England from a Back Window. By James Bailey. (Cecil Brooks
and Co.)—There is a mixture of joke and earnest in this book ; and the earnest is somewhat the better of the two. The jokes are of the "Mark Twain" sort, and only moderately good, though the " un- expected " in them sometimes gives at least an excuse for a laugh. Unfortunately, one does not always know whether or not a thing is meant to be funny. Is it a joke, for instance, to say that the Duke of Marlborough lives in Marlborough House ? But lir. Bailey holds up a mirror, somewhat curved and awry, perhaps, but dill fairly faithful, in which we can see ourselves, not as habit has made us appear, but as we strike the eye of strangers. He seems, too, to have had a certain courage in asking questions, which natives sotto- how lack. He tackled, for instance, a landlord about the charge for attendance. Here is an instructive dialogue :—" Why is attendance charged guests?' ' To regulate feeing, which had become an abuse. What right have servants to demand fees any way?' ' Because that was a portion of the reveller, attached to their place.' 'It went to mako up their wages, then?' ' Oh, yes !" Does it now ?' He thought
it looked very much like rain." On the feoing system in general he is very properly severe. We should hope, indeed, that his experience was exceptional ; that the manager of the industrial school who took a fee for allowing the institution was an unusual specimen of greed ; but much of what ho says on this head, and on other matters as little to our credit, is too true. We cannot appreciate the ingenious argrt- moat by which the writer seeks to prove that hotel charges are as high in England as in America. The total here, according to his reckoning, is two dollars and eighty-eight cents. "Add twenty-eight cents as a premium on gold, and you have a first cost of three dollars and sixteen cents per day, which would be equal in America, with its market and labour prices, to full five dollars a day." The question is simple : "How much will a given quantity of gold buy at an hotel hero and how much in America I?"
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