CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Universal Review. Edited by Harry Quilter. (Swan Son- nenschein and Co.)—The Universal Iteriew is a new illustrated monthly magazine, to appear on the 15th of every month. The paper and typography are exceptionally good, and many of the illustrations are excellent, especially one of Mr. Logsdail's picture, "St. Martin's-in-the-Fields," the sketch reproduced being his own work. The lesser illustrations are not, however, so superior to those of cheaper magazines as we expected; and we suspect that in order to realise the ideal the editor has evidently formed in his mind, he will be compelled to print the more important separately from the letterpress, as in three cases he has already done. The letterpress is not superior to that of older magazines, but has evidently been selected to fulfil the promise of never being dull. Sir Charles Dilke sends an abridged edition of his articles on the British Army ; Mrs. Lynn Linton, a brightly written but thin criticism of Zola's method ; Mrs. Crawford, a paper on General Boulanger, which we have mentioned separately elsewhere ; Lord Pem- broke, an article on the House of Lords, which is a plea for the introduction of a large number of Life-Peers, which, he thinks, will not only improve the House, but reduce the tendency to create hereditary peerages ; and Mr. A. W. Verrall, an appre- ciative criticism on Martial. The most original things in the magazine are a novel by M. Daudet, the first portion of which strikes us as exceedingly clever and exceedingly unlikely to interest an English audience, who will not even perceive the merit of the kind of satire flung at the French "Forty ;" and a most vigorous criticism of the Academy by the editor. Like everything Mr. Quilter writes, it is written a little too much from the standpoint of one who scorns ; but it is full of life and meaning, and very unlike ordinary art criticism. The verses by Mr. L. Morris and Sir E. Arnold are not good specimens of those poets' work.
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