Tue principal literary event to which attention is directed in this week's papers is the publication of Mrs. Oliphant's 'Literary History of England.' This occubies the place of honour in the Athenceum and is reviewed in most of the other weeklies. The reviews are, generally speaking, highly favourable, although a curious slip grammar occurs in the title of the book itseli—''The Literary History of England in the end of the Eighteenth and Be; ning of the Nineteenth Century." Thi has not escaped the lynx-eyes of at lea one reviewer. The following judgmei of Mrs. Oliphant as a writer, from the Atheneum, will be concurred in by all her readers Mrs. Oliphant's versatility is, indeed, marvellous, Whatever her publishers deairo—the best of domestic novels, ora history of Florence, or a life of Cervantes, or a sketch of the reign of George LI., or a sensational romance, or a saintly biography, or a critical history of a literature, or " treatise on millinery—she is ready to produce a book, readable, sensi and intelligent, fall of bright generalizations upon social life, upon woman as rome and man as a villain or a lover, Nor is even this Mrs. Oliphant in her 'Story of the Seen and Unseen' shows as much knowledge of the spirit world and its municipal laws, as if her energies had never been exercised upon mere flesh and blood, She has moreover a light and airy way of settling things, mundane or subra-mundane, which makes literature, as it must make life, delightful in her company.
The book consists of three large volumes, andtheauthorhas been as impartial as could be expected in the attention paid to the various writers in the period under review. "Where she is weakest," says the Pall Mall, "isin treating authors like Southey, Lander, Peacock, Keats, and Hazlitt, where the excellence of manner,—that is to say, the pure literary excellence—exceeds the mora popular attractions of subject... Again, while evidently herself enjoying Peacock (though in an inadequate sort of manner) she says that his works may probably seem tedious to the hasty reader. Of all unluckily selected phrases since that of the unhappy German person who brought De Quincy down upon his head by asserting that Gulliver was spun out to an intolerable length, tedious,' as appli cock, the most _unfortun seven novels average 120 not very crowded crown-octavo pages a piece, and every page is a magazine of lively wit."—In another most interesting and curious article the Pall Mall deals with the 'Open Secrets of Literature' in reviewing a book called "Dictionary of the Anonymous and Psoudonymous Literature of Great Britain." No doubt many of our readers have been delighted with a books by 'A..0.E,"
initials, so well-known but so ical, stand for A Lady of England, Ouida' is the pseudonym of Madame Louise do In Romeo, the word representing the name 'Louisa' as lisped by the author when a baby; while Sarah Tytler's real name is Mrs.' Henrietta Keddie, Thou sands of such open secrets' are rovenled by the compilers of this interesting and handy book. Before leaving the Pall Mall we may notice a slight but rather amusing article on the Statues of London. Among those triumphs of sculpture the moat oddly laced is that of George III, on the sum mit of that curious pyramid which forms the spire of St. George's, Bloonisbury. The writer tells us of an epigram trade some wag when the statue was presented to that building by Mr. Hicks the brower The King of Groat Britain was reckoned before The Head of Churob, by all. good Christian people Bat his brewer has added still one title more:
To the rest, and has made him the head of the ple.
The death of General Kaufmann, Governor-General of Russian Turkestan, and Vice Emperor" in Central Asia, is of course much spoken of in the papers. The tator says of him that he was to Rust Asia what luis Wellesley was to Indi man of decided character, with a genius for rendering subordinates onorgotic, he appears to have held that it was easier for Russia to govern Central Asia actly, than to maintain her influence against a host of petty princes. Ho was always, therefore, for attack, and during his thirteen' years of power ho annexed Khokand, reduced Bokhara to complete dependence, destroyed the importance of Khiva, and strove hard to acquire a dominant influence in Cabul. He failed in the latter design, and he sustained a very severe blow from the Chinese, to whom, he was compelled unde
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.