The Devil's Chain. By Edward Jenkins, M.P., Author of "Ginx's Baby," &c. (Strahan and Co.) -The Demon of Drink is the forger of the chain which Mr. Jenkins exhibits here, in what he describes as its Nine Links. The accidents, vices, and crimes found recorded in the newspapers, during a long period, as the direct result of intemperance, are gathered together, and woven into the tissue of a short tale of wretchedness, ruin, and terror. High and low, men and women, young and old, laymen, clergymen, are all hurried downwards to perdition, chained by ungovernable habit. The tale is something of this kind. A woman, once of good position, but fallen into vicious habits, leaps from a window to instant death, at the moment that her tipsy husband, whom she had not seen for years, reels past her lifeless body, tumbles over it, and is "took" by the police. The inquest is held in the neighbourhood, of course at a public house-"The Wetted Whistle"-where the police inspector, the coroner, his clerk, the jurymen, the witnesses, and the public all refresh themselves, according to a nicely graduated scale, from ale and gin mixed, to rare old brandy, for the benefit of the house. There steps on the scene a very important personage indeed-no other than Mr. Bighorne, senior partner of the eminent firm of distillers, Bighorne, Swill, Pewter, Ball, and Juniper. His daughter, a strong-minded young person, rather inclined to Radical opinions and an uncompromising denouncer of her father's spirits gains, is almost the only character in the tale who neither drinks nor comes personally to grief. Her only brother is demoralised by what he sees and learns in the course of his father's business. He gets into trouble, runs down to the shires, and is sheltered, for a consideration, by Bill Knowsley, a stalwart and drunken workman in Lord Dibblecum's ironworks. In one night a series of brutal murders, such as we too often read of in the newspapers, was perpetrated by the ruffian's hand. Then the model West-country tradesman, a classleader of the Methodists, but long addicted in secret to the fatal glass, is drawn into the whirlpool. A country clergyman, also, "falls like Lucifer, never to rise again," and drags other victims along with himself. A Secretary of State brings the tale to a climax, not by his intemperance, but by other iniquities. Spirit of alcohol, however, is the cause of his destruction. Flying the country in an emigrant ship, the vessel he sails in catches fire in the Channel, while the crew is drunk and the captain only half-sober. A broken gin-bottle is set alight by a match, the store of spirits flames up, and not a human being escapes destruction. Such are the materials of a powerful-one might say almost too powerfulstory.

The Doctrine of Retribution. Bampton Lecture, 1875. By William Jackson, M.A., F.S.A. (Hodder and Stoughton.)-As the year comes round, so does the Oxford Bampton Lecture. Mr. Jackson has selected the doctrine of Final Retribution as the subject of his eight lectures for the present year. He treats it, as he tells us at the outset, as a contribution to the Philosophy of Natural Religion. He sets before him the task of answering one of the most anxious questions ever proposed by the reasoning mind of man, as to whether retributive justice is, or is not, hovering over human futurities. If this question is answered affirmatively, and a final retribution is indicated by the facts of our moral nature, then, he maintains, the reasonable truth of certain religious beliefs must follow-beliefs which lie

beyond man's present existence, and constitute a natural religion. Such is the line of thought and argument adopted; and, in carrying it out, the lecturer claims to follow a method entirely different from that chosen by recent controversialists; and this in several respects. As, for example, instead of submitting to critical examination some form of preternatural belief which had been familiar from childhood, as writers on natural religion generally do; instead of scrutinizing what remains of it, after eliminating from it every supernatural element, Mr. Jackson begins at the other end, by considering, not what has been held religious, but what is ascertainably natural. A sketch of natural religion is outlined, after examining into the specific character and attributes of human nature. The author protests against the fashion of treating English philosophy as a department of light literature. Theologians, however, and men with a natural turn for philosophical reasoning, will thank the lecturer for his labour, even if they do not altogether adopt his views. If, as he tells us, open and undisguised atheism has been making rapid and extensive progress in Our country within the last twenty years, a more important topic cannot be named. After clearing his ground, meeting and answering objections, and weighing the opinions of recent sceptics and materialists, Mr. Jackson, in the concluding lectures of his course, rises into eloquence as he builds up his own theory, in the "Growth, Trial, and Triumph of Man's Moral Being," and his closing, "Absolute Truth, and the Solemn Hereafter."

The History of the Paisley Grammar School, from its foundation in 1576. By Robert Brown. (Paisley Alex. Gardner.)-Paisley, a prosperous manufacturing town in the west of Scotland, can boast of a grammar school, founded by James VI., in 1576, out of some of the spoils of St. Mirren's Abbey. Its subsequent history isrecorded with faithful minuteness by Mr. Brown. A few years ago, the grammar school received an important extension in an academy founded for the same educational purposes as the older school, and amalgamated with it. There is nothing to be known about this matter also that is not related a full length. Paisley has other schools, like those just mentioned, subject to the management of the town-council: the English, the Commercial, and the Low-Parish schools. Not the very least item of any one of these institutions is omitted. The illustrations amount to nearly fifty in number, consisting of facsimiles of charters, and other legal documents; of elevations of the several schools; memorial stones over their entrancedoors; lithographic portraits of many teachers of both sexes; and of facsimiles of signatures of teachers, dating from 1618 to the present time. Nor does Mr. Brown limit his information strictly tc the schools of Paisley. In his researches, he often lighted upon curious details connected with the town in general; and these are not excluded from his voluminous narrative. The body of the work being devoted to the record of successive teachers, a large Appendix is filled with the names of all the winners of prizes in all the schools during the last half-century. The toil and patience necessary to this encyclopædic history cannot have been small. The last item of information is a list of subscribers to a work supposed to be the earliest ever published at Paisley, and entitled "The Travels of True Godliness from the Beginning of the World to this Present Day," by Benjamin Heach. It was printed at Glasgow for Alexander Weir, bookseller, Paisley, in 1706, and most of the subscribers designated as weavers.

physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, biology, and technology, by thoroughly competent hands. Under the able editorship of Mr. George Gladstone, F. R. G. S. and F. C.S., the new series promises to recommend itself still further to public favour. The class of subjects contemplated is sufficiently wide to interest a variety of tastes; and more especially in the department of science the recognised position of the writers gives assurance that accuracy will not be sacrificed to mere popularity of style-a risk by no means unknown in other attempts to bring scientific information to the knowledge of ordinary readers who come to the subject without previous preparation. Neither is the presence of science considered as a danger to the religious element. The interests of the last, which are certainly not inferior in importance, are guaranteed by the known character of the writers.

The Shakspeare Birthday Book. (Hatchards.) -A book that has reached its seventeenth thousand must stand in as little need of recommendation as good wine does of commendatory bush. Nevertheless, for the information of younger readers, it may be well to enumerate a few of its most attractive features. Every day of every month in the year has its appropriate quotation from the Bard of Avon's works. On the opposite page are blanks, for the insertion of birthdays and other anniversaries. Upwards of a dozen photographic reproductions, taken from well-known pictures, illustrate many popular scenes in the plays. The Chandos portrait of the poet forms the frontispiece. On the title-page is a view of the house at Stratford in which he was born. prettier book for a present could hardly be found, combining, as it does, the external attractions of handsome binding, with the more lasting valuc of Shakspeare's wit and wisdom.

A

The New Quarterly Magazine (Ward, Lock, and Tyler) has made its mark. Each succeeding number has been an improvement upon the one before, and the current number is the best. All the articles are readable, and there is no padding. A new feature has now been added-a general review of the current literature and current criticism of the quarter. This is done with considerable freedom and great judgment. Unlike most of the critical journals, the new Quarterly has no fear of losing its advertising connection by speaking freely; it can therefore afford to be impartial. We are sadly in want of a critical journal which can afford to do without advertisements, and which shall at the same time be free from the domination of clique; then-but not till thenwill criticism be in a healthy condition.

The Monthly Packet of Evening Readings for Members of the English Church. Edited by the Author of "The Heir of Redclyffe." New Series, Vol. XX. (Mozley and Smith.)-Acceptable in every sense, the twentieth volume of this favourite magazine appears with the last day of the old year. It is as full as ever of suggestive reading-fiction, poetry, folk-lore, and historical sketches taking, as of right, the prominent places. Mr. Drury gives us an interesting account of the Passion Play performed last October at Oberammergau; R. F. L. furnishes many interesting hints as to the proper conduct of the house, and of woman's work generally; while the Editor and others supply admirable stories for family perusal. An interesting feature of the "Monthly Packet is found in the correspondence department, which serves as a pleasant medium for intercommunication between readers, apparently to the profit and pleasure of many beyond the actual writers. These, with "Odds and Ends of Weather Wisdom," and other miscellaneous articles, make up a volume which, open it where we may, is horoughly readable.

The Argonaut. Edited by George Gladstone, F.R.G.S., &c. (Hodder and Stoughton.)-This high-class monthly magazine, devoted to literary, scientific, social, and religious subjects, has now been for two years favourably known to the public. The January number commences a new and enlarged series, embracing articles of fiction, folklore, foreign travel, alchemy, and a review of the recent progress of science, interspersed with woodcut illustrations. Among the contributors to the general literature department may be mentioned Mr. John Macgregor (Rob Roy), Sir Charles Reed (Chairman of the London School Board), Dr. Rae, Prebendary Row, and others. The periodical reports on scientific progress will include notices of

The Australian Handbook and Almanac, and Shippers' and Importers' Directory for 1876 (Gordon and Gotch). With a fine map of Australia, and several smaller maps and plans of the separate islands, provinces, and cities of the southern continent, this handbook comes to us improved and improving year by year. This, the seventh annual issue, contains a large quantity of valuable information on everything connected with the Australias-the arrival and departure of the mails, the postal and customs regulations, the emigration movement, the current rates of wages and cost of house-rent and provisions, the gold fields, geography, climate, product, and commerce of New South Wales, Victoria, South and West Australia, New Zealand, Queensland, and Tasmania; with a gazetteer of the principal towns, and a directory of English shippers, resident importers, banks, bankers, companies, &c. In addition to this there is a well-written account of Fiji and New Guinea, with the regulations for taking up land, and numerous other particulars of importance to residents, shippers, traders, and emigrants.

But,

The Roman and the Teuton: A Series of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge. By Charles Kingsley, M. A. (Macmillan and Co.)-There were many people, at the time of Mr. Kingsley's appointment to the Chair of History at Cambridge, who thought it a grim joke of the Minister, at the expense of the University. Even his friend and editor, Professor Max Müller, is obliged to admit that Kingsley's lectures do not come up to the mark of what academicat lectures ought to be. however incomplete, they suffice to excite the interest of young men, and to direct their attention to questions of history that were till then new to them. If, therefore, the lecturer did not teach much history, he taught his students how to teach themselves. The demand for his lectures, we are told, still continues; and hence a new and popular edition is now issued, with a preface by Professor Max Müller. They refer, as their name imports, to the eventful period in the history of Europe when the effete empire of Rome was breaking up, when the barbarian hordes from the North were overrunning the fairest fields of the South, and new nationalities were rising on the ruins of the old. Mr. Kingsley's lectures will be found to supply, in many instances, a striking commentary on the facts that he describes, rather than an exact statement of those facts, for which the student must go to Gibbon and Gibbon's authorities. Professor Müller's contribution is, of course, running over with philological learning on points connected with Gothic names occurring in the lectures of his friend.

t

66

Life and Labours of John Ashworth, Author of Strange Tales." By A. L. Calman. Second Edition. (Manchester: Tubbs and Brook.)—In the town of Rochdale, Lancashire, there is no better-known name than that of John Ashworth. To the poorest of the poor it is a household word, and in the mansions of the great and wealthy it is not unfamiliar. The reason for this popularity is not far to seek. Born of lowly folk, in a little village in the neighbourhood, and passing all his life in Rochdale, he devoted himself to useful work among the poor. His series of tracts entitled "Strange Tales from Humble Life "-a series comprised in no fewer than sixty-one separate little books-have been printed and circulated not by tens of thousands merely, but literally by millions. Ministers of all denominations have aided in spreading them broadcast among the poor; kindly-natured people in all classes have discovered their value as moral reformers, and have interested themselves in their dissemination; and even the Queen herself has acknowledged that she has read some of them with interest and delight. For nearly a quarter of a century Mr. Ashworth laboured among the poor, and at last, just twelve months ago, resigned them into the hands of his biographer, Mr. Andrew Calman, who had long been his friend and assistant in the good work. The volume recording these and other events of his useful and unpretentious life is prefaced by a portrait engraved from a photograph taken in America, which he visited in 1873, and illustrated with views of his birthplace, and of the Chapel for the Destitute he founded and supported. In a modest preface Mr. Calman expresses a hope that, as the profits from its sale are to be devoted to that institution, the circulation of this ... oir may be extensive. That his wish will be gratified we entertain no sort of doubt.

SHORT NOTICES.

From Messrs. J. B. Bunyard and Co. :

The Floral

arches at Christmas, Easter, &c. & .umerous Illustrations in colours and gola. y W. and G. Audsley, Architects.-Young ladies fond of assisting the vicar and the curate in decorating the church will find in this volume all the directions necessary for the proper arrangement of the flowers, the banners, the crosses, rosettes, &c.

From Messrs. Cameron and Ferguson :

The Book of American Bedings, chiefly humorous in prose and verse, from the works of popular authors. A capital collection, neatly printed as a shilling volume.

The National School-Board & ries of Drawing Books, in Twelve Parts, designed by Mr. Robert Brydall, of the Glasgow School of A. o assist the young draughtsman from the very first step, the straight line, to the complete figure, landscape, or sketch: a capital set of books for self-teachers.

Romances of Soldier Life at Home and Abroad; or, Tales of the Guard Room. Half a dozen capital tales by Henry S. Wynne, who has evidently passed through many of the scenes he so graphically describes. The volume, very interesting and well printed, should certainly be popular.

( From the Christian Knowledge Society :

Out-of-Door Friends, a pretty little story, in which € the cat and the mouse, the squirrel and the owl, the rabbit and the frog, and others of our out-of-door friends discourse about matters with which they i: may be supposed to be fully acquainted; the author, Mr. F. Scarlett Potter, endeavouring to convey a notion of what he thinks may be the inner consciousness, moral sense, reason, instinct-call it what you may-possessed by the lower world of animals.

in

h

The Illustrated English Reader, Book I., printed in large type, with numerous illustrations.

The Elements of Geometry: Based on Euclid Books I. to III. By Edward Atkins, Author of "Pure Mathematics." To those who are acquainted with the ordinary school editions of Euclid the present work will be seen to present many important advantages, while to beginners in geometry the plan on which it is compiled will not be difficult of comprehension.

From Mr. W. H. Guest :

The Anglo-Israel Post Bag; or, "How Arthur came to see it. By the Rev. J. H. Titcomb, M.A., Hon. Canon of Winchester, and Vicar of St. Stephen's, South Lambeth. Originally written for a friend, these letters are now published with a view of removing some doubts in the minds of general readers as to the philological, historical, and other difficulties in the scripture narrative; the author inviting the most searching criticism which any of our ablest critics may condescend to bestow." From Mr. Francis Harvey :

"

Lectures on Dramatic Literature. By James Sheridan Knowles. Macbeth.-This dissertation has been extracted by Mr. Sydney Abbott, of the British Museum, from various memorandum books used by the well-known dramatist and actor in his lectures delivered more than forty years ago, and never before published. Sometimes one book, serving also as a diary or pocket tablet, contained two or three different lectures, with only the subject-matter to distinguish them. The writing was found to be very fragmentary and piecemeal, the same discourse being continued from book to book. Their sequence is now restored, and this lecture on Macbeth produced as a first instalment, the meinorandum books being, meanwhile, carefully preserved in morocco cases. Now that the recent production of the tragedy, with Mr. Henry Irving as the Thane of Cawdor, has attracted public attention, its publication is appropriate and well-timed; the more especially as it contains some valuable and erudite remarks.

From Messrs. Hatchards:

"

The Last Days of Judah. By Mrs. Clere, Author of Bethlehem's Three Mothers," &c. Embracing the details of the life of Jeremiah, the present volume may be taken as part only of the author's design, which is to follow the Hebrew captives to their exile in Babylonia and Persia. As it now appears, however, the work is complete, and exceedingly valuable as a guide to the Scripture

narrative.

Appendix of Tunes. Condensed Scor for the Supplement to the New Congregational 11ymn Books; supplying tunes for all the metres not already provided in the Congregational Church music. These tunes are either 'new or especially adapted, a large proportion of the melodies, and nearly all the harmonies, being copyright.

Tastes and Habits, Personal and Social, by Samuel James, M.A., Vicar of Northmarston, touch lightly on many topics of ephemeral interest, in a

s of short and readable papers. In dedicating little work to the Rev. Charles Bullock, B.D., *r. James seems to reflect on the questionable taste the bishops, in never having substantially recogsised the merit of his friend. The Prime Minister, or even the Lord Chancellor, might surely do someing to rectify so much injustice.

The Credentials of Christianity forms a fifth lume of Lectures delivered under the auspices of e Christian Evidence Society. The Christian pologists of last century, who, in their masterly ay, went over much of the same ground as the redentials, have no doubt grown out of date to this xtent, that although Christianity itself is not changed by the lapse of years, objections to it vary from age to age, with the changing tone of human society on that subject as on every other. Metaphysical speculation, for example, gives prominence to new lines of thought. Physical science has set up claims to pre-eminence undreamed of by Butler, or Watson, or Paley. Hence the call for services such as the Christian Evidence Society is attempting to render to Christian belief. The names of many of the lecturers in the present volume are a guarantee for the genuine character of the series. The Bishop of Carlisle, who leads the way as to some of the evidences for the inspiration of Scripture, is universafly regarded as a notable example of a clear and cultivated intellect made subservient to faith. Dr. Lindsay Alexander, a Congregationalist, examines the testimony borne by prophecy to Christianity. The miracles of the New Testament are discussed by Prebendary Row, of St. Paul's. Canon Barry takes his audience and his readers a little out of the beaten track in his essay on the adaptation of Christianity to the requirements of human society; as does also Dr. Lorimer when lecturing on its adaptation to the deeper wants of the human heart. The Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol closes the volume with a treatise on the "Adequacy of the Christian Answer to all Deeper Questions" relating to human life and human destiny. Such, in brief, are the bulwarks set up in the Credentials. If they do not carry the war into the enemy's territory, they at least serve to protect their own from easy invasion.

From Mr. John Hodges :

The Martyr of Carthage: A Tale. By Edward Wilson, B A., Rector of Topcroft. New Edition.This story is purely of a religious character; but the incidents introduced and the events described are of a sort to awaken interest in a time and subject about which the general notion seems to be somewhat hazy. Written in sound English, this story hould be read by thousands.

1 Messrs. Jarrold and Sons:Jah Deek's Victory. By the Author of "Some

and Nobody," &c.-In this simple story the F. ne introduces herself as a young lady, tall and dsome, but " whose character will not bear inction.' Let those who are curious in what espect the young lady's character is defective read her autobiography, and before they are half way through the volume they will acknowledge that they are sufficiently interested to make the reading of the other half imperative.

From Messrs. Johnstone and Hunter :

The Christian Treasury: A Family Miscellany for Sabbath reading, containing contributions from ministers and members of various evangelical denominations. Edited by Horatius Bonar, D.D. Now in its thirty-second year of publication, this maga

zine, which is rightly said to be the "father of a large and increasing family," is as attractive as ever. The volume just completed is full of entertaining and improving reading for both young and old -the whole of a decidedly religious tone, the conductors considering that "there are few ways of supplanting the Bible, or undermining the Sabbath, or secularizing our families, more efficacious than that of intermingling the secular and sensational with the sacred, so as to present them both together as proper literature for God's holy day."

From Messrs. Kellaway and Co.:

Oxford Theology; or, Romanism in the Church of England. By J. Harrison, Author of "The Last Days of Irvingism," &c.-After stating that the evils of Romanism are spreading far and wide, not only at home, but in the Americas and the colonies, the author asks-What is the remedy? He is not slow to furnish a reply. He declares that "to trust to the bishops is to go down to Egypt for help," and that, in his opinion, "the only practical course is to evoke the civil power-a practice sustained by the wisdom of our forefathers, both in Papal and Protestant times, and attended with the most satisfactory results.'

From Messrs. Henry S. King and Co.:

The First Book of Zoology is an elementary treatise on the science, by Edward Morse, Ph.D., late Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Zoology in Bowdoin College, U.S. Just such a book as would introduce an intelligent boy or girl into a new world of fact, stated and explained with the happy union of clearness and exactness which, as a rule, characterises American elementary works of all kinds.

Friends Till Death. Two Christmas Stories"Sam Franklin's Savings-bank," and "A Miserable Christmas and Happy New Year." By Hesba Stretton. - Each of these little stories is illustrated, and each belongs to a series of charming little sixpenny books in limp cloth, elegantly printed, written by authors of tation.

From Messsrs. Marlborough and Co. :

repu

The Portuary Calendar, containing, in addition to the holydays, classified, a concordance of the English with the Roman and Greek calendars, the Sacrum colours and other matters necessary for the clergy. With this, the tenth year of its publication, the Portuary Calenda will cease, the editor claiming for himself the uredit of having so educated his readers in his own pecial views as to render any further issue of the lit work unnecessary. The second volume, of the Catholic Pulpit completes the series of sermons for the Christian year, contributed by many hands, and exhibiting every variety of style and treatment. Mr. Bennett, of Frome, and "Father" Benson, of Cowley, speak out pretty plainly from their point of view. To plain speaking Mr. Baring Gould adds the charm of his graceful style. We mention these names because they are the best known; but other sermons in the series are not inferior to theirs.

From Messrs. A. R. Mowbray and Co.:

My Sunday Friend: An Illustrated Magazine for Children. Edited by C. H. Jones, Author of "Church Stories," &c.; and illustrated with nearly fifty full-page and other engravings.-The number for this year, strongly bound in an illuminated cover, makes a handsome book, which cannot but be prized by the little ones.