The Leisure Hour. (R.T.S.)—We have in this year's Leisure Hour
five serial stories, which are perhaps an improvement on two long ones. One is historical, a tale of the wars of Gustavus Adolphus and Wallenstein, and another is a tale of the West Country, and out of the five, readers will find one or two to their liking. The industrial articles entitled" Midland Sketches," by W. J. Gordon, give a very readable and thoughtful account of the great manu- facturing centres of the Midlands and the work they do. These papers seem to us to hit the happy medium, taking a broad view of the several industries and indicating the stages of the manufacture without dwelling too much on the details. "The Great Food Question," by Dr. Schofield, is a survey of the question on broad lines, without dogmatic statements, and seems to be well armed with facts and common-sense. "Bio- graphical Sketches "includes "Arctic Explorers of the Nineteenth Century," "Bartlett, of the Zoo," Brahms, Charlotte Brenta, E. B. Browning, Dr. Dellinger, and Oliver Goldsmith. Some readers may be interested in the series of " Future Kings," though to our own thinking there is too much of this sort of thing. There are a few more or less critical articles on William Morris, Coventry Patmore, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sydney Smith, Sir J. Russell Reynolds, and others. It is always pleasant to read such a kind and generous critic as Mr. John Dennis ; an excellent specimen of his style is the article on Coventry Patmore. Sir Walter Besant has two papers on the "Suppression of the Religious Houses in London," and it is scarcely necessary to say that he puts facts with his usual clearness and vigour, and draws his conclusions with certainty from them. Under the heading, "Continental Notes," we have a quantity of snippets of news, scientific and social, from the Continent. The descriptive articles deal with the gauchos of South America, the Basques—an interesting article—Egyptian discoveries, "The United States Navy," and many more of every possible variety of interest. "What the War has Left America" id auddriee that will afford food for thought as well as some little amusement. The usual amount of poetry is in evidence, and perhaps not quite so much natural history as we generally find in the Leisure Hour. The great number of miscellaneous articles it is impossible to indicate. The volume is as good as ever, and the illustrations better than those of previous years. Especially good are those illustrating the Midland sketches.
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