The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-05-01 00:00:00

aar2.-aa- LITERATURE.
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BiAckwoon for May:
There is no leek of variety in the new number ef this
'earn:rite Magazinet. yet is' it of a somewhat graver
character than Usual, opens tvitli a very seasonable
and valuable paper---" War and frogreia it China,"
which is a sequel to one on the same subject in:the
April number; in which it was pointed out and dephired
to how limited, a portion of that vast empire our trade
is at„present restricted, and the reason shown why those
dwelling on the seaboard of its four accessible provinces
are opposed to any treaty which opens the interior to
European commerce : while it is now explained why
"an energetic ?Aid prudent series of military and naval:
operatios is riec::siary for, Imperial interests, and may
he most profitably carried Ott in I'Zorthein China."
This is followed by an interesting article on quite
another subject—" Munich, and. its School of Christian
Art,"7—Munich where, as is remarked, " there is much
that is false, much which, pretending to the sublime,
ends in the ridiculous," but where, at the same time,
there is much that is praiseworthy; and, therefore, says
the, writer,. ", let tis accord to Minuet' art and the
German, Christlari. sCihoof the tronout which is their
due,"—which is accordingly clerk. Captain' Speke, the
African traveller," was already favourably, ktiovin to the
readers of Blackwood ; and he renews, in this number,
the story of his travels—going back, rather,, to its
earlier incidents, presenting, as he does, a narrative of
his first advintitreg in Africa—in the Somali country,
an elbow of land lying tiebween the eqUator and the
11th degree of north latittide, which; from: its peculiar
form, is designated the Eastern Horn of Africa. Next
we have, a curious disquisition on quite a different
subject again-a." Judicial Puzzles," as exemplified in
the extraordinary case of Elizabeth Canning, about the
middle of the last century, 'a servant girl who was
missing for four weeks, dtiring which time no' trace of
her could be discovered, but who at length cast up,
"pale, tottering, emaciated, livid, bent almost double,
With no clothes but her shift, a wretched petticoat, and
a filthy bedgown, a rag tied over her head, bleeding
from a
.wound in hsr ear ;" and whose account of
herself, and the way in which she fell into so pitiable a
condition, constitute the judicial puzzle in 9nestion.
No one can have read " Wellington's Career—Part I;"
in the last number, witlitait longing for its continuation
—and here it is—Part ll.—taking up the military
career of the Great. Captain, at his operations near the
foot of the Western Pyrenees, bringing it 'down to the
year when, "at the age of 49, he finally sheathed the
good sword,, which had struck its finishing stroke at
Waterloo,"—but carrying forward the narrative of his
public services, in , diplomacy, in legislation,: and in
administration, to the final close of his eventful and
invaluable public life. " The. Mill on the Floss," as
all the world already knows, is the title of a new tale
by the popular author of ," Adam .Bede i" ;and here we
have a comprehensive sketch of it, and a.critical exami-
nation of its merits. " A Feuilleton"—a novelty in the
pages of Maga—imparts further pleasing variety to this
number ; and it is the only really light article that it
contains. The number closes with a politicalamper of
very seasonable interest--" Switzerland. and French
Annexation"—in which a question that is still one of
anxiety and apprehension to Europe is very fully and
very ably discussed and elucidated, regarding it as the
result of an unjustifiable and a dangerous treaty between
France and Sardinia, the" only chance of a safe Modiff-
'cation of which, it is:declared, "lies in the deliberations
of a congress composed of the European powers prin7•
cipally interested in the important alteration which the
formation of an Italian kingdom, and the tenor.of its
first treaty, has effected in the balance of power :in
Europe." Still further to give variety to the eentents-
of this number, there are two poems by P. S. Worsley
—" Narcissus," and the " Snow Drops "

CAPTURE or A STURGEON.--On Saturday morning,
a sturgeon, measuring eight feet in length, and three
feet'six inch& givurgemirer and -weighing three
stotics,,was might- in the river Den-at Doncaster. A
sbeitig the filth sporting about in the Wath, got a
harpoon, and flung it with so much skill and force as to
render the capture of the sturgeon very easy.