years, Mr. Crawfurd has had ample opportunities for studying both the Portuguese people and their country. Partial results of his observations have already appeared in the shape of interesting contributions to some of our leading periodicals, and now the writer has woven the whole of his matter into a volume which will be found at once both entertaining and useful. New Portugal lacks those elements of grandeur and romance which were associated with it centuries ago, but there is still sufficient in it to claim and to merit the attention of travellers and of the general reader. Of course, as Mr. Crawfurd says, within the limits of one volume it would not be possible to furnish an adequate account of all that Portugal has been, and all that she now is ; nor does he essay such a formidable task. On the contrary, his book is 'so far nondescript that it is neither a book of history, nor of criticism, nor of pure description, nor an antiquarian work, nor a social nor a statistical one, nor a book of travel; but it is a medley of all these things, and yet, if I have only succeeded in carrying out my conception, it is not disjointed.' A very favourable example of the author's more solid historical style may be found in the chapter on the Great Warrior King of Portugal. It is to the deeds of Alfonso Henriquez that we owe the very existence of Portugal as a kingdom and important State in Europe. Of course all the facts connected with this monarch are to be met with elsewhere; but Mr. Crawfurd invests his story with a light and a colour which are not to be found in the records of the mere historian. Consequently his pages are very readable. Then, too, he has something to say upon the literature and the agriculture of the country; and here we may feel that we are in the hands of a safe guide, whose information on these and other subjects has been acquired at first hand. Poetry, manners, customs, country life, sport, farming, port wine-such are some of the themes dealt with, and in each case Mr. Crawfurd does not scruple to say what he thinks, even when his observations may not always be palatable to the Portuguese themselves. He also takes a very independent line upon purely ethnological questions. My sympathies,' he says, 'have not latitude enough to make me feel quite like a man and a brother towards negroes and shock-headed Papuans, and skew-eyed Chinamen. It is very narrow and uncharitable; but I hereby disown all my poor and distant relations, and I utterly disbelieve in the title of many who claim my cousinship. I am an anthropological nonconformist, and am not going to pin my faith to any new-fangled genealogical tree found for me, as heralds find coats of arms for parvenus, by the last fashionable member of a learned society.' The Portuguese, however, he regards as brethren, and one of his reasons for thus regarding them is rather peculiar, though it would probably meet with the approbation of Mr. Carlyle, viz., that there are almost as many fools in Portugal as in Great Britain.'. To say the least, this is a somewhat singular, if striking, evidence of consanguinity.

The Country of the Passion-Play: the Highlands and Highlanders of Bavaria. By L. G. SEGUIN, Author of the 'Black Forest,' &c. Strahan and Co.

Miss Seguin's book on the Country of the Passion-play was published at the right time. Of the crowds who, out of mere curiosity, make their way to Ober-Ammergau to witness the quaint and half-grotesque, yet not unimpressive spectacle periodically exhibited there, how few really care to extend their tour a little, and to see quietly something of the beautiful regions that lie close at hand. Miss Seguin has done justice to the Bavarian Highlands as she did to the Black Forest. She goes along in her cheerful and attractive way, noting whatever is most attractive, or quaint, or beautiful on the way. She has the art of the raconteur, and never fails to pick up the common saying, the song, the proverb, the popular story. But why did she omit the fine apostrophe of Goethe to Salzburg, where it would have come in so well? Her descriptions of the remote country nooks, of the simple life of the peasants in their huts on the hills, are as lovingly done as are the splendid pictures of some of the towns-notably Salzburg, Munich, and Nuremberg. One of the very best of her pictures is of Innthal and Rosenheim. She says: Here among the scattered hamlets which lie about the foot of the Wendelstein, still linger legends of goblin-haunted mountains, of wild men of the woods, of ghostly hunters, and of doomed spirit-maidens who milk the cows by night. Here, in the deep Klamms which separate rock from rock, exciting scenes of timber-floating may be witnessed by those who are lucky enough to chance upon them in flood-time, and here the sportsman and the hunter may find a grand field for their most exciting and perilous pleasures.' But these things present less attraction for the crowd than may be found in some other places. In Bortenkirchen and the Karwandel, for instance; of which she says in her Preface

'Ober-Ammergau is in itself not specially beautiful. The valley in which it stands would scarcely compare favourably with many a Derbyshire glade or Welsh vale. But it is the gate and outpost to a region which may well claim to be classed among the better-known and more appreciated beauty-spots of the world. It is within two hours of Bortenkirchen, and may be said to be within a stone's throw, metaphorically speaking, of the Zugspitze and the Karwandel, two of the grandest mountains of the Tyrolean Alps; yet not one in a hundred of the English who visited Ober-Ammergau on former occasions extended their travels so far as to embrace any of their points.'

The chapter on the Passion-play itself is full and interesting, though, it appears, Miss Seguin did not see it. Altogether the volume is attractive; though some of the cuts are a little too large in scale for the page, and clearly have not been specially done for the book.

Friends and Foes in the Transkei. An Englishwoman's Experiences during the Cape Frontier War of 1877-1878. By HELEN M. PRITCHARD. Sampson Low and Co.

Mr. Pritchard was engaged in the Government service in the Transkei when the war broke out. This little book describes Mr. and Mrs. Pritchard's journey from Cape Town, their settlement in Ibéka, their speedy flight on the outbreak of war, their discomforts and perils, and the death of a little boy. The volume consists of extracts from a diary. It is brightly and pleasantly written. It chronicles a little too much of small beer, and is here and there a little too smart; but it conveys a vivid impression of African travel and of the inflictions of war.

POLITICS, SCIENCE, AND ART.

Free Land. By ARTHUR ARNOLD. C. Kegan Paul and Co. The main merit of Mr. Arnold's lucid and interesting treatise on Free Land is its practical character, and the practicable ends and reforms he has in view. When he condemns the present landed system of Great Britain, it is not because of its political or social results, but because it interferes with the free action of those natural forces whose unimpeded action is for the good of man. And when he would introduce changes, they are justified not on the ground of serving ulterior ends, but for the reason that they would contribute to the better development of the resources placed at man's disposal by nature. Thus in arguing in favour of peasant proprietorship, Mr. Arnold makes no claim for free land in order to create such a class, but seeks to establish the position that it would follow as the natural result of such freedom as would be universally beneficial. For in consequence of free land, competition for agricultural ground would be quickened and stimulated, more skill and capital would be accumulated on small plots than are available under the large culture now practised, and there would follow a system of multiplication in the number of owners, and a ready disposition to sell in small lots so as to attract small purchasers. In the same way on the negative side of his argument. What is sought is to remove restrictions which have been created by law and custom. If it could be proved that the existing land system with its remarkable distribution of the soil-so that, for example, there are three gentlemen in the United Kingdom, one in each of the three divisions, who own among them nearly two millions of acres of land-resulted from natural causes or from laws advantageous to the community, there would be no ground of quarrel with it. But the allegation is that the laws and customs that have brought about this distribution are good neither for the general community nor for the proprietors themselves. The contention is that their whole scope and tendency is to reduce the value of the landlord's property, and to increase the dependence of this country— already growing irksome, and which may readily become a serious political

danger-upon foreign supplies of food. In reality our great landowners are the greatest sufferers from the system. They are for the most part the mere tenants for life of estates more or less incumbered with fixed charges (settlements, mortages, and such like), and have no power over the property which they call theirs. In order to protect a few foolish men from the consequences of their own folly, the whole of the landed proprietors of England are hampered, and the 'dead hand' holds them and their estates in its relentless and fateful grip. The time has come when the problem of breaking up this monopoly must be found. Even the late Conservative Government found it necessary to make an advance, through its Lord Chancellor, in dealing with the subject. The Government bills-good so far as they went-were insufficient to provide the requisite remedies, which may now be looked for from their successors. Mr. Arnold has done good service in setting forth here-the book is dedicated to the 'Liberal electors of the borough of Salford,' who have since chosen him as their representative-the nature of the changes which are essential. He has done it with clearness and moderation, and his 'Free Land' will take rank as an admirable handbook of information and guidance on the various important branches of the great question with which it deals.

The Succession to the English Crown. A Historical Sketch. By ALFRED BAILEY. Macmillan and Co.

This is a servicable and interesting little volume, which may be safely commended to historical students. Without any claim to originality in design or treatment, it yet accomplishes the task of the author in a sufficiently clear and pointed manner. That task was to set before his readers a sketch of the succession to the English Crown, and of the controversies touching it, from the reign of Egbert to the present time. At the end, and as the result of these controversies, the succession was arranged on the basis on which it now exists, as a strictly hereditary monarchy, yet seeking to derive its title from no assumed or alleged divine right, but from the will of the nation, and the good and convenience of the people. 'The history,' Mr. Bailey says, 'combines greater varieties of incident and principle than that of the devolution of any other crown in Europe.' In addition to the succinct text, and a copious table of contents, which makes the volume easy of reference, the author has supplied a series of genealogical tables, which will be found valuable by genealogical students.

The Criminal Code of the Jews, according to the Talmud. Massecheth Synhedrin. By PHILIP BERGER BENNY,

Smith, Elder, and Co.

This is a curious and interesting book. It is a proof from the Talmud of the great wisdom and mercifulness of the criminal code of the Jews. The courts, three in number, were constructed with profound wisdom, and

were popular, local, and economical. The rules of evidence were framed with the most jealous care for the protection of the accused, and the punishments inflicted were as considerate and merciful as can well be imagined. Those who imagine that the Jewish code was in any sense Draconian will be greatly surprised and interested in the information here given.

A Popular Handbook of Parliamentary Procedure. By HENRY W. Lucy. Chatto and Windus.

How few persons could tell off-hand what 'naming a member '—that awful and standing menace of Parliamenteers-really means. Parliamentary procedure practically seems in so many things to conflict with ancient precedent, that it must take a very long time for a new member fully to understand it, and often it seems a little hopeless for an outsider. Mr. Lucy's little book is written at once with a complete comprehension of the difficulties likely to beset the inquirer, and with a thorough knowledge of the subject in hand. For popular purposes it contains all that has been written in bigger books, like that of Mr. Palgrave; it omits nothing essential, and passes by what is trifling. Mr. Lucy's clear and interesting mode of writing deserves recognition. 'The procedure in Committee,' and the Count-out,' are both very accurately described. He is remarkably terse, simple, and effective. His book is in every respect fitted to supply a great want, and we most cordially recommend it to the immense mass-beside new members and newpaper editorswho, it would appear, do very greatly need to be informed on the points here treated of.

Hodge and his Masters. By RICHARD JEFFRIES.

Elder, and Co.

Smith,

Nothing could be finer than the general picturesque setting which Mr. Jeffries has given to his subject. All the accessories are so well conceived and so artistically grouped, that we are compelled to read and to admire. He so unerringly catches the little effective detail, the accompanying flying glimpse of colour that sheds an accidental halo round the poor peasant as he goes homeward with heavy feet at sunset, or plods his weary way along the rows of turnips in the fields, that for the moment we forget he is anything else than a kind of lay-figure fitted, we might say created, for picturesque effect. Mr. Jeffries, it would seem, is not desirous that he should present himself in any other aspect. He views him entirely from the old country-gentleman standpoint, and regards his claim to be accepted as a man and a brother,' as somewhat doubtful; and those who would attempt to awaken ambitions in him are not to be regarded as his friends. Mr. Jeffries, indeed, is now and then a little severe, and spurts a vein of acid that would be very effective, were it not that, unfortunately, he is more imaginative than there is real cause for. Hodge, alas! has become discontented, and is no more the Hodge of the