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128 THE NEW YORK TIMES-SATURDAY REVIEW. FEBRUARY 25, 1800. LONDON LITERARY LETTER. ICTrlttr for Tub New Tork Tutsi's Saturday Rsrisw by William L. Alden.

LONDON, Feb. don't (blnk I bar Mid any thing abont the letters that bate been written to the London newspapers protesting against the destruction of Florence. This waa partly because London la not Florence, and partly becauae tbe letters In Qtimtlon were not literature. But the other, day I aaw that a oclely had been formed la New York for the protection of Florence, aod In tbe elrcumatancea I decline to reatraln myself any I happened to be la Florence at the very tint that the present agitation In the London press began, and I know Florence quits as well as I know London or Now York. I do not bealtata to say that tiers la not and never waa the slightest foundation for the assertion that the Florentine municipality proposes to destroy a single building or monument of any historical or artistic Importance.

Boms years ago a plan for the cutting of new streets was proposed to the City Council and rejected. Last Autumn certain well-mean Ing Brltlah ladles residing in Florence happened to bear of thla plan and, assuming that It had been adopted Instead of having been rejected, Immediately started an agitation to aavs Florence from destruction. They and their friends wrote reams of letter on the subject, and lured several of the most Intelligent artists In London Into atgnlng a petition against the alleged vandalism contemplated by the Florentine municipality. The Syndic of Florence answered this by a calm statement of tbe facta In the matter, which must have made the signers of the petition feel ex tremely small, but apparently his reply baa not been seen In America or the Society for the Preservation of Florence would by this Urns have disbanded. The rubbish that la talked and written by Anglo-Saxon tourists whenever an Italian city undertakes any necessary sanitary work la exceedingly trying to the patience of the Italians.

In most 'parts of the world it Is considered meritorious to sweep away slums that poison the towna In which they are found, but Italy Is constantly told that, while Italian cities must be made healthy, not a street or a building must be touched. The foreigner who comes to Florence Is very careful to live In a new house, and In a new quarter of the city. He does this In the Interest of his health, but at the same time ho abuses the municipality for having permitted tho erection of new houses and for having destroyed unhealthy slums. I beg to assure the New York Society for the Preservation of Florence that the city la not In the slightest danger. The Italians are not children.

and they can be trusted to take care of their own towna They are not Ignorant of art, and they would, be the laat to destroy the monuments that make Flor- ones beautiful and Interesting. Tbe Idea that a city, In which the average cab driver baa a better tasto In art matters thsn the average educated Anglo-Saxon, seriously contemplates the destruction of all that makes the city beautiful Is the wildest absurdity conceivable. Mr. Douglas Fresbfleld, who Is well known as a traveler and a careful scientific observer, challenges th accuracy of Mr. Landor's narrative of his explorations In Thibet.

The gist of his accusations is that air. Landor's map of Thibet la Incorrect, and that Mr. Landor could never have performed the feat of cllmb- Ing over 1W.000 feet above the level of the sea, wearing calllesa shoes; and unprovided with the usual equlp- tnent of the Alpine traveler. I fall to aee that Mr. Freshfleld's arguments are convincing.

Very likely the ma pa made by Mr. Landor are Inaccurate. The map of I -akev Albert Nyanta made by Baker waa extremely Inaccurate, alnce It made the lake at least twlc as long as It really waa, but for all that no one doubts that Baker visited the lake and told tbe truth as to his adventures. Brace's account of what he aaw and did In Abyssinia waa thought to be incredible merely bocauae it was strange, but subsequent explorers have proved the truth of everything that Bruce said. A Government commission found that Mr.

Landor's statements In regard to the tortures to which he was subjected In Thibet were true In every detail. These were far more Incredible than his feat of climbing the Himalayas with the wrong kind of shoes. Un- doubtedly Mr. Landor did very wrong not to supply blmielf with everything that the Alpine Club could recommend, but It does not follow that because' he did not ao equip himself therefore he cannot be telling the -truth. For, my own part, I have not the slightest doubt of the veracity of Mr.

Landor, and Mr. Fresh-field's charges seem to me hardly worth refutation. Mr. Landor, who replied to Mr. Freehfield'a first two let- ters in' a way that aeeroed to mo' entirely satisfactory, declined to continue the controversy.

When a manifest Impostor like De Rougemont tries to gull the public, It Is quite right that he should be exposed, but to charge a traveler In savage countries wltn want of veracity simply because his exploits have not been 1 altogether commonplace la as objectionable as It Is easy. Some time ago the editor of a magaxlne who had published a story by Kipling asserted that the story did not appreciably Increase tbe circulation of the The remark ahowed that the editor did not understand one of the laws of Journalism that la, that la order to produce an Impression on the public mind Iteration' Is absolutely necessary. The same law holds' good In regard to maguilne. A single story by Klp- ling might very welt have no effect In Increasing the aale of-ths 'number In which It appears; but If the magaxlne published a second Kipling story on the following month the circulation would be largely Increased, snd the publication of a third story In the third consecutive month would give the magaxlns a genuine boom." Tbe Windsor Magaxlns Is low illustrating this law. It has just published tbe third con secutlve Kipling story.

The first ons may have had tfrv Httl trM nn a tain nt th ma rutin but the aecond ons created a demand for The Windsor which was unprecedented In Its history, and with the publication of tbe third story the piles of Windsors on the newsstands ire far larger than those of any other magaxlne, not excepting The Strand. Judging from what the newsmen aay, The Windsor, which three months ago had only a moderate circulation, la now the most popular magaxlne In England. It has paid an enormous price for the series of schoolboy stories which Mr. Kipling Is contributing to It, but Its conductors -must already have found that the money was a good buainess Investment. Are we to have a revival of the gypsy In literature? It looks rather like It Aylwln most of Its beauty and success to its gypsy heroine, and now ws are to have a biography of George Borrow, together with 4 quantity of hla letters.

Borrow waa a moat Interesting personality. He waa a combination of the Itinerate evangelist snd the romancer. In all probability no ons ever thoroughly understood him. His letters alone can give the true picture of the man. Tho preacher that waa In him spoiled "Lavengro" aa a novel, and hla bent toward novel writing must have made blm an indifferent evangelist Still Lavengro will alwaya be one of the books whloh must be read.

It gave us for the first time, the gypsy of fact Instead of fancy. There la yet room for the real gypsy when Introduced to us by such men ss Borrow and Watts Dunton, and we need not be surprised if novels with gypsy heroines become the fashion In the near future. Sir Walter Besant Is carrying on a brisk fight against the publishers. I cannot see what Is to be gained by It All authors know that they are completely at the mercy of publishers, who render to them accounts which It la Impossible to verify. The dishonest publisher cheats his clients, and the honest publisher deals more or lees fairly with them.

But why continue to reiterate these familiar facta? Sir Walter would find It difficult to say anything to the detriment of publishers that baa not already been said many times. Obviously authors cannot get on without publishers, and the only thing for them to do is to find, If possible, publishers that are liberal, honest, and intelligent, and then stick to them. Nothing seems to be gained by onslsughts on publishers, or by their counter attacks on Sir Walter Besant. So far as the general public la concerned, the controversy probably passes wholly unnoticed. Somebody has discovered that the so-called posthumous novel of Lever, "Gerald FitWld," appeared aa a aerial In Tbe Dublin University It is still asserted, however, that it never appeared In book form.

As I said last week, I am certain that It waa published In America. Messrs. Harper A Brothers would doubtless remember the book, even If they did not publish It themselves, as I am inclined to think they did. It Is rather odd that the same week should be marked by the publication of a collection of letters by Dean Swift and of another by Walter Savage Iandor, the two greatest masters of atyle that English literature has ever known. Tbe Swift letters are of course Interesting, and it la known that they would hare been Included In Forster's "Life of Swift." had that admirable work not been broug-ht to a premature close by the death of the author.

must be said, however, that they do not cast much light on tho character of 8w1ft Glimpses of his grim humor can bo found In them and also glimpses of what men have been pleased to call hla misanthropy, but they contain no intimate revelations of tbe man. Few great men have been so thoroughly misunderstood aa Swift Thackeray waa aa unjust to Jilm aa he was to Sterne, and comprehended him even less than he comprehended Sterne. FOrster waa absolutely the first man to" show ua the essential tenderness cf Swift's nature and to point out that what the world called hla misanthropy waa simply his scorn of whatever was base and contemptible. If ever a man had two sides "one to face the world with; one to show a woman when he loves her "I quote from memory, and hence, without doubt, Inaccurately it was Swift. The world saw only one side of him, but no roan cin read Forster's unfinished biography without seeing that the other side existed.

The Landor letters are thoroughly delightful. Un-llko Swift, Landor waa the most transparent of men. Hla faults and hla virtues were always displayed, and he fairly-clamored that the public should step up and Inspect them. In these hitherto unpublished letters we see the most lovable side of the man. Among them can bo found some of the most exquisite prose that Landor ever wrote.v Nothing could bo more daintily fanciful then the letter in which he speaks of planting a rose aa a queen, surrounded by a court of other flowers, In his garden.

No one should form his final estimate of Landor without reading these letters. They are In apme respecta the most valuable contribution to English literature that the past twelve months have brought. Mr. David Wilson ought to have written his Ta Th Arte York galnrdan RcvUtc: "Herald FitSifcraM, Ohevatlr." by Chnrloa Lrvrr. of which Mr.

W. La. A Men cponka In hla latter from Ijtivlun In laat Baturday'a Hevikw, publlrtuv In thla country bout ten or twolvn year atto by OwrRf 'Miniro, In tho BoaaUle cam out In th large ah ret lltln, aomatimea calUJ the brouilnUla M. T. T.

New York. Feb. Froude and Carlyle several yeara The question whether Froude did 'or did not do Injustice to Carlyle has been thoroughly thrashed out, and the publlo Is weary of It Mr. Wilson Is very severe on Froude, and, as may be supposed, Is a worshipper of Carlyle. He has, however, little that is new to tell us, especially as to Carlyle's treatment af his wife.

Most people long ago came to the conclusion that while Froude waa by no meana to be implicitly trusted, he Unquestionably told the truth when he represented Carlyle aa the victim, of dytpepsla, and Mra. Carlyle aa a disappointed womsu. It by no meana follows that either one of the unhappy pair waa wholly at fault. Mrs. Carlyle must have found It very bard to live with her dyspeptic husband, and Carlyle could hardly have expected to live a happy life with a woman of sdeh Independence of character as waa Mrs, Carlyle.

The least that Is now said concerning the -domestic difficulties of the Cariylcs the better. The worth of Carlyle's literary work does not depend In the slight- est degree on his conduct to his wife. public has no business to peer into the Carlyle house, no matter whether It Is Froude or Wilson who pulls open the shutters. The new monthly magaxlne, The Puritan, has been Issued. It Is attractive in appearance, and the first number contains two or three artlclea of general Interest.

The aim of the conductors seoms to be to prove that a Puritan la not necessarily a -gloomy fanatic. The Puritan la perhaps less religious lu Its character than Good Words, and rather more religious than Mr. Silas Hocking's Temple. The latter, while It sppeals exclusively to Nonconformists, Is well edited, and usually readable. Tbe Puritan Is oren to the charge of being goody-goody," and unless its second number is more readable than the first It will probably disappoint the expectations of Its proprietors.

I wonder to what extent Cooper la still read. He ought to rank aa the first of American novelists, but he certainly does not. Indeed It Is rather taken for granted that Cooper'a novels are fit only for very young people, and that they are Immeasurably Inferior to the wojk of half a dosen Anierloaa writers ml to-day. Certainly Cooper'a Indians and sailors never existed In real life, but that is no reason why they should not exist In fiction. A more preposterous plot than that of "The Pilot," in which an American frigate makes her way Into a difficult harbor merely in order to find a pilot to take her out again, could not be Imagined, but how glorious is the description of the frigate beating out to sea in a gale, with the enemy close at hand.

Chingachgook Is as Impossible as Mr. Bret Harte's delightful gamblers, but how admirable la the scene in which he captures a canoe for the Pathfinder and his party from the swimming Hurons. I can smile at Cooper'a heroines, or. young females." aa be prefers to call them, and I can recognize the fact that hla Indians snd his sailors, never had their prototypes on sea or land, but for all that Cooper aa a story teller la far and away the best that America has produced. He may not have fallen Into neglect, so far as the number of his readers is concerned, but he certainly does not hold the position to which he Is entitled in American literature.

In literature la a curious and a lawless thing. Mr. Andrew Lang does not like George Moore and cannot see any merit In Evelyn Innes." Mr. Moore does not like Kipling, and agrees with Mr. Elshemus that Kipling cannot write poetry.

Every year that I live the necessity of some hall-mark that will settle the question of the literary merit of a book seems more and more evident. When Is a boojt a book? This Is a conundrum to which at present there Is no answer. Therels Mr. Jerome K. Jerome.

Many people insist that he has no humor, and that the thousands of 'people who are amused by bis books are amitHed because they have no true sense of humor. But we are now told that Tolstoi has read Mr. Jerome's Inst book with such keen delight In the humor of it that he has Invited Mr. Jerome to come to Russia to visit him. Of course the obvious gibe of Mr.

Jerome's opponents will be that ToIbIoI knows nothing of humr-r. That may be so, but to Mr. Jerome belongs the distinction of having made the grim Rusjlan laugh. Dr. William Barry'B "Two Standards la the only novel of any moment that has appeared In the laat fortnight.

Tho consensus of critical opinion Is that it is a well-written book by a thoughtful man, but that it is not a success as a Btory. Perhaps Dr. Barry knows too much to write a good novel. It Is a well-known fact that the less a man knows the easier he learns a foreign language. Children and Ignorant servants will learn French or German In a quarter of the lime that a statesman or a philosopher will learn either language.

It Is periiapB equally true that the more a man knows the less he is fit to write novels. Ills farts will war with his fancy, and the result will be disastrous. I don't insist on the truth of this theory, but it is clear that much may be said In defense of it. The Dally Chronicle has discovered that Fiona Mc-Cleod is Mr. William Sharp, one of our most acute and Judicious critics.

It Is a pity that Dr. Nlroll, who recently made the discovery that log-rolling is practiced among English authors to an alarming extent, is absent from England Just now. He has so far declined to produce any proof of the truth of bis charge, but he might easily assert that Mr. Sharp gave himself a doublo by the name of Fiona McCleod, in order that he might write two criticisms where other men wrote one. When Mr.

Sharp crltlciHed a book, ahd Fiona McCleod followed with a second criticism to the same gonernl effect, the public was nnturally more Impressed than It would have been had only one of those well-known critic spoken. 1 do not for au Instant mean to say that Mr. Sharp doubled himself for any such purpose. Probably nothing was further from his thoughts when he adopted tho name of Flonn McCleod, but Inasmuch as Dr. Nlroll has been unablo to find any proof of the frightful prevalence of log-rolling, he would be able to use the fact of the Identity of Mr.

Sharp and Fiona McCleod to cover his retreat. Of course every mnn feels inclined to praise the books pf a friend If he enn conscientiously do It, but unless this is log-rolling--and It is certainly not the Bort of log-rolling which Dr. Nlcoll hud In mind 1 deny the existence of any such thing In London. So far as I ran Judge, and I think that my opportunities for forming a Judgment arc at least as good as those of Dr. Nlcoll.

there is practically no log-rolling at all In Ixmdon. Criticism is perhaps the most -honest thing In England. Critics may make mistakes and may bo swayed by their prejudices. but as a rule tho.se who write In the leading Journals are men nnd women of unimpeachable honesty, who say what they think, and nro uninfluenced by any consideration except that of doing their duty. Dr.

Nlcoll will never produce bis proofs simply because they do not exist, and American editors who echo his statements as to English logrolling will In time find that they have been seriously misled. W. L. ALDEN. A tt -romps laa.