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was to give the Service space to grow and time to breathe. What was wanted was weeding and watering, not transplanting, so the late War Secretary kept a vigilant and sympathetic eye upon all that could minister to the efficiency of the Service, and satisfied himself that the army was ready to go anywhere and do anything. To improve the organisation at headquarters, he succeeded in arranging for the retirement of the Duke of Cambridge, the announcement of that fact being his last official act before his fall. It was a delicate and painful operation, which was accomplished with a kindly tact that nothing could excel.

THE ADMIRALTY AND ITS DOCKS.

Lord Spencer, as First Lord of the Admiralty, charged with the maintenance of the efficiency of the first line of our defence, has brought the navy up to the highest pitch of efficiency it has ever reached. His predecessors had built many ships, but they had omitted to man them. They had multiplied the number of our vessels, but they had done nothing to provide them with docks and shelter. The equipage also had not been kept up, and, in short, Lord Spencer found he had to spend, and spend freely, in order to keep the navy up to the mark. He added over 6000 men to the roll-call to begin with. He surmounted the difficulty about stokers, so that the British navy will no longer be in danger of not being able to go into action for lack of men to get the steam up in the stoke-hole. Then he set to work to increase the number of quick-firing guns, and to arm our blue-jackets and marines with the magazine. rifle. But the great achievement of his reign at the Admiralty were the commencement of a series of great harbour works for the purpose of providing the fleet with safe retreat at Dover, Portland, and Gibraltar. No Board of the Admiralty could be got to face this duty heretofore, and it is to Lord Spencer's credit that he has not waited for the steed to be stolen before fitting a lock to the stable door.

NEW SHIPS.

The second great work was his programme of naval construction. This programme provides the following vessels.

Begun in 1893-94.-Two 1st class battleships, three 2nd class cruisers, fourteen torpedo-boat destroyers, two sloops.

Begun in 1894-1895.-Seven 1st class battleships, two 1st class cruisers, six 2nd class cruisers, twenty-eight torpedo-boat destroyers, two sloops. Begun in 1895-96.-Four 1st class cruisers, two 3rd class cruisers.

There are now under construction at the dockyards and our private yards, ten first-class battle-ships, six cruisers of the first-class, thirteen of second-class, and two of third-class, forty to fifty torpedo-boat destroyers, and four sloops. Side by side with this new construction, older vessels have been reconstructed and repaired; and what is, perhaps, one of the most important changes, the new ships are being fitted with water-tube boilers, which are a great improvement on all that has gone before. The naval estimates for 1895-6 amount to £18,701,000, an increase of £4,460,900 more than the vote for 1893-94. As the result of this expenditure, our fleet is in a position to cope successfully with that of any two rivals. We can build a first-class battleship in two years, whereas it takes other nations four or five years to construct a similar vessel. The French have some half-dozen of their ironclads laid up for reconstruction. On the whole, therefore, we have every reason to feel confidence in the ability of our Navy to guard our shores and to police the seas.

IX.THE HOME DEPARTMENT.

I have left the Home Departments to the last, not because they are the least important, but because so much has been said about them elsewhere, in the publications of the rival parties, and in previous articles in the REVIEW, that there is less need to dwell upon them here. Of the Post Office, indeed, there is nothing to say, excepting that it is probable the Duke of Norfolk may show a keener sense of the right of the public to concern itself with the Department and its policy than the exLiberal whip who for the last three years has been Postmaster-General.

THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION.

Mr. Acland at the Education Office has distinguished his tenure of office by accomplishing in the Administrative way, many improvements for which his successors in office, in common with the nation at large, owe him gratitude. For the first year or eighteen months of his tenure of office, he was assailed by fierce outcries on the part of irate clerics, who declared that he was bent upon ruining the voluntary schools. The only pretext for this was that Mr. Acland had issued a circular in which he called attention to the need of adequate provision for the health of the scholars in our public schools. There was nothing in this circular to which the Archbishop of Canterbury or Cardinal Vaughan could have objected; it applied equally to board and voluntary schools, and insisted upon the redress of evils and defects which prejudiced the health of the rising generation. This circular had very important results: it acted as a most useful stimulus to sanitary improvements in all the schools of the country, and it contributed greatly to bring up the worst schools to a tolerable standard of decency. The heads of the Church party have publicly declared that the charges brought against Mr. Acland of persecuting the Church schools, were baseless. As a matter of fact, nothing could have been more considerate and more patient than Mr. Acland's conduct in dealing with these schools where there were difficulties in the way of immediately carrying the necessary improvements.

The Education Department being one of our more recent creations, is able to do many things, by issuing orders or amending codes, which other Departments can only effect by means of legislation. Mr. Acland has availed himself of his opportunity in order to raise the standard of our education, and make it more practical and more interesting. He has issued a code for evening continuation schools, with the object of enabling those who have left school and begun to work, to improve their evenings by study. One special feature of the code, which is quite a novelty in this country, is the admirable syllabus for studying the life and duties of the citizen. This syllabus is the special work of Mr. Acland himself, and contains a synopsis of the whole duty of man in the modern state.

One very important new departure which has been taken during Mr. Acland's tenure of office has been the special grant made to voluntary schools in the country for cottage gardening. In this we have the germ of a model farm, which, when the land question is taken in hand seriously, will be attached to every country school. For that, however, the time is not quite ripe, but Mr. Acland has made a beginning, and, after all, it is the first step that costs. Another piece of good alministrative work was the action which Mr. Acland took in cutting down the costs of School Board elections by one half. This is both a saving to the rates and a saving to the citizens who give their

time and labour to School Board work. The important question of secondary education has been dealt with by a Commission which is almost ready to report. Its recommendations will be ready to the hand of Sir John Gorst, and will supply the foundation upon which those schools, in which we are the most dismally lacking, must shortly be established. Mr. Acland has also bestowed much attention upon the technical education of the country, and revolutionised the system of inspection under which the science and art grants are distributed at South Kensington.

Time was not permitted him to do all that he would have done in the shape of vivifying the somewhat fossilised system at South Kensington. But what he has done has been well done. He has made several good appointments at the Museum, and succeeded in infusing into all branches of the service somewhat more of esprit de corps, and of pride in their work, than has hitherto been attained. Another grievance which afflicted the educational service from old time has been the extent to which the teachers were ignored by the department. Mr. Acland set himself to remedy this, and as an earnest of what he intended to do, appointed five certificated teachers to inspectorships. He had only eight appointments to make, and five of these fell to men who had worked in elementary schools. Of still more importance to the bulk of the profession was the Teachers' Superannuation Bill which he had in preparation, and which would have been introduced by now had the Government still been in existence. In the way of legislation Mr. Acland attempted little, but what he did was good. He secured the foundation and endowment of a Welsh University, which is working well and giving great satisfaction to the Principality. He succeeded in carrying a much needed Act for the education of children physically defective, so that one great blot on our educational system, the lack of provision for the blind and the deaf and dumb, has at last been filled up. At the same time, by the Elementary Schools Attendance Act, he has raised the age during which children may be partially or wholly exempted from attendance from ten to eleven.

Everywhere and always, Mr. Acland cared for the welfare of the children, the interests of the teachers, and the well-being of our national education. He is one of the few Ministers of Education who have succeeded in making a general impression upon the teaching profession that they had at Whitehall a chief, thoroughly sympathetic, who could be relied upon to see that the interests of education were not neglected in the Cabinet.

THE BOARD OF TRADE.

Space fails me to describe the good work of Mr. Asquith at the Home Office, to which, however, I recently devoted some attention in his Character Sketch. The Board of Trade has done many things well, and would have done more had not untimely Dissolution nipped in the bud some of its most useful legislative proposals. In great distinction has been the conversion of the Board of Trade into a Court of peace-making. Three of the most embittered trade disputes, the coal strike, the cab strike, and the lock-out in the boot and shoe trade, were brought to a peaceful issue by its good offices. The following is a brief summary of the work of the Department in 1892-5 in matters affecting labour:

(a) LEGISLATIVE.

(1) The Railway Regulation Act, 1893. This empowers the Board of Trade, on complaint being made to them, to compel railway companies to bring the hours of their servants

within reasonable limits. (NOTE.-In the year following the enactment of this law, the powers so conferred on the Board of Trade were exercised in seventy-two cases affecting a very large number of workmen.)

(2) The North Sea Fisheries Act, 1893. This was designed to suppress floating grogshops on the fishing grounds of the North Sea.

(3) The Notice of Accidents Act, 1894. This requires employers in the more important industries to furnish the Board of Trade with prompt returns of fatal or serious accidents, and empowers the department to institute inquiry into the circumstances attending such accidents where desirable. (NOTE.-The returns of accidents are summarized monthly in the Labour Gazette. The Conciliation (Trade Disputes) Bill was pressed forward as rapidly as publicbusiness would allow, and this Session the Second Reading was secured, and the Bill committed to the Standing Committee on Trade.)

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(3) Provision has been made at one foreign port-with the intention of subsequently extending it to other ports-by which British sailors paid off there can have the wages due to them remitted to their homes in England-thus saving them from the temptations put in their way by crimps, etc. (These facilities have been largely taken advantage of by sailors discharged abroad.)

(4) Representatives of seamen have been appointed on Local Marine Boards.

(5) An inquiry has been set on foot as to the alleged undermanning of ships.

THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD.

At the Local Government Board Mr. Shaw Lefevre has had imposed upon him the arduous duty of superintending the first introduction of representative government into our villages. The Department was worked all hours, but it got through the work with remarkable success. Mr. Shaw Lefevre also took an honourable part in pressing upon the Boards of Guardians the duty of humanising the administration of the workhouses before the publication of the Report of the Royal Commission on the Treatment of the Aged Poor. The circulars and instructions issued by the Board during his term of office have all been directed to the same end, the improvement of the administration of the poor law, and the protection of the rights and privileges of the poor. His last act was to introduce a Bill removing the restrictions placed upon the use of mechanical traction which at present cripple the inventive genius and enterprise of cur manufacturers. It was lost in the general overturn. The Bill for the Unification of London remains in the pigeon-holes of the Board. It is not likely to be of any service to Mr. Chaplin.

A volume might be written of the work of the Government during these three years if all the departments were to be set out in full. As it is, sufficient has been said to indicate the general nature and scope of the Rosebery Administration. As it did not spring from the classes, it laboured for the masses. It kept the peace, promoted conciliation, and endeavoured in every way to further the common interests of the common people.

F

AM glad to be able to report that the sale of "The Penny Poets" continues to justify the expectations with which the enterprise was started. It is of course impossible to say how many have been sold of

inasmuch as every copy which was printed was sold at a loss, do I intend to reprint it at a penny. The two parts

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No. 1. 6D.

Size: 9 in. by 5 in.

each number, but the following are the numbers of copies printed up to date:

Macaulay.-"Lays of Ancient Rome," 150,000.

Scott.-"Marmion," 125,000.

Byron.-" Childe Harold," etc., 125,000.

Lowell.-Selections, 100,000.

Burns.-Poems and Songs, 100,000.

Shakespeare.-"Romeo and Juliet," 100,000.
Longfellow." Evangeline," etc., 100,000.

So far as can be seen at present there has been the greatest run on Macaulay, but that is due to the fact that it was the first, and still more because the first number contained thirty-two pages of portraits and autographs,

No. 3. 2s. 6d.

Size: 15 in. by 10 in.

are, however, each reprinted, and can be had separately at a penny each. Portraits and autographs contain the facsimiles of the letters and the latest portraits of half a dozen of the most distinguished men in the country, from Mr. Gladstone and Lord Salisbury downwards. "The Lays of Ancient Rome" by themselves are also published at a penny. We stock sufficient quantities of the poets in order to be able to fill orders for the series from the first. Byron so far has been the least popular of the numbers issued up to date. This was, however, to be

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to all the secretaries of the P.S.A. Associations in the country-some 800 or 900 in all-in the hope that they may see in "The Penny Poets" a means of meeting one of their great requirements, namely, the constant supply of good literature cheap.

I continue to receive letters from readers in all parts of the world expressing their approval of "The Penny Poets" and their satisfaction at the way in which the edition is being printed. Among others I have received communications from Lady Aberdeen, Ben Tillett, who was particularly grateful for Byron, Sir John Bennett, and many others whose letters are not less welcome to me because they are unknown beyond the confines of their own village.

The first number of "The Poets' Corner Album" was issued on the 1st inst. Of the way in which it has been received by the public, I cannot of course speak at present. Four toned portraits of Macaulay, Scott, Byron and Lowell have never before been issued for a shilling; as a rule toned portraits are issued at 6d. cach. The album, however, is by no means all that the purchaser secures for his shilling. There is given away with each number of the album a volume, bound in cloth, of four hundred pages, containing the masterpieces of the poets whose portraits appear in the folio. Still the experiment of issuing portraits is so novel that even although there is a premium upon each number in the shape of a presentation volume, the like of which could not be procured for twice the money paid for the album, I would not like to predict too confidently that it will succeed. If there is not a considerable demand for the album, I shall stop publishing it, as it would not be worth while continuing it unless the demand is large and steady. Readers, therefore, who wish to secure the album and its literary supplement will do well to order it at once.

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One of the things which I foresaw in publishing the poets was the need for a cheap box or shelving in which to keep the weekly parts. The Penny Poets" are not like a weekly miscellany, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the fire. They constitute what, I hope, will be a permanent addition to the library of the subscriber. If so, it is absolutely necessary to provide a place in which to keep them. Forty-eight penny parts littering about the house are apt to become a nuisance, whereas if they could be put into a neat box such as those in which sets of volumes are sold, or if they have a neat little bookshelf all to themselves, or,

better still, if they could have a bracket in the corner of a room where they could have, as it were, a poets' corner all to themselves, what would otherwise be a nuisance, will thus become a useful addition to the furnishing of the room. With this end in view, I have prepared a series of boxes and shelves which, I hope, will meet the end which has been indicated. The boxes, made of cardboard and covered with leatherette, can be supplied at 6d. each (No. 1). This box will either stand on any ordinary shelf, or on the drawing-room table. In addition to this there is a plain simple wooden box at 1s. This box, whether made in pasteboard or in wood, will contain the whole of the forty-eight numbers. In addition to this I can supply an ornamental stand in japanned lacquer at 5s. by parcel post to any part of the kingdom (No. 2). I have had specially made for "The Penny Poets" two corner brackets-one plain (No. 3. 2s. 6d.), which can be supplied at half-a-crown, and the other-a very ingenious device, which has been duly registered (No. 4. 7s. 6d. or 10s.), can be used either flat against the wall or in any corner, and is supplied at 7s. 6d. and 10s., with gilt and ornamental facings. As these boxes cannot be stocked or sent out to the trade, all orders must be sent to me direct, addressed Bookshelf Department, enclosing remittance. As none of these boxes are kept in stock, but are in process of manufacture, orders will be booked, and the parcels dispatched in turn, as soon as the boxes and shelves can be manufactured.

It is necessary to explain that the woodcuts of these boxes have been made as if they were holding bound volumes-which is absurd. The essence of the book-box, or Poets' Corner shelf, is that it is suited for holding "The Penny Poets" which are not bound, and which make a dreadful litter if they are left about the house without a place of their own.

In publishing "Marmion" in "The Penny Poets," I naturally quoted the footnote which Sir Walter Scott appended to his account of the immuring of Constance, whereupon I brought down on my innocent head a storm of indignation on the part of Catholics, who have sent me pamphlets and letters protesting against the assumption embodied in Sir Walter Scott's statement. The Benedictines have never bricked up nuns alive, no matter how guilty they may have been. Those who wish for information upon this subject had better apply to the Catholic Truth Society, of 22, Paternoster Row, E.C., for pamphlets by the Rev. Herbert Thurston, of the Society of Jesus.

OUR CIRCULATING LIBRARY.

REPORT OF PROCRESS FOR JUNE.
SUFFOLK-Eye.

'HE demand for the boxes of our Circulating Library continues. Since last month I have received additional orders for twenty boxes, which brings the number in circulation up to seventy. The following are the places which have applied for boxes since our last issue:

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SUSSEX-Hayward's Heath and Lewes.
YORKS-Brightlington.

WALES-Builth Wells and Merthyr Tydfil.
SCOTLAND-Buckhaven and Lanark.
FOREIGN-Rotterdam.

FOR ENGLISH COLONIES ABROAD.

It will be noticed that in this list one of the boxes has gone to Rotterdam. The box was ordered by the pastor of the Presbyterian church in that city for the benefit of the members of his church. He hopes to be able to arrange for the circulation of other boxes of books among the Presbyterian churches in Holland, so that the circulation of a set of boxes may be confined to that country, instead of having to send them back to London,

as would be the case if there were only one such box in the country. I should be very glad if I could make an arrangement by which some steamship in a regular route would convey boxes of books from one port of call to another, wherever local centres might be established. There are few seaports of any importance in the Mediterranean where there is not an English colony which is generally very imperfectly supplied with English literature. I shall also be glad to make arrangements with steamship companies which do passenger business for the supply of boxes of books as a floating library. The great Atlantic liners have their own libraries, of course, but there are other lines of passenger steamers where at present a library is not considered to be a necessary part of the equipment. Then, again, there are the large merchant vessels, both sailing and steamship, who have crews varying from eleven to thirty men. There is often very little literature provided in the forecastle, although on every voyage there is plenty of time for reading. I should be glad to hear from captains or owners of ships or from sailors who think that something might be done in the way of providing reading for those who go down to the sea in ships.

BOXES FOR LIGHTSHIPS.

Our books might find appreciative readers although few, if only the brothers of the Trinity House could see their way to sending every quarter one of our boxes to the lightships which are anchored off our shores. There are about half-a-dozen men on each lightship who are cut off from all the world, and although they are at the present moment supplied to some extent with reading matter, a reinforcement in the shape of a box of books every quarter I would be welcome. Even if the elder brothers of the Trinity House do not see their way to incurring this expenditure, I throw out the suggestion in the hope that some benevolently disposed persons who have either local or personal interest in any lightship, might subscribe for a box of books for that ship. Those who wake when others sleep in order that the mariners of England may navigate our seas in safety, are well deserving this attention at the hands of those who live at home in ease.

PARISH COUNCILS IN MOTION.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the new orders is the fact that three of the boxes ordered last month have been ordered by parish councils, one taking two boxes and the other one. The parish councils which have thus distinguished themselves as being the first in all England to avail themselves of the Libraries Act, which they must do in order to introduce our books, are Pleasley and Barrington. The parish council which takes one box, takes it for the winter months only. This arrangement I am glad to make in order to meet the necessities of the population which is employed in the fields during the summer months. As there are over 4,000 parish councils in the country, and certainly not 1,000 free libraries, including all the large towns, it is evident that there is room for a very wide development for popular free libraries. I should not be surprised now that two parish councils have begun, and the ice is broken, if many others follow suit. Indeed, it would not be strange if the most useful and lasting result of the Parish Councils Act were to be the establishment of centres where the villagers could obtain the free reading of the best books in the world.

BOXES FOR INDIA AND ELSEWHERE.

We have had inquiries from Australia, from India, from Florida, and from Morocco. The difficulty of freight is the great obstacle to including these distant

centres in the range of our circulating library. Take for instance the order which we have received for the supply of a box to an educational establishment in Poona. The cost of sending a box of books from London to Bombay is 30s., and how much it is from Bombay to Poona I do not know. If some more centres in the neighbourhood of Poona could subscribe we could send out several boxes, which could circulate in the Poona district without entailing any more cost of transit than if they were in England, after the first initial cost of sending them out has been met. I think we shall have to make a rule that when orders come from a great distance from London they can only be attended to when they come at least in sets of six. Each box could then remain six months in one place, and the six boxes would make the round in three years.

MAY WE CHOOSE OUR OWN BOOKS?

Several correspondents have written to ask whether they may not be allowed to choose their own books. It is obvious that the essence of the scheme is the circulation of boxes as units instead of books as units. I am, however, always glad to receive suggestions from any one who wishes to subscribe to the scheme, both as to what books should be or what books should not be included; but it would be obviously impossible for any one centre to choose books without any regard for the other centres. If, however, a circuit of twelve or six centres could be formed in any part of this country which will agree to subscribe to the scheme for three years, they might fill their boxes as they pleased, so long as they did not exceed the initial cost of the face value of £10 of the published price of the books in each box. This suggestion I throw out because it is possible that ministers and clergymen, for instance, might wish to have special boxes of theological or critical works, and it ought not to be impossible through the county associations to arrange for such groups of six or twelve centres. The Free Church Councils which are being formed in various parts of the country might find this a useful department of their activities. A special Free Church box dealing with politics, sociology and theology might be made up which would be very useful, and such a library would be an additional nexus and bond of union between the members of the Free Church Council.

W. H. SMITH AND SONS.

IN Good Words for July a writer gives the following account of the way in which W. H. Smith and Son started their circulating library :

In June, 1860, the following announcement appeared in the Athenæum:-" Messrs. W. H. Smith and Son, taking advantage of the convenience afforded by their railway bookstalls, are about to open a subscription library on a large scale, something like that of Mr. Mudie. The bookstalls will, in fact, become local libraries, small but select, with the immense advantage of hourly communication by train, with a vast central library in London." The enterprise was undertaken in response to the demand made by people living in remote rural districts for a supply of books on loan. As it called for a very heavy capital expenditure, and did not promise a very remunerative return, Mr. Smith had considerable misgivings as to the venture, but, acting on his invariable principle, that it was his business to supply what the public demanded, he went boldly forward.

It was soon evident that Mr. Smith had not misinterpreted the demand. Subscribers were rapidly enrolled, and the library grew to large proportions. Its catalogue to-day-a goodly octavo of about sixty pages-comprises the titles of more than 12,000 separate works, and there are some 300,000 volumes in circulation. We are told that the aggregate weight of the books so conveyed along the various lines amounts to nearly five hundred tons a year

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