of that kind
that may be denominated "light" even in fiction. The author rattles on
through a variety of incidents, and adventures, and true-love tangles,
without trying the reader's intellect with any particularly severe
infliction of character study. It is a model of that literature which
has received the distinctive title of _railway_, because in travelling
we do not care to be bothered with thinking on our own part or others.

[5] "_The Man Who Was Not a Colonel._" By a High Private. Loring,
publisher. $0.50.

* * * * *

Mr. Wallace has done well in selecting the comprehensive title
"Russia"[6] for his book. It is no mere record of a journey, or
description of a country or people as a traveller sees them. The author
spent six years in the land of the Tsars, studied the language, and
lived with the people, and now he endeavors to show the origin and
composition of the nation, its past history and present struggles,
besides making minute studies of the serf system, the communes,
emancipation in its methods and results, the peculiar conjunction of
autocracy and democracy in the principles and practice of government,
the agriculture, the religion, politics, population, and other
important factors of a great empire. The book is sufficiently praised
when we say that all these subjects are well treated. The author is
careful to point out, as an analyst should, where his studies are
incomplete, and he modestly tells us that his work is not presented as
an unassailable summation of truth, but as the conclusion to which an
unprejudiced observer came after long and careful study. We could not
ask for better evidence of his sincerity than in the defence which he,
an Englishman, makes of the Tsar's policy of foreign annexation! He
tells us that this is not the result of autocratic choice, but is the
only available one of three modes of restraint against marauding
tribes. These three are a great wall, a military cordon, and
annexation. The first is impossible in a country that for hundreds of
miles has no durable building material, the second has been tried and
found impracticable. As to the last, there is a choice between an armed
frontier and occupation of the marauder's country, and the latter
course is followed because it is cheaper in a pecuniary sense. To the
question so often asked in England, How far is Russian "aggrandization"
to go? Mr. Wallace answers that the Ru