The Australian in London and America. By James Francis Hogan.
(Ward and Downey.)—This is a book likely to disappoint the reader who wishes to know an Australian's impressions of London and of the United States. Mr. Hogan's method of description is that of the guide-writer, and in this respect he has little to say that has not been better said before. A chapter, according to the unbroken custom of writers about the States, even when, as in the present instance, they scamper through them, is devoted to the Mormons, whom the author regards as doomed unless they consent to give up the distinguishing feature of their faith. At present they prosper, and constantly receive additions to their singular com- munity. The steamer that carried Mr. Hogan from New York to Liverpool had seventy Mormon missionaries on board, and he was assured that after a few months, each of these missionaries would return to Utah " at the head of a little army of converts." Arrived in London, Mr. Hogan catalogues our great buildings, describes Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's, and several chapels of Roman Catholics, spends a little time in the Tower, and has something to say about "the temples dedicated to Thespis," which may be read with advantage. The public buildings of London are, it is said, disappointing to a Colonist, and "are, in general, architecturally inferior to Antipodean structures of the like character, however superior they may be in antiquarian interest and historic associa- tions." There is good sense in a short chapter entitled " What
London might Learn from the Colonies ;" but the discursive character of the book may be gathered from the fact that Mr. Hogan devotes a chapter to Dr. 13llathorne, another to " Monster Nuggets," and the three concluding chapters to "Foreign Aggression in the Pacific," " The Chinese in the Colonies," and " The Growth of Australian Nationalism."
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