on "M. de Witte and His Policy," another on "Russian Finance, Commerce, and

Industry," and a full discussion of Russia's international relations. All in all, Mr. Norman's book is the fullest presentation of the subject thus far attempted in English.

One of the editors of the London Spectator, Mr. Meredith Townsend, has written a volume entitled "Asia and Europe" (Putnams), presenting the conclusions formed in a long life devoted to a study of the subject. The author's purpose is to describe the inherent differences between Europe and Asia which, in his opinion, forbid a permanent conquest of either continent by the other. It is interesting to note that this author, while he has nothing to say of the possible influence of America upon Asia, makes the prediction in his preface that "When once the Nicaragua Canal has been cut the trade of the United States with farther Asia will be one of the greatest the world has ever seen, and Asia will fill a large space in American imaginations, always influenced by the spectacle of the gigantic."

Another recent book dealing with the same general topic is Bishop Henry C. Potter's little volume on "The East of To-day and To-morrow" (Century Company). Just after the close of serious hostilities in the Philippines and the quelling of the Boxer insurrection in China, Bishop Potter made a visit to Japan, China, India, the Hawaiian Islands, and the Philippines. In this book, which records the impressions produced by that journey, Bishop Potter writes of the present conditions and future prospects of the people in all of these countries, dealing especially with religion, tradition, class prejudice, method of living, politics, and general development. In his chapter on "The Problem of the Philippines," Bishop Potter affirms his belief, in regard to our army and civil servants in the Philippines, that the standards of conduct at Manila have been quite as high as at Washington or at Boston.

Every returned traveler from China brings new tales of that mysterious, half-explored land. The latest book of this sort is "Through Hidden Shensi," by Francis H. Nichols (Scribners). This volume is packed with information about a country and a people that have never forced themselves on the attention of the so-called "civilized" nations, and yet are well worthy of our study. Mr. Nichols devotes much space to the city of Sian, where, it will be remembered, the Emperor and Empress Dowager of China set up their temporary capital during the Boxer troubles of 1900.

An intimate study of many details of Chinese life not commonly described in travel-books is to be found in Mr. Edward S. Morse's "Glimpses of China and Chinese Homes" (Boston: Little, Brown & Co.). The interiors of Chinese houses; the streets of Chinese villages, and what is to be seen in them; Chinese theaters and Buddhist temples; a potters' town; a soldiers' drill-room, and many other institutions of the country, are sketched with minute fidelity.

Mr. Wilfrid Sparroy, an English tutor at the court of the eldest brother of the reigning Shah of Persia, has written an interesting narrative of his life there, under the title of "Persian Children of the Royal Family" (New York: John Lane). The characteristics of the popular prince in whose family Mr. Sparroy served are clearly brought out in this book, and the descriptions of Persian customs and court life are entertaining. The book is supplied with more than forty full-page illustrations, all reproductions from photographs.

Seized with the desire to observe for himself how men lived and thought forty centuries ago, Mr. Herbert

Vivian, the English traveler, recently made a journey to the center of Menelik's kingdom of Ethiopia, and an account of what he found there is contained in a volume entitled "Abyssinia: Through the LionLand to the Court of the Lion of Judah" (Longmans, Green & Co.). Mr. Vivian disclaims any unusual hardships or dangers on this expedition, offering to show that "anybody who possesses average health and strength-a lady almost as easily as a man-can go through the big-game country and visit strange African peoples without much greater danger or discomfort than would be involved in cycling from London to Brighton."

'Wayfarers in Italy," by Katharine Hooker (Scribners), states the impressions formed on a recent journey from the plains of Lombardy, through Milan, Florence, Rome, and Abruzzi, across the Apennines, and up the shore of the Adriatic to Venice. This traveler has sought to put herself in touch with the people of the regions visited by getting off the beaten tracks and seeking the unfrequented villages and country districts on either side of the course. The book is illustrated from photographs.

A great fund of information about the Scottish Border is to be found in Mr. W. S. Crockett's volume on "The Scott Country " (Macmillan). The reason for the title is to be found in the fact that, although Edinburgh was Scott's birthplace, and his home for the greater part of his professional career, the Borderland was the region with which his life was most closely associated, and which he has himself done so much in his works to make known to the world at large. The region covered by the present volume is the triangle included in lines drawn from Berwick-on-Tweed to the Solway, thence northward to Tweedsmuir and Broughton, in Peeblesshire, and again to the east back to the ancient seaport borough. The traditions and memories of this fascinating region, and especially its associations with the life and works of Scott himself form the subjectmatter of Mr. Crockett's book. The pictures are numerous and interesting. Here we find "Old Mortality" himself, and others of Scott's favorite characters.

"London, as Seen and Described by Famous Writers," edited and translated by Esther Singleton (Dodd, Mead & Co.), is a compilation of views and impressions of the British metropolis as recorded in various works by travelers, and famous native and foreign writers. In her selection of these materials the editor has restricted herself almost entirely to descriptions of the nineteenth century London. The picturesque features of the city, and those that appeal especially to the artist, have been given much prominence. From this point of view even the London fog has its apologists and eulogists.

A wonderfully compact, useful, and well-written handbook is "France" by Pierre Foncin, edited and translated by H. H. Kane (New York: International Publishing Company). This book was written especially for foreigners, and follows the programme of the Alliance Française, an association which devotes itself to encouraging the thorough study of the French language and literature, and to spreading abroad accurate and impartial knowledge of France and her people. Probably nowhere else can be found so good a description of the land and the people presented in so few pages.

Bishop Goodsell of the Methodist Episcopal Church has written some pleasing sketches of nature, supplemented by studies of human character, which he has brought together under the title, "Nature and Charac