tragedies, and perhaps intentionally and rightly so; for A Village Tragedy is surely meant to alarm and pain us throughout, and the relief must be administered with a cautious and sparing hand.

Beyond these occasional glimpses of what is quaint and comical in rustic life, there is indeed hardly any relief from the hard pitilessness of the story. The victims are encircled with men and women of hard and pitiless natures, natures not savagely cruel, but all out of tune and irresponsive to a call for love or mercy. Once, and once only, a ray of light and comfort shines out on them. One of those "kindhearted energetic women, who are as common as daisies in our English land," takes pity on them, and with help and guidance of "Nurse Mary" they might have been saved. But even "Nurse Mary's" hopeful influence must be withdrawn; she goes out to India, to minister to the suffering and ignorant thousands of miles away, when victims at least as innocent are to be offered up on the altar of Ignorance among the very meadows and orchards which she has left illumined by English sunshine and decked with English blossoms. Then "there was nothing to be seen but a black hopeless wall of misery." Jesse, the one victim, was already dead, killed by a cruel accident on the very eve of the wedding which was to save the pair from infamy if not from suffering; and then there was nothing for Annie but the workhouse and lifelong misery and disgrace, both for herself and her child, so far as she could see: "She peered forward into life and saw nothing but abysmal darkness." The only alternative, as it has been with so many, was self-destruction; she feels exhilaration at the very thought of it, so utterly horrible was the other choice. "It's all right, Jesse," she said, "we need none of us go to the Union. There'll be money enough to bury us if they sell the things, and we'll all lie snug in the churchyard." It is surely overdoing the horrors of a story, which in any case would have been painful enough, to make this poor gentle large-eyed creature, with all her need of love and her sense of right, after one failure to destroy herself, die on the very verge of a second effort, frightened by the moppings and mowings of a loathsome idiot-boy-a young Caliban who haunts the story like an evil genius.

Not for a moment would we deny the powerful painting, the artistic perception, or even the just and necessary lessons to be found in this story. It tells us with extraordinary force what may happen, as the result of rustic ignorance, poverty, helplessness, if no kind soul, who can and will help, is brought in the way of misery in time to save. It should make us as quickly alive to the fates of the men and women about us as we walk through life, as the naturalist is alive to the sights and sounds around him as he walks through the fields. But we think there is one real blot in the tale, a flaw which affects it both in its moral and in its artistic aspects. Will there be, for the greater number of its readers, any advantage in having brought home to them the bare possibility of a set of circumstances so cruel, driving an innocent creature to destruction, and no rescue even indicated, no rest for the soul except in death? Would not the object have been equally well achieved, even if some quiet had been found possible for the spirit if not for the body? There is none: nothing but utter darkness and misery. Physical death we may expect in a tragic tale; and with the poor, as the authoress has so well noted and so skilfully brought out, death is a thing to be thought of without terror, an everyday neighbour, and often even a friend. But the death of all light and hope this is what makes the story so intolerably sad and painful. Does it "free, arouse, dilate," like even the most terrible of all tragedies, Lear? Does it help us to pass from a hard and ordinary state into one where "good thoughts stand before us like free children of God, and cry, 'We are come"?" Surely this highly-gifted writer can give

us some day something that shall be equally skilful and as truly aimed, yet more inspiring and ennobling in its vision of human nature.

LATE NEWS.

CONGREGATION.

A "NATIONAL CALAMITY" (we quote the Professor of Latin) has occurred, and men of every rank will tear open their papers to-morrow morning to see that Consols have fallen. So great a panic has not happened since the Russian scare. In other words, the Modern Language School has not been passed. The votes were exactly equal. In a densely crowded House the Warden of All Souls rose to deliver a cool and closely reasoned speech. English Literature the New School could not, and colloquial French it should not, teach. It would cause great expense, embarrass the Colleges, and prejudice the cause of General Education. Professor Freeman leapt to his feet and poured forth ẽñea vpádeσσw okóтa in a perfect storm of declamatory eloquence. He was not enthusiastic, as someone had said; he did not care for Mr. Goschen, or for University Extension, or for Honour Schools. Why were not things as they were in his day? Let forty men rise in their place and say that things should be again as they once were. But there were not forty found. He invoked the shade of Bopp, quoted some phrases which were understood to be of Letto-Slavish origin, and concluded with a pathetic appeal to the Warden of All Souls.

The Professor of Latin next took the floor. He had never heard of the "commercial young man." The expense argument was a mere detail, and the Colleges might go and be hanged. He ought to know all about "Classics in danger," but yet he first thought of making the New School, and its rejection would be a NATIONAL CALAMITY.

Professor Max Müller had not much to say. We could take lessons even from a Frenchman, soyons raisonnable, and oughtn't to let Cambridge go so far ahead.

The division was then taken. The numbers were-for, 92; against, 92; and Professor Thorold Rogers was heard to say that every change in the last forty years had been a change for the worst.

T. CASE versus THE CASE.

SIR, On my breakfast-table this morning I saw a pamphlet which, in the darkness of the early hour at which I am accustomed to rise, seemed to be headed "Case for the Modern Languages Statutes." Was there then treachery in the camp? My worst suspicions were nearly confirmed when, on looking closer into it, I thought I saw "T. Case for the Modern Language Statute." Rushing with it to the light, I discovered that the title was "The Case for the Modern Languages Statute." What right have the organisers of this pamphlet to use so honoured a name in so light a manner? I shall not be satisfied till they prove that they used it merely as an innocent metaphor, like "The Cato for our cause" or the "Brutus of English freedom," etc. Yours truly,

qualities to assure a successful translation, it must be owned that the "Three Blind Mice" ought to command the same success in other tongues that it has gained in English. For the mice were restless, the farmer's wife revengeful, and the whole episode certainly tragic in tone. And yet, we repeat, we doubt greatly whether it would meet with success in Spanish or Italian. Exactly the same doubt crosses our mind as we turn over the pages of Miss Strettell's book. These folk-songs may sound very well in their own language accompanied by the guitar, but they are not worth translating into English. Take for instance the two following verses, each printed on a separate page by itself:

The wrong thou didst me thou canst never pay;
Not wert thou hanged and quartered, and thy limbs
Impaled beside the way.

These verses are tragic in tone certainly, and the second is also despairing, but they are not poetry. Among the Italian love-songs are some which are both graceful and quaint in fancy, and to those who know Browning's Fra Lippo Lippi, the Stornelli are also interesting. The artists who supply the pictures have evidently given much time to the study of arms, and wisely draw what they feel they can draw well. Perhaps their future pictures would be more intelligible if they would turn their attention to the other parts of the human frame and give us bodies and heads in addition.

CASSELL'S LATIN DICTIONARY1.

THERE are not at present too many Latin Dictionaries adapted to the use of beginners in that language, and the new edition which Messrs. Cassells have lately published will probably have a large sale, particularly as the low price of the book brings it within the reach of all. The editor, who has revised the whole and re-written much of the more important matter, has done his work with care and judgment; and the result is a volume which ought to prove especially useful for the lower and middle forms of our public schools. Those few schoolboys who avail themselves of a dictionary will find here every word which they are likely to meet with in the course of their reading, and many more besides: even the lover of anaέ λeyóμeva will not be wholly disappointed. The green and red binding is certainly conspicuous, but we doubt whether any more complimentary epithet could be applied to it.

1 Cassell's Latin-English Dictionary. Edited by J. R. V. Marchant. (London: Cassell & Co. 1886.)

MINOR NOTICES.

Johns Hopkins University Circulars. Vol. vi. Nos. 55 and 57. (Baltimore. 1887.)

Local Government in Canada. By J. G. Bourinot, LL.D. (Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science. Fifth Series, Nos. V, VI). (Baltimore. 1887.)

Hopkins University gives its products a far better chance of discussion and, if they deserve it, of permanence; while the best work is unlike anything done in Oxford of which the outer world can take cognisance. We note an interesting paper by Professor Gildersleeve on the Symposium of Plato, some curious researches in experimental psychology, and an exhaustive treatment of Canadian local government, which may be encouraging to English reformers.

Mr. Macleod's address aims at reconstituting Political Economy on the basis of an extended definition of wealth, and supports the theory that "credit is capital," in a way that ought to make Professor Fawcett turn in his grave. The differentia of wealth being exchangeability, and exchangeability being dependent on utility (in the economic sense, are all wealth per se, and we need go no further. Political Economy is capacity for satisfying desire), a claim, a bank-note, or a bill of exchange

the science of the laws of exchange, and may be an exact science. This seems to be Mr. Macleod's meaning. Most students we think will object to this summary refusal to go behind representative or mediate wealth (if we may so call it), while quite admitting that the metaphysic of Political Economy is at present chaos.

Sir F. Abel's address connects the Imperial Institute with commercial and technical education in a way which, if verified by events, will more than justify its existence. Jus attacks the police in a manner for which subsequent events afford some justification. The Platonist is esoteric throughout: Mr. Robert Brown, jun. (of the Great Dionysiate Myth), on the Etruscan numerals is more particularly so. Mr. Sinnett is violently attacked as a gross materialist, and the Countess of Caithness highly commended. Evidently sectarian discussions are impending in these purer spheres. Evidently, too, the band of initiates into these mysteries is not confined to Thibet or Osceola, Mo.

Reviews of the following books are already in type, and will appear in due course:—

COLBECK, C. French Readings from Roman History. (Macmillan.) ELLIS, HAVELOCK. Select Plays of Marlowe. Mermaid Series. (London: Vizetelly.)

ELLIS, ROBINSON. The Fables of Avianus. With Prolegomena,
Critical Apparatus, Commentary, &c., &c. (Clarendon Press.)
FIELDEN, H. ST. CLAIR. A Short Constitutional History of England.
(Clarendon Press.)
FISCHER, KUNO. A History of Modern Philosophy. Translated by
J. D. Gordy, Ph.D. (T. Fisher Unwin.)
FOWLER, THOMAS, D.D. The Principles of Morals. Part II. (Claren-
GILKES, A. H. Boys and Masters. (Longmans.)
LINDSAY, W. M., M.A. T. Macci Plauti Captivi. (Clarendon Press.)
MORLEY, JOHN. On the Study of Literature. (Macmillans.)
OGER VICTOR. Dumas' Les Demoiselles de St. Cyr. (Macmillan.)
OLIPHANT, T. L. KINGTON. The New English. (Macmillan.)
PEARSON, C. H. and STRONG, H. Juvenal, with Introductions and
Notes. (Clarendon Press.)

don Press.)

vol. xx.

PELHAM, H. F. History of Ancient Rome. Encyclopaedia Britannica,
ROGERS, J. E. THOROLD.
PELLISSIER, E. Racine's Britannicus. (Macmillan.)

The First Nine Years of the Bank of
England. (Clarendon Press.)
SAINTSBURY, GEORGE. Racine's Esther and Gautier's Scenes of
Travel. (Clarendon Press.)
WICKHAM, REV. E. C. The Works of Horace. With a Commentary.
(Clarendon Press.)

Next week we hope to give a list of books and periodicals sent in for review.

By permission of the Rev. the Vice-Chancellor and the Worshipful the Mayor.

AN AMATEUR PERFORMANCE

OF

VIVANTS

IS TO TAKE PLACE IN

THE TOWN HALL, THURSDAY, NOV. 10,

FOR THE BENEFIT OF

Indian Zenana and Medical Missions,

ENTITLED

"SCENES OF NATIVE INDIAN LIFE."

Striking Tableaux, most effectively carried out,"-The Times.