HOW TO GOVERN THE CHURCH. THE VIEW OF THE BISHOP OF HEREFORD. IN the Nineteenth Century for March, the Rev. Dr. Percival, the Bishop of Hereford, has an article entitled "Church Reform: Why not Begin with the Parish," which contains a very interesting and somewhat revolutionary proposal.

PRESENT MEASURES.

Dr. Percival does not regard with favour either the Discipline Bill or the Convocations Bill, which are at present attracting so much attention. If the Discipline Bill were passed into law he thinks it would only increase the resentment of those against whose practices it is directed, and it might even attract enough sympathy to their side to split the Church into two warring camps. The Convocations Bill he also regards as a mistake, for it means reversion to a more clerical form of Church Government. He does not believe that Parlia

ment will assent to it.

Freedom or self-government must begin at home, and Dr. Percival therefore suggests that a representative Church Council should be established in every parish or ecclesiastical district, to be elected by all parishioners who are qualified to vote. The powers of this Council would be very great, as may be seen from the following list of the things they might do :

(1) It shall not be lawful for an incumbent or curate in charge of a parish to introduce any changes in the mode of conducting public worship without giving due notice and obtaining the assent of his Church Council.

If this assent is withheld, the clerk may appeal to the Bishop for his decision on the subject, and the Bishop after conference with the clerk and the Council, and after full and careful consideration of the matter, shall make an order embodying his decision.

(2) If the Council desires any reasonable and lawful change to be made in regard to the conduct of public worship, and the incumbent or curate in charge declines to make it, the Council may appeal to the Bishop, who shall, after full and careful consideration of the matter, make an order embodying his decision. (3) If in any case the Bishop's order is objected to by either party an appeal shall be allowed to the Archbishop, whose decision shall be final.

(4) If during a vacancy the parishioners through the Church Council petition the Bishop with reference to the mode of conducting public worship which the parishioners desire, it shall be the duty of the Bishop to make an order on the subject, having due regard to the wishes of the parishioners, and this order shall be binding on the new incumbent.

(5) Any clerk who shall disregard an order of the Bishop or Archbishop given under this Act shall be forthwith admonished by the Bishop.

If he fails to obey the admonition within three months, this failure shall ipso facto involve the immediate voidance of his benefice, or the lapse of his licence, as the case may be.

(6) Every parishioner duly qualified to vote under the Parish Councils Act, and claiming to be a member of the Church of England as by law established, shall be qualified to vote in the election of the Parish Council, but no other person shall be so qualified.

As to the qualifications of members or voters for the Council, Dr. Percival thinks they should be as wide as possible, and that no test should be imposed. Every person should be considered a member of the Church until he deliberately cuts himself off from it.

In support of this scheme Dr. Percival declares that no reform can bring practical relief into Church life if it does not first of all settle the relations of an incumbent with his lay parishioners. The cause of parochial differences in nine cases out of ten lies in the arbitrary position of the incumbent.

IS THE NAVY EFFICIENT ?

"No," ANSWErs Mr. H. W. WILSON. MR. H. W. WILSON is an alarmist, except when a war is actually in sight, when, as in the case of South Africa, he is an optimist. It is necessary, therefore, always to take his criticism of service matters with reserve. But in the case of the Navy his criticism is so insistent that it would be unreasonable not to call attention to what he says. In the Nineteenth Century for March, in an article headed "The Admiralty versus the Navy," he deals with the naval question under three headsorganisation, material, and personnel—and in every case he finds that we are unprepared for war.

ORGANISATION.

The organisation of the Navy is, he begins, a negation of responsibility." The sea-lords themselves do not know what is precisely the responsibility of each member of the Board. We have nothing in England like the German naval organisation, which Mr. Wilson says is not only theoretically perfect, but works in practice splendidly. As a consequence of this our fleets are badly distributed. Of the four great British fleets, not one was properly prepared for war last autumn. The proportions of the various types of ships were wrong. The Mediterranean fleet is so ill-supplied with cruisers that it could not hold its own against France alone, let alone France and Russia. Mr. Wilson asserts that our Admiral in the Mediterranean has asked for reinforcements which he could not get.

MATERIAL.

As to the material, Mr. Wilson says that we have not ships enough ready for sea. He calculates that the navy is 15 per cent. below what Mr. Goschen said in 1899 was the lowest essential number. What is worse the building programme is in disorganisation, and he gives instances of 32 to 52 months being required to complete British battleships, though in 1893-95 battleships were built in England in half the latter period. Striking out old ships, we have only 37 battleships ready and 16 building against 28 French ships ready and five building, and 19 Russian ready and nine building, while Germany has 15 ready and to building. Of the equipment of our ships in general Mr. Wilson finds that they are not better armoured and have less guns than the foreign ships. The dockyards are also inadequately equipped. At home we require a new dockyard, or a great extension of the present ones.

PERSONNEL.

With this subject Mr. Wilson deals shortly. We want a naval reserve of at least 100,000. We could easily get 10,000 or 20,000 good men from Canada and Australia. We want more trained officers, for France, Russia, and Germany are largely increasing their stock. Mr. Wilson concludes as follows:

Of our navy it may truly be said, in Scharnhorst's words, describing the Prussian army on the eve of Jena, that "It is animated by the best spirit; courage, ability, nothing is wanting. But it will not, it cannot, in the condition in which it is, do anything great or decisive."

The moral is plain. We must have organisation, carried out by an organiser who understands war. It is at Whitehall, at Downing Street, that the real fault is to be found. Responsibility when it is "spread spells unreadiness and inefficiency. Germany, says M. Lockroy, "views war as she does one of the national industries. She nurses her navy as though it were a commercial undertaking what dominates our attention is

not so much the number of her ships or the size of her arsenals, as her application of method to the acquisition of naval supremacy."

THE SWEET USES OF ADVERTISEMENT. To the first February number of the Revue des Deux Mondes Vicomte d'Avenel contributes one of his observant articles on the various methods adopted to secure that great necessity of the age-publicity. This passion for advertisement is, he says with great truth, not confined to the commercial world, but flourishes among politicians, "smart" society, literary men, and artists, who feel the democratic need of making themselves talked about, and who need not, as a rule, feel ashamed of it. He alludes to a familiar French poster of an illustrious politician with a glass of so-and-so's liqueur in his hand, from which both the politician and the proprietor of the liqueur have derived about equal benefit. The owner of another drink hit upon the brilliant notion of issuing very tastefully produced albums containing portraits of celebrities, all of whom sang, in their own handwritings, the praises of the particular liqueur. The difficulty in this case was to obtain the first few celebrities; afterwards all was easy, for the succeeding ones joined lest it should be thought that they were not good enough to be asked!

It is curious how comparatively modern is the practice of advertising in newspapers. Perhaps the oldest “Ad." on record in England is a "lost, stolen, or strayed inquiry inserted in the Mercurius Publicus in 1660 by King Charles II. for a little dog which had wandered from his Majesty's palace. The spread of popular education, joined with the freedom of the Press, the development of communications by road and rail, and the cheapening of paper and printing-all these combined have produced the modern development of Press advertisement. A very low estimate of the money spent for this purpose in France places it at £4,000,000 sterling a year, of which about £1,500,000 goes to newspapers and periodicals. Curiously enough, the railways in. France do not pay for their advertisements in the news. papers in money, but in free tickets; and they compete with the newspapers in that they furnish singular advantages to the advertiser for posters at stations and in railway carriages. The newspapers are also both sellers and buyers of publicity; thus the Petit Journal pockets about 112,000 a year for advertisements, and spends about £26,000 in advertising the paper. M. d'Avenel goes on to relate the story of the establishment of the Agence Havas, which hit upon the brilliant idea of combining the business of supplying news with that of advertising agents. The newspapers paid the agency for its news by placing at its disposal so many columns for advertisements, and in this way the agency secured a kind of double profit. M. d'Avenel thinks, that the considerably larger price charged for advertisements in France as compared with the tariffs in England and America are not unfair to the advertiser because his announcements are more conspicuous owing to the comparative paucity of advertisements in each newspaper. It would seem natural that the more columns of advertisements published in a newspaper, the more space must be purchased by the advertiser who wishes to attract attention. But even M. d'Avenel would probably shrink from the logical conclusion that one should only advertise in small papers which have few other advertisements, and presumably little or no circulation.

In France, as in other countries, the class of advertisement generally denominated financial, is much sought after and is very profitable; but the great peculiarity of the French Press-which, it is to be hoped, distinguishes it from the British and the American-is that advertisements invade also the editorial columns. Such things of course have been, and are being, done in this country and

America, but it is certainly not so common, nor are such reputable journals infected, as is the case in France. M. d'Avenel tells a story of a well-known actress who, not satisfied with the praises of the critics, regularly devoted a considerable sum every year to purchasing eulogistic articles about herself in the Press. Similarly, financial booms are prepared weeks and months beforehand by the systematic and intelligent creation of favourable Press atmospheres. M. d Avenel concludes by paying an interesting tribute to the artists who have rescued the poster from the degradation into which it had fallen. Of these perhaps the most famous are the two brothers, Jules and Joseph Chéret. Willette, too, must be mentioned, though there is an incident in his career which hardly recommends him to English people.

THE SALT CURE FOR CONSUMPTION. Of all the curious methods of restoring the health and freshening up the jaded nerves of over-wearied and wornout people, the oddest is that of pumping salt water into their veins. According to Mlle. Claire de Pratz, who writes upon the salt cure in the Contemporary Review, a hypodermic injection of salt water into the veins is, if not exactly the elixir of life, at least one of the best and most convenient of all methods of mechanical stimulation for the re-invigoration of sluggish nerve-centres. One, two, or three grammes of a careful preparation of the salts which are found in the human blood are gradually injected day by day. The quantity may sometimes be increased to as much as ten grammes. The more concentrated the liquid, the more tonic and stimulating are its effects; but in that case the operation is more painful :—

The effects produced by these injections are the following. Patients who are run down and suffering from languor are reinvigorated and become stronger in every way after a few days of the treatment-sometimes even after the very first injection. Appetite returns, and may even develop into absolute boulimia, or insatiable voracity. Sleep comes back, and in the case of thin people considerable weight is gained.

Of course, if half of these pretensions could be realised with certainty, there would be a tremendous rush upon the salt cure, more especially as it is also claimed that the saline injection will completely change the mental condition. A patient suffering from melancholia, if carefully and systematically treated with doses of this artificial serum, will recover physical and moral health, and miserable men become joyful and happy without any apparent reason. The salt introduced to the blood by means of the contact with the nerve-centres in the walls of the veins and arteries stimulates and reinvigorates these nerves, and they in turn transmit their vibration to the brain, giving it strength. The sooner the salt cure is applied to the members of the present Cabinet the better. The headquarters of the staff, in fact the whole of us, might with great advantage turn on the tap of this miracle-working salt, which will strengthen our blood. It is claimed that saline injections do not become a necessary habit. Saline maniacs are not developed like morphia maniacs, neither is it necessary continually to use increasingly strong doses. Repeated injections give lasting strength to the very centre of the nervous system. The article is very interesting; in view of the coming Budget the sooner the Chancellor of the Exchequer is put under a course of special treatment the better.

THE Sunday Strand for March gives us Miss Warren's views of Sunday in Venice, Mr. Arthur Mee's eulogy of Rev. G. Campbell Morgan-Mr. Moody's successor; and Mrs. Tooley's sketch of the late Queen's last years.

THE CORRUPTER OF OUR ARMY. A SOLEMN INDICTMENT OF M. DE BLOCH. WHEN any one asks what factor operated most to lower the reputation of the British Army in South Africa, the average Britisher answers, the distances and the want of roads, and the average foreigner, Generals Botha and De Wet. Colonel F. N. Maude is of a very different opinion. The real enemy of the British Army, who has led to most of our humiliations, is neither the Boer nor the veldt-track-it is Monsieur Jean de Bloch. Colonel Maude has already on more than one occasion dealt incidentally with M. de Bloch's views, but it is evidently only more recent study which has led him to this terrible conclusion, to which he devotes a whole article. That article is to be found in the National Review for March.

HOW THE ARMY WAS RUINED.

I cannot deal with everything that Colonel Maude says in his indictment. Briefly, his argument is that in the earlier battles of the war the British Army did excellently. The attacks at Talana Hill, at Belmont, and at Enslin, were excellent, and if the losses were considerable, well, the principle that you cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs is the first of all the principles of war. But the newspapers were horrified at the bloodshed, which Colonel Maude justly shows was not heavy when compared with that of past wars. So they took up M. de Bloch. And by the use of his theories, in a short month, they destroyed the efficiency of the British Army. For weeks the papers were deluged with letters and articles, all with theories based on M. de Bloch's, as to how to avoid losses.

M. DE BLOCH ON THE BRAIN.

The people, and through them the Army got these theories on the brain :

Reviewers. . . . labelled the work as "epoch making," and one even went so far as to recommend officers to read over chapters of it to their men before going into action. This person was quite oblivious of the fact that such conduct would render any one who indulged it in liable under the Army Act to "death or such less punishment as is in this Act mentioned" for "in action, or previous to going into action, using words calculated to create despondency or alarm," etc.... Men were gravely told that the two-inch-square distinguishing badges on their helmets were dangerously conspicuous, that the sergeants' red cloth stripes on their khaki serges would draw the enemy's fire, and other and similar absurdities were foisted on them without number. Then, having been duly wept over by their sweethearts and wives, and thoughtfully provided with great stocks of this nerve-destroying trash to digest on the voyage, they stepped on board the transports, and in due course arrived at the scene of action, where they found men busily engaged in painting their horses khaki and were themSves duly drilled in the new formation for "taking advantage of ant-heaps" as General Hildyard wittily christened it.

A FIT OF NERVES.

So the Army got a fit of nerves, "which ultimately developed to such portentous dimensions that on one occasion a whole British Brigade of 3,000 men was held up by the Boer commando of 300." The men got under the impression that they were facing M. de Bloch's "appalling and unprecedented fire," and that they were astonishing heroes. From this time forward they persisted in taking cover, and avoiding losses, with the result that they never gained a decisive victory. Early in the war we had the desperate fighting of Talana Hill, when the reinforcements, armed with M. de Bloch's book, got to the front, there was no more of this, but only a desire to save their own skins.

TO BEAR LOSSES, NOT AVOID THEM. Thus M. de Bloch destroyed the British Army as a fighting machine. Colonel Maude enters into some elaborate calculations to show what he regards as the real effect of magazine rifle fire as compared with that of the ancient musket. But the essence of his article is that whether losses are heavy or small the men must be taught to bear them. The test of a battle, he says, does not depend upon the avoidance of losses, but upon the capacity for sustaining them. This may be so, but it opens another question, that is, what is the use of asking men to sustain losses which render victory impossible or fruitless? If our men had withstood greater losses on several occasions they might certainly have gained the victory, but a series of such battles in a war between powers with equal forces must lead to the annihilation of the attacker, since Colonel Maude on his own showing grants that the defenders may and can avoid loss.

WHAT M. BLOCH WOULD SAY.

Of course M. Bloch's reply to all this is very obvious. He has merely to say, "According to your own showing the reinforcements sent to South Africa were infected with my theories. But these reinforcements defeated the Boers, while the earlier forces, which had been fed on the opposite diet, were defeated." To which Colonel Maude would probably reply that this was because they had overwhelming numbers. But this must be another feather in M. de Bloch's cap, for it was he who first declared that overwhelming forces would be needed. But in any case it is evident that M. Bloch's influence has extended even more widely than he thought. It is a pity that the newspapers do not show equal eagerness in propagating his theories as to the economic folly of war.

A CAPE TOWN VIEW OF THINGS.

THE Contemporary Review publishes an article entitled "The Situation in South Africa," signed "Capetown," which betrays the fine Roman hand of the author, or perhaps it would be more correct to say the authoress. It is a clever article, full of plain truths, clearly stated, not from the pro-Boer standpoint, but from that of a person sincerely anxious that the war should be ended by the triumph of British arms. The writer says the situation at present, both from a political and a military point of view, is decidedly worse than when President Kruger issued his ultimatum. It is an indictment upon the military authorities at the Cape for their blundering mismanagement and senseless vanity. Instead of rallying round the Empire the Colonials in South Africa, it has widened the latent feeling of rebellion which lurked in the breasts of many among them. There is a great deal of information in the article about the Outlanders and the refugees. She says:

The popular belief is that the war was brought about by the Uitlanders, and in a certain sense this is true; only I do not think that they ever seriously contemplated the possibility of its breaking out. They threatened Kruger with it because they imagined that he would yield to their demands, if he saw them backed up by English bayonets; but at heart they did not care at all for the South African Republics to be incorporated into the body of the Empire, and for the bribery and corruption, through which they had enriched themselves and prospered, to come to an end. Their aim and desire would have been to see a new Kingdom of Jerusalem rise out of the ashes of the Transvaal, governed by Lionel Phillips and his friends.

The South African crisis has been aggravated from the beginning by undue haste. Everyone has been in

too great a hurry, and the situation has been rushed from first to last, with results that we see. The writer, although criticising Sir Alfred Milner, believes that he is the only man who has sufficient authority to make the English Government calculated to appease the Boers and to lead to the eventual pacification of the country. She thinks that he only adopted the Outlander grievances as a shield to prevent his real policy being discovered by the people at large. He rushed things at first, but afterwards discovered his mistake. "Cape Town" says that Sir Alfred Milner has protested against the burning of farms, which it is interesting to know; but the evidence of this is not yet to hand. That it was a frightful folly and a wicked crime, everyone can see to-day; but it would be interesting to know at what date the folly and criminality of it all dawned upon Sir Alfred Milner's mind. But what chance is there in finding the truth when everything is concealed, and when lying has been resorted to systematically in order to conceal the truth from our people? As "Cape Town" says, the whole miserable business has been fed on lies, aggravated by bluffing of the worst kind practised in the worst taste. Mr. Rhodes, in her opinion, is the one great powerful man in South Africa. Sir Gordon Sprigg is a mediocrity, Lord Roberts has been a failure, and Lord Kitchener has not been a success. account of the refugees is very interesting. She says they are sick with hope deferred, and they have been very much irritated by the fables circulated by Lord Roberts and others as to the war being over while they were forbidden to return to Johannesburg, on the ground that the war was still raging. "The military seem never to have had during the whole of this lamentable campaign the courage to say the truth." The consequence is that the refugees are getting very impatient, and will give us trouble. Cape Town"

66

--says:

Her

At present their irritation is growing, and one of the great problems of the future is how they will look upon the new Government, when they find the conditions of life in the Transvaal quite different from the past ones, as they are bound to become, once matters are settled. How will they like to see introduced keener competition, lower wages, fresh influx of foreigners, absence of that bribery and corruption of which they made so much use, and not the same facilities for money-making which existed formerly? This is the question, which, when it is raised, will prove a serious source of trouble to the English Government.

IN PRAISE OF KIMBERLEY COMPOUND.

Mr. J. S. Moffatt, writing on "The South African Natives" in the Contemporary Review, devotes a few pages to vindicating Mr. Cecil Rhodes for establishing the compound system at Kimberley. So far from regarding the compound system as horrible slavery and legalised tyranny, he says it is one of the things which seem to make the outlook of the native in South Africa not altogether hopeless. He maintains unhesitatingly that the native who goes back from Kimberley after a spell of labour in the compounds is a better man all round in physique, in pocket, and in character than the native who starts from exactly the same point, but spends his nights in the slums of Cape Town or of Johannesburg, and goes back a degraded and besotted wreck of humanity. enters the compounds unless by his own free will; they have an eight hours' day, a six days' week, and special pay for Sunday work and overtime. The minimum rate of wages is 15s. a week for unskilled labour. The article is interesting for those who have been taught that the compound system is the supreme embodiment of Mr. Rhodes's inhumanity.

No one

We are only beginning to learn how it acts. That it dissolves many things is well known, but let us not be misled because this phenomenon is so common and so familiar. Put a little salt in water. What becomes of it? It disappears. There is no solid substance in the vessel. We may bandy phrases as we please, but we cannot tell what has become of the salt. We can get the salt out of the water by boiling the solution and letting the water pass off as steam, when the salt will be left behind. As we put the salt in and take it out, we have been accustomed until recently to think of the salt as being present in the solution as such. One of the most important advances in chemistry made of late years is that which leads to the conception that, in dilute solutions at least, there is little, if any, salt present; that in some way the water decomposes it into particles highly charged with electricity. These particles are called ions. This idea has thrown a great deal of light upon important problems of chemistry, but it has suggested many new ones. Some substances-for example, sugar do not act like salt when dissolved in water. Why this difference? Then, too, some liquids which are good solvents do not act at all like water. What is it in water that distinguishes it from most other liquids, such as alcohol and ether, enabling it to tear many substances asunder? These are questions that are now very much to the front. Rapid progress is being made, and we may look for important discoveries in this field in the ⚫ near future.

The child who wants to know what has become of the salt when it is, as we say, "dissolved," is evidently more scientific than most of those he questions.

LOOTING IN CHINA.

MR. JOHN MCDONNELL, writing in the Contemporary Review upon looting in China, says that we have gone back since Wellington's time. The theory, especially as laid down at the Hague Conference, is all that could be desired, and regularly as opportunity presents itself all the old outrages are repeated. If Governments wish to stop looting, they must do as Napoleon did when he entered Egypt, and issued a declaration that any member of the army who was guilty of pillage or violation would be shot. Mr. MacDonnell proposes that in any revised code of the usages of war there should be condemnation of the idea of booty in any form as absolutely barbarous. But surely this is embodied in the Hague Code as clearly and strongly as could be desired. What is wanted is something much more practical than this. Any one of the Governments who stand accused of looting in China, our own first and foremost, would do well to move for an International Committee of Inquiry to ascertain exactly what has been done in China in the way of looting and outrage, and to suggest what measures should be adopted to prevent the recurrence of similar crimes in future. If England does not do it, Russia might; and if both fail it might well be worth while for some public-spirited person or association to send out a commission to take evidence on the spot and let civilisation at least know the facts.

ARMY REFORM.

DR. CONAN DOYLE IN REPLY. IN the Nineteenth Century for March, Dr. Conan Doyle replies to Colonel Lonsdale Hale's strictures on his military programme. He repeats that he had no idea of superseding the regular army, but only to supplement it. Dr. Doyle is himself in favour of conscription, but he admits that there is no chance of its being adopted. But the Militia Ballot, if used with discretion, would not meet with the same opposition. It would have the advantage of strengthening the Volunteers, as exemption would be granted to all who joined that force. He sticks to his scheme of rifle clubs, and demands that the Government should remove the tax upon rifles, and even supply them, together with cartridges, to bonâ fide clubs. The following in short is his scheme

Regular Army, 130,000.-Highly-paid army of long-service men. One hundred and fifteen thousand might be taken as actually with the colours abroad. Fifteen thousand represent the Guards and the depôts at home. This force could be extended in time of war, and supplemented by organised colonial contingents so as to bring it to at least 200,000 effectives. Militia Army, 150,000.-For home defence only. Raised by ballot. Pay small, but every effort made to study the comfort and convenience of the men, while making them good practical soldiers.

Volunteers, 250,000.-Men serving in this unpaid force and making themselves thoroughly efficient should be exempt from the militia ballot.

Yeomanry.-Men volunteering for this should also be exempt from the year's training under arms involved in the ballot. By this means there should be no difficulty in raising 20,000.

Reserves from the Regulars.-There would be a considerable force of reserves, at first from men who had served under the present conditions, and later from men who had done their term of service in the reformed army. Say 80,000.

Then finally Civilian Riflemen.-Rifle clubs should eliminate bad shots and have on their rolls only expert riflemen. A strong effort should be made by individual patriotism and public opinion to enrol the greater part of the men of the nation, of any age, in these clubs, which would form a reserve for all other forces of the Crown. We will suppose that they reach 500,000.

HOW TO TRAIN GOOD SHOTS.

Blackwood's for March contains an article on "Army Shooting and its Improvement," by an Infantry Officer, who makes the following suggestions :

1. The number of rounds to be expended by each man during the year to be at least 800.

2. Thirty-five rounds per man to be fired in each of the twelve months.

3. Three hundred and eighty to 400 rounds per man to be fired in the annual course, which is to be divided into three parts-viz., individual fixed-target practices as now; sectional practices much as now, with careful training in fire-discipline, etc.; and individual battlefield practices.

4. Miniature galleries in barracks to be improved and enlarged.

5. More support and encouragement to be given by Government to regimental rifle clubs.

6. All officers to be impressed with the idea that the issue of modern battles depends on the straight shooting of the infantry soldier, and consequently on the zeal and energy displayed by officers in the peace-training of their men.

THE ARMY MEDICAL QUESTION.

Mr. Frederick Treves has an article in the Nineteenth Century on the South African Hospital Inquiry Commission. A considerable part of his space is taken up with summarising the Report, which, as might be expected, he accepts without reserve. In regard, however, to the question how sufficient men of the best type are to be secured for the Army Medical Corps, he makes

some recommendations which are worth quotation. In the first place the pay must be increased. Secondly, the grievances of Army doctors which result from the undermanning of the service must be removed. These complaints are chiefly in regard to holiday, leave, length of foreign service, and difficulty of obtaining leave for purposes of study. Another difficulty is that at present a large amount of non-professional work is thrown upon the doctors. During the present campaign the medical officers were largely kept engaged upon clerical work, writing reports, and checking lists of supplies. Lastly, the army offers very little encouragement for advancement in professional work. Army medical work does little to foster their interests in their profession :

The Service encourages its officers to live long and give no offence, but it does very little to help them to progress in their profession and to become more able surgeons and physicians, and, as a consequence, more able officers.

Mr. Treves says that the medical entrance examination is neither popular nor useful, and it would be of much greater service if it were to concern itself with such subjects as tropical diseases, wounds, hygiene, camp sanitation, and the like. As to increasing the number of medical officers available in time of war, Mr. Treves recommends the establishment of an Army Medical Reserve on the lines of the military reserve.

The Bishop of St. Asaph writes also on the South African Hospitals Inquiry, in the National Review for March. He regards the report of the Commission as a refutation of Mr. Burdett-Coutts' charges, which he condemns as "sensational."

THE IMPERIAL YEOMANRY.

In the National Review for March there is a useful article by Colonel Leroy-Lewis of the Imperial Yeomanry as to the future of that force. His first recommendation is that the Yeomanry should have a certain amount of training in shock tactics. The Yeomanry, he says, ought to be brigaded into groups of three or four regiments, and these again combined into divisions of two or three brigades. A school for Auxiliary Cavalry ought also to be established. As to equipment, he says that every Yeomanry regiment should be provided with a set of pioneering tools, of which they have greatly felt the want during the war. The construction of shelter trenches ought to be learnt by every soldier. A section of machine guns should also form part of the establishment.

As to training, Colonel Leroy-Lewis says that the efficient Yeoman should be obliged to do fourteen days' consecutive training, and fourteen other days, mostly devoted to musketry, and spread over the rest of the year. But facilities should be given to such corps as are willing to undergo longer training.

"IT is one of the glories of the nineteenth century that it has liberated the imprisoned soul of the deaf-mute and reclaimed much valuable human material from stagnation and waste." Such is the conclusion of a very interesting sketch in the Sunday Magazine of the World's Deaf and Dumb, by Abraland Frankham. The status of the deaf is said to be higher in the United States than in any other country. "In Australia, charitable aid for deaf adults has recently reached the world's high-water mark in the provision of a farm where aged and infirm deaf-mutes may employ their declining years in such light work as is within their power, cheered by the society of their fellows, instead of being doomed to the ghastly isolation of the workhouse."

66