Literary Notes

In the Forum for June, Senator Edmunds diecusses the decay of political moráis indicated by the increasing purchase of voters. He estimates the amount of money epent dnring the last campaign at $5,000,000, and ia bis criticism he pares no section of the country aud neither party. Among the remedies that he pointe out are better registration laws, restriction of immigration and of naturalization, and the compulsory publication of election expenses. Another politieal article in this number is "The Drift toward Annexation," by W. Blackburn Harte, an editorial writer for the Toronto Mail. He maintains not only that commercial union and thereafter political union of the United States and Canada are inevitable, but also that they are deeirable for Canada; and that the Canadian politicians of all parties know this, unwilling as some of them are to confess it. He jioints out also what he conceives to be the absudity of Canada's continuing the colonial relation to Great Britain. The assay is a frank analysis of Canadian politics from a liberal point of yiew. Another political article in this number explains the advance of liberal, even of American ideas, in a country much farther away than Canada. Mr. William Eliot Griffis, author of "The Mikado's Empire," tells the leading features of the new constitution of Japan, under whicli, on Feb. 11, the government ceased tobe an absolute and became a constitution monarchy. The Queen of Roumaaia ("Carmen Sylva") contributes a deBcription of the social life of the Roumanian peasants. [The Forum Publishing Co., 253 Fifth-ave, N. Y. 60 cents. Thoe who have read of the bloodhound only in sensational stories of the days of American slavery will learn the real traits of that little-known animal with surprise, in reading an illustrated article on the dog in the June Century. The article is written by the chief expert of the subject in England, the gentleman whose bloodhounds were used by the detectives in some recent famous murder cases in London. Worthington Co., 747 Broadway, New York, announce for immediate publication Two Daughters of One Race, a new novel, by the gifted author W. Heimburg, whose former book, "Gertrude's Marriage," was so favorably received by the American presu and public. Two Daughters of One Race deals with certain peculiar phases of Germán high life society, and of the fortunes of two young and beautiful noble ladies. The marriage of one of the sisters to the younger son of a reigning prince, looked upon by his family as a mesalliance, produces discord, and when after the death of an eider brother during the Franco-German war the husband, for so-called state reasons tries to cancel his marriage, the story reaches its climax. Altogether the novel is delightfully told and very dramatic in its treatment. It is written in the author's inimitable grace of style, and illustrated with handsome photogravures and head and tail pieces. The tranalation is perfect. Mrs. Van Rensselaer, the well-known art critic, has written a careful study of the career and art of Corot, the modern painter, about whose work there has perhaps been more diacussion, and difference of opinión, than any other. This article will appear in the June Century. The illustrations have been a long time in preparation and are all engraved from the origináis byElbridge Kingsley.