The February number of the Atlantic Monthly opens with an excellent article upon Ausonius, a minor Latin poet of the 4th century. The article is half biographical, half critical, and is interspersed with quotations from the poet's idyll of the Moselle. General Francis A. Walker's contribution, entitled "Mr. Bellamy and the New Nationalist Party," is a serious paper exposing some fallacies of Mr. Bellamy. It is keen, critical, and impartial, and makes some telling points against the author of "Looking Backward."

Dr. Holmes' third paper of his "Over the Tea Cups," commences with a general talk of the company upon the subject of the last paper; then a witty comparison of Hadrian's hymn and Catullus' poem to Lesbia's sparrow, and the paper ends with a poem alluding to James Freeman Clarke a classmate of Dr. Holmes. The paper abounds in gentle satiric touches, which are full of the wisdom of old age.

"One of the Unreconstructed" is an article by Mr. John T. Morse, Jr. founded upon Reuben Davis' recollections of Mississippi. It sets forth in a laughable light the pretensions of the typical Southerner in those days. Mr. Charles B. Elliott deals ably with the "Behring Sea Question" covering the ground from 1820 on. Mr. K. Kaneko the head of the Japanese commission which has been visiting various countries to compare their legislative assemblies, in order to establish a Japanese parliament, gives a clear outline of the Japanese Constitution of February 1889. The three serials are continued. Mrs. Deland's "Sidney" gives us the fourth, fifth and sixth chapters. The story steadily develops in interest and the strong scene with which this installment closes is in the author's best manner. There are as usual a number of editorials, the one on Browning being rather a conservative criticism, and the recent work of Harris Taylor on the English Constitution is reviewed at length.