peacefully on the beauties of the Moorish life, and the music of water plashing from a marble basin on the cool mosaic pavement below is soothing to him in this mood.

The exquisite beauty of a moonlit evening, the writer observes, is felt only vaguely by the Syrian, not at all by the Moor; "it is the imperturbable Englishman, the shopkeeper, the unromantic slave of Shaitan and fluss," who is impressed by it.

BY NORWEGIAN FJORDS.

H. Schütz-Wilson, in Gentleman's, gives a pleasing account of a tour along the Norwegian coast. Here is one picture :

The body supine but the mind active, we saunter down the great Hardanger Fjord. It is, perhaps, a quarter to half a mile in breadth. On the left, islands, and beyond them the sea; on the right, hills, which grow grander and wilder as we swim along. In a day long, long past, all these romantic fjords were filled with ice. On our day the sun shone softly on the Hardanger, and the placid sky was studded with cirro-stratus and with cumulus clouds. These fjords are often very deep. We hear of 600 to 800 fathoms, and the ship cannot sometimes anchor. Nowhere is water purer, clearer, or more lovely in tender colour. The reflections of the shore are most vivid in the mirror of the calm fjord; and the green of grass, the dark grey of rocks, are reflected in colours which surpass in quality the hues of the actual objects. From the Hardanger we pass into the Sór Fjord. The trees chiefly seen are pines, alders, birches ; and, now and then, there is a patch of coast which looks as desolate as a bit of Greenland shore. At last, our ship stops at Odde.

WITH THE KIRGHIZ TATARS.

A singular instance of the way in which Western culture is flowing through Russian universities to the innermost recesses of Asia is furnished by Dr. H. Turner's paper in the July Humanitarian. The son of a Kirghiz Sultan, studying at Moscow University, invited the writer to go home with him. By rail, by steamer, and by horse, they travelled into the land of the Kirghizes, and the English guest was entertained in their tent or tourta. He says:

This

Viewed from the outside, a tourta, except when it is quite new, looks rather like a large marquee tent that is very dirty. It is, however, constructed differently. A circular trellis-work of wood in three or four parts forms the frame of the tourta. From this trellis, which is about four and a-half feet high, branch out the supports for the roof. These supports are fastened to a wooden hoop, which is kept in position by two cross-pieces, which meet at right angles in the centre of the circle. frame is covered with large pieces of thick felt, which overlap each other, and reach down to the ground. The felt, which covers the wooden hoop in the centre, is not fastened like the rest, but is drawn backwards and forwards, as occasion requires, by ropes which hang down the sides of the tourta. This hole admits light and lets out smoke when there is a fire. There is a door which is left open during the day, its place being supplied by a piece of felt or mat. At night the door is fastened by ropes on the inside, and when all the inhabitants are out during the day, it is fastened with a padlock. The only furniture usually is a bedstead, which stands opposite the door. It is generally of wood, and is overlaid with bone, more or less elaborately carved.

A NEST OF ROSE AND PALM IN SIGHT OF ALPS. "Bordighera, Past and Present," is the theme of a pleasing paper in the Westminster Review by W. Miller, who describes himself as one of the most devoted lovers of the place. Lying on the Riviera, just three miles beyond the French frontier, it has one of the worst railway services to be found in Italy. It is consequently isolated, unspoiled, and unspotted from the world. is the most celebrated place in Europe for its palms."

"It

It supplies Rome with the palms required for Church festivals. It has a great trade in roses and carnations. George Macdonald is the uncrowned king of the British colony, of which Mr. Clarence Bicknell and Lord Strathmore are distinguished members. Mr. Miller says:

The peculiar charm of Bordighera is the great number and variety of its walks and drives. Each of the valleys near it abounds in picturesque sites, where villages rise on the side of olive-clad hills, and streams meander over beds of stone between vineyards and oliveyards. These villages have each some special feature. But one need not stir from Bordighera itself to find picturesque houses and charming views. While the new town that has grown up down in the plain near the sea is not strikingly interesting, the old town on the cape is a model of a medieval city on a small scale, with its high walls, its steep and narrow streets, its tall houses and its quaint gateways, one of them still bearing the cross of St. George, emblem of the Genoese Republic. From the old town the prospect is splendid. . . . On a clear day, after snow has fallen on the high peaks of the Maritime Alps, one has the additional charm of a glimpse of Alpine scenery under a southern sky.

WITH THE HEROES OF THE LIFEBOAT.

Mr. A. E. Fletcher, in the Windsor, sketches what he calls "A Danish Newlyn," the fishing township Skagen, the northern tip of Denmark. Although it is now accessible by rail, Mr. Fletcher does not anticipate it will lose its unconventional character. "The Skagen folk rather pride themselves" on being said to be "beyond the confines of civilisation." He tells how the shifting sand-dunes have been secured by a grass called "marchalm," which holds the grains together, and in a few years forms a soil on which firs can grow. So "thousands of acres of barren sand have been converted into forest." He says:

For the artist and man of letters this quaint seaboard parish is never likely to lose its charm. Not only has Nature here as a colourist done some of her best work, producing atmospheric effects of rare richness and variety, but she has peopled the place with as sturdy a race of men as ever braved the hurricane or gave inspiration to bards of heroic song. As some three hundred vessels pass the lightship off Skagen Point every day, and as near that lightship there is a very dangerous reef, the services of the Skagen lifeboatmen are more often needed here than elsewhere on the Danish coast.

Like our own delightful fishing village of Newlyn, on the Cornish coast, . Skagen and its wild surroundings have given inspiration to a school of painters. Three of Denmark's most famous artists, Peter Severin Kröyer, Michael Peter Ancher, and his wife, have made Skagen their home, and other artists, not only from Denmark, but from Norway and Sweden, have chosen it from time to time as their headquarters. Kröyer is the most famous of this group. .. Kröyer is now generally regarded as the head of the new school of Danish painters-that is to say, the school which has broken with the Eckersberg tradition which dominated Danish art.

Mr. Fletcher, whose paper is adorned by reproductions of the works of Kröyer and Ancher, closes with this fine remark :

The more I study the works of Kröyer and Ancher-the more I gaze upon the sturdy forms and look into the calm, beautiful, heroic faces they have grouped and painted, the less I wonder why Christ should have chosen fishermen for His companions.

CHURCHES built at a cost of five shillings, ten pounds and upwards are a rudimentary form of ecclesiastical architecture which Mr. F. M. Holmes introduces to the readers of the July Quiver. From a few poles hung with mats, or mere wattle and daub structures, these "nativebuilt churches" advance to stone buildings and vast cathedrals.

THE CRISIS IN CHINA.

MR. NORMAN'S AXIOMS.

THE first article in the Nineteenth Century for July is by Mr. Henry Norman, and is entitled "Our Vacillation in China and its Consequences." The consequences, Mr. Norman points out, have been a long string of humiliations. Owing to the vacillation of the Government we have failed in China wherever we have taken a hand, and have got nothing from all our scheming except Wei Hai Wei, which is entirely useless, and which, indeed, we have never attempted to turn to any use.

Mr. Norman lays down four axioms which should govern our future relations with China. The first is that there is no such thing as China as a distinct entity :

It is because there is no such thing as "China" that the military caste of the Manchus, comparatively infinitesimal in numbers, have been able to impose their rule upon the enormous masses of Chinese. Thus it is unwise to predicate anything of China as a whole, or to believe that what suits one part will necessarily suit another. To this extent the partition of China would rest upon a scientific and practical basis.

The second axiom is that China will never reform itself:

There is not the slightest possibility of the establishment by Chinese authority of a national army, or navy, or civil service. And the corruption which is the fatal curse of China is directly due to the fact that there is not and cannot be any central authority to exercise control over local officials, or, in the absence of this, to pay them. The Chinese people, in the language of physics, is a mechanical mixture and not a chemical compound, and therefore it is irresponsive to the action of any single reagent, and incapable of exhibiting any common property. Thirdly, Mr. Norman postulates that "Russian ambition has no limits":

:

Russia will take all she can possibly get, and, like the rest of us, what she cannot get she will do without. Instead of abusing her, it would be wiser to emulate her qualities, and so seek to put a barrier in her way at the points where the interests of our own country become imperative. It is easy for a strong nation to come to a durable understanding with her-witness Germany and Austria. But we shall never do it by writing sarcastic despatches and making rude speeches, and then meekly accepting her fact accomplished to our injury. That is the policy of the boy who puts his finger to his nose and runs away-and it has been ours for too long.

And the fourth is that "Japan is face to face with a life and death issue in the Far East." If Japan fights it must be not later than six months hence.

Mr. Norman recommends that the Empress should be deported, and the Emperor replaced under the control of representatives of the Powers. The Open Door Policy being dead, each Power should keep order in its sphere

Every Power would enter into a formal engagement with all the others that no duties beyond those agreed upon by all should be levied, that no preferential or differential railway rates should be imposed in its sphere, that no force should be raised beyond that necessary to keep order, and that all matters of intercommunication should be decided by the Council of foreign representatives.

An advisory committee of Chinese experts should be formed in London, and Mr. Norman suggests Professor Douglas as a member.

66
WHAT DIPLOMATICUS THINKS.

In the Fortnightly, "Diplomaticus" finds grave fault with the apathy and inattention of the Powers while the present storm was brewing. They have been surprised, he says, but there is absolutely no excuse for their surprise. The coup d'état of the Empress, the decrees she issued, the growth of the Boxer movement, had been the chief

Our wisest policy is to keep our hands absolutely free, and to be prepared to defend our interests and the status quo ante with adequate strength, both in the north and the west of China, should the occasion arise. We should hold the balance fairly between all the Powers. For the moment there is no necessity to take sides, as the work of pacification all the Powers are equally interested. Japan is not a whit less interested than Russia, and I can see no reason why she should not participate in the restoration of order on an equality with her great rival. When the pacification is accomplished, our policy is clear. We have to take our stand by the Integrity of China and the Open Door, and we have to insist on the restoration of the legitimate Emperor, with a guarantee of his absolute independence.

A "SCRAMBLE FOR CHINA."

Mr. Demetrius Boulger puts no faith in the Policy of the Open Door as a means of holding China together. In an article in the Contemporary Review he denounces the Open Door as a sham, and prophesies that we are about to witness a scramble for China. Russia, he asserts, is at the back of the Dowager-Empress, and Russia will not consent to her punishment or removal :

As I have several times pointed out in these pages, our diplomacy has no chance of success in a game of fence with Russia at Pekin, because the trumps are in her hand. Her base of operations is near the scene and drawing closer and closer, the high officials in the capital are under the spell of her power, and in many cases have been suborned from their allegiance by the effect of her money. At the utmost we can only avert the inevitable for a few years, unless the country can be brought to face what would be a colossal struggle with Russia. There is no middle course between opposing Russia tooth and nail on behalf of a worthless and condemned administration, and leaving her undisturbed to realise her objects at Pekin so far as she can, and in accordance with general requirements.

WHAT BRITAIN MUST TAKE.

China is to be divided into spheres, and what Great Britain must do is

to acquire a base for operations in the Yangtse Valley similar to that Russia possesses in the north with regard to Pekin. There cannot be two opinions as to what that base is. The island of Chusan with its unequalled harbour of Tinghai represents exactly the position of which we have need. We occupied it during both of our China wars, and by the Davis Convention we retain the right to prevent any other Power occupying it.

Using Chusan as a base, we could raise any number of local troops; and

in a few years we should have created the best force for controlling our sphere by the successive occupation of Chinkiang-fu, Nanking, Ganking, and Hankow. Our occupation would be given a Chinese colour, and without direct annexation we could organise dependent governments, or, better still, revive in Central China a kingdom of Nanking.

66 THE REAL ORIGIN OF BOXERS." Another article in the Contemporary on China is that of Mr. Arthur Sowerby, a twenty years' resident in China. Mr. Sowerby has nothing very new to say, but he believes in the capacity of the Chinese people. In the Emperor, however, there is no hope. He is not an able man, and his health is bad. The following is Mr. Sowerby's explanation of the origin of the Boxers :

The "Boxer" movement is the work of Yu Hsien, exGovernor of Shantung. He took advantage of a spirit of discontent that had arisen from two or three causes in Chih-li and Shantung. The occupation of Kiao Chau by the Germans, the scarcity of rain last autumn-for which the Buddhist priests blamed the Christians-and some differences between the Catholics and their neighbours in Chih-li, were the chief sources of the trouble. No serious difficulty would have arisen had not Yu Hsien given the malcontents his protection and assisted them to organize themselves into the "Great Sword Sect." The movement increased under this patronage, and the winter days, when the villagers and canal population can afford to be idle, were spent by them in drilling, combined with a good deal of rhodomontade. Yü Hsien, through the pressure of the German Government, was removed from Shantung; but he was received at Pekin with great favour and high rewards, and has been appointed Governor of Shansi. He should be marked for severe and condign punishment. The "Boxers" assumed the name "I Ho Chuan," which means "Righteousness conjoined with Protection," and by a pun it becomes "I Ho Ch'uan," Righteousness and the Fist," hence the nickname "Boxers." The ranks of the Boxers are composed of the scum population on the banks of the Grand Canal and the peasant farmers in Chih-li and Shantung. They could be easily subdued by a few disciplined troops. Mr. Sowerby recommends the removal of the Empress and the extinction of the Manchu dynasty.

CHINESE COMPETITION WITH AMERICANS.

It is well to be reminded that Europeans have obligations to China as well as China to Europe. Mr. Ho Yow, the Chinese Consul-General to the United States, contributes to the Forum for June a very interesting article, in which he protests against American exclusiveness in dealing with China.

Mr. Ho Yow points out that the Chinese are not really a migratory race. They have never overrun the smaller States which surround them; and the Chinese in the United States have all come from two or three districts in the Kwang-tung province. When they did emigrate to America, it was not with the intention of settling there permanently, and many thousands of them returned to China without any savings. At the present day, in California, so far from cutting down wages, they will not work for wages at which white labour can be procured :Chinese cooks and household servants command from forty to fifty dollars per month, and are the best servants on the coast. Chinese labourers get thirty dollars per month, while in San Francisco alone hundreds of white men are daily taking jobs which do not pay them more than twenty-five dollars per month, and, in addition, have to board themselves. In San Francisco there is a large firm of Chinese fruit-packers employing perhaps three hundred hands. A few years ago they discharged all their Chinese help, and put white girls in their stead, for the sole reason that the latter would work for less wages than Chinese would accept when the quantity of work was considered. That they found this policy to be wise is demonstrated by the fact that after a trial of three years they are still tabooing the Chinese and employing whites.

An American official, in 1876, declared that the Chinese had up to that time added 289,700,000 dols. to the wealth of California, and they had done this chiefly by taking up industries which white men could not make remunerative :

Chinese fit into the world's 'industry in ways which do not conflict with white labour. They work up the odds and ends of materials and convert them into useful forms. The tule lands mentioned were reed swamps upon which whites would not work at any price, owing to the prevalence of malaria.

AMERICAN ILL-TREATMENT OF CHINESE.

Yet not only labourers, but Chinese merchants and professional men are subjected to all kinds of restrictions

even when merely travelling. They are kept in confinement for long periods while waiting for their certificates:

In this prison are held, for long periods, Chinese gentlemen worth hundreds of thousands of dollars; men of vast interests, tea merchants, scholars, owners of extensive establishments of chinaware, bankers, owners of ships. They are deprived of their liberty, and subjected to indignities of exquisite refinement, while their pecuniary loss is beyond computation. Indeed, it does not seem possible to devise a scheme whereby greater impediment, discomfort, and hardship could be imposed upon the merchants of China doing business in this country in an orderly manner. By recent rulings of the Treasury Department all Chinese bankers, lawyers, doctors, teachers, and missionaries are debarred from the United States as not being entitled to enter this country-a ruling which was never made or thought of before, and which entails an additional hardship upon the Chinese.

CHINA TOWN IN LONDON.

66

THE Yellow Problem, which is taking on so sanguinary a tinge in the Far East, may be studied at least in miniature and on the spot" a great deal nearer home. Mr. George A. Wade reminds us in the English Illustrated that there is a piece of genuine China in England. Limehouse Causeway in the East End of London is the Chinese quarter of the British Metropolis. Mr. Wade says:

It is probably twelve years or so since the Celestials first settled in this district, where to-day they reign supreme. They have some seven or eight shops there, and these are on the whole fairly clean, even to our eyes, which view things so differently from those of the Chinese. . . . And over the doors and windows of the latter you will see painted in full glory the classic names of Lum Yat Wah, Wong Chung Wei, and such-like.

AH SIN AS A HUSBAND.

66

John Chinaman readily adopts English names like his own, as, for example, " John Chance," or Charles King," and also English wives. Such weddings are frequent, and Chinese husbands are popular. Mr. Wade quotes the testimony of an expert. He says :

case,

I had the pleasure of seeing, while pursuing my researches in this neighbourhood, a voluble Irishwoman who had, in the first had for her husband a son of Erin, and then, on his decease, had taken, "for better or for worse," a Chinaman. She assured me that she much preferred the second husband to the first; and, indeed, as she still keeps about the locality, though again a widow, there is once more an opportunity for any Celestial who desires to make Ireland have one injustice the less.

Here truly is a complication of the Yellow difficulty. If the Chinaman beats the Englishman in connubial competition, the outlook becomes appalling.

66

HARMLESS, KINDLY, PICTURESQUE."

The Chinaman never quarrels with his neighbours, and they are on excellent terms with him. They bear willing witness to his goodness and kindness to the children around him. The children of the Anglo-Chinese marriages are sometimes unmistakably English, sometimes as pronouncedly Chinese. They are always given English names, both Christian and surname, and wear English dress. John Chinaman's vices are principally gin-drinking and opium-smoking. Mr. Wade sums up his impressions thus:

Taken altogether, however, the Chinaman in Limehouse is a most peaceable, inoffensive, harmless character. He is on good terms with his neighbours, most of whom speak well of him. He is picturesque in a region where it is sadly needed; his street is unique in this country. It might be thought that the district would somewhat resent his presence there, but, on the whole, it must be confessed that Limehouse is rather proud of the honour done it by his being where he is!

ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR.

AN INEXPLICABLE RETREAT.

IT is a grim picture, terrible in its realism, which Mr. G. O. Moorhead draws in Cornhill of his experience with a Boer ambulance in Natal. The effect of the first British victory makes one marvel that it was not at once followed up. There is something painful to an English reader in the cynical account the Boers gave of our troops' advance :

The troops, they said, had come out into the open in their time-honoured and expected style, had attacked the hill in their best go-ahead manner and had been shot in droves; but the shell fire had been too much for Boer flesh and blood to stand. . . The Boers were much dispirited at their reverse, and blamed their generals and officers freely. . . . On the march we found out how great had been the moral effect of Friday's battle on the Boers, for most of the Commandos were shorn of half their strength. The farmers had in many instances ridden straight home from the field; thus the Piet Retief burghers, who went into action some 400 strong and had lost about fifteen men, now mustered only some ninety-the others had vanished; not for long, however, for they were very soon driven back.

The doctor records the horror of his surprise when he found that the British were in retreat-he uses the word rout. He says:

To us who knew the demoralised condition of the burghers the retreat seemed inexplicable. Some madness seemed to have seized these hardy troops, who had given so good an account of themselves at Talana, or very possibly some terrible pressure we knew nothing of had caused this ill-omened retreat.

HOW DUNDEE WAS EVACUATED.

Mr. E. E. Easton continues his narrative, "Inside the Boer Lines," in the July number of Harper's Magazine. He deals with the evacuation of Dundee, the battles of Elandslaagte and Rietfontein, and the investment of Ladysmith. When the Boers occupied Dundee they found, writes Mr. Easton :

Documents, portfolios, sketches, and maps, all marked "Secret military information." There were portfolios of military sketches of the various routes for an invasion into the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, prepared by a Major Grant, Captain Melvill, and Captain Gale, immediately after the Jameson Raid. One of the documents was entitled "Reconnaissance Reports of Lines of Advance through the Free State," prepared by Captain Wolley, of the English Intelligence Division of the War Office in 1897, and accompanied by the usual memorandum, signed by Sir Redvers Buller, to keep it secret. In one of the papers giving in minute detail the physical features of the Transvaal and the Free State, the fortifications in each, and the population and military resources of the two Republics, it was estimated that possibly four thousand Cape and Natal colonists would attempt to side with the Republics in the event of war. In commenting upon the Boers individually the author expressed the opinion that a large proportion of young Boers had materially deteriorated in marksmanship and horsemanship from the standard of their fathers in the previous war for independence, having entered more sedentary pursuits.

JOUBERT'S GENEROSITY.

Concerning the late General Joubert there are several sympathetic passages, of which the following are the most interesting :

I saw him almost daily for many weeks subsequent to this, but at no time did he impress me other than as a kind-hearted old man with a fatherly spirit. He was out of place as the commanding officer of the Boers; personally he was too tender and sympathetic for a military officer in the field. He had remarkable ability as a strategist; he had too high an estimation of human life, even that of the enemy, to execute some of his own plans for offensive operations.

And later, after he had received the affidavits of several burghers with reference to the conduct of the Lancers after Elandslaagte

General Joubert told me that he did not believe the English commanding officers would countenance such acts of barbarism on the part of individuals in their troops. The old Boer general explained these acts as natural on the part of irresponsible soldiers seasoned in numerous wars against savages.

According to Mr. Easton; the memory of Elandslaagte was the most potent influence which led to the investment of Ladysmith.

FRONTAL ATTACKS NOT OBSOLETE.

Mr. J. Bürde, an ex-infantry officer in the Prussian army, has an article in the Contemporary Review on "The War and Modern Tactics," in which he combats the contention that the present war has shown the obsoleteness of modern tactics, and especially of the system of frontal attack. The battles which raised the outcry of obsolete tactics were Stormberg, Magersfontein and Colenso, and Mr. Bürde points out that owing to accidental circumstances Colenso was the only battle which could count. But at Colenso the defeat was caused by failure to carry out the frontal attack properly, and not by the inadequacy of the plan. The bombardment was begun three days before the fight, the Boers repairing their trenches every night, whereas the artillery attack should properly not have been separated from the infantry attack. Another mistake was the neglect to send a sufficient force against Hlangwane Hill. Finally, the loss of the batteries caused the loss of the battle, which Mr. Bürde thinks would otherwise have been a victory. He thinks that General Buller made an error of judgment when he decided to retreat after the battery incident :

And why was the attack broken off? To the student of military history only one cause suggests itself, and that is, the old experience that a general who goes to the front himself is liable to be influenced by local occurrences, and thereby loses the ability of conducting a battle as an organic whole. Steinmetz and Skobeloff had to learn that the front line is not the place for a general, so long as there are still reserves to be disposed of; Prince Kraft narrates another example of the same kind, and warns generals against the danger accruing from their being with the firing line. The Prussian staff insist that officers commanding battalions and larger units should accustom themselves in peace manoeuvres to conduct the fight from behind. A British officer who served with distinction in the last Egyptian campaign made the following remark to me shortly after the war: In the battles of this campaign our generals, with very few exceptions, were with the firing line. If they do the same thing when fighting with a force trained on the European model, then I do not know how they will be able to conduct a battle."

Colenso was therefore lost owing to the bad execution of the plan, not to its inherent inadequacy, and it proved nothing whatever as to the obsoleteness of frontal attacks. As to the superiority of flank attacks, Mr. Bürde points out that Lord Roberts's success was due, not to flank attacks, but to strategical turning movements executed by his mounted arms.

THE PRESS AT THE FRONT.

In Harper's Magazine, Mr. F. A. Mackenzie writes concerning the correspondents in South Africa. Special mention is made of Mr. Pearse, of the Daily News, Mr. Steevens, of the Daily Mail, and Mr. Knight and Mr. Winston Churchill, of the Morning Post. The writer gives a very good account of the hardships attendant upon a special correspondent's life, and deals especially with the censorship of despatches in South Africa. He gives a very good example of the effect of the censorship:

The correspondent writes: "Heavy Boer attack. Guns rain shell fire on position. Severe losses, both yesterday and to-day." The message reaches the foreign editor in London thus: "Heavy rain yesterday and to-day."

IN DEFENCE OF ARTILLERY.

Major-General C. H. Owen writes in the United Service Magazine on "The Employment of Artillery in South Africa." He does not share the general belief that artillery has been shown to be ineffective by the experience of the war. The Boer artillery did little damage only because it was posted at extreme ranges, and the British artillery was ineffective only because in most cases it was employed against entrenchments constructed long in advance. General Owen says :--

In Sir R. Buller's attack on Pieter's Hill, when the field guns and howitzers were massed and could get a cross or enfilade fire, the effect of their shells was very destructive, as well as in the other attempts to force a way to Ladysmith. Against the strongly entrenched positions in Natal, firing direct, the field guns could of course do little, but the field howitzers were in many cases effective. Official despatches show that both horse and field artillery have been of the greatest assistance on the west side of the operations, both before and after the arrival of Lord Roberts.

As to the complaint that the British artillery was inferior to that of the Boers, General Owen says:

It is true that our field artillery has been frequently out-ranged; not, however, by field artillery, but by position and siege guns brought into entrenched positions. This does not, as the public have been led to believe, show that our field guns are not sufficiently powerful. We have, perhaps, the most formidable heavy field piece that has yet been used in warfare-the field howitzer, which fires a shell weighing 50 lbs., with a bursting charge of lyddite.

The neglect to provide position artillery was due to the fact that for years we had been fighting enemies who had no artillery at all. It is doubtful whether most of our generals have ever heard of such a class of ordnance. DEMAND FOR SERVICE REFORM—A VIGILANCE

COMMITTEE.

The widespread demand for reform in the public services, which is about the only good thing that has come out of the South African adventure, is about to take organised form at last. The Nineteenth Century opens with the announcement that it is proposed to form a new association, having for its object to fix public attention steadily upon the more important lessons taught by the war. Foremost among such lessons are :

(1) the necessity for examining the condition of the defences of the Empire and their administration by the public offices charged therewith; and (2) the need for conducting the business of the country, as administered by all the various Departments of State, upon ordinary business principles and methods.

It is a pity that the new association did not set among its foremost "lessons taught by the war," the lesson that such wars ought not to be made again. If it would only include this in its programme it would promise well. Among the members already secured are Lord Rosebery, Cardinal Vaughan, the Bishop of London, and a number of prominent M.P.'s.

POINTS FOR HOME GENERALS.

The Nineteenth Century for July contains an article by Colonel Lonsdale Hale, entitled "The Home Generals and their Work in the Coming Autumn." The problems before the home generals this autumn will be of a kind which will necessitate a complete break with the system which has been in vogue at our great training centres. The study of ground will be the first problem. Colonel Hale thinks it is very doubtful whether the Boers constructed

their deep trenches, and believes that the greater part of the work was done by Kaffirs, and if so we must take a lesson from them, and provide willing arms beforehand to aid our fighting men in obtaining the necessary cover :

Heavy manual labour seems hardly compatible with maintaining fighting men in the physical condition necessary for actual fighting in the field. A soldier can scrape a hole for himself, but he won't be much good with his rifle if before using it he has to dig out a human rabbit-burrow.

Another serious problem before our generals is how to raise the spirit of initiative in the lower ranks :

Besides the study of ground and learning all about it, there is yet one other matter which our Generals must insist upon in the elementary stages of the training, and without which the troops will be but ill prepared for the further work. During this preparatory period, there must be fostered, in and out of barracks, on the parade ground or at the tactical exercise, the habit of delegation of command and control to the lower leaders, and of co-operation of these among themselves. Never mind how little many captains may know of their work as company commanders, and how helpless a colonel would be if compelled to rely on them only with no adjutant at hand, this habit must be inculcated and practised now, no matter how great the inconvenience may be a battalion dependent in close country on its colonel or its adjutant for guidance had better be excluded from the Ordre de Bataille.

"Minister for London."

THE future of Lord Rosebery is exercising many minds, among the rest the mind of Mr. Arthur Mee, who writes on the subject in the Young Man for July. He says :

There is one post to which Lord Rosebery could elect himself, in which he would render incalculable service to the State and establish for himself a unique place in the Empire. The situation is vacant, and Lord Rosebery might step into it tomorrow, with the united support of six millions of people, and the sympathy and goodwill of the nation. It is the post of Minister for London. The office does not exist, but that matters nothing. The great man makes his own place. Nobody knows better than Lord Rosebery the needs of the Capital of the Empire; nobody understands better than he how they might be satisfied. It may be said that the work would be too local, but it is Lord Roseley himself who says that the problem of London is the greatest problem in the British Empire. He would make London a city worth living in, and if, as he darkly hinted, he paid the price with his head, he would surely give his head without a growl for the glory of solving the greatest problem ever set a statesman--the organising and civilising of the kingdom of London, the heart and soul of the greatest Empire the world has ever seen.

One of O'Connell's Stories. COUNSELLOR O'CONNELL is the subject of a sketch by Michael MacDonagh in Temple Bar. Here is one out of many stories told of or by the great Irishman :Some years ago, while attending the Clonmel Assizes, I witnessed a trial which I shall never forget. A wretched man was charged with the murder of his neighbour. . The evidence was running strong against the prisoner. In fact it was the strongest case of circumstantial evidence I have ever met with. As a matter of form-for of his guilt there was no doubt the prisoner was called on for his defence. He called, to the amazement of the whole Court, he called-the murdered man. And the murdered man came forward! The case was clear; the prisoner was innocent. The judge told the jury it was unnecessary to charge them. Yet they requested permission to retire. They returned to court in about two hours, when the foreman, with a long face, handed in a verdict of guilty! Everyone was astonished. "Good God!” cried the judge, "of what is he guilty? Not of murder, surely?" "No, my lord," replied the foreman, "but if he didn't murder the man, shure he stole me grey mare three years ago."