Curve Pictures of London. By Alexander McDowell. (Sampson Low.)—It would
take too much space to reveal the "secret," simple though that is, of the diagrams by which Mr. McDowell shows at a glance hcw we stand now, and how we have stood before, in respect of density of population, early marriages, suicides, drunkenness, pauperism (this is exceptionally well depicted), illiteracy, prices of commodities, and other matters interesting to the "social reformer." Suffice it to say, by way of illustration (which is also the author's own illustration), that if one wishes to find out from the diagram of "Population" what was approxi- mately the population of London in 1851, all that he has to do is to find the year at the bottom of the page, run the eye up till it reaches "the curve for London," and follow it along to the left. There the figures wanted are found,-2.36 millions. Speaking generally, the object of the "social reformer" ought to be to make Mr. McDowall's curves go down, not up. This booklet is a tatatunt in parvo of Metropolitan statistics, the revisability of which, however—we had rather not say the unreliability—ought to be borne in mind.
A melancholy interest attaches to the second series of The Angler's Note-Book and Naturalist's Record (Elliot Stock), which has just been published, owing to the death of its original editor, Mr. Thomas Satchell, before its completion. The work which Mr. Satchell began in 1884, his friend, Mr. Alfred Wallis, has com- pleted. Of the volume as now issued, Mr. Wallis says truly that "the Collector, Bibliographer, Antiquary, Naturalist, Scholar, and Student, have all had their tastes consulted, and in the Creel any quantity of odds and ends has been packed away for the benefit of merry anglers who love small-talk." But there is nothing in that small-talk savouring of personal gossip or of vulgarity of any kind. It is written by Waltonians for Waltonians ; none but anglers who are scholars as well as enthusiasts have con- tributed to it. But the non-angler, and perhaps the anti-angler, will find amusement and delight in its quaint pages, full of Isaac Disraelian anecdote and quotation; while even the man of science may find such papers as "The Evolution of a Fish-Hook" (which, by-the-way, is admirably illustrated) unto edification. It is to be hoped that we have not heard, with the issue of this series, the last of The Angler's Note-Book.
Messrs. Pickering and Chatto have published a well-printed and humorously illustrated edition of the translation, executed by Dr. James York in 1868, of Count Lutanor ; or, the Fifty Pleasant Stories of Patronio, which were written by the Spanish Prince, Don Juan Manuel, who flourished about the beginning of the fourteenth century, and who in some respects resembles our own English Warwick. In form these tales recall both "The Arabian Nights" and Boccaccio's " Decameron ;" but if they have some of the childish naiveté of the one, they are devoid of the licentiousness of the other. They are pleasant reading, full of Spanish character and wisdom of Solomon's kind.
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