SOME OF THE MAGAZINES.

WE have noticed before the best paper in the Contemporary,

" Cmsarism and Ultramontanism," but Mr. Fitzjames Stephen, in a very temperate letter to the Pall Mall Gazette, accuses us of misrepresenting, or rather misunderstanding, his creed, inasmuch as he does not agree that Scripture, even if granted whole, proves Dr. BIanning's case, but, on the contrary, the Protestant case. We need not say we had no intention of misrepresenting him, and regret having mis- understood him,—a fact owing principally to our having read his article too much by the light of the very strong statement in page 501, that "if any man, or any body of men, really is entrusted by God with the custody of a revelation on all the leading points of religion and morals, I do not see how they can fail to occupy the position which Archbishop Manning claims for them." We only wanted to say that the body so trusted might be all lay- men. It is clear from his letter that he agrees with us that, even granting verbal inspiration, Rome has no case ; and that the only difference between us—on the matters referred to in the article—is, that while he confines himself to saying that nothing in the New Testament proves Sacerdotalism, we say that the teaching of the New Testament is directly Anti-sacerdotal. Our paper, in fact, rather supplemented, than opposed his view. The remaining papers are of less interest, though one on the reasonableness of accepting the history of Christ, by the Rev. Geldart Jackson, is weak only in execution ; and Mr. St.

George Mivart's paper, called " Contemporary Evolution," singu- larly clever. It is an effort to show that modern democratic ten- dencies, even if carried out to their logical extreme, would not necessarily destroy the Catholic Church, unless scientific and philosophical evolution is fatal to her. That is true, no doubt, but Mr. Mivart scarcely allows sufficient force to the spirit of individualism which democracy may develop. We do not say it necessarily will, but it may ; more especially if, as Mr. Mivart appears to think, the English-speaking branch of the Teuton is the one which will ultimately dominate the world. It is not science so much that the Roman organisation has to fear, as the death of the belief that obedience to anything but law, and law made by those who obey it, can be an elevating virtue. Nothing will strain either governments or churches like the rise of vast communities in which every man is competent, or thinks himself competent, to form a separate opinion. The world has not seen that yet, but in the two places where it is most nearly reached—Scotland and Massachusetts—the result has not been favourable to Catholicism. Mr. Holyoake's article on " Gambling in Politics" is a shrewd, and in its way, thorough defence of Mr. Gladstone's Ministry, as the one which has shown more Radical tendency than any other of recent years ; and we eutirely agree with this very curious remark, if the fact given is intended to be literally accepted :—" For twenty years in England there has not been a single political society of working-men able to pay the rent of their meeting-rooms. Tories may find a majority at another election yet, unless the political education of the people receives other attention than their scant means can command, or unless increased wages and co-operation enable—as it is to be hoped it will—the people to obtain it for themselves." We do not quite understand Mr. Holyoake's story of the Spectator, no lady that we can remember having ever written a political article in it, but it is quite true that Mr. Forster has never changed his view on the necessity of religion as part of the education of the people.

Fraser and the Fortnightly both devote their first articles to explanations of the Liberal overthrow, and we are bound to say the latter's is the more statesmanlike of the two, and not much more unkind. Fraser, while declaring in strong terms that official economy was one main cause of the defeat—the people contributing their money not to be hoarded, but to be spent well—attributes the great change mainly to dissensions in the Liberal ranks :—

" Yet this phrase only inadequately and scarcely appropriately de- scribes the real truth. There is a severance, not merely a schism, in its ranks—a severance long suspected, carefully hushed up, blandly or ferociously rebuked, but at length laid bare to an astonished nation. It would be more correct to say, that the Liberal party, as a homo- geneous political body, inspired with the same spirit, pursuing the same ends, united by common principles of action, had long been in a state of dissolution and has now ceased to exist. It has, in fact, since its restoration to power in 1868, consisted of two sections, one of which, in tone, and to a great extent in aims and opinions, sympathised more with its milder Conservative opponents than with its own allies ; but was retained in the old connection partly by the wonderful fascination of the genius of their common leader, but still more by loyalty to that party-bond which is so strong among politicians of the old school."

No doubt the dissension is deep, and accounts for almost any amount of abstinence at the polls, but it is scarcely so deep as to account for the great increase in the Conservative vote. That, as we have all along contended, is best explained by this paragraph by Mr. Frederic Harrison :—

"The effective force of the middle-class has grown for a season Conservative. The Conservative party has become as much the middle-class party as the Liberal used to be, as much and more. The great merchants of London, the great spinners of Manchester, are Tories of the Tories ; and tho small merchant and tradesman have begun to follow the fashion. The brewer, the distiller, the soap-boiler, the cotton-broker, and the drysalter have strong constitutional opinions. The sleek citizens, who pour forth daily from thousands and thousands of smug villas round London, Manchester, and Liverpool, read their Standard and believe that the country will do very well as it is. There is nothing now exclusive about the Conservative party. It is, in the old sense of the words, just as popular and democratic as the Liberal party. If one casts the eye down the list of the 351 Conservatives, we find. middle-class traders preponderating in the boroughs, and fairly conspi- cuous in the sacred preserves of the counties. Conservatism has opened its arms to the middle-classes, and has reaped its just reward. Distil- lers, newsmen, financial agents, and carriage-builders are amongst its heroes of the day. The House of.1874 is even richer than the House of 1868. Some day it will consist exclusively of local millionaires, and perhaps 'be floated' by some company broker, who will contract 'to place' the entire party."

Blackwood is dull. In its political article there is triumph, and a lofty tone of patronage of the country, which is assured that if it behaves well, and is obedient, it shall not find its new masters unduly hard ; and, with an ostentatious disclaimer of an inten- tion to abuse Mr. Gladstone,—" we cannot," says the writer, "turn aside from the march of a triumphal procession to "strike at wretched kernes,"—there is an attack upon him which is in bad taste and foolish ; but the chief characteristic of the paper is clumsiness. This used not to be so, and is to be regretted. It is pardonable for Toryism everywhere to lose its head for awhile, but it ought not to lose its style in Blackwood. A new serial, "Alice Lorraine," opens with a pleasant novelty, or rather revival. Astrology has been an unworked mine in fiction since the days of Scott, G. P. R. James, and those in which Bulwer was young and people could be found to read " Zanoni." The story promises very well, with its quaint mingling of thorough modernism with the old romance of a parchment, a prediction, and an accomplished period. "The Two Speransky " is concluded. The second paper is less interesting than the first, as regards Madame Speransky-Bagr6eff herself, but it puts the character and manners of the already half- mythical Czar Nicholas in a strong light, bringing out his his- trionic conception of his position and his enormous egotism. The two Horatian lyrics, ode 3 of book i., and ode 3 of book ii., are pleasantly turned, but not quite witty ; the conclud- ing simile, taken from a railway journey, is destructively in- congruous. An article on "Lord Stanhope and the Historians of Queen Anne's Reign" strikes us as laboured and superfluous, an elaborate explanation of what everybody who has read the works of those historians can understand without it,—the attrac- tiveness of the period both to the reader and the writer of history, and the sources of that attractiveness.

It is long since Macmillan has been so mercilessly heavy. Some charming letters of Mendelssohn's, about music, of course, but also full of freshness, home affections, and quick general observa- tion, are doubly welcome, after we have been reading about the application of the Savings'-Bank system to the pocket-money of small children at the primary schools in Ghent, about "Endowed Competitions at Universities and their Results," and about "Coal and Coal Plants." Each of these papers is very good in its way, and that on coal is even picturesque as well as instructive, when it reconstructs for us the primeval forests, in the morning of time ; but they are undeniably heavy reading. Miss Phillimore's "Prince- Printers of Italy" deals with Aldo Manuzio, his descendants, and the Aldine Press; and includes an interesting digression into the story of the friendship between Aldo and Erasmus, and its lamentable breach. A pleasant paper describes an elephant " kraal " which was got up for the diversion of the Duke of Edinburgh at Avishavella, near Colombo, Ceylon. Sir Emerson Tennant's book has exhausted the subject in general, and this particular occasion would have had nothing beyond the fact that the capture of the noble beasts was witnessed by the Duke to dis- tinguish it, had it not been for the conduct of a " tnsker," whom it unfortunately became necessary to shoot, when the natives recognised him as a well-known "rogue," who had killed a number of men in his time. The natives knew of his being in the neighbourhood, had endeavoured to drive him off, and thought they had succeeded ; but he entered the kraal with the others at the last moment, in spite of all efforts to prevent him, and conducted himself as follows

"Six of the tame elephants (nearly all tuskers) advance uphill to meet the wild ones, who had the advantage of the ground ; behind are the noosers, each carrying a long rope, and the whole are supported by the beaters with their spears. The wild ones are visible to every one, drawn up in line, with their tusker commanding officer in front ; he waits until his enemies are half-way up the slope, then his trunk goes straiolt up in the air ; he trumpets shrilly, charges straight clown at a harp trot on the leading and strongest of the tame elephants; their tusks clash together, they struggle head to head, to the astonishment of all, as it is known to be very unusual for the wild elephants to attack the tame ones on these occasions. The old tusker gradually forces his antagonist downhill, in spite of the yells of the natives, who point at him with their spears; he then suddenly leaves him, and charges the second tame one, as he toils up the ascent, catches him on the broadside, and with one butt knocks him right over, leaving the poor beast on his back, with his feet up in the air, the poor mahout having gone flying through space ; the other tame elephants now retire in a panic, the wild herd slowly withdraw, and the grand old tusker, after taking a good look at his discomfited foes, stalks quietly off, covering the retreat of his companions."

Mr. Hardy's story in the Cornhill falls off somewhat from the promise of its commencement. We don't care so much about Miss Bathsheba Everdene, the female farmer, with her

silk gown and her piano ; the characteristics of her as we saw her first, as "a maiden with a milking-pail," are not so clear as they were as she appears here, paying her farm- labourers, showing samples in the market, and sending a valentine with the giggling concurrence of her servant. Interest is diverted from her to the betrayed girl, Fanny, whose story is plainly tend- ing to tragedy. The descriptive touches are somewhat strained, too, and we miss the full humour of the earlier chapters. A delightful

essay on "Dr. Johnson's Writings" is the bonne-bouche of the Corn- hill. It will bear reading over and over again. Mr. Stephen's admi- ration and affection for Boswell are put with great fervour. "I sub- scribe," he says, "most cheerfully to Mr. Lewes's statement that be

estimates his acquaintances according to their estimate of Bosivell. A man, indeed, may be a good Christian, and an excellent father of a family, without loving Johnson or Boswell, for a sense of humour is not one of the primary virtues. But Boswell's is one of the very few books which, after many years of familiarity, will still provoke a hearty laugh even in the solitude of a study, and the laughter is of that kind which does one good." This is true, but we are not sure that the sense of humour is

not a primary virtue. In "A Bonapartist Story," it is easy to recognise the hand which has been contributing its brilliant sketches of modern French life to the Pall Mall Gazette. This is a clever production, and as it is perfectly frank in its re-

velations with respect to the most prominent adherents of the late Empire, it might make some persons, who have made things pretty comfortable for themselves after all, wince, if Frenchmen ever read English magazines. But they don't. "A Rose in June" begins admirably. Mr. Damerel, the lazy, self- indulgent rector, who loves landscape and the picturesque gene- rally; who dislikes bills, noise, poverty, and unlovely cottages; who

counts his wife's being well dressed among his simple luxuries, and -thinks it such a pity that overworked " Martha " does not see the

beauty of repose, is a little like Mr. Dickens's Harold Skimpole, but without the dishonesty and the caricature. Mr. Nolan, the curate, is—a darling ! There is really no other word for him, and no doubt the author's intention is that there should not be. Then

there is a most interesting article on " Feng-Shui," two words which mean the embodiment of the obstructive superstition of China,—one of those papers characteristic of the Corn/till, in which

an abstruse and difficult subject is set before the general reader in attractive and comprehensible form, the laborious process of its

production is skilfully bidden, and the result is much valuable infor- mation, combined with a keen pleasure in its acquisition. The Corn- hill pronounces on the side of the proposed Arctic expeditions, and

wants to know whether our millionaires are so dead-drugged by money that they cannot spare a flea-bite from their fortunes to earn for themselves an everlasting name 2—whether we have no noble- men who will attempt to rescue their names from the ruck of Earls and Dukes by something more creditable than pre-eminence in the massacre of tame animals ? These questions are perti- nent, but not exactly calculated to extract subscriptions. "Our people," observed Mr. Lafayette Kettle to Mr. Martin Chuzzlewit, "require to be cracked up." Mr. Kettle alluded to Yankees, but the British merchants and marquises like to be cracked up too, previous to being asked for contributions.

In the Gentleman's Magazine we find a summary of the recent Parliamentary losses, under the heading "Fallen Out of the

Ranks," in which personal characteristics and public estimates are touched off by a light hand. Mr. George Barnett Smith contri-

butes an essay on " Forster's Life of Dickens," which, though pleasant and fair, is not, we think, up to his general mark. It is not, for instance, equal to his last month's essay upon Mrs. Craskell, or to that of several months ago, upon the Brontës.