II. MISS BIRD'S work on Japan, as we have said, is cast in quite a different mould from that of Sir Edward Reed. With the exception of one or two chapters, she devotes her two volumes entirely to a record of her own experiences, casting them as in her well-known books on the Sandwich Islands and the Rocky Mountains, into the form of a series of letters. These have evidently been written in the midst of the experiences which they record, and this gives them a reality and a freshness which they could not have otherwise had. Her “Unbeaten Tracks in Japan” has all the best characteristics of her book on the Sandwich Islands. Indeed it seems to us that for the majority of readers it will have far more of novelty and quite as much interest as any of her previous works, while we doubt if any other book on Japan yet published gives so full and real an insight into the everyday life and the condition of the bulk of the people. Her work well deserves the title it bears. Many of the districts into which she, amidst all sorts of difficulties, succeeded in penetrating were certainly never before visited by a European woman, if indeed by a European of either sex. Sir E. Reed speaks of the people along parts of his route rushing out to see the “Chinese” pass; but so strange and literally uncouth did Miss Bird's appearance seem in some districts that the people could only set her down as an “Aino.” She of course saw all the usual sights in the usual tracks, all that Sir Edward Reed saw; and for this her intimacy with Sir Harry Parkes and his universally beloved lady procured her every facility. The result is-not the almost unmixed admiration which we find in Sir Edward Reed's volumes; but then it should be remembered that she was not the guest of the Japanese Government, but practically of the representative of the English Government; and although Miss Bird is a thoroughly independent observer, still her opinions may have taken somewhat of their colour from her special surroundings. She states fully both sides of the question of Japanese progress, and while giving full credit to the Government for the best intentions, and admitting that vast progress has teen made in recent years, still she has many drawbacks to point out. And no wonder; we fear that she, like some others who write on Japan, look for too much, and expect to find a Europe in the East, instead of a country struggling out of the bonds that swaddled it till only fifteen years ago. Still her criticisms are wholesome, and charitable, and good-natured, and we trust that they will come under the notice of those to whom, if taken in good part, they might be greatly beneficial. Miss Bird has much to say on the work of missionaries in Japan, but that is a subject into which we cannot enter here. She spent much of her time in the great centres among missionaries, and had ample opportunities of seeing the nature of the work they are doing. And her observations are of the greatest interest, and must be instructive to those who are hoping that the Japanese will ultimately put on the religious habiliments which have been shaped for centuries to the people of the West. One unfortunate result we may mention, and that is the deterioration of the manners of those who have been long under missionary influence. Surely this is not necessary.