The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-07 00:00:00

ME MAGAZINES.

everal good articles appear in at, haul's. The writes
on " The Election Petitions" discusses in a non-partisan
spirit, the effect of the new tribunal for trying the validity
of elections. He comes to the conclusion that the nelf
system, though an improvement upon the old method,
does not provide a sufficient safeguard against electoral
abuses. For instance, with regard to the general belief
that it is cheaper because the petition is tried in the town
instead of in London, it is pointed out that, although the
petitioners save the cost of bringing the witnesses to
the metropolis, the cost of one eminent counsel (who
is obliged to be engaged) outweighs that of many wit.
nesses. Still, the writer has no doubt that the reform, in
so far as it has gone, is one in the right direction. A
judicial verdict may he uncertain, but it is certainty itself
compared with the decision of.a parliamentary committee.
The important question of "Army Reform" Is once more
discussed, this time by a private dragoon. He is plain-
spoken in his views, which may be summed up briefly as
follows :—He does not agree with the notion that the
lowest soldiers should be able to rise to the highest
position in the army, and this opinion is due to the
fact that his experience convinces him that the private
soldier is an " arrant snob." He would sooner (so says
the dragoon) be kicked by a lord than civilly entreated by
a mushroom man—wherein he differs not materially from
his civilian countrymen. some interesting particulars
are given of " A Lunatic Colony," situated at Gheel,
twenty miles from Antwerp. In that place a large
proportion of the population consists of insane
persons, who share in all the daily toils and
pleasures as other sane fellow citizens, who live
in fraternal equality with them, and are permitted freely
to take part in their religious festivals and ceremonies.
M. Lanfrey's work on Napoleon I. comes in for the highest
praise, through the fact that the historian tells his facts
simply and forcibly, because he indulges in no efforts to
reproduce an imaginary past and never directs the atten-
tion of the reader to speculations of his own. Mr. Fagan's
memoir of Daniel O'Connell is subjected to a searching
criticism, which, I think, is most richly deserved. The
two tales still continue to claim divided honours among
the contributions in Mr. Trollop's magazine.
Temple Bar this month presents a readable number.
The serial " Susan Fielding and Kitty" progresses satis-
factorily, and the other contents, though possessing no
e
great depth, are most interesting. A eulogy of the
musician Gluck, without fulsome flattery, places the good
parts of the composer before the reader ; and "Six Years
in the Prisons of England" calls attention to phases in
the treatment of our criminals—how they are dealt with
in the prisons—which has been lost sight of to a great
extent in the discussions on the subject. The writer is
opposed to capital punishment, and enthusiastically calls
for the humanitarian treatment of time dangerous classes. He
wants to make them work, and give them in some way an
interest in their work. "The Turn of Fortune's Wheel " and
" The Majolica Painterof Urbino"make up the quantity of
fiction. A contribution for the ladies is given in " Flirts
and Flirtation." Flirtation is defended, on the ground
that by it alone
girls can get to find out, without being
doomed for life, of what men are made. Men themselves
ought to understand and do, up to a certain point, what is
meant ; and if they after a time take things too seriously,
whose fault is 'it? Girls are warned, however, not to
indulge too freely, for they may be nipped instead of the
men.

The Art Journal opens with an engraving of Maclise's
" The Warrior's Cradle," which faithfully represents that
attist's hard and minute style—he should have been an
armourer. Mr. H. Dawson's " A Stormy Sunset" is in
en iis that of M. Mathurin-
ng
every way admirable, and is a capital study of clouds.
The other principal
Moreau's bronze group " Cornelia." Mr. Hall takes his
readers to Castle Howard, a very stately specimen of the
stately homes of England. Mr. Dafforne gives a biography
TideY, an artist whose reputation grows
of Mr. Henry grav
from year to year. Among the miscellaneous articles
are acounts of the exhibitions of Welmert's pictures and
those at Mr. Maclean's Gallery. What I may call the
leading article deals with the Highlanders of Scotland,
and is based upon Mr. Macle's book. The tour through
the picture galleries of Italy takes the reader to the far-
famed Pitti Gallery, at Florence. I would venture a
word of counsel to the binder. His covers should hold
together until the Journal is promoted to substantial
boards.

Mrs. Gladstone's Convalescent Nome is the first subject
discussed in the current number of the J'ictoria, and it is
one which cannot fail to commend itself to the hearty sym-
pathy of its readers. There can be no doubt that in
ministering to suffering and relieving unmerited distress
woman is in her trite element. The record
of what Mrs. Gladstone, Miss Twining, and others
like them have been able to achieve shews how
much may be done by women amongst its even though
they may not be able to write M.P. or M.A. after their
names. An article on the Education of Women declares
the great deficiency in the teaching of girls to be its lack
of thoroughness. There is no doubt great truth in this,
though the programme of the writer might not be always
cept ible. At least the subject is thoroughly discussed,
for the essay in question occupies twenty-seven pages.
"oLmiepc lore
a paper which tells us
and there are notices on Female
Suffrage, Ladies' Clubs, Miss Rye's Emigrants, and other
Borrieou osf our Forefathers" ; is
kindred topics.

The approach of spring renders gardening an important
consideration, and amateurs and professional cultivators
will find a good deal of useful information in the Gardener
for April. The article on the Rose is continued from last
month, and treats of pillar roses, standard roses and
weeping rose trees. There is, besides, an essay on the cub.
tivation of hardy fruits ; and among the general informa-
tion for the month a compendious list of new plants and
new flowers is riven.
readable tnis montn.
Professor Tyndall's is
damllo'sresttyillaenislispuearlflect. There is no other
writer that I know who can so perfectly convey an ideaby
one or two words. What can be finer, for instance, than the
words I have italicised? " A swathe of fog ;" " the Weiss-
horn shook out a banner towards the north, formed by the
humid southern air as it grazed the crest of the mountain;"
"hacked and hurt by time,
the aspect of the Matterhorn
from its higher crags saddened me ;" "the alternation of
sun and frost have made wondrous havoc on the southern
face of the Matterhorn, cutting much away,
but leaving
brown-red masses of the most imposing magnitude behind
—pillars and towers and splintered obelisks, clearly cut out
of the mountain—grand in their hoariness, and softened
by the colouring of age' Mr. Tyndall's account of the
etapof his eight years' war with the Matterhorn is in-
tensely exciting, even to readers who, like me, have seen
the mountain only from Zermatt and the Ge- Grat. What
the acoanyt must be to those fsiv favoured climbers who
have actually made this, themsiii perilous of all the Alpine
ascents, I can well imagine. Miss Olney's story, ".Astelle,"
of which the large instalment of forty pages is given, is
very lively and amusing. Mr. Morrison's paper on
Phy-
sical Education is a review of Mr. Maclaren's book, but
takes no note of the daily increasing grumble of parents
that physical education is becoming almost the beginning
and end of teaching at cur great public schools. An article
on " The Worth of Educational Endowments " is an
answer to Mr. Lowe's condemnation of endowments, and
!thews in terms, mainly borrowed from the Education Com-
missioners' report, how a large number of charitable en-
dowments, at present useless and even injurious,
might be
turned to good account by devoting them to the partial
sh
support of good schools. Sir John Lubbock reviereviewsyortl Mr. Wallace's "yan Archpe ,
" which
seems to be a really brilliant book of travel. " Iwo Views
of the Convent Question" are written by two ladies, one
of whom wrote the article in the February number on the
Position of Women. Both articles are full of sound sense,
and administer a severe and deserved rebuke to the majority
of the newspapers for their flippant and superficial articles
on the Saurin case. They assumed that because there
were petty details and quarrels in convent life therefore
the life was all petty; which is just as if one were to say
that because husband and wife sometimes quarrelled about
the dinner, and the mistress of the house sometimes dusted
the drawing-room china,
therefore married life was wholly
mean and petty. The writers assert that conventual life
is making rapid progress among our upper classes. They
lament this, for they think the life has greater disadvan-
tages than advadvantages; but the fact remains, and all the
articles in all the Protestant
journals in the world will
not alter the fact. Ifit is to 1)
altered it must be by
giving women another choice than that which is now
offered them, the inanity of fashionable life or the strict-
ness of conventual life.
The Dublin University Magazine is as strong as ever in
the amount of its fiction. The class of stories which it
publishes is not, however of the
highest. Vapid senti-
mentalism marks too many of its novels, and to judge of
life from the Dublin University one would look on it
as a dreamy, unreal kind of existence, whose end
and aim is to
get into love. There are three
stories now annearing as serials, "My F)wn Stern"
"Up and Down in the World," and the " Wyvern
Mystery," all of Which make progress. Besides these, a
complete tale is presented, called Ruth." ft tells how
a gentleman unwittingly
wed an occasional lunatic, and
then in trying for her sake to hide her infirmities
from the world, incurs the obloquy of society.
Of course he is thoroughly vindicated at the last.
'Though the novelette is not free from that misty
unreality which marks the stories which appear in
this magazine, it conveys a healthy, manly moral. The
" padding "is variott9 both in kind and merit. The
worldliness of the stories is counterbalanced occasionally
by controversial articles on the genuineness of the Gospels
and Epistles, &c. The history of the Theatre Royal,
Dublin, is an interesting compilation. The other articles
come up on the whole to the usual standard.
'ood Words is, as
reakinz illustration to "al,ebham's Vow" is excellent.
at, n ouncuty luagaztne tor tnis month is up to the average.
The " City Man's" usu well illustrated. The love-
articles are capital. But why, by
continuing his stories of " Hoppety Bob" has he shewn to
his readers that his hero is only a creature of the imaginer
tion after? all The articles on Ragged Schools, by Dr.
Guthrie, are very good. He tells how sad he became when,
leaving his ministry in the village of Arbilot; where they'
was only one public-house, that outside the town, only
three or four drunkards and everybody attended church, he
came to Edinburgh, where public houses are so plentiful and
(it follows as the ni,lht tha dayLhurch-zottemerefLfew- .4