Reviews of Books. tration to his congregation under ordinary conditions and circumstances. 'Some Features in Human Life;' 'The Divine Reciprocating the Human; The Forming of Human Life;' Some of the Constituent Elements of the Divine Order;' 'The Great Advent and Its Glory;' 'The Human and the Divine Sides of Trials;' and 'The Gospel Phases ;'such are the titles of the discourses. These are calm and reflective in style; they deal more with the facts of human life and outward nature than with doctrinal intricacies; but they appear to us neither profound enough for immortality, nor sufficiently lively to become popular. The Wanderer Brought Home. The Life of Colin. An Autobiography reprinted from the Bristol Temperance Herald. With Reflections by the Rev. B. Richings, M.A., vicar of Mancetter, Warwickshire. Second edition. London: W.Tweedie, 337, Strand. THE very interesting autobiography before us, was originally printed in the Bristol Temperance Herald, at the suggestion of the late excellent Joseph Eaton, of Bristol. In its present form, as a neatly printed volume, it will attain, we hope, a much more extensive notoriety. It is well worthy of perusal. The writer underwent many startling experiences. A life that was intended and adapted for honour and extensive usefulness, became at a very early period warped and turned awry by one all-absorbing appetite which turned poor Colin's glory into shame, severed him from his wife and child for more than twenty years, made him the victim of almost numberless mischances, on many occasions brought him within a hair's breadth of a horrible death, yet was at length completely conquered by means of the temperance pledge in humble reliance on Divine assistance. The man, we understand, is still alive, and the facts of his very remarkable narrative are well authenticated. 95 Man and Apes: A Lecture delivered at the Croydon Literary and Scientic Institution, Jan. 21st, 1864. By Wm. Boyd Mushet, M.B., London, &c., &c. London: Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row. THE recently much-vexed question of the origin and species of man, the relation of negroes to the rest of the human family, and of this family to the apes, are very learnedly discussed in this pamphlet. The Patent Question: A Solution of Difficulties by Abolishing or Shortening the Inventor's Monopoly and Instituting National Recompenses. A Paper submitted to the Congress for the Promotion of Social Science, at Edinburgh, October, 1863. By Robert Andrew Macfie, President of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. To which are added, Translations of Earnest Contributions to Patent Reform. By M. Chevalier and other Continental Economists. London: W. T. Johnson, 127, Fleet-street. THE title fully explains the scope of the pamphlet before us. But it does not testify, as we are able to do, to the great ability shown by the writer in working up his materials, and in producing an irresistible argument. The Children's Party; or, A Day at Upland. by Cousin Helen. London: S. W. Partridge, 9, Paternoster Row. FIVE original tales, in verse chiefly are ingeniously tied together by the author. They are well planned, and pleasantly told. This is one of the nicest little books for children that we have opened of late. The Monster Liquor List. Reprinted from the Alliance News' of 23rd and 30th January, 1864. With an Appendix, The Slain by Drink in Liverpool.' Manchester: United Kingdon Alliance. London: Job Caudwell, 335, Strand. IN January of the present year the 'Alliance News' gave a list of cases of crime and of bodily injury or death, selected from British and Irish newspapers, all of which had been published within one week (Jan. 3rd to Jan. 9th). The cases, as reported in the newspapers, were cut out, arranged under heads, and reprinted in the 'Alliance News;' and they ac tually filled fifty-six columns of that journal. The whole monster list is now reprinted in a pamphlet of seventy-two pages, with a cover, and is sold for fourpence. We subjoin a summary of the cases in this terrible list of a single week's record of the doings of the liquor-traffic. Drunken, Disorderly, and Riotous Conduct through Drink... Bodily Injury or Peril because of Drink. Female Drunkenness and Disorder Drunken Indecent Assaults on Women Brutal Cruelty to Wives and Children excited by Drink. Robbery, assisted by Drink Attempted Suicide through Drink Completed Suicide through Drink Stabbing through Drink.. Cutting and Wounding through Drink Manslaughter and Murder through Drink OTHER PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. Events of the Month: A Magazine of News, Literature, Science, and General Information. London: John and Charles Mozley, 6, Paternoster Row. The Maine Law Almanac for 1864. London: Job Caudwell, 335, Strand. Buy Your Own Cherries. In Rhyme. Versified from the Prose Narrative, by J. W. Kirton; by the author of 'Dip Your Roll in Your Own Pot.' London: S. W. Partridge, 9, Paternoster Row. Sketch of the Life and Labours of Robert Gray Mason, Temperance Advocate. By Wm. Logan, Glasgow, author of 'Sketches of the Temperance Labours of John Dunlop, Wm. Collins, Joseph Livesey, &c.' London: W. Tweedie, 337, Strand. Old Jonathan ; or the District and Parish Helper. London: W. Hill Collingridge, 117 to 119, Aldersgate-street. The British Workman. London: S. W. Partridge, 9, Paternoster Row. The Financial Reformer. A Monthly Periodical, established by the Council of the Financial Reform Association, July, 1858, to advocate Economical Government, Just and Simple Taxation, and Perfect Freedom of Trade. Liverpool: J.R. Williams and Co., 1, Manesty's Lane. The Life-boat; or Journal of the National Life-boat Institution. London: 14, John-street, Adelphi. "Tis Buts,' and How To Take Care of Them. By J. W. Kirton, author of Buy Your Own Cherries,' &c. London S. W. Partridge, 9, Paternoster Row. The Market Pint: A Story for Working Men's Wives. By J. E. Gray. London: S. W. Partridge, 9, Paternoster Row. Meliora. ART. I.-PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to Inquire into the Revenues and Management of certain Colleges and Schools, and the Studies pursued, and the Instruction given therein; with an Appendix and Evidence presented to both Houses of Parliament. 4 Vols. Eyre and Spottiswoode. ORE than one parallel has been drawn between the years 1854 and 1864. There is a most obvious similarity in the European events of the two years. The agressive hostility of Germany towards Denmark has, in all its stages, offered a counterpart to that of Russia towards Turkey. The crossing of the Eider recalled the passage of the Pruth; the occupation of the Danish Duchies, as a material guarantee, reminded the spectator of the occupation of the Danubian Provinces under a similar pretext. The departure of the Austrian fleet for the North Sea seemed ominously like the entry of the Black Sea by the Russian fleet. The strong Court influence exercised in favour of one of the disputants, the universal national feeling in favour of the other; the tedious diplomacy ending in failure, the increasing irritability of the English people, all these symptoms have marked the European difficulty of 1864 as they had that of 1854. The parallel extended even to incidental minutiæ. In 1854, when England was drifting into war, she was called upon to consider the condition and management of one of her great educational institutions. In 1864, when the current of events seemed to be setting strongly in the same direction, public attention was directed to another of these institutions. In 1854, during the intervals between the anxious debates on the Eastern question, Parliament was called upon to determine a scheme for the better government of our universities. In 1864, the condition of our public schools has been brought forward between two discussions on the Dano-German question. Here, however, the parallel ends. Vol. 7.-No. 26. G The The debates of 1854 were excited by an actual measure before Parliament. The bill for reforming the University of Oxford was one of that splendid programme of measures which the Aberdeen Cabinet announced at the beginning of the session. It was one of the few which escaped the sacrifice that was forced upon the Government by the urgency of foreign affairs. The discussion of it occupied nearly a third of the available debating time of the session. But the discussion on public schools has been limited to four speeches, and a portion of one night in the Commons, and to some measure of attention in the Lords. Mr. Gladstone, on behalf of the Palmerston Cabinet, has expressly said that they were unprepared with any measure, and that the question must stand over till next session. But although Mr. Grant Duff's long and not very readable speech, delivered in the House of Commons on the 6th of May, led to no immediate result, it elicited a promise from Mr. Gladstone that the matter should be taken in hand during the recess, and be made the subject of legislation next year. This announcement renders it the more important, that all persons who take an interest in such an important matter as the education of that class whence 'our governing families' are derived, should give it their best consideration, with a view to prepare the way for a useful measure. The subject has acquired its present prominence through a Royal Commission, which was appointed so long ago as July 18th, 1861, on the motion of Mr. Grant Duff, M.P. for Elgin. The Commissioners were the Earl of Clarendon, the Earl of Devon, Lord Lyttelton, the Hon. Edward Turner Boyd Twisleton, Sir Stafford Henry Northcote, Bart., M.P., the Rev. William Hepworth Thompson, and Mr. Henry Holford Vaughan. The Commissioners had an able and industrious secretary in Mr. Mountague Bernard. They were directed to inquire into the management of nine schools: Eton, Winchester, Westminster, Charterhouse, St. Paul's, Merchant Taylors', Harrow, Rugby, and Shrewsbury. They held their first meeting July 20, 1861, and continued sitting at intervals to May 15, 1863, in all 127 times. At the first meetings, a series of printed questions were drawn up, which were subsequently sent to the authorities of the several schools, with a series of tabulated forms which they were requested to fill up, and which were not all returned until a year after the Commission was appointed. Twelve months were occupied in examining witnesses viva voce. Of these there were 130. Their evidence occupies two thick blue books, containing, together, 970 pages. The replies to the printed questions are Schools and Public Men. 99 are given in another blue book, and the report of the Commissioners, which is founded upon all this voluminous evidence, and also upon personal inspection of each school, is in a fourth blue book, the first volume. The four books together contain nearly 2,000 pages, which, not only by their number, but by the admirable analysis with which they are accompanied, testify to the exceeding industry of the noblemen and gentlemen who undertook this onerous task. It is scarcely necessary in these days to point out the important place which our public schools hold in the social life of this country. It is not merely that some 2,300 boys are being educated at the nine schools above mentioned, it is not that at Eton alone there are nearly 800 scholars, but that this number includes our future statesmen and warriors. The Duke of Wellington declared that the Battle of Waterloo was fought on Eton cricket ground. The memorials which have been erected by the schools to the memory of old scholars who have fallen in battle, shew how large a share these schools have had in forming the men who have helped to make England's history. One of the smallest of these institutions has recorded on its memorial column, in the Broad Sanctuary, a long roll of heroes who died doing their country service on the frozen heights of Sebastopol, or in the scorched plains of India during the mutiny. And as to Eton itself, what would English history be deprived of some dozen of her scholars? Of Chatham, Fox, Cornwallis, Wellesley, the two Cannings, Grey, Ellenborough, Melbourne, Elgin, Lewis, and Gladstone? Nor is it only that these schools have the making of the men who make our history. It is there that the boys are trained, who, when they become men, will, though they possess no commanding abilities, be the hereditary rulers of the nation. Eton and Harrow especially are almost the appanages of the peerage. 'Our governing families,' the upper ten thousand,' are imbued at these schools with the flavour, which, early imparted, will be long retained. It is, moreover, in these, the most aristocratic institutions of the country, that we find the greatest freedom from exclusiveness. Puppyism and flunkeyism meet with no mercy at Eton. The new boy who, on being asked his name, replied Lord Edward Rockingham, got three kicks' for the Lord Edward, and three for the too patrician-like name of Rockingham. Youthful aristocracy is essentially democratic, or rather it admits only an aristocracy of worth. It is not exactly as they read in Horace, that the wise man is king, but the clever boy, the boy who knows how to handle the oar and the bat. The commoner is on an equal footing with the young marquis, if he be equally 'good' Uor M |