rankly, the over-nice will be prudent to
take leave of _Michael_ on the Oxford platform. The others, following to
the end, will agree with me that he has placed his creator definitely at
the head of the younger school of English fiction.

* * * * *

For me, the pleasure of travelling consists less in the sight of
museums, cathedrals, picture galleries and landscapes, than in the study
of the native man in the street and his peculiar ways. When abroad, "I
am content to note my little facts," and so is Mr. GEO. A. BIRMINGHAM;
in fact, it was he who first thought of mentioning the matter. The
reverend canon tours in the U.S.A., which is, when you come to think of
it, about the only safe area for the purpose nowadays; he observes the
manners and oddities of the Americans, whether as politicians, pressmen,
hustlers, holiday-makers, hosts, undergraduates, husbands or wives, and
remarks upon them, in _Connaught to Chicago_ (NISBET), with just that
quiet and unboisterous humour which his public has come to demand of him
as of right. His first chapter shows that he has ever in mind the
multitude of his fellow-countrymen who have, in the past, made the same
journey but for good and all. This memory leads him at times into
excessive praise of his subjects, especially the ladies, and so to
apparent disparagement of his people at home. For my part I vastly
prefer the Irish, men, women and children, in Ireland to all or any of
their relatives and friends elsewhere; for when they leave their island
their humour runs to seed and loses that detachment and delicacy which
constitute its unique charm. That Mr. BIRMINGHAM, however, was not
nearly long enough abroad to suffer this deterioration, must be patent
to all who linger over this happy book.

* * * * *

If Miss JESSIE POPE receives her just reward, she will soon have to put
a notice in the daily papers to the effect that she is grateful for kind
enquiries, but is unable at present to answer them. For I think that any
enterprising boy who reads _The Shy Age_ (GRANT RICHARDS) will forthwith
make it his business to find out the name of the school at which _Jack
Venables_ amused himself, and that even if unavoidable circumstances
prevent him from going there he will, at any rate, remain disgruntled
until he can place his finger upon it on the map. After reading those
tales of school and holiday life, I can only say that the