We have received the Christmas numbers of the Quiver, Time,
and London Society, Beeton's Christmas Annual, and Arrowsmith's Christ- etas Annual. They are all beneath the average, and we have placed them in what is conventionally known as the order of merit. The best stories in the Bow of Strength (the title given to the extra part of Messrs. Cassell's popular Sunday magazine) are "Christmas Bells," by Christian Redford, and "A Mistaken Sacrifice," by the author of " One of his Little Ones." The illustrations are deserving of all praise.—Smartness and variety are the best features of the special number of Time. There is, at least, piquant cynicism in the late Mr. Grenville Murray's "Prince and Jew," and the power of what Charles Lamb called "moving a horror quickly" in Mr. Charles Quentin's " The Waves' Secret."—Mr. Francillon'e well-constructed story of "The Man with the Three Eyes," and a reproduction of an old humorously illustrated little sketch, by the late Mr. T. W. Robert- son, entitled " Our Entertainments," are the redeeming features of a poor number of London Society.--There is some humour in "A Curious Company," in the new Beeton's Annual (Ward and Lock), but it is thin and farcical.—" Brown Eyes," which Messrs, Griffith and Ferran give as Arson:smith's Christmas Annual, is hardly worthy of the author of " Queenie's," and it has certainly not been improved by the illustrator.
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