evidence for that culminant instance of spirit return was not adequate, as standing alone, to justify conviction, I did honestly surrender that great joy; although its loss was more grievous to me than anything else which has happened to me in life.

Then with little hope- nay, almost with reluctant scorn-lut with the feeling that no last and least chance of the great discovery should be thrown aside, I turn to such poor efforts at psychical research as were at that time possible; and now it is only after thirty years of such study as I have been able to give that I say to myself at last, Habes totâ quod mente petisti "Thou hast what thine whole heart desired;"-that I recognise that for me this fresh evidence-while raising that great historic incident of the Resurrection into new credibility-has also filled me with a sense of insight and of thankfulness such as even my first ardent Christianity did not bestow.

Those who are interested in the subject will do well to obtain the presidential address, which is published at sixpence in the Proceedings of the S.P.R. by Kegan Paul, Trench and Co.

MIRACLES BECOMING CREDIBLE.

I will conclude this notice by quoting a passage from Dr. Dolbear's book on "Matter, Ether and Motion," which has just been published by the S.P.C.K. Speaking of telepathy, and what may be described as the phenomena of the Borderland, Dr. Dolbear says :—

If these things be true, they are of more importance to philosophy than the whole body of physical knowledge we now have, and of vast importance to humanity, for it gives to religion corroborative testimony of the real existence of possibilities for which it has always contended. The antecedent improbabilities of such occurrences as have been called miracles, which were very great because they were plainly incompatible with the commonly held theory of matter and its forces, have been removed, and their antecedent probabilities greatly strengthened by this new knowledge, and religion will soon be able to be aggressive with a new weapon.

AGNES G. LEWIS in the Humanitarian utters a strong protest against the social tyranny of paying calls. Than the waste of time and energy and life, and "the irrational inanity of indiscriminate visiting," social extinction, she Vows, were far better. She adds the warning, "If we decide that a round of paying and receiving calls is not life at all, but a mere vegetable existence, we must recognise, and bravely face, the fact that a higher ideal of life means, in truth, a life of ceaseless, strenuous struggle, and of frequent solitude."

THERE is much that is breezy and out-of-door-like in the July Leisure Hour. Its cool green cover presents an attractive reproduction of Marcus Stone's "Summertime." Camp-life in British New Guinea is vividly sketched by Mr. C. Ross-Johnson, who conveys an impressive idea at once of the country and of the way we are civilising it. John Walker describes his run through St. Helena, which Cronje's imprisonment and the late Napoleonic craze have thrust into prominence. A few pictures from a Paris sketch-book bring the interest of travel nearer home, while Mr. W. J. Gordon combines statistics and the charm of the open air in his paper on Salmon. Mr. Gordon urges as a requisite for the effective preservation of salmon, not separate laws for England, Scotland, and Ireland, but a general Act dealing with the United Kingdom as a whole, only giving to local authorities power to modify details by by-laws. The salmon, he evidently opines, is a pronounced Unionist. Useful but incomplete information is supplied as to University education, and what it costs. The late Lyon Playfair is sketched by Wm. Stevens.

THE FUTURE OF LONDON RAILWAYS. A PLEA FOR A CENTRAL RAILWAY STATION. THE opening of the new Central London Railway affords Mr. G. F. Millin an interesting topic in the Contemporary Review. His proposal is nothing less than to realise, by utilising the unlimited areas which might be opened underground, the old project of a central London railway station, where all the railways which enter London, whether from the north or south, might

meet.

LONDON'S WASTE OF LAND.

At the present time London contains two hundred and eleven miles of railway, or about two miles of line to every square mile. The space occupied by these lines is worth millions, and to bring all the railways together upon the surface would cost tens of millions. To bring them together underneath the surface would cost a comparatively small sum, and the value of the land which it would set free would probably be greater than the cost :—

Conceive of all the land now occupied by railways, say, within ten miles of the centre, absolutely vacant-the railways simply spirited away-and you can remodel London in almost any way you please. With this vacant land available literally all round the Metropolis and at many points in its centre, it would not only be possible by readjustment to sweep away slums and set up working-class dwellings, but it would be easy to provide gardens and open spaces within reach of every inhabitant, and in a hundred other ways to enhance the healthiness and beauty of this vast "province of houses,” as somebody has called it.

HOW IT COULD BE DONE.

The invention of the vertical lift has eliminated the first difficulty in the making of deep-level railways. Depth is now of no importance. The area underground is unlimited. The problem of ventilation has also been solved. The use of the Greathead shield has solved the engineering difficulty. Mr. Millin therefore makes the proposition that all the great railways, upon entering London, should run underground to a central station, which should be on the surface, only the platforms being underneath. Here the business of all the railways should be transacted, and the problem of transport of goods and passengers across London would be at the same time solved, while the hideous Thames railway bridges could be taken down.

AN UNDERGROUND RAILWAY WORLD.

Here is Mr. Millin's picture of the future meeting of the London railways underground :

One can imagine in the not very distant future a magic circle drawn round London-say, with a ten-mile radius from some point which shall be the railway centre for the whole Metropolis. At this circle steam locomotives-if they are still in use in the open country-are left behind. All round at this boundary trains take to themselves electric power, blaze out with electric light, and begin to flash down by easy decline towards the weird region beneath the roots of the great forest of London. A passenger by one of these trains who may have seen what has been done beneath the bed of the river, with all its shipping, at Blackwall, or under the vast station at Waterloo, with its Lustling crowds and its mountains of luggage and its thousand trains a day, with their ponderous locomotives moving overhead all the while, will not be surprised to find that this subterranean region is no longer given up to darkness and silence. It has become a maze of echoing tunnels, brilliantlyilluminated stations, throngs of people and "flying carpets," in the form of electric lifts. At the heart of it all, down under the very centre of London, the ten great lines running in from the provinces meet, each having its own station consisting merely of a platform and lifts for passengers and luggage. Down here there is no issuing or taking of tickets, no claiming of luggage,

no meeting of friends. There is nothing to be done but step out of the trains into the lifts and flit upwards. As there is unlimited space all around, there is no backing out of trains from a terminal station. The carriages are no sooner emptied than they run straight ahead, take a great sweep round and come in upon the down line, or pass on to another company's system.

It is a fascinating vision of the future.

The Irish the Greeks of the West.

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A WRITER in Gentleman's for July, E. M. Lynch by name, endeavours to make out a number of resemblances between Greece and Ireland. The case is not quite that of Macedon and Monmouth, even though Hibernia and Hellas both begin with the same letter. It is a pithy epigram with which the paper opens that the most striking resemblance was the part played by barbarians in arresting the development of both Greek and Irish art, literature and architecture. Danes, Normans and English played the Turk to perfection in Ireland." Now two of the poorest nations, Greece and Ireland were once comparatively rich, and each was a centre of culture. Yet with both peoples the love of learning has never departed. Patriotism and religion have been linked in both as the means of preserving national life and unity. In Ireland, as in Greece, patriotism is the master passion. Faith and superstition flourish in both lands. Among other resemblances selected for mention are the carvings on ancient tombs, "quickness in the up-take," disparagement of romantic love, early marriages, low rate of illegitimacy, "politicking," resignation and fatalism, absence of the industrial gift, success in life everywhere except at home, love of law, lawgivers and litigation. This somewhat Hibernian jumble of similarities ends with the assertion-" the learned maintain now that Greeks descend from Phoenicians, who were Celts." The Irish therefore, like the French, whom Carlyle called "the Greeks of to-day," may claim kinship with the stock which produced Pericles, Pheidias and Plato.

The Pooling of Private Libraries.

IN the June number of the Library there is an interesting article, by Mr. George Somes Layard, entitled "The Pooling of Private Libraries." As a reference to the pages of the "Annual Index to Periodicals" tells us, it was in the Nineteenth Century of June, 1895, under the title of "The Gentle Art of Booklending," that Mr. Layard first elaborated his proposal, and the scheme was helped no doubt by the notice of it given in the REVIEW OF REVIEWS of the same month (p. 567). In the Library, Mr. Layard describes the procedure of forming the Malvern Federated Library, and gives statistics of the results of three years' work. He thus concludes:

It certainly forces itself upon one more and more that federation is a law of life, rivalry is a law of death. The one brings in its train sympathy and kindliness. The other, though to the few the "whetstone of talent," spells for the many, distrust, sorrow, and destruction.

Mr. Layard's pioneer experiment should be largely followed, especially in country communities.

A "DOMESTICS' HOME-SCHOOL," sending out its pupils as "daily girls," and managed by ladies from the local churches, with preparatory step-cleaners' brigade, is suggested by H. Danks in the July Leisure Hours as a remedy for the present scarcity of domestic servants. The writer also proposes medals and diplomas for good

servants.

COLUMBIA TRIUMPHANS!

"THE Commercial ascendency of the United States has long been assured," so at least writes the Hon. C. D. Wright, United States Commissioner of Labour, in this month's Century. As an example of how the United States has managed to reach the position she now holds, Mr. Wright quotes the agricultural labourer. He says:

An ordinary farm-hand in the United States raises as much grain as three in England, four in France, five in Germany, or six in Austria, which shows what an enormous waste of labour occurs in Europe, largely because the farmers are not possessed of the mechanical appliances used in the United States.

THE KEY TO AMERICAN ASCENDENCY.

This is a most significant example because it gives the key to the whole question of the ascendency of American goods in the markets of the world. In this connection it is worth remembering Lord Cromer's statement with reference to the purchase of American locomotives for use in the Soudan :—

"Their choice," he says, "is simply due to the fact that American firms almost invariably offer engines built on standard designs of their own at lower prices and in less time, while the English and other European makers content themselves with their old designs, not being, as a rule, in the habit of manufacturing to standard designs of their own."

THE WITNESS OF EXPORTS.

Passing to the real facts which show commercial ascendency, Mr. Wright says:

To secure commercial ascendency, the exports of a country must be greater than the exports of any other country; for the total exports of a country indicate its true position in commerce, as they usually consist of surplus products.

A table is given showing that in the year ending December 31st, 1899, the imports of the United States were 798,845,571 dols., and the exports 1,252,903,987 dols.; those of Great Britain were 2,360,619,989 dols. and 1,289,971,039 dols. ; and those of Germany 1,236,888,380 dols. and 949,957,960 dols. Mr. Wright touches upon the serious point of these statistics when he says:

While our exports have been constantly increasing, our imports have not increased. It must be remembered that the reverse is true for other countries. The exports of British produce from the United Kingdom are no greater to-day than they were a dozen years ago, while her imports have increased.

"THE BAKERY OF THE WORLD"-AND ITS COAL CELLAR. On looking into the details of the exports we find that the totals for the export of breadstuffs and provisions were in 1890 154,925,927 dols. and 136,962,278 dols. respectively, while in 1899 they were 273,999,699 dols. and 175,508,608. Mr. Wright holds that these figures prove the United States to be "the bakery of the world." The writer does not overlook the question of coal; the United States he says possesses at least 50 per cent. of the coal area of the world. At present her coal production is something like 30 per cent. of the total world production. These statistics cause Mr. Wright to ask if the time may not be looked for when his country willfurnish not only the food for the support of armies, both industrial and military, of some of our greatest competitors, but also the fuel food by which armies, navies, industries and transportation are supported.

OBLIGING TO CUSTOMERS.

The figures given of the export trade to the new countries and markets are those which should give us the most cause for anxiety. In Australasia alone we find that the United States exported 19,624,890 dols. worth of goods in 1899 as compared with 7,818,130 dols. worth in 1893. The estimate for 1900 is 24,000,000

dols The reason for this is to seek in the fact that the American manufacturer endeavours to give his customer what he really wants, while the British merchant too often considers that as his article is most excellently made, it must satisfy everybody's wants. It is certain that in all the colonies American goods are to be seen almost everywhere in use, except in the cases where a sense of patriotic duty has conquered a desire for successful business in the heart of the colonist.

Mr. Wright's article is very instructive, and we could wish that every British manufacturer would read it and act upon the lessons it teaches.

In the scheme of our national government the presidency is pre-eminently the people's office. Of course, all offices created by the Constitution, and all governmental agencies existing under its sanction, must be recognised, in a sense, as the offices and agencies of the people-considered either as an aggregation constituting the national body politic, or some of its divisions. When, however, I now speak of the presidency as being preeminently the people's office, I mean that it is especially the office of the people as individuals, and in no general, local, or other combination, but each standing on the firm footing of manhood and American citizenship. . . . Inasmuch as Senators are elected by the State legislatures, Representatives in Congress by the votes of districts or States, and judges are appointed by the President, it is only in the selection of the President that the body of the American people can by any possibility act together and directly in the equipment of their national Government.

But Mr. Cleveland does not think the present system of selection through electors perfectly meets the case. He would amend it so as to prevent the possibility, which has already become actual, of a President being chosen by a minority of all the voters in the land.

Sir Bartle Frere-Vindicated?

MR. W. B. WORSFOLD sets himself to the task of vindicating the policy and reputation of the late Sir Bartle Frere. Had only his policy, instead of being arrested and renounced by the British Government, been put into effect, there would, the writer holds, "have been no Majuba, no Bechuanaland Expedition, no Jameson Raid, and no war to-day." He points out that Frere did not, as Mr. John Morley stated, annex the Transvaal. Lord Carnarvon instructed Shepstone to annex October 5th, 1876, a week before Frere was asked to be Governor. He denies that Frere was the author of the Zulu War, arguing that, as the Zulus were preparing to invade Natal, the best defence was for him to attack them. "The Home Government betrayed Frere. They allowed him to take up a definite position, and then blamed him for not retiring, when he could only have retired at the risk of incurring dangers twofold greater than the one danger which they desired him to avoid." Mr. Worsfold puts Frere's policy into two propositions :

(i.) British rule once established must be maintained, and (ii.) All responsibilities incurred by England by the act of annexation must be absolutely fulfilled.

SUBMARINE BOATS IN AMERICA.

THE Engineering Magazine for June contains an article by Rear-Admiral Philip Hichborn, the Chief Constructor of the U.S. Navy, entitled "The Demonstrated Success of a Submarine Boat." Admiral Hichborn begins his article by surveying the history of submarineboats, the first of which, it is interesting to note, was made by an Englishman named Bourne over three hundred years ago. Admiral Hichborn is a believer not only in the possibility of building efficient submarine boats, but in their superiority for coast defence over other ships.

MODERN EXPERIMENTS.

Since 1880 submarine boats have been experimented with in nearly all European countries, and in France, Spain, and Italy the governments have encouraged the experiments. In France alone has there been government encouragement through a series of years; and although the development in that country has been intermittent as a favourable or unfavourable administration came into power, the progress has been so great as to call forth official estimates and requests for the Luilding of a submarine flotilla of thirty-eight boats. The French type developed by the trials with an electric-storage motor boat, the Zedé is a very good one, deficient to be sure in some very important details, but sufficiently good for the economical and methodical French to be impressed with the great economy that submarines will bring to their mobile coast defences.

THE "HOLLAND" DESIGN.

At present there are two distinct types of practicable under-water boats, the submarine torpedo-boats like the Holland and the French boats, and bottom-workers like the Travailleur, Sous Marin, and the Argonaut. The submarine torpedo-boat is, of course, the more important type, and Admiral Hichborn takes the Holland as one of the best of the class. The theoretical radius of the Holland is 1,500 miles; the surface-speed ten knots, and submerged speed seven knots for a fifty-mile radius of action.

ITS CONTROL.

The control of the Holland is excellent, as it can be raised and lowered in the vertical plane to any required depth in a few seconds. The difficulty is in steering when submerged, as the object to be steered for cannot be seen. The ventilation system is also satisfactory. As to the field of vision Admiral Hichborn says :

The field of vision when submerged is nil, and therefore unsatisfactory as such; but acceptable because field of vision would carry with it the loss of the perfect invisibility which so largely adds to her effectiveness in attack, and because the quick rises and dives give perfect field of vision for a few seconds with a minimum of chance of disablement from gun fire.

PROTECTION.

The protection of the Holland is perfect :-

Neither gun-fire nor torpedoes can reach her when approaching to the attack submerged, and since the chance of her suffering from gun-fire when raising her turret a few inches above the surface for a few seconds is reduced to a minimum. Sea-going qualities. Perfect, since no sea, however heavy, can affect her when in the awash condition ready to dive, and when running light she can always be dropped to the awash condition in heavy weather. Surface motive-power. Satisfactory, since it is the same that gives satisfaction in thousands of small surface craft using gas-engines. Submerged motive-power. Unsatisfactory, since its source is the heavy and cumbersome storage battery. Acceptable, since it is the most available motive-power for use when air cannot be freely used, and since the supply can always be renewed (when there is communication with the air by coming to the surface or by sending up a hose when the boat is lying on

the bottom) through the use of the gas-motor as long as the fuel supply holds out.

ARMAMENT.

The armament of the Holland consists of torpedoes which can be delivered with as great, if not greater, accuracy than the same weapon from other types of craft. On account of the cramped space, however, the Holland's accommodation is bad, but—

she is sufficiently habitable to be endured for a few days at a time while lying off on picket du y, and because her crew can always be dry and warm and not suffer from heat as do the fire-room force of most naval craft.

THE INCOMPARABLE BOOKSELLER. BERNARD QUARITCH is the subject of a warm appreciation by Dean Sage in the June number of the Atlantic Monthly. The writer does not disguise his sense of the angularities and eccentricities of the late bookseller, but does not allow these to hide the real worth of the man. He thus briefly epitomises the life of Mr. Quaritch :—

He came to London from Prussia, his native country, in 1842, when twenty-three years of age, having had an apprenticeship of five years in the bookselling and publishing Lusiness in Nordhausen and Berlin. In London he found employment with

Mr. Bohn, the well-known publisher and bookseller, with whom he remained four years, an intervening year being passed with a bookseller in Paris. In his earlier days with Mr. Bohn, when employed as general utility man and porter at 24s. a week, his confidence in the future was so great that he once said to his employer, "Oh, Mr. Bohn, you are the first bookseller in England, but I mean to become the first bookseller in Europe." In 1847 Mr. Quaritch started in business for himself, settling at 16, Castle Street, Leicester Square, with a capital of £10. . . Thirteen years of hard work in Castle Street enabled him to remove in 1860 to 15, Piccadilly, where the rest of his laborious and useful life was spent.

The writer pronounces "his wonderful catalogues" to be his great monument. His greatest was produced in 1880. It contained the descriptions of over 28,000 books in 2,395. In prefaces to these monumental works Mr. Quaritch showed that "he knew he was the greatest living bookseller, and mentioned the fact as something patent and irrefutable. He was also perfectly sincere in stating his willingness to devote his life to gratifying the wishes of scholars and collectors, and he did it.” had no mean estimate of his powers and of his achieve

ments :

He

Another [friend] once telling him how fortunate he had been in leaving Germany and starting his career in England, was answered in perfect seriousness, "Well, if I had stayed in Prussia I might have been a von Moltke."

When the great Spencer library was sold, in 1892, to Mrs. Rylands, who gave it to the city of Manchester, Mr. Quaritch, who was authorised too late to treat for its purchase by a gentleman of New York, wrote, "My collection of books is more valuable and useful than the Spencer library, and may be had for £120,000. This is about one-half paid for the Spencer library.'

From no little experience of the man, the writer

says:

His great wisdom and the accumulations of over half a century of booklore were at the service of anybody, high or low, who would take the trouble to ask of him. Outside of his kindliness and generosity, so universally extended, as a matter of business he was content with fair profits on his bargains. . Mr Quaritch was incomparably the best informed, most munificent, and most liberal bookseller of this or any age, and it is very doubtful if the man lives who has the combination of knowledge, industry, enthusiasm, and high principles necessary to fill his place.

CRICKET IN DECAY.

THE UNVEILING OF THE SHAM AMATEUR. "THE Parlous Condition of Cricket" is the pessimistic title of an article by Mr. H. G. Hutchinson in the National Review for July. Mr. Hutchinson deals only with first-class cricket, which he admits is not of the first importance from the sporting point of view, but which nevertheless, in the opinion of the public, is the only thing worthy of attention.

THE LONG MATCH FATAL.

It is the length of matches, resulting from improved conditions, which is bringing ruin on the game. No cricketer unless he be possessed of private means can afford to spend three days in succession several times a month away from his profession or business. Sometimes he turns avowedly professional, and if so, well and good. But in most cases he scorns to do this, and thus is developed a class of cricketers who are nominally amateurs, but who really under various pretexts, draw as much or more profit from the game than the avowed professionals.

HOW IT IS DONE.

Mr. Hutchinson gives a long list of the means by which this is done. "Expenses are the chief pretext. Some amateurs draw their out-of-pocket expenses, and nothing more. More often, however, the amateur receives what is known as "liberal expenses,” and he is paid these expenses, not in proportion to what he has spent, but in proportion to his skill in "drawing a gate." Still worse, however, than the recipient of liberal expenses are the socalled amateurs who get compensation for "loss of business" during their absence on tours. And, finally, there are amateurs who draw regular salaries for services which they do not and cannot perform. "Assistant secretaryships" and other such posts are created with considerable salaries for the purpose of supporting amateurs, who have all the profits of the professional together with the privileges of the amateur.

Every important cricket club has its headquarters, almost of necessity, near some large town. A large town, of equal necessity, has certain firms of business people. It would be curious and sad if no members of any of these firms took a lively interest in the club and its cricket. This being sɔ, one of these firms is approached with a proposition somewhat in these terms on behalf of the committee of the cricket club :-"By the bye, you know young A. B. We must have him to play for us; but he does not see how he is to manage it unless we can find a job for him. Now, he would be a very useful young fellow in your business, and if you could find him a place in it, and would agree to let him get away for all the matches, we would pay you his salary." It may be that the offer would only amount to paying a part of his salary; that, of course, is matter of detail. The principle of the thing is clear enough. The cricket club is to pay young A. B. a salary for playing cricket, but instead of paying it directly to him, it is to pass through the hands of this complaisant firm, and is to be handed on to him under the guise wages for work that he has never done, never had an intention of doing, and probably has no ability for doing if he were to try. But the great ends are attained: he plays for the club, and he remains, in name at least, an amateur."

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TO NARROW THE BAT.

The only way to remedy these abuses, which are des

troying the game, is to shorten the present abnormally long matches, so that they shall interfere less with the cricketer's profession. Mr. Hutchinson thinks the best way to effect this is to make the bat an inch narrower on each side. Widening the wickets would only have the effect of making the batsmen play more on the defensive, and as a result matches would take longer than ever. This would not be the case with a narrower bat, because a ball off the wicket would still be a ball off the wicket independently of the size of the bat, and it is possible to hit even harder with a narrow bat than a broad one. Mr. Hutchinson points out that it is a mistake to suppose that the dimensions of all cricket accessories are settled as if by a natural law :

Wickets are not the immutable things that custom leads the irreflective cricketer to suppose. During the last century there have been frequent alterations in their size, and a while ago the amateurs and professionals used to play matches with the handicap that the latter had to defend the bigger wickets.

VIVE LA FRANCE.

A MORE hopeful view of France than has been customary of late is offered by Alvan F. Sanborn in the June Atlantic Monthly. France, he says, is deeply sensible of the need of political improvements :

The principal reforms being advocated are:-Compulsory suffrage; administrative decentralisation; a supreme court on the model of the Supreme Court of the United States; election of judges by the Cour de Cassation, and of the Cour de Cassation by the bar of France; individual resp nsibility of ministers; a single term for deputies and senators; proportional representation; withdrawal from the Chambers of the right of initiative in matters of finance; election of President by direct vote of the people; . . . limited initiative and referendum for the people.

In industry and commerce France has been sleepy and devoid of initiative; but the pressure of competition is rousing her. She is improving her technical education. She is developing her colonies. She has still the glory of a literary stage. "The supremacy of French sculpture is almost a truism." French painting makes Paris still the art school and art centre of the world. A new school of music has arisen. Here is a statement which will excite surprise :

:

More books are published in France each year than in Great Britain and the United States combined more books of a serious nature especially, since France publishes only a quarter as many novels as England, and only half as many as the United States. In pure learning and in science (in which latter, despite the deaths of the leaders of research Pasteur and Charcot, she was never more earnest than now) she is second only to Germany, and her competition with Germany is growing keener every day. . . . In a word nothing but good government and good business seem to be lacking.

A NEW argument for universal old age pensions is suggested by Mr. Charles A. Conant in the June Atlantic Monthly. Dealing with "recent economic tendencies," he discusses the serious problem of the rapid accumulation of saved capital, which often creates much mischief in its quest for new outlets. He proceeds :

Checks to the process of capitalisation or new outlets for capital must be found to maintain healthy conditions. The establishment of old age insurance, upon a scale broad enough to divest the system of any aspect of almsgiving, and make it a part of the established economic order, would tend to restore the equilibrium between production and consumption by diminishing the amount of new savings seeking investment in fields already occupied.