LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 30, 4 February 1905, Page 10

LITERARY.

1 A revised edition of the "Twentieth Century New Testament ,, lias been issued by the publishers, Horace Marshall and Son, 125, Fleet-street, London. This, book is a translation into modern Engjlish from the original Greek, and 'the, need for such a. -work has been attested by the phenomenal sale of over 300,000 copies of the three parts in which the translation has been issued. The translation is said to have occupied three j years, and the success achieved is ati tested by the warm eulogiums of such [journals as "The Christian World," and ['■"Presbyterian," -which point.-out that, by Reproducing the sacred writings in Engi lish as it is commonly spoken to-day, the book serves the part of a commentary, and throws fresh light upon the (meaning of many passages that appear j obscure in the Authorised Version. It jis an interesting and useful work. J In the "Monthly Review"' for January Walter Sichel gives a readable account of John Bull as described by two Frenchmen at an interval of sixty years. He shows that the characteristics of the typical Englishman have changed a , good deal in the course of a century, both individually and in the constitution of "society." Mr H. W. Wilson discourses lucidly ■"β-sth naval lessons of the RussoJapanese War. He considers that heavily armoured vessels have come well out of the ordeal. The Czarevitch, in the battle of August, was hit fifteen times in every part of the ship by 12in. and Sin shells, and yet she lost only four officers and eight men killed and fifty officers and men wounded, out of a crew of about 750. Only two out of sixteen guns were put out of action, and the vessel was able to steam at the rate of 14 knots an hour. In power of destruction mines have proved more formidable than either torpedoes or guns. Mr Vincent Caillard discourses on the fertile subject of the expansion of the British Empire, with special reference to Mr Chamberlain's fiscal proposals. The Destiny of Britain in Central Asia is discussed by E. J. Solano, and there are various other articles of an interesting and instructive character. The "Empire Review" for January opens with an article by Edward Dicey on 'The Outlook for 1905," reviewing the prospects of the Russo-Japanese w*r. The writer thinks that peace is vet far off, but that hostilities will be confined to the two nations which are now at war, unless Russia, in order to cover her withdrawal from Manchuria in the face of defeat, stirs up trouble in the Balkans and embarks upon a war against the Sultan. C. Kinloeh Cooko contributes an exhaustive article on the influx of aliens into Great Britain. He traces the history of the migration of oppressed foreigners during several centuries, and shows that the influx during the last few years has been abnormal. According to the report of the Royal Commission on alien labour, the increase in the foreign population within the Borough of Stepney has caused the abandonment of houses, almost whole streets, by the English working classes and their occupation by foreigners. In ten years the lorcign population in the Borough of Stepney increased 22,000, exclusive children born on British soil oi alien parents. He champions the adoption of restrictive measures, on the ground i'naz the competition of aliens t.ucks the lifeblood from that great class of the community -which is ever swelling the ranks of unskilled labour and increasing the burden of pauperism. Mr Murray Eyre continues his reminiscences of the Chinaman in the Northern Territory of Australia, and the "Review" also contains some readable articles on Canadian and African topeis. The editor of "The Academy and Liteurature" offers a monthly prize, value one guinea, "for the best criticism of a specified book, the prize taking the form of a guinea's subscription to a circulating library." The subtlety of that prize is charming. The amateur's cffort3 are not to bo hampered in any way by sordid thoughts of cask. Is he for any reason disinclined to subscribe to the particular circulating library nominated in the bond? Then the subscription can be transferred to another library, the fortunate object of his own choice. Is he already a subscriber! Then the guinea will run from the end of the subscription he holds or will be added to it at once. In 3ny case he will be spared the degradation of coming in contast with even the symbol of cash, for the guinea cheque will never be sent to him. He trill receive an order on the library selected, the money being forwarded with proper notification to the proprietors. Thns the temptation to spend the fruits of literary labour on material joys will be removed from the feeble-minded competitor, and the dignity of letters will remain unspotted. But what especially appals ns in this competition is the idea of deliberately adding to the world's stock of unnecessary chatter about books. "The Third Experiment,' , by Rosamond Langbridge (Fisher Unwin's Colonial Library) ,is a racy Irish story. It navrate3 the fortunes of an orphan gir) named Zena, who is thrown upon the charity of her parents' neighbours, and after a varied career finally becomes the third wife of a good-natured Irishman named | CMara, who has watched over her for- I tunes and helped her in a fatherly way at critical times. How an artful widow, who ecbezned to make CMara her escond husband, was foiled by Zena, forms one of the most amusing episodes in the book. "The Marriage Yoke," by Arabella Kenealy, is a capital story spoiled by an inartistic finish. The scene is laid in Cornwall, where a nurse from a London hospital becomes an attendant upon the imbecile and paralysed wife of a baronet. Both the nurse, who is well connected, and her employer, arc very fine characters, and they fall deeply in love with each other, but behave extremely well J under most trying conditions. It is ultilinataly discovered that the baronet's wife had a husband living at the time when she went through the second marriage ceremony, and the union with the baa-onet is void. She was always a violent, vain, detestable and immoral woman, aud for a great many years she has been insane, ! speechless and helpless, through injury J caused by a tumour on the brain, her conj dition being altogether hopeless. Yet i when the illegality of the marriage is diaI covered, the baronet, from some conventional motive, breaks his own heart and that of the woman he loves by virtually J turning her out of doors and going j through a form of marriage again with J this poor creature, who is entirely un- ! conscious of what is going on around I her. in short, the author makes an ex- ' trcmely sensible, level-headed and supei rior man behave in the end like an arrant fool, iind depicts a responsible clergyman !as perform ma a marriage for which he 'might very, proper'y have been put in I gaol, and which would be no more valid lat law, than was the first marriage, the j defect in which the later ceremony was • meant to repair. Apart from this "inane ! denoument, the story is a very readable i one, abounding in excellent sentiment ; and wholesome in tone. It appears in j Fisher Unwin's Colonial Library.