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and by the bookish man, and by the lovers of the country and of humanity these will be easily forgiven. For many of its pages will bear continual re-reading; and to how many books can such praise be given?

These summer months are above all the months for novel reading, and I am glad to be able to put in your box and to recommend you enough good works of fiction to more than carry you over the four weeks till my next parcel will arrive. First and foremost, of course, stands Mr. George Meredith's "Lord Ormont and his Aminta," a story which, while it will not particularly raise the enthusiasm of readers already his warm admirers, will certainly do much to make him better appreciated and more widely known among the general public. Far from being its author's finest story, "Lord Ormont and his Aminta" has, however, the merit of being far more comprehensible than the majority of its predecessors; and it still retains all those excellent and unique qualities looked for from the creator of Richard Feverel and Evan Harrington.

The most readable novel in the batch of fiction is by a writer whom you may not know, Mr. H. Seton Merriman. His" From One Generation to Another" was good, but the present book, “With Edged Tools," is far stronger and more powerful. Almost a romance, it is a story of the present day with no superfluous or uninteresting sentence. Adventure on the West Coast of Africa, polite intrigue in the highest circles of London society: these are its two features; and each Mr. Merriman has drawn with an unfaltering and practised pen. He follows, it would seem, in the tradition of Thackeray; and it is likely that it will be admitted that that master had never worthier pupil. A two-volume novel depending for its interest entirely upon the sayings and doings of fashionable English society to-day is Mr. Richard Pryce's "Winifred Mount." Mr. Pryce seems always to write with a fuller knowledge and greater skill than his rivals in this field-even than the creator of "Dodo "--but in this his latest book the author of "Miss Maxwell's Affections" is not at his best. Here are a mere string of episodes, interesting and convincing enough, but leading almost nowhither. Another two-volume noveltwo volumes seems the fashionable length to-day-is Mrs. Everard Cotes's "A Daughter of To-Day," a study of the woman of the moment, which, if it has not the full significance of the books I have treated elsewhere, has a plenitude of interest. Mrs. Cotes's heroine fails as an artist, and becomes a journalist, and her trials and tribulations make excellent reading. But her end is hardly convincing. Such a woman is not likely to have sought refuge in suicide.

Besides Miss Holdsworth's "Joanna Traill, Spinster," and "A Sunless Heart," by a writer who prefers to remain anonymous (both these notable novels I write of at length in my article on "The Novel of the Modern Woman") you will find four other volumes of fiction in your box: two single-volume novels and two translations. Of the one-volume novels the best--and one of the best that has appeared for some time-is Mr. Gilbert Parker's "Translation of a Savage," a story with a motive entirely original, strange, and yet convincing. A young man, the son of a rich county family, while hunting in Canada, is jilted by the girl to whom he is engaged, jilted, he thinks, through his family's interference. Stung to the quick, and anxious to retaliate upon them for the fancied wrong, he immediately marries a native woman, the daughter of a Red Indian chief, and sends her home, lacking both English language and dress, to his father's house. This certainly is Mr. Parker's strongest piece of work, direct, and admirable in characterisation. The second one-volume novel, Miss Florence Farr's " Dancing Faun," I cannot

recommend, although, as people are talking about it here, I thought I had better include it. It is merely an unpleasant story of modern life, reminiscent in a faint degree of Mr. Oscar Wilde's society stories. Luckily, however, it has the one merit of extreme brevity. One, at least, of the two translations of foreign fiction that I send is of importance. Ivan Turgenev is the one great Russian writer whose books have been inaccessible in an English form, and "Rudin," the present volume, very neatly bound and printed, is a welcome beginning to a uniform edition-in six volumes-of his novels. It contains an excellent portrait and a short introduction of some twenty pages by Stepniak. M. François Coppée is the other continental writer whose work, now almost for the first time, is rendered possible for the English reader. "Blessed are the Poor" contains two of the best of his stories-" Restitution" and "The Poverty Cure"-and a short preface by Mr. T. P. O'Connor. This exhausts the fiction that you will find in your hox, but you might care to order from the library Miss Braddon's new story, "Thou Art the Man," and Mrs. F. A. Steel's "Potter's Thumb"-both three-volume novels. Miss Braddon is of course interesting, but it cannot be said that her latest novel can hold a candle to almost any of her predecessors. You will have read Mrs. Steel's previous Indian fictions, and perhaps, like me, you will wonder why it is, with so admirable and inventive and so serviceable a style, she is so lacking in the power of telling a story straightforwardly and so as to be understood. This new book, for instance-a maze of native Indian intrigue and English weakness-is very hard reading; but there are episodes which, I think you will agree, well repay the trouble.

You will find but two volumes of verse among the books I send-one a collection of sonnets, a hundred in number, by Mr. Eugene Lee-Hamilton; the other a book of lyrics from Canada by Mr. Bliss Carman. Mr. Lee-Hamilton's power over the sonnet is well known to all readers of contemporary poetry: the present collection, sadly but fitly entitled "Sonnets of the Wingless Hours," contains all the exercises in this form by which he is best known, and some seventy which have not hitherto appeared. A very vivid power of description, and a strength of thought and expression, are the two chief qualities of his work. Certainly the little book is one which occupies a very important place in the poetry of the past half-year. Mr. Bliss Carman's book, to a reader who knows the reputation in which this writer is held in Canada, will come rather as a disappointment. His lyrical touch is sometimes fine, but invariably diffuse, and I would hardly care to send the book to you were it not that, as the work of a Canadian, it is at least worthy of the attention of readers in the mother-country.

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Travels also are very fit reading for the summer season, and you are likely to get a good deal of amusement and interest out of Miss Helen G. Peel's "Polar Gleams: an Account of a Voyage on the Yacht Blencathra.'” Miss Peel, who, by the way, is the niece of the Speaker, made her journey from Bideford to the Yenesei River (by the now almost historic route of the North Cape and the Kara Sea), we have Lord Dufferin's authority for saying, in a frock of Cowes serge; and the Marquis goes on to say in his preface that the fact" that a last year's débutante should this exchange the shining floors, wax lights, and valses of a London ball-room for the silent shores of Novaia Zemlia and the Taimya Peninsula, with the accompaniment of ice-floes and winds fresh from the cellars of Boreas, exhibit the untameable audacity of our modern maidens." But be that as it may, Miss Peel's book is certainly a very fascinating one, both for its text and for its many excellent photographic illustrations.

SIGNATURES OF THE

HERE seems to be good reason for believing that the National Memorial to the Government praying for the establishment of an international understanding that there shall be no further increase of armaments, at least until 1900, will be one of the most influentially signed declarations ever presented to the Ministers of the Crown.

A Memorial which commands the sympathy of the leaders of both political parties, and which avowedly would never have been put forward, unless on the most explicit understanding that it would strengthen the policy which Her Majesty's Ministers were determined to adopt, has, it might be expected, secured the enthusiastic support of the representatives of labour, of religion, and of our municipalities. It has been signed by the official heads of almost every religious denomination with one exception. His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury has, unfortunately, not been able to see his way to take part in the Memorial. This is not, of course, due to any lack of sympathy with its object, only to a disinclination due probably to his position to help those who are endeavouring by this means to place some limitation to the intolerable burdens of modern armaments.

The following letter which Mr. Balfour addressed to Mr. Mark Stewart, M.P., who asked him to sign the Memorial, expresses the attitude of statesmen on both sides of the House:

4 Carlton Gardens, June 22nd, 1894. Dear Mark Stewart,-I, in common I believe with other persons who have considered the subject, see clearly the deep-seated evils which flow from the gigantic military expenditure in which every Government in Europe is involved. I need not say that I shall be glad to assist in any practical policy which seems likely to remedy or mitigate the disease. The object therefore of the Arbitration Alliance has my hearty sympathy. Yours very truly, ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR. The Memorial has been signed by the following among others:

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At the annual meeting of the International Arbitration and Peace Association, held on Wednesday, July 4th, Sir John Lubbock in the chair, the following resolution will be submitted:

Resolved, That this meeting hereby expresses its satisfaction that the committee has taken active steps to obtain the co-operation of their colleagues on the Continent in reference to the proposals for the reduction of the military burdens of Europe; and particularly approves of the memorial to Her Majesty the Queen that she should take the initiative in the latter important object; and the meeting trusts that the friends of peace throughout Europe will promote every measure which will afford relief to the suffering peoples, and diminish the danger of war.

WANTED, A COMMITTEE OF INITIATIVE.

In McClure's Magazine for June M. de Blowitz writes on "the Peace of Europe." He maintains that it is the imperative duty of the nations to reduce the term of service from three years to one year and a quarter. He asserts positively that it does not in the least matter whether the term of service is three years or one year and a quarter, and he insists that only by adopting the shorter term can peace be preserved. If this principle were introduced it would immediately effect a reduction in the war budgets of at least thirty-five per cent., to say nothing of the enormous advantage that would accrue from the restoration of the manhood of the country to civil pursuits for the two years and nine months which are at present consumed in the barracks. Peace, he says, is rapidly becoming intolerable in the opinion of every one. The following passage is delightfully Blowitzian:

The Pope has said: "Europe must first be allowed to breathe at its ease."

The Tzar of Russia has said: "My chief mission here below is the maintenance of pea e."

The Emperor Francis Joseph has said: "The hand of God has always impelled me towards peace."

The King of Italy said only the other day; "Peace is for Italy an absolute necessity."

The King of Denmark has said: "I hope to live long enough to see Europe diminish its war expenses in time of peace."

Prince Bismarck said to me, and the German Emperor has since made the same remark: "After such a war as ours, after such a victory as ours, no man thinks of staking his winnings on a single card: the night before a battle, who knows who will be the victor?"

And, finally, I wrote myself, only a little while ago, and I believe it to be absolutely true, that France, without giving up any of its hopes, will put no obstacle in the way of pacific solutions, nor handicap any measures of peace upon which Europe may agree.

Having thus settled as to what is to be done, M. Blowitz thus describes the way in which it is to be brought about:Two countries can take this initiative, the United States and

England: the United States, because it is removed by an estranging sea from all chance of participation in a European war; England, because it is separated from the Continent by the silver girdle of the Channel, rendering it invulnerable, whatever spectres may haunt the brains of those who dread the "Battle of Dorking."

I should like to see men from both countries, men devoted to peace, form a committee of initiative, assemble in some Swiss town, and appeal to the governments to study the idea of a reduction in the time of effective service, which would be thereby a reduction of the military expenses in time of peace, and put as well in the hands of the peoples themselves their destinies as nations; moreover, securing to them thus the blessings of peace as long as ever they wish, because rendering it unnecessary to have recourse to war as a relief from the burdens under which they are now self-oppressed. At this hour there is no nobler task than this, none more worthy of consideration.

It will be seen that the result of the long meditations of M. de Blowitz is a recommendation which Dr. Lunn has already anticipated.

THE CHRONICLES OF THE CIVIC CHURCH.

THE NATIONAL SOCIAL UNION.

THE Committee of the National Social Union will meet to consider the reports of their members on the extent to which the field is covered on Tuesday, July 10th. As we go to press a week before this and publish five days later, it is impossible to say more on the subject before our next issue. I may say, however, that the prospect of arriving at a common denominator is very good, and there is reason to believe that we shall arrive at a practical basis for the co-operation of all who love their fellow-men. There is a general agreement among Tories and Liberals, Socialists and Moralists, Agnostics and Catholics as to the duty of the day. It does not extend to the things of to-morrow. As, however, we have to live our life and do our work now when it is called to-day, it is more and more being recognised that it is simply criminal to weaken our effective force in helping our brothers now because we differ about how it would be the best to help them hereafter.

As might be expected I have received many letters and reports from all quarters and have had many interviews with representative people. The result of all this will be reported in our August number, but meanwhile I cannot refrain from the pleasure of quoting the following letter which reached me from Mr. F. Martin, 3, Western Road, Southborough, Tunbridge Wells:

I enclose a postal order for two shillings, and hope you will accept it, towards the starting of the National Social Union. I am only a working chap, and not earning over-much, but by a little self-denial-an ounce of tobacco a week-I am enabled to send you the enclosed. I would be a Christ, to help those around me, and I thank you for showing me my duty. May you be enabled to start the Union on a firm footing by the help and support of the influential men which are on the Committee that has been formed, and may the town of Tunbridge Wells very soon have a branch is my earnest wish.

DUDLEY CHRISTIAN UNION.

ON July 11th a representative meeting is summoned at Dudley Town Hall, when the following draft constitution will be submitted for consideration :

1. NAME." Dudley Christian Union for Promoting Social Progress."

2. OBJECT.-To improve the material, moral, and social condition of the people.

3. SPECIFIC AIMS.-(1) Temperance: (i) The decrease of temptations and facilities for drinking, and the enforcement of the laws concerning the liquor traffic; (ii) The prevention of the indiscriminate granting of Music and Dancing Licenses to houses licensed for the sale of drink; (ii) The removal from public-houses to suitable unlicensed premises of Inquests, Benefit, Friendly, and Burial Clubs, and Trade Societies. (2) Gambling: The suppression of Gambling. (3) Social Purity: The promotion of Social Purity. (4) Labour: (i) The finding of work for the deserving unemployed; (ii) The adoption of the principle of Arbitration and Conciliation in commercial and industrial disputes. (5) Recreation: The provision of wholesome recreation, and the further utilisation of public buildings and rooms. (6) General Purposes: () The election of suitable persons for public bodies; (ii) The improvement of the houses of the poor, and the better lighting of back streets and courts; (ii) The organisation of Christian philanthropy.

4. METHODS. (1) By obtaining all necessary information. (2) By informing and developing public opinion. (3) By putting existing social laws into operation. (4) By co-operation with the public authorities, and with all the existing agencies that seek to ameliorate the conditions of life among the people.

5. ORGANISATION.-(1) The officers of the Union shall be a President, Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, and Secretaries. (2) The Executive Committee of the Union shall consist of the Officers and the Chairman and Secretary of each Sub-Committee. (3) The Members of the Union shall be-(i) Representative; (ii) Individual. (i) Representative: Any religious, industrial, temperance, or other philanthropic body in the Municipal Borough of Dudley shall be entitled to elect four members to represent it. (ii) Individual: Any person desirous of promoting the objects of the Union shall be eligible for membership. (4) The Sub-Committees of the Union shall be (i) Temperance; (i) Gambling; (ii) Social Purity; (iv) Labour; (v) Recreation; (vi) General Purposes.

LONDON REFORM SUNDAY.

THE London Reform Union has secured the support and promised co-operation of many ministers of all denominations for the Reform Sunday which it is proposed to observe in October. The following is an extract from the circular issued by J. Passmore Edwards, Presi

THE

CIVIC

dent, Thomas Lough, Chairman, and C. H. Shillinglaw, Secretary. The offices of the London Reform Union are at 3, Arundel Street, Strand:

It is suggested that on one Sunday in the year the clergy and ministers within the administrative County of London might specially devote themselves to quickening the sense of citizenship, the feeling of corporate responsibility, the recognition of social obligations, incumbent upon every London citizen.

It is, of course, not intended that the clergy and ministers should make themselves the advocates of any particular scheme of reform, still less of any particular party or organisation. The obligations of civic duty lie above and beyond all political parties, and can, it is suggested, be treated without reference to any of them. Nor is any offertory or collection of subscriptions asked for. What is urgently needed is the active participation of all citizens in the common life of their city. The problems presented by London's huge aggregation of poverty and degradation-the over-crowded and insanitary condition of the dwellings of so many of the working population, the demoralising irregularity of their employment, the horrors of the sweating system, the drawbacks arising from the segregation of the rich and the poor, the lack of healthful recreation, beauty or rest, in "the cities of the poor"; the ravages of drink, vice and crime, among the poorly-fed, badly-housed and casually-employed denizens of the slums; the special difficulties connected with the transformation of the wife and mother into a wage-earner, and the home into a workshop; above all, the squalor, coarseness and neglect, which are destroying the character and intelligence of so many thousands of London's children-all these, it is felt, are subjects which no religiously-minded citizen dare ignore, but which, amid the pressure of private duties, are apt to be overlooked. Apathy with regard to public affairs is indeed London's greatest peril. Many well-intentioned citizens have hitherto confined their citizenship to paying the rates and obeying the law. At the present juncture, when so many hearts have been stirred by a new consciousness of London's needs and potentialities, and when a great change in the local machinery of public administration is about to take place, it appears more than ever desirable to enlist, for London's administrative problems, the sober judgment and active help of the ministers of religion and of all devoutly-minded people.

"IF CHRIST CAME."

I HAVE received many reports of lectures and sermons preached in various parts of the country, upon the subject, "If Christ came." The Warden of Mansfield took as his subject, "If Christ came to Canning Town." A series of addresses on the theme, "If Christ came to Cardiff," have been delivered to crowded audiences. The Unitarian minister in Norwich; the Rev. M. Walsh, the Baptist in Newcastle, and many others, have preached on "If Christ came to Chicago." On Sunday, July 8th, I have a conference in Leeds on the subject, “If Christ came to Leeds." On the 12th I speak in the Corn Exchange, Maidstone, on "If Christ came to Maidstone;" and on. the 17th I address the Reunion Conference at Grindelwald "On Some Lessons from Chicago."

THE FEDERATION OF THE FREE CHURCHES. THE Review of the Churches for June 15th publishes the reports of several of the sermons preached on the first Reunion Sunday. Dr. Clifford's address is given in full. It also gives an account of the progress of the reunion movement in the federation of the Free Churches of the Northern Midlands. A conference held in Nottingham in October, 1893, appointed a provisional committee to prepare a scheme of federation. To this Federation all evangelical Free Churches are invited to join

themselves, so that their united forces may be brought to bear upon practical, social, and redemptive work, especially in the rural districts. The following particulars may be useful to churches in other counties which may be desirous of closing their ranks :--

Its membership is to consist of (i.) Representatives of (a) Associations of Free Churches and Free Churchmen; (b) single churches; and (c) ministers' fraternals. (ii) Individuals who are subscribing members. The conditions of membership shall be (1) nomination by the Council; (2) agreement with the object and rules of the Federation; (3) subscription on the part of associations and individuals to its funds.

Its methods of operation are to be the encouragement of united mission work, and of the social and moral well-being of the people; lectures on the history and principles of our Free Churches; and a central committee of privileges to maintain the civil rights of Nonconformists against sacerdotal and other encroachments.

The Federation is to be organised in District Associations. All the members of the Federation in each district shall be called together once in the year to appoint its committee and to elect representatives to the Annual Conference of the Federation. The chief work of the District Committees shall be, wherever practicable, the formation of Town or Parish Councils, and, when they cannot be formed, the appointment of correspondents, representing the Free Churches in every municipality or parish within the district. Such committees and correspondents shall act on behalf of these churches and in concert with the central body in carrying out the objects of the Federation.

There is to be an Annual Conference of the Federation in autumn of each year to elect the officers and appoint a Council for the year. The Council shall appoint special committees for evangelisation and practical Christian work; education, literature, lectures, etc.; privileges, etc.

Indexing: Apprentice Wanted.

OUR Indexing Department will shortly require an apprentice as assistant in the work of compilation and indexing. She must not be over twenty; and must have a good English education, know French and German, and take an intelligent interest in current literature and politics. Applications, by letter only, to be addressed to Miss Hetherington, REVIEW OF REVIEWS Office, Mowbray House, Temple, London, W.C.

A Sir Walter Scott Club.

NOTWITHSTANDING the fact that the vast mass of modern fiction has proceeded on lines far different from those of the Waverley Novels, it is doubtful whether Sir Walter Scott was ever more popular or more widely read than he is at the present moment. The reader of to-day, perhaps, likes to turn aside occasionally to that great country of romance and chivalry which Sir Walter made his own, finding that refreshment in "Ivanhoe" and "The Bride of Lammermoor" which is lamentably far to seek in the majority of recent novels. One sign of this interest in the great Scotch novelist is to be found in the formation during June, at Edinburgh, of a Sir Walter Scott Club. The objects of the club are to have meetings, at which addresses may be given bearing on the genius of Sir Walter, and the collection and preservation of letters and other relics connected with his name. Full particulars can be gained from the Hon. Secretary, Mr. Kenneth Sanderson, 15, York Place, Edinburgh; but we may mention that the membership, which includes ladies, is not restricted to Edinburgh, and that the annual subscription is five shillings only.

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