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ing. The special gift conferred on the Russian cows, as noticed by Mr. Hare, at page 293, is very remarkable, and it may be on this account that they are so safe from the extraordinary depredations of Russian thieves. 'Moscow cows,' he says, 'will often walk six miles to their pasture... Those dwellers in the towns who keep cows will open their gates in the early morning to let them out. Each cow knows her way to a certain barrier of the city, where other cows join her. At the barrier a man is blowing a horn, and waiting to conduct them to a pasture outside the town, and take care of them through the day. In the evening he brings them back again as far as the barrier, and thence each cow takes care of herself and finds her own way home.' We have quoted this for the purpose of remarking that, far as Scotland is from Russia, in Peebles and several other Scottish towns precisely the same sight might, until recently, have been seen-suggesting several thoughts about the origin and wide area of early communal institutions. This volume may not be so popular as Mr. Hare's 'Walks in Rome,' and 'Cities of Italy,' but it deserves success almost as much as they did, for it exhibits much the same qualities, and is fitted to fulfil exactly the same functions for travellers. We should not omit to mention the many beautiful wood-cuts done by Mr. T. Sulman from Mr. Hare's water-colour sketches, and to add that they are as beautifully printed as they deserve to be.

Work and Adventure in New Guinea. 1877-1885. By JAMES CHALMERS, of Port Moresby, and W. WYATT GILL, B.A., Author of 'Life in the Southern Seas.' With two Maps, and many Illustrations from Original Sketches and Photographs. The Religious Tract Society.

Recent political events have called special attention to New Guinea; but the writer of the introduction to the present volume is right in regretting that so little interest has hitherto been felt in the enterprise shown by the missionaries on that island, and the great work that has been done by them, in spite of opposition and difficulty and danger. Mr. Chalmers, who has led the way in exploration along with the well-known missionary Mr. S. McFarlane, gives in the first portion an account of his experiences, in which he conveys a vast amount of information about the natives, their habits and customs and superstitions, as well as their diversities of race and their ethnological affinities. There can be little doubt that in ages not so very remote New Guinea— which is the largest island in the world-was connected with the continent of Australia, and this accounts for not a little in the nature of the people and much besides. 'Torres Strait itself is only about sixty miles wide; the water is shallow, shoals and reefs abound, giving the sailor who threads the intricate and dangerous navigation the impression that he is sailing over what was once solid earth.' Mr. Wyatt Gill-who first planted missionaries on the island, and who writes well-follows up, and has contributed exactly what we should expect from the pen of a veteran missionary and adventurer' in

the islands of the Pacific. He supplements Mr. Chalmers well; but inevitably, owing to the manner in which the volume has been prepared, there is some repetition. Something more of systematic classification of topics, too, would have been an advantage. Mr. Gill's report of the Papuans, in regard to intelligence and inventiveness, is encouraging. With all its defects the work, from the pen of men who have made themselves familiar with the subject from every point of view, and by direct practical experience, is well fitted to achieve the end for which it has been published, to awaken a deeper and wider interest in this most remarkable island and its people. Though it cannot be said that much impression has been made even at the points to which the greatest effort has been directed, yet it is much, as Mr. Wyatt Gill tells us, that 'vile heathen customs '-some of them very_terrible—have been curtailed.' Out of a population of eight hundred and fifty at Port Moresby, only fifty-three were Christians at the date of Mr. Gill's writing. Let us hope that the seed sown after due time may spring up abundantly. The maps and illustrations are very good, and add much to the attraction and usefulness of the book.

India: its Condition, Religion, and Missions. By the Rev. JAMES BRADBURY, Thirty-four Years Missionary in India. John Snow and Co.

Mr. Bradbury has not sought to write a narrative of his individual labours and experiences in India, though incidentally, of course, he tells us a good deal of them. His work has been more difficult, as it is likely to be more useful. He aims at presenting, in a short, simple, and succinct manner, a study of the social, moral, political, and religious condition of the people of India, and, as is necessary, he has presented a kind of bird'seye view of India in the past. He has observed closely and compared ; and we may rely so far on the results that he sets before us. When we think of the great reforms that have taken place—the abolition of suttee, of thuggee, of infanticide, and of human sacrifice among the Khonds of Orissa-the benefit of British rule in this aspect would be justified; but when we think of the blessings that have followed in the train of British law as regards justice, stability, and security of possession, there can be no doubt of the vast steps that have been made. Mr. Bradbury, in his chapter on education, has collected a great body of facts and statistics; and there can be no doubt of the social changes and improvements which which would have been impossible save for the perseverance and devotion shown in the mission schools. Even as regards the seclusion of women, the customs are now rapidly relaxing, and thus an evil borrowed from Mohammedanism, or confirmed or made necessary by it, promises to give way. Mr. Bradbury's chapter on the ' Indian Origin of the Gypsies' is very interesting, and comes timely at the present when so many are making inquiries on that subject. The book is readable, reliable, and is packed with information presented in a clear and efficient manner.

Vid Cornwall to Egypt. By C. F. GORDON CUMMING. Chatto and Windus.

Miss Gordon Cumming's pleasant style of writing is so well known, as also her power of transporting her readers in imagination to far-off places and setting scenes and events most vividly before them, that a book of hers is almost certain to find favour. Even when dealing with a country so familiar to us as Egypt, she contrives to tell us something new; while on the subject of Cornwall, which is to many almost a terra incognita, she is both eloquent and amusing-though we do hear a little too much about shipwrecks and escapes therefrom. Of course the writer has many good stories to tell, picked up at various parts of her journey; and of course, too, she moralizes now and then, and gives us a few bits of scientific and historical information which are to be found elsewhere; but though there is some book-making in Miss Cumming's latest volume, it may serve agreeably enough to while away the passing hour, though the reader may not happen to be in accord with it on every point.

The Rescue of Greely. By Commander W. S. SCHLEY, U.S.N., and Professor J. R. SOLEY, U.S.N. Sampson Low,

Marston, Searle, and Rivington.

The story of the gallant Greely Relief Expedition of last year is a most thrilling one to read. Although we knew eleven months ago, from the papers, in what manner and in what place the seven survivors of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition were rescued from the jaws of death, when a delay of even forty-eight hours in reaching them would have been fatal to each and all, we follow with intense interest every step in the transaction as told by the principal actors in it, from the choice and fitting out of the 'Thetis,' the Alert,' and the 'Bear,' until their safe return to New York with the bodies of the brave men who had fallen in the discharge of duty, having left the fortunate survivors at Portsmouth, N.H., in the care of their relatives and friends. The volume opens with a description of the gateway of the polar sea and of the circumpolar stations, where scientific observations were carried on between the autumn of 1882 and that of 1883, one of them being that assigned to] Greely at Lady Franklin Bay. The United States expeditions were a whole year in advance of those of the other countries. Greely was at his post in August, 1881, and vessels were to be sent out to his assistance in each of the two following years. The sad failures in the cases both of the Neptune' and the 'Proteus' are succinctly related by Commander Schley without any criticism of those who took part in them; and then comes the question, 'What was to be done for Greely?' This time it was decided that the attempts to reach him should be carried out by naval officers, the command of the expedition was given to Schley, and on him devolved the whole responsibility. As he puts its, 'There was to be no possibility of saying, "We were unable to do so and so because the Bureaus forgot this or that detail of equipment; " it was one man's business

to call for everything that was needed, and to make sure that he got it.' The men were selected and examined with the greatest care, and the crews cut down to the lowest limit; the charge of the provisions and clothing and the regulation of the dietary was made part of the surgeon's duty, and everything possible was done to secure the health and comfort of the party; indeed all the preparations, from the strengthening of the ship to the providing of comparatively trifling requirements, seem to have been carried out in the most thorough manner, and as great unanimity and ardour prevailed among the officers it would have been strange had they not been rewarded by success. The narrative is given with great simplicity; there are several illustrations from photographs taken during the voyage, and three excellent maps by means of which the reader can follow the expedition from point to point.

MISCELLANEOUS.

He

Consecrated Culture. Memorials of Benjamin Alfred Gregory, M.A. By BENJAMIN GREGORY, D.D. (T. Woolmer and Co.) Dr. Gregory has written with great delicacy and tenderness these memorials of a son of great promise and piety. Of unusual quickness of apprehension, he was an assiduous student, and from his earliest school-days distanced all his competitors. At Oxford he so distinguished himself that a university career of success and honour was assured to him. He was faithful to Methodism, and preferred to brilliant prospects in other fields the Methodist ministry. died at the early age of twenty-six. His powers and tastes were diversified and highly cultured, his humour was considerable, and his enjoyment of light literature as well as his own letters show a bright and wholesome religious temperament. The promise of such a son must have been to the father an unspeakable enhancement of his loss. According to our poor human judgment, it was a loss of no ordinary kind to the entire Church of Christ. But such an example of faithful piety and consecration is not unfruitful.- One and a Half in Norway. A Chronicle of Small Beer. By EITHER and BOTH. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co.) The title of this book is derived from the practice of charging in Norwegian travel a man and his wife or daughter as only one and a half. The writers-for both contributed to the record-do not add much to the information given by multitudinous books on Norway as a country for recreative travel. The charm of the book, however, consists in its bright optimism and general appreciation of men and things. Travel in Norway is pleasant, not because of the grandeur of mountain and fiord, and of the pure vigorous atmosphere only, but because of the high type of honest manly character in the Norwegians. It so happens that the writer has been over the ground described in this little sketch, and can bear witness to the general accuracy of its descriptions and feeling. It is an amusing brochure, and no one will regret it if he is induced by it to Try Norway.'

POLITICS, SCIENCE, AND ART.

Justice and Police. By F. W. MAITLAND. English Citizen Series.' Macmillan and Co.

It required no slight power of condensation and literary craftsmanship to pack into 172 pp. of print a complete account of our system of justice and police. And this we say, notwithstanding that recent changes-on which Mr. Maitland dwells with some degree of satisfaction-have done not a little to thin down the thicket of complications and contending precedents, which did so much to excite the scorn of the late Charles Dickens, amongst others. Mr. Maitland has not allowed himself to pass into the historical portion of the subject (for this would have involved a couple of books of the size of the 'English Citizen Series ') further than is necessary for the explanation of the system as it exists at present; but he makes some very suggestive remarks about the origin of several of our legal forms. His description of the various branches of the supreme courts is clear and simple, and what he has to say of the county courts, their constitution and practice, will be found by no means the least serviceable portion of the volume for the general reader. His chapter on the magistrates and their functions is all that could be desired; while those more especially devoted to the police and the methods adopted for the detection of crime, are evidently the result of careful inquiry and observation, as well as of legal knowledge. His section on the distinction between justices and paid magistrates presents a notable instance of his masterly clearness of statement, and no less does his exhibition of the distinction between misdemeanors and felonies. No more carefully written or serviceable handbook has been recently given to English readers on a subject at once practical and of primary importance.

Imperial Federation. By the Right Hon. the MARQUIS OF LORNE, P.C.K.T., G.C.M.G., late Governor-General of Canada. Swan Sonnenschein and Co.

!

This is the first of a series of practical political treatises which are to be published under the editorship of Mr. Sidney Buxton, M.P., and the motto selected for the series is the following sentence from Mr. Bagehot: 'In every free country it is of the utmost importance that all opinions extensively entertained, all sentiments widely diffused, should be publicly stated before the nation.' Sir John Lubbock and Mr. Ashton Dilke, Mr. W. S. Caine and Mr. Wm. Rathbone, Mr. Henry Richard and Mr. Henry Broadhurst, The Right Hon. W. E. Baxter and Mr. James Bryce, amongst others, are advertised to write on great questions of the time; and the use and power of such a series can hardly be overestimated. The editor has begun well. Lord Lorne has presented with great compression and skill the case as regards Imperial Federation, and has done not a little to make quite clear the attitudes of the various colonies towards the

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