on his own behalf what the publishers have done for De Quincey. So much ephemeral literature is being furbished up for posterity that posterity is likely to reject it altogether; and minor authors who desire their reputations to live would, we imagine, do more wisely in judiciously selecting from their compositions those which are most likely to stand the test of criticism, than in gathering together every scrap and trifle that they have scribbled off. The fashion being what it is, however, we have no reason to complain of Mr. Hollingshead for falling in with it, and re-issuing, in three large volumes, a hundred and twenty-five short "stories and essays" and two long ones, on the plea that they "have met with the approval of editors like the late Charles Dickens, W. M. Thackeray, Dr. Norman Macleod, &c.," that "some of them have been dedicated, by permission, to the Right Hon. John Bright, M.P.," and that "the public have accepted them in a variety of magazine and book forms, and Messrs. Tinsley Brothers are willing to risk publishing another and uniform edition." The second reason is amusing, but the third is weighty, and Mr. Hollingshead's 'Miscellanies' are, to say the least, quite as well worth preserving as most of the kindred literature that is now-a-days so plentiful. They are a great deal better than most. Mr. Hollingshead went to school in Household Words and All the Year Round, and he was one of Dickens's best pupils. If he is less flashy than Mr. Sala, who takes precedence of all other Dickensese essayists, he is more accurate and more instructive. A "Special Correspondent" who passes a night at the top of the monument, and who makes a tour of the London sewers, is likely to endure as much discomfort, and to collect as much useful and curious material for a gossiping article, as one who explores a Paris ball-room or dogs the steps of an English Prince and a Russian Princess before and after their wedding day. It is one of Mr. Hollingshead's merits that he has a happy knack of finding out-of-the-way yet homely topics for his pen; another that he can write about them in a lively style, and at the same time without exaggeration or invention. We confess that, when we took up these three great volumes, we were appalled at the prospect of having to wade through so much old magazine literature, and that, having achieved the task, we are astonished to find how easy, entertaining, and instructive it has been.

With Mr. Hollingshead, as with other writers of the same school, "stories" and essays" are almost synonymous terms; or, at any rate, they merge into one another. Nearly all the "stories are meant to convey some moral, and may properly be inartistic as scraps of fiction, if they serve their purpose in illustrating some folly or vice of society. Nearly all the "essays" are made up chiefly of anecdotes, real or invented, and teach their more or less serious lessons as playfully as possible. Such compositions take the place in drawing-rooms or railway-carriages of farces on the stage, and, inasmuch as they can be read more easily than farces can be seen, they are more tolerable or more commendable. Some two or three of Mr. Hollingshead's lighter sketches have indeed, we believe, been adapted to the stage, and others might be so treated.

A good specimen of Mr. Hollingshead's

stories," and one especially appropriate just now, is 'The Humiliation of Fogmoor,' which sets forth the exploits of an eccentric patriot, Mr. Snarlington, in getting himself returned as a Parliamentary representative of the free and independent electors of a Hampshire borough at a cost of 9,000l., and then, at a cost of 20,000l., of securing a ticket-of-leave man for a colleague. The second feat he achieved in fulfilment of a pledge to bring the question of Parliamentary Reform before the House and before the country in a practical shape. The description of the way in which this was done is a capital skit on the election procedure that, we would fain hope, was more common when the tale was written than in the present year. Some others of Mr. Hollingshead's papers touch on politics, but most of them are on more strictly social and domestic topics. A fair specimen of his "essays" appears in the article on "Peacockism." This term is used for the extravagance of fine ladies as regards dress, which Mr. Hollingshead sets himself to ridicule. "Cleanliness," he says, "may be so stretched as to become a vice; dress may exhibit as much personal recklessness on the part of the wearer as rags; and there may be as much intemperance in indulging in certain bonnets and shawls as in beer-bibbing and gin-drinking." And this vice he reasonably lays to the account of the ladies. "There is no such creature in England as the human male peacock." The modern peacock is a female. "She lives, apparently, only for her plumage. Take that away from her, and life seems no longer to have any attraction. This plumage may be gaudy or not, according to her taste, but it must always be costly and luxurious, and made with little regard to her position in the world. In proportion as her means to pay for these feathers diminish, her desire to obtain them seems to increase. The same may also be said of her power to obtain them, for credit is seldom given more freely than when it is recklessly demanded." The ways of fashionable milliners and of the silly women on whose vanity they trade are boldly exposed by Mr. Hollingshead, and good ought to come from the reading of his article. Another article that may be read in connexion with it is on "Needlewomen," which reveals some facts concerning the slaves who work to enrich the fashionable milliners and to adorn the fine ladies. More facts might have been brought out, however, and some of Mr. Hollingshead's statements are thrown out of date by the alterations in the factory and workshop legislation that has occurred since the paper was written. That is an almost unavoidable fault of such ephemeral literature as this.

With the by-ways, and especially the unclean by-ways of commerce and finance, Mr. Hollingshead is familiar, and they furnish material for many of the sketches contained in these volumes. All sorts of other material, from Whitstable oysters to convicts, and from monster, cheeses to menagerie wild beasts, are worked up by him in turn, and nearly all the articles furnish pleasant reading, if nothing more. What else need be said in their praise? A good deal might be said about the longest item in the collection, 124 pages, on "Underground London," treating of sewers, railway tunnels, and other excavations, but that these chapters were sufficiently reviewed and suffi

ciently commended when they first appeared in a separate volume a few years ago.

The Treasury of Languages: a Rudimentary Dictionary of Universal Philology. (Hall & Co.)

THIS is a useful compilation, principally (as the Preface states) from Bagster's Bible in Every Land' and Dr. R. G. Latham's Elements of Comparative Philology.' Without, therefore, having much claim to scientific exactness, it presents a large number of facts on the whole with fair accuracy. Among the contributors who sign their names to a considerable proportion of the notices (whose value is thereby guaranteed) are Profs. F. Newman and G. Rawlinson, the Dean of Canterbury, and Mr. Skeat: much the larger proportion are unsigned, and are, therefore, to be attributed to the anonymous compiler. The book aims at describing all dialects, important or not, which are spoken in the world, arranged in alphabetical order; but other terms are admitted, rather it would seem on the chance that they may be useful to somebody, than on any very obvious principle. Thus we have "mestizo," "creole," &c.; "gasconade," "cant" (oddly derived from canto), "slang," &c.; the "Poenulus" of Plautus, and (as might be expected) "Grimm's Law": which is explained as regulating the changes of any cognate language, not merely the Teutonic subdivisions. We do not at all understand why we should find "Hanover" and "Gottingen " each described as a dialect of Platt-Deutsch. It is true that Göttingen is called "Low-Dutch," but we may assume that it is not intended by this to mark any difference in the speech of the two towns. Some articles are very good, e. g., Greek," where an account is given of the different phases of the language, with the authorities for each. If this plan be consistently carried out in a second edition, and the account of the most important terms expanded so as to give a succinct history of them, a very valuable book of

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6

reference will be produced. Such a volume ought, before all things, to mention the outof-the-way articles of special value contained in periodicals: this could be easily done by the help of such works as the 'Bibliotheca Philologica,' a catalogue of the utmost use to students of language. The articles on the | Indian languages ought to be rewritten. We ought not to find "Divanagari" for Devanagari (repeated), which, again we are told mysteriously, is quite distinct from old Sanskrit, a name for Bactrian or Zend,” which is puzzling. The following is not a lucid derivation of Sanskrit: "sam, together,' krita, made perfect,' samskrita, made euphonic."" Then we are told that Bengali is derived from Sanskrit, a statement as inaccurate as would be that which the writer just avoids, that the Romance languages are derived from classical Latin. The definitions of the philological terms bear the impress of Dr. Latham's school: roots are called, first of all, "ultimate forms of words," which we quite agree with; but when we are also told that they are frequently transferred from one family of speech to another," we have an uncomfortable feeling that the writer really means the lists of "root words" for man, woman, eye, ear, &c., which are no more roots than

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any other words. If we may grumble once more, we wish that Mr. Skeat had told us more, e. g. of “Cumbrian " than that it is a "dialect of England." Surely there is no reason why the main affinities of all the English dialects should not have been concisely given? But there is quite enough good work in this book to make it what we hope it will become-the basis of a much better second edition.

ALBANY FONBLANQUE.

The Life and Labours of Albany Fonblanque. Edited by his Nephew, Edward Barrington de Fonblanque. (Bentley & Son.) ALBANY FONBLANQUE fully deserves the tribute to his ability, accomplishments, and worth which this portly and handsome volume forms. The greater part of it consists of extracts from his brilliant writings in the Examiner from 1837 to 1860. He went on writing for a few years after 1860, until Mr. M'Cullagh Torrens, M.P., became proprietor and editor of the Examiner. Fonblanque had himself published the cream of his writings from 1830, when he began his editorship, to 1837, in three well-known volumes, entitled 'England under Seven Administrations.' Fonblanque's nephew, Mr. E. B. de Fonblanque, who is the editor of this volume, has prefixed a memoir, of which the chief fault is that it is a good deal shorter than need be, and which is well and genially written, and without exaggeration of tone. It contains, however, some errors which we must point out. The chief of them refer to John Stuart Mill, and these may be, in the most material points, corrected by the light of his recently-published 'Autobiography.'

Fonblanque was appointed editor of the Examiner in September, 1830, by the Rev. Dr. Fellowes, the proprietor. "About the same time that Fonblanque assumed the direction of the Examiner," says the editor of this volume, "John Stuart Mill became editor of the London Review, a journal professing to be the organ of the philosophical Radicals, and in 1831 he writes to Fonblanque." It was in 1835 that the London Review, not a journal, but a quarterly, was started with John Stuart Mill as editor. Sir William Molesworth was the proprietor of the Review, and found the funds. Mr. E. B. de Fonblanque, with strange confusion, refers to letters of Mill as showing that "he and his followers had already, as early as 1829, begun to secede from the more Radical section represented by Grote and Molesworth." This is indeed a congeries of mistakes. In 1829 Molesworth was a minor, unknown in politics. He was born in 1810; he was elected member for his county, West Cornwall, to the first reformed Parliament in 1832. There was no secession from Molesworth, who, however, tired of pecuniary loss, gave up the London Review in the beginning of 1837, and made it over to Mill. "He had done his part," says Mill in his 'Autobiography,' "honourably, and at no small pecuniary cost." Mill's feeling towards Molesworth is shown by a letter of his to Fonblanque of 1838, quoted in Mr. E. B. de Fonblanque's Memoir. It is surprising to find that there was at that time a separation from Grote's household, which, however, it may be suspected, was owing rather to personal than to political reasons.

Fonblanque had written to Mill, dissatisfied with the lethargic conduct at that time of Grote and his Radical friends in Parliament, and reproaching him for sympathy with the Grote conclave. Mill replies, speaking of Grote and his parliamentary friends as"Persons whom I have nothing to do with, and to whose opinions you are far more nearly allied than I am. There may be such a conclave, but I know nothing of it, for I have never been within the door of Grote's house in Eccleston Street, and have been for the last few years completely estranged from that household.... Immediately them, and went to a meeting of most of the leading parliamentary Radicals at Molesworth's, from which I came away, they thinking me, I fancy, almost mad, and I thinking them craven. I do not except Grote, or Warburton, or Hume, all of whom were there. I except none but Molesworth and Leader, two raw boys; and I assure you, when I told them what I thought should be done by men of spirit and real practicalness of character, I had perfect ground for feeling well assured that they would not do it."

after Lord J. Russell's declaration I tried to rouse

Again, Mill wrote to Fonblanque in the same year, 1838

"What is the meaning of your insisting upon identifying me with Grote and Roebuck and the rest? Do you in your conscience think that my opinions are at all like theirs? Have you forgotten what I am? how you once knew that my opinion of their philosophy is, and has for years been, more unfavourable by far than your own, and that my Radicalism is of a school the most remote from theirs at all points which exists? They knew this as long ago as 1829, since which time the variance has been growing wider and wider.... In the face of this it is rather hard to be accused of ascribing all wisdom and infallibility to a set from whose opinions I differ more than from the Tories."

It is difficult quite to understand, or to be sure of quite understanding, these extracts of letters of Mill, without having before us the correlative letters of Fonblanque, which are not given. But there was at this time clearly a feeling of alienation from Grote, probably to be attributed to a domestic question which may have separated him from "Grote's household."

In 1838, the parliamentary party of philosophical Radicals, with whom Mill was joined when he undertook the editorship of the London Review, had become disheartened and inactive; the numbers present in the House of Commons for action had dwindled to a

very small total; and it is related in Mrs. Grote's Life of her husband, that one evening, at their house, Charles Buller and Sir William Molesworth remained late for a chat, in the course of which the amusing Buller said, "I see what we are coming to, Grote; and in no very long time from this you and I shall be left to tell'-Molesworth!" Grote got tired of politics and the House of Commons, and pined for his books. Shortly after Lord J. "finality' "declaration at Russell's famous the meeting of a new Parliament, in March, 1837, Grote wrote a letter to John Austin, then at Malta, which is published in Mrs. Grote's book, and in which he expressed his dissatisfaction with the Whig Government, and "the degeneracy of the Liberal party, and their passive acquiescence in everything, good or bad, which emanates from the present Ministry." These were exactly Mill's sentiments. In the same letter, Grote grumbles at "sustaining Whig Conservatism against Tory Conservatives." Here Mr. E. B. de Fon

blanque remarks that "men like Fonblanque and Mill must have been surprised at finding themselves accused of Conservative, or even Whig, proclivities." But there is nothing to show that Fonblanque and Mill were here referred to. They were entirely agreed with Grote in denouncing Lord John Russell's "finality." They agreed with him in lamenting the Tory colour of the Whig Government. We are treating history. An article, written by Mill in the beginning of 1839, in the London and Westminster Review, On the Reorganization of the Reform Party,' shows the strength at this period of his political Liberalism, and his desire to strengthen the party and widen its basis, and place it under the leadership of Lord Durham, a friend of Grote.

Mill's divergence from the "philosophy" of Grote and Roebuck and the rest spoken of in his above-quoted letter of 1838, and said to have begun as early as 1829, refers to that revolution in his general ways of thought fully detailed in the 'Autobiography,' when he threw off many of his old beliefs, and took up new gods, and fell into admiration of Wordsworth, and found himself separating from Roebuck, and taking Maurice and Sterling into his heart. (Autobiography,' pp. 149-156.)

It is to be remarked that, when Mill describes in his 'Autobiography' the beginning of the London Review, he takes care to avoid giving to his parliamentary coadjutors, as from himself, the name of philosophical Radicals. "Those who thought themselves, and were called by their friends, the philosophic Radicals," is his description of them. "Instructed Radicals is his own well-chosen phrase. He disclaims concurrence in their "philosophy."

"In the years between 1834 and 1840, the conduct of this Review occupied the greater part of my spare time. In the beginning, it did not, as a whole, by any means represent my opinions. I was under the necessity of conceding much to my inevitable associates. The Review was established to be the representative of the 'philosophic Radicals' [the marks of quotation are Mill's, to show whom I was now at issue on many essential that it was not his own phrase], with most of points, and among whom I could not even claim to be the most important individual." ('Autobiography,' p. 199.)

In practical politics, the difference between Mill and Grote was simply that Mill complained of Grote's want of zeal in action, and was more disposed, with Fonblanque, to make the best of the Whigs, give cordial support to their good measures, and endeavour to strengthen their Liberalism. This shows no difference in substance. In his 'Autobio

graphy,' calmly reviewing the period, Mill confesses that he had expected too much from his parliamentary friends, Grote and others :—

"And now, on a calm retrospect, I can perceive that the men were less in fault than we supposed, and that we had expected too much from them. They were in unfavourable circumstances. Their lot was cast in the ten years of inevitable reaction, when, the Reform excitement being over, and the few legislative improvements which the public really called for having been rapidly effected, power gravitated back in its natural direction to those who were for keeping things as they were; when the public mind desired rest, and was less disposed than at any other period since the peace to let itself be moved by attempts to work up the Reform feeling into fresh activity in favour of new things." ('Autobiograpy,' p. 195.)

There was a plan in 1834, among Fonblanque's friends and admirers, which was successful, of aiding him in his management of the Examiner, by subscribing for ten years in advance. Edward Lytton Bulwer was one of the foremost to support the scheme, and wrote this charming letter:

"My dear Friend,-Ten years of the Examiner ensured and safe is a delight few people can resist -even the bats and owls themselves, I should think! The highest compliment to your honesty is that it is uphill work to sell. If you would only pander to the mob, whether gentle or simple,

you would be read by all the world. As it is, you must be contented for a short time longer with the fame more universally acknowledged than that of any political writer in England except Swift, and him you beat in wisdom, consistency, and principle. Affectionately yours, E. L. B."

Fonblanque must have been astonished by the receipt of a letter from Mr. B. Disraeli, expressing a desire to join. The future Prime Minister was not unaware of incongruity:"I believe," he awkwardly wrote, "that I am the last person who ought to bear witness to the candour or the justice of your strictures; but I am very willing also to believe that my case is the exception that proves the rule of your impartiality." A delicate way of telling Fonblanque that he was neither candid nor just! Disraeli further conveyed a wish to subscribe for " my friend Mr. Clay, at present on a visit to us here."

This was Mr. James Clay, long Member for Hull, not, as Mr. E. B. de Fonblanque seems to think, Mr. William, afterwards Sir William, Clay, Member for the Tower Hamlets, and an instructed Liberal, who was for a short time Secretary of the Board of Control, in Lord Melbourne's Administration. But Mr. de Fonblanque makes an extraordinary mistake in speaking of Mr. Clay, whether James or William, as one who subsequently became a prominent member of Mr. Disraeli's Cabinet (p. 37).

We shall not attempt to make extracts from "the wit and wisdom" of Fonblanque, embodied in the Examiner selections, which take up about 470 pages of this valuable volume. The Examiner lives in the memory of its readers and Fonblanque's admirers; and want of space renders it impossible to give extracts sufficient for inoculating others with appreciation of his merits. This book is dedicated to the "Members of the English Liberal Press." It might have been more properly dedicated to the English press without limitation of politics. Fonblanque was an honour and an ornament to the English press generally. He had carefully educated himself for the press as a profession, and he pursued it proudly, not ostentatiously putting himself forward, but not concealing his connexion with it, and holding himself responsible for his writings. And he introduced into his political calling, which he pursued with conscientiousness, the wit and learning of an accomplished scholar and

the tone and principles of a gentleman. He was firm in the advocacy of opinions not lightly taken up, and he was no adulator of personages. As an accomplished and independent member of the press, he took his place in distinguished society, and honour done to him was done to the press.

We again express our regret at the shortness of the Memoir, though allowance and even credit are to be given to the nephew, who has decided on brevity. The specimens we have of Fonblanque's letters would make us desire more; and his correspondence was with very distinguished men. We may presume from what transpires that there would be more letters of Lord Melbourne, with whom he was on terms of personal friendship. There must surely be many more from Lord Lytton; we have extracted a charming one. Lord Dalling also, Henry Lytton Bulwer, was on terms of affectionate intimacy with him, and a delightful letter of his, which must be one of many, is published in the Memoir :

"105, Piccadilly, Jan. 1838. "My dear Fonblanque,-I received your letter, and feel deeply sensible of the kindness and friendship with which you express yourself. It will be a source of infinite pleasure to me to have acquired any claim, however small, to your friendship. Do not be worried by anything. I should recommend, as you want to be comfortable where you are, taking a small and nice house without loss of time. Can I be of any service to you in any way? Only let me know, and believe me ever your affectionate Friend, H. L. BULWER." This is a letter eminently characteristic of the writer who, through life, had his troubles and anxieties, whose prudence was not equal to his brilliant ability, and who, acting doubtless on the advice he gave Fonblanque of "not being worried by anything," was always to appearance calm and light-hearted, as he was always sympathetic for friends, and matchless in conversation.

The Heart of Africa. Three Years' Travels and Adventures in the Unexplored Regions of Central Africa, from 1868 to 1871. By Dr. Georg Schweinfurth. Translated by Ellen Frewer. 2 vols. (Low & Co.)

(Second Notice.)

AFTER a compulsory stay at the Meshera of a month, Schweinfurth and his party marched ninety miles through the pastoral Dinka country, passing by the way an isolated community called the Al-Waj, who inhabit a forest district, and reached the chief seriba of Ghattas, which was henceforth the head-quarters of the expedition. From this point a series of excursions were made to the different seribas of Ghattas in the neighbourhood; and the Dyoor tribe, who were here met with, furnished fresh material for the observation and pencil of the accomplished German. These Dyoors inhabit a ferruginous region, and, consequently, are quite at home in all iron-work. Petherick has described their primitive method of smelting with the use of bellows, but Schweinfurth gives a slightly different account. He was informed that bellows were never used. The territory of the Bongo, between lat. 6° and 8° N., was next visited; and many interesting details of their life and habits are related. These people also are skilled in iron-work; and a drawing is given of a "tibbah," or elongated oval knife with handles

at either end, which our author says is peculiar to the Congo women; but similar knives of identical pattern were exhibited in London in 1862, by Mr. Petherick, as belonging to the Dyoor tribes. The Bongo, according to Schweinfurth, most nearly resemble the inhabitants of the countries about Lake Tsad.

Leaving Sabby in November, Dr. Schweinfurth explored during the two following months the Mittoo country to the south-east, and here Petherick's route-track was nearly approached on the Bahr-el-Rohl. These Mittoo tribes are decidedly inferior to the Bongo in the scale of humanity, and, although living in a fertile country, are ill thriven. Their women have a revolting habit of distorting their features by inserting circular plates nearly as large as a crown piece in their upper lips, and quartz cones, such as belemnites, in the lower lips; a fashion also sometimes adopted by the men. Similar decorations have been observed among the inhabitants of Maganya, on the River Shiré, far to the south of the Equator, by Livingstone; but in the latter case the ornament used is a ring. In January, 1870, the traveller returned to Sabby, and, after traversing eighty-seven miles in twelve days, arrived at a seriba belonging to Mohammed Aboo Sammat, in the Niam-Niam country. In March Schweinfurth made further progress to the south, and here, in lat. 4° 20', N., in the wood at Dyagbe, the full glory of what he terms a gallery was unfolded to the delighted gaze of the ardent botanist.

"In a way that answers precisely to the description which Dr. Livingstone, in his last accounts, has given of the country to the west of Lake Tanganyika, and which is not adequately accounted for either by the geological aspect of the region, or by any presumed excess of rain, there is sometimes found a numerical aggregate of springs which is beyond precedent. These springs result in a perpetual waterflow, which, in the North, would all be swallowed up by the thirsty soil of low and open plains, but which here, in the NiamNiam country, is all restrained within deep-cut channels, that form, as it were, walls to confine the rippling streams. Trees with immense stems, and of a height surpassing all that we had else Egypt), here stood in masses which seemed unwhere seen (not even excepting the palms of bounded, except where at intervals some less towering forms rose gradually higher and higher beneath their shade. In the innermost recesses of these woods one would come upon an avenue, like the colonnade of an Egyptian temple, veiled in the Seen from leafy shade of a triple roof above. without, they had all the appearance of impenetrable forests; but traversed within, they opened into aisles and corridors, which were musical with many a murmuring fount. Hardly anywhere was the height of these woods less than seventy feet, and, on an average, it was much nearer one hundred; yet viewed from without, they very often failed to present anything of that imposing sight which was always so captivating when taken from the brinks of the brooks within. In some places the sinking of the ground along which the gallery-tunnels ran would be so great that not half the wood revealed itself at all to the contiguous steppes, while in that wood (out of sight as it was) many a gallery might still exist."

A woodcut in the second volume, representing one of these gallery-forests, is disappointing. The water-shed of this portion of the Nile basin was now traversed for the first time by a European explorer; the frontier of the Monbuttoo was passed, and on the 19th of March the banks of the Welle River were attained.

"For me it was a thrilling moment that can

never fade from my memory. My sensations must have been like Mungo Park's on the 20th of July, 1796, when for the first time he planted his foot upon the shore of the mysterious Niger, and answered once for all the great geographical question of his day-as to whether its waters rolled

to the east or to the west."

This noble river rolled its deep dark flood majestically to the west, and its independence of the Nile system was established to the discoverer's satisfaction; had it rolled eastward, it would have solved the problem of the fullness of the water in Lake Mwootan (the Albert Nyanza of Baker). The Welle has here a breadth of 800 feet; and it is a matter of interest that Barth had already indicated the existence of this river under the name of the Kubanda. It is still an open question, however, whether this Welle River may not, after all, flow into the Gazelle affluent of the Nile. Dr. Schweinfurth is inclined to believe that it either flows into the Shary, which empties its waters into Lake Tsad, or that it may be a tributary to the ample waters of the Benue River, which Barth found at Yola in 1851. From this point to Lake Tsad would be about 1,000 miles. The caravan was transported across the Welle in large solid, well-shaped canoes, and after a march of twelve miles, enlivened by beautiful scenery such as might be worthy of Paradise, an encampment was formed close by the imposing edifice which was King Munza's dwelling. The fantastic figure of this strange, weird-looking sovereign, wielding his quaint scimitar, his head surmounted with a chignon a foot and a half long, with a queer copper device in front, forms the frontispiece to the second volume. A graphic account is given of this tawny Cæsar's barbarous court. The palatial hall in which he received his European visitor was at least a hundred feet in length, forty feet high, and fifty broad, the bold arch of its vaulted roof being supported on triple rows of pillars formed from perfectly straight tree-stems, the other parts of the building being entirely composed of palm-leaf stalks. His display of wealth in copper was truly regal, and astonished Schweinfurth. The account of how he entertained his visitor, danced before his wives, of the richness of his wardrobe and armoury, of his cannibal propensities, &c., will be read with interest. The Monbuttoo, whose cannibalism is most pronounced, appear to have attained to no contemptible degree of external culture. It was noticed that their complexion is of a lighter tint than that of almost all the known nations of Central Africa, and that they differ from the ordinary run of negroes in the greater length and curve of the nose. It was at the Court of Munza that Schweinfurth first came in contact with the so-called Pigmies, a small colony of which was located about half a league from the royal residence. According to the statements made by individuals of this colony, their nation is called Akka, and inhabits large districts to the south of Monbuttoo, between lat. 2° and 1° N. Two or three of this pigmy race were drawn and measured, their average height being about four feet ten inches. The German explorer also had a rencontre with several hundred Akka warriors, whom he mistook for a crowd of impudent boys. They were encamped one night in the neighbourhood, but they disappeared before he could inspect them closely.

One little dwarf, however, was carried off by the enterprising Doctor, and remained with him for several months. This pigmy died at Berber, on the return journey. It is curious, to say the least of it, that such a zealous anthropologist as Dr. Schweinfurth should not have visited the several families of the Akkas pigmies, who were compelled to dwell in the vicinity of the Monbuttoo king. These Akkas are remarkably similar to the Bushmen of South Africa in many respects. Dr. Schweinfurth gives a list of the dwarf races known in Africa, and regards them as the scattered remains of an aboriginal population now becoming extinct, an hypothesis borne out by their isolated and sporadic settlements. Our travellers appear to have made no attempt to penetrate further south in the direction of the enigmatical Lualaba of Livingstone, although only five degrees of latitude intervened. After a stay of three weeks among the Monbuttoo, the Doctor retraced his steps with great unwillingness towards the north. On the return journey, the Niam-Niam tribes gave some trouble. These Niam - Niams have

evidently a strong affinity with the Fans of the West Coast, a thousand miles away; they use a peculiar iron missile with several limbs, pointed prongs, and sharp edges, called by the Arabs trumbash.

"With his lance in one hand, his woven shield and trumbash in the other with his scimitar in his girdle and his loins encircled by a skin, to which are attached the tails of several animalsadorned on his breast and on his forehead by strings of teeth, the trophies of war or of the chase shoulders his large eyes gleaming from beneath -his long hair floating freely over his neck and his heavy brow-his white and pointed teeth shining from between his parted lips-he advances with a firm and defiant bearing, so that the stranger as he gazes upon him may well behold in this true son of the African wilderness every attribute of the wildest savagery that may be conjured up by the boldest flight of fancy."

In December a great disaster befell Schweinfurth. The seriba of Ghattas, where he was, was consumed by a great conflagration, in which perished the accumulation of his labours, his journals, observations, natural history collections, his clothes, guns, instruments, tea, and quinine, &c., all his vocabularies and measurements, everything almost, in a single hour were gone, "the plunder of the flames." Could anything be more disheartening? The disgusted voyager retreated to Kurshook Ali's seriba, beyond the Djour, and employed the last six months which remained before the trading-boats would start on their return journey in exploring the country about the River Pongo, visited by Heuglin in 1863. On hearing of the disaster at Ghattas' seriba, Dyafer Pasha despatched a munificent supply of provisions to Dr. Schweinfurth, which, had they arrived in time, would have enabled him to defer his return to Europe; but he was already on his way back, and on the 21st of July was enabled to telegraph his arrival at Khartoom to his Consul at Alexandria.

In the latter portion of the work are many interesting details of the slave-trade, with practical suggestions for its suppression, which we recommend to the notice of Sir Samuel Baker and his successor, Col. Gordon, of Chinese renown, in whose operations our English interest in Central Africa chiefly

centres. We can only conclude by echoing Sir Bartle Frere's remark in his address at the opening of the present session of the Royal Geographical Society, to which these volumes of Dr. Schweinfurth give additional weight; viz., that Central Africa can no longer be regarded as a sealed country; and that every year will diminish the wide space which still continues a blank on our maps, and add to our knowledge, now so fragmentary, of the real limits and resources of the vast Nile basin.

NOVELS OF THE WEEK.

No Alternative. By Annie Thomas (Mrs. Pender Cudlip). 2 vols. (Chapman & Hall.) Sweet, not Lasting. By Annie B. Lefurt. (Low & Co.)

Mrs. Greville. By Ursula. 3 vols. (Chapman & Hall.)

L'Argent des Autres. Par Émile Gaboriau. (Paris, Dentu; London, Dulau & Co..) Le Mariage de Juliette. Par Hector Malot. (Paris, Michel Lévy, Frères.)

Une Belle-Mère. Same author and publisher. 'NO ALTERNATIVE' strikes us as a bad name for a novel. It suggests that the reader is shut up in a dull country-house on a wet winter's day with Mrs. Cudlip's book and no other, and cannot help himself, but must read it whether he will or no. We thought that Mrs. Cudlip had reached the climax of vulgarity in her last book, when she made a mother address her children as "cubs," and bid them "surge up stairs "; but, in her present work, she calls all her characters with whom she is not satisfied "bad eggs." "No Alternative' is a "bad egg." At the same time we must not be understood to imply that Mrs. Cudlip It is because she is clever in has not talent. her way, and able to do better work, that we feel bound to state that she is both vulgar and inartistic in her books.

We

'Sweet, not Lasting,' is the not inappropriate title of the slightest of novelettes. are amused, harrowed, and dismissed in one volume with largely printed pages. The story deals for the most part with cheerful people in a picturesque part of Ireland, and though the plot is tragic, it is sufficiently commonplace not seriously to interfere with our enjoyment of the scenery and the people. Nellie is a simple maiden, heart-broken by the conduct of a dashing young doctor, who is also an unprincipled flirt. She dies of hard work as a Sister of Mercy, and the doctor, of course, turns up in time for final forgiveness. A certain Irish abandon is to be traced in the style. We have a quotation from Mr. Kingsley, misrendered and fathered on Wordsworth; the swallow's haunt is on the eaves, not under them, as in England; and finally, by a charming clerical error, "beautiful married men warned against falling in love with " who are not their husbands."

a

women

'Mrs. Greville,' we are told, is the work of "somewhile" Sister of Mercy, and in that point of view is curious. It is a most elaborate and detailed account of the moral ruin of a woman, and her rehabilitation by means of what, in the phraseology of a certain school, is life. Her inability to called the "religious govern her passions, and her subsequent lapse into superstition, are obviously to be traced Given a weak, sensuous to the same cause.