BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8670, 12 September 1891, Page 1 (Supplement)

BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

In the Heart of the Storm. By Max. well Gray. Kegan, Paul, Trench, Trnbner, and Co., London.—This work is a tale of modern chivalry. The hero of the.tale, Philip Randal, is ' the adopted child of Matthew Meade, the miller of Stillbrokc mill. The parentage of the lad is kept a secret from him, though he has reason to think that he is of gentle birth, and he crows up in his boyhood with the miller's daughter .Jessie Meade. Ultimately, after various adventures, Philip Randal enlists, and fights his way up to a commission in the Crimean campaign. The old miller and his wife pass away, but they keep the secret of Philip Randal's parentage well, and at the miller's death he leaves his last wishes that Philip and Jessie may be betrothed. Duty takes Philip Randal to India, and he passes through all the horrors of the Indian Mutiny, still winning promotion. During the mutiny he makes the acquaintance of Ada Maynard, daughter of the Hon. Colonel Maynard. R.A., and then brought within the witchery of her glances, the struggle commenced between love and his duty to fulfil the sacred trust bequeathed to him by the good old miller Matthew Meade. Back lie came from India to see his ward Jessie Meade, but only to find that she had disappeared. In her case also, the course of true love had notrunsmooth. Claude Aledway had crossed her path, and the" man of pleasure had trifled with the heart of the rustic maid. Scandal arose, and she lied and buried herself in Great Babylon. In his search for her Randal found his father to be tho nephew of Sir Arthur Medway. The lost Jessie Meade is found starving in the great city, but yet unharmed amidst its wiles and temptations. Claude Med way repairs the wrong lie has done by marrying her, and tries to restore her to health and strength by foreign travel, but her trials acting upon a sensitive frame lead to her speedy decease, in the Riviera, and she sleeps the sleep which knows no waking in the little English cemetery. Philip Randal, who had come to see them, turned away from the new-made grave with a full heart. She could never know now, what ho had not hitherto fully known himself, how very much .she had been to him, and how great and terrible a blank she left in his life. But again fate threw Philip Randal and Ada Maynard together, and in due course their lives were linked. The leading characters in the story tire well pourtrayed, and the interest in the plot sustained to the close. '

The Westminster Review.—We have the August number to hand, and it is quite up to its predecessors. The opening article, on " Federation and Free Trade,'" deals with this question in an able and comprehensive spirit. The writer says Federation and free trade go hind in hand, and as showing the march of events, asks who would have believed ten years ago in the possibility of an Australian union, or even two years ago that such a union could be made on the basis of internal free trade Mr. Theodore Staunton contributes an interesting article (the third) on "Abraham Lincoln," "Tennyson's Lincolnshire Farmers: a Retrospect," by Joseph J. Da vies, is an instructive commentary on Tennyson's poems dealing with the Northern or Lincolnshire farmer. " Persecution of the Jews in Russia," by C. N. Barham, is a thrilling narrative of the horrible cruelties perpetrated upon an ancient people by the vilest and most corrupt and brutal Government in Europe. "Village Education Under Popular Control," by T. J. Macnainara, illustrates the beauties of school management by small Board Schools. Mrs. Mary Steadman Aldis contributes an article, "Complements and Compliments," on the higher education of women in the mother country. We give the concluding passage, which is of local interest:— The authorised opening of the Cambridge examinations took place in 1881. Since that date women have .themselves capable of taking high, sometimes the highest, places in the Tripos. And still to this day the degree is refused. It cannot be pretended that it is for the good of women that, after having fulfilled all the requirements, having run and won the race, they should be denied the crown and seal of their labours. The reason for the denial is then probably to be sought in the supposed advantage of men, for which this churlish behaviour is thought to be needful. Just as formerly it was considered that justice itself must be ignored rather than run the fearful risk of giving Nonconformists a share m the government of the University, so now the dread of niacin o- this power in the hands of educated women appears sufficiently strong for the maintenance of a state of things which is certainly not a credit, which may even he said to be a disgrace, to those responsible for it. In New Zealand, where these words written, sex confers no privilege in the University. Lectures, scholarships, degrees,

convocation, all are open to women as well as men, who arc capable of profiting by them, or of attaining to them. On diploma day the lady graduates, in cap, gown, and tiie pretty pink hood, take their places among the other graduates. It is very pleasant to see them ; they look none the worse for their honours, and no one supposes that their honours are the worse for any one else, not even for those, men or women, whom they may have succeeded in surpassing. . . . The University of New Zealand, one of the youngest in the British dominions, distinguished itself as the first to confer a decree upon a woman. It is to be hoped that Cambridge, the venerable, will no longer delay to put an ■end to ail exclusion which cannot be looked upon as either graceful, honourable, or wise.— Maky Steadjiax Alois.